Part 5

Love is that splendid triggering of human vitality … the supreme activity which nature affords anyone for going out of himself toward someone else.

José Ortega y Gasset

High School

Like every day since Caelie attended preparation school, she was supposed to meet with Lex-ar right in front of the main gate. She had been feeling warm and nauseated since the day before, but she had an assessment today in Physics. Thus she could not afford to miss a day of school. She had wanted to go home immediately, and sent Lex-ar a quick message that they needed to leave at once. The school day was only half over but the teacher allowed her to leave early. And so, once the administrator learned that Caelie needed to come home, he had called for Lex-ar. Anyone in school knew that Lex-ar could be trusted to take her back to her home. Caelie hoped that when she got to the main gate, Lex-ar would be ready to leave.

Caelie arrived at the main gate and could not find Lex-ar. She sighed and sat down on the steps of the school and waited. Her frustration about the long test heightened when she saw Lex-ar finally emerge from the school with the popular girl Leera Leroy gazing up at him adoringly. Caelie's eyes narrowed at the sight. She waved at Lex-ar and motioned that she needed to leave. To that, Lex-ar waved back and held up his hand in a signal for patience.

She was burning, and she needed to go to bed. She missed her sheets and her pillows. All that Calie could think about was that Lex-ar could drop her off at her home and she could rest.

Caelie heaved a sign of impatience. She stood up. For a moment, the school whirled around her, and she was pretty sure that the planet moved under her feet. Caelie looked at Lex-ar and Leera from the distance and they became gray figures against the red haze. She really needed to go home. Caelie started towards them and stopped beside Lex-ar. She tapped him on the shoulder.

"Caelie, we'll leave in two minutes," Lex-ar told her. Caelie could see the mirth in his eyes, and recognized that he enjoyed the company of Leera.

Caelie bit her lip. Lex-ar did not have the responsibility of taking her home, true. In fact, it might have been easier to just send a message to her father and Gab-rel would certainly have sent someone to take her home at once. She had thought it would be a comfort to have Lex-ar take her home though. "Please, Lex-ar," she whispered.

"Caelie, give me just a minute," he insisted.

Caelie's gaze drifted to Leera, who had turned her brown eyes on her with a challenge. "Go sit on the steps, Caelie. He will be right with you."

She had been wanting to throw up for some time. Caelie wondered if Lex-ar would think it so bad of her if she threw up on Leera's pretty shoes.

"Caelie, that's fine right? We're just having some more grown-up conversation," Lex-ar told her.

If the sickness she felt did not break her, the words certainly did. Caelie suddenly felt as if blisters were growing on her skin. She was embarrassed by the words, and at the same time, hurt. "Don't worry, Lex-ar. I won't ever ride with you again!" She stomped away from the two and towards the school.

Lex-ar looked after Caelie in wonder. He had not expected her to be so short-tempered. Gab-rel's only child had always been sweet, if a little hard to handle. He had been with her since she was hours old. He knew her temperament, and it was the first time he had witnessed her react in this way.

He heard a single rocket touch down a few feet from him. Lex-ar turned and saw his close friend and neighbor, from the same block that he and Caelie lived, unstrapping his rocket from his chest. Mag-el grinned and walked over to him.

"What happened to Caelie?" Mag-el inquired as he looked after the girl who was leaving in a huff.

"Gone insane," Lex-ar shared. He turned away from Leera and scratched his head.

"She's mad at Lex-ar," Leera called out.

"I was going to take her home right after my conversation with Leera," Lex-ar continued.

If there was anyone else who would understand Caelie, it would be Mag-el. He had known Caelie since just after Lex-ar and Lion-ar left Gab-rel's home. It was even Mag-el's father who saved Caelie's life with the sustenance that Gab-rel needed to give Caelie as an infant. Lex-ar, Caelie and Mag-el were childhood friends, and thus became closer than siblings.

Mag-el laughed. He assessed the way that Caelie stood in front of the school. Her chin was raised in a rebellious tilt. "You are a brilliant student only in books, my friend!" Mag-el exclaimed.

Lex-ar said goodbye to Leera and walked with Mag-el towards their friend. "Come on, little girl. I'll take you home!" he called out.

To his utter horror, Caelie's lower lip trembled and tears filled her eyes. She turned and walked out into the quad. She sat down beside some of her friends from the same level that she belonged to.

Lex-ar shook his head. "Did she just ignore me?" He then noticed Mag-el staring at him oddly. "What?"

"This is ignorance at its finest. I will capture this in my memory so that I can save it in a projection disc for the future," responded Mag-el. "I'll meet you later."

Caelie, meanwhile, brooded with her friends. Voices were asking her, "Why aren't you with Lex-ar? Are you fighting?" She blocked everyone's voices. In truth, she barely understood most of them. She could hear throbbing in her ears. Barely above a whisper, she heard someone say, "Caelie, look at your skin!" When she did, she registered the scarlet marks that have started to cover the expanse of it.

Someone from her table screamed. Caelie started to stand. She missed the support of the table and fell sideways. Next she knew, she hit the ground and her cheek was abraded with the rough surface.

"Lex-ar!" someone called out.

Lex-ar was at that moment on his way into the school. When he heard the voice, he turned around. His eyes landed on the chaos surrounding the table where he had last seen Caelie. The next sight that he saw was of Mag-el dropping his bag on the ground and bursting into a run towards the crowd. Lex-ar felt several eyes on him, but he could not move. Mag-el vanished into the crowd, and Lex-ar's breath caught in his throat when his friend emerged with Caelie's still figure in his arms.

"Cael," Lex-ar breathed. He moved quickly towards Mag-el. However, Mag-el did not stop. As he passed by Lex-ar, Mag-el said curtly, "I'm taking her to the school nurse."

"She hasn't been feeling well since the morning—" Lex-ar heard from one of the people who were with Caelie at the table.

"She was going to go home. She should have. Don't know why she decided to stay—"

"The administrator thought she was on her way home—"

"—stubborn girl—"

Lex-ar was frozen on the spot. It seemed minutes later that he shook himself out of the trance. Lex-ar ran to the nurse's office. He stopped just outside where Mag-el was pacing.

"It's Scarlet Jungle fever," Mag-el explained. "The nurse is seeing to her. Did you know that she went to the Scarlet Jungle while school was out this weekend?"

"No," Lex-ar answered immediately. "If I'd known I would have locked her in her room." Even as he said it, he felt extremely guilty. In truth, he would not have known if she planned to do it anyway. Leera had sent him a message that she needed help with installing a telescope she was given, and he had ridden to her home to help out.

Mag-el nodded. "I have to speak with my father. The Council is taking too much time from a retired man. With the Science Council always requesting for Gab-rel's assistance, Gab-rel has not had much chance to supervise his daughter these days." Mag-el glanced at the great clock. "What would she even do in the Scarlet Jungle?"

Lex-ar knew, but he hesitated to tell Mag-el. Knowing that she had been wondering about the Scarlet Jungle for some time, and researching the fauna that hid under the red leaves, should have screamed to him that she would try something like this one time or another.

When the door opened, Lex-ar looked up. The nurse looked at the two of them and smiled. Actually, at Mag-el, she beamed.

"Young men, you will be pleased to know that your friend will be fine. I have completely removed the virus from her system. Thanks to young Mag-el, who was so quick and strong, she will be fully recovered soon."

Lex-ar breathed a sigh a relief. "Can I take her home now?"

"Not yet. And Mag-el, I have informed the administrator that you may not attend your classes yet. I need to isolate you and Caelie in the room for four hours. We cannot allow the other students to come into contact with the two of you to prevent the virus from spreading. I hope that will be okay?"

Lex-ar watched Mag-el's reaction. His friend hated being stuck anywhere. It was the reason that the House of El has only a lunar cycle ago perfected the best rocket for Mag-el.

"Four hours with Caelie Gab-rel?" Mag-el grinned. "Doesn't sound bad at all." He clapped Lex-ar on the back. "Have fun in class. And don't wait for us. I'll make sure to take her home."

Lex-ar waited until Mag-el stepped in. The nurse smiled at him. "Going to your class then?"

"In a few minutes," he told the nurse.

The nurse closed the door after her. Lex-ar settled on the floor across the nurse's door and leaned his back against the cold wall. He had been remiss in his responsibility, and he was ashamed of himself. He had assigned himself to be her protector at the very second that his father hauled him to the House of Rel fourteen years ago. When Lion-ar saved her life by bringing the El invention, Lex-ar had convinced himself that he would always be there when she needed him.

It would take a long time to make this up to Caelie. He would make sure that she would not go back to dangerous places just to chase down her research stories. If she insisted, then he would be there breathing down her neck the entire time.

The El family may have invented her sustenance as a baby; the El family may have invented the laser instrument that the nurse used to get rid of the Scarlet Jungle virus; a son of the El family may have carried her to the nurse's clinic.

Lex-ar was going to make sure that he did everything else for her after that. He planned and plotted to become first place in Caelie's eyes. He knew her first.

When Caelie and Mag-el finally emerged from the nurse's office, laughing at the stories that occupied the past four hours, they saw Lex-ar slumped on the floor across from them, sleeping.

"I suppose he's waiting to take you home," Mag-el said lightly.

Caelie bit her lip, and a hint of a smile touched her face. She squeezed Mag-el's arm and walked over to kneel beside her best friend. "Lex-ar," she whispered as she shook his arm. "Lex-ar."

Lex-ar awoke to the soft voice. He opened his eyes and saw her gazing earnestly at him. He pushed her flaming red hair back and tucked it behind her ear. "You okay now, Cael?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she assured him. "But I really want to go home."

He nodded and pulled himself up. "I'll take you." Lex-ar wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Caelie."

She leaned her head against his shoulder and turned to Mag-el. "See you tomorrow, Mag."

Mag-el waved at the two of them. When he met Lex-ar's eyes, he nodded once. "Fly safe.
"

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

-J. Krishnamurti