Chapter 22 – Mistakenly Labeled

I open up my books and try to get some work done. The theoretical descriptions and clinical definitions of the five groupings flow before my eyes, but not a word is understood or obtained by my brain. My thoughts keep darting back to my room. What is he doing there now? Has he left or is he still there? Pam warned me about his anger issues, how will that affect the way my room will look when I get back there? A small part of me wonders if he’ll have eaten all the chips when I get back, and the thought makes me angry – he’s rude and ungrateful, and to imagine him just sitting on the bed, eating the chips I paid for with the money I should be saving for my escape… The other part of me wonders if I should have left the chocolate there – with how his father reacted to a few cokes it seems like such luxuries are only ever a conflict creator with him, and no one should be denied chocolate. I know that sounds all first worldly, but chocolate is an essential part of any diet.

How long will they search for him? How many weeks can we pull this off before they start taking other more drastic measures? They could easily just ‘arrest’ him in the morning and detain him until his treatments, or on Tuesday evening. The longer this drags on the more likely it becomes that he will have to go into hiding full time. Would he expect me to hide him all week long? Does he have anywhere else to hide? I look down at the book and force myself to read the sentence at the top of the chapter.

‘To understand the groupings one must first understand the gene’s development through time. Crossbreeding throughout time has let to some interesting outcomes, and the lines between the five groupings have blurred significantly.’ No shit Sherlock, the only time those groupings make sense is when you don’t think about them. Seriously, the Transporter classes are divided into those who can transport objects and those who transport themselves, I bet the Transformers are the same, so wouldn’t it make more sense to have the classes be object- vs self-based rather than transporter vs transformer based? And what exactly is up with the Unassigneds? The wolf girl was definitively a Transformer, her gift clearly could not be anything else, but they call her Unassigned because she doesn’t have control. Isn’t that something you learn though? Like, aren’t we all Unassigneds at first? You would never call a baby illiterate because they can’t read, you’d just say it’s a skill they haven’t yet obtained. I blink, and somehow forget to open my eyes again.

I raise my head from the books and look at the clock. It’s 7AM now, the search has to be over, classes will start soon, and people will be getting up or possibly heading for breakfast already. It should be safe to return now, and my neck is seriously getting stiff. I close the book and head up one floor to get a bite to eat. I grab a plate of eggs and bacon and dump myself into a seat by the South-West staircase. What do I do if he has to hide out all week long soon?

“Hey,” a small voice says behind me. “Can I join you?” I turn and see a young girl standing there with a tray and a hesitant smile. I have met her before, I just can’t quite place her.

“Sure.” I signal to the chair across from me.

“I just wanted to say thank you, for the help in class that day.” She’s not in my class… Sweater girl! She was from my first day here. Of course.

“No problem. Is everything going well with you?”

“Yes, absolutely. They transferred me to Nature, turns out I move the air, not the objects, I’m in 327 now, so that’s two classes above where I was in Transporting.”

“Wow, that was fast.”

“Well, the basic stuff was fairly easy since what I’ve been doing in Transporting is actually just next level Nature stuff, and the precision stuff isn’t too hard either, nothing like moving tiny pearls at least.”

“So being in the wrong class actually helped you?”

“Well, I did waster 7 years of my life learning things I had no way of doing correctly and feeling like a failure because I was in the wrong place, so it’s more like at least I don’t have to start completely over.”

“Oh, well, that’s always something.” 7 years wasted because of being labeled wrongly? That is insane – and how did they not catch it sooner? This is unbelievable. “Does this happen often? Someone ending up in the wrong grouping?”

“Well, not often often, but it happens. It’s usually caught earlier on though. They told me it was because I worked so hard to keep up that it was hard for them to notice that I didn’t belong, most misplacements are discovered within the first level or just as they transition to the second level, so in that way my case is unusual.”

“It must have taken a lot of work to stay on for that long.” I know how I feel just with my lessons and the library secessions, of course now that Pam is out sick I don’t have those lessons to worry about. Still, I cannot imagine the toll it would take on me if I had to keep up with a Nature class, just one lesson with Brody is enough to make me see that, Langdale or not.

“Hey, Lilli,” someone calls over the suddenly almost full dining hall. A group of students make their way over to our table. “What are you doing hiding away in a corner like this?” She spots me and stops.

“I have to get going anyway,” I tell them and get up. “I wish you the best of luck.” She thanks me, and I put my plate down at the outer end of the table.

“Have you heard, the InT is here,” her friend says in a loud whisper. I open the door to the staircase but pause on the other side.

“The InT? Why? Do we have a new Unassigned?”

“No, that’s the thing, it’s an old one. They call him ‘boy’ or something, and apparently, he’s missing. He’s escaped the basement and is hiding out somewhere in the dorm rooms.”

“They say he has mind control,” one of the others say. “And that he might be forcing someone to hide him.”

“Uh, how terrible. Imagine being held hostage in your own room.” I walk up the steps in a hopefully calm-looking manner. If it’s true the InT is here, the likelihood that I can still help Brody is lessening by the second. What will happen to him when they find him? I look out of the window. Two suits are standing outside, talking and pointing up at the windows and the tower. This can’t be good.