All but Human

Chapter One

I have lungs, but I don't need to breathe.

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The alarm in my head blared as my last second of rest disappeared. 6:30. Horrible, dreadful 6:30 had come at last. Sometimes I wished that time would skip it all together. But even if it did, school would find another time to wake up its students in the morning. Probably an earlier one.

Actually, I was sure most students didn't wake up this early. They were probably still sleeping, warm in their beds. I can't afford that luxury. I walked to school instead of taking the teleport. I want to, we have one, but I can't. I don't want to hear people's conversations be hushed as I step off the platform. I don't want to hear the murmurs as they stare, calling me a freak in quiet tones. So I walked.

I wasn't afraid of their silence, nor their murmurs. I just didn't like being the center of attention. It bothered me for some reason.

I pushed the covers off and moved into a sitting position. Only then did my alarm shut off. I sighed in relief. It was starting to give me a headache. And again I wished that it would shut off after a certain amount of time instead of when my upper body was vertical. It would save me unnecessary agony.

I pulled on a clean shirt and headed for the door, grabbing a bagel from the Instant Meal machine in the kitchen. I ate it as I walked. School could be much, much closer.

I walked past empty houses with cluttered backyards and an old construction site from the twenty-first century that hadn't quite been cleared up yet. Though it has been a little since the last time I was inside. The broken glass that had littered the concrete was erased a couple of years ago.

I glanced at the place where I was beaten by other students for telling the principle the culprits of her vandalized house. I was threatened not to tell, but I couldn't not, so I was taken here and beaten.

I looked at it for a moment longer, feeling no hatred towards it, then moved on. There was no time for standing around.

Halfway to school, I came across some strange people rummaging around in a pile of garbage. A boy and a girl. I tried to walk past without them noticing, but as if sensing my presence their heads turned. I gazed into their deep orange eyes. Nurse Androids. I should've noticed sooner. I should've seen how artificial their hair was. Should've noticed how jerky their movements were. It was so obvious, I just refused to look.

They stared their blank stare at me, unblinking. It disturbed me. It also disturbed me that they were Nurse Androids. Which belonged in hospitals, not on a random street far from where they supposed to be helping doctors save lives.

The female one cocked her head, fake lips parted. "I detect traces of electricity." she said in an unfeeling voice.

"Are you in need of assistance, sir?" the male one said, equally unfeeling.

"Uh, no." I answered and walked briskly past them. I didn't stop until I turned the corner, feeling their unblinking gazes the whole way there.

I sighed in relief once they were out of sight, but didn't stop. I had thirty more minutes to get to school, and I was only halfway there.

As I walked, I banished the strange encounter with the Androids from my mind.  I didn't need the stress. My grades were decent. I didn't need them to plummet because I couldn't stay focused.

Sometime later I arrived at the school, an old skyscraper that used to be a . . . what's the word? Hotel, that's it. People before the war were so strange. Traveling the world, making places for masses of people to stay at once, and then bombing each other to bits. It seemed to me that they couldn't decide if they loved or hated each other more. And now there's nothing left of them, and the world is better for it.

I glanced into the the ultra-glass windows, briefly noticing the thousands of students that lingered in what was once the lobby. I could hear their chatter as I turned away and walked passed the main doors. As did I hear someone making out on the next floor up. I suppressed a shudder and quickly moved on.

I entered through an old service door that led into the kitchen and walked passed the cooks, who decided to ignore me today, and into the cafeteria which doubled as a gym. No one acknowledged my presence and I didn't make a sound to keep it that way as I made my way to my secluded corner where I would wait for the alarm in my head to again go off to signal the start of class.

In the years before the war, and and a few after, people didn't have alarms imbedded in the chips in their head to tell them when class began and when it ended. I didn't know what they had, but it was very probable that it was better than the system we had now. Sure nobody's ever late for class, but it could sometimes cause headaches.

As I walked, a girl bumped into me. "Sorry." she mumbled and moved one.

I stared after her in surprise. Usually when someone bumps into me I get a, "hey, watch where you're going!" or something similar. Never had someone face the fact that they had bumped into me and apologized for it.

The encounter made me wonder if I had a class with this girl. I didn't remember seeing her before, but I never really looked.

Today I would. I caught only half of her profile, but it was enough. I would recognize her the next time I saw her.

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I sat down at my desk at the back of the classroom, pulling out my notebook-turned-into-sketchbook. I didn't need to take notes in history. Especially since I knew more than the teacher.

The moment I sat down, students began to file in. I glanced at all of their faces, looking for the girl. She didn't come. I waited even after the tardy bell rang in our heads for exactly two seconds. She still didn't come.

Roman, though, did come, to my vast disappointment. "Hope you didn't miss this too much." he said, throwing my old notebook-sketchbook onto my desk. It looked like it had been partially burned, soaked, dried out, puked on, drooled on, and something took a bite out. I pretended to be distressed, but really I was wondering how I was going to get it off without touching it. It didn't seem like the rubber gloves in my backpack was going to cut it.

Roman made his way to his own desk, smirking. I glared at his back when no one was looking.

Just then Ms. Allen walked in, chatting with the girl from this morning.

"Good morning, class. Today we have a new student. Why don't you introduce yourself." she said, addressing the girl. So she was new here. That gave me mixed feelings. On one hand, I felt better about not recognizing her, but on the other, she only apologized because she didn't know me.

"My name's Margaret. This is the the first time I've gone to public school." she said. I noticed how confidently she stood, not a trace of fear. It seemed like she introduced herself to thirty-five teenagers every day. "Now it's your guy's turn to introduce yourself." she said, stunning the class.

Roman got over it first. "I'm Roman." he said, and the rest of the class followed his lead. I didn't speak, and no one made me. Initially.

"And what about you?" Margaret asked, looking straight at me.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I never got the chance. "He's a freak." Calla said.

"Freak, eh?" Margaret asked, raising an eyebrow. She made her way to the desk next to mine and sat. "Guess what?" she called out to the class. "I'm a freak too."