Keep Your Nose Clean

The next morning at the station, Nadine tried to push herself through the crowd and get on. This failed miserably. The next attempt, she tried tailgating her friend Alex, but he was prone to being a tattletale despite nearing fifteen. In either case, she had to hurry, as she seemed to not be allowed onto the bus yet again. This meant another day of aching legs. But this was an adventure that came with the territory, such was the tagline of her favorite MC in one of her favorite JRPGs.

She arrived three hours later, but she also generally tried getting up three hour earlier. She was just barely on time; much of her life was spent having to make certain adjustments to various set backs, rather than confronting them head on. If her life went on the normal path, Nadine would be working as just another poltician.

But she generally hated politique, and wanted to turn her entire world upside down. She just didn’t know much of her world would soon be done in, in this fashion. It was late that morning during third period. The intercom in the classroom called for her to come to the office.

In the office, Nadine set in front of the super computers desk. The vice principle was a towering monstricity of wires and computer chips, and was completely binary on a screen that floated in the air as if it were a Graphical User Interface from a video game made by sadistic head masters. Nadine wondered if this was the computer that paddled Brittney, and had to restrain a cackle picturing her being pulled up by wires.

“We saw the joke you made to Alex about Romeo and Juliet. Did you know I also fucking hate Shakeaspeare?” The computer monitor buzzed in and out. “But sometimes, life will throw unexpected barriers at me. Your mother didn’t come home last night. She died when she was mugged by a Francophone Anarchist lady. Don’t worry, we already beheaded her. But you will be moving to a different school.”

The computer pretended to wipe what may be described as a digital tear drop. “So we made a cake for you to celebrate your fourteenth birthday.”

Nadine rode in a private flying wing jet to her new boarding school. Beside her were two armed guards, both of which were decked out in black. A few months ago, Nadine wore the boots that could easily me confused for combat boots, yet now she were her two Birkenstock Clogs, and simplest of plain clothes while resting reclined back with a double layer of pillows.

Once she arrvied at the admissionss podium, she was asked to remove all things she was carrying in her purse. This included the book she kept to remember Alex by, the boy she grew up with reading Ghost Stories in virtual reality games, under the glow of hallucinatory camp fires. The guard asked her what the book was. She sneered, “Shakeaspear, a book from a friend.”

“Yea, I hate Shakeaspeare too.”

The only light is that of a small lamp. Nadine put her bag into the closet, while doing so she had began to have the creeping feeling of isolation and despair; the room was modified from an old asylum cell block, the walls covered in white paint to wash away the blood of a now seemingly distant era.

Previously the EU had taken over the United States, during the Second American Revolution. You might think this was an Anarcho-Communists dream come true, until the EU had resolved to replace lethal injection with the Guillotine Gun. The EU lost more territory than the old United States had ever owned, much of it because the US was heading leftward while Europe was heading increasingly right ward.

And now, Nadine rested in a prison originally designed for political prisoners treated as if they’re anarcho-anacronist personalities were a product of madness. Thus she dreaded living in a place that was the stronghold of a now distant, decaying empire.

Her work desk looked like it was made of wood, but in fact it was made out of biodegradeable plastic made look like such, and the shoes modelled after the 19th century Dutch were of similar material. This was part of their failed green energy policy; it failed not because it was false, but because nobody ever considered the degrading ecosystem of Earth. She heard footsteps in the hall.

She peeked outside her peek hole on the door.

“Hey, It’s Michael, can I come in?” he said. Michael was to be one of her room mates. Despite the fact that she was a trans girl, the school still treated her as if she was male. She turned the knob to let him in. “Need any help unpacking?”

“I’m almost done, but feel free if you think there is anything I didn’t unpack.” Nadine said, then leaned in closer to hear the beating of his heart, to know another human was there.

“So who are you?” Michael said, gently brushing Nadine’s hair.

“The name’s Nadine.”

“We’ll get along great, you seem loving. But keep your nose clean.”