Kill School: Slice (16 page)

I wake
in the morning to Vanessa’s voice. When I get up, I see everyone else is
already up. I go to my chair at the table and take a muffin and apple. No time
for dining hall food today. A piece of paper sticks out from under my plate. I
take it out and read my schedule. Biology is my first class, followed by grace.
Slice doesn’t appear until later in the week, the day after English and math.
Not too bad. I can digest my food.

Mateo peers at my schedule. “We’re in Bio together with
Vanessa and you’re in English with me. Awesome.”

I never expected to have regular classes at Kill School.

“I have to take algebra?” Demi whines.

“I’ll help you.” Shah says.

Demi and Shah touch finger across the table. I wish they
weren’t so lovey-dovey. It’s embarrassing.

“I can’t believe them,” I mumble.

“What are you, against love?” Mateo asks.

“Love?” I ask. Of course not.” I smirk. Love doesn’t happen
that fast.

I am aware that Burke has emerged from his bunk even
without looking in his direction.

“Good morning everyone,” Burke says.

I turn toward his voice and my mouth opens. He’s not
wearing a shirt. I’ve seen shirtless guys before. My brother. Kids in swim
class. At the lake. None of them has muscles like Burke. He stretches and
turns, so we can see his backside. He has a scar on his lower left side.

“Cat got your tongue?” Mateo asks.

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

Burke turns around. His muscles flex and relax with his
movements.

“Looks like you all have reviewed your schedules,” he says.
“You have a great day and I’ll see you at lunch.”

“I’m going to go shower,” I say.

I grab my bag and head of to the showers behind the cabin. A
dozen private stalls line the length of the cabin. I go inside and lock myself
in one of them. The stall has a seat and a cubby away from the showerhead. I
stash my towel and clean uniform there to turn on the water. The air is chill,
but the water is warm.

About half way through the shower, something lands on my
shoulder and crawls down my spine. I swat my rear and come back with the
longest, fattest, and hairiest centipede that I’ve ever seen in my palm. It
must have dropped in from the rafters. It grosses me out, so I flick it over
the door and rinse the mush off my hand.

A few seconds later, several more centipedes drop in my
hair. This time, I catch an arm by the wrist. Someone has been tossing them
over the shower door. The arm slips away from me, leaving me to get a mass of
bug parts out of my tangled hair. I curse the person who did this to me as I
rinse the remains from my hair and down the drain.

After I’m dressed and race to the front of the cabin, I see
Erwin on the porch with a bucket of creepy crawling things. My heart pounds
with anger as I approach him.

“I knew it was you,” I say.

I rip the bucket from his knees and dump the remaining bugs
on top of his head, bucket, and all. I push past him, into the cabin and hear
the clank of the bucket and wails. Serves him right.

“What’s wrong?” Burke asks. He is still shirtless.

A boy enters the cabin. “Erwin’s been hurt. She broke his
nose.” He points at me.

Crap.

Burke makes his way down the narrow lane between the table
and bunks, pushing the chairs as he approaches me. When he reaches me, he cocks
his head and presses his hand on the back of my neck.

“Out,” he says. “Let’s see what you did.”

Burke forces me outside to where some of the kids have
gathered around Erwin. Blood drips from his nose and down his chin. Several
bugs cover his hair and his shoulders. He looks like a regular mess.

“He did it to me first,” I say. My words come out sounding
pathetic, like I am some kind of six year old.

“What do you mean?” Burke asks.

I explain to him how I caught someone dumping centipedes on
me in the shower. While I talk, I see Mal cover his mouth. He’s snickering.

“I didn’t do it,” Erwin wails. Someone hands him a wet
towel and he wipes his face. “She broke my nose.”

When Erwin wipes his face, I notice he is wearing a rope
bracelet. His skin is more orange than the boy who dumped bugs on me.

“Pathetic,” Mal says.

I glare at Mal. It wasn’t Erwin. I made a mistake. Most of
the kids are glaring at me now.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble.

“Why don’t you all get out of here and go to class.” Burke shakes
his head, mutters, and enters the cabin again.

“You got some centipede in her hair,” Mal says. He sneers
and turns his back on me.

“Sore loser,” I say to Mal’s back. I see his shoulders
tighten, but he doesn’t turn around. I’m mad at myself for letting him get a
rise out of me. It makes me feel satisfied that I can get one out of him.

I grimace and glance at the bucket. I’m doubly angry with
him. I can’t clobber anyone else for the rest of the camp, or they’ll label me
as a pathetic troublemaker.

Mateo approaches. “Let’s go to biology,” he says. He
reaches for my elbow.

I’m grateful for his attention and walk past Erwin without
glancing at him. The truth is I don’t want to see the blood. His nose probably
isn’t broken, but I caused someone to bleed. It’s only my second day of camp
and I am already hurting people.

Vanessa, Mateo, and I tromp down the path toward campus. I
didn’t bring my cloak because I knew we would be inside for most of the
morning, so I am shivering and my hair is frozen by the time we reach campus.

The warm air puts me in a better mood. Biology is back in
the Kalstein Barstow Science Building. The three of us walk across campus,
Vanessa and Mateo bantering lightly with each other.

I notice a group of adults, one with a camera and a straw-haired
woman with a microphone and a visitor’s pass around her neck. They are
interviewing a tall man with a bunch of kids in different colored uniforms
behind him. News shows like to keep up with things we do here, especially during
the celebration games at the end of camp. I remind myself that Friday is
graduating day for a quarter of the kids here today.

“Do we get to go to the games?” Vanessa asks. She has her
eye on a strong looking boy shorter than most.

“He’s not your type,” Mateo says.

“You mean I’m not his type?” Vanessa asks.

Mateo puts his arm around Vanessa. “I’ll find you someone.
Don’t worry. You’ll help me, won’t you Aria?”

“Me?” I touch my hand to my cheek and widen my eyes. “I
can’t even find someone for myself.”

“Then, I’ll help both of you,” Mateo says.

“No thanks,” I say. “I want to get through camp without any
distractions. It is bad enough we have to learn how to kill. I don’t want to
learn how to love on top of it.”

We climb the steps and enter the science building just as a
bell rings across campus. The classroom is on the second floor. We follow a
dozen other kids up the steps and down the wide hall and enter the sterile
smelling room.

Instead of desks and chairs, five square blacktop counters
runs the width of the classroom. Faucets protrude from the counter and into
sinks below. Beakers and trays are laid out in sections, along with four sets
of stools for each counter.

 “Grab those two,” Mateo says as he sits in the first free
station. Vanessa and I sit on the stools, happy to be together.

Two quads enter the class, Jack and Matthew. More kids come
in that I recognize. Soon, the classroom is full except for the extra seat with
us.

The teacher enters the class from a door up front. His
round stomach presses against a cart as he pushes it to the front of the class.
A sheet covers a long lump on the cart.

“Good morning class,” he says as he pushes. “I am Professor
Hammerschmidt, your biology teacher for three short hours a week.”

Professor Hammerschmidt stands in front of his cart and
picks up a book that was resting on top of the sheet.

“This is our carefully structured Regulator approved
handbook. You only have twelve hours of instruction, so you better read it from
cover to cover. We have a lot to learn, so let’s get right to work.”

Professor Hammerschmidt whisks the sheet off the cart to
reveal a cadaver.

Some of the kids gasp, while others retch. I try not to do
either. In biology at school, we dissected frogs and grasshoppers. I’ve seen
people get killed and dead bodies lying on the ground. Most times, my parents
have been with me and have ushered me past the corpse. This time, I am stuck in
a room with it. I have a feeling I get to know that corpse inside and out.

The door in the back of the classroom creaks open and all
eyes turn in that direction. It seems as if none of us wants to look up front.
Erwin stands in the doorway with a bandage over his nose.

“Sorry I’m late,” Erwin says. “I was attacked.”

Matthew and Jack snort and chuckle under their breath.

“There’s one seat left,” Professor Hammerschmidt says. I
cringe as he points in our direction.

I don’t know what’s worse, having to sit next to Erwin or
near a corpse. Apparently, he feels the same way, because when he sees me he
stops in his tracks. He seems genuinely afraid of me this time. Part of me
feels sorry for him, but then I remember what a bully he was to me on the
Vactrain.

“Sit down young man, or would you like to be the first to
cut into Mr. Goodfellow here?” The professor points to the corpse on the cart.

Erwin pulls the stool to the far corner of the counter and
sits without glancing at any of us. I exchange looks with Vanessa and Mateo.

Mateo mouths, “Be nice.”

I shrug my shoulders and turn my attention to the corpse in
front of the room. The biology professor goes on about how important it is to
learn about internal organs, especially if we need to make them stop right
away. We are vulnerable. More vulnerable than I thought.

Professor Hammerschmidt points to the kidneys, the liver,
the stomach, the neck, the heart, inside the mouth and ears. He tells us we are
going to learn about each of these parts of the body. We will learn to respect
them, to honor their function. We will learn their strengths and weaknesses. He
talks about each organ as if it is his friend.

Finally, after an hour of droning on about body parts, he
instructs us to stand up.

“Come up here in your table groups,” Professor
Hammerschmidt says. “I want you to become familiar with him.”

As I approach the corpse, the smell of formaldehyde is
thick in the air. The corpse is a light-skinned man, average height, and build.
Thankfully, a cloth covers his privates and his face. When I reach the corpse,
the professor takes my hand and forces me to touch the chest, the inner thigh,
the stomach, and the neck. The body feels cold. I wonder how he died.

After class, Erwin and I get stuck together waiting for the
rest of the kids to leave through the door. His eyes have dark patches under
them. His nose is swollen.

“I’m sorry,” I say to Erwin.

He turns to me as if he’s shocked I’ve spoken, but doesn’t
say anything.

“I hate bugs,” I say. “I guess I was just more than a
little freaked out.”

He tilts his head a little. I’m ready for him to say
something ugly. He frowns and looks down at the ground.

“Centipedes, especially,” I continue. “They were all over
my hair. I squished several with my bare feet.”

A smile creeps up on Erwin’s lips.

“Someone got you good. I wish it was me.” He pulls my hair
and kicks me in my already-sore shin. “That is from me.” He sticks out his
tongue and runs of down the hall.

I am going to clobber that kid.

My next class is grace, which makes me happy. I loved
climbing up the pyramid of wood. I can’t wait to see what the next challenge is.
I am motivated to do a good job.

Grace
meets at the lake. I am excited because I think we are going to go ice-skating.
When I reach the lake, I am not happy to see Erwin and his friend Tane by the
shore. Demi and Shah stand next to Priyanka. At least my friends outnumber my
enemies. The rest of the kids are a mixture of different token colors from
different cabins.

Vladimir waves to me. He is wearing a furry hat and heavy
gloves.

“Welcome. Come over. We do something different today.”

Several dozen wooden boards rest at the base of the lake.
Each board is about three feet long, four inches thick, and six inches wide.
The boards resemble a filled-in canoe, curved with a tip at the point and rear.
Toward the front of each board is a T shaped bar about waist-high that looks as
if you could hold onto it. They look like old-fashioned hoverboards without the
hover capabilities. Next to the boards, dozens of L shaped sticks lie in the
snow.