3.5
Part 5
I rubbed at my forehead trying to physically work the headache underneath out of my skull.
"Right," I said breathing out. "Option one... I go home, tell Todd everything, hope he doesn't flip out too much, and try and sign me up for something I'm not entirely sure I want to be a part of."
"You think he would?" Taylor asked me, cluing in almost immediately.
"Why do you think I haven't told him?" I said with a half smiling grimace. "Don't get me wrong, Todd's an awesome brother but... he's a 'trust the system' kind of guy, and I am not up for taking marching orders." I took a slow breath, "I'm still working out how to you know... do all of this."
"I get that," she said sympathetically.
"So option two... walk back to class. Pretty sure I know how to keep the switch set to 'off' now, but... I did not see that coming. And if I didn't see that coming, what might I not see coming next?" I asked myself more then her.
She seemed a bit put off by that, "But you think you've got it under control?"
"For now," I agreed.
"Maybe if you explained-" she glanced around frowning.
I followed her gaze, she was peaking at the corner of the hall. "Someone there?" I asked warily. We hadn't say anything incriminating at least.
The walked over to check. I followed.
At the other end was... empty hall. Well there was the washrooms, but they'd have had to be pretty sneaky and fast to make it there in time.
Taylor hesitated, then shook her head, "Must have been my imagination."
I exhaled, trusting her judgement, "Just in case I think I'll hold off on that... so any ideas on option three? I'm on thin ice with my brother already."
"You can't just... not tell him and grit through the lecture?" she asked.
I shook my head, "Nah, he's... well, the Empire has tried recruiting once or twice. I've always turned them down, but if I start missing classes out of nowhere..."
"He's going to assume stuff," she followed my logic. "So you need an excuse... Fake sick?"
I grimaced, "he's good at spotting that. Tried it one to many times in grade school," I hadn't exactly been fine after moving in over here. Todd had helped me get over it by making me confront the world until I accepted that I couldn't hide from it.
He was good like that, even if I'd been pissed at him for years for it.
"What if..." she considered, "You weren't faking?" she asked.
I blinked, "What like... actually get sick?" I asked her. Then paused as I considered the implications of what she was saying, "You can do that?"
She nodded, "Not exactly fun but... I think I could do something that wouldn't be that dangerous. It'd hurt though, you could be down for a while."
I grimaced, "Not our best option. I think I'd rather risk class. No point buying time if I can't spend it."
"Then... Maybe I could be your alibi?" she asked. "Say you saved me from being jumped or something?"
That could work. "He might try to follow things up though. Like I said, he likes to trust the system. Calling in a false police report could get... troublesome."
Now as her time to grimace.
"Well... you think you can last the class?" she tried.
"Definitely," I said with more confidence now. Experimentally I brought a hand up over my face and concentrated.
The glow and my expanded perception at once lit up my world.
Then I stopped and the sensation dropped with it.
I closed one eye and opened my finger to show her the other one, "Am I?"
She realized what I was asking, "You're normal."
"Well that might be pushing it," I joked. Then took a breath. "Okay let's do this."
She seemed to relax as well, offering a small smile, "Don't worry. We'll figure this out."
"Guess we'll have to," still I found myself smiling back.
It was nice not to be in this mess alone.