Defect

[chapter 6]

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Over the course of the next few weeks, time seemed to fly by faster than in my life ever before. Most of my afternoons were spent outside, like before, but now instead of stressing over my Big Mistake with the Evos, I spent time laughing with Alex, pretending to be a ninja and ducking behind trees, and so on. It was actually a lot of fun, more than I had ever had at the boarding school where we trained (it turns out that Alex went to the same school). I began to start eating with the others, and slowly picked up names. Eventually, they picked up mine, too.

I would never admit this to Alex, but it was true—the rooms did get done faster when there was more than one person working. In fact, when we all worked together, we were quite the efficient team. But mostly, my time spent cleaning was a blur, the memories far outshone by the time that Alex and I spent outside the walls that were our new prison.

I had introduced Alex and Maximus (the guard who keeps an eye on the grounds and lets me out), and they had made fast friends. My sketchbook had filled up pretty fast, and I only had a couple more pages. The lavender fields and wild plants dotting the hills had taken over, covering my pages in graphite and ink quickly.

Alex, Sophia, Jax and I had just finished our last work of the day, and the hallways were empty. Our footsteps seemed too loud, but I was so focused on the promise of fresh air that would clear my mind that I hardly even noticed. My whole body was attuned to the idea of getting out of the huge, beautiful house that caged us.

"C'mon!" Jax whispered, giggling as she sprinted ahead, "Hurry up!"

Sophia bolted after her, Alex not far behind, and I followed them, unable to prevent the peals of laughter that escaped me. Before long, we were at the familiar door, knocking twice, then pausing, then knocking once. It was the code that let us through to see Maximus.

He opened the door, and we all grinned up at him. He was huge—about six and a half feet tall, with a red beard that was as big and loud as his personality, and eyes that were sky blue and always cheerful.

"Ah, ya lil' imps'll be wanting out into the snow, I'd wager!" he boomed, happy as could be. He had revealed to us that he was part of a tiny percentage of the Evos who were born with a disability—they could feel a small portion of one emotion. 

Obviously, this was huge news to us, and we wouldn't stop 'yapping and jabbering' as he had put it. Or at least, until he explained to us that he was the only person he had ever known with this disability, and that no, he would not admit it to the other Evos in case there were others like him, because he liked his life just the way it was, thank you very much.

"Please, please, please Max? We just wanna play in the snow! No one will see!" Sophia urged, giving him her biggest puppy-dog eyes. We all knew that he had a huge soft spot for her—and her food. 

"I'll make dumplings again!" she added hopefully. He broke out in a huge smile, swinging the door wide. 

"An' ya better not be lyin' ta me, ya got it, lil' one?" he called after us, still grinning.

She turned and waved before we disappeared around the corner.

"Okay, guys, I'm well practiced in the sport of street skating, so follow my lead, got it?" Jax said, slowing down and eyeing the thin layer of ice coating the driveway. She took off, looking like she was going to run, only to slip and slide her way down the concrete. We all burst out laughing as she tumbled into the nearby snowdrift while attempting to look back at us and still moving. When she tried to get up, still glaring at us, the weight of the snow pulled her back down. This time, even she couldn't help but laugh as we tried (and failed a couple times) to get her out. Then, one by one, we each took a turn, picking up speed, just so we could skid and slip on the ice. Did we fall? Over and over, until we were all black and blue and numb. Did it hurt? Absolutely. But that's what made us who we were, not Evos, so we embraced the pain, opened our hearts, welcomed the emotions with open arms. Because if there was one thing that we all agreed on, all the time, it was that our lives sucked—but not as much as it would be if we couldn't feel at all. Not as much as if we were the monsters we run from. So yeah, we welcomed the bruises, because at least it was something.