Obey

Chapter 10: Two Weeks Later ❤️

"Ross pushed our meeting back an hour, said he and Ash are running late," Tina told her Guardian. She basked in the kitchen's yummy scent. "Whatever you're making smells divine."

"Pancakes." Brandon quirked his lips.

With a faint smile, Tina reminisced on the past two weeks. Ever since her sister's visit, and her pitiful attempts to understand Brandon, the lass found that they could be rather... neighborly. Now, her Guardian even allowed her in the kitchen to help with simple side dishes.

Food, the great equalizer, she thought.

"How are the lovebirds not gonna be on time if the meeting is at their place?"

With a dainty shrug, the girl threw a cup of syrup in the microwave. "No clue, but Ross wants me to open for him, so I'm heading over early with my key."

Whilst the Protected claimed some butter for her pancakes, the Guardian busied himself with scrolling through his newsfeed. He sat at one of the remodeled stools whose feet were wrapped in felt, Tina's creative solution to stop their painful drag.

After a few bites of food, the woman let out a shallow sigh. She tuned out her comedic video for worry, concerned about an upcoming test in Dr. Jade's. As Tina thought, a memory was sparked, one where her annoyed professor pinched the bridge of her nose as Kyle ground his teeth and called the G/P breeding program that they'd learned of a waste.

A huffing Dr. Jade leaned against her desk. Sitting her red spectacles atop it, she clipped back, "Breeding has very little to do with love, Mr. Union"—the doctor crossed her legs at the ankles—"The propagation program was initiated nine years ago to create Guardians and Protecteds with increased talents." The dreaded dame ignored Connor's sly request to be her breeding partner as she gathered a lens cleaning cloth from her desk. "To date, no copulations have produced atypical children."

"Well, that's stupid," Dee mumbled. "Who sinks money into something that doesn't work?" She tapped her fingers against her chin.

"It's been speculated that natural-born Guardians and Protecteds are more powerful than engineered ones," the professor expanded, "hence the program remains, and compatible pairs continue to be explored."

As she gobbled more of her pancakes, Tina introspected on the containment center conversation that had triggered Hailey to shudder and call the shelters isolated hell holes.

"I'm aware that several Guardians disagree with the centers' methods." The umber-eyed bible-wielder took on a sympathetic posture. "Protecteds, have you ever wondered where your Guardians originated, where it was that they lived their lives prior to your meeting them?" After a few seconds of silence, the refined woman answered her query, "The answer is the containment centers, where Guardians remain until the age of thirteen. Once teenagers, they are acquainted with the outside world as part of their socialization prep."

Tina remembered the instant she put two and two together, the instant her academician's truth reminded her that Guardians don't have blood-bound families. His favorite food is whipped cream because it was one of the few things that his primary G/P scientist, the one who'd cared for him and been like a surrogate mother, was able to sneak him from the outside.

As she moved for a drink, the teen recalled Denzel overzealous slurping of soda and his passive question of how the centers have remained unexposed.

Dr. Jade scoffed. "Mr. Gates, our government has had many a myth proven true." Placing her frames back on her face, she kept on, "Ensuring ignorance is what our leaders do best. Take us as an example, as G/Ps we don't even exist." Pointing over her shoulder, to the board behind her on which some letters were scribbled, Dr. Jade asked if anyone recognized them.