Living with the other street kids was a nice change of pace for me. Living
alone had been more difficult than I thought it would be and Zane and Line
made the new situation great. Line was a strong leader, fair and kind. She
would cheat the rules a little but she never played favorites. And Zane.
living with my brother was great. We had always been close, almost always
paired together, either in a marching line or in training. It was either
him or Lex.
It was still so weird to think that we would never have to do another marching line for the rest of our lives. It had been a year and I still had trouble remembering we weren't solders anymore, that I'm not just a twelve digit number that I'm a person with a name. A full name now.
I was given the street name of Riley, because I would get excited or "riled" up about little things. Things that were common thought to everyone would get me so excited.
The thing that helped with the change of mind was our appearances, we didn't look like soldiers anymore. My hair fell past my shoulders in thin golden strands. My eyes still could look dangerous but they were often hidden behind the soft gold of my hair.
Zane's jet black hair was thicker than mine, it was always shaggy and it bounced into his eyes. His eyes were amazing, always smiling, just like he was.
My smiles were much more rare.
It became a joke between us that we looked nothing alike. We still told people we were siblings but we were so different that people didn't always believe us. We didn't look alike. We didn't act alike, he was always laughing always caring, I was more sarcastic and more serious. And to some people we weren't siblings just close.
I learned that there are two kinds of family. Biological and then what the X5's had. I probably don't share a single gene with ANY of my unit but they're still my family. More so than any biological relation could ever pretend to be.
This does not mean that Zane and I never fought. We did. A lot. Both sparring and verbally. Usually we'd bicker about stupid stuff, he likes dogs and I like cats. But there was one topic we'd talk about that would cause huge issues. Zack.
Zack had found Tinga and Zane several days after the escape. He separated them but gave them both a contact phone and number. Tinga left Zane her number and he called her so they were in touch. And then when the Pulse happened, their phones were off so they were spared of the damage. And though the lines were down for a bit, phones were the first technology to come back after the Pulse.
And here lies the issue. I want to see Zack, to be contacted in case of emergency but if I call Zack, if I see Zack, he'll separate me and Zane.
The solution to this problem arrived suddenly one day. A girl, a couple years older than me with golden copper skin. Tinga.
Her foster family had taken a family vacation to San Jose and she asked if she could go see a foster brother for the day, they allowed it. So she came to see Zane.
She saw me and was so incredibly shocked. I knew Zane had been in contact with her but he apparently didn't tell Tinga about me. I was furious, he was keeping me a secret from my own family.
Tinga, like Zane, was not a soldier anymore. But she was much more forgiving about it. She had several conculsions to why I couldn't break the habit. The best was that I was an officer, not just a soldier. Zack, Eva, Van, Syl, me, and Jude had all done special training to be leaders.
But she told me that it was ok for me to be who I was, because that's who I am. Tinga's really smart like that.
She was smart and beautiful and kind. She had used money given to her by her foster parents to buy me my own cell phone. Then she gave me Zack's number.
"He will send you away." She said, "But you can be smarter than him and keep in touch with me and Zane. And then you keep spreading our contact stuff around to others you find. Zane forgot that rule, but you won't will you baby sister?"
I promised and in return of her gifts I gave her a coin I had found with a heart shaped hole in it. I put it on a necklace I had stolen and gave it to her.
"It's not much,"
She smiled her warm, rich smile, "It's amazing Jondy, thank you."
I blushed and kicked at the ground, I was poor and her family was rich. "Amazing? It's only a penny."
"It's not that Jondy. It's a gift from you, from your heart."
Tinga treasured that coin. She even adapted the name Penny instead of Tinga or her variation of it, Tina. When Zane asked her about the sudden name change, she winked at me. "Comes from the heart."
It was still so weird to think that we would never have to do another marching line for the rest of our lives. It had been a year and I still had trouble remembering we weren't solders anymore, that I'm not just a twelve digit number that I'm a person with a name. A full name now.
I was given the street name of Riley, because I would get excited or "riled" up about little things. Things that were common thought to everyone would get me so excited.
The thing that helped with the change of mind was our appearances, we didn't look like soldiers anymore. My hair fell past my shoulders in thin golden strands. My eyes still could look dangerous but they were often hidden behind the soft gold of my hair.
Zane's jet black hair was thicker than mine, it was always shaggy and it bounced into his eyes. His eyes were amazing, always smiling, just like he was.
My smiles were much more rare.
It became a joke between us that we looked nothing alike. We still told people we were siblings but we were so different that people didn't always believe us. We didn't look alike. We didn't act alike, he was always laughing always caring, I was more sarcastic and more serious. And to some people we weren't siblings just close.
I learned that there are two kinds of family. Biological and then what the X5's had. I probably don't share a single gene with ANY of my unit but they're still my family. More so than any biological relation could ever pretend to be.
This does not mean that Zane and I never fought. We did. A lot. Both sparring and verbally. Usually we'd bicker about stupid stuff, he likes dogs and I like cats. But there was one topic we'd talk about that would cause huge issues. Zack.
Zack had found Tinga and Zane several days after the escape. He separated them but gave them both a contact phone and number. Tinga left Zane her number and he called her so they were in touch. And then when the Pulse happened, their phones were off so they were spared of the damage. And though the lines were down for a bit, phones were the first technology to come back after the Pulse.
And here lies the issue. I want to see Zack, to be contacted in case of emergency but if I call Zack, if I see Zack, he'll separate me and Zane.
The solution to this problem arrived suddenly one day. A girl, a couple years older than me with golden copper skin. Tinga.
Her foster family had taken a family vacation to San Jose and she asked if she could go see a foster brother for the day, they allowed it. So she came to see Zane.
She saw me and was so incredibly shocked. I knew Zane had been in contact with her but he apparently didn't tell Tinga about me. I was furious, he was keeping me a secret from my own family.
Tinga, like Zane, was not a soldier anymore. But she was much more forgiving about it. She had several conculsions to why I couldn't break the habit. The best was that I was an officer, not just a soldier. Zack, Eva, Van, Syl, me, and Jude had all done special training to be leaders.
But she told me that it was ok for me to be who I was, because that's who I am. Tinga's really smart like that.
She was smart and beautiful and kind. She had used money given to her by her foster parents to buy me my own cell phone. Then she gave me Zack's number.
"He will send you away." She said, "But you can be smarter than him and keep in touch with me and Zane. And then you keep spreading our contact stuff around to others you find. Zane forgot that rule, but you won't will you baby sister?"
I promised and in return of her gifts I gave her a coin I had found with a heart shaped hole in it. I put it on a necklace I had stolen and gave it to her.
"It's not much,"
She smiled her warm, rich smile, "It's amazing Jondy, thank you."
I blushed and kicked at the ground, I was poor and her family was rich. "Amazing? It's only a penny."
"It's not that Jondy. It's a gift from you, from your heart."
Tinga treasured that coin. She even adapted the name Penny instead of Tinga or her variation of it, Tina. When Zane asked her about the sudden name change, she winked at me. "Comes from the heart."