New World Disorder

Chapter Nine

They almost were late, but slipped in just before the last bell chimed. As they passed by the office, Oran noticed Dr. Jolliet, the school shrink, giving him the stink eye. What is that about? He wondered.

Homeroom, Language & Literature, and Advanced Calculus were relatively uneventful. Once again Oran discovered his brain worked at a whole different level than Pope's had. He picked up new information quickly and had total recall of what he learned. He was able to see connections and recognize patterns in a way that was almost scary. And math was like breathing for him.

While he did not have the same skill with noticing social phenomena, he was still able to see he was drawing a lot of attention that morning, from classmates and teachers. Even random people in the halls seemed to stop and stare. The odd thing was no one was speaking to him, not even his supposed friends. People would turn away if he made eye contact. One kid even flinched when Oran nodded in greeting. Take down one thug, and suddenly I'm the new boogie man?

Kirstin was waiting for him at the cafe entrance. "Hey!" She grabbed onto is arm. "Can I sit with you today?"

"Um...sure?" he answered uncertainly. In theory he knew lunch room seating was a big deal, he just had no idea how that worked in reality. "You want to sit alone or is it ok to sit with the others?" Memories showed that while she had never abused his little band of outcasts, she had been present when Noreen had.

"We can sit with your friends," she allowed. He shrugged and led her though the line. Hester and Alex queued quietly behind them.

"Hey Hester," his sister greeted. "I loved your comment in Film. I guess I never thought of Star Wars as a western. But Han Solo is absolutely a Clint Eastwood knock off."

Oran almost protested. The very idea! But held off when Hester started defending her argument.

"Not a knock off," the shy Korean girl replied. "He just has a lot of similarities to his Man with no Name character from the spaghetti westerns. I mean he even wears a vest and a fast draw rig."

"Does that make Chewbacca Tonto?" Alex tried to joke, but both girls looked at him until he shut up. The tall teen looked to Oran in confusion, but the old man in a teen's body just shrugged, offering no answer.

Once through the line the four made their way to an out of the way table which Alona was holding for them. She had her tablet open to what looked like a page of complex equations. Oran thought he recognized variations on Bellman equation or possibly Markov decision processes. While he was a genius, Alona was the true mathematical prodigy of the school. She looked up as they started sitting down. When she noticed Kirstin she let out a small "eep" then turned back to her pad, ignoring her half-eaten chicken salad and avoiding the popular girl.

"Hi," Kirstin tried, to no avail. She shrugged and continued her conversation with Hester, which had evolved to a discussion of how superheroes are portrayed in movies. Real super actors versus special effects. Oran and Alex followed along without interposing themselves.

"Kirstin!" Noreen's voice came from just over Oran's shoulder. "How did you know I wanted to talk with your brother?"

Oran almost spun in his seat to look at the girl. Why does she want to talk with me? Noreen Mooar was almost the platonic ideal of a high school queen bee. The daughter of a hedge fund owner and an Assistant District Attorney, she was highly intelligent, verbally adept, and socially advanced. Her looks came from a lucky combination of incredible genes, unlimited money, and youthful vigor. She was also one of the better students in the school, near the top in almost all her classes. Her tragic flaw seemed to be that she felt it necessary to tear others down to secure her place on top of the social scene. She had a history of picking on Oran's group in particular because each was better than her in their preferred academic field.