Fractured | The Portal Series book 1

Chapter 1 - Claire

4:39 p.m. BTS (Buatar Timing System)

7/12/341 U.M. (Universal Millennium)

For twelve years, I have lived among aliens. I speak their language, I wear their clothes. However, I am, by blood, an Earthling. This may seem interesting, but it is simply the norm of my existence.

What I wouldn't give to experience the norm of an Earthian existence.

To be the dramatic character in the movie of my life, I will say that literally every single person hates me. The Tuhiynians with whom I live are not fond of Earth—"the planet of lies and backstabbers"—and as I was born there, I am a personification of the place they so dearly despise. Sure, my parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin are Earthlings as well, but they are tactful around their peers while I tend to... how should I say it... be blunt, which, apparently, is not a gift that is all that appreciated.

I should also mention that it is sincerely obvious that my family is Earthian. My family—the Railstones—all have dark blonde or brown hair, and dark gray-blue or brown eyes. Meanwhile, the Tuhiynians have ghostly features: white-blonde hair, nearly translucent skin, and pale eyes. They have earned these looks by living underwater for centuries, protected in a network of glass spheres, and hidden from the Earthian colony here on the world Earth calls "Pangea."

By the way, the renaming of the planet also angers the Tuhiynians, even though there is no way Earth could have known that the planet is technically "Tuhiye." The Tuhiynians are a race unknown to Earth; my family is composed of the only Earthlings alive who know about the Tuhiynians, which is a less-than-cheerful thought.

I am sixteen years old, and have spent three quarters of my life in Buatar, one of the underwater cities. My parents, aunt, uncle, cousin, and I live together, and have for twelve years. When I was four, and Roland was five, our family, for some reason, went through the Tuhiynians' interplanetary portal from Earth and ended up here. Who knows why my family thought it would be a good idea to come here, or even how we knew about the portal. I sometimes toy with the idea that we were forced here. But I am not sure, and my parents never talk about it. I still do not know what will happen when my cousin Roland and I graduate school in two years. I could be someone great, but everywhere I turn, I meet resistance. Why should my adult life be any different?

But there's always hope for something greater. Fleeting, unlikely, trampled hope, but it's hope.

Gets me through every stupid school day, at least. That and being bold at my convenience. School is an outlet for my boldness. I'm surprised I haven't been expelled. It's not like I put forth much effort into doing the work; I do all of my real learning at home, unknown to the Leaders of Buatar.

"...is the most important time of the year..." my history educator, Guro, drones. While he reads the holographic teleprompter word for word, Roland and I have a silent but heated conversation across the room from each other. I mouth "Not right now!" but he just nods fervently. I grit my teeth and glare at him, but he just shrugs and raises his eyebrows. Shaking my head, I mouth, "No," almost whispering it in my annoyance. Nodding even more urgently, he clearly says, "Yes."

I cover my face in frustration.

Then, sighing huffily, I half–heartedly raise my hand. Having not been paying any attention whatsoever to Educator Guro, I don't at first notice that I am cutting him off mid–sentence.

"And as the Keeper Eligibles—Yes, Ms. Railstone?" He sounds irritable, and in my peripheral vision, I see several people covering appreciative laughs at the interruption.