Chapter 10
Riley was being very irritating on her first
day of school. Not that she was behaving any differently from the
day before, but Aerlid was finding her usual behaviour very
unsettling. She didn’t seem to appreciate his hurry. He stuffed her
into her hat and new clothes, then she went and got changed into
her usual all black attire. He changed her back and had to hold her
forcibly at the table and watch her eat her breakfast. That done,
he asked what had happened to her brand new backpack and lunch he’d
made her. She had shrugged.
Finally, with Aerlid looking more than a bit
harried, they were out the door, which was locked so Riley couldn’t
go back in.
She waited, completely calm and unruffled,
while Aerlid checked her over. He was very nervous about her first
day. It would help if she was a little bit too.
He took her hand- holding tight so she
couldn’t escape, and they began walking towards the school. He
explained to her again she was to listen to the teacher, that she
was to wait at the school for him to pick her up, that she was to
be gentle with the other children and so on…
When they arrived Riley’s interest perked
up. The school was a double story building with a low fence around
it. Other children and their parents were gathered in the dirt
yard. Most looked older than Riley. She smiled up at Aerlid. Aerlid
was feeling sick to his stomach. Would she be ok? Would she make
friends? What if they treated her…well, with the hat she didn’t
look
too
different. He looked at her little hatted head. He
dearly hoped she would be ok. He would have liked to stay with her
a bit longer but… The other parents were leaving, waving goodbye to
their children.
Riley was smiling. She didn’t seem upset or
concerned. Then again, she didn’t have much of an imagination.
Aerlid said goodbye, and wasn’t hurt that Riley said goodbye
cheerfully. She caught the expression on his face though and
carefully repeated his instructions to her. With some relief at
that, Aerlid left, though he loitered at the gate.
Riley waved at him before following the
other children to where some large two legs were gathered.
The children were splitting up, based on
height it looked to her (though it was in actual fact age). Names
were being called out and the groups were splitting up even
further. When her full fake name was called she was surprised. She
looked around and walked to her line. She was at the end, though
more small two legs (no- she must call them
children
) were
gathering behind her.
The names trickled off. Lines were heading
away. Hers began moving and she followed. They were led into the
building and along a corridor. Suddenly the line stopped, up ahead
there was a sound of a door opening. Then the line began moving
again. The wall to her left was black and there was a table in
front of it. Facing the table were rows of other tables and
chairs.
‘Ok everyone, take a seat! No shoving now,
there’s enough room for everyone.’
Riley was perhaps the only unhurried soul in
that room as the other children scrambled for seats next to their
friends, or seats that weren’t wobbly or seats that weren’t too
close to the front of the room.
Riley took a seat in the third row back. A
big boy stood in front of her. ‘Hey,
I
want that seat!’
Riley stood up and calmly looked for another
seat. The boy started in surprise. He had of course, expected to
get what he wanted, but not like
that
.
He sat down quietly while behind him Riley
was taking a seat on the other side of the room. She spent no more
time thinking about giving up her seat than the time taken for her
to do it.
When the seating was done a woman was left
standing alone at the front. It was to this lady Riley gave her
attention, because Aerlid had told her she was to listen and obey
this person. (If there had been two large two legs she might have
been confused and perhaps decided Aerlid meant her allegiance to
belong to the larger large two legs.)
‘Now, I am Ms Thrope, I will be your teacher
for the next five years.’ she cast her eyes over the class. ‘In
this class we have both gemengs and humans, I don’t want to see any
fighting because of it, understand?’ she said, her gaze sharp.
‘When I ask a question I expect a ‘yes, Ms Thrope’ or, ‘no, Ms
Thrope’. Understand?’
There was a chorus of ‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’
Riley joined in and was pleased she was behaving well.
‘Now, are we going to see any fighting?’
‘No, Ms Thrope.’
‘Very good. Now, keep your bags under your
desks, if you have them. No eating or drinking in class, and no
hats,’ she wasn’t looking at Riley as she said this but Riley was
the only one wearing a hat. ‘If you have a question, you raise your
hand. There is to be no talking while others are speaking. If you
need to use the bathroom, you raise your hand. Is this
understood?’
‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’
Riley joined in the chorus but at the same
time had her hand in the air, a distressed look on her face.
‘Yes? What is your name?’
‘Riley…Meilis, Ms Thrope.’she said, almost
forgetting the fake family name.
‘What is it, Riley?’
‘I have to keep my hat on, Ms Thrope.’
Ms Thrope was momentarily surprised but she
said, ‘Not in my class, now take it off.’
Riley paused, upset. Then she remembered
Aerlid had told her to obey the teacher, and that was Ms Thrope.
She took her hat off. As soon as it was off she wondered if she
might also remove her hair tie. Because were not the hat and tie
for the same purpose? She stowed her hat with her bag and thought
she would wait and see if Ms Thrope changed her mind about the hat.
If not, she would remove the tie. Deciding that, she beamed at the
teacher, who was once again momentarily surprised.
Ms Thrope explained how the day would be
split up, what they would be learning this year, what they were
expected to do for homework, supplies they were expected to bring
and so on.
The only paper in the classroom was in the
school’s books, which Ms Thrope explained were very precious. They
would learn to read from these during class. They would also learn
to write, though on the board, not on paper.
By the time this was all explained it was
time to go out for break. Ms Thrope instructed everyone to take
what they needed from their bags as the door would be locked during
break and they would not be allowed back in.
Before taking her things Riley approached Ms
Thrope behind her table (desk- apparently it was called a desk. It
wasn’t a table. It was different to a table in some as of yet
unexplained way). ‘Should I put my hat back on, fena?’
‘If you wish, it is sunny outside. But I
don’t want to see you wearing it inside again, understand?’
‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’ Riley said with glee.
‘And Riley, what is that word you use?’
‘What word, fena?’
‘That one, fena.’
Riley stared at Ms Thrope before replying,
‘it is for female’s stronger than me.’
‘Well, the gemengs outside Astar may talk
like that, but we don’t here. It would be best if you don’t use it.
Understand?’
Riley nodded, her face blank and
uninterested. Ms Thrope dismissed her and she practically skipped
back to her bag, where her hair tie and hat were stowed away for
all eternity. With her lunch in hand she then left with the other
children.
They were to have lunch around the back of
the school. It was a flat dirt rectangle, with straggly grass
trying to make some sort of ground cover.
Riley chose a spot and sat. The other
children were talking and laughing and running. Riley watched them,
but she was hungry and it was the designated eating time.
As she started eating her lunch the big boy
from before came and stood over her. ‘Gimme your lunch!’ he called,
sticking his hand out.
Riley, surprised, asked, ‘do you not have
any, fa?’
Once again the boy was startled, though not
as much as before. ‘I do. And I want yours!’
‘No, fa.’ Now that that was settled Riley
turned back to her meal.
The boy was still casting a shadow over her,
but this was of no concern to Riley. He did not register as a
possible threat to her, so what did she care where he stood? As
long as he wasn’t in danger himself; she was to protect the humans
after all.
‘Gimme your lunch NOW!’
The argument was in Riley’s mind done with.
There was no point in responding, so she didn’t.
The boy opened his mouth for another roar,
then stopped. ‘Are you human?’ he asked.
‘I am a gemeng.’ Riley replied promptly.
‘Then gimme your lunch or I’ll tell!’
‘No.’ she didn’t know what ‘tell’ meant. She
noted it, that was all.
The shadow disappeared and Riley calmly
continued her lunch, watching the other children chatting and
laughing.
Then the shadow reappeared, only this time
it was longer. Riley looked up and smiled, for it was Ms Thrope who
had freed her from the hat and tie. ‘Hello Ms Thrope.’ she said
brightly, for Aerlid had told her it was polite to greet people in
such a manner. Aerlid had also told her some things that could
follow that, such as ‘How are you today?’ and so on, but she felt
that that wasn’t necessary here as Riley had been with her all
day.
‘Riley,’ Ms Thrope said sternly. ‘Did you
hit Razra?’
The big boy was standing next to Ms Thrope
looking delighted. He wasn’t a devious enough boy to try and look
scared.
‘No.’
Riley replied so matter-of-factly Ms Thrope
believed her at once. Still, this was a serious issue and you
couldn’t just believe a gemeng that said ‘it wasn’t me’. ‘Really?’
Ms Thrope pressed, ‘Razra says you hit him. You’ll get in more
trouble if you lie.’
‘I did not hit him.’ then Riley added, ‘He
is a human. You have to be gentle with them.’ Riley looked up at Ms
Thrope earnestly, as if she was telling her something of great
importance. To Riley, she was.
Ms Thrope turned to look at Razra. ‘Did she
really hit you?’ She looked him over more carefully; he did not
look like a boy just pounced on by a gemeng.
Riley was eating again, the conversation
dealt with to her satisfaction.
Ms Thrope had been a teacher for some years
and had learned that just as it was important to punish gemengs for
hitting humans, it was just as important to make sure the human
children didn’t try and lie, or force a gemeng into a fight.
Despite what the human parents thought, the gemeng children were
rarely the ones to start trouble. They were all too aware of their
difference, and how the humans viewed them.
Despite this, Ms Thrope did not think
gemengs should go to school. The gemengs only ever joined the
military, and while humans who joined the military might be able to
think and reason and add more to the military than just their
muscle, the gemengs could not. So, why not just send them to the
military from the beginning and not waste valuable resources
schooling them? But the leaders thought this was best, and were
they not the most able of their society? If she was that
intelligent she would be part of the Council of Astar, not a
teacher. So while she firmly believed gemengs should not be
schooled, she just as firmly believed that she should follow the
policies of the council, in letter and spirit.
So it was that she looked at Razra sternly.
‘Well?’
He sighed. ‘No.’
She frowned severely at him. ‘Razra Lesian,
I’ll let you off with a warning, but if you falsely accuse one of
your colleagues again there will be consequences, understand?’
‘Yes, Ms Thrope.’ he sighed.
Ms Thrope left, to continue watching over
her charges from afar.
Razra continued standing over Riley. ‘Are
you a very strong gemeng?’ he asked shyly after a while.
Riley looked up at him. Razra had no idea
what to make of her. One of his brothers or sisters would be
screaming at him right now. Why wasn’t she upset?
Riley had to think about this and finally
said, ‘I’m not much stronger than a human, fa.’
This was an answer Razra should have
expected- if she was she wouldn’t be in Astar after all,
nonetheless, he was happy. ‘Can you breathe fire?’
‘No.’
‘Have you ever fought any humans?’ He was
thinking of the shows he saw- the theatre and once on the screen.
The current favourite was about a fighter pilot who crashed in the
middle of the Plains and had to get back to Astar using only his
wits and courage.
‘No.’ she frowned. ‘I have to take care of
you, fa.’ By you, Riley meant humans in general, but Razra
interpreted it as him specifically.
‘Really? So you’ll do what I say?’
‘No, fa.’ Riley replied, confused. Why did
the big boy think she would do that?
‘Why do you talk funny?’ Razra suddenly
said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘All those words. Fa, what’s a fa?’
‘It is a word for a male-‘
‘Are you going to be my bodyguard?’ he
interrupted.
‘What..?’
‘Is that what you call the person you
guard?’ Razra asked excitedly.
‘No…’ Riley replied, confused and wondering
if she should perhaps stop using fa as well as fena.
‘That’s so cool!’ Razra said, getting
excited. He sat down with a plomp and stuck out his hand. ‘I’m
Razra!’
Riley, pleased this was back on familiar
territory, shook his hand gravely. ‘My name is Riley.’
‘You can be my sidekick! We can fight
gemengs together! Have you seen Jeitar and Molozor?’
‘No…’ Riley was the one flummoxed now, while
Razra was blissfully unaware of it.
‘Did you see that show where Molozor saved
Jeitar from the evil gemeng who infiltrated Astar?’
‘No…?’
‘It was on last week at the CTA!’ To Riley
it sounded like ‘ceta!’