Blue Hearts of Mars (14 page)

Evidently, whoever had written the horrible accusations had done it while Craspo was inside the room. I felt bad being the one who showed it to him.

He regained his composure, somewhat, and turned around. He opened his mouth a few times, no sound escaping, and then finally, he found his voice. “Move along. You, all of you, get into class. The rest of you, get on your way. Class begins soon.” He motioned with his hands, making shooing and herding gestures respectively.

Mei was still fuming as she put her arm through mine and marched into class with me. Her chin was tilted up and she wore a haughty look on her face. If anyone said the wrong thing to her, they’d get a punch in the face. I’d seen that expression on Mei before.

Agatha came up behind me as we strode into the room and whispered, “I bet it was Hans.” I turned sharply and glared at her. She simpered at me but said nothing more.

Agatha was always finding a way to make trouble. She nodded a couple times as though to impress upon me the high probability that her accusation was correct, her huge, affected curls bouncing, their rainbow infused glaze glittering in the classroom lights. The girl honestly spent thousands on looking good. She passed us and went to her seat. Mei and I exchanged a glance before going to our own chairs.

Craspo went to the front of the room as the class finished filling up. He rummaged through a desk drawer and found a doorstop, with which he propped the door open. Back at his desk, he made a quick call to someone using the freestanding Gate on his desk, and soon a crew was outside, working on removing the black-marker words. Class officially began, but he just stood there, staring at us. Hans came in late and sat down behind me, smirking as he passed by. I returned his smirk with a glare, then caught Craspo studying Hans.

“Something keeping you from being on time, Hans?” Craspo asked, finally. I held my breath. Teachers usually didn’t challenge the upper classes, especially not Hans, whose father ran the Vantaa—he was the Prime Minister at the moment. The colony government was a parliamentary system. Each district had its representative. Hans’ father came from the richest district and the Parliament elected him to be the head. I didn’t know much about him except that my dad didn’t like him. He didn’t like much about the government of New Helsinki, period, but he said you just kept your head down, did your part and hopefully it would keep you out of trouble, because you can’t change anything, least of all government.

Craspo must have been feeling particularly pissed to say anything to Hans, who came late to class ninety percent of the time, to be honest.

If Hans was responsible for the words, he wouldn’t have showed up on time, and especially not early, because that would cast suspicion on him. And if he did it, he did it as much for me as for Craspo—to get back at me for blowing up at him in class that one day. I could feel my ears burning in rage as I put it all together, anger and shame coursing through me for having been partially responsible for starting this little escapade.

I turned in my seat to see how Hans took it. Today his blond hair was spiked into a thousand tiny needles like an old-school cartoon character. Honestly, the kid probably had a stylist living in their huge mansion with them. Every day it was something new. His eyes were outlined in black liner and he was wearing a set of retro-headphones, the big kind that hailed back to Earth rappers. His irises were a fluorescent green and he’d powdered his face into an almost deathly white. I scoffed inwardly as I studied him.

He gave Craspo a totally innocent look. “I was on an errand for my father.” Zounds. To invoke his father like that. I mean, wow. He obviously thought if he referenced the old man, Craspo would back down.

“Bring a holo-note with a signature. Have it on Wednesday,” Craspo said evenly, before glancing down at something on his Gate. I looked back at Hans.

His cheeks flared to a red that managed to be visible even with the white powder. His eyes flickered in my direction. I smiled and winked, then turned around in my seat.

You can’t fake a holo-note.

The rest of class was rough. Craspo kept stopping without warning while he stared into space absently. He’d shake his head a bit, then start going again. A few times he seemed to forget what he was saying and just kind of finished his sentence in a nonsensical mutter, with a kind of, “And that’s what I always knew it to be.” Which made no sense at all. It was like he was having a conversation with a voice in his brain, or someone who wasn’t there.

I wanted to go up and hug him and say, “Listen, dammit, even if you are an android, I know your heart is red. Don’t let anyone take away your sense of worth. You’re beautiful. More beautiful than any human could hope to be.” And he was. I mean, he wasn’t nearly as handsome as Hemingway. But he had these really green eyes and kind of luscious lips, if you thought about it. Sitting there, I blushed when it occurred to me. I normally hadn’t noticed because he’s my teacher. I shifted in my seat and sank lower, into it. Craspo looked young, too. Which may be what started the rumors in the first place. Many of the teachers were like Dr. Anika. They were older and they looked old. Loads of them used to be part of the scientists like my dad. When some of the positions they filled became obsolete, they decided to start the high school. Dr. Anika was the founder.

Anyway, Craspo was one of the more handsome and young-looking teachers. He had this narrow face and a thin, kind of pointy nose. His mouth was expressive and he smiled a lot when he was teaching. Sometimes I heard the girls muttering between themselves that they’d totally do him. Like they even knew what that meant. Ok, so maybe some of them did. And some of them probably would do anyone. And had. The thing is, I’d never thought of Craspo like that.

Class finally ended. The last few minutes felt like an entire month. Despite that, I hung back, sitting at my desk as everyone else filed out. Hans passed me and clipped my arm on purpose with his hip. He’s lucky I didn’t see him coming, otherwise I would have pushed my elbow ever-so-slightly out so that it got him in the crotch. Mei waited for me, but I motioned to her that I’d meet her in the cafeteria. She left in a huff, with her arms crossed irritably over her chest.

Everyone was gone. It was just Craspo and me in the room. He was at his desk, staring at the ground. You could have heard an ant whisper. I cleared my throat. He looked up, his eyes zeroing in on me.

“Class is over, Retta.” His voice sounded tired.

I got up and approached his desk. “I didn’t do it,” I said. Not that he suspected me. I just wanted to say it.

“I know,” he said. It took him a few seconds, but he finally met my gaze. “I never suspected you for a moment.”

There was something in his eyes, like respect or something. I’d never seen it before. Adults didn’t look at me like that.

I lingered there, in front of his desk, waiting, I guess, for him to say something else. “Do you think it was Hans?” I asked at last.

He lifted his chin a bit. “It wouldn’t do for me to discuss my suspicions with one of my students.”

I tried not to feel offended by that. He was right, after all. “Everyone knows it’s not true, I mean, I’m around them, you know. The other students. I hear what people think.”

“And what do you think, Retta?” His eyes narrowed. He was really curious, I could tell, and not just being pretentious.

“You know what I think, Dr. Craspo. I blew up at Hans, remember?”

He nodded and rested his elbows on his desk. Rubbing the corner of his eyes with his thumbs, he sighed. “Of course. I’ll never forget that.”

“It’s completely unfair, you know, how people are treating androids. How they have been treating androids, for so long. And I don’t care who knows I think that way, even though Dr. Anika told me to keep quiet about it. They can do what they want to me, for believing in equal rights. I look at androids and see myself in them. We’re the same.” It all came spilling out rapidly, before I could stop myself. I would have gone on longer, I think, if Craspo’s expression hadn’t stopped me. He was staring at me intently, listening like no other adult besides my dad ever listened. His green eyes seemed to glitter with appreciation. I almost thought I saw his bottom lip tremble slightly. There was a long silence. My heart suddenly began to race as though it knew before I even knew what I was about to say next. I whispered, “The rumors are true, aren’t they?”

Craspo ripped his gaze from mine and began studying his fingertips. The nails were smooth, pinkish and perfect, like Hemingway’s. He nodded slowly.

I leaned close to him so he’d look up at me. “Dr. Craspo, the hearts of androids are red, aren’t they? The blue thing, that’s just a lie to make humans continue to feel superior, to quell their fears.”

His green eyes studied mine. He opened his mouth to speak and that’s when I saw his
tell
. The flat tops of his bottom molars were black and they swirled with tiny pinpricks of light. “Of course it’s true, of course. I’ve been hiding from it for years. Moving from settlement to settlement. I’ve only been in New Helsinki for ten years. Already it’s too much. Already the rumors have begun. To continue hiding, I’ll need to leave soon. Or else let the truth come out.”

I nodded. “I was dating an android. He broke up with me because he says it’s not safe for me.”

Craspo gave me a sympathetic look. “It’s not. When humans find out things like that, it’s worse for the human than the android. Vile words on my classroom door are the least of my worries.”

“It still sucks,” I said.

He inclined his head in acknowledgment. “It does. But I can deal with it.”

I didn’t say anything. If dealing with it meant getting spacey and drifting off instead of teaching his class, then I had my doubts about that.

“Well, I better go to lunch. Mei is waiting for me.” I took a step toward the door before looking back at him.

There was an appeal in his face. He almost said something, but seemed to think better of it.

“I won’t give you away. Your secret is safe with me. I won’t be the one to spread any rumors or confirm them,” I said.

His pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded, the loose, black swatch of hair hanging over his forehead bouncing. I was struck again with how attractive he was and felt my cheeks burning. “Thank you, Retta.”

“No problem.”

I hurried out, trying to cool my embarrassment.

I’d managed to recover my composure by the time I got to the cafeteria. I stood at one end of the enormous room, searching, before I found Mei. She was sitting with a totally new crowd. Mei hated to be alone. She’d sit with her worst enemy if she had to, but she’d never tackle the gauntlet of lunch by herself.

I strode up to her, smiling. “Hey,” I said.

She hesitated before looking up at me, blinking a few times, pretending to be startled that someone was addressing her. “Oh, hello Retta.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were here.”

My smile vanished. The other girls with her giggled. Some of them were girls Mei and I usually made fun of together. Agatha was actually one of them and it was Agatha who muttered, “Machine-lover,” to one of the girls sitting opposite of Mei. The words stung. I couldn’t believe Agatha—stupid as she was—would dare say something so atrocious. Not that I loved androids, but that word—
machine
. It hit me like a granite slab to my face. I blinked.

The worst of it was the realization that Mei had been telling them about Hemingway.

Honestly, it didn’t surprise me. Mei had the worst temper. If there was someone who could get riled up over being shafted, even for ten minutes, it was Mei.

I stood there, feeling stupid, vulnerable, and very tall and exposed with all of them sitting down. I studied Mei. There was a wicked gleam in her black eyes as she glanced around at her new friends. Well. She could have them. I was better off alone anyway.

I turned on my heel, hugging my bag tightly to my side. “Keep them,” I hissed and walked away.

Things didn’t improve over the next three months.

Mei had stayed away for a week after the cafeteria thing and then came running back to me, because of course Agatha was awful and she always knew it, but Mei wanted to teach me a lesson. “You don’t ditch your friends,” as she put it. I had tried to explain at the time. It didn’t help, so I just ignored it. Let Mei be Mei.

I ran into Hemingway a few times and every time he stared at me with those swirling galaxies in his eyes, as though he could tell me what he was thinking with his gaze. We didn’t get back together or anything. So I went out with other guys, but none of them held my interest. There was something too mundane about dating guys you couldn’t be interested in.

When things didn’t change for me with Hemingway, I began watching the news with my dad. The protest incidences got worse. I kept waiting for an announcement from the government about new colonization efforts, but none came. Was the requisition we’d seen at Synlife just a joke? I started to wonder if I’d ever actually broken into the facility. I had the proof saved in my Link. It was real, it just seemed like a dream.

One night, Dad and I were watching the news together in the front room. We got along quite well when I wasn’t living in direct defiance to his will. The news was covering the problems with the demonstrations and other events surrounding the rights of androids.