Mischief Reborn

Barrier

Ari's POV

I never really understood history. Centuries of war and hate, and the cycle of revenge just keeps on going in a circle, like a twisted merry-go-round. People hate each other, then kill each other, and then hate each other more because of that. There's absolutely no learning curve.

Take a look at today. You would think that things would be better, and people would learn that discrimination sucks. But now, instead of racism, there's harism, which is basically the same thing under a different name. It's just the hair color that determines who's on top and who's on the bottom rather than skin color. Apparently, the darker the hair color, the more darkness the person has inside of him, which is absolutely ridiculous.

History says that harism started in WWIII, after the Germans teamed up with the Americans and Irish to destroy the nuclear missiles of the Africans and the Asians. People with dark hair were known to be the "devil's incarnate" and millions were slaughtered by AI infiltrators to stop a nuclear war. Apparently, the sentiment still lingers today.

Honestly, considering The Turn of 2048, the blondes and redheads aren't exactly better than the dark-haired people. I mean, they nearly destroyed human civilization with a few lines of code, which is no different than a few containers filled with radioactive material. They both do the same thing in the end.

It's not like we're not even destroying the world right now. Take a look at climate change, and all the land that has sunken underwater. Polar bears have essentially gone extinct, and Hawaii and Greenland don't even exist anymore. And we're still churning out loads of fossil fuel emissions because we don't have the tech anymore for alternative sources of energy.

That's probably why I nearly didn't get accepted into Mistifuse three years ago, because I decided to get pretty... outspoken with my history acceptance essay. The only reason I did get enrolled was because of my knowledge with tinkering and coding, which is kind of ironic. I mean, if they wanted to accept a student who had more knowledge on how to bring back AI, that's not my business. Plus, my hair was light enough to have the teachers view me as the idealistic kid rather than the kid wanting to get revenge.

If idealistic means the belief that everyone could work together and live happily ever after, I guess I'm pretty idealistic. And considering that I was named after the Greek princess, Ariadne well...

Greek parents and their ridiculous names aside, this is why I always tell others to call me Ari. Being named after someone who was betrayed by her lover isn't exactly the most uplifting thing, and I would rather look on the optimistic side of things.

Like the fact that I'm at a school that actually gives out powers senior year. Of course, it's only to the eight students who are at the top of the class, but still... one can still hope. It's just like Hogwarts, but instead of wizardry and magic, it's with harist teens and radioactive vials.

*****

The restless pacing of my roommate, Randy, behind me accompanies the faint crackle of the fire. It's pretty annoying, especially since I'm trying to design my newest horror: a flying snowball-throwing menace that targets teachers grading papers. Perfect for sending the teacher's lounge into chaos, it's a much needed ingredient for anarchy.

And yes, before you ask, Randy is a guy. Mistifuse allows girls and guys to dorm with each other, because face it, no one wants to get on Mistifuse's bad side. If you decided to do something illegal, like I don't know, rape or something, you're expelled, barred from nearly any other school, shunned from jobs, and basically doomed for a life in poverty, begging for scraps and dying a very sad death.

Actually, the consequences are probably not that bad... it's probably worse.

Anyways, Randy is a chill person, and one of my best buddies, so he wouldn't do something like that. He might have a problem with grudges and all, and he's pretty harist, as with most students, but he always does what he thinks is best. He's also brilliant with pranking ideas, so I just pawn ideas off of him.