Summertime

Chapter One-Look Alive, Sunshine

“You always dress like a fucking emo,” my aunt snarled at me as I came down the stairs that morning.

“It’s not emo. Emo doesn’t exist,” I snapped. Today I was dressed in my favorite outfit. I wore a tie-die tank top covered by a grey army jacket, shredded skinny jeans, knee high black boots, and other various accessories that included my red skull bandana, my striped gloves, and my rainbow stud belt. Honestly, I didn’t see how anyone could call that emo. Aunt Isabella didn’t understand anything about my life. Which was why I never bothered to explain it to her.

Still fuming about the “emo” comment, I dug around in the cupboards looking for something to eat.

“Really?” I asked as I pulled a can of Power Pup from a cupboard, “We don’t even have a dog. Why do you buy this?”

“It’s nutritious and cheap. Eat it,” she retorted. I pried it open and wolfed down the dog food. We rarely bought it, because my aunt bought normal food if she had enough money, but sometimes the cheap dog food had to be used.

I quickly brushed my teeth, grabbed my backpack, and headed out the door without another word.

“One month,” I muttered to myself, “Just one more month and you’re done with her…”

Feeling angry, I kept my eyes on the sidewalk as I walked to school. Until I heard footsteps behind me and a hand lightly touched my shoulder. I turned around and looked up into my boyfriend’s face.

Sam had been my boyfriend ever since the beginning of high school. He was the sweetest, nicest boyfriend I had ever had (my only boyfriend, actually), and I loved him to bits. He had messy brown hair that always hung in his eyes, and soft brown eyes that always sparkled when he was around me.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Just my aunt being a bitch again,” I sighed, leaning against him. He rubbed my shoulder.

“You’ve just got another month to go, right? Then you’ll be eighteen and you can move out to live with me,” he said comfortingly.

“And I’ll never see her again. I can’t wait,” I muttered.

“Come here,” he chuckled, pulling me into a kiss. I stood there, my hands on his chest, the heat of his lips on mine warming my entire body until I felt much better.

“I needed that,” I whispered to him as we started down the street again, holding hands.

School was awful, as it always was. I felt like I was suffocating from boredom. They taught us nothing useful. It was just basic math and reading, and then a ton of stuff about howBatteryCityand BL/ind work. I hated it. We couldn’t read any books that weren’t BLI approved. And the thing I hated most was that we had next to no music.

The only music we were allowed to have was wordless, classical boring shit. BLI wouldn’t let us have words in the music we listened to because they were scared we might be able to transfer secret codes to one another through the lyrics and possibly do illegal things. I wished I could remember the days when we listened to real music, but somehow those memories just wouldn’t come to mind.

I was thinking about this during Spanish class as I doodled on my sheet of paper. I couldn’t draw to save my life, but that didn’t mean I didn’t. My hand absently worked on something as I watched the teacher. When I glanced down, I noticed what I had drawn.

It was a small picture of a cobra’s head. Where had that come from? And why did it look so familiar? Something rang in my ears, a memory, very faint…something like “na na na na”. Utterly confused, I focused on the teacher again and hoped I wasn’t going insane.

The bell made me jump. I quickly slid my things into my backpack, wanting to get out of there, when I realized it wasn’t the normal bell. It was the lockdown bell.

“Everyone, get under your desks!” the teacher yelled. I ducked under the desk, crouching there, as my heart started to beat faster. What was going on?BatteryCitywas so well protected that there was no way we could be attacked by anyone.

The door flew open before the teacher could lock it. A couple of Draculoids, Better Living Industries henchmen, stepped into the room. They wore white suits and hideous Dracula-like masks. There it was again—that almost familiar chorus of “na na na na”…now I was scared. Was I going crazy?

“Stop, don’t shoot, you can’t! These are children!” the teacher yelled, raising his arms and backing away from the Draculoids. They had drawn their laser guns from the holsters on their sides.

“We won’t harm anyone unless we have to. Back against the wall,” the Draculoid growled. The teacher backed against the wall and stood still as about fifty Dracs swarmed into the room. Everyone was taken prisoner. I shrieked when a Draculoid grabbed me, but he clamped his gloved hand over my mouth so I couldn’t talk.

“The pills,” the tallest Draculoid at the front of the room said, holding up a bottle of BLI pills, “They’ve been mandatory for all ofBatteryCityfor several months now. We have been lenient with this district, giving you multiple warnings, and still no one here has taken a single pill. We’re here to enforce the law. Give them the pills,” he commanded his fellow Draculoids.

Several kids quietly allowed the Draculoids to give them the pills. The rest of us yelled and kicked, fighting. But I doubted many of them knew the real reason why we should refuse.

Most of the kids were fighting because they didn’t want to be forced to do something they didn’t want to do. I was resisting for a different reason. If I took those pills, all my emotions would be taken away. I wouldn’t remember the grief of my family’s death, and I wouldn’t love my boyfriend. Taking those pills would make me a robot. I wouldn’t sacrifice my love for Sam or my dead family.

“Now, you children must know that this is the law. We could have you carted off to prison in minutes if you continue to resist. You could even die if you refuse,” the main Draculoid hissed. A few more kids gave in, and the rest hesitated.

“We have very violent ways of killing you,” the Draculoid murmured.

That decided the rest of the kids. All but me. I was the last one, the one who wasn’t sitting perfectly still in their seat with my hands folded in my lap. I continued to bite and kick the Draculoid.

“Well, well, what’s going on with you, my dear?” the lead Draculoid said in a deadly voice as he approached me and my captor.

“She—she won’t take ‘em. I can’t get ‘em into her mouth,” he grunted.

“We’ve had more than one resistance today. Killjoys in the making,” the tall Draculoid muttered angrily, “What’s your name?”

“Why should I tell you?” I growled, glaring into his masked face.

“Feisty,” the Draculoid taunted, “This one’s going to prison for sure. What’s her name, man?” he demanded of the teacher.

“Alicia,” my Spanish teacher said, and for once, I felt grateful towards him. In our Spanish class, we got to choose Spanish names that the teacher called us by. Alicia was my Spanish name. This would make it almost impossible for BLI to track me after this episode.

“Last name?” the Draculoid asked impatiently. The teacher glanced at me and I subtly shook my head. If he gave them my last name I could be killed.

“I—” he started, but was quickly interrupted by the fire alarm going off.

Saved by the bell.