Fourth Birth: An Oakmont Story

Chapter 6

The next morning I woke up and saw a package on the floor, with a piece of paper taped to it. Aliyah got it before I could and opened the piece of paper, looking it over before almost jumping for joy.

"You have almost all the same classes as me. The only one you have different is science. You're in some physics class," she said.

She handed the piece of paper to me and I looked it over. All of my classes were the same rooms as hers, but they were all listed as 'Self-Study' with a subject beside that. The exception was the physics class, which was mechanics, the first of the physics classes. It wasn't self-study, but I wished it was.

There was a second piece of paper behind the class list. It had two added sessions. The first was a mind study tutoring session with Emily Trulin, on Tuesday and Thursday, with a special first session this Friday, today.

I already knew that was going to be painful, since I'd already met her and didn't really like her. Not only that, but she was part of the lie that got me here. The second was a ballet class on Monday and Wednesday starting next week. I also had to go to the hospital every day, starting today.

"Why do they have you doing those things?" Aliyah asked, noticing the second page.

"I figured you'd know," I replied.

"Nope. They always let us choose our extra stuff, which is why I don't have any," she said, smiling.

"I guess I'm special. Wish I wasn't," I replied, not happy at what I was probably going to be going through. I really wasn't thrilled about taking ballet, even though the tutoring would be worse.

"And why do they have you going to the hospital every day?" she asked, her face getting a scrunched and confused look.

"Because I'm special," I said, a bit more emphatically. "It says I have to have an injection, along with brain scans and blood samples," I added, being serious again.

As I moved to the package, a second piece of paper fell out, with Aliyah's name on it. I handed it to her and began opening my package. As she opened her piece of paper, her brow wrinkled.

"Why are they having me do this?" she asked. Looking at her slip of paper, I saw that she also had a weekly visit to the hospital, but she didn't have the daily injections, just the scans and blood samples.

"I guess you're a little special too," I said, with an ironic half-smile.

"I don't want to be special," she said, now looking a bit unhappy.

I finished opening the package and saw a picture of Daddy in a small frame made of a dull grey metal. There was a little decoration, kind of like the Irish or Scottish stuff I'd seen at the Scottish games.

Tucked in the frame was a small note. "Melanie, please keep this in your room at all times. Also, your earrings are not normally allowed, but we're going to make an exception, this once. Make sure they're not seen," the note read. It was signed by Mrs. Wilde. Just seeing the picture of Daddy lifted my spirits, a lot, but how did they get it in one day? I put that aside, as I had stuff to do.

We started the day with our morning exercise, which Aliyah didn't seem to like. Actually, I thought it was more the early morning she didn't like, than the exercise. I was happy, because we actually got to wear something other than the normal uniform. Of course, our exercise clothes were all the same. We had a maroon pair of shorts and a maroon stay-dry t-shirt, with a white stripe down the side.

The morning exercise was all calisthenics. The coach told us that they wanted us to be in good shape when we went into the field. I wasn't sure what he meant by going into the field, but I didn't think I liked what they intended, knowing what I already did about the place.