Twisted Utopia

Chapter Two - Newbie

Mace starts guiltily, before hopping nimbly off her perch, her onyx hair creating a fluid curtain behind her head.

"Did the bell go early, or something?" I mumble through my thin blanket. The tallest (and bulkiest) of the trio sillhoueted against the rectangular square of light steps forward, revealing... herself?

"Oh, it's a woman," comments Birdi. "I really wasn't expecting that."

A vein pops in the hulky lady's forehead. "Say that to my face, you little brat!"

"Didn't I already do that?"

Ominous silence.

"Well, if you insist... I sai-"

"Birdi! Shut the fuck up!" I snap, gritting my teeth to vent my anger at his outright stupidity. Does he have a death wish?

The sad thing is, all humor aside, the blonde does have a death wish.

He's attempted suicide twice.

"I only said that he- she looked like a man. I mean, isn't honesty good?" Birdi questions. He's the picture of innocence, all golden curls and massive cornflower blue eyes. His irises are wider from lack of sleep, and the dark pits below them highlight them. We only get about three and a half hours of rest per day, but add insomnia and depression to the mix and...

I'm surprised that Birdi hasn't died yet, to say the least.

No, I'm not surprised. I'm impressed.

"Calm it, Cyane," Booms the shortest shadow in one of the deepest baritones that I've ever had the (dis)pleasure to hear. He turns abrutly towards Birdi.

"One more smartass word outta your mouth, boy, and I'll skin ya alive. Gottit?"

I interrupt before Birdi gets himself ripped to shreds. "Yes, sir, sorry, sir."

My pissed tone of voice doesn't quite match my words, but it's clear that the two staff members are too occupied with something else to care.

I wonder what the fuck the last person is doing. Come to think of it, his outline looks somewhat familiar. I sit up, straightening my stained top, and frown at the mystery figure. I'm assuming that he's male, although I won't be amazed if he's a woman, seeing as the one of the most masculine human outlines I've ever seen just turned out to be the opposite gender.

Then again, I share a room with Birdi Laugh. (Yes, I'm not even joking. His surname is Laugh. Laugh. Feel free to do so.) Birdi does not exactly have a very masculine body.

If ribs were attractive, though, I'd be drooling all over him.

Metaphorically, of course.

Dropi's a newcomer - she's only lived in the deepest pits of hell for a couple of months.

I guess that I should explain.

We live in a country named Sedementone. It's what the adults call a 'Utopian Society', perfect in every way, with no hardship or suffering, all the food you can eat, no diseases... Perfect, in a nutshell.

For everybody above the age of eighteen.

The children go to a school. It hasn't really got a name. We just call it 'The School'. Here, everything is 'The'. There's The School, The Dorm, The Room (It's exactly what it says on the label, a miniature inky black room. What the label doesn't tell you is that it stinks of shit, vomit, and something else that I can't name. I guess that nobody would buy it if that was written on the label, though. The teachers put us there to punish us, sometimes. Mace has been there a few dozen times, I'm thrown in at least once a week, Dropi's never been anywhere near it, and as for Birdi... I swear that he spends longer in The Room than in The Dorm).

There are four different dormitories. The High Achievers have a huge roomy dorm that could hold at least ten people, but instead holds five. The High Achievers have comfort in buckets. 

On the other side of the spectrum, however, things are... Different.

The Low Achievers. The failures. Us.

Rumor has it, no Low Achiever has ever lived past the age of eighteen.

But, then again, rumor has it that fairies live in the art classrom. So, we don't concentrate on the future. The past and present aren't that pleasant either.

Sometimes it's better to not concentrate in general.

Oh, and The Average Achievers have two dorms. They don't live in a room that resembles the inside of a bin. An empty, yet filthy bin.

Anyway. Back to the situation at hand.

I tug myself from my half asleep state as the door slams itself shut as abrutly as it opened. "The fuck just happened?"

I know, I have such an extensive vocabulary. It's ridiculous! I should've been born in the High Achiever's dorm!

Ugh.

I blink. Voices are echoing in the back of my mind- no, somebody's speaking out loud. I hook myself to reality, only to hear... Well, the other dumbasses, I suppose. But something sounds... I can't quite put my finger on it...

Different?

Yeah, that's it.

"-Think she's asleep?"

"If everybody slept with their eyes wide open and sitting bolt upright, maybe I'd agree with you."

"OMG BIRDI YOU SAID SOMETHING POSITIVE I'M SO PROUD MY CHILD HAS GRO-"

Right. I've read about these things called earphones before. I'm not certain what they look like or how exactly they work, but my knowledge on the subject leads me to believe that if anybody was to listen to Macei Tsugi using earphones, for whatever crazy reason, they'd be deaf within a month.

No, actually, make that a week.

It's then that I work it out. There are two faces hovering inches above mine. I can feel their breath warming my icy cheeks.

Wait. Wait a second, I tell my mind.

To my left, I can see Mace's eyes, blinking down at me like an owl chick or whatever they're called.

And to my right is...

I snap off a piece of rotten wood from my bedframe and brandish it at the stranger's face.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE Y-"

Then my senses fade out, replaced only by a blinding white light and a somewhat delicate throbbing in my forehead.