LUCID Hibernation

Chapter 12

THE LAST CHAPTER!! Enjoy!

*************************************************************************

The world is still swirling around me when I open my eyes, but I ignore it, moving closer to Yukki...I mean Obi...wait no...this is too difficult! She's sitting up on her mat, looking a complete wreck with a large number of people bombarding her with questions. I grit my teeth, 'give her some space...' I whisper under my breath, luckily no one hears me. Instead of yelling at them like I want to, I simply get up, push everyone aside. I scoop my friend into my arms and begin carrying her away without a word. Nero grabs my arm to stop me, 'You can't just take him, as his teacher it's my responsibility to...' I cut him off. 'Were you the one who went into his simulation? 'Did you see the horrors he went through?' Shaking my head I answer for him, 'no you didn't, out of all of you here I have the most right to take him home and make sure he's okay.' I stare at them all defiantly then leave. I take Obi, Yukki whatever her name is, back to my house and set her on the bed. Her eyes are glazed over, but she is still awake, 'thanks...I...' I smile at her and shake my head, 'don't worry about it, you need sleep, we can talk tomorrow, but I don't want some half-hearted explanation.' She nods her head and lets her eye lids finally close. I lie down next to her, then realise that she's a girl which means I probably shouldn't be sleeping in the same bed as her, but fatigue wins over me before I can get up and soon I'm off into another world.

I forgot to close the curtains last night, so I awake with the rising sun. Obi – I've decided that thinking of her as Yukki is too difficult, at least in my head that is – is curled up next to me. Obi being a girl is going to take a lot of getting used to...but hopefully it doesn't interfere with our friendship. It feels kind of odd, we haven't even known each other a year, yet she already knows everything there is to know about me...and I've just had front row seats to the worst day in her enter life. I decide that watching her sleep is a little creepy, so I walk down to the kitchen to make something for her to eat when she wakes up. Obi surprisingly has a sweet tooth so I grab all the ingredients to make pancakes and set to work. As I'm placing the last pancake in the pot to keep them warm, I hear a thud from upstairs signalling Obi's awakening. She comes rushing down the stairs franticly, her hair a complete mess and her eyes wide. She only relaxes a little when she sees me. I smile 'thought I'd done a runner on you, hey?' Nodding in response Obi pulls out a kitchen chair and sits at the table, 'can you blame me, you just found out the truth about me, I'm not normal.' I roll my eyes, 'Yukki, of cause you're not normal, you're a hibernator, so am I, which means you're not unique.' Obi flinches at her name, 'please, just call me Obi, my real name isn't something I really want to remember...and you're wrong, I am unique, I'm the only female hibernator in existence.' I frown at her, 'I don't know...after seeing the real Obi I don't think I could call you that anymore...' Obi sends me a glare. 'Kidding, calling you by your given name is weird for me too. 'And you're right, as far as we know you are the only female hibernator, but that doesn't mean there aren't others.' She shrugs, 'it doesn't matter I'm still the odd one out at school.' I laugh 'it sounds as though you actually care what the others think for once' she glares again, 'that has nothing to do with it, they don't even know and I don't plan on them finding out.' I shrug, 'why's that? Why pretend to be a boy in the first place?' She gives me a "are you stupid" look, wow this girl is full of expression today; I'm starting to wish for the old Obi to come back. 'Once they find out that I'm a girl they'll want to run tests to see why I'm not just a carrier of the disorder. 'I don't want to become a lab rat,' she mutters under her breath about people not caring about her rights as a human. I guess even after she woke up from her two-hundred year nap the old folks that took her in didn't treat her as a human being, the revered her as some sort of deity. It must've been tough.

'So, are you going to keep my secret?' I glance over at her and pretend to think about it. I laugh when her expression changes to one of concern, 'I won't tell a soul without you explicit permission, promise. 'Now answer my question, are you going to eat?' I hand her a plate of stacked pancakes and the glass bottle of maple syrup and then serve up my own plate. We eat in silence, not sure where to go from here. I want to ask questions about herself and  her past, but at the same time I know it's best to leave that discussion for another time. Besides I think both of us just need some fun after that rollercoaster of fear. We hear the front door open and Melanie walks into the kitchen soon after, 'morning Mellon, where've you been?' She smiles and wishes us good morning, then her face turns serious, 'I was talking to your teacher, he said he was considering suspending you for awhile, luckily I was able to convince him otherwise. 'You two need to be careful in the future though, you can't let him figure out the truth, he may be a good teacher, but I don't trust him enough to know your secret,' Melanie gives Obi a pointed look. I suddenly have the erg to slap my forehead, Melanie had known about Obi all along, that's what all the secret looks were about. 'Wait you trusted Mellon over me?' I give Obi an offended look, she ignores it. 'Well actually, she didn't tell me anything, I figured it out on my own,' Melanie says in Obi's place. 'It wasn't difficult and either way even if she had its very obvious why she would tell me over you.' I shake my head, not getting how she could tell a stranger over her best friend. 'I'm a girl too, stupid.' Oh, I guess that's true.

'Either way you both be careful, Nero wasn't happy to be put down by one of his students in front of a large crowd.' Melanie looks up at the clock, 'ahh, I have to hurry.' 'Where are you going,' I ask as she rushes up to her room, 'I need to get ready for a job interview, I'm quitting my old secretary position and I'm aiming for...well it's secret, but if all goes well I might just be able make drastic changes in the world of hibernators.' She comes back into the kitchen in a tight black dress and her hair up in a fancy braid. 'Wow Melanie, are you sure it's just a job interview?' She slaps my head, 'well you two behave, I'm guess that Obi will be staying with us a while so Gray can you set up a room for her while I'm out, okay thanks, bye.' Then she's out the door. 'I wonder what that was all about.' I turn to Obi, seeing if she has the answers, but she looks just as confused as I am. 'Well let's hurry up and eat so we can set up your room,' Obi shakes her head, 'you don't need to I can just...' I glare at her daring her to come up with a reason to refuse, when she says nothing I say, 'Obi these past few months, where have you been living?' She bits her lip, 'I've been staying at random hotels, but most nights I'd just sleep at the school. I shake my head 'I thought so, well until further notice your staying here so the least you can do is help me set the room up, it's going to need a clean, hasn't been used for anything but storage.'

We spend the rest of the day cleaning and moving furniture. By the time we are done it's really late and we're too tiered to set up her bed, so we both sleep in my room instead. It's a little awkward but then again, it's not like we haven't shared a bed in the past. As we lay there Obi says, 'tomorrow we'll get our test results...I wonder how we did.' I glance over at her, 'are you worried?' She nods, 'I messed up and I changed the past, for that one moment I let him take another breath...' I take her hand and squeeze it, 'it's going to be fine, it was only for a second and you fought really hard against the temptation, I'm really proud of you.' She smiles, 'okay'.

The next day it's clear that Melanie was right, Nero made life hell for us each session and he wouldn't stop glaring like he wanted to strangle the both of us, especially me. However he didn't let personal matters cloud his judgment, we were both given fairly high scores on our physiological tests, passing with flying colours. 'See,' I say to Obi as we leave the school, 'there was nothing to worry about.' She growls at me and I laugh, I'll never know what side of her I prefer, this lively open-book side or how she was when I first met her, quiet and mysterious. 'So what do we do now?' I ask Obi. 'We didn't get to do anything fun yesterday because we had to clean the room.' Obi brushes her fingers through her white hair, which reminds me that I still haven't asked why it's no longer black, 'the beach?' 'Sure thing...' I reply distractedly, fighting the erg to touch her hair. 'What?' Obi asks as she notices me staring, 'hmm, just wondering why you're hair is white.' She smiles 'Oh, well white is actually its natural colour; my mum was a foreigner with the same hair colour as mine, but because it seemed so out of place all those years ago, my mum and I used to dye our hair black so as not to stand out.' I playfully pull her hair, 'well it defiantly suits you.' We stand their in silence for awhile then I turn towards the ocean. 'Race you to the beach; last one there has to double their strength routine for the rest of the week'. Obi grins 'prepare yourself for a world of pain'. And we're off, the wind kicking up at our feet and the blue sky above tinged in a soft pink. The world could never be more peaceful.

***************************************************************************

Thanks for Reading all the way to the end! I hope you like this book and if I mixed up any information please let me know! Thanks again!