Writer Games: Bleeps and Geeks (FULL)

Semi-Finalist: Seraphine Martin

Hello again, we're in the final steps of our journey. It won't be long now before Sera's story comes to an end and we will be saying our farewells, but until then I still have more to say. However, this time I'll be taking a break from telling you what Sera is doing, and show you what the people she left behind are doing. More specifically, her older brother. Now, I would like you to know, I don't usually have permission to go watch over someone else's life, I'm supposed to be telling you only about Sera, and those she is with at the moment that I am speaking of. However, an exception has been made, and now instead of telling you about Sera's search for her final class, I'll be telling you about Henri Martin's spring break.

It all started on the train ride from his university back home for break. He was working on an assignment that was due when he got back, because though he was never much for getting ahead of things, he knew Sera was supposed to be home a day or two before him, and she never let him focus on anything when she was around. While he was typing on his computer, his phone flashed and a notification popped up telling him that he had an email. When he pulled it up, he hesitated in opening it, seeing no name in the sender box, and a blank subject line. Usually he would ignore it, but for some reason, this time, he opened it. Inside there were only six words, with no signature, no indication of who sent it. Just those six words.

The school is lying to you.

Henri looked at the sentence in confusion. At this point in time, he didn't know that his mother had signed Seraphine up to stay in school over break, and he certainly didn't know that she was fighting for her life. So, naturally, his mind first went to his own school, not his siblings', because everyone's mind would first go to their own lives rather than someone else's, especially when they don't know anything to be wrong in the other's life.

"The school is lying to me?" He muttered to himself, quiet enough that no one in the train car next to him would hear, and thought about what that could mean. But, why would his school be lying to him? It didn't make any sense, what would they be getting out of lying to him? If he figured out what they were lying about, and it obviously wasn't something small because if it was why would someone have gone through all the trouble it would have taken to send him an email without a sender address, he could ruin them. His dad had all kinds of money and influence, the school would be crazy to mess with him.

'But what if they are lying to me about something...' he asked himself, trying to think about what they might be lying about. Then he thought, maybe this is just a joke. His school isn't lying, some weird geek kid out there is just trying to get some kicks out of telling him his school is lying. He decided that must be it, so he put his phone down and went back to finishing his assignment. Not much later the train pulled to a stop and it was his time to get off. He gathered his things and stepped off, then called for a taxi and went home. When he walked through he expected to see Sera racing towards the door. There was only so much of her mother and sister that she could handle alone, but she and Henri got along well, and she was usually pretty excited to see him.

"Bonjour?" He shouted, hoping someone would hear him and acknowledge he was home. And, though he prefers to speak English, he knows his mother would rather him speak French, so he yelled in the language in case she was the one to hear him. And, as it so happens, she was. He heard the tapping of her heels against the floor in the hall next to the entryway and she opened a door and was walking towards him. She gave him a small hug when she reached him.

"Ah, bonjour Henri. Comment était l'école?" She asked him, as she pulled away.

"C'était bon. Ou est Sera? Et Grace?" Henri asked back, not wanting to talk with his mother for long. He didn't hate her like Sera did, but she made him a bit uncomfortable.

"Grace est dans sa chambre. Et Sera, elle est à l'école." His mother answered, which confused him. Why was Sera at school? She was supposed to be on break.

"Quoi? Pourquoi est-elle à l'école?"

"Ils ont demandé, j'ai dit oui."

Henri looked at her like she was crazy. He wasn't speaking in French anymore. She was pissing him off, he was going to piss her off.

"Why were they asking for her to stay there? And why would you say yes? You know she doesn't want to be there?" His mother pursed her lips and gave him a look, but continued to respond in English as well.

"I don't know, some reinforcement program. They said she had gotten into trouble," He thought he heard her mutter 'of course, the little bitch', but he couldn't be sure so he ignored it and kept listening to what was being said. "And since she was in trouble, they wanted to teach her so she wouldn't do it again. Then I saw that she wouldn't be coming home for break either, and, I think you know why I said yes."

He did know. She didn't want Sera home, and now she was given an opportunity for Sera to be out of the house for longer and be given punishment, whether or not that was how it was intended, but Sera hated school so it would be anyway. It was a golden offer to his mother. Henri glared at her and she just rolled her eyes at him.

"Your father wasn't too pleased about it either. I think it's for the best though. Maybe when she gets back she'll stop being quite so god awful and do something right for once." Henri pushed past her to his room before she could say anything else about her. Sure Sera could be obnoxious sometimes, but she and Henri had fun together, and she was definitely the most interesting thing about the house. There was nothing fun about his mother, or the clone of her that was his youngest sister, or listening to his dad talking about business deals. But Sera was someone he could stand, even when she was doing insane things that most people, including him, would shy away from in terror.

He walked into his room and set his stuff down, shutting the door behind him and fell on his back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling and taking a deep breath.

This spring break was going to seem a lot longer than he thought it would.

Then, all of the sudden, something clicked.

The school is lying to you.

That wasn't about his school.

It was about Sera's.

Now, he didn't know that at the very moment he had made this connection that Sera was sitting in a corner crying her eyes out, with a notebook clutched to her chest. He didn't know that she had killed people, and that the last person she was friends with there had just died hours earlier, and that even though they had only known each other for a couple of days, she had still impacted him enough that he had written her a letter in the book that went along with all the people he thought about in his last days of life. He didn't know that when he would see his sister again, if he would see his sister again, that she would be much, much more broken than he could ever imagine he would have seen her.

But, he did know, that there was something going on at that school to Sera. And he knew that something was very, very wrong.