Republican Phenoms

Drake

Daniel

Everybody in my family is proud of me.

I run my hands along the top of my hair and look in the mirror. The buzz cut feels prickly against my fingers. My hair probably hasn't been this short since I was born. Long hair is more fashionable in Lake sector, but I won't be spending as much time over here for the next several years. I might never spend much time here again. I'll come home on the weekends and over breaks and holidays, but I'll be living in in the dorms the rest of the time.

After college, they'll probably give me as a job as an officer or something and I'll go help fight the war against the colonies. The next few summers are probably going to be the last ones our family spends together. It's a sobering thought.

If I had barely passed the trial, like my brother John did, we'd probably live in this little house together forever, or at least until one of us found some slum girl that we liked and got married. That's not going to happen now. That's a good thing, I guess, because at least one of us is getting out of the slums, but at the same time, I'm sad to leave this little family of ours behind.

My brother John already left for work; I said goodbye to him last night. I tousle my brother Eden's hair, then give my mom a hug and kiss her cheek. Her eyes are shining with unshed tears. "I'm so proud of you," she tells me. "I always knew that you were special."

I have to let her go. If I don't leave now, I'll probably start blubbering too. That's not the look I want going for me on my first day at the university. Especially when I'm going to be one of only two twelve-year-olds there. I can't have the older kids thinking that I'm a baby, yeah?

I walk to the train station and wait on the platform. Some of the people around me are wary of my appearance. I checked into the dorms last week, so I don't have my suitcase with me, but I am wearing the Drake military uniform. In the Lake sector, you learn to be distrustful of authority. Most of the time, you try to avoid people in uniforms. The city patrols, plague patrols, and military are all to be avoided around here. Of course, since I'm only twelve years old, it must be a little confusing to see me like this. Either that, or they've seen my picture on the Jumbotrons and they know who I am. My white-blonde hair is fairly recognizable.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a couple of girls, a couple of years older than me, giggling and smiling at me. I smile back at them. "Hi," I say.

"You're him, aren't you?" the younger girl, with pretty brown curls, asks me.

"Depends on who you're looking for, sweetheart," I reply. My train arrives. "This is my train." Evidently, it's not their train, because they stay on the platform as I board.

The train stops right in front of the entrance to Drake. I get off and start walking to the main campus quad, where orientation is supposed to be held. On the way over there, a boy bumps into my shoulder, hard, as he passes me. I know he did it on purpose.

"Sorry," the boy says, but he says it in such a way I know he doesn't mean it. From the looks of the stripes on his sleeves, he's a sophomore.

"Watch where you're going," I say. I notice a few people around me looking at us; from the looks of their glances, I have the feeling that this kid is a known troublemaker.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going." He looks at me for a few moments. "You're one of those two twelve-year-olds, aren't you? Well, this isn't kindergarten, so watch yourself. We don't need any babies here."

I glare at him for a moment. I've dealt with people like him my whole life. He's like those people on the city patrols who drive by our neighborhoods and bully those of us in Lake. More than likely, that's the kind of person that he's going to grow up to be.

I've learned how to deal with people like this. I'll find a way to get back at him without getting caught. Like the time when I was seven and my dad came home after the police beat him up, and I burned down a wing of the police station.

For the moment, I continue on and find a seatwith the other freshmen at orientation.