AVENIR

Chapter 13: Brother, Is That You?

This one's for you, New-Identity!

As Gavroche and I ran away from the rally, he was yelling at me: "Let GO! You keep goin' where you're goin', I'm goin' to the elephant!"

"Gav, I need you to stay safe, and with me!"

"Well, Enjolras seems t'be after you, now, dun'he, so I'm leavin'... I'll be fine, jus' don' let him know, please. I need to check on th' young'uns."

Before I could do anything else, he had broken away. "Good luck! I'll be a-ok, jus' worry about yerself!"

Perhaps he was right. He rounded the corner and was out of sight. Praying he'd be ok, I began running again - to the end of the street and then round the corner.

For the second time in three days, I ran smack into Courfeyrac.

"Avenir! You're here! Where do you think you're going?"

"I don't know anymore," I said, laughing spitefully. "Not back to your place."

He put his hands on my shoulders, and looked straight at me. "Avenir, something is wrong. What is going on? Why are you running away?"

"Oh I have absolutely no idea!" I said. "Only leaving Gavroche and me to fend for ourselves, to find our way down here to the rally, and not even offering to have me go with you!"

"Avenir, please, don't you start about that – I TRIED to get Marius to wait for you, and for some unbeknownst reason to me, he thought it best you didn't come with us! And, I don't know, he's known you longer..."

"Courferyac, I've known Marius about an hour longer than I've known you –"

"How can that be? How would I have possibly known that? I guess I just assumed that there was some reason why you shouldn't be there."

"Because I'm a woman! That's the only reason why you and your pretty-boy little group wouldn't accept me. They don't want me there because I'd be out of place. I feel out of place here, as it is."

And additionally, Marius didn't want me stirring up trouble - he was the only one who knew about my time-traveling abilities.  If I got my hands on him...

Courfeyrac stammered: "I – I don't know what to say...we have never had a woman in our group, simply because they have wanted to flirt with us."

I couldn't help but smile, even in my anger. "And who was the one flirting earlier, Courfeyrac? Not I. You promised that I would help with your speechwriting-"

"After today's rally. To be completely honest with you, I haven't mentioned anything about you to Enjolras. You pretty much appeared out of nowhere, and I never believed that you actually knew him."

"Oh?" I asked. Furious at Marius for letting me keep my identity hidden, I pulled off my student's cap, threw it to the group, and shook my shoulder-length hair free.

"I will no longer let this hat cover my hair, and thus my identity. I'm afraid you don't completely know me, Courfeyrac. My name is Avenir, and I am from Marseilles...centuries into the future. I am not from your era. Perhaps that's why I don't fit in here."

I breathed heavily, face full of anger.

Courfeyrac looked scared.

"And that's another reason why Marius didn't want me at your rally today, and why I've had to hide who I am.  I came here to save you all, to help you with the revolution.  Looks like Marius doesn't believe that I can be of any help, even given what I know."