Fireblood

Fireblood 8

CHAPTER 8

The Valerie girl jogs up to my side as we run along to the courtyard.

“Hey,” I say (Wow, am I getting more sociable or what?). “You’re…”

“Valerie,” she introduces herself. “Valerie Leung. I’m a Hero, like your brother.”

I was going to ask what Division this girl is in. Somehow, she managed to snatch it from me before I could even get a word out. Huh.

“What’re your-” I start.

“Powers? Mind reading and invisibility.” she cuts in.

“Mind reading, eh? Explains how you know-”

“What’re you’re thinking? Oh, sorry, that wasn’t fair.”

I love this girl.

“You like me already, don’t you?” Valerie says, a cheeky grin spreading across her lips. She’s Asian, like Will, and very pretty. She has a cleanly cut long bob of shiny black hair and sparkling eyes. Her nails are painted black and she’s dressed in old torn jeans, a black shirt and combat boots, like mine.

I half gasp, half smile and look away from her. I really like this girl.

“You’re Kit, aren’t you?” she says it like she already knows and asks just for the fun of it.

“Katrina, actually.” I say.

“But you like to go by Kit, am I correct?”

“You are correct.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m-”

“Sixteen, or so you’ve been told. Not trying to make you think tiwice about your age here, don't worry.”

I give her a frustrated look. “You read me again.” I try to sound annoyed.

“Can’t help it. It’s fun to see the reactions I get.” she shrugs sheepishly. “I turned sixteen just last week.”

Just last week. My own birthday had passed two months ago. The Gears just blandly told me it was my birthday and continued to casually test me and stab needles into me. What a birthday, I know. I’d spent each and every one just like that since I was five. You get used to it.

“Where’re you from, Valerie?” I ask, shaking the thought of my wretched birthday out of my head.

“Beijing, China. Full Chinese here,” she says proudly. “The only full Chinese.”

“Wait, so Will-”

“No, he’s half Chinese half American, dominantly American. Born in the States. I was transferred from Beijing to the Formation branches here when I was seven.”

“I know this sounds stupid, but what’s Beijing like? Where’s China?”

Valerie stares at me like I’m an alien. “You really don’t know?” she seems genuinely stunned.

I bite my bottom lip with an incisor. “What can I say? They didn’t hire professors to teach me geography. All that about my education that they cared about was my English, maths and science, science in particular.”

Valerie laughs. “Well. China is a country in Asia, which is one of the few continents on Earth. Beijing is one of it’s states.” she explains.

“What’s Beijing like?” I repeat my question.

“I was getting to that,” she says. “Beijing is a nice place. Bright city lights, nice people, complicated language. We were pretty much unaffected by everything that was happening around us.”