Chapter T W E L V E : Right Under The Nose (Part 1)

6th November, Wednesday, 2239.

The day started out peacefully, at the always chaotic house with the even more incredibly chaotic members, with each of them not leaving their rooms and definitely not acknowledging my presence, and I am absolutely fine with that. I guess, the aftermath of yesterday is so thickly effective that it has continued its run, even on today.

Now that I come to think of it, yesterday was indeed full of events, and not to mention, one of which has adequately stroked the nerves, not only mine but others' as well, and might have happened to take place accidentally, yet on purpose.

Least, I have this much nous to jot things down!

I must have zoned out for a while, as I didn't realize when I have entered inside a multi, unless and until someone tapped on my shoulder from behind, while effectively intruding into my chain of thoughts forcibly.

A familiar vanilla smell constricts my nasal ways, not suffocating me, but in a way which if continued, may arise certain problems, which may or may not include something physical.

Picking up on the bizarre alluring vibe, I turn my head slowly towards my intruder, and to certify my strange reaction, I find Jay standing behind me with a straight face, as his deep eyes scrutinize mine curiously, making me nervous all over again.

I gulp unintentionally, and I'm sure as hell that it has been loud enough for him to hear.

He tilts his head to one side, as he swings his hand back and forth before me, slowly yet casually, like the recovery strokes of cilia, spruced out of a tiny protozoa. I don't get his gestures for the first few seconds, and the next moment, I repel off his body with wide eyes and a visible discomfort, as the realization of shamelessly sticking to his body dawns upon me, like a wave of thunder.

But the elevator being full, I get a push from behind, making me trip on my own and propel forward, and for Heaven's sake, I end up crushing against his chest.

With horror visibly written all over my face, I dare not to look up at first, but I can feel him going stiff underneath me, so mustering up some valor, I venture out to tilt my head up slowly, and to my surprise, I find him already staring at my way, with a mute shock swirling inside his wide eyes.

He turns his head away from me at once. Sensing the awkwardness, I try to get away from him, but again someone shoves my shoulder from behind like a repetitive repulsive force, pushing me closer to him, while the pressure of the mass keeps us transfixed together like that way.

Only now, I realize that he is like unusually tall, with me barely touching his shoulders, and I can tell, he's really buff and strong, as I can feel his slight stiff muscles from underneath his Blass.

And to my utter surprise, I feel this erratic thumping noises, coming off his chest. I look up at him, my hands crumpled on his chest, he does the same, and for a moment, I can only hear those noises and nothing else.

Realizing that we both are, indeed, staring at each other, we whip our heads away, at the same time, at the similar momenta.

I don't know how long we have stayed like that, nor when the door opened and closed, with people going in and out, but I'm only aware that, despite everything, the multi has remained the same packed as before for the way our positions have been consistent.

"Ain't you two gonna get off?"

Someone speaks from behind, in a seemingly impatient annoyed tone, startling me in the process, while penetrating through the thick awkwardness, and also taking us back to our senses.

I look at the screen at the panoramic ceiling where there's a big twenty, appearing in numerics, and so I realize that the multi has stopped now at the 20th floor, which means we are already at the Freshmen's Extent.

I get away from him in one swift embarrassed move, turn on my heels, and leave the multi in quick long paces, without turning back to him.

Is it some sort of my new hobby to run into predicaments on every freaking morn?!

I do really wonder!

*****

"Please keep your line, follow me, and keep your heads up and back straight, and try not to get lost," Dale speaks in his deep British accent, keeping up his superiority, and walks backwardly, while facing us and taking each step without even hesitating a tad bit.

The perks of being a biological machine!

"Yo, Elly-lily!" River perks up, as she catches up with me, while calling me out with that annoying nickname which she has managed to give me, in turn of giving up on that topic. And now I regret it.

I facepalm myself mentally, before looking at her way. "You know, I hate that name?"

"But I know, you love it, just can't say it with your own mouth," she quips, making me rub my temples.

"From when did you start being so observant? And FYI, I really hate the name," I retort.

"Oh hush it! You see, I can feel the dopamine surge, in every fucking cells in my both hemispheres, and I'm more than ready for this class," she speaks the last few words in a suppressed sharp tone, completely ignoring my complaint, and making a few heads turn to our way.

"But what is it?" She turns to me, while walking. "Why don't I sense any mere hint of excitement in you? Don't you have hormones? Or are they retarded?"

I jerk my head to the side, looking at her with sheer incredulity. "You realize, you're talking nonsense right now?"

"Maybe yeah," she shrugs. "I don't know, cause I'm hella excited!"

I tsk-tsk, while looking at her poor condition.

"Don't you wanna know, why I'm like, like..like having this premium moment, like really looking forward to this class?" She asks, with a glint in her big eyes.

"Don't bother telling," I reply, with a defeated sigh.

"So cold! I think, I'm gonna catch..."

"No, please don't say pneumonia," I interrupt her in the mid-sentence.

She gasp dramatically, placing a hand over her mouth. "How come you know what I was gonna say?"

"You just said that yesterday, remember?"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, she slings her arms around my shoulders, hugging me tightly, and also catching me off guard in the process. "I knew it the moment I saw you!"

I somehow manage to detach her from my body. "Know what?"

"That we're meant to be bestest friends!"

"Is that even a word?" I scoff.

"Oh yes, my dear Elly-lily!"

I don't response back and that also for two reasons:

1. Because if I keep on reacting to that weirdly creepy name, she'll never leave out the fun of taunting me: but if I restrain myself from doing so, not now, but after a certain time, she'll get bored and definitely give up on that.

2. Because I realize that we've come across a really different room, than the others I have seen before, or to be precise a large hall, which is around in shape of a large-crystal-glass ball. It seems like I've stepped inside a whole new dimension, for I can see the busy mechanical metropolis and its watchdog drones and copters up in the air, throughout the glass, though we're not even close to any side of this enormous building.

From insides, it's more like we're standing on a horizontal unequal chordal plane of the crystal sphere, and there can be seen abundance in vegetation, but only short fragile yet freshly accouched herbs and shrubs around the corners, with their tips standing on attention with such brave, as if they have been guarding this place from something unseen, for a long long time. Annoying Arthropod bots are circling around the wild nameless flowers in a casual yet mundane pattern, while there's this warm sweet smell lingering in the air, which effectively holds the authority to rinse out the day-long soreness of life in a heartbeat.

Across the one-third portion of the place, the green mat has deliberately been removed, and so underneath the chord, a vast brownness can be seen from there, as if we've been standing over a brown ocean, where instead of fishes or corals, there are roots and all the physiological processes going on.

Amidst this seemingly quiet arrangement, the only peculiar thing is the large tree, which has grown efficiently, just on the center of the sphere. If to measure in length, I can tell, it can compete with a pine, but it doesn't exactly resemble any celtic tree that I'm aware of, for its leaves are dark blue instead of green, which makes it to stand out, even without any effort.

But the wonders don't stop just there.

Encircling the trunk, a slipper shaped cylinder has crawled up patiently. And out of its countable cavity like hollow spaces, jelly like pouches has sneaked out, like the uninvited lumps of neoplasm.

Dale stops and turns towards us, right before the oval entrance to the peculiar tree tower, a small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Worthy of a first-seat premiere?" He chuckles bluntly with sheer contempt. "I know, right?"

"Narcissism unlocked ultra max pro," River scoffs beside me. "Don't you think so?"

In response, I shrug my shoulders.

"Anyway, I'll go on board with my jokes," she fusses.

"We are now standing right at the center of our school building. The sphere, you can see, is what we call Propocore, and this tree's like a lodestar of our Propocore, and we call it Groover Tower," he explains holding the entire attention to himself. "And it's where we are gonna have our SOC, Special Onco-Class."

His identity is still an incognito to me, and so I look quizzically at my blue haired friend, probably seeking for a plausible meaning of his last phrase.

"Yeah I know, you don't know all the pretty little secrets of this school," she sighs dramatically. "Dale is like our five-years senior, who applied for further research into this school, rather than going out to work under the CL, in the Chanteuse Research Hub, which the majority does. Cause boy, I guess, they rejected his grumpy ass for his crappy attitude, though I'm not sure."

That's interesting!

"But from what I've heard, he was like the real beauty with brain in his class. Guys envied him, girls went frenzy over him, and professors were all roses for him. Everyone took him as the future of CRH, but you see, not everything happens as we planned," she concludes with a prolonged sigh.

At that moment, the entrance to one of the 14 glass tunnels attached to the sphere surface, opens its crater as the shutter blades slide away in a circular motion, exposing another group, where a woman with frosty silver hair is on the lead, as she seems to be interacting with the group happily.

My eyes widen the moment I notice Jay amidst them, and realize that he has found me as well, for the way our gaze strikes intensely for only a brief moment, before I look away.

Her smile drops and the glint in her eyes whooshes away in a moment, as soon as her gaze falls over us, and within the split of the second, the jolly on her face gets replaced with something mournful, something hollow.

The air gets thickened with an unbelievable tension.

Dale breaks his gaze away, groans while looking at us, and subsequently runs a hand through his already back-brushed hair, before he mutters, "I'm so gonna give it to them in neck! How come they get our schedule crashed with Gyno?"

Getting over the initial discomfort and putting a brave face on, she turns to her group, as she speaks, "So this is the legendary Propocore, the one I've been telling you about just now, and this tree with blue leaves and those chambers..." She points towards the gelatinous pouches, before she continues, "...That's the Groover Tower!"

She flashes a warm generous smile towards her group.

"So let's not waste time here anymore, and move on to our class!"

Ignoring our presence completely as if we don't even exist, she advances towards the opposite entrance to the tower, and in moments, the entire group disappears behind it.

"Now that's what I call savage," River comments beside me, with an unusual smirk on her pretty face.

She's right though, and the look on Dale's face is way too priceless, so it's fun to watch anyway.

Shortly, one of the chambers up there in the tower, brightens up while radiating yellowish light around that corner, resembling the glowing bulb of a firefly, as if illuminating the cold bioluminescence in presence of oxygen.

So it does make me wonder what would have happened if all of the pouches start glowing together at night.

I bet it would make a beautiful lamp altogether.

Without wasting another moment over anymore procrastination, Dale stomps his way towards the entrance and places his left hand on a fine glass panel right beside the glass door, while spreading his six fingers separately with extra caution.

The even number of fingers on his left hand simply indicates that he is indeed a misfit for a Livonn, and a result of crooked variation, which is recorded as a dark abnormality and strictly prohibited in this robot world.

So I guess, this explains why he couldn't join the CRH.

In that lickety split, the panel blades slide apart, revealing a weird spiral shaped elevator, big enough to fit more people than all of us together.

The anomaly of the elevator itself probably has got us so blindfolded with awe that we didn't realize when Dale has paused to throw nasty glares at us.

"What's with the reaction?" He glowers. "Hurry up and get inside. 'Til I'm counting five!"

"Five....four..."

We rustle inside the elevator, like an intractable stampede of black stallions.

"...Three..."

Someone trips on his own, but recovers his steps just in time, saving himself from a big scratch.

"...Two..."

Lastly, it's Gray to join us, typically girdled by his own thoughts, as he ambles up to the elevator, as if all the serenity of this entire world has nestled on him.

"... One!" Dale scoffs, as he looks at the filled cabin, and steps inside himself.

The door closes, even before we know it, and the cabin starts to move up.

It's such a relief that I'm standing in the last row, so he can't see me, or else who would've known what stunt he would've pulled this time to get me all red.

Damnit! What am I even thinking!

The hoisting takes longer than I expected, and when we finally gets at our destination and the door opens, our eyes get dazzled for a split of a moment, as an unexpected beam greets us endearingly.

Getting over the daze, we step out of the glass cabin, and once again awe makes its way up to us, as I clearly hear those dumbfounded gushings.

The room is probably larger than all other classes that I've been so far, largely adorned with enormous glass cylinders on either sides, and specimen jars scattered around almost everywhere. And there are a few machines at the front, while the right frontal wall of this elliptical room is trimmed with countless lockers.

"What are you waiting for?" Dale snaps, taking us forcibly out of our bubble. "Quit getting coy and get out of there! Right. Now."

We squirm out of there as fast as possible, just like the way we got in, and keep tailing behind a overly pissed Dale.

When is he not pissed anyway!

As we move along, I notice the seemingly hollow cylinders.

I don't know what exactly I was expecting, but the fact that they're not hollow in any way possible, does get prominent with just one glance, as I curiously stare at the transparent glasses, enclosing those humanlike specimen inside, with some of their body parts finely cut out to show a tissue or organ more minutely:

Starting from areolar tissues to even the gonads and extra-gonadal portions- everything has been put out there.

More and less, all the figures have been out there in their naked glory, and a bizarre glint has been exuding off their faces, making them look extra oily....just like a porcelain doll.

A few body parts have been displayed separately inside those relatively smaller jars.

And after a good deal of observation, I realize that they all are already malignant body parts.

Altogether they can make a creepy gore showcase just fine, but the neat euthanization, slitting and storage are done so perfectly that it makes them appear less grotesque.

But the spookiness still lingers in the air, making me clutch onto the edge of my wine colored lab coat.

Are those real humans?

A shiver sprints past my entire being.

"You gotta be completely outta your nuts, dummy!"

I get startled, and turn back to find it's River who is giving me the look and trying to stifle her chuckles by force putting a smile on her lips.

Did I speak that out loud?

"Huh?"

"They're just dolls, dummy! Haven't you go through the prospectus yet?"

Her words reminds me of tab 299 of the school prospectus about the rules and regulations part of special classes.

Realization dawns upon me, and so I decide to let the curiosity go.

But the uneasiness still lingers, as I look back to one specimen with its eyeball out of the socket, before joining others at the front.

Dale is busy in putting those gigantic machines aside and making some arrangements, so it save us some space like a hall, while everyone has gathered around a corner like a condensed reverse triangular cotton candy.

River drags me along with her up to the front, while nudging others with her elbow and shoulder, and earning herself some nasty glares and a hushed string of profanities....perhaps.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!" She rants all the way up there, and giggling to herself mischievously.

Okay! I don't know if she's aware or not, but she is, indeed, embarrassing me, and also herself.

Even it would've been better if the ground tears apart and swallow me inside, which is unfortunately not gonna happen.

"Hey bluehead!" Someone calls out from behind. River halts abruptly.

Uh-oh! I'm having a bad feeling about this.

She finally leaves my hand alone, which I snatch away instantly.

Damn! She's got an iron hold!

She turns towards the source, and picking up on the hint, the crowd parts away, while making space for the presumable upcoming brawl in the process.

"You're quick!" The voice scoffs, and the challenging figure slowly strides up to my friend, walking away from the mass, as if taunting and mocking her with superiority.

"Do you think you own this place like the way you're bulldozing over here the way you like?"

It turns out that it's the same rich girl from yesterday, whom River has already pegged down for a beech faced brat.

Boy! I want to face palm myself so bad.

"Are you talking to me?" River exclaims with scorn.

"Yes, bitch! Is there any other single person with a fucking blue snot on their head?" The rich girl hisses out.

"Oopsie! My bad!" River taunts dramatically, while covering her mouth with her fingers. "I didn't get it, sorry, snothead!"

She shrugs her shoulder, making the rich girl go red with livid rage.

"And FYI, it's not blue snot over my head, it's called dye, in case you're not aware."

River blinks her eyes once and winks at her way. From the notorious smirk tugged on her lips, I can tell that she's been dying to have a go at that girl.

I sneak a glance towards Dale and watch him doing his work as if nothing is happening right now.

I guess, the Silencers have been activated, at a certain gap, so the fine glasses don't creak even from the slightest noise.

"You think, you're oversmart, bitch?" The rich girl gets closer to her, but River doesn't budge an inch from her spot, instead looks straight into her eyes.

"What if I am?"

"Big mistake!" The rich girl gets away from her, with a nasty smirk plastered on her heavily baked up face.

"Will see ya some other time, bluebitch! Whatcha saying, Matt?"

She leans on and places her left elbow on the shoulder of the fat boy from yesterday, who was taunting the innocent braid girl and later got told off for that.

"When have I not loved games, Luce?" He smirks.

She chuckles exuding an evil aura around her as if mocking everyone around her.

Now this is starting to get out  my nerves as well.

"You wanna play games with that bluebitch, Matty?" She chuckles again. "I never knew your standards have stooped that low!"

"Oh, like you don't know how I'm a sucker for apple bottoms, no matter however the color is!" The fat guy declares cockily.

I clench my teeth and my hands fist on their own.

"Do you have a death wish, Douglas?"

I look up, with rage having blurred my vision.

And the voice belongs to the last person I can think of, to hold out.

The smirk drops off his face. "Why the heck are you butting in here, Jackson? Mind your own business!"

"So you want me to report you to Hescott's office?" Gray crosses his arms and looks at the Matt guy, as a grave solemnity masks his usual nonchalance.

"What the fuck, man? Take the hint and walk away!"

Gray pushes his glasses up along the bridge of his nose with his index, before readjusting his gaze on the rich guy.

"Promoting racism, in the broad daylight,in presence of a whole pack of freshers, while standing within this school premises!" The usual signature smirk cracks on his lips, as he continues, "I guess, that would be enough to throw your stinky ass out of here!"

Matt approaches Gray with taunting pace, and stops right before his foot, while trying to intimidate him with his huge frame.

Gray scoffs looking at him.

"Hey Jackass! Are you tryna get your pants wet like old day?" Matt starts to chuckle wickedly. "Do I need to give you a reality, and make you run away to your momma?!"

He bursts into a fits of laughter.

Gray only scoffs in response, but I don't know why I feel like he is slowly getting hollow inside.

"What's all these commotion about?" Dale's voice grumbles, making us all turn to him in attention, as he stands there with his sleeves rolled up to his elbow, his hands on his hips and his brows twitched.

"And Mr. Douglas! What seems so funny to you? Mind to share your story with me as well?"

Matt doesn't say anything, and keeps his gaze drifted away from Dale's prying ones.

"Captain!" He turns his attention to Gray. "Brief me on what happened just now!"

From the corner of my eyes, I watch a victorious smirk growing wider on his face.

"Actually! Douglas wants to volunteer for Dostoch for the whole year, and I told him that I was thinking the same, and promised that I'd recommend him to you." Clearing his throat, he continues,"Hearing that he got overexcited, I guess. You see like when you get to see your dreams coming true, it stimulates the dopamine level in the brain, initiating those uncontrolled reward-motivated behaviors."

A few people stifle their laughter, and even River is trying hard to not laugh by covering her mouth with both hands, water prickling at the corners of her doe-eyes.

"It got out of hands in his case, I guess, so he couldn't help but laugh like that way." Gray smiles innocently. "He's not the one to blame here, dopamine is!"

I snicker subtly at this point.

River coughs, in order to contain her laughter, and the entire class does the same except Dale, Gray, and the Matt guy, who is being the butt of ridicule here.

Serves him right though!

"Ah, I haven't seen such an incredible pathological liar in ages! I'm telling you he's got real talent," River gushes beside me.

There's this one thing, I need to ask her.

No actually it's two.

"What's Dostoch?" I look down to her quizzically.

She snickers at that. "What you do at home? I bet, you haven't read the entire prospectus yet!"

I look away, with another prohibited 'what if' swirling inside my head.

"I was working," I tell her honestly.

"Oh sure you were!" She chuckles.

I guess, it's better as long as she doesn't get too close to me.

"It means our Matty boy's got cut himself a year package of being official lab rat," she explains, somehow putting a cease on her laughter.

"English please!"

"Ugh! You're so annoying, you know, right?"

I shrug.

"The thing is, special classes need a test object, on which the head can put the demo. Live expo it is, hunny!"

"Sounds like someone's in trouble knee-deep!"

"Hell yeah! I've heard from Blakey, the Dos had to do the majority work and following whatever asked for, even if it means to get naked in front of everyone," she concludes with a chuckle.

"Woah! That's some year package," I remark, while rubbing the back of my ear.

She chuckles beside me, ignoring the Dale's nasty glare to hush down the chaotic class.

"Are you alright?" I ask her sincerely.

"Boy! Why won't I?" She laughs it off.

"Then that's better," I mutter that part to myself, and look ahead as Dale declares Matt to be the Dostoch for this class.

"Congratulations, Mr. Douglas!" Dale pats his back, and this moment, his face is worth watching. He wants to get out of this mesh, but however he picks on a lead, Dale cuts him before he can even start.

Gosh! That's ridiculous!

My gaze inadvertently collides those intense hazel orbs, and for a moment, I just can't break it through.

Unknowingly, a grin appears on my face, which he surprisingly reciprocates back.

I guess, this is first time I'm grinning without Eric being the reason behind it.

At once, the cafeteria scene flashes right before my eyes.

And the smile drops at once.

The reason... I can't even explain!

©Shena