Chapter eleven: Telephone game
James was woken up by what he could assume was his new bunkmate shouting at the top of his lungs "boy I gotta piss like a race horse!" in a southern twang, and slamming the door behind him
"So you my bunkmate?" he said, half curious, half not giving a damn.
"Yea" said James, his head barely leaving the pillow
"So I assume, that I woke you up" he said without a hint of sarcasm
"Yea"
"You don't take nothing from anybody do you?" he asked. Something happened in James's mind, he wasn't James Tartoni, the younger brother of Tommy, he was his own person, and no one had any idea who he was. He was James Tartoni, best criminal driver in the state.
"No, I don't" he said, trying to sound as badass as he could, which was really apparently, which surprised him.
"And guess what, neither do I, so how about we just don't piss each other off alright?" he said, calling James's bluff.
"Sounds good to me" said James, sinking back into sleep.
It was six when the alarm went off, a simple deep rumbling beep, it went on for about two minutes, by which time James was thoroughly dressed and ready for what lie ahead. He put on a fresh shirt, it looked identical to the one he had one before, but this one had his last name on the back, followed by a j, James assumed it was because everyone dressed the same they'd need some way to identify an individual. Stepping out of the room he walked into the dorm's main hall, this was two meters wide, to one end was a door to the rest of the facility, to the other, three doors down, was the common room, which had a few people in it, as James was walking to the common, an announcement came on, the synthetic voice replicating a man in his late thirties.
"First meal in twenty minutes, repeat, first meal in twenty minutes" it sad, no emotion in it. With time to spare, James continued his walk to the commons, there he could see about a half dozen people his age hanging around, some talking, a few were watching TV, and one was sitting on his own. James, a regular outcast could immediately figure out who was who, and that experience let him know that the one sitting on his own was the weird one. The one that was a loner, all it meant to James was that his circle of friends would not include him, associating yourself with the loner made you a loner, no matter where you are, that rule applies. This was reinforced when James caught the loner about to introduce himself, James thought quickly and began walking over to the group talking.
"Kim, I will tell you one more time, I don't want to 'hang out' with you " said the first"we talked on the way here on the bus, that doesn't make us best friends" he continued, after he was done talking, he shouldered his way past James, before James could turn around to see who he was, Kim walked over, James took a glance, he was pale for Asian, had short cut hair, the kind of "short" hair cut some girls use. It was frizzled yet kept, he had glasses, which meant one of two things, he was wearing them because he had bad eyesight, which was doubtful, most things like that are genetically treated, which meant it was likely the second option, he wore them to look different, and to his credit, he pulled it off in spades, they were an old "modern" look, slightly rectangle with full thick rims painted black and not polished. James knew off the start that this guy was a geek.
"Uh...hi, name's Kim Sun, you?" he said, his accent was definitely Korean, his words were planned out, no mistakes in them, he said what he needed.
"James, James Tartoni, um, who was that you were talking to?" said James, getting the feeling that he was introducing himself to a loner, in which case all his hopes of not being a social outcast faded away.
"Oh, that was just Brandon he's really smart, like creepy smart, heard he went to the Adam hither academy of scholars and only guy here that hasn't been in a fight. Ok, so, you want to hang out?" he asked, again not tripping over words, although James got the feeling English was not his first language. "It's pretty hard to find people who don't just walk away; you know that some people here volunteered, like Brandon actually! Heard they get huge signing bonuses, like twenty grand!" he continued, ignorant to the fact that James had slowly began trying to back his way out of the conversation. "Oh you busy? That's ok, you know where to find me, actually, I'm in the dorm next to this one, we got green sleeves, we're called sigma, cool hey?" he said, already looking for someone else to pester.
Thankful to be rid of Kim, James set off in search of something to eat, it had been almost three days, the meal on the bus doesn't count because that consisted of two foods he hated, mustard and ham, combined the smell would have made him throw up if he had anything to throw up. The knot in his stomach was getting tighter by the minuet; soon he probably wouldn't be able to stand up. Fortunately, the smell of eggs led him right to the mess hall, by the time he go there were already people sitting down with others, talking as they ate, James practically ran to the counter to get some food, instead of a bunch of cooks he found a machine, sort of what you would find if you combined a cola fountain and a vending machine, grabbing a tray he placed it under the machine, nothing happened. Sighing, he put his identity bracelet under the scanner, and immediately, a small portion of scrambled egg, a small squirt of bland oatmeal, and a bar of protein enriched flavour also known as vat grown bacon, he grabbed a small cup and filled it with some odd smelling coffee, he got the feeling the poor selection of food was to keep everyone in line, grabbing his tray, he set off in search of a table. He spotted a table with only one person at it; he walked over and sat down.
James was halfway through his eggs before the thought occurred to him that there was someone else at the table, looking up from his tray he could tell without a doubt that he had somehow found the looser table, the person in front of him was definitely not a convict, if he had, it would be white collar for sure, he recognised the look of self loathing, the air of insecurity, and the sense that this kid had no friend, not one. The kid was poking at his food, trying to eat it, but just gave up before the fork skewered the food. James figured there was no harm in talking.
"So" he began, and immediately regretted it
"Hey" he said, his voice soft and meek, like his dog had just died, granted, in a place full of killers, academic freaks, and Kim, James could understand not having much to feel happy about.
"Right...well, names James...you?" said James, not sure if he was talking to a loner or a manic depressive.
"Ben" he said as he continued to prod at his now stone cold eggs.
"Well Ben...why are you here" said James, desperate to keep the conversation alive, a conversation that seemed to be on its death bed, crying out to god to smite it.
"I messed up" replied Ben
This was James's area of expertise, he figured that he could breathe some life into the struggling conversation "Oh, I know what you mean, trust me, we are on the same page" he said. With one of those used car salesmen approach to making friends, unnervingly friendly.
"Just leave me alone" said Ben, leaving his tray on the table as he walked away. Just as James was about to continue eating, Kim arrived.
"Oh hey, didn't see you there, wow, really hard to find people you know? With the whole outfit thing" he said, sitting down next to James "so how things been with you?"
James sighed, closed his eyes and tried to ignore Kim.
, it was a credit card, an insurance document, and a drivers licence all in one, and yet even with all those things, it still seemed to stick out, everyone had one, if you couldn't get your girlfriend the right gift, you could buy a scanner online and scan hers to see what she liked. It was just something more to go wrong in James's mind