AFIRE: fight for the Earth begins✓

3.2 ZURI

The story so far: 

---- Aija is a Volunteer at the Pristine School at Innermost. She works along with Zuri and Ze, who are her friends. Aija has a crush on Ze. Aija catches a man – a possible kidnapper looking at her from the Apartments opposite her school. Zuri forces her to complain to the Principal, and so Aija does, but the Principal isn't there. Aija runs into the possible kidnapper and tells Zuri of it. Aija, Zuri, and Ze run into the possible kidnapper on the rooftop, where they had gathered to watch the rain.

---- Zuri visits her family at Apper town. She feels the air is different here than in Innermost.

---- Zuri visits her friends along with her brother Alex, at the neighborhood playground. 

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****3.2 - ZURI****

When Zuri woke up the next morning there were four messages, three from Aija and one from Ze. Aija's messages were about how she missed Zuri at school and about the Principal not being at school the entire week. Zuri knew Aija had only informed Zuri of it for the sake of it because she knew Zuri would go and inform him about the spy/kidnapper. Aija had made up her mind about not telling the Principal about the spy/kidnapper.

Ze's message read: Zuri, why didn't you come to school? All okay?

Zuri sighed. She kicked the blanket off herself and got up from the bed. Alex's bed was already made. He'd gone to school. Zuri smiled at the thought of her brother and wondered if he could stay young always. She hoped he wouldn't be too sleepy at school.

"Can I have cake for breakfast, Mama?" she asked walking into the kitchen.

"Sure, but only if you bring in today's food packets."

"That's easy..." smiled Zuri. "Can I go after awhile?"

"Sure."

Zuri had a big piece of the chocolate cake and told her mother, "You spoil me, Mama."

"You deserve it," Imani said as she cleaned the table.

Zuri giggled. She brought her DigiBook to the table and opened one of her History books. Zuri had been studying while volunteering. She was sure she wanted to be a teacher. She had also decided to take up History as her Major. So she'd applied to the Study While Volunteering Program and started her studies already. She had exams coming up the next month. Aija hadn't applied to the SWYP since she still wasn't sure what she would end up doing after Volunteering. Zuri was rather sure Aija wanted to teach – which is why she'd taken up Volunteering at the school despite her parent's reluctance. But, something kept holding her back from taking a concrete decision towards it. Aija always seemed lost. Zuri wanted Aija to take up the Teacher Training program so that they could be together. But ultimately the choice was Aija's.

Zuri loved History. She loved learning about the world before the Wars had ruined it. There were lessons on the world before, during and after the Wars, on how the people lived then, on how the Leadership was formed and how they forever changed how the people lived. Humans lived in countries before and they had several different ethnicities. Zuri had always had an interest in knowing more about this. The Leadership had changed it all by taking control of every single person alive – since not many had survived the Wars all over the world it had been easy. There were no such things as different countries, languages, ethnicities, and races anymore. People were purposely mixed by the Leadership in all the Cities except Pristine Cities six and seven. Maybe they wanted a semblance of the old world to remain somewhere – that's what Zuri had assumed anyway. All languages and religions were removed and one language was made the norm – now simply called CommLang, short for Common Language.