The World Flying Force Rebellion in the Shadows

Chapter Five- The Routine

The routine was easy to get used to. Maybe not the mornings without coffee, but everything else fell into place. Notawa was the anchor to everything. She helped me study, ran next to me most mornings, and brought me snacks in between classes.

The only thing she couldn't help me with was being well liked. My sessions with Kirtis were intolerable, every meal was full of stares from strangers, and each class was torture. The instructors loved to call on me and make everything as tough as possible.

"Talaya! Which female on the current Collaboration of Engineers is the shortest?" the instructor, Santeeg, asked. His uniform was messy again. How hard was it to send things out to be washed?

"Are you serious?"

"We are profiling each of the engineers on the board. You don't think it's important to learn about the people behind the designing process of our aircrafts?"

"No, I just-"

"You just thought you knew better than me?"

"No, I am trying to-"

"You are trying to avoid the question. Five extra laps tomorrow. The shortest female on the Collaboration of Engineers would be the only female on the board, Grakoe Haply. You have her information on your calcumat. Use the desktop to read through it," he said. He sat at his desk, leaned way back, and was snoring in seconds. Everyone scrolled through the information on their desks. My chin rested in my left palm, sleepy before I had finished the first sentence.

Everyone jumped half out of their skin when twenty minutes later my calcumat started blaring. Santeeg was not happy.

"Reconist! Turn that thing off!" he yelled from his desk. I swiped the alert away. It was an incoming call from my father. The alarm continued no matter how many times I touched ignore.

"Talaya! Turn it off." He got up from his desk and stomped over.

"I'm trying! It's busted or something," I said.

"Get out! Take it to the lab, don't come back if you plan on making any noise at all," he snipped.

"No noise? What, you mean like snoring?" I barked. Several of my classmates snickered.

"Out." He ordered. I got up, and half jogged from the room.

The sound was louder in the empty halls. With everyone in their training classes, I was all alone. I kept smacking the calcumat all the way to the lab. When I got to the right room, someone poked their head out before I walked in. I unhooked the computer from my wrist and held it out.

"It won't stop!" I yelled over the noise.

"Did you try answering the call?" the woman asked. It was the same frizzy hair lady from my combat training sessions. I knew from the giant goggles that were on her forehead and the brown flyaway hair all around them.

I answered the comm.

"Hey dad, I am in class right now, can I call you later?"

"Just checking in Lala, you doing OK? Everyone still being mean?" The lady crossed her arms and smirked.

"Gotta go!" I yelled and ended the call but not before my face flushed bright red. Right when the call ended the noise started up again. The lady grabbed it out of my hand and ran into the lab.

"I think the actuator came unlinked from the body monitoring chip. It's causing the emergency comm alert to call your kin-contact. I just need to uncouple the bad actuator and replace it with a good one," she said. I had no idea what she said or if she was even talking to me. I tried to stay out of the way.