I’d finally found the courage to ask him how he knew my name, and he told me itwaslogged in the computer. So at least I didn’t have to worry about the guards having a mind reading ability or something, which is what the Finnegans would have guessed.
Smiling at him, even feeling a little confident, I said, “Not hiding, preparing myself for today. School.”
Ace shuddered. “I hated school. Almost failed out my senior year. Luckily I knew someone who worked for Daelight and they had this opening. It’s been a great job. Pay is fantastic, and as long as I don’t ask too many questions, everyone leaves me alone.”
Why did they keep referring to the street name like that? Like it was a real person or something. Cara had done it too.
“Well,” I said, noticing the bus in the distance. “I better get going. Apparently I have to take two buses to get to this exclusive little school.”
Ace winked at me again. He was fond of winking, that was for sure. With one last wave I took off at a run, managing to flag down the bus in time. Breathing heavily, I pulled out a map from my bag and examined the route I needed to get to Starslight. I was pretty sure I knew where to go, but I’d double-check with the driver on my way out.
It was a slower journey than last time. A lot more people were heading toward the main street, and the bus had to make multiple stops. Finally I reached the change-over point, and the driver confirmed that the first of a few school buses would be along shortly.
I need a car.I missed my little yellow VW Bug that had burnt up in our garage. The insurance only covered the house debt. There was nothing left for new cars, so I would have to get used to this crazy trek twice a day. At least it was only for a year, then I was done, off to college hopefully, if I could keep my grades up and snag a scholarship. I was determined to do everything I could to get into a decent school. Even with this fabled Starlight pull, I’d probably still have to join some groups, get involved in extracurricular activities. Apparently, extracurriculars was the one college application area where I was underqualified. Seriously … how could the fact that I wasn’t very social affect me getting a scholarship? Never made sense to me.
But, as always, I didn’t make the rules.
A few kids were wandering closer to me now, all of them in uniform. A very fancy, expensive looking uniform, black and white, tailored. The girls wore short, black, pleated skirts and black tights, the boys slacks. I had expected I would be the only one in regular clothes. A seamstress would fit it all properly at the school or something – but still … it was frustrating to stand out already. Pretty much a beacon advertising I was the new kid. Or that I was poor. I was guessing only scholarship kids had to have their uniforms tailored by the school. Everyone else probably had tailors living in their servant house with the rest of the hired help.
More than one glance was thrown my way; the uniformed kids all looked younger than me. At a school like this, most seniors would have cars. A large white bus roared around the corner then, and unlike the town bus this one was sleek and darkly tinted, the school name and emblem printed on the side. I hadn’t seen the symbol before; it had a circle, which almost looked like a shadowy Earth, and another much larger circular world right above it. The second circle had a ring around it, and there was a striking symbol bisecting both.
The driver called out to me and I realized I’d been standing there staring at the side of the bus like a crazy idiot. Everyone else was already on board, waiting for me. Heat blazed in my cheeks as I scurried up the steps, striding past the driver to take a seat about halfway along. Everyone was silent as the bus started up again, and while I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, I couldn’t stop from glancing around. Most of the kids were on their phones, no one looking at me, which was a huge relief.
With a sigh, I turned back to stare out the window. The bus slowly filled as we got closer to the school. I felt someone drop down in the chair next to mine and turned to find Cara. She was decked out in the uniform, hair up in a high ponytail, makeup subtler than the first time we met, her eyes a chocolate brown now. Again, I had no idea if this was her real color or not.
“Hi, Emma!” she said, all cheerful-like. “I was hoping I’d run into you on here, even though you live on Daelight. I sensed you might be a scholarship kid like me, riding the bus.”
She was chatting away normally, like her freaked out reaction over me living on Daelight Crescent had never happened. I decided to go with it.
“Yeah, I’m on scholarship. I have to pick up my uniform this morning.”
Cara nodded a few times. She was chewing gum; it flashed as she talked. “I’ll go with you. They usually assign someone to the new students, help them get adjusted for the first few days. I’m your girl. I know how to survive in this hellhole when you aren’t one of the chosen few.”
Okay, that was it. I’d had enough of this town’s strangeness, of the millions of questions I had bubbling around my brain, and before I could filter myself I leaned closer, lowered my voice, and said, “I’m going to need you to explain to me exactly what the deal is with this town. With Daelight Crescent and all the weirdness there. Who are the chosen ones at the school?”
Cara’s ran her eyes across me and I thought she seemed surprised. I wondered which part shocked her. Before I could ask, she started talking, her voice barely above a whisper: “I’m astonished you haven’t run into any of them yet. I don’t know a lot, but I will definitely tell you what I do know. Just not right now. We’ll talk more later.”
Ominous. But at least she said she would tell me later, so I’d have to hold on to that. For the rest of the trip, Cara chatted about everything and nothing. She was one of those people who could talk underwater, requiring very little response from me. Still, I found myself drawn to her, finding true warmth under her flighty personality.
“My boyfriend, Mitch, goes to Astoria High, the other school in this area,” Cara was saying. “Do you have a boyfriend? Leave anyone behind? What do your parents do? There aren’t many jobs in the area, so they were lucky to find something.”
I sucked in a low, deep breath, quiet enough I wasn’t sure she noticed the strangeness of my response. Such an innocent question, and it had literally stolen my breath. After a few more ragged inhales, I managed to reply like a normal person.
“I moved here with my guardians. They have an online business, so we can live anywhere. My parents … uh, they died eight months ago. I used to live in California, and no boyfriend. I left no one important.”
I skimmed quickly over my parents’ death, hoping she would just give me the usual “Sorry to hear that” and then move on. It was when people pushed harder, asked how they died, that I usually lost it.
There were a few moments of silence, enough that it was almost uncomfortable when she said, “I’m really sorry to hear about your parents, girl. I can’t even imagine how hard that was to live through. My parents are selfish douches at times, especially Dad, but I would never want to live without them.”
Yeah,deaddid kind of outweighdouche, but I appreciated her acknowledgement that she couldn’t imagine. Unless you’d lived through something like that, stood beside a pile of black ash knowing your parents had burned to death while you had somehow managed to get out … well, there was no understanding.
Things might have traveled right into awkwardville then, except Starslight came into view and I leaned forward for my first glimpse of my new school. I knew my eyes were wide, mouth probably hanging open as I stared. Cara laughed at me.
“Honestly, I’ve been going here for four years now and it still takes me by surprise. My theory is that this is an experiment, like some secret government facility, but instead of guinea pigs they’re using teenagers. Socialization experiment on the segregation of teenagers. Rich versus poor.”
That’s exactly what it looked like. Very government, CIA, NSA, space-center like. Huge, shiny, with lots of gleaming windows. There seemed to be an enormous round building in the center with many connections spanning off that led into smaller buildings. Almost like an octopus, but one that was extremely expensive and luminous, made up from a multitude of different metals.
Cara went straight into tour guide mode. “So, the entire school is indoors. Everything is connected via moving walkway corridors.” Her hands were jabbing rapidly as she pointed out things through our bus windows. “The only outdoor parts are the sports fields, and they’re way out the back. Even the track field is inside. Olympic size pool is also inside, and state-of-the-art gymnastics arena. Anything you can imagine a school needs, Stars has five of them. It’s overkill, but what can you do? This is the home of the elite, and they like to cater to a few of us poorer folk. Gives them good PR.”
