Exceptional (8 page)

They walked down the stairs and through the kitchen, passing through the glass double doors that led to the backyard.  Luke’s mother used to spend hours outside during the warm weather, tending to the garden and keeping the area well maintained.  Now it was Asher’s job to take care of the backyard, but it didn’t look as grand.  A brick patio stretched out from the back of the house, covering a third of the backyard.  The rest of the yard was a sprawling garden, with stone paths that swirled and looped around, sometimes meeting each other at a crossroads.  There was also a fountain in the back corner, one that Luke had played in as a child.

    “It’s beautiful.” Ally approached a large pot with roses growing in it.  “We only have wild flowers back in the settlement, and our gardens are strictly for growing food.  Did your mother do all of this?”
   
       
Luke nodded.  “She used to spend most of her time out here, but recently she had been locked up in her office.”
   
       
“And why is that?” Ally stepped away from the roses and back toward him.
   
       
“I have no idea,” he answered honestly.
   
       
She turned and headed toward the end of the patio, twirling around as she stepped onto one of the dirt paths.  “You wanted to talk?”
   
       
He followed behind her, watching as she spun and skipped through the garden.  He could tell she was more alive outside, as if the fresh air and smell of flowers breathed life into her.  She stopped when they got to the fountain and sat down on a bench directly across from it.  He took a seat next to her and studied her for a moment.
   
       
“What?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.
   
       
“Nothing.  I’ve just never met anyone quite like you,” he said.
   
       
“Is that a bad thing?”
   
       
He shook his head quickly.  “No, not at all.  All the Exceptionals in the City, and even Ordinarys, always seem to be in a rush.  They always seem stressed, worried, and set on moving forward toward the next step in life.  You seem so free, willing to pause and enjoy the moment.”
   
       
Ally laughed, her head tilting up toward the sky as she did.  “I never thought I would find an Exceptional envious of my life.”  She paused, her gaze meeting his again.  “I almost volunteered to come to the city during the last gathering.”
   
       
“Really? Why?” he asked.  
   
       
She shrugged. “I never felt as though there was a future for me in the settlement.  I liked the City because it was an unknown.  Others volunteered, and it must be great if they never returned after their five-year contract is up.  Did you know that not one Ordinary has come back to our settlement since they started gathering volunteers?”
   
       
Luke tried to keep his expression steady.  “That’s interesting.  I never realized the City was such a big deal to those on the outside, but maybe it is because I grew up here.  What was your settlement like?”
   
       
“You would laugh if you saw it after having lived here your whole life.  The homes are much smaller than yours, and we live with one to two other families.  The settlements used to be neighborhoods with multiple homes but some have crumpled to the ground.  Because of this the placement of the homes is very sporadic, and they aren’t well maintained.  We receive electricity from the City, but no running water.  My brother and I spent most of our childhood in the woods, climbing trees and playing games.  That is something I really miss from the settlement.  Trees.”
   
       
Her cheeks turned a light pink.
   
       
“I shouldn’t talk about it so negatively though.  It really is a great place to be. I loved the freedom I had, being able to escape into the woods if I needed to get away.  The Ordinarys are great as well.  We were like one big family, each of us bringing our talents and interests together to work and live as one.”
   
       
He could tell she was battling inwardly with which place was the right for her, The City or her settlement.
   
       
“What would you be doing today if you were still in the settlement?”  he asked.
   
       
She bit her lower lip while she thought.  “Hmm.   It would be a workday, so I would be out in the woods, either gathering food or hunting.   We are assigned our jobs at fourteen, and then trained for one or two years before really getting involved.  My brother is a woodcutter, while my mother is a seamstress.”
   
       
“You’ve mentioned your brother before.  Is that the boy I saw in the woods with you?”  Luke thought back to the day he met Ally.  It had been just two afternoons prior to this one.
   
       
She nodded.  “Stosh.  He is my twin brother; and my best friend.”
   
       
“And your father?” Luke had noticed she omitted him from their conversation.
   
       
“I don’t know who he is, and he doesn’t know who I am either.  My mother said he was gone before she knew she was pregnant with my brother and me”
   
       
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
   
       
“It is what it is.”
   
       
“But doesn’t it make you mad?” Luke leaned toward her.
   
       
“Should it?” she responded.
   
       
“I think so.  It is okay to be angry and upset over something, even if you cannot change the outcome.  They are normal human emotions, and you should allow yourself to feel them.”
   
       
He was alluding to the fact that she could show some emotion in reaction to the events of the past couple of days, but he couldn’t find the words to say it outright.
   
       
Ally watched him for a minute, her jaw line tightening.  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
   
       
He shook his head.  “No.  When my mother gave birth to a son my father said there was no need for other children.”
   
       
“He sounds lovely”, she laughed.
     
      
“Look, Ally, there are some things I need to tell you…” Luke rubbed his clammy hands on his pants.  He had stalled long enough, and now he needed to come clean.
   
        
She rested her chin in her hands, watching him.
   
       
“In the woods, when I claimed you from the Guards, I wasn’t doing it to prove a point to them or just to save your life.” He started, taking a different direction than he had planned.  “I was truly interested in you from the moment I saw you.  I want to get to know you better, if you’ll give me a chance.”
   
       
Ally seemed surprised at his words, her green eyes growing wide.  She turned and stared at the fountain, bouncing her foot on the ground.  She finally opened her mouth to speak, but another voice called out in the garden.
   
       
“Luke!  Hey, Luke.”
   
        
“Pax,” he cursed under his breath.
   
       
“There you are.” Pax ran into the garden and grinned when he saw Luke and Ally sitting on the bench.  Luke hadn’t realized it before, but they were sitting rather close to each other.   He moved over a few inches and turned toward his best friend.  A moment later Maver slid up beside him.
   
       
“Luke,” Maver started.  “You need to come with us, now.”
   
       
“Why?”  He stood and stepped toward his friends.  “I’m kind of busy here.”
   
       
Pax laughed.  “We can see that.”
   
       
“Watch it,” Luke snapped.  “What is so important?”
   
       
Maver practically jumped beside them, his expression brimming with excitement.  
           
“Tighe has
challenged
you.”
   
       
“What!” Luke let out a frustrated groan.  “Today?  I’m not even at the Warehouse, isn’t this against the rules?”
   
       
Maver smirked.  “He didn’t do it officially.  He told us to come get you, making sure to add that a refusal would be cowardly.  We told him that you would come, and you would destroy him... again.”
   
       
Pax slapped Luke on the shoulder.  “Looks like any business you had with the Ordinary today is off.  You have a fight to win.”
   
       
Luke looked back at Ally, who was watching their interaction with curiosity.  He didn’t want to leave her, especially after she had started to open up to him, but he couldn’t risk his friends seeing him have a weak moment.  He had had more since Ally arrived than he had in the past year.  He hoped that what he said before Pax arrived had left some sort of good impression on her, and that she would start to trust him.  Without a word he turned his back to her and followed his friends out of the garden.

   
       
When Luke left Ally in the garden, she had spent almost an hour wandering the paths, wearing a nice pattern into the already packed down stones.  Luke’s words settled into her mind.  He was interested in
her
?  Back in the settlement, dating had never been something she considered.  A few of the boys her age had seemed interested, but she didn’t want to be tied down to any relationship.  Her mother’s previous relationship had done more harm than good, and Ally wasn’t sure she wanted to risk a similar fate.
     
      
But now that she was in the City, Luke had to come along and make her rethink her relationship expectations.  When he was near her, she felt electricity buzzing between them.  The way he looked at her and spoke to her was nothing like what she expected an Exceptional to be.  At least, until he was around his friends.  Then the cocky, stubborn side of him she saw back at the boundary line came back out.  She realized that it should probably bother her, but she found that it heightened her awareness of him.

She didn’t go inside until her stomach started to rumble, and even though it was well past breakfast, Mazzi gave her a banana and some toast to eat.  Afterward she went up to Luke’s room to use his TV since the other Ordinarys were out on errands.   She copied the steps she had seen Luke do just yesterday and after a few errors she was able to get a movie playing.

    Ally couldn’t read the titles or the covers of the movies she chose, so she had to come up with her own summaries.  She watched several love stories, which peaked her interest based on the inner battle she just experienced in the garden.  Back in the settlement love wasn’t regarded as serious as it was in these movies.  Marriage was important, and many married for love, but it was expected that everyone have a family to help better the community.  This meant that sometimes the Ordinarys in the settlement needed to marry someone they could easily get along with, rather than someone he or she loved.  Since Ally had tentatively planned on going to the City, love had been lost on her.  She didn’t know if Ordinarys in the City were allowed to marry, so she had given up that expectation early on.
   
       
But the love in these movies made the characters light up.  They ran through fields, danced around large rooms full of glamorous looking people, and even gazed at the stars from a blanket on a grassy hill.  The stories went on.  As Ally watched she couldn’t help but be reminded of Luke.  She hadn’t known him long at all, but she felt comfortable around him.  As if she had known him all her life, and was really just noticing him now.  He seemed to identify her as a person, not just an Ordinary.  Ally figured he just felt responsible for her, since it was not likely that an Exceptional would fall for an Ordinary.  Things like that only seemed to happen in the movies she was watching, and all this new world had left was reality.
   

THAT AFTERNOON ASHER finished his chores early and offered to teach Ally how to play the piano that sat in the foyer.  Every time she passed the large, glossy instrument she longed to run her fingers along it.  She wanted so badly to hear the music that Sabine said it made.  So when they sat down at the small bench behind it and Asher lifted the cover to keys, she quickly reached out and pressed one down.  A low note emitted from the back of the piano, echoing through the hall.

    Asher laughed at the amazed look on her face and showed her how to position her hands on the keys.  She pressed down several notes at once and winced at the unpleasant sound it made.
   
       
“It takes practice”, he said and put his own hands on the keys.  
   
       
Ally watched as his fingers glided across the keys, making a melody so perfect she started to sway back and forth.
   
       
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured, continuing to watch his hands.  She felt dampness on her cheeks and was surprised when she reached up and felt a tear on her cheek.  How many other things had she missed out on because of the virus?  Or maybe just because she’d been born an Ordinary.
   
       
The front door slammed open and Asher stopped playing immediately.   Ally peered around the side of the piano and her eyes locked with Luke.  He had dark circles under his eyes, and she could see his muscles tensed through his white shirt.  He started to climb the stairs and stopped at the railing that looked right over the piano.
   
       
“How’d it go?” She looked up at him, hoping this was the correct question to ask.  She wasn’t sure what exactly had he left her to do, but it had sounded important.
   
       
“I won.”  His voice sounded stiff.   He turned and stomped up the stairs.  She could hear him walk down the hall and slam his door behind him.
   
       
“I should go talk to him.” She started to stand but Asher grabbed her arm.   
   
       
“I wouldn’t.  He isn’t right after a fight.  The adrenaline does wacky things to an Exceptional.”
   
       
She took one last look at the stairway and nodded her head, placing her hands back on the piano.  “Okay, where were we?”