Behind The Rebel Mask

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Meg

"So you were visiting your Omama when you heard about the attack?" Li asks.

"Thank goodness about it," Loran responded. "The soldiers probably wouldn't have believed our views."

I had met the girl staying with Ha Mae, finally. Her name was Loran, and she was an Erelarian with the Allerakin beliefs. After hearing about the attacks, she decided to stay here and go to school. Now, we were walking home with Li and Connor to study.

"Is it true that all you eat is ground nuts and water?" I ask.

She laughs. "It's not all, but it is... oh, what's the word?"

"Common? Staple? "

"Yes, common."

"What books did the Miech put you in?"

She pulls two waxed stones out of her bag. "Taking Mathematics Further and Allerakin Reading: Book Three."

"That's the same math book as us, but we're two levels ahead of your reading."

"Don't be so hard on her, Connor. She isn't a native English speaker." I slap him on the arm.

He pulls it back in pain. "Ow!"

"Serves you right."

"What did the Miech assign you for night-work?"

"A memorization." She responds. "You?"

"Math."

"Lucky for you."

"I am not as good at math as you. For now, we'll just give you all of the hard problems."

"Oh." She seems a bit disappointed.

"We should switch assignments."

"Come again?"

"Like, I'll do your night work and you do mine."

"That's naughty, Meg." Connor punches me in the arm. It stings. I spin to face him.

"Want to see naughty?" I stick my fists up.

Li pushes me away from his brother.

"Naughty is when you wrestle with your brother once a week, before school, so you can get out of school that day and your Omam and Baba don't know." I swing back so Loran and I are walking shoulder to shoulder.

"Um, you can't really memorize something for me, but otherwise I wouldn't mind."

We approach Connor and Li's house, and I call out to them before they open the door, "Potato ball?"

"Same time as always." Li states.

"He means 3:00," I whisper, "When the sun is right there." I point to the exact location in the sky where the sun should be when we play as we reach our houses.

"Good Bye!" She calls.

"Rox!" I call out, which is the only Erelarian I know. I don't dare use any more in public, but since there is no one else on the street and no soldiers in town, I feel safe to say yes in the language of the enemy.

I take out my mathematics book and begin to figure out the problems at the table. Omam is smoothing shirts that are not ours with the heat board: Now that Baba is gone, we need some way to make money. She is now smoothing both the Miech's clothes and the grocer and his family's clothes. She gets meager pay, but it is enough for a little food. We don't need much else. She has a bed, Tito and I have our straw flats and me my school books, and we all have enough to wear different day clothes than night clothes.

Tito stays home all day long. He'll start school next year, but for now we cannot pay and there is no room. There are only two open spots in the classroom- a third row and a second row. Other than that, if you want an education, you have to go to the night school every day every week at the school led by Ha Kiersta. It's from 5:00 until 9:30, four and a half hours of lessons. But no one wants to go, most of those who go are either those too poor to attend day school, grown men who didn't get an education previously, or farm children who work the daylight away.

I check the sundial constantly, waiting for three o' clock. When it finally comes, my math night work is completed and Tito is working on his home studying of the alphabet and numbers. I flounce outside, where Connor and Li are working on passing the sack from person to person. I walk across the nearly empty street to Ha Mae's door and knock once.

No Answer.

I knock again.

"Excuse me," says a voice, but it isn't coming from inside the house. It's coming from straight behind me. I spin around, startled by the strange greeting. It's Ha Mae, and she is standing straight behind me. I step to the side and usher her straight ahead. She opens the door, and I turn to see Loran right behind her.

"Sorry. Had to get my school books." Loran is holding two books in her hand: Taking Mathematics Further and Allerakin Reading: Book Three.

"That's fine." Loran dashes in through the house and up the stairs, but not even the count of thirty later she is back in the door frame.

We walk together back to the growing crowd practicing with Connor and Li. I count 23 of us, which is one more than our usual numbers. Thank you, Loran, I think.

The game is exciting. We are in possession of the sack, but the others are putting up a good fight. They nearly intercepted it, but Yakov dropped it and so the ball went back to us. Haliy, Loran, and I pass the ball back and forth until we are just a few yards away from the end area, when Connor intercepts it. Li is really mad, and therefore charges at him. It's really quite funny as he tackles his brother, grabs the sack, and sprints all of the way back to our end area. He scores, but the other team rushes in to grab the sack before we have time to get into defense position.

To save a couple seconds (the others can start as soon as they get the sack and we need time to position ourselves), Li flings the sack to the back of the alley, which is allowed. We back up and spread out across the field just in time for the fast-paced passing to begin.

Connor throws it to Yakov, who acts like he'll throw it to the second row girl Cherie, but instead throws it to first row Tommas. Tommas is almost as small as Tito but is twice as fast. He sets off at rocket speed to the other alley. I charge after him. I've never moved my legs this fast, and now I am gaining on him. I relax my fists as I push my arms forward. The running motion seems so well blended. I feel so... perfect. I feel so happy. Then I notice Li is chasing after me even though he is on our team.

"Doubt me? Doubt that I can tackle him on my own?' I ask the gaining boy.

"No. I just want to be close when you do it." I smile.

Tommas is a foot away from the goal when I set my hand on his low shoulder. We both tumble to the ground, I beaming and he with a sour look on his face. Li helps me up, and we high-five. We won the game. The sun has touched the horizon, meaning that it is time to go in.

"Good save!" Loran shouts from the end of the street as the three of us bounce to the other side to congratulate each other. Well, more like Li and I bounce and Tommas sulks.

Li and Connor are always sour during the congratulations. They mumble, "Good job" to each other and walk separate ways. Loran practically tackles me while the rest of the other team heads home. We all enjoy the moment of celebration and acting childish as we throw the sack around and talk. The twelve of us have never had such a good game, because we are just beginning to get significantly better than the others. We continue practicing until there is just a sliver of sun left in the sky, which when we all scurry home so we aren't walking alone in the dark and we aren't screamed at by our parents.

I open the front door. "Omam, guess what happened on the street today?"

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