My Brother From Another Universe

3: Rats & Crackers

The lab is free when I get there so I introduce our fairly fun chemistry teacher, Mr. Trainor, and Travis to one another and explain to him how Travis got here. After Mr. Trainor is done hugging, congratulating, praising me and examining Travis, I help arrange the lab and put all the stray equipment in their rightful places— one of the reasons Mr. Trainor loves having me around, asides from the fact that he needs someone to talk to since he doesn't have any friends his age and lives with his problematic mother and pet, Billy the fat rat, whom he takes everywhere with him, even work. This is why he encourages me to stop by whenever I have a free period so he can feed me wisdom nuggets while watching me do his job of putting the lab in order. I don't mind though.

I wave hi to Billy who is casually munching on a cracker. It's against the rules to bring pets to work, but somehow Mr. Trainor gets away with it. Despite being socially apathetic, the man is an amazing teacher, a caring pet owner and has a great way with words; he can talk himself in and out of situations and is very good at convincing people— which explains why he hasn't gotten a query for bringing Billy to work regularly. All these qualities kind of make up for his void social life but it would be the perfect balance if he could channel the same energy into socializing properly with people, especially the ones his age.

It's weird how I know so much about him, but I blame it on all my free period I spend in this lab with him and Billy.

"So, I'm speaking to a live human from another universe?" Mr. Trainor asks excitedly, cutting me off from my thoughts.

"In the flesh," Travis confirms and I realize they've been having a conversation while I was in my own universe.

"What is the educational system like over there?"

"So far, I can say they are pretty much the same, except we don't have physical teachers but AI teachers that are programmed to monitor our academic lives; they track your attendance in school and your reputation as well to know if you're a bad boy, a diva or a bully, and of course, this counts for a percentage of your assessment. If you are on a sports team, the cheerleading squad, the drama club, the debate club, the science club or the green club, you earn yourself a higher percentage depending on your performance, and don't forget the AI is keeping accurate tabs too so you can't fool anyone.

"The AI is also programmed to detect cheating and impersonation during exams which seems to be its worst feature." We stare at Travis, digesting all this information on the educational system in the parallel universe. Even Mr. Trainor is shocked and that says a lot. I take notes down in my 'parallel journal' specially for information on Travis and his universe.

"That sounds so...futuristic," Mr. Trainor comments.

"Yeah, AI in our universe has not been used like that in our schools, yet. I think your universe is cool and very experimental," I say.

"Is it?" Travis asks sarcastically. "It's just annoying to me, especially since I don't like school. I just have to go because if I don't, I'd be labelled a rebel and won't get any allowance or food from the government."

"I hate it when the government tries to control the people in such ways." Mr. Trainor scrunches his nose and is about to say something else when his pet squeaks. "Hey, Billy, want another cracker?" and just like that his attention is diverted to his beloved rat as he feeds him a cracker and pats him.

While those two are sharing a cute pet-owner moment, I fill Travis in on things he needs to know about schooling in this universe as well as the rules around here so he doesn't get into detention—not like he would be around to serve the detention. He seems like a free spirited person, so he would most likely ignore the rules and do as he pleases. We get up to leave for our next class when the bell rings, saying goodbye to Mr. Trainor and Billy.