Julia Karr - XVI

“Wei Jenkins,” the teacher commanded, “sit down and be quiet.”

She saluted him. “Yes, sir, Mr. Haldewick.” Marching to the desk across from mine, she flashed me a smile and plopped down.

Mr. Haldewick rolled his eyes and sighed. He sat down, too, and shuffled through some papers.

“I see we have a new student.” Peering over antique glasses that pinched his nose into a point (they had to be for show; no one wore glasses anymore, unless they were tier one and couldn’t afford the correction surgery), he pointed me out. “You there.” He motioned to me. “Come up front and introduce yourself.”

I’d been dreading this. None of the other teachers I’d had so far bothered with this part. Everyone stared as I made my way down the aisle. I recognized three kids, but that was cold comfort. My mouth felt like I’d been on the Martian desert for a year, and I was sure my lips were stuck fast to my teeth.

I looked out over the class, managing a tiny wave. “I’m Nina Oberon.” Good, at least my lips were moving. With great effort I eked out, “I used to go to Granite Middle School. I just moved back to Chicago.”

Somehow, in spite of my jelly legs, I managed to get back to my desk and sit down without collapsing into a little pile of body parts. I wondered if I’d ever be able to swallow again.

“Oberon?” Wei leaned across the aisle. “Are you—”

“Miss Jenkins!” Haldewick’s salutation snapped us both to attention. “Quiet is the word. One more peep out of you and it’s off to Mrs. Marchant’s office.”

She gave him a thumbs-up. He didn’t look amused.

During the lecture on the Socialization of the Mars Colony in the Twenty-second Century (of all the luck, I got Health and Soch for homeroom), I noticed a tattoo on Wei’s wrist, right where the XVI was supposed to be. She’s probably fifteen , I thought. It was illegal to cover your XVI; it had to be a wash-off. Otherwise she’d be… well, I wasn’t sure what would happen to her. I hadn’t heard of anyone messing with their XVIs. Not since the incidents that made the underground blogs… One girl tried to burn hers off, and more than one girl bled to death after trying to slice it off with a razor blade. The Media reported the incidents as suicides; maybe they were.

Wei saw me staring and tapped her wrist with her rapido. Then I saw the XVI—right in the center, completely untouched by the intricate tattoo surrounding it. She winked at me.

I wanted to talk to her. There was something about her, the way she held herself, her attitude. And I had to know about her XVI. Maybe she was a Creative. I’d heard about Creatives inking around their tattoos; some of the higher-tiers in my art classes had talked about some places you could get it done, but I’d never seen anyone actually do it. Maybe after I got my designation… no, I’d never be able to afford a tat. That was just for upper-tiers.

The bell rang, and we all filed out of the classroom. I saw Sal hurry over to Wei as I got a drink at the fountain, but neither of them even glanced at me. I watched them leave together down the hall. I told myself the empty feeling in my stomach was hunger.

Mike, Derek, and I had lunch at Mickey’s Diner, a little café right next to the school. It was packed with students of all tiers. The only adults in sight were Mickey and his wife. Mickey’s took cafeteria credits and everyone would much rather stuff themselves with tempeh burgers and tofu fries than the watered-down, reconstituted TVP glop the school passed off as food.

We squeezed into a booth by the window just as its occupants were leaving.

“So this girl in my homeroom, Wei—”

“ She’s in your homeroom?” Derek said.

“You’re in for a wild year,” Mike added.

“Her tattoo,” I said. “How’d she get away with that?”

“The thistles aren’t touching the XVI,” Derek said.

“Thistles?”

“Yeah, after some archaic symbol is what I heard. She got it last spring. Some parents made a big deal about it, so government inspectors showed up. Since it didn’t interfere with a wrist scan, they couldn’t do anything. Besides, she’s a Creative, they can do almost anything. I think it’s cool.”

Mike gulped down the last of his food. “She’s upper tier—ten, I think.” He reached across the table. “Can I have the rest of your burger?”

“Sure.” Hoping to come across as nonchalant, I asked, “Is she Sal’s girlfriend?”

“I dunno.” Mike shrugged and chomped into the remaining burger.

“He showed up after class and they left together.”

Derek narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. “So what if she is?”

He was watching for some reaction from me. “No big deal. I just wondered.”

At that very moment Sal and Wei walked by the window. She noticed me and smiled—she had a really nice smile and I couldn’t help but return it. She said something to Sal as they passed. He looked over his shoulder at me and then turned back to Wei. As they walked away, I noticed they weren’t holding hands, not that it would’ve mattered if they had been.

The rest of the afternoon at school was uneventful. I saw a few more people I remembered from middle school, but I didn’t see Wei or Sal again. The rush of relief I felt when I saw Dee waiting on the corner surprised me. I hadn’t realized how worried I was about Ed until then. She was so excited about her first day at school that she chattered the entire way home and I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

After dinner Dee was arranging her text chips on the table when Pops asked, “Want some help with that?”

“Sure.” Dee scooted her chair close to his and pulled an AV viewer out of her backpack.

“What kind of homework do you have?” I asked.

“Regional History and…” She wrinkled her nose. “Math.”

“Pops is great with math. That’s why he’s an engineer.” I planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Newfangled way of doing it on this tiny little screen.” He retrieved his glasses from his pocket. “Think I can get close enough?” He touched his nose to the viewer and Dee laughed.

Hearing her laugh made my heart sing. I finished clearing off the dining-room table and was heading to my room to see if I could take some time to examine Dee’s baby book when I noticed Gran sitting on the sofa. She was dabbing at her eyes.

“You okay?”

“Here, dear.” She patted the cushion beside her. “I found this old album while I was unpacking.”

I recognized the worn red cover. “We used to look through this when I was little.” I snuggled in beside her on the couch. “There’s my father.” I pointed to a photo of a little boy wearing a black-and-red costume with a big E in the middle of it and a cape flowing behind him. “How old was he here?”

“He was nine. That’s his costume for Imagination Day. He wanted to destroy evil.” Gran’s eyes got all misty. “I should have known…”

“He was always the good guy, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.” Gran turned the page. “Here he is in high school, just about your age now, maybe a little older.”

In that picture even I could see how much we looked alike. Brown hair, parted on the same side, wide eyes, and a straight nose. “What’s he holding there?” I pointed to a medal in his hand.

“He’d just won a debate on Media influence and the erosion of free will. He was pro-citizen—his unfortunate rival was pro-Media.”

I could hear Ginnie’s voice in my head: Don’t ever believe what comes out of government sources. Find out the truth for yourself. Don’t be a Media sheep—promise me. I always promised. But still she taught me not to question things out loud in public—you never knew what would happen.