Énouement

Chapter Three

Ender of course hadn't heard what Graff had said about us and started laughing out of nowhere. I looked at Ender like he was crazy.

"What do you think is so funny Wiggin?" Graff barked, his voice sharp and angry. I wasn't sure how he knew his name exactly, but I realized he might have monitored Ender. Ender looked confused for a second. Did he not know that he laughed aloud?

"I asked you a question solider!" I pinched his arm.
"Yes sir." Ender replied after a second.
"Well answer it then!"

"I thought of you hanging upside down by your feet and thought it was funny."

Some of the boys laughed. As if what Ender was saying was stupid. I wasn't sure what Ender was talking about either, but I knew he probably figured something before the rest of us. I understood a minute later.

There was no gravity in space, which means for all we know, Graff could be hanging by his feet upside down. Of course the other boys still didn't realize this, till Graff pointed it out. Which then made the other boys hate Ender.

What was this guy trying to do? Once Graff pointed out their stupidity and lies he then decided to throw it in their faces that Ender had scored the highest on the test to get into Battle School. He had the best score in the history of Battle School.

I was right behind him in the scores of course, but Graff apparently decided to leave that out. I was pretty sure that by now Ender's life here would be a guaranteed living hell. Graff was singling him out on purpose.

Once he turned around and went to his seat all hell broke lose. Kids were yelling and taunting Ender. I knew Graff wouldn't do anything so I decided to step in. "Why don't you all just leave him alone?" I screamed. "Are you all going to laugh and patronize him because he's smart? Because he's smarter than YOU? You may have been the smartest kid wherever you came from, but in Battle School everyone is smart! And they will all pick on you if you keep picking on the smartest ones. That's how they'll know you don't deserve to be there!"

All the kids had gone quiet as I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted. I had half a mind to start calling them words I had learned from Peter, Ender's older brother.

Ender simply laughed at me until I punched his arm. He stopped laughing but smirked coyly at me. Something he had also learned from Peter. I smacked him softer this time and lated my head on his shoulder.

"Wake me up when we get there." He smiled and nodded while striking my hair.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/_

As we got off the shuttle I shook my head at Ender.

"So tell me again how you managed to break some kids arm while I was sleeping?" He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"They started it." Before I could retort, Graff walked out of the shuttle.

"Wiggin!"

"You go on ahead. I'll catch up with you." I nodded hesitantly. I was sort of glad Ender had told me to go on ahead. Graff kind of scared me and I didn't know why. It was just a feeling I got around him. Like he was planning something.

Once I had gotten back to the bunk room the other kids had all picked their beds. The only ones left were the lowest one by the door and the one on top of that. They probably thought they were singling us out by doing this. I stuck my tongue out at the boys and took the one on top of the last one.

"Hey, why were you with that kid?" Someone asked.

I looked behind me and saw the boy Ender had hurt earlier. A French one at that. The French, being who they were, didn't start teaching Common until the age of four. Because of this, the French dialect and accent had already been instilled in the children. I suppose this would make him popular with the children who had never heard an accent. Exotic almost. This just made him annoying to me.

"Ender? Because he's my friend."

"But why? He's a shrimp and a teacher's pet." As he said this the other kids laughed and agreed.

"He didn't ask the teacher to say those things!" With that said I turned around and went to the scanner pad on the wall. There was a card attached that instructed me to enter my name twice. "Victorie Sophronia, Victorie Sophronia."

It finally opened and I saw Ender had done the same thing below me. When he had come in, and if he had heard what the French boy said, I didn't know. But I knew he'd find out regardless.

---- Author's Note ----

Okay so in the Enderverse, the world is *somewhat* united and so the Language required to be learned is Common. Common is basically English but has a slight difference. Common is used in the I.F. and therefore required of any child that goes to battle school.