Chap 118: Jack’s Tongue Magic
Thoughts of being an experiment faded from Tee’s mind as the blurry faces in the room sharpened. The only people standing wore full black—shades, long swords—but no golden Mid-Guard badges.
One figure stood out. The light bob cut, the shimmering black dress—Sade. Watching with cold, dark-filled eyes. Tee’s chest tightened with unease as she followed his steady stare fixed on her younger self. She couldn’t remember when she first saw him. In earlier times he never spoke—only watched. He turned and walked out through an archway.
The low murmur she knew too well rose mostly from the left side of the room—Tetra and her scientist acquaintances, surrounded by holograms. Their words sounded too alien, as if they were speaking another language entirely.
The sounds from the other side of the room were never chatter—usually just the occasional yawp from the disabled or the bored tapping of fingers on desks. That was where young Tee sat.
The familiar faces confirmed that was one of Tetra’s monthly meetings. Though the meetings happened once a month, the dates were never fixed, and the locations always changed. Because of that unpredictability, she could never warn Jack not to visit her on evenings she’d be gone. But when she spotted the little blond boy with blue eyes sitting at a far table, she thought she was imagining him.
Tee sighed and walked over to sit beside her younger self. She knew it would be an hour of awkward staring before Jack finally approached. She froze mid‑squat, remembering she couldn’t touch anything except the ground. Dammit. She twitched when Jack suddenly appeared on the bench across from her younger self.
Young Tee kept opening and closing her mouth too fast, giving the impression her lips were trembling. The few sounds that did escape were as incoherent as the yawps from the handicapped in the room.
Jack stretched his hand across the table and lightly touched hers. “I knew you were really here.” Leaning back, he smiled. “What a coincidence I’d find you here.” He pointed toward a man partially blocked by a hologram screen on the far side. “That’s my dad. He brought me—what are you doing here?”
Young Tee’s bangs flipped to one side as she turned to look. His father must have been one of the strange adults in glasses surrounding Tetra.
“I—I come to these meetings all the time,” she stuttered. “Tetra brought me here.”
Tee shook her head and sighed. She had been too young then to notice the signs. There was no light-skinned person in the room, or they would have stood out even with the holograms. Jack’s mother also looked nothing like him, but it never struck her until years later.
“Tetra? Is that your mom?”
Young Tee looked down at the table, her brain working hard. She hated that question. The truth wasn’t how she wanted things. It was just another way she was set apart from normal kids, on top of her looks.
“No. She’s my guardian.”
Jack pressed a button on his wristwatch, and a hologram board game appeared. His large blue eyes shone through the translucent shapes, like the holes in his teeth.
“Want to play?”
Young Tee straightened her slouching back, a smile popping onto her face. She nodded and leaned closer, hands on the table. Unlike previous meetings that dragged on for hours, that one ended far too soon.
“I really wish you came to my Academy,” Jack said. “I’d get to see you more.”
Tee pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth at the distasteful realization. After that meeting, Jack would often show up late for their evening swings or not at all. When he did appear, all he talked about was what happened earlier at his Academy and his “cool” friends. Those same kids who had run from the parking lot praised him for his guts that day and welcomed him into their gang.
Every other sentence he spoke was about wanting to see her at his Academy the next day. Jack knew how to get what he wanted. In a blink, Tee’s younger self was having her hair wrapped for the night by Tetra.
Tetra held Tee’s shoulders gently and met her eyes in the mirror. “I thought homeschooling you would stop the name-calling. Are you sure kids calling you names won’t upset you?”
Young Tee squinted and puffed her cheeks, thinking hard. Then she nodded. “Yup.”
In a flash, her room disappeared. Her younger self stood before her, backpack on. Tee walked up behind her to stare at the high ponytail atop her head. Her bangs hung so low they almost blocked her eyes entirely. She realized then what the hard stares on her first day had really been about. They were people wondering how she could see with white curtains hiding her eyes.
The intense stares and connected brows from her homeroom weren’t disdain—they were awe. They were seeing an alien. But young Tee swallowed her pride to search for the blond-haired, pale-skinned student. He wasn’t there.
Something shifted in Tee’s mind as she walked beside herself in the hallway. She remembered that something bad had happened before she found her first class. Her younger self kept her eyes glued to the hologram map of the school. Tee’s eyes widened as she finally remembered what it was.
“Watch out!” she yelled, pushing herself to the side—but her hand faded right through her. “Damn this stupid dream!”
She watched her younger self walk straight into Armstrong. The rock-solid collision made her step back three times and drop her hologram tab. She stooped to pick it up, then parted space in her bangs to see the fiery black eyes glaring down at her.
Tee slapped a hand over her eyes, then parted her fingers just enough to peek through.
Armstrong didn’t like that her young self looked at the tab before looking up at him. He was in the last grade and believed he ruled the Academy along with his gang.
Young Tee didn’t get to apologize. His right hand came down with a loud smack, something breaking as it hit the ground. Young Tee shrugged her shoulders, then held her hands, wincing at the pain in her fingers. Trembling lips, she looked down to see two legs stepping over the shattered pieces of her device.
Tee moved her hand from over her eyes and hissed at Armstrong’s face. Why couldn’t she be in a normal dream where she could fight back? Even though those dreams always turned into nightmares, they were better. That was the most detailed dream she’d ever had—and yet something deep in her chest told her something was wrong.
Young Tee sniffled and began picking up the broken pieces. Luckily, the hologram board was still available, and since it wasn’t the start of the Academic year, it wasn’t swarmed with students. She found her class and sat at the back, hoping she wasn’t in someone else’s seat.
The teacher walked in, eyes scanning the students. When his gaze met hers, he froze, then walked straight into his desk.
Tee’s laugh blended with the uproar from the other students. But her beaming face dimmed when she saw the boy who had almost tripped into her younger self. The laughter from the hallway had stopped, and that time Tee didn’t join in.
“You kids be careful,” said the Mid-Guard officer walking past with a bat.
The MG off’s face was blurred in her memory, but Tee knitted her brows at how oblivious she had been on her first day. Students tripping and crashing in the corridors were common. But she would soon learn it wasn’t a coincidence.
The kid picked himself up, holding his head, muttering, “Sorry.” In a blink, he was behind her, walking off hurriedly.
Tee didn’t see the red symbol on the crest around his neck, but she suspected it was there. She assumed the dream only revealed what she was aware of at the time. Things wouldn’t be shown in full light.
The crests weren’t only to distinguish Xeno-victims from ordinary students. Knowing a bit about what she could mutate into was why the Commander wanted her to start wearing one. The crests had tape detectors that stuck to the skin above major veins, sounding an alarm if there was no pulse. No pulse meant the Xeno-victim was dead, possibly due to a mutation—but it wasn’t foolproof.
The detectors were extremely sensitive, often triggering false alarms. Xeno-victims had been hurt, even lost limbs—not from malfunctions, but from brainless MG officials. People eventually learned to stop, listen, and observe before assuming the alarm meant a Xenosapian. That was also why silence in crowded places, like the Academy, was so important.
Tee lost her thoughts when a girl suddenly flashed in front of her younger self, blocking her path to the cafeteria. The girl leaned in so their noses nearly touched, then pulled back and blurted, “Weird.” She looked away and walked off with quick, awkward steps.
Young Tee brushed off the comment and continued walking, but a hard bump on her shoulder from someone passing by made her lose her balance. She pushed a leg out to avoid falling flat on her face.
“Sheep,” muttered one of the students passing her on their way into the cafeteria.
Her lips trembled under the weight of the intimidating stares that seemed to pop around her like kernels in a heated can. Even with her hair straightened, they mocked her.
A boy faded through Tee’s tummy like a ghost and stopped behind her younger self. His blond hair caught her attention as he poked her on the shoulder.
“One second to guess who I am.”
Tee knew she had whispered his name, but it was lost in the hum of chatter from the cafeteria.
Jack made a small beep with his mouth and blurted, “Too slow.”
Young Tee turned around, sparkles in her eyes, to see Jack. Tee gritted her teeth, wishing the dream would skip ahead to the part where he swapped places with his cold, evil twin.
Jack pulled young Tee from the cafeteria entrance and led her inside. They stopped at the end of a long bench filled with students. Luckily, their eyes were fixed on their food and didn’t notice the girl with white hair—until Jack pushed a tray aside with a loud screech. The tray had been holding someone’s space, but he didn’t care. He looked up and spoke to the only three people who mattered.
“Guys, meet our new member.” He turned to young Tee. “Oh, you must be hungry. Gimme your ID and I’ll get your lunch. Meat or vegetarian?”
Tee pulled her ID strap from around her neck and handed it to Jack. “Meat. And thank you.”
Jack dashed off toward the serving station, grinning widely, leaving Tee alone. The boy in the wheelchair stayed at the end of the table, where there was no built-in bench. He lifted his box drink and slurped loudly through the straw, sizing her up.
Tee choked back laughter at seeing juvenile Tyler in a wheelchair—the same kid who had hidden behind the vehicle in the car park before running into one.
Tyler asked a question, then answered it himself. “Your white hair… you’re that girl from that day, aren’t you? From the clinic…”
Young Tee blinked to let his words sink in before answering. “Yes.”
“Do you plan to stand there all day?” said a girl with brown hair matching her skin tone, glancing at the standing statue behind her. “Sit down. You’re making a scene.”
Tee’s lips twitched. Brenda always had a sharp tongue, but it took her years to really notice. She looked hard at the eyes around the table—the ones she would soon call her best friends. The sight of them twisted her heart in unexpected ways.
Young Tee lifted her legs over the bench and sat in the space Jack had made.
Tyler stopped slurping. “I used to fear the clinic when I was smaller. I heard creepy things happen there. I also know a ghost lives there…”
The conversation ended abruptly when Jack came back with two lunches on trays. He sat beside young Tee and pointed toward the boy in the wheelchair.
“Tee, that’s Tyler Ryan. He’s the boy who ran into the car a few weeks ago.”
Tyler hung his head and blocked his face with his empty hand. “Seriously, that’s my introduction?” He lifted his head, brows knitted. “How about the fifth fastest track runner in my year? Jack, never introduce me again, or you’ll shave light years off my self-esteem.”
Jack chuckled and pointed to the boy with black hair, whose face was mostly hidden. “This is Warren. He’s got good hearing, so be careful what you say around him.”
Warren kept his eyes on the spaghetti he twirled on his fork. He shoved the loaded fork into his mouth and spoke through puffed cheeks. “Interesting finding you here. Tell me, do you hear screams around the clinic during global curfew hours—”
Jack cut him off. “And this is Brenda, the top academic student in our year.”
Tee felt like a statue standing over the “midgets” at the table, but she smiled at the better introduction she now appreciated.
Tyler was the self-important track star who often outran the processing speed of his own brain.
Warren acted like the heir to some long-forgotten ancient kingdom. He was also a blatant Xenogenist, as was Brenda.
Brenda had a dirty mouth that was overdue for a filter. What a pity her parents couldn’t buy her one since they were broke on getting her extra online lessons. The things that came out of Brenda’s mouth convinced Tee she was angry at the world for her less-than-perfect life.
Getting Tee to attend his Academy wasn’t the last display of Jack’s “tongue magic.” He bent fate toward his desires again after academic hours. Young Tee spotted Tetra standing in front of the shiny black hover vehicle, her white lab coat fluttering in the wind.
“There she is!” young Tee squealed.
Jack frowned and held both straps of his backpack. “Oh… you’re getting picked up. That’s…” His chest flattened with a heavy sigh, trailing off as he finished the thought.