CONFINEMENT

CHAPTER SIX

   Castania had been wandering around in the apartment for the better of four hours. She had felt a little off this morning, and begged to be at home instead of going to the zoo. She had felt Harrisons reluctant eyes on her body, and he had answered yes, but she couldn't help but feel like it had more to do with the fact that he didn't know how to act around her, than him actually liking her. The peace was nice on paper, but now they just didn't talk at all. It wasn't on purpose, she just really didn't know what to say. She walked over to the mirror on the bathroom wall and touched her face. It was healing nicely, only a faint bruise left under her eye, but both her lip and her chin was back to how they looked before, only leaving a scar where the lip had split. Or maybe that was the one she had always had... which she had gotten by accidentally ramming her head with another girl on the playground when they were little. She liked it, so she didn't mind it was back.

   As she looked her mirror-self in the eyes, she wondered about how she could get Harrison to talk to her again. It was like he was afraid of her, always avoiding her eyes. She had counted everything she could, tiles, dots, floorboards, book pages. She had sat at his desk when she couldn't sleep at night, and looked over all of his school work. It was impressive, she knew he was older than her, therefore a year or two above her in school, but the pages revealed concepts and words she had never heard of. She had done the washing of his uniforms one or two afternoons after the zoo, but she was unsure if he had even noticed. The agreement to be civil towards one another was great, but without the screaming she started to feel... Attracted to him. And that was bad. Still, she wanted to do something nice for him and that's when the idea hit her.

   A few weeks ago, on her first day in the zoo, she had noticed how his uniform didn't fit him properly. It had bugged her, since her and her mother had always altered their clothes together, and she knew how powerful a well-fitted suit would be. So she had searched the apartment for anything she could use, but it was futile. When he came home today, she would ask him, very nicely of course, if she could please have some sewing equipment, and if that was a yes, she would offer doing the uniform up. It would keep her busy with something to do, hopefully stopping her from thinking of him. The walls had started to close in on her again, and she knew that if she wanted to stay sane, she had to talk to him.

   Professor Donnelly flew through the room with rushed footfalls and a staggering breath. He was always in a rush, though he was always on time. He went up to the big desk in the front of the classroom, collected himself a little, then placed a stack of paper on the table and turned to write on the board behind him. He wrote with big, hasty letters, filling almost the whole board. One word, ending with an exclamation mark.

REBELLION!

   A whispering chatter broke out in the classroom. Harrison eyed the Professor with caution as he turned around to face them.

   "There's a rebellion Sir?" Orlando questioned.

   "This class is purely hypothetical, Mr. Hamilton," The Professor said, and sat down on the edge of the desk like he usually did. He looked around for at second, then down at his hands. "Plus, I don't think the Council would be pleased if I said there was." He said it so quietly that only because Harrison was second to first row, he was able to hear it. He looked at his classmates faces but none of them looked like they were as interested as he was himself.

   "Now, because this class is solely hypothetical, I want you to imagen that our civilization was experiencing a rebellion," He stood up and paced back and forth a few times in front of his desk. Then he stopped and turned to them, his arms behind his back. "Who would rebelle?"

   The classroom fell silent with thought. Romilly raised her hand. "Will this be on the test?"

   "This is the test, Miss Emmons." The silence fell again and started to get so loud. Harrison looked the Professor in the eye and raised his hand.