2050: A Time of Courage

Chapter 20: Jason

At breakfast, all of us are looking more asleep than awake. Lili, Shemik, and Dimitri are doing the best job of hiding the exhaustion, but Theo and Rose both seem ready to fall asleep with their heads on the table. I can't say I blame them; Mr. DiLorenzo kept us all up until after dawn with his shouting.

He doesn't even seem all that sorry about it.

Mr. and Mrs. DiLorenzo are asking us questions, and the look Emilio keeps giving them says he's already answered most of these himself. I don't mind all that much. At least it gives me something to talk about, something to do other than dozing off over my bowl of cereal.

Emilio's parents get bored with asking Theo, Lili, and me questions pretty quickly, moving on to the rest of our group as Alessa watches with interest.

"Where are you from again?" Mr. DiLorenzo asks Rose, who's staring down at the table like she's trying to make herself less noticeable.

She lifts a hand, outlining the shapes of the letters with her finger in midair.

S-w-e-d-e-n.

Mr. DiLorenzo gives her a withering look, and I don't blame her at all for not wanting to talk to him. He's almost as terrifying as Commander Petrovich and his soldiers were.

"So you left before the Russians destroyed it?"

Rose flinches, returning her attention to her cereal with a small nod.

Mr. DiLorenzo's hand comes down on the table with an impressively-loud bang, his eyes narrowing as his face starts to turn red. Mrs. DiLorenzo's hand moves to cover his, but he glares at her until she  backs off.

"Listen to me." Emilio's father snaps, "If you have something to say, you can say it. If I ask you a question, you speak to me."

"Can't you tell she doesn't want to speak?" I'm surprised to realize I'm the one who said it, "It's a choice. If she doesn't want to talk, don't make her."

Emilio's dad looks ready to kill me, but he moves on to a new target in Dimitri. I spend the rest of breakfast watching the others' expressions, not saying another word until Mrs. DiLorenzo addresses us all.

Alessa, she tells us, is taking us to one of the nearest stores, because Emilio's parents agree that if we're going to stay here we need a better selection of clothes. Theo rolls his eyes at that, complaining the whole time that there's nothing he hates more than actually having to go shopping.

"I haven't done this in ages." he tells me as Alessa and two servants begin directing us out the front door, "Mum always made me go shopping to pick things out for school, but this last year I've gotten all my stuff from the market. You take whatever you can trade for there; it's fast and a lot less complicated."

I can't help grimacing, remembering how boring it used to be to go back-to-school shopping with my own parents.

~*~

It turns out that Theo and I are the first two to find everything we're looking for in the small clothing store. We end up waiting in front of the plain white building, feeling like kids for the first time in a long time as we try to come up with any sort of game that'll make the wait less boring.

Eventually, I convince Theo that it wouldn't be the worst crime in the world to run across the street and check out the small bookstore there. Maybe, I decide, I can find a book or two that my sister would like, and I could ask Alessa for the money to buy them for Lil as a present.