Mirror Sky. Part 1 - Blissful Nemesis

27 - Friends

Alexander faced numerous life-or-death situations before, although he could not remember many of them. Yet, he was certain that he had never been more anxious than he was now.

Today was his first-ever class with other kids in Libra. He was sitting at the desk closest to the exit at the end of the row of six empty chairs and desks. The teacher's desk was vacant too, and so were the white walls, expecting the bright and colorful holograms of texts, pictures, graphs, videos, and 3d models to be cast into existence. For now, the room was lit up with a white hologram stretched across the ceiling and flooding the room with even, bright lights. Alexander felt exposed and kept spinning in his seat, checking each empty corner of the room ten times over. He thought longingly of his mother's dark classrooms illuminated by a single yellow light.

At least Valentina did not ask him to stand before the whole class and sign to them about himself. He always hated it when his mom did that...

The door opened, and Valentina walked in, followed by a younger woman with long gray hair who wore blue jeans and a t-shirt. At the sight of the hair, Alexander's heart jumped. He jerked in the chair, feeling an urge to run for the open door behind her. The younger woman noticed that and, before he could act on his urges, said laughingly:

"Still jumpy? I thought it was only with strangers!"

Alexander looked at the woman closely. Once again, a thought flew by in his head that it was his mother. It was not her, of course. This woman had dark narrow eyes and white skin, which were different from his mother's, although he could not remember how they were different.

Nevertheless, the woman looked familiar. She approached him and squatted before his table. Valentina stood close by and observed both of them academically.

"I never got a chance to introduce myself," said the woman as Valentina translated in signs behind her back, just in case. "Sonya Nowak! I was one of the people who found you in the alley."

"You changed your hair," said Alexander, remembering. "It was black before."

"It was," said Sonya. "Great memory!"

Alexander scoffed to himself. He wished it was great.

"You like my new color?" she asked.

"No," he said honestly. "A lady with similar hair tried to kill me."

Valentina mouthed something under her breath - a curse, most likely. She hid the juiciest examples of spoken language from him.

Sonya pursed her lips and nodded.

"This... the... the color is temporary!" she said. "I want it violet. I whitened my hair first to make the future color pop more."

"Oh," he said. "Please, hurry up with it."

"You have my word," said Sonya and shook his little hand. "But, trust me, not all blondes are mean. Folks with triangles on their foreheads – those are the ones you should avoid."

"There is more than one?" Alexander shuddered.

"Oh, loads!" said Sonya as Valentina jerked, and failed, to stop her. "They call themselves the Enlightened, can you believe it?"

"Enlightened?"

"Means rational and well-informed," said Sonya. "Honestly, they need to be rebranded. The Bull-headed suits them much better."

"Why do they want to kill me?" asked Alexander, having a hard time keeping up with Sonya's rapid nervous speaking. "Is it because of what my people did?"

"No, they just hate everyone, you especially," shrugged Sonya, then added hastily. "And it's fine! Be proud of it! You should be worried if they begin to like you."