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Chapter 9 The C-rank

Zoe sat across the wooden table from Ivy, who loudly sipped her drink cased in a glass bottle through a straw while staring at something shiny in her hands. The wind from the ocean below them blew both their hair into a frenzy.

Usually, the chairs and tables closer to the docks would be taken. Luckily, they found one perfectly shaded by a large tree. Its spikey purple leaves slowly shook from the wind.

Zoe carefully stirred the rainbow concoction in her glass. Staring over Ivy's shoulder, watching Colson through the big glass window into the shop he worked occasionally. Next to him, Herald paced back and forth, talking.

The two girls had been let out of class early that day, as a kid had run into the classroom and threw a wasps' nest inside, causing everyone to disperse—jumping out of windows, sprinting for the door, and hiding under desks.

Herald glanced back, noticing both Zoe and Ivy through the window. Nodding in their direction, "Yo, so I gotta ask you something," he said.

"Yeah, what's up?" Colson said, handing a drink to someone over the counter.

"The new one, Ivy. You guys hang out a lot?"

"Sure."

"Ah, so you're going for her."

Colson pulled a face, "Hey, man, that's all you."

Herald laughed, "You don't like her?"

Smiling and waving to a couple across the shop, "It's not that; I mean, look, she isn't even a colonist, for one."

"Yeah, she is. She wouldn't be here if she wasn't."

"You know what I mean. She's not...she wasn't born here."

"Fair enough. I guess I've never really paid much attention when they were talking about that stuff. But, I don't really care about all that."

"Look, she's alright to hang out with, I guess..." he trailed off. "She's not us, ya know?"

"Not really. Why do you even care, though?"

He spoke slowly, measuring each word, "I try and think for the future. I want my grandchildren to look like me. I want my grandchildren to grow up in the same colony that I grew up in, with all the same benefits and all the beautiful things that my ancestors and I created for them.

"While I understand the importance of individual uniqueness, I think you have to understand that we all have our families. All of our families came from somewhere, right?" He smirked, "To think that we're just gonna wipe out the bloodline willy nilly as though it's a trivial and arbitrary construction...I think it's a mistake."

The loud horn of a watercraft carried over the water as it docked. The workers on board started to unload all of its cargo.

Herald thought for a moment; soon enough, the grin returned to his face, "Oh, so you want Zoe, huh?"

Colson rolled his eyes so hard that it almost hurt, "The point. You missed it," he laughed.

"No, but I'm serious, though."

"Dude- I don't know. It's not even like that, anyways. In a few years, her parents will probably arrange a marriage for her. That's what they all do, apparently."

"Arranged to you?"

"Probably not, no," Colson said.

"I thought they liked you."

"They do—I mean, her mom probably wouldn't mind. It's just that, you know, her dad and my dad...Yeah, no."

"Ah," Herald said. "Yeah, that makes sense."