The Despairing Tribulations of a Doomed Boy

Chapter 3

Thursday

Reinhardt came to history class with a bruised face the next day. The deep purple mark stretched from his right eye all the way down to his jaw bone. He had another bruise on his upper arm and around his wrists.

“Dude! What happened?” one of the boys asked him before the late bell rang. Reinhardt didn't say anything. He just glared.

“Reinhardt got jumped,” said another classmate, “They got him after school and beat him up for being an anomaly.”

“Who?” half the class was in the conversation now—Otto included. He couldn't imagine who (or how many) would jump Reinhardt. The boy may have been a year younger than Otto, but he was no small person. His body was broad and built for strength. Just looking at him was intimidating.

“I don't know. Some guys. I wasn't actually there. I just heard it from a friend of mine. Another anomaly got jumped too. People are pissed about the whole Detroy thing.”

“What's that got to do with beating up registered anomalies?” asked the first boy.

The late bell rang. Lancret skirted in the door as it went off. She gave Otto a shining smile and headed to her seat. Then she saw Reinhardt and stopped cold. “Reinhardt, what happened to your face?”

Reinhardt narrowed his eyes at her.

“Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say anything bad. Would you like to push my nose-button? It'll make you feel better.”

“No,” Reinhardt said coldly, “I don't want to push your stupid nose-button. I want you all to leave me alone.”

“Take your seat, young lady.” The substitute finally decided to stop the conversation.

The stories of what happened got worse with every class. Otto caught a glimpse of the other registered anomaly that had been jumped. He looked worse off than Reinhardt. His left arm was in a sling. At lunch the two of them sat together and brooded. Another registered anomaly—a girl—came to join them. She hadn't been attacked, but she had a look of cold disdain on her face that matched theirs.

Otto wished he could join them. It didn't seem fair that he was stuck in isolation. He was trying to pass himself off as a frivolous, but couldn't make more than one (maybe two) friends with other frivolous buttons. Yet he could never be accepted by the registered anomalies.

“I bet they hate Mr. Detroy,” Ruskin said, following Otto's stare across the cafeteria.

“I bet.”

“I wonder if they'd be interested in hunting down rogue anomalies.”

“Do what?” Otto nearly choked on his food. He suddenly felt sick.

“Dude, what's wrong with you? I said I wonder if they'd be interested in hunting down rogue anomalies. I bet they would. It would help keep them from being bullied like that.”

“What are you talking about? Who's hunting down rogues?”

“Remember what Officer Koi said in the assembly? We're supposed to turn in any rogue anomalies we find. I bet it wouldn't be hard now, either. They're probably all super paranoid about getting caught. We just need to look for suspicious behavior.”

“That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say,” Otto said.

“Maybe I'll go ask them if they want to help.” Ruskin started to get up.

Otto grabbed his arm. “They're not going to listen to you. They don't want to talk to anyone that's not an anomaly.”

“Well, you're obviously not going to help me, so I might as well try asking them.”