{Aug}mented [On hiatus until From the Ghettos to the Grand is finished]

Chapter 5

Who knew how long they had been travelling. Taylor’s throat was dying of thirst and the churning feeling in her stomach came in spontaneous instances. One minute she was hungry, and the next, there was a strong tug that slowly made her consciousness fade.

The other teenagers weren’t doing so well too. Some of them had made friends, or were lucky enough to have a few others they knew travel with them. They had time to ensure that no peacekeepers were at the back of the truck, so they allowed themselves to talk in soft whispers.

“Where do you think they’re taking us?” a timid girl asked.

It was a low voice that answered her. “I don’t know. Don’t worry about it too much.” It almost seemed as if Lucian and Taylor would have the exact same conversation if they were together. She was starting to miss him already.

A seven year old Taylor sat alone on a chair at the back of her class. It was her first day of school, and mommy looked very happy to drop her off.  

She minded her own business playing with her Lego bricks. She stacked up the digital cubes meticulously. It amused her more than the other kids. The other kids would just make fun and laugh at her. It was the first thing that happened when she entered.

 She remembered a girl that was shorter than her tug at her red hair, mocking it. Taylor called out to her mother for help, but she simply smiled, before turning around and walking away.

A child that was slightly too large for his age ambled to her. He had a sinister glint in his eyes—something that irritated Taylor more than it frightened her.

“What do you want Henry?” Taylor asked.

The boy faltered. “How did you—“

“I caught your name by watching you talk to the other students.”

He took two steps back, and was about to walk away before his pride stopped him. His chest started to puff up and a deep frown cut across his forehead. “You’re… not normal.”

Taylor pretended to pick up a small cube that was no bigger than a bottle cap. It followed her fingers nicely, almost like it was a real animate object.

 Henry swung a large arm across the electronic infrastructure that she was building. “Are you listening?” The blocks tumbled down, some of them dissipating as they reached the end of the aluminum table.

She gasped as she watched her morning’s work fall into a heap of meaningless blocks. “Hey!” Almost half of the art had collapsed.

He snickered. “You shouldn’t ignore normal people.”

Taylor looked at the teacher that was peering over the class.“Ms. Flemings!” She sat behind her large desk. Its design was like all the other tables, besides being taller and wider. She was a young teacher. At least, she looked young. It was difficult to tell with all the anti-ageing genes added into their DNA.

 Ms. Flemings didn’t respond. Taylor caught a quick glance that was shot her way, which meant that the teacher noticed her. She couldn’t believe it.

Taylor turned back to Henry. He held a smug look on his face, convinced that he had won the battle because of Taylor’s inability to recruit help. “She doesn’t care about you because you’re weird.”

“Whatever. ” She gathered the blocks that were splayed across the table, pushing them into a more organized pile. “Just leave me alone.”

 The smug expression washed away from his face. He wanted Taylor to react to his taunting; her lack of interest almost made him seem like he was losing. “No,” he said with a hard tone. Henry lunged forward and pulled Taylor’s work apart, scattering and destroying her Lego bricks.

“Ms. Flemings!” Taylor cried again, but the teacher remained silent as she sat on her seat. Her lips curled slightly upwards. It made Taylor want to scream, but she figured it to be useless as well.

She looked at the mess that was on her table. Tears welled up into her eyes. She was going to stand up and rush at the boy’s throat, even though the chances of her winning a fight was next to zero. Right then, another boy punched Henry in the face.

It left Taylor speechless.

“What was that for?” Henry spat.

The new boy was seething. He was only a few inches shorter than Henry. Taylor didn’t catch his name; she didn’t even catch him speak once.

The boy looked ready to kill. “That was really mean!”

“You’re friends with this weirdo?”

Taylor hadn’t even noticed that Ms. Flemings had stood up. She was too preoccupied with the entrance of the heroic stranger.

Ms Flemings pulled the two boys on their ears. Her face was so expressionless it almost looked menacing. “No fighting. We need to maintain peace in this classroom and such behavior is completely unacceptable.” Her words came out so smoothly and strictly it was as if they were rehearsed. “The next time you both decide to fight with each other, you will stand in a corner for the rest of the day.”

Standing next to a wall for an entire day sounded very unpleasant. “Yes ma’am,” the boys replied in unison.

“Good.” She let go of their ears and strolled back to her seat.

Henry flashed Taylor a look of disgust but said no more. He went back to his group of friends with his usual unnecessarily puffed up chest.  

She turned her attention to her hero. Granted, he came a few minutes too late for her work was already completely destroyed, but she was still grateful to him for removing Henry.

“Hi,” Taylor said.

The boy shifted his weight from one foot to another. “Um, hi.”

“Thank you.”

He looked around the classroom uneasily. “You’re welcome.” Then, he looked curiously over at her fallen bricks. “What were you building?”

“Pisa’s leaning tower.” Taylor stared forlornly at the table. It was near completion too.

His eyebrows shot up. “Cool! I’ve always wanted to try building that.”

She was starting to really like this boy. Half the kids in the class were probably too dumb to realize what she was talking about. “Really?”

“Yeah. Want to build it together?” The boy bit his lower lip and showed Taylor a sheepish grin.

She returned a welcome smile. “Sure.”

He sat down next to her.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Lucian.” He grabbed her hand and shook it awkwardly. “Lucian Alcantar.”