City of the Falling Sky (43 page)

“
Plans withdrawn? What
plans?” Seckry asked.

Coralle looked up at them, shocked, then she
broke into a kind of smile.

“
They’re stopping the
construction of the Marne extraction site. They’re cancelling the
whole project.”

“
Let me have a look,” Leena
snapped, and grabbed the letter.

“
Under the policy of newly
appointed CEO of Endrin Corp. Dr Jenniver Layne, the production of
the Marne extraction site will cease to operate, and all former
residents will be returning to their original homes. We thank you
for your cooperation in advance and wish you all the best in your
previous properties. The accommodation you have resided in over the
past months is being sold to Skyfall City Property Developments
Ltd. and will enter the property market. Yours sincerely, the
National Housing Initiative.”

“
They’re selling the flat?”
Seckry said. “How much for?”

“
These are about a hundred
and fifty thousand notes, love,” Coralle replied. “It’s lucky
they’re giving us back our old house, I could never afford to stay
here on the rates that everyone else is paying if they cut that
inconvenience benefit discount. And if they said I had to buy the
place as opposed to renting it we’d be out of house and home, it’s
about double the price of the house in Marne, even though it’s
smaller, just because it’s in the city.”

Leena dropped the letter onto the table.

“
So . . . we’re actually
going back to Marne?” Seckry said, more to himself than
anyone.

“
Looks like we are, my
love,” Coralle said.

Seckry scanned the letter himself. He hadn’t
thought about Marne for a long time now, it seemed. In fact,
thinking about Marne didn’t seem to have the same effect on him as
it did just after he moved to Skyfall. He was surprised he wasn’t
more elated.

“
Wow. I guess we’re . . .
going back then,” Leena said absent-mindedly.

“
It’ll be strange not
playing Friction anymore,” Seckry said with a pang of sadness. “I
was looking forward to next year’s Mega Meltdown. I was planning on
training really hard.”

Thinking about Friction made Seckry think
about Tenk and Tippian, and about Loca and Kimmy. He was going to
miss all of them. In one year they had become his closest
friends.

“
Eiya,” Seckry said. “You’ll
come with us, right?”

Eiya nodded. “Of course. It’ll be strange
leaving the city. I don’t know anywhere else than this, but . . . I
guess I’ll just have to accept the change.”

Seckry nodded. He had been excited about one
day showing Eiya around Marne, but he always imagined it would be
as a visit, not as their new home.

The next few days were rather solemn. It took
them all a while to adjust their mindsets to the thought of
returning to the village. Over the last few months, Seckry had
almost completely forgotten about Marne. When he first arrived in
Skyfall, he had felt ill with homesickness, but now the thought of
moving out of Skyfall was giving him the same feeling, but even
stronger.

The next day, Seckry arranged for everyone to
get together and hang out at the rusty fountain so he could tell
them that he and Eiya were going to be leaving. And not coming
back.

Tenk seemed to take it the hardest; he went
into an angry kind of strop, folded his arms, and refused to speak
to anyone.

As Seckry was trying to explain that he’d
come back to visit them often, there was a shout from across the
road.

“
Seckers!”

Seckry squinted and saw someone running
towards him, someone he hadn’t seen for half a year.”

“
Busbee?” Seckry
said.

Busbee Knowles, Seckry’s friend from Marne,
stopped and placed his hands on his knees, panting like a dog.

“
Busbee!” Seckry said. “It’s
been a while.”

“
I know,” Busbee said,
exasperated. “You’ve heard the news, yeah?”

“
About going back to Marne?
Yeah, of course.”

Busbee clenched his fists and made an excited
growl between clenched teeth.

“
It’s awesome, ain’t it? No
more of this Skyfall Board of Education fip. Back to good old
maths, literacy and science. It’ll be a fippin doddle after this
nonsense. I had to come and see you. I knew you lived over this
side of the city somewhere.”

“
Hey Busbee,” Seckry said,
as he realised he hadn’t introduced him to anyone. “These are my
friends Eiya, Tenk, Loca, Tipp–”

“
Seck!” Busbee cut in,
punching Seckry’s shoulder too hard than necessary. “Who cares
about the friends you’ve made here. We’re going back to Marne,
mate. We don’t have to hang around with city losers anymore. You
can ditch the freak show and come back to the boys.” He eyed the
group and sniggered. “I mean, seriously, look at this girl’s fippin
hat. It looks like she’s being eaten by some kind of cartoon
fish.”

Loca made to swing a punch at Busbee but
Kimmy held her back.

“
Who the hell do you think
you are?” said Tenk.

But Busbee didn’t answer. He eyed Seckry and
said, “I bet you’ll be glad to get out of here, Seck. When we get
back we’ll find you a missus too. A proper Marne girl.”

“
No,” Seckry said
suddenly.

Busbee tilted his head back in confusion.

Seckry’s mind felt clearer than it had for
days. It seemed as though his brain had been working away at
something in his subconscious without him even realising it and it
had come to a decision.

“
Bus . . .” Seckry said.
“I’m not going back.”

Busbee laughed and made to punch Seckry in
the shoulder once more.

“
I’m serious,” Seckry said
sternly. “And don’t touch me again.”

“
What the fip?” Busbee said,
shrugging.

“
I guess it took me until
now to realise it,” Seckry said. “But you lot, you and the rest of
them back in Marne, you were never really my friends. I called you
my friends because I didn’t know any better, but you didn’t care
about me.”

“
Mate, what are you talking
about?” Busbee said angrily. “And what are you trying to
say?”

“
I’m saying that I’m not
going anywhere. I’m not going back to Marne. Skyfall is my home
now, and these are my friends. My true friends.”

“
Nice one, Seck!” said Loca,
grinning nastily at Busbee.

“
You’d rather stay with
these fippin misfits than come back with us?”

“
I’d rather stay with my
friends, yeah,” Seckry said confidently. “And misfits? You guys
back in Marne didn’t even like The Broken Motion. You’re the
misfits in my opinion.”

“
Yeah,” said Tenk. “The
Broken Motion rule!”

Busbee waited a few moments for Seckry to
change his mind, before huffing and walking away.

“
Losers!” he shouted down
the street before disappearing around a corner.

“
Dear Gedin, Seck,” said
Loca. “Did you really use to hang around with that
idiot?”

Seckry nodded shamefully. “I’m really sorry
about that, guys.”

“
Never mind,” said Kimmy.
“How are you gonna stay in Skyfall? They’re putting your flat up
for sale, aren’t they?”

“
Yeah,” Seckry said. “Yeah,
they are. And I’m gonna buy it.”

The group did a few double takes.

“
These flats cost about a
hundred and fifty thousand notes and . . . well, when I stole those
worms I got two hundred thousand for doing it.”

The group gawped at him.

“
What?” said Tenk “You never
told us that! How come you haven’t spent it all
already?”

“
I guess I was saving it for
an emergency,” Seckry told them. “And now one’s come
up.”

Seckry’s mum took the news of the money as
even more of a shock. She gripped the kitchen unit and steadied
herself, as if she was going to collapse.

“
You . . . in this flat . .
. the whole time . . .
how
much?”

It took her a few days to fully grasp the
situation, but when she got over the shock, she was elated.

“
I
would
say it was
dirty money,” she convinced herself. “But if you hadn’t accepted
that job, we wouldn’t have Eiya with us right now, and that Danney
Plum would still be a prisoner of that evil man, so it’s money well
earned in my opinion.”

Both his mum and Leena rejoiced at the
prospect of being able to stay in Skyfall. They had made friends
themselves in work, and the idea of going back to such an
uneventful village after the last few months in the city made
Leena’s skin crawl.

During the following week, Seckry and his mum
made all the necessary arrangements with the Housing Initiative and
Skyfall Properties to secure the flat, and on that Friday it was
the Friction match that Tenk, Tippian, Loca and Kimmy had bought
Seckry and Eiya tickets for.

On the way to the stadium, Tenk raved nonstop
about a new Friction player named Bryon Durkamp, who he believed
was the best thing since Kolda Kod.

Being back at the stadium brought back all
the excitement of Seckry’s first Friction Mega Meltdown, and this
time, he was able to enjoy the food and the drinks and the sweet
things that he had to abstain from last time due to competing.

As they were waiting to go inside, Seckry
bought a sizzlingly hot hotdog, oozing with tomato sauce and
mustard, and a giant cup of refreshing iced cherry pop to wash it
down. Afterwards he and Eiya shared a bag full of sugar coated
doughnuts, and Eiya sucked on a huge, circular lollipop that was
made of swirls of ellonberry candy and cream.

Before entering the stadium, Tenk decided to
grab another hotdog to take in with him and left the group
waiting.

“
Join the queue!” he said.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”

“
Are you kidding me?” Loca
said as Tenk jogged away. “That’s his third one!”

“
They
are
pretty good
though,” Seckry commented.

They joined the queue behind a girl who’s
t-shirt had been printed with the words ‘Durkamp, our new champ!’
She seemed to be waiting on her own.

“
Oh Gedin,” said Loca, “When
Tenk sees that it’s gonna start him off about Durkamp
again.”

The girl turned around, hugging a milkshake,
some doughnuts, some candyfloss and a bag of chips to her
chest.

“
You know someone who’s a
fan of Durkamp?” she asked them.

“
Do we ever,” said
Loca.

“
Wow, that’s cool,” said the
girl. “He’s so underrated.” She picked a chip out of its bag and
dunked it into her milkshake so that it was completely
covered.

“
Sorry,” she said before
popping it into her mouth. “It’s disgusting, I know.”

Seckry and the others all looked at each
other with wide eyes before Loca said, “This guy’s gonna really
want to meet you.”

“
Me?” the girl said. “Why
would anyone want to meet me?”

At that moment, Tenk came jogging out of the
crowd, shouting, “I got it half price ‘cause the guy dropped it in
the candyfloss vat–”

He stopped mid sentence and the hotdog he was
about to bite into slid out of its bun and landed with a wet slap
onto the ground.

“
Chip and Milk Girl,
”
he said.

Seckry enjoyed the game and so did the
others, though he couldn’t speak for everyone because he wasn’t
sure that Tenk actually caught any of it amidst incessantly
chatting to the girl from the queue, the girl he had waited all
this time to meet again.

That night, after arriving at the flat, Eiya
took Seckry’s hand and said, “Come with me, I want to give you
something,” before leading him back out into the warm spring
night’s air.

“
Where are we going?” Seckry
asked, but Eiya just smiled at him, her eyes glistening in the
orange lamplight.

She led him to the monorail station and they
boarded an empty carriage. When they reached the stop for
Estergate, Eiya led him off and danced around in the street in
front of him, just like she had on the night of the ball, and they
eventually arrived at the same place they had on that night, the
disused reactor.

“
The glowflies will be out
again,” Eiya said. “The weather’s warmer now too, there’ll be even
more of them.”

She climbed down into the chamber and Seckry
followed.

Eiya was right, climbing down into the
chamber was like diving into a waterless ocean filled with
thousands of tiny fish. As soon as they began to walk around,
glowflies began settling in their hair and on their skin, making
them both giggle with ticklishness.

Eiya shook her head and the glowflies
dispersed.

“
You know, we should never
have gone back to the school that night of the ball,” she said. “We
should have stayed here. It was perfect.”

“
Yeah,” Seckry said,
brushing a glowfly from his cheek. “Away from reality, away from
everything. Just us. What was it you wanted to give me?”

“
Something that was taken
away from us that night,” Eiya said, stepping closer to
him.

“
What was taken
awa–”

Eiya pressed her finger gently to Seckry’s
lips and said, “Shhh,” just like she had so many times in his
dreams. With a slight tremble, she let her finger drop and pressed
her lips against his. They were so light and soft that they felt
like jelly, and a sensation unlike any other spread through
Seckry’s body, making the hairs on the back of his neck and his
arms stand on end. He had dreamed of this moment nearly every night
for the past three months, and now that it was here, it was even
better than he had imagined.