Rebels (7 page)

Topic Two: The Superiority of Your Family Estate

“Our sitting room was just installed with the latest in live animatics, seasonal projections! Yesterday we had the most glorious sunset, and tomorrow there will be rain! My father says it happened often before the Great Catastrophe.”

Topic Three: The Male Species and What They Prefer

All things Mica, obviously.

Topic Four: The Other Young Girls of Indra

“That one”—and then Mica would point at her chosen—“gave me a rather unwelcoming look yesterday. I wouldn't do such a thing if my nose was an absolute monstrosity. Her family, I hear, is completely devoid of class and manners. A stain upon the Indrithian sky,
according to Governess. Needless to say, I find her presence rather unsavory.”

To each and every one, I forced an expression of fascination, as did the others, taking little notice of said Chosen Girl, despite her close proximity. More often than not, Chosen Girl appeared devastated.
I am nothing like them
, I wanted to explain, though we would both know that to be untrue.

I was just like them because of my silence.

More often than not, Chosen Girl would be fighting back tears. To which Mica would inevitably say, “She is just making herself look more ridiculous.”

◊  ◊  ◊

I despised Mica.

Even more, I despised the topics.

Above all, I despised myself for following the requirement.

I told myself I had no other options. Follow Mica or risk the danger of being one of her Chosen Girls, and that was a fate I feared not surviving.

I was barely surviving already.

And in truth, I had already been chosen. Etiquette Tutor had seen to that.

On my twelfth birthday, Recruiter entered the dorm after uniform inspection. I hadn't seen him since the year before—his appearance was the only way I could track the passage of years—and it wasn't an emotional reunion.

His outfit that day was the same blue as his work uniform, but with a higher collar, and his brown boots were shined to perfection. The badge on his armband now had a second star.

My contempt for his straight-faced militancy had grown easier to conceal. But today his arrogance lightened his step and a smile almost broke his lips. He looked at me and shook his head as if he couldn't believe I had made it this far.

“Approved,” he said to himself.

I followed him without asking questions. Answers were hard to come by and I'd given up playing that game long ago. Since the moment I saw Samantha's empty cot.

I treated everyone around me exactly how I felt about them: like they didn't exist.

It wasn't hard to do. They knew how wild I could get with my
fists. They kept their distance. Everyone here already had so little, they couldn't afford to lose their teeth.

I figured the change in Recruiter's disposition was because he was getting rid of me.

Today was my graduation from the Orphanage, if you could call it that. And I was going somewhere, though I wasn't sure where. Most went to the Hub, and the stories of the orphans that went there were passed along the cots before lights-out. A lifetime spent in ration assembly lines and sanitation facilities, only to return to a cramped Hubber barracks with the rest of the unseen and forgotten. Who were deemed uncohabitable and functionally useless. And those were the freaks who hadn't even hit Rock Bottom.

I couldn't keep track of those who bottomed out, there have been too many.

Still, I knew I was headed for something different. I wasn't sure what, but I felt pretty certain change was coming. And that part was kind of exciting.

As we neared the last security gate before the Orphanage's outer walls, Recruiter said, “You'll thank me one day, Lexie.”

“Lex,” I said. “How's my memory better than yours?”

“Your holofile reports your identity—”

“I don't care what my holofile says! And I'll never thank you. For
anything
.”

He raised his eyebrows but didn't respond. For some reason, this weak, desperate man was no better than any of us. He needed
me
! His quality of life depended on just one of us paying off. Guess that's why he overlooked the fact that I was unpredictable and obviously hated his breathing guts. Secretly, I was as proud as he was. But I'd never let him see that.

An all-terrain transporter idled outside the gate. Recruiter flashed the driver his badge, then opened the back door for me. “Didn't you
want to say good-bye to anyone?” he said mockingly. I boarded without looking back.

Then we were traveling, the transporter rumbling beyond the Orphanage walls, and I got a rush, a taste of freedom looking back on my former home.

The Orphanage was bright. Flooded by luminators so strong my skin glowed yellow. But beyond the lights there was almost nothing. Was the world really this dark?

My eyes hurt for a moment as they adjusted to the darkness. Only the beamers of our transporter lit our path. Ahead patrol tower spotlights became beacons that kept us on track, the towers themselves isolated and rising through the murky black. Men in bright orange uniforms appeared through the fog, blasters slung over their shoulders, keeping watch on us through their goggles until we were no longer visible to each other. Occasionally another transporter bounced along the rocky surface beside us, beamers cutting through black, and we would swerve to avoid it. I had a million questions. Not that I'd give Recruiter the satisfaction.

“Approved!” he kept saying, then mumbling about promotions and honors and chuckling to himself.

The darkness seemed to go forever in the tunnels. It seemed impossible that anyone could have constructed this network. Then there was light. Faint. Coming closer.

Then blazing.

A huge gate, sizzling with electricity. A sign:
PCF ACADEMY.

Underneath the sign: Be Industrious. Be Vigilant. Behave.

Before I could even register the words, I was inside. Recruiter dropped me off at the gate, his smile even greater than before. Here I was, dropped at another set of huge doors, and this monstrosity would've dwarfed ten Orphanages.

We parted without further words. Just like with the transfer processing
at the Orphanage, they gave me a uniform. Unlike before, this one fit perfectly.

They gave me new shoes. Real ones instead of pass-me-down slippers.

They gave me a cadet badge. They gave me a sleeper pod.

They gave me Cassina right next door.

Well, you can't get everything.

◊  ◊  ◊

I'm not sure just why I'm here.

Cadets are hand chosen, the best of the best. Maybe I'm the best of the worst.

To be a cadet, you just need to be born that way. It doesn't matter where you come from. You can be the offspring of Islanders, your childhood spent floating in the air like some Airess, or you could be some Middlers' child. It's not likely, but even a spawn of the lowliest Hub worker might be selected.

“What you have in common,” the senior lieutenant says at our initiation, “is that you are the most promising youth Indrithian Society has to offer.”

Middlers, Hubbies, Islanders: they all look proud.

No one like me. I'm the only one of my kind.

Cassina is from the Upper Levels. She grew up on her own island. Even at twelve, I knew Cassina's goal: to get me kicked out of the Academy. I'd been assigned pod 13, right next to hers.

“Great!” she'd said, her voice echoing through the cadet quarters. “They put me next to the dirt squirt!”

“What'd you say?” I was standing over my sleeper, for the first time having one my size.

“You're gonna make my pod reek,” she said, moving closer. Her thin, venomous lips were pulled into white lines, her nostrils flaring. “You stink like mud, girl. You subbies can't ever wash away
that
stank.”

So I punched her. Right across that pointy little chin. Her jaw slammed shut on her tongue and blood fell over her lip. She stumbled back against her sleeper, embarrassment rushing to her cheeks.

Not so tough now
, I thought, watching her stumble up to her sleeper, shock turning to hatred. She glared up at me.

“You'll pay . . .
orphan
.”

I lunged for her, but someone pulled me back before I could do more damage.

Welcome to the Academy
, I thought as the pod captain led me to her office for my first disciplinary meeting of many.

“Not a promising start, Cadet,” she'd said, staring at me from behind the shiny metallic desk. She wasn't old, but life belowground had drained her youth, and the blond hair sticking out from beneath her cap was brittle and dry.
I will never be like her
, I thought.

The rage still bubbled within me, my knees shaking.

“I know you come from a unique situation, Cadet Lexie.”

“Lex,” I said.

She ignored me. “The first recruit via the Orphanage. Unprecedented situation, yes, but let me make this clear: here you are just a cadet. You are just like everyone else.”

It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me.

However, we both knew it was a lie.

“We have rules,” she said, expressionless. “We have procedure. A way of doing things. You are a cadet now, and you have to play by Academy rules. If you plan on staying, that is.”

I tried to look like I wasn't still thinking about doing Cassina serious harm.

Mudgirl. Subbies. Dirt.
That's what you called someone who wasn't even a person.

I tried to look remorseful.

Inside, I didn't feel sorry. Not one bit.

“Is that understood?” Captain said, slow and loud like I didn't
speak her language. Like I wasn't smart enough to understand.
She thinks I'm a mudgirl, too
.
They all do
.

“Absolutely,” I said, with more than a little disdain in my voice. She raised her eyebrows. I looked her dead-on. “Yes, Captain, I understand and appreciate the concise yet thorough clarification regarding this issue.”

See? I use a lot of words and say absolutely nothing. Just like you.

She stared at me for a moment. “Maybe you need more time to contemplate the seriousness of this offense.”

I got Pod Confinement for the rest of the evening.

I spent those long hours pacing the tiny circular unit. Part of me was thrilled.
My own room!
With a desk for my studies, a sleeper twice as big as my Orphanage one hovering in the corner. My own pod, all for my belongings. Not that I owned anything, but it was still pretty strato.

Then again, I'd already made an enemy. In less than a day. I'd hurt her, but that didn't change her mind any. That look in Cassina's eyes, the one that made my fist fly without thinking, promised she wouldn't quit. And if I punched her again, they'd bottom me out of the Academy before I wiped the blood off my knuckles.

Next stop: the Hub, where they'd bury me in the lowest of the low jobs.

I kicked the wall.
No way I'll spend the rest of my life scrubbing at Hubber waste
.
Not 'cause of some spoiled Upper Level synth priss. Not some brain-damaged air sucker.

I'll prove her wrong
, I thought, practically bouncing off the metal walls.
I'll prove them all wrong. I'll be stronger, smarter. I'll be the best cadet the Academy ever saw. No one will remember I came from the Orphanage.

I knew that last part was a lie. Sounded good, though.

I don't need anyone. I never will.

But that part I still believed. Lived by. A promise I'd made myself long ago.

Of course, that was before I met Kane.

◊  ◊  ◊

I'd been so hardheaded in proving that I wasn't some dirt eater in my first week that I wasn't prepared for someone like Kane. Taking laps around the rec grounds, pushing myself even during break time, I saw him out of the corner of my eye, running up on me from behind.

I wheeled around on him, and in seeing my raised fists, he put his hands in front of his face. “Easy, Cadet!”

When I lowered them, he was grinning, his lip curled up in the way that I realize now is his thing. I felt my face relax.

Kane, already beautiful at twelve, even when the rest of us were growing into our awkward bodies. Only a week in and the girls followed him in a giggling pack, fighting to sit next to him at lunch, offering him bites of their rations.

Drooling over a guy? Absurd. But giving away food? Completely insane. That's not what we were here for. Cassina needed to save her rations for herself. She'd never seen an orphan wither away to nothing.

I hated her face already, but her pointed features became more intolerable the more lovesick she got. But Kane was never rude to her or anyone else, his patience seemingly unexhausted by her babble or adoring smiles.

The one thing about not needing anyone: you spend a lot of time watching the very people you don't need. And I could spot disinterest. Twitches. Eye rolls. Someone chewing the inside of their cheek.

I watched Cassina and Kane talk and his eyes would look right through her. In his head, he'd gone somewhere else. I knew that place well. I went there as often as I could.

Sure, his approaching me could've been a setup. But he wasn't much bigger than me. I could take him if I had to, and honestly, it might do a few things for my rep.

“C'mere,” he said.

I followed him down the path as Cassina slaughtered me from afar with jealous whispers.

That made me smile. I didn't let him see, of course.

We came into a clearing and he led me toward the storage units that held the Academy's supplies. Everyone knew they were off-limits and alarmed.

“You can break the rules all you want, tough guy, but don't involve me.”