The one who laughs last

Chapter 7

It had always been a part of her subconsious, ubiquituous and yet barely noticeable among the sea of information that Julia was constantly battered with. And yet, if she paid attention, she could hear the word spreading from mouth to ear, using whispers as a method of transportation. It was always the carekeepers at Poesin who said it, not the students. Because, sometimes, things happened around her. Shadows no one else could see, water boiling, strange lights that nearly blinded her. These things didn't happen often, but they happened with enough consistency for them to become a part of her. However, they were balanced out by her generic personality, and Julia realized that if she treated them as normal, they would fade into the background, less important than so-and-so's birthday party. Rather then making Julia stand out, they reinforced her normalicry, an idiosyncrasy only Julia's among a sea of people who were all different from each other. It was her individuality that made her the same as everyone else.

However, this was only with the children's point of view. With the adults, her conversations with nobody were the reason for the whispers, the reason "Manteío" seemed so familiar. It was strange, how some events could gather a whole different shade of meaning depending on the person. Before they had left, a carekeeper had explained how the opening ceremony would be a little... different for her, and how she wouldn't be assinged a sector at the stage.

She clipped the piece of plastic to her shirt and waited. This assembly was to welcome all the new kids infront of the rest of Usmere. Julia saw that three quarters of the audience were in the mining department or the medicine department, as those were the specialities of this city. All the kids from all the buses came to the front, and were finally given a packet that they would use for the rest of the year.

It was horribly dull to watch person after person being called to the front for nothing other than a packet, especially since the amount of people were three times those in the morning assembly. The names and faces faded together, lost meaning, and she soon fell into a trance. Julia reconstructed the rest of the day in her head. After this, they would go to their areas, and they would just be shown around. Everything inside the bundle of cloth they would be given today would be explained, and if they had time afternoon classes would happen. Afterwards, a few hours in the bedroom, and then sleep.

At last, Julia and the other girl (Sarah, they called her) were called up front. It was a lot more simple than they excpected, just a simple handing over, then leaving the auditorium. Marks of boredom had began to appear on the face of the person who stood at the front, as well as in the rest of the audience. Julia had once again dissapeared from the attention of the other's attention.

Mr. Somque led them out of the auditorium with the same solemn expression he led them in. They passed the same winding paths back to room B-5, and at last walked into a dead end. Mr. Somque continued walking, seemingly heading straight into the wall, but swerved at the last moment, and was gone. Mrs. Ambersalde did the same, leaving Julia, Sarah and Mr. Thernall. Sarah ran after the two adults, and disappeared. Mr. Thernall looked at Julia smiled shyly, and nearly walked into the wall, shortly before a clumsy turn.

Julia was left alone, and she tried to mimic what the others have done. She ran straight into the wall, then angrily tried to shift her movements before tripping over her feet. She stood up and tried it again, this time with a cleaner cut. She fell onto the wall. She stood up, swearing, then tried one last time, with all her concentration, walking at a moderate pace, then turning, and felt as if being sucked into something else.

It was like entering a whole new dimension other than the 3 most common. A feeling of being made out of air spread througout her body, and her feet moved autonomously in a diagonal direction. She tasted plaster in her mouth, and her body felt cramped and claustrophobic, yet still like an air bubble in a bowl of water. She walked out of the wall, and fell flat on her face. numbness had taken over her body, but she slowly regained her senses as she stood up.

The place where she ended up was completely different from the sterile environment where she left, and from the musky conditions near the mines. It was plain, yet it let out a feeling of warmth that went unreplicated elsewhere in Usmere. The walls were a dull orange-brown, the floor plaster. A few wooden doors at equal distances from each other marked the corridor, each with run-down plaques above them. The air tasted strange, recycled, almost. It begat gagging and the feeling of eating dirt.

She looked around, looking for everyone else. After five minutes of looking around, she met them again and proceeded to the rest of the day. It was uneventful, with no variation, but it gave Julia a sense of relaxation that could only be given by absolute boredom. At the end of the day, she lay on her bed next to Sarah, staring at the celing until she fell asleep.