Treated

Chapter 3

To Gleek 24601.  Love ya gurlie XD.  Our inside jokes....well there's too many to name.  Without you as a friend my life wouldn't be the same.  Gosh, Darn it!  That sounded cliche.  I wish I could call and say "hey?????????"  And THIS is why I don't do poetry my friends.  :DDD  Oh well.  You can't be good at everything.  I guess that means that life is pandemonium.  I guess you can feel supersonic if you eat some oatmeal with OLIVEs and CHIPs, sing all the AATIR's, watch someDeath Note, go to Warren-Willis Camp,  figure out how to sing the "me", and see Cee-Lo greene without eyebrows!"  This one's for you gurlie, so enjoy it 'cause you can't stop the beat!~Ashleaf

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"It'd be easier if I could show you exactly what they did."  Mom didn't even wait for a reply as she tapped a few buttons on the wall, and a giant screen appeared.  With a few keystrokes, a presentation appeared.  The Chip Project, was apparently the name of the presentation, and it was spelled out with very big red letters next to some pictures of a brain, a computer chip.  They looked like this thing called Clip-Art from back when Mum was a kid.   I tapped the screen, and the presentation started.  The face of a man in a lab coat was plastered against the screen, and everyone at home was watching, except for my sister.  I think she got sent immediately to her room after she cleaned up the broken glass.

                The man in the lab coat started talking.  "Volume up!"  I yelled at the screen to command it to go up a few notches, but instead a monotone voice replied: "Our system was unable to process your request.  Please try again."  After finally getting the volume loud enough for everyone to hear, I ran in my bedroom, and grabbed a blanket, and curled up on the couch besides the screen.   Apparently, it was some type of a Question, and Answer video.  A woman holding a laptop would ask a question, and then a harry scientist guy would try his best to answer the questions.

            It turned out that the chip was just some device implanted in my brain that could control the information the brain absorbs, and had restored my memory.  My parents had controlled exactly what it taught me, too.   During all of those years being kidnapped I never really got to learn anything except for survival skills.  This was like some futuristic education supplement that they wanted to test out to see if it actually worked.  It is pretty disturbing knowing that I was a test subject of sorts, but if I never have to go to school again, then I’m totally okay with that.

            “Off!” Mom shouted at the monitor.  We had all heard enough by now.

              The screen flipped around backwards, and swiveled back to turn into our dining room’s brick wall in a matter of seconds leaving no evidence at all.  Most of my family had gotten bored half-way through the presentation, and had left.  Now, it was just Mom, Dad, and I.  Then again, Lucille was probably eavesdropping from the other room anyways. My parents were looking at me weirdly with blank stares.  I don’t know if they expected me to be all upset, and teary eyed, but they definitely didn’t expect me to be calm by the looks on their faces.

            They motioned me over to sit at the circular breakfast table under the window.  No one really knew what to say.  It was pretty awkward just sitting there staring at each other, but Dad finally spoke up.

“Hope, I don’t think I told you that school starts next week.  You’ll be in the ninth grade at the high school down the street.”  Dad had a tendency to talk with his hands.  “I know the neighbors have a daughter who’s your age.  I think you should meet her, so you know someone your age.  If you’re lucky you might be in the same AP classes.”

“Why do I still have to go to school?  Shouldn’t I already know enough since I have the chip?”

 I whispered that last part about the chip really quietly, because I had a feeling that I wasn’t supposed to tell people about the chip.  It seemed like lying to me. No. More like cheating. 

Dad let out a deep sigh. “Hope.  I would have liked to have used the chip to give you as much knowledge as I could, but if I did it would be too suspicious.

“Suspicious? Why? WHAT IS THIS?  HAVE I BEEN LIED TO MY WHOLE LIFE?”  All these lies keep unraveling one after the other.  Wait.  My whole life is a lie. 

“Honey, I really shouldn’t be lying to you, but putting in the chip was….illegal. Your mother and I could easily be legally charged for this.  So for the record you were tutored while kidnapped.”  Mom looked distastefully at Dad, and let out a deep groan.

A door slammed in the background.  Lucille.  She had been eavesdropping the whole time.  Not a big shock, but I would prefer her not to know about this whole ordeal. She came running into the breakfast area at the table, and skidded on the mahogany wood floors.  She cursed silently and got up.  

“WHY DAD?  WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?”  Lucille’s voice was shrill.  She ran back to her room.   I chased after her into her room.  The thing that looked like a Barbie doll threw up on it.  It pained me to walk inside, but I did because I was trying to be a supportive sister. 

Her slender fingers quickly opened a pink padlock that locket up a pink box with a feathery rim.  She cautiously pulled out a metal blade, and held her arm out.  Blood stained the pink carpeting, and a tear ran down her face.  She did it again.

“Lucy, no! You can’t destroy yourself like this!”   I  tried to keep my voice hushed, because Mom was probably listening.

“Yes.” She sliced her arm once more, barely able to utter a word.