Project D

Chapter 7- Is that Clear?

Is that Clear?

When they round the corner I pounce on them grabbing their arm in a hold and taking them down within a few seconds.

I hear a grunt and a familiar voice, “Hey, hey it’s just me! Let go!” I recognize the voice and quickly untangle myself from him.

“Riley! You scared the crud out of me!” I shove his shoulder playfully.

He winces slightly and I feel a little bit of guilt. He then turns to me and screams, “OWWW! That hurt! Where the hell did you learn that move? It was like something out of a movie” he stares at me questioning me.

I think of a quick lie, “Francis is showing me a few moves. You know hes studied karate. He’s just teaching me what he knows, and the first thing he taught was grabs and takedowns” I say hoping he won’t catch onto the lie.

He grins and says, “Cool, call me the next lesson and see if I can join. Sounds fun”

I give a small laugh and then remember something, “Hey, why were you following us?”

I see him blush as he answers, “I uh... wanted to be sure that you were ok. So when I was sent away I stayed outside the hallway to wait for you. I also knew that it wasn’t just a bruise, and wanted to know what it was” he looks away embarrassed.

I smile and say, “It’s fine and if you wanted to stay all you had to do was ask, and I’m sure they would have let you. Plus you’re right it wasn’t just a bruise. I tried to cook dinner last night for Francis, and I accidently walked into the knife that was on the counter. So thanks for the concern and all and sorry bout lying. Didn’t want you to worry too much and all that good stuff”

His cheeks tint with pink and he looks down as he says, “Do you want me to walk you back to class? We’re going the same way”

I grin and grab hold of his arm in answer. We then head down the hallway back towards Genetics.

We’re one hallway away when we round the corner and bump into C, “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry. I Didn’t see you”

He gets up from where he’s sprawled on the floor and holds his hands up trying to calm me down, “It’s fine I was lingering waiting for you, cause I didn’t really want to return to class alone” he says as I fuss over him seeing if he’s hurt.

I check his head to see if it’s tender and he keeps trying to get out of my grasp but I don’t let go until I’m sure the worst he has is a bruised bum.

I look at Riley to see that he’s grimacing a little at the care that I’m showing C. I scowl in his direction and he returns it by wiping the grimace and replacing it with an innocent expression.

I roll my eyes in his direction and he responds by sticking out his tongue. Giving him a small laugh I turn back to C, and notice that he saw that small interaction. He raises his right eyebrow at me and I give a small shrug.

I look at both the boys and grab their arms. There is no resistance from both of them as I almost hold their hands, and we rush to Genetics.

We get there in about a minute and rush in disturbing Mr.Tek’s speech. I blush and stammer an apology with C and Riley agreeing with me the whole way. Mr.Tek nods and sends us to our desks so we can take notes on his lecture about bionics. I sit down and C smiles at me as we both pull out our notebooks.

When he is certain that we are ready Mr.Tek launches into his lecture, “Bionics is the use of an artificial body part or the informal definition is having ordinary human powers increased by or with the aid of such devices. It is the study of nature to convert it into a mechanical system, but for our class we will be looking at how it benefits human nature and can be implanted into a human being. The most common name is with an artificial limb of some sort, but I am hoping that with your projects if you do so choose to do it on bionics that you will think outside the box and make it different,” he pauses for questions.

I look up from my notes to see almost everyones hands shooting up. Mr.Tek is amused at the amount and surveys the class to see who to pick first.

After a few moments of silence he finally picks Riley. Riley grins and asks, “Are we able to study Bionicca, and how her powers may relate to our studies?”

Mr.Tek furrows his brow as he thinks of an answer to riley’s question and finally answers, “If you can come up with a respectable theory or hypothesis on how her ‘powers’ would relate to bionics; then yes that is fine for you to do your project on. Although I don’t see how you would be able to get the evidence considering nobody knows who she is,” he pauses surveying the room, “It could maybe even be one of you”.

When he finishes his sentence his gaze stops on me, and I see an interesting look in his eyes like maybe he has a guess on who it can be. Everyone follows his gaze, and soon the whole class is staring at me.

Everyone is staring until a voice breaks through, “Tekno, if you think it’s Dawn then you must have a loose screw in your head”, the comment gets the attention of everyone in the class and they turn to the one who talked.

Rick smiles defiantly at everyone’s eyes on him and glares at me as he continues, “It is a given that Bionicca is hot in the least, and I saw her today; she has blue eyes. If you look at Dawn’s eyes you’ll see that they are the color of mud; how any bonehead can confuse the two is a mystery to me.

If anything it’s Jacqueline. I mean she is the head cheerleader, and the track captain. All she needs is superstrength and we have Bionicca. Jacqueline does seem like the perfect choice” everyone turns to look at Jacqueline who was filing her nails during Rick’s comment. She looks up from the file to see everyone looking at her.

She blinks with a blank look on her face as she asks, “Why are you all staring at me?” and the blank look is replaced with one of confusion that spreads throughout the classroom.

It is broken by one person’s voice saying, “Rick even Dawn has more of a chance to be Bionicca than her” nobody knows who talked, but I can hear murmurs of agreement throughout the class, but they stop as soon as Mr.Tek’s voice booms out among us, “Mr.Reed, I don’t take kindly to disruptions of my class. One day of detention for disrupting the class, and another for not minding my rules!”

I look around and see everyone visibly flinch at the outbreak and can hear the snap of Rick’s jaw hitting the ground echoing in my ears, and can’t help a small smile peeking through my mask of innocence.

I turn to Rick and see that yes his jaw is almost hitting the ground and he stutters as he tries to make a coherent sentence. The first one that I can translate is along the lines of, “What did I do?”

I turn to Mr.Tek and see him staring at me as if I am a specimen he wants to dissect, and I get the ominous feeling that he knows more than he is letting on to the class. When he makes contact with my eyes he turns his away as if I had burned him with my gaze. I stare puzzled as he lists what Rick has done “You have disrupted my class, spoken without permission, you have talked back to the teacher” he’s not exactly yelling; his voice is scary calm and commanding but that makes it much more scarier.

Mr.Tek continues, “And lastly I specifically said to the class that you are to call me Mr.Tek and nothing else. You broke all of the rules that I listed in the beginning of class and I think I have the right to give you the punishment that I deem fit. Is that clear Mr.Reed?”

Rick is staring at him with a blank look on his face and Mr.Tek booms with a ferocity I feel like I’ve been subjected to, and he shifts his gaze from Rick towards me, almost subconsciously, “I SAID IS THAT CLEAR PROJECT D!”