The Company

Chapter Four- The 'Kong Have Returned With a Vengence

That next day was a weekend, which meant no classes. I'd decided to spend a day in the practice room to practice some of my band music, which was a usual activity for me.

One thing I always remembered was the way it smelled. It smelled almost old, like when you open a really old book and take in a good whiff. It was probably from the sheet music kept in folders (for all instruments and score, of course) in filing cabinets at the right corner closest to the door. That was honestly my favorite part of the practice room: the way it smelled. It almost had a homey smell to it, always safe, always there for me. It was practically my home away from my dorm.

I wasn't playing for a lot of the first hour. It was a lot of thinking. I was trying to figure out how that kid had found my dorm. It had been put up at the top where no one was on purpose, not to mention only a few people, including Headmaster Kingsley (we called him Head for short), Blaine, and Lionel. I didn't like how the kid had gotten to my dorm.

But where did he get that kid get the information? Did the Company get it from Head? I had no idea. I'd thought of every possible way they could've come up with the information. Hacking, Head, my records, everything.

I knew I needed to put it aside, but I just couldn't, even as I was playing, scribbling on my music, or even just checking my reed. I just couldn't.

"Come on," I kept telling myself. "You need to focus on King Cotton! Come on, 6/8, upper register, those B flats."

But how in the heck did it get here?

I heard knocking on the door, pulling me out of my stupor. I shook my head to stop from spacing out again and pulled open the door.

I was almost tempted to close that door in that kid's face.

It was another maroon-clothed moron, a girl this time, and instead of a sweater vest, she wore a maroon vest that looked like something a rich mom from the Cold War would wear.

God, I am getting sick of these smiles.

"Hello, valued member of society!" she greeted. "Do you have a free moment?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I don't have a free-"

"Splendid!" She just strolled in in, making me even more annoyed. "Are you-"

"No I'm not interested in joining the project, yes I'm sure, no I don't have any one I'd like to recommend, yes I'm sure, and no I don't want to take a sheet your way out. Thank you and good day."

I did what I wanted to do and closed the door very hard in her face. I'd seen so many of those idiots throughout the course of two hours that the ability to care was in the same place as their fashion sense: out the window and in the next solar system.

I decided a walk was probably the best way to relax. I put in my headphones, cranked a little Night Visions, and walked along, humming the songs playing as I went. About three or four of them tried to stop me, but I just kept on walking. I had about a small herd of them after me, all saying the same exact things like a recording on repeat. It was getting really annoying, having them after me, so I stopped on several unsuccessful occasions to tell them that I wasn't interested in their dumb project.

At least they were persistent. I had to give them that.

As I walked, I noticed something outside the building that had been converted to the research facility. There was a few people standing out there with signs reading stuff like "Experiments on humans unfair!" and "Bring down ARC!".

I walked up to one of the students, a girl with glasses and brown hair. "What is this, Vietnam?"

She gave me one of those disgusted and disappointed faces a mother gives when she finds out her kid did something bad. "Vietnam? No, this is for how the student body is being treated as lab rats without giving us any information! We don't even know what they're doing to the us or why they come back like they do!"

"Really now?" I asked. "That's kind of interesting, actually. What do we know about them?"

She handed me a bunch of flyers. "Here, take this. This has the info for a secret meeting telling what we know and how you can help us. Are you with Us against Them?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

She looked relieved. "Thank God! We're meeting in the basement of the lunch block at 8:30 tonight. Take those extras to your friends. But don't let any of Them see you doing it, okay? You never know what could happen. It might just end badly for those of us against Them. So pass it around in secret, will you?"

I nodded. "Got it. I hear you. I'll be there!"

"Great!" She held out a hand. "I'm Kara, science major. I'm the Adams of this operation."

"Michael, clarinet major," I replied, shaking her hand. "And Adams? Who's the Washington, then?"

"Him." She pointed at a guy my height with dark skin, maybe Middle Eastern. "His name's Steven. He's another clarinet major."

"I'll be seeing you tonight, then?" I asked. "Lunch block at...9:30?"

"10:30," she corrected. "And you'd better be there and bring someone else with you!"

I raised up my right hand. "Scout's Honor!"

After maybe thirty billion of Them, I had made it to the lunch block for some food. After what Kara had said, I was thinking a bit about them. It was peculiar about how They all came back the same like perfect little Google picture Jehovah's Witnesses, every single one of them. Picture-perfect exact copies of each other with lines that are almost rehearsed word for word? That's doesn't happen in nature, not at all.

Maybe this meeting is a good idea, I thought to myself. I really do need to learn about Them if I want to learn how to teach them to leave me alone!

When I walked into the lunch block, only one person caught my eye: Lionel. He was sitting at a table maybe three down by the wall, headphones on and a French fry sticking out of his lip like a cigarette.

Alright, you can talk to him. You can ask him to go to that meeting with you, and you can hang out during lunch.

I can totally not do this.

I turned up the music in my own headphones. Nervousness wasn't something that Imagine Dragons couldn't kill, was it? I didn't think so, anyway.

I looked around, bought my lunch from the Taco Bell, and as I was waiting in line, I noticed a certain person with a certain adorable nose coming up to me. I froze, not knowing how to react. Did I talk to him? What do I do?

"Hey!" he greeted, brushing his bags out of his face. "Didn't expect to see you here! How've you been?"

My brain was squealing with sirens and yelling "ABORT MISSION, ABORT MISSION!" I had no clue what to do or say.

What is up with you? Why are you acting like this? Just talk to him!

"H-hey there!" I returned. "I've been pretty good. Just...food. Yeah. Food."

He chuckled. "Ha, food. I just finished eating myself. Mind if I join you?"

The alarms in my head started screaming. It sounded like World War II London up in there.

I shook my head. "No, not at all!"

Mission one is a success! Now all you need to do is ask him to the meeting tonight.

Lord have mercy.

We sat down at a table, and I pulled out a flyer from my pocket.

"Hey, what's that?" Lionel asked. "Is there a concert or something?"

I shook my head. "No, it's this weird secret meeting thing going on. I'm going."

He nodded, studying the flyer. "Looks interesting. Could answer some questions. Yeah, I'm in too!"

Now the alarms were going so loud that I was pretty sure it was going to make me deaf. I could not believe that this had just happened.