The Resistance

Chapter seven

Facing the day

Walking in to school was all ways a problem for Caleb, he hardly ever went unnoticed. He longed for the old days when getting good grades and being an A star student made you invisible, when knowing how many bones there are in the hand and what Klippel - Trenaunay Syndrome is was a bad thing. The fact the Caleb wasn’t bad looking ether also played into the fact that his piers felt a desire to be around him and as much as Caleb didn’t want to admit it another factor was that his farther was the Minister of the Colony, making Caleb next in line.

The halls were crowded and noising but that didn’t matter, all that mattered was getting to class without being spotted.

“Caleb” a small girlie voiced shouted out and instantly Caleb’s hopes of getting to class were shattered, but not if he pretended that he hadn’t heard. He walked briskly on hoping that whoever it was would just give up and stop calling his name but they didn’t.  The girl continued to follow him and call his name all the way to his locker, by this time Caleb had put his head phones in an attempted to drown out the squeal for attention. Caleb twiddle his lock willing it to come undone before the girl reached him but that was another disappointment that Caleb was now faced with.

“Hey Caleb” the chirpy girl said pulling one head phone out of his ear.

“Oh hey Payton” the girl looked up at him with milk chocolate puppy dog eyes, expecting something more than just ‘Hey’ but Caleb didn’t have more than ‘Hey’ in him today.

“So…..” she said with sickly sweet expectation “What do you think” Payton twirled a few times in a circle and then stared once more into Caleb’s own violet blue eyes.

“Nice” he said hesitantly not know what was different

“Typical” she said disappointed, her shoulders dropped and she placed one hand on her hip in a way that only a judgmental girl could “You don’t even know do you” she question and Caleb felt a lump form in his throat.

He had always felt this way about Payton, she was outstandingly beautiful and had a way of knowing him even though he had never truly let her in. Payton’s beauty came from two places, natural bone structure and F.I.C.C, the Facial Improvements and Cosmetics Center, Caleb loved to think about what Payton might have looked like in another life when the treatments that she had n weren’t available.

“I had my Hair recolored” she said with a fake smile on her face trying to hide her disappointment in Caleb. Looking at her hair once more Caleb could now see that small streaks of red running through Payton’s naturally dark hair, now that he saw them he couldn’t believe that he missed them, the bright blood red in her hair was highlighted by her dark clothing and red chocker that seemed to chafe her neck. All together she didn’t look that bad but he could see a clash of colors coming at some point.

“I think it looks nice, it really complements that chocker you’re wearing” he said satisfying her need for a reaction from him.

“Really!” she exclaimed “You think so” the girl in Payton had really come out today, normally she would just be mellow and more like a dude than a girl but every now and then she felt the need to remind everyone that she was a girl.

“Hey Kay!” a gruff voice shouted from the other direction that Payton had come from and Caleb braced himself for instant jock talk when the voice grew near.

“How you doing?” more questions Caleb just wanted to escape, how in seven hells was he supposed to answer that question with Payton, the soul searcher, stood next to him ready to detect any lie that he said.

“Ok” he answered trying to control his voice, ironing out any shakes in his tone he glanced at Payton to find her busy talking to a group of girls in the corner.

“Good, you coming to practice tonight, or what!” Caleb turned to see blue eyes just as bright as his own staring back and bleach blond hair. Scott stood uncomfortably close to him, his flannel shirt half tucked in half out resembled the casual conversation that the boys were engaging in, but to Caleb it seemed like an integration, he hadn’t been to football practice in weeks ad didn’t plan to start up again now half way through the season.

“No, no I…. I don’t think I am” he replied rubbing his for head as if he had a head ache.

“You ok man? You don’t look so good” instantly Scott fell for the act

“yer I’m fine I just want to get to class” more lies

“Since when did you want to go to English Grammar?” scoot asked eyeing him suspiciously, silence, Caleb had no reply to that, he never wanted to go to that class.

“Man, you must really be sick” Scott smirked breaking the tension

“Yeah, Yeah I just whanna get home” that should do it Caleb thought but he was wrong

“Go on” Scoot sniggered

“What?” he didn’t know where Scott was coming from

“Go on, ill cover for you” he said tilting his head toward the back doors of the school, was he suggesting that he skip school today.

“No ,NO I’ll be fine” Caleb said trying to put Scott of off whatever idea he had

“Go on Kay, I know you want to enlist” Scott thought that Caleb wanted to enlist, what why would he think that that Caleb thought, why would he of all people enlist in R force. But this was to good of an option to pass up.

“Yeah but I couldn’t skip school”

“Yeah you could, Kay I have already said I will cover for ya” Scotts eyes willed him to make up his mind quickly.

“OK, Thank mate, I owe you one” slapping Scotts shoulder in thanks Caleb bolted for the back doors hoping that no teacher would catch him.