Order in Constellations

Fire

“Yo girly, you doin’ anything later?” one of the male upperclassmen called from the locker side of the hall.

“Yeah, and it’s got nothing to do with you!” I wittily retorted. His friends who packed around him like wolves “ooo’d”.

 “Do you think that could change?” he went on, following me to my locker.

 “That depends.”

 “On what?”

 “Whether or not you’ll lay off when it’s obvious I’m not interested, which you haven’t done yet.” I said, opening my locker and dropping my things into my backpack.

 “‘ You’re playing hard to get.”

“I’m playing be a proper human being and respect that I’m not interested.” 

“At least tell me what your name is.”

“Will you fuck off if I do?”

“Maybe. Mine is Zachary.”

“Sage.” 

“Sage the Sagittarius?” 

“Well obviously, I am wearing a red bracelet with the sign on it.” I pointed to the red bundled strings connected to the bornite sign of Sagittarius around my right wrist. He chuckled and held up his left wrist, showing me the white bracelet with he Libra sign on it carved out of Aventurine.

“Hey Sage!” a much welcomed voice called from a couple yards away.

“Yo, Archer, sup!” I said, turning away from the upperclassmen and walking to my room mate.

 “We’d better hurry up before we miss the train!”

“Oh shit the train!” I exclaimed, “We’d better hurry up!”

The two of us ran outside into the tree filtered light and followed the red lined path to the fire train that would take us to the compound. The Fire Compound, where the Leo’s, Aries’, and Sagittarius’ reside, is in the woods near he creek. The other three elements have their own places too, the Air Compound has huge skyscrapers, almost above the clouds, the Earth Compound is underground, and the Water Compound is made of glass, under Lake Wolf. They’re all at the four corners of the city. Surrounding them are the common jobs people of those traits have, like how the hospitals are by the water where determined Scorpios are doctors and motherly Pisces’ are nurses and caretakers.

“Dude come on it’s starting to leave!” Archer yelled, going into a sprint. She was right. We ran through the nearly empty station and grabbed hold of the door before it closed. 

“Jeez that was close.” I panted, “What even happens to the people who are out in the city after five anyway?”

 “Agni told me they were culled, but no one really knows for sure....”

 “Unless they’re lying and the twelve don’t want us to know.”

 “Now now, you can’t think about them like that, they’ll find out!” she joked darkly. But she was right. A lot of everything we did was monitored. A few hundred years ago was a third world war. What at that time had been America was hit hard, not that others weren’t though, we just weren’t able to rebuild. Instead there was a rebellion. Anarchy, murder, the normal things to be expected. Eventually some order was made. Different areas had different ways of creating their “utopias”. Some taking place of cities, some, like ours, the country-side and some suburbs. Some took outrageous precautions to stop us from overthrowing the “perfected” sanctions. The only place you’re truly free is in your thoughts in some places. Agni, Archer, and I commonly joke that that freedom will be taken away soon too.

“So have you started the essay on how our government works yet?” Archer asked.

“Oh, yeah. I’m almost finished actually.”

She stared at me like she had never seen me before 

“What?”

“You. Sage. almost finishing an assignment the day it’s given. The girl who

procrastinates until two days before and gets it done at three in the morning the

day of, nearly finishing it four days before it’s due.”

“So?”

“Are you a Capricorn now or some shit? Where’s the Sage I grew up with and what did you do with her?”

“Right in front of you. I just decided to get in over with instead of stressing

about it, that’s all.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense, but that still isn’t really like you.”

“Well sorry for being my own person and not having ‘pleasing others’ first on my to do list.”

“Okay that attitude is you for sure!” 

The train stopped at the station and we got off. We walked to the square, where people tend to do work, play tag, or just hang around. In the center is a fire pit, with glass symbol of each sign carved into the black marble. One at each corner of the triangle. Bow and Arrow for Sagittarius, A Lion’s Paw for Leo, and a Ram horn for Aries. Across the way is the Cafeteria, where we’re headed to meet up with Agni like we do every day. Normally it’s bustling with activity; people arm wrestling, running amuck, the occasional food fight, and pretty much just general chaos. However, when we walk in, it’s dead silent. There are only a few people, and they aren’t even talking to each other.

“Well thats not odd at all.” Archer remarked.

“Where’s Agni...?” I mumbled.

“Well, not here obviously.”

“Yes I can see that thank you.”

“Maybe he’s in the canopy....?”

 “Why would he be there, isn’t he afraid of heights?”

“Yeah, but I’ve been noticing him there lately, I think he’s been drawing something.” 

“Artists are unpredictable as fuck....”

“Well we should at least go there to look for him, right?”

“Yeah, sure....” I said, looking out the windowed doors to see black armored figures marching through from a black van that not been on the road before.

 “Archer look.” I grabbed her arm and pointed to them. They held guns and wore hooded masks so we couldn’t see who they were.

 “Why are the Assailants here?” she whispered.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is it can’t be good.”