WITHDRAWAL PART II

Marion suffers from withdrawal, and sees some menacing students leering at him. How will he get through the day?

II. MARION

I unwrapped another piece of Ripey Fruit chewing gun and popped it with the others in my mouth. That makes four. My jaw was sore, but that was nothing compared to the incurable itch running down my forearms to my leg muscles. It was one of those deep skin itches that you couldn’t scratch and had to wait out. I was very close to be driven to madness.

“You’ll break your jaw.” My dad warned.

I almost forgot he was watching me. “Need to dull the symptoms.”

“Four pieces should be enough for that.” He stretched out his palm. “And I darn well ain’t paying for another root canal.”

I plopped my pack into his hand, but he still waited. He always knew that I hid stuff, so I took out all eight packs of gum.

“Geez, Marion.” My dad marveled. “You wanna lose all your teeth?”

“We have implants now. Teeth aren’t such a big deal anymore. You know I don’t know why people even still bother with normal teeth anymore. With fake ones, you hardly wouldn’t have to worry about them breaking, rotting, or cavities.”

“Because they cost about three mortgages.” My dad stated. He should know since all his teeth fell out forty years ago. Biotic-Abiotics can grow a lot of things back, but teeth weren’t one of them.

Matthew came through the door with some groceries. He plopped the two large bag on the table. “Let’s see here. I got milk, bread, eggs�"oh, and some nicotine patches for you Marion. The clerk says you just slap them on and the pain just goes away.”

I was about to blast him through the gut, but I held back. Nothing I could do would hurt Matthew, except maybe call Caroline and tell her that I saw him with another girl, and I intend on saving that one for graduation day.

He noticed my glare and chuckled. “You look like my girlfriend, y’know, when the red tide comes in.”

“Matthew. Don’t tease your brother. He’s going through a rough time.” Dad lectured.

“Sorry, bro.”

My stomach heaved pulling out all the content that made up my dinner plus the gum and barfed it all over the carpet. Core stomach acid must be pretty strong because my puke was eating through the floor. The puke broke through and landed on somebody’s head.

“Ow! Is this puke? Why is it burning?!” It sounded like Ralph.

“Geez, Marion. I said I was sorry. It’s not that hard to believe, is it?” Matthew sounded genuinely hurt.

“I’m gonna lie down now.” I croaked.

“Alright. Call if you need anything.” My dad called.

I raised my hand in goodnight.

I plopped down onto my mattress face first and curled into a tight ball to prevent my finger nails from scratching another scar onto my forearms. My room wouldn’t stop swaying back and forth so I felt seasick and my body shook as if it could get cold again.

Just how long would this last? I thought to myself. Hopefully long after I put myself out of my misery.

“You sure have talent for molding rocks together, Solar.” Coach Vector told me. I couldn’t tell if he was mocking me or not.

“Just takes a sculptor’s hand, sir.” I responded. Honestly, we cores had been doing molding exercise for three straight weeks now. It should be easy for anyone with a functioning brain.

“Ever thought of becoming a green-collared welder?”

“Nope.”

I finished sealing another large section of stone the size of the whole gym wall and started walking back to the bleachers. No, seriously, this is the strangest gym ever. I guess my friends and I should have explained this earlier, but gym classes at Levels Academy are done by simulations. Simulations are basically what the AV club comes up with when they want to get back at bullies, experiment on students like their personal lab rats, or just to pick on students who were stronger than them. They come by in the summer to install natural events (and I do mean disasters) into the gym floor and walls. The sad thing is that the staff lets them do this. The environment is getting harder to take care of, so faculties from around the country are basically training students like soldiers in order to be strong enough to deal with the pressure of being adult Biotic-Abiotics. With exercises like these, a lot of people are actually drawn to the rumors that Ecosystem Corporation wants to wipe out mankind. I wondered how they would react if they knew the rumors were true.

I looked over to the heads of the AV club, Jason and Mason, who were told to take a break after the volcano disaster over a month ago that flooded the lunch room with lava. They were talking to some other AV members, probably complaining about Principal Cumulus banning volcanoes from now on, but the students didn’t seem to care. I paused to get a closer look at them. I’m not familiar with every student in the AV club, but I didn’t recognize those students, surely not in the way they seem to recognize me. For a split second, I thought I saw their eyes glow red.

Fortunately, no kidnappings happened this time. I started to think the robots are starting to get bored with doing that to us, but still I needed to warn my friends and maybe the principal if she felt like listening about the apparent rise of the student kidnapping machines.

I did find Fleana dumping about another three pounds into a bucket with Alicia grabbing her by the hair and making faces.

“Oh my God.” She cracked one eye open, and Fleana continued to barf. “When is this going to be over?”

“Beats me.” I told her. “Usually Spikes has all the estimates, but he’s not feeling all that super today.”

“Better than her.”

“I know, right?”

Fleana finally pried her face out of the bucket, but she didn’t look like she wanted to yell. “Thanks ‘Licia. I can’t imagine how you must feel about doing this for me.”

“You should.” Alicia quipped.

“I really can’t anymore. My psionics are gone now. All I’m left with is this barf.”

Fleana heaved and went down to her bucket another time. It’s a good thing her esophagus heals very quickly.

“Yeah, well, don’t think Eco-corp has left us completely alone. I spotted these robots disguised as students in the gym, and I think they’re going to pull something.” I told them

“Again!” Alicia placed her hands on her hips. “Does Eco-corp have an obsession with taking kids away?”

“I think it’s just that Draft woman�"“

“Drift.” Fleana corrected.

“Whatever. And I think it’s just us.”

“Yeah, I think grandma is through with us. We were just guinea pigs to them.”

“Then,” Alicia raised an eyebrow. “What do they want?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Kill us?”

Author's Note

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