Dull Silver

Chapter Seven

 Ryker

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It all seemed impossible. Ryker was royalty, (though no one really would have known, because the last reign of the King and Queen was 90 years ago, so no one else in the world actually cared, really.) Anaximander was running for the Challenges. His parents were getting divorced. The Stone was a lie all along. It just seemed like nothing was adding up.

"Wait. Hold up. Backtrack. Mr. Chase, I'm so confused. You're saying that I never had to find my Stone to die? I just had to, well, die?" Ryker stammered. March just nodded. Ryker sighed, flabbergasted. "What the hell is wrong with this world?" He muttered, mostly to himself.

March took his seat in an armchair across from Anaximander. "Dad, you've seen more Challenges than any of us, I need your best guess; how many people, on average do you think run for the Challenges?" Ryker watched March look up at the ceiling and start using his fingers to count.

"Maybe, uh, I don't know, 20?" Ryker tilted his head, the last time he had seen a Challenge was when he was almost 11 and a half. In the past Challenge, there had only been 9 candidates and it was obvious Dictator Farouk from Egypt would win.

"Huh, 20 isn't horrible, but I'm going to need almost all of New Ohio on my side." Ryker just sat back. As the youngest one here, he was super lost about what was going on. Iphigenia put on her thinking face, doing some quick math.

"New Ohio might not be bad. There only approximately 200,000 people here, but New Pennsylvania, that'll be important," Iphigenia concluded. Anaximander took into consideration Iphigenia and how vital she would be to his running. Iphigenia was already in politics. Very into politics. Anaximander was in politics too, but mayor of New Ohio is nothing compared to Iphigenia's Ambassador of the New United States title.

"Gen, can I count on you to help me get all of New United States on my side?" Anaximander asked.

Gen gave a nod, "You can, but people still will get to decide who they want. It's always a biased thing here. Whoever runs from New United States gets our vote, but there might be people against you from here Nax. That's what's going to be tough." Anaximander sighed. He hated when his younger-by-twelve-minutes sister was right.

The group continued talking about the Challenges, work, school, and other things for a few more hours.

***

Anaximander stood at the door, ready to go out for lunch. "Kane! Let's Go!" Kane came down the steps and rolled his eyes at Anaximander.

"You're lucky I love you." Anaximander gave a cheeky grin before opening the door to the mid-day June heat. Ryker stepped out of the doorway, ready for food. Any kind of it.

The six of them strolled to downtown New Ohio to have lunch at What'll You Have?

Everyone just ignores the name anymore, the food is, at least, good. Anaximander gets them a table, and as they sit down, he turns to Ryker. "Did you say your birthday is the 24th of June?" Ryker nodded, his back against the chair, thankful for air conditioning. "That's in like... No! It's tomorrow!" Ryker just gave a shrug, he couldn't care less what day of the month it was.

Anaximander sat down with a sigh, "Fine, but we'll go out to dinner or something. Just a small celebration."

Ryker gave Anaximander a small smile, "Thank you." Just behind him the door opened, a blast of heat rushing in. Ryker turned around to see who had entered.

A girl. Like no other.

Ryker's jaw almost dropped. He swore he had seen her before.