What's Beneath the Scales

Ch. 4 an unexpected life story

Chapter 3: an unexpected life story.

I'm not sure what time it was that I woke up but it was the noise from the lock that convinced me to sit up and throw my legs off the bed. My first thought in my half-asleep mind was *When did I get a lock on my door?* then I remembered where I was and what happened to me. When the door opened it took all my will power to not start hyperventilating from thinking about this whole freaky situation. I barely had control of myself before the doctor stood in the doorway and said "Get up, the trainer will be arriving any minute now." And with that, he walked out the door. I sighed, got off the bed, and thought *I really need to get out of this crazy place* and then followed the doctor out the door. 

Then he walked over to Sasha's cell and opened it and said the same thing he said to me. What I heard next surprised me, what I think was that little boy say in a small voice "Can I come too?" I looked at the doctor and he seemed to think about it for a second and then nodded and said. "Follow me." And then he walked over to what I'm going to call the gym. As the three of us I jog to catch up to Sasha and take a peek at her but she has that indifferent look on again, I assume that she not going to say anything even if I ask so I just sigh and keep walking next to her right side with the boy on her left. 

Just as I face forward she says in a monotone. "Do you have to sigh all the time." 

I turn to her and find her with that blank face again and I say with the goofiest grin I can make "You bet!"  

She looked a bit startled by my strange response and just smiled a bit and shook her head. I can't help but smile at her reaction. I normally enjoy making other people smile and laugh but I'm finding that the challenge of getting her to laugh is strangely addicting. A second or two after that we reached the gym and then the doctor opened the door, turned around and said. "You are to wait in here until the trainer arrives, I will bring him when he does." And with that said he walked away to the laboratory section of the hanger. I turn around to look at Sasha but don't find next to me like I thought so I walk into the gym and find her sitting on one of the lower ropes of the boxing ring talking to the boy at eye level. 

I walked over to them and asked "Who's he?"  

The little boy jumped a bit, spun around, and quickly put his face into an emotionless mask. "Why should I tell you?" 

Sasha looked up at me and said. "It's ok, he may be an experiment but he's mostly a harmless goofball. And Seth, this is my brother Martin." 

I reach my hand out for him to shake and he looks at it for a second before shaking it. I smile and couldn't help adding. "There, that wasn't so hard now was it?" 

The mask he had shattered at my words and he smiled. With the introductions out of the way I wondered what we were supposed to do for now. I looked down at my crossed arms and then up at him and ask. "Hey do you want to see something cool?" 

He looks at me suspiciously for a second before he nods. So I sit down next to Sasha and try to raise my scales again. After a second or two I manage to do it without flexing my whole arm. I was ridiculously close to jumping up and doing a victory dance but figured that would just make me look crazy. So I just grinned, looked up and said. "Hey, check out the skin on my arm!"  

He leaned in close and I lowered and raised the scales again and his face went from blank to an ear-to-ear grin, looks up at me and all but shouts. "That's so awesome!!!" I look up at Sasha and can't help the triumphant grin on my face. "See, it IS cool."  

She just shrugs and says. "You're still an overgrown pinecone." 

Her brother stops smiling, looks at Sasha, then at my arm, then at me and almost falls to the floor from laughing so hard. I look at her and raise my eyebrow. She shrugs and says. "Of course he's going to laugh. He hasn't had much entertainment till you came around and your pretty much a walking circus clown act." I frown at that but notice the twinkle in her eye despite the blank face that tells me she's joking. I shake my head and chuckle a bit and turn to Martin to see him on the floor, red faced from laughing so hard, trying to keep from laughing again. I chuckle and reach down and pull him up off the floor.