Institute baby

Chapter 2

At 6:30 precisely my alarm went off. Jumping out of bed, going into the shower, washing, shaving, drying off, putting on the white T-shirt and dark jeans that we all wear, brushing my light brown shoulder length hair, and going to the cafeteria all was the same as every other day. Once I got my food and sat down at the table however, I immediately noticed something, or should I say someone, different.

Among the other four institute babies there was someone new. Now, it is rare, but every now and then we have a new researcher, or a new nurse, or doctor, or lunch lady. This person clearly isn't one of them. She is a girl who looks about my age, her dark brown, longer-than-her-shoulders hair has streaks of deep blue running through it. Her mossy green eyes are looking around while she's talking a mile a minute.

"Hi there, I'm Chloe. Hopefully you're more talkative than your friends, right? They don't talk at all, they just stare at me. Didn't anybody tell them it was rude to stare," The girl says looking up at me.the other institute babies are staring at their food, ignoring her.

I can tell she's waiting for a response from me but I don't know what to say "ummm..." Well gee that sounded intelligent, "Hi, I'm Diane... Um...Not to be rude but why are you here? I mean, we've never had any other people younger than 25 here before."

Now the rest of our table looks up, waiting for her answer. She entirely ignores my question. "Well hello Diane! I'm pleased to meet you," she says with a smile. Pleased? Pleased?! She has emotions? I would assume she's part of the institute, she has the same T-shirt and jeans as that we all wear, so how come she has emotions? She continues on speaking, "What section is this?" She asks, lifting a fork of pancake to her mouth and letting out a soft moan.

Adam looks at her, "What do you mean 'what section'? This is the cafeteria..." He looks around as if trying to figure out how this wouldn't be a cafeteria.

Chloe starts laughing, "No! I mean what part of the institute do you guys belong to! See, I'm from the sociological unit, I don't work well with other people according to them, but I think they're a bunch of sickos. I mean, who programs somebody not to function well with other people? They like watching me struggle I swear, they're masochists. What have the science people done to you?"

I look up at her again, "They've taken away almost all of our emotions, we only feel happy and sad. They stunted our emotional development as babies or something. We've been living here our whole lives. We're institute babies,"

She seems to be genuinely interested. She's leaning forward on her elbows across the table, her pancakes forgotten. "Seriously," she seems to have gotten over her shock, "You can't feel anything else?" I shake my head at her.

"Fear?"

"No."

"Surprise?"

"No."

"Anger?"

"No."

"Love? Lust?"

"No and no."

She smirks at me, "Well I'd like to change those last two." Then she goes back to her pancakes, entirely forgetting about the rest of us.