Abnormalities in a Broken Society

Brewing Storms

We only had class two hours of the day, but it always felt so much longer. Lady Tess regularly managed to throw in a little bit of math, science, and English, but it always came back to the history of Abnormals. 

How horrible we are, what made us so horrible, how we can possibly be slightly less horrible. 

Today was about the genes that gave us our abilities, it was initially called something extremely scientific and hard to pronounce, but over the years it gained the nickname of the AGI-gene. I stared out of the window through most of the lesson, like always. My mind drifted to a world far from here, somewhere I could be free and not have to worry about anything. Some place where the bird's songs and the warm breeze could embrace me, making me feel safe. Somewhere that undeniably does not exist.

At the end of the lesson, we all stumbled out of the classroom, filing into the overcrowded hall. There were five classrooms in total each holding about twenty kids, which meant the full hundred were now rushing through the hallways trying to get to wherever they needed to be. After class it was chore time, each person having a personal schedule of what they needed to do every day. Today was shower cleaning duty for me, which wasn't that bad because I shared it with Olive. 

"Ah man! I can't believe I missed it. Seriously? It sounds so exciting!" Olive moped, looking genuinely sad that she had missed the fight. I awkwardly shifted my gaze to the torn, rough washcloth in my hands. I tried not to stretch too high as I scrubbed the wall, I didn't want to test the limits of the pain medication. 

"It wasn't exciting, it was brutal," I said, remembering the girl lying in a pool of her own blood. "There was literally blood all over her. She could have actually gotten seriously hurt." 

"Still, it beats boredom."

"I'd rather be bored than get hit in the face with a tray."

"Fair point." She laughed, dunking her own cloth into a bucket of brown, dirty water. "Besides the fight, how was your day?" 

"Fine." I answered, instantly feeling uncomfortable in the face of small talk. "and yours?"

"Well there wasn't a fight but, you know Mona Woods?"

"Yeah, never talked to her though."

"Well, she didn't show up for class today." Her words surprised me, I turned from the grubby wall I was scrubbing to stare at her. The punishment for missing class was usually a whole day without any food. "I know right! She must have balls of steel, or maybe she was just sick."

"No, she wasn't in the infirmary." 

"Balls of steal it is then." This made people around us turn around to stare, only making Olive laugh louder. I ignored it as I continued with my task. 

About an hour later I found myself in Doctor Miller's office. He had been given one of the old storage rooms, though he had cleaned it out very well. His desk only held a neat stack of papers, a wooden plate with his name engraved on it, and two ink expensive looking pens. Behind him was a glass cabinet showcasing a number of certificates, degrees, and awards. There was one window on the wall next to the desk, though it was slightly blurred out so impossible to see out of. I was sitting in the comfortable, brown chair in front of his desk, tapping my foot nervously. Doctor Miller had been writing furiously when I had walked in, he had looked up, smiled, and told me to sit down while he finished up something important. 

"Right." He finally said, picking up the papers and walking towards an iron cabinet next to the window. He pulled open one of the gray, iron drawers and placed the papers inside. "Sorry for making you wait so long, I have quite a lot of patients to get through so I barely have enough time to finish the paperwork after each session."