DICORE [NO LONGER UPDATING]

Chapter 18

School is not going well. It's just how it was before, except now, since the kids in my class are aready halfway through the school year, they don't know me, and on the day I arrived, they all stared at me like I was a freak, and then just didn't notice me anymore. One boy explained to me that a girl got arrested the other day, and he guessed that I was her replacement.

I'm still in shock about the "arrested" part. That girl must have killed multiple people for the cops to even consider arresting her. In this day and age, people usually just get sent to rehabilitation units if they commit a serious crime.

I'm glad nobody knows I should be in jail.

As I walk down the street in the afternoon sunrays, just dropped off at the bus stop, I can't get my mind off of a certain hole in my stomach. It's healed by now, but every once in a while, it pops into my head, breaking my train of thought. If I was still on Htrae, where I lived before we moved, I would break down at the thought of the scar, but now only an uneasy, disorienting feeling rushes through me. I have to steady my feet before I can walk again without falling. The sun feels like it no longer shines, but just is a bright eye peering down at me. I walk a little quicker, so the feeling might stop.

I catch my breath five buildings from my house. The sun is back to shining again. I am about to carry on, but I hear whispering.

"Shit, a kid, what do we do?"

"I don't know, she probably has parents."

I feel my heart in the front of my throat, and there's suddenly a stitch in my side. "Who's there?!" I scream, turning around.

I see two very confused, very short people in blindfolds and buisness suits. 

One is a man, he has black hair that looks like it hasn't been combed in a while. 

The other is a woman, with shoulder-length brown hair. She walks forward, and says, "Hey kid, do your Mommy or Daddy have a bank account?"

"My parents are dead," I say.

She looks taken aback, and her face goes pale as bone. She clears her throat, and starts again, "Do you, have a foster parent or guardian with a bank account?"

"Depends who's asking," I reply.

She stumbles for a while, then says, "I'm Susan Susanna, economical associative of The Head Party."

Pointing to the man a few steps behind her, I ask, "Who's that over there?"

"Hi, I'm Benett," he says, waving.

"Yes, Benett, also of The Head Party's economical team."

"What's The Head Party?" he asks.

"Shut up, Benett," Susan hisses. She turns to me again, and gets on her knees to talk to me. "We're here to help your family prevent wrong cases of fraud and theft, and in turn, we want you to let us watch over your bank account," she sighed, "and to protect our wonderful, socialist, society...!" She said the last part through gritted teeth.

"What family?" I say.

Susan lets out a droning, continuous groan of frustration, and agony. When she stops, she says, "What did you say your name was?"

"Pyro Pelis."

Benett chimes in and says, "Wait, isn't that—"

"Isn't that a wonderful name!" Susan says, running away, dragging Benett behind her.

They continue murmuring, getting farther and farther away, talking about someone named Silvia, until I can't hear them anymore. Deeply concerned that that could have been a "Stranger Danger" moment, and slightly amused at how scary I was in that interaction, I walk to my house, and go in through the front door.

Closing it behind me, I can hear Aqua and four other people laughing and talking. I hang my bookbag on the coatrack attached to the wall, and I walk into where they are chatting, but quickly hide behind the doorframe. More people I don't know.

One of the people Aqua and the others are talking to is a boy wearing a worn-out, blue shark hoodie, with a fabic fin sticking out at the top. Another is wearing a grungy, grayish-purple sweatshirt, and has short hair with a middle part. The third is Noel, I've met him before. They all seem to be ranting and raving about the sheer excitement of "Wow, cool, we can do whatever we want," and "My Grandma never lets me eat candy," and "Oh my god, this is a space house."

They seem nice, so I don't hide behind the doorframe anymore. I walk out into the room.

The boy with the shark hoodie stops, and exclaims, "Is that a space child?"

"No," Aqua says. "Well, for a human, I guess. Hi, Pyro."

"Hello?" I say.

"Hi!" Noel says.

"Hey." The boy with the middle part says.

"You should probably get out of here," Aqua says. "Some things we say are not for twelve-year-old children."

"You're two whole years younger than us!" The shark one says. "Get out!"

"Okay! Bye!" I screech, and go upstairs.

Well, Aqua has friends.