Life With Their Rules

Chapter 4: Dell's Friend

On Friday, I couldn't stop thinking about Dell's plan to form an army of people with corrupted barcodes and revolt against Them. Could we really pull it off? I was too busy thinking about it as I walked into school that I bumped into the person in front of me.

"S-sorry!" I stuttered as I snapped back to reality.

The person in front of me then turned around.

"Oh. Hey Pix," He said.

"R-Ren! I'm so sorry!"

Ren Parker. One of the most popular boys in school. He's well-loved in the school due to his kindhearted nature and enthusiasm. And his looks. I know he's not one to get angry at anyone, but because I'm corrupted and he's not, I was sure he'd be pissed.

Instead, he chuckled.

"Don't be sorry, Pix. I get it. You were lost in thought, weren't you?"

"U-um... yeah..." I sputtered. I'm talking to one of the normal people. No. He's talking to me. Willingly??

"You should probably go ahead of me to check in. I know the teachers are harder on you than me. I wouldn't want you to get punished for being a little late because of me." He gestured for me to take the spot in front of him in line.

"R-really?" I looked at him in disbelief and confusion.

"Sure, why not?" He said, "It's not like they'll get mad at me."

I awkwardly shuffled in front of him, scanned my barcode, and squeamishly scurried away. I glanced back to see if anyone noticed how stupid I seemed.

And once again, I bumped into someone.

"Crap, I'm sorry!" I sputtered again.

"Pix?" the person said as he turned around. It was Dell.

"Oh, h-hey Dell. S-sorry about thatー"

"Come over to my house after school, okay?"

"Uh... okay? But I'm sorry about accidentally bumping into youー"

Before I finished my sentence, Dell walked off again. Why is he so cryptic? I decided not to think too much about it. Instead, I headed to my English class.

As much as I hate school, I love my English class. It's the only class where I'm actually able to express my creativity and thoughts freely. We have a period of time in class to write in a journal about anything we want. We just have to turn in our journals at the end of the week. That's the only problem I have in that portion of class. Sure, it's to get a good grade in the class, but still. I'm not a fan of sharing my thoughts.

I have a B in English. That's my highest grade. It's because my teacher actually acknowledges my presence, and does grade my work. Sure, she's a little more strict with my grades, but that's only what the rules tell her to do.

When I got to my English class, pulled out my journal, and nearly started writing, but suddenly, our teacher asked us to do something none of us were expecting.

"Alright class," she began, "I'm aware that normally we have half the class to work on writing, but I decided to do something a bit different this week."

Different? What's different?

"How about we all take turns reading what we wrote?"

Oh no. We're reading out our thoughts? No no no no. They're all going to laugh at me. I'm too awkward for this! Please don't make us present inー

"We're going to go in alphabetical order, so Ms. Appleberry, you're up first."

Why me?

I stood up, clutching my journal in my trembling hands, and read from the beginning. I wasn't expecting to ever present my story, so I wrote about a girl in an opressive town that was prejudicial towards the girl. The girl, of course, was supposed to represent me. She was surrounded by hatred, but unlike what I would do, the girl didn't care how others felt, and carried on, writing stories, and one by one everyone began to appreciate her.

Everyone looked at me, stunned. Was it good? No. They all think it sucks. I started shaking, and I could feel my face getting hot. I felt like crying.

Then a few people started quietly clapping. Then everyone. Our teacher smiled at me.

"Thank you for sharing, Pix."

I sat down, still trembling from sharing what I had written. I couldn't tell if everyone was clapping because they liked my story, or they were just pitying me.

Knowing how people were, I figured they applauded out of pity.

*

It was the end of the day. I was still ashamed about what happened in English. Everyone else's stories sounded so good compared to mine. I wanted to give up on writing forever, until Ren stopped me.

"Pix! Glad I caught you. My friend Becky told me about English. She said she never new you were such a great writer. You must really have some talent to impress her!"

"Wait, Becky Willis? She hates me though."

"No, she just thought you were stupid and untalented. I guess They were wrong about corrupted barcodes, huh?"

What? He's saying They're wrong too? That's what Dell would say. I shook it off like it was nothing. I didn't want to get Dell in trouble if I say something about Dell's plan.

"Don't joke about that kind of thing."

"I'm not joking. I know everyone has potential. After all, I know a guy. He works for Them. I'll tell you about it later."

He walked away, with that same calm smile on his face, like everything is okay, and he doesn't know too much about Them. What is going on? Who's the guy he knows? Is he going to tell the guy he knows that I'm "talented?" I don't understand what's going on. Why is everyone acting so weird this week?

Later, I made my way to Dell's house. I knocked on the door, he let me in, and he showed me some research he'd done. Then, we heard a knock at the door.

"Ah, he's here."

"Who's 'he?'"

Dell went downstairs, with me following slightly behind, and he opened the door. And then I started to understand what Ren was talking about earlier. Because there he was.

"Ren! Glad you were able to stop by."

"Yeah. I usually have free time. But I got some info for you. You're not gonna believe this."

It all began to make sense. Dell and Ren were working together. And Ren is a spy for our revolution.