Paranimal

Chapter 4

Ma beats the alarm clock. Again.

"Bertie! Wake up now, you've got saturday school and Tiger said he's taking you and Ellen to see Volowskii afterwards. You've got to get up now!" she calls up the stairs.

The alarm clock goes off not a second later. Couldn't Ma just cut out the wake up call and let it do its job. Sheesh...

Crawling out from under the sheets, I stab the button under the alarm and it shuts up promptly, as I trudge blearily up to the Wear chute. I take out from the cupboard a small plastic token with a scanning code on the back and 'Canines West Academy' on the other side, before slotting it into the thumb-length slit by the glass chute flap. I can hear the token clinking down the pipe with a satisfying 'clonk' as it hits the activation pad at the bottom. A soft whurring starts up as I brush my teeth and comb my hair, braiding it into a long plait.

Once I'm done, I grab the folded package containing my school uniform which has come up from the Wear Chute into the glass tank of my bathroom Wears Box.

I wriggle into the black mid-thigh skirt, white blouse and burgandy tie emblazened with the golden fang emblem of Canines West Academy School.

The Bucket's school uniforms and formal Wears are the only man made clothes we posess, otherwise, all citizens are ordered to wear our usual attire for each age group.

Pulling on a pair of white ankle socks, rimmed at the ankle with a burgandy strip to match the tie, I pat my hair and slip on my black platform plimsolls.

On weekdays, all Bucket children attend ComboSchool where all kids of different Animals, Habitats and Clans are schooled together but on Saturdays, we must attend our Clan school with only those selectively within our clan. I feel more comfortable at CWA (Canines West Academy) because there are less people there and I know them all from our clan community but I am still the only Human.

"Roberta! Get down for breakfast or you're going to miss your FlowPod and Tiger's already eaten breakfast!" Ma yells from downstairs.

Yeah, well good for Tiger. I think to myself. I for one know that my brother (although incredibly popular) is not the most hygenic person to walk the Bucket; his secret is to leave his clothes in his Wears box and not down his chute to the Wears centre to be cleaned and sent back. That way, he doesn't have to slot in his CWA token every Saturday morning to receive his uniform, he just digs it out of his Wears box. Gross.

"You're going to be late if you're not quicker." Ma chides, passing me a bacon roll and pushing me towards the PortPad.

She gives me a quick kiss and a pat on the head as I step onto the white glowing square hovering a few centimetres off the floor and a glass tube slides over my head, surrounding me in a clear glass box. I wave goodbye to Ma, using my finger to write the word 'FlowPod' on the Portination screen as I slide my ID key into the detector slot.

Roberta Ailey detected.

Destination: The Packs CWA FlowPod

The screen flashes in green letters and the box begins to vibrate before three rings of ice blue light encircle me. In a blinding flash of speed and white light, I am transported to my FlowStop, standing beside a glowing white hover signboard projecting a list of arrival times and destinations. I slip my ID key into the Portination screen slot, identical to the one at our Home PortPad.

After a short wait, a long chain of hovering glowing white circles about a 1 metre in diametre across come bobbing along above ground level. Several kids all dressed in different uniforms are each stood on a floating circle as the 'vehicle' rockets along, each glowing sphere moving after the one infront. The invisible air resistance and Flow-bonded circles travel speedily towards me in a long line, soundlessly.