Harsh Lessons (26 page)

'Yes, Leeth.  Sex….  Sex should be earned through personal acts – things that make you like them better.  Things that show you what kind of person they are.'

'Well… okay.  I guess that makes sense.  But what about when you just want some sex, and don't
want
to know them as a person?'

'Leeth….’  Emma shut her eyes, wincing as if she was in pain, before opening them again.  ‘That's an advanced topic.  You'll need to ask the Doctor.  For this mission, just follow my advice, okay?'

'Okay.'  Leeth looked down at her clothes, then back up to Emma's eyes.  'I need to change, don't I?  Make it secret that I want sex?'

Emma nodded.  'Yes, Leeth.  Very secret.  It will help you fit in with the girls much better, I promise you.  And it's the girls you'll have to worry about.'

'I know, I studied some films.'

'Um, you do have a contraceptive implant, don't you?'

'Of course.'

Of course you do.

By the time Leeth had re-emerged, Emma had already re-planned her morning.  And the heavy brass padlock sat on the benchtop beside the girl's purse.

'Leeth.  Why did you have this in your bag?'

'It's my lucky padlock.'

Emma just quirked an eyebrow up, and waited.

'And I thought if I
did
have to hit someone, it'd help explain… stuff.'

'You shouldn't be planning how to explain how you can hit someone so hard, Leeth.  Let’s leave the padlock behind, hmm?'

Leeth had seemed to agree, and shyly welcomed the offer to make sure she knew how to navigate the rapid transit system to Oakland.  But as Emma locked the door behind them, she saw the padlock was gone from the benchtop.  She sighed.

At the Montgomery St BART station, not far from Emma’s apartment, she showed Leeth how to choose the right train, the right line, the different platforms; where to wave her credstick to pay the fare.  She even offered to escort Leeth to the school – feeling strangely like a mother planning to take her daughter to kindergarten for the first time.

But Leeth had said she'd be fine.

Emma had one final piece of advice.  'Remember: you need everyone to see you as just an ordinary girl.  So please, keep in mind that much of what you've seen in movies about teenagers is exaggerated or even just made up.  Don't do something you haven't see someone else do first, okay?'

So now Leeth approached the warm-colored brick building, enclosed behind its yellow stone fence on the leafy suburban street.  Adjusting her glasses, she remembered she hadn't set the frame color.  Focusing on her emerald-green skirt, she thought of a blue question mark.  'Okay glasses, action: set frame color.'  She took them off and held them against her over-long skirt.  Perfect!  Maybe Nelson wasn't so bad after all?

She slid them back on, passing a smiling young mother pushing her young son in a stroller. 
I'm outside!  And alone!
  The sun shining through the tree branches made her smile.  Three boys, arguing about how to encourage more immigration from Mexico, glanced approvingly at her as they walked by.  Though as soon as she was out of earshot – they
thought
– they started talking about how they wouldn't mind “doing her.”

Maybe her skirt wasn't too long after all?  Even if you couldn't see even her knees.

She came to the gate, a set of grilled bars that kind of reminded her of the Institute, except this entranceway had a camera and intercom set into the wall.  After a moment, introducing herself as Jane Baker, the lock clicked and she pushed through, and inside.

The grounds were green and lush, a well-kept lawn.  It was dotted with trees standing about like dignified old gentlemen, posing casually while knowing perfectly well how impressive they looked. 
Probably a hundred years old, at least
.  The building looked even nicer up close with the sunlight shining on it, and all at once she was sure this was going to be a great adventure.  She leaped up the front steps to the main doors.

'Whoah, d'ya see that, bro!'

Funt!
  Hunching her shoulders, she darted inside without looking back, but still listening….

'That chick, I swear, she just
flew
up the front steps…'

Damn it!
  That'd been really stupid.  She imagined Mother's sneer.  “Really, Leeth; less than ten seconds?  You did even worse than I expected.  I had bet Father you'd at least make it through the front door.”  Inside, a few people strode briskly about, but she could still hear the man outside telling his friends about “the flying chick.”  And their voices were getting closer!

She needed to change her appearance so they wouldn't recognize her.  She looked around, desperate.

There: restroom.

Ripping off the brown shoulder-length wig –
yeeow! –
she slammed through the door, throwing the hair into a bin under a sink.  Eyes watering – “I've woven it in so it won't come loose,” Emma had explained – she shimmied out of her skirt.  Thank goodness it was so long!  Turning it inside out so the charcoal gray lining was now on the outside, she slashed with her fingertips, then ripped it across its entire width, halving the length.  She quickly reset the color of her glasses.  The bottom half of her now ragged-edge mini-skirt followed the wig into the bin.

She had one leg lifted to step into her newly-adjusted clothing when a toilet flushed, and a man banged out from behind a row of doors just behind her.

Standing on one leg, her bum outlined by her ivory lace knickers, her eyes met his in the mirror.  For a second, neither spoke, then Leeth unfroze and finished stepping into her skirt, wriggling it up to sit on her hips. 

'Are you, like, transgender?'

'What!'

He raised his hands defensively, while his eyes checked out her behind and legs.  'Just sayin’ – this is the Gents, after all.'

Gents?
  That was for men; but shouldn't it have
said
that?  All there'd been was some stupid stick figure.  Something
else
everyone knew about?

She smiled at him: maybe that'd be enough?  'Sorry.  My mistake.  Bye!'

Pulling open the door leading back out into the corridor, she almost barreled into a boy reaching for the handle.  She pushed past him, and between the two immediately behind him.

He gaped at her.  'What the
fuck?'

Great.  Just… great.
  Amused calls followed her as she hurried along to the Admin Office, ears burning at the joking of the male, behind her – especially when the guy who'd been in the toilet stall emerged and joined them.

Ears aflame, Leeth pushed open the Admin door. 
Well, I guess things can't get any worse,
she reassured herself.  As for her ID photos – she'd just say she'd had her hair cut since then, if they asked.
 

Chapter 33 

'Class, I'd like to introduce Jane Baker.  She grew up on a farm, across the Bay over in Sonoma.  Jane, why don't you tell us something about yourself?'

Leeth tore her eyes from the crowd of over ten people in the room and glanced at the tall Nordic drama teacher.  Ms Sorensen smiled and nodded at her.  She turned back to the students.  Two of the men… boys were whispering: 'I don't know, man, she's the right height and build.'

She tried to ignore what they were saying, for the first time ever wishing she could shut off her super hearing.  'Hi, I'm Jane.  Mother and Father thought I might be good at acting, so here I am!'

In the third curving row of seats in the auditorium-slash-performance space, a regal, tall black woman leaned to the equally gorgeous red-haired girl on her left.  She, too, Leeth heard clearly.  'Mommy and Daddy sent lil Bobbi-Jane to learn how not to be a farm girl.'

The redhead giggled.  'And sum her slut-skirt – like some cheap knock-off Ferez faux-shred, only
crooked
.  I mean: what – she make it
herself
?'

Leeth resisted the urge to try to tug her ragged hem straighter, feeling her smile kind of curl up and die inside, even as she kept her expression happy.  'Uh, I haven't been off the farm much, so I hope you'll understand if I ask a lot of dumb questions.'  Thank goodness she and Emma had practiced a few possible conversations!

'Ooh!  Ding!  Bonus points: she's dumb, too!'  This time the queenly girl had spoken out of the side of her mouth to the –
eww!
– Altered girl on her right.  Who
was
stunning, though – if you could ignore the pointed ears, too-narrow chin and absurd cheekbones.  But she had
amazing
eyes.

All three girls giggled.

Leeth clenched her fists.  Knowing she wasn't allowed to kill them.

'Thank you, Jane.  Take a seat.  Perhaps next to Beth, Tara, and Ava there in the third row.  Tara, please make an effort to make Jane feel welcome.'

The three girls who’d just been making fun of her scowled.  The Altered girl, whose dramatic makeup made her enormous dark eyes look even larger, and who was dressed in black leathers like a heroine from Dark Slayers, flicked her fingers in a "come" gesture.  She didn't smile.

Leeth felt a bit uncomfortable at the idea of sitting next to an Altered. Uncle always said how awful the genetically-altered were, calling them mutants – at best.  But Emma had been surprisingly positive about them. 
Either way, she sure is pretty.
 

Leeth moved quickly from the stage area, trying to catch the girl's eye as she slid into the seat beside her.  But the girl didn't even glance her way.

She sneaked an envious peek at the girl's bust, which had to be something like a D cup.  Weird: the Altered were usually slender, trying for that whole “elven aesthetic.”  At that moment the busty girl flicked her head to the side, catching Leeth checking her out, and turned up her nose and looked away.

Great.

Bottling up a sigh, Leeth turned to the front, where Ms Sorensen cast an outline of the day's lesson plan onto the large projection surface.

'This morning we'll be doing some basic expressive movement exercises, imagination exercises – acting colors, strength, secrets – then some improv.  Then…'

Did she just say we were going to act
colors
?
Leeth looked around while the teacher continued.  No one else looked confused. 
Great
.  She wanted to put her head in her hands, but instead sat up straighter, concentrating like her life depended on it.  And thought the blue question mark.  A lot.

Along from her, she heard the gorgeous black woman snicker.  'Looks like Mousey's got competition for teacher's pet!'

Leeth just ignored her. 
Them
, rather, as the other two joined in.

'Okay, Jane, your turn.'

Leeth felt her insides squirm.  How had she been supposed to know that red was all about energy and explosions, and green was just growing things and stuff?  Shouldn't someone have written all that down somewhere?  She'd used her glasses to access wikipedia, but it'd been no help.

'-are you listening, Jane?'

'Uh, sorry Ms Sorensen.'

'I said, I want you to imagine you're hunting a creature.'

Leeth froze.  Tilting her head she examined the teacher's expression; then the class, who sat watching the exchange without much interest.  'Me?'

The woman nodded.

'Why me?  Why'd you pick
me
to hunt something invisible?'

'Imaginary, Jane.  Because you're new, and it's an easy exercise.  Easier than acting out raw concepts.'

Leeth shook her head.  And Ms Sorensen rolled her eyes.  'Come, Jane, stop behaving like a prima donna.  Get out here and act!'

Leeth reluctantly left her seat, stepping out into the huge, empty space to face all those people now staring at her.  Tara and her nasty friends studied her with amusement; a few with curiosity; but most of them just looked bored.  She pinned the teacher with a fierce stare.  'Not all invisible creatures are imaginary,' she hissed.

A stir went through the audience.

'Good!  Great start, Jane.  But I want you to do it without words, okay?'

Leeth closed her eyes, reached up behind her to shrug her bow from her shoulder, and passed it to her left hand.  With her right, she reached up and drew an arrow from her quiver.  Nocking it to the bowstring she angled the bow to keep it in place.

With one foot feeling the ground ahead of her, placing it to avoid tree roots, she inched silently forward.  Opening her eyes then, but keeping them unfocused, she scanned up and around, and began stalking through the Jungle: head turning slowly from side to side, ears pricked, alert for Her.

And the Hunt began.

Leeth lost herself in memory.  Re-imagining Mean Robo, and Her... but this time
both
attacked her, wrapping around her.  She exploded, dropping the useless bow and arrows to tear and claw deep into her invisible attackers, remembering the insubstantial wisps trying to slither from her grip as she screamed her hatred and defiance-

Panting, blinking, she slowly collected herself.  Remembered where she was.  And turned slightly, to face a room full of stunned faces and open mouths.

Tara dropped a mascara brush, the clatter loud in the ringing silence.

Ms Sorensen collected her wits first, and clapped.  'Bravo, Jane!  Very good indeed!  Though perhaps a little less histrionics there at the end.'

The door to the class crashed open, one of the other teachers striding in, the members of his class piling in behind.  'What's the matter – we heard screams!'

'Mr Beckman, this
is
a drama school.  Jane simply provided a little more drama than requested.'

Everyone was staring at her.  She felt herself flush. 
Good work, Leeth.  Fitting right in, behaving just like everyone else.
  Surely the day
had
to start getting better soon?  Plus she was starving now, too.

On cue, her stomach growled, loud enough for everyone to hear, which caused some laughter.

Leeth wanted to sink through the floor.