Chapter III: Two Minds…
Waiting for the bus has to be the single most boring event of my entire life, it would be so simple for me to just teleport to the school. I know it's location, I know what it looks like, it would be no problem for me. Plus it would just be a whole lot faster, BUT that would blow my cover and I can't have Plasmids and Rapture being known to the world just yet. Okay this is a silly thing for me to be complaining over, but hey I'm still kind of sore that I had completely forgotten about America's system of education and government. Mother told me that it's possible for students to skip ahead to higher grades if they prove that the level that they are at is not benefiting them academically at all….
That was the greatest news that I have received since reaching the surface.
As I stood there, waiting for the bus to arrive, I got quite a few strange looks from other students. Most of them held just a bit of fear in their questioning gazes, I guess it has something to do with the fact that I'm 6 ft 11. I practically towered over every single surface dweller I came across. In Rapture, the only things that towered over me were the Big Daddies, who were all about seven feet tall…or taller.
I sighed as I felt the teenagers' stared on me and chose to just ignore them. I pulled out one of the books that I selected from mother's extensive library and took a sip of my coffee from the thermist that I brought with me (even though I didn't really need coffee to stay awake and alert, I found that I just enjoy the taste for some reason.) If there is one thing that I enjoy more than taking things apart and trying to put them back together, it's reading. The book I selected was titled 1984. It was a story revolving around a corrupt political cabinet that controls every aspect of people's lives. It was run by a man, or maybe simply a symbol created by the cabinet, simply called Big Brother. I won't bore you with all the details, but one quote that particularly sounded familiar to me was: "Big Brother is watching."
'Sounds very similar to mother's announcement over Rapture's intercoms: "Remember, Big Sister is always watching."
I had to wonder, did Andrew Ryan and my mother ever read these types of novels? They clearly show humans attempts to create a real life Utopia, only to fail from the simple fact that…we're human. I'll have to read these novels to learn what and what not to do. When the bus finally came I actually sighed in relief, the stares that I was receiving were starting to wear on my nerves.
I hurriedly got on the bus, although I did have to duck to avoid hitting my head on the bus doorway.
I walked on the bus and sat in the first empty seat I came across. Everyone was STILL sending me quizzical glances, why do humans have to be so curious?
Haven't these kiddies ever heard of the phrase curiosity killed the cat?
As the bus slowed to another stop to pick up other students, I didn't really spare any of them a second glance. They didn't really interest me at all-
"I don't want you sitting next to me!"
"Don't even think about it."
"No one likes you, ya freak…."
I raised an eyebrow at the insults being hurled and twirled around to find a pale skinned boy being pushed and rejected by the other kids. He wore glasses that weren't really big, they had rectangular frames and they balanced at the end of his nose; giving him the look of some sort of professor. He wore a black jacket with a white button up shirt underneath it, black dress pants with black dress shoes, and he had a backpack slung over his right shoulder. His dark brown hair was all messy and in disaray. He was tall for his age, nowhere near as tall as me, but tall none the less. He had little to no facial hair at all which made him look a lot younger than he probably actually was. His most noticeable feature however were his eyes…they were a friendly emerald color….
That or they use to be.
They still held some of their friendliness, but most of it was gone, replaced by a coldness that lacked any sort of care for anyone that they looked upon.
The boy scoffed at the girl who made the: "no one likes you", comment.
"…Wow, I can't believe you guys are actually stupid enough to have not figured it out yet: I don't give a flying fuck about your acceptance. You don't give me an ounce of respect. You actually think your words have an impact on me? How important do you think your words are?" The boy just let their words slide off of him like rain and walked up to the front of the bus and sat on the stairs leading to the exit of the bus.
"You're all a bunch of retards, I don't have time to gain your acceptance. There are more important things in life to worry about." I heard the boy whisper to himself.
These people were just asking for this guy to come and shoot up the school or something.
But to my surprise, I could sense no homicidal intent in his words. I have lived around insanity all my life, I can tell if a person is unstable or not, this boy was not unstable. He just…simply didn't care, it was like he had been treated this way all his life and it was just an everyday thing for him.
I decided that I was going to try and converse with the boy, maybe I can use this opportunity to try out my people skills.
"Um, do you need somewhere to sit? You can sit next to me if you like." I offered him politely. The other kids were giving my shocked, slightly disappointed looks. They weren't disappointed in me…but maybe disappointed in what was about to happen. He looked at me with those cold dark green eyes, eyes that seemed as if they were piercing through my very soul.
Ah, so he wanted a staring contest, eh?
I dropped my polite, innocent girl façade and gave him a cold sapphirey stare of my own. I gave him the same stare that had broken down my mother just a couple of days ago. I had even managed to scare away Splicers with it on some occasions.
The boy however continued to stare at me, the intensity of his stare not wavering at all. After about a couple of seconds he finally let out a small sigh.
"There is…something wrong with you."
I raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" I asked as innocently as possible. He just shook his head and sat next to me, reluctantly. He made sure that we wouldn't make the slightest physical contact, which was strange considering from what I have seen teenage boys always wanted to make physical contact with girls.
"Sooooo….what's your name?" I asked him in the most childish, innocent voice I could muster. He sighed quietly to himself but answered none the less.
"My name is Leo, Leo DeWitt." He said. I tilted my head to the side slightly, DeWitt…
"Hmm, that's a weird name."
Leo just scoffed. "Well, what's your name?" He asked in annoyance, I don't know why but getting on his nerves seemed fun in a way.
"My name is Eleanor Lamb." I answered proudly.
"HAH, what kind of name is Lamb? You looking to get sacrificed at an alter?"
"Hah, hah, nice one. Well, what kind of name is DeWitt? You certainly are not witty in the least, and what does the 'De' stand for? Depression?"
"WOW," Leo replied. "That…was messed up."
"Yeah, well you started it." I told him nonchalantly as I took a sip of coffee from my thermist. "You need to learn some manners." I told him in a scolding tone. Leo just reached for side of his backpack and took out a coffee cup with the word, Wawa, printed on it and took a sip from it.
"And you need to learn how to be quiet, you've ever seen the movie 'Silence Of The Lamb'? Learn it's message and be 'Silent, Lamb'." I chose to ignore for about a full minute and took another sip of my coffee.
"Hmmm? I'm sorry, I can't understand Twit."
"Grrrr, damn you're annoying."
"If the shoe fits…"
The rest of the bus ride to school went on like that, we would keep insulting each other's names and or appearances. The kids on the bus looked upon us with confused gazes, it was like they had never heard Leo speak before. After about a couple of minutes we finally arrived at school and all the kids quickly exited the bus. Leo had disappeared very quickly for some reason, probably trying to lose the 'annoyance.'
Good thing I can track him down by scent.
