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Author's Note: Here's Ch.2, as promised. I'm going to try one chapter a week and see how that goes. I'm currently writing Ch.4 so I'm ahead of things---for now lol. No TG elements yet though just some explanations. Oh and if my science is off, let me know and help me change it please. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and my beta readers for their great help.

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2:

For the next few days, Crystal’s death was the talk of the school. After all, dying in a car accident was a big deal now. My dad used to say such things were pretty common back in my great grandfather’s day when cars still ran on combustion engines and gasoline but the new mag-lev models were supposed to be infallible. Ok, so not totally of course, but an accident like Crystal’s was very rare. While the Vids were still calling it “pilot error”, I knew from Dad that such a thing wasn’t possible. It made me wonder why the government would continue to allow such a lie to sold to the masses. I mean after the Freedom of Speech act was amended to include private protection, you’d think that such a thing would be slander now.

The accident wasn’t the only thing that was on people’s minds though.

It didn’t take long for someone to crunch the numbers and figure out something even more drastic.

Crystal was a Ratio.

Now in some of the bigger Metros, something like that was nothing to fret about. After all, places like Metro One there were thousands of people. Ratios were a dime a dozen and cropped up like dandelions in summer. But here in Metro 656, a Ratio was a big deal. Our Metro wasn’t the smallest but it was pretty close. We only had about five thousand people, not including the Alphas and their families who lived in the Cube. So if one of the Jects happened to croak, it always made everyone take a moment. If one of us turned out to be a Ratio, then it really made everyone stop what they were doing. Especially considering the last one was nearly a year ago.

Population control was a big deal in the Metros. At any one given time, the System knew how many citizens were present and each one of us had a number. Don’t ask me mine because I haven’t the foggiest. The numbers helped the System keep a tally on the ratio between male and female citizens. That Ratio was important for the upkeep and well being of our society. If for instance not enough boys were born and a few of them were to die then there would be an imbalance. Thus, the next number in the sequence would be a Ratio. If another boy was born then the Ratio would go away and all would be fine. It was how the system worked.

There were, of course, unforeseen circumstances.

Like Crystal’s sudden and tragic death.

The fact that Crystal was a Ratio made things even more troublesome.

It meant there was now an imbalance in the female population.

It also meant a new Alpha was about to appear.

Even if a new baby girl were to be born tomorrow, things would not even themselves out overnight. The baby girl would be added to the System’s registry, of course, and as soon as she was processed, things would get back to business. But processing an infant took time and the System would be unbalanced until then. The System could function fine on its own but nature had other plans.

I learn about it every year in science and history class.

Shortly after my great grandfather was born, there was a nasty illness that swept across the world. They called it the XY Plague. Those born after a certain amount of time---mainly males---were susceptible to the plague. Nearly 80% of the male population was wiped clean. My great grandfather one of the lucky few. To compensate for this loss, nature found another way. The best way I can describe it is with clownfish. Say for instance, there are more male clownfish than females. Well then, one of the male fish becomes a female fish and things are balanced out. Well after the XY plague was cured, it was discovered that every baby born afterwards was born with what the media affectionately began calling the “Clownfish gene”.

According to science class, I know this type of change should be called sequential hermaphroditism. Up to that point in the history of the world, it was something only some fish, snails and plants had. However it seemed Mother Nature decided that it was the next step in human evolution. All of us born after the XY Plague are born that way but most of us live normal, healthy lives. It’s only when a Ratio comes up that we have to fear for things to come.

When a Ratio pops up one of us becomes an Alpha.

Now that might sound cool in the long run but the idea of changing one’s gender to achieve such a cool thing rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

I know it did me.

I know it scared a lot of guys.

So suffice to say, the mood was pretty damn somber in school for the next couple of days. I couldn’t walk anywhere without hearing the whispers and the fear. People were running scared. The halls between classes were vacant, the lunch room nearly deserted. There were a lot of stupid superstitions surrounding the “Manifestation”. Some people believed if you stayed isolated, it would keep you safe. Others believed that your proximity to the opposite sex made it easier to “manifest”. There were even some who believed if you fled the Metro completely you were safe from it.

It was all bullshit of course.

Nothing stopped you from manifesting. If you were going to do it, you did it. It was like the lottery. If the right number was picked then that was that. There was nothing you could do to prevent it. History had proven that. When the first Alphas appeared, there was a lot of fear and lots of people ran scared. Scientists all around the globe tried to come up with ways to prevent such a thing from happening but nothing worked. When my grandfather was in his twenties, that’s when the first Cube was made. He was a first generation Sentinel. He was proud of it. The stories he used to tell me were some of my fondest memories of him. Whenever I asked him about what he thought about manifestation and the Alphas, he always used to tell me, “We only have one life and no matter how it turns out, we need to live it and accept it for what it is.” So if we were to manifest and become an Alpha, that was what our life was meant to be.

I always thought I took grandpa’s philosophy seriously.

Well that was before this whole Ratio thing.

Sure, the adults and the older Uppers had nothing to fear, they were immune to the change. It was us kids, the “Inters”, who had to worry. Manifestation usually occurred in teenagers from the ages of thirteen to sixteen. It often happened during the onset of puberty but was not uncommon to manifest later. The change occurred over a period of about a week. The first sign was a slight tingling on the back of your hand. That tingling would grow into a rash which over the course of the day would slowly manifest itself into a rudimentary symbol: the female symbol would pop up on a guy and vice versa for a girl. It was kind of weird actually but who was I to argue with Nature.

To say I was scared was an understatement.

As I walked into the cafeteria, I was surprised to see I wasn’t the only one.

On a normal day the room was packed and buzzing with activity. Guys and girls laughed and co-mingled without a care in the world. Today it was not like that. Yesterday had been bad of course, especially after the afternoon Vids came on. Today was a completely different story. Whereas yesterday there was slight panic today it was a ghost town. There were a hundred Inters in the school on a day-to-day basis. We all ate at the same time in Cafeteria 2. Like I said before, usually it was Grand Central Station. Today it was the Sahara. You could drive a hover truck through the gaps in the people. It was even worse when you considered that the majority of the guys in the room were sitting on one side and the girls on the other.

No one spoke.

No one even looked at each other.

A pin dropping in here would be like a bomb going off.

I scanned the room, looking at all the idiots. I spotted Joe and Ted sitting at an overly crowded table with a bunch of other guys. Ted’s back was to me, eating normally. Joe gave me a look, his face a pukish gray currently. Joe was a smart guy, his parents worked with my Mom in fact. They were smart people too. In just floored me that he’d actually believe some of the stupid stuff. I gave him a look and shook my head. I was actually ashamed at the moment to call him my friend. I wasn’t as ashamed of Ted though. I know he was only sitting there because Joe was.

I also know that he was pretty pissed.

He was angry about the kiss.

I tried to tell him that it was incident and it meant nothing. I also told him that she was upset, I told her something to make her feel better and she reacted. It was innocent and stupid. Ted didn’t see it that way. I’m not sure I wanted to either. I knew what it really was and I think Ted did as well but I wanted it to be more. I wasn’t going to lie to myself. I had it bad for Maddie. She was after all the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen---not counting any Alpha girl.

Alphas didn’t count as far as I was concerned. Maddie was the one I wanted. She was always the one I wanted. I backed off though. I knew Ted liked her too. He was my best friend. There was no way I could betray him like that.

So I let them have their time.

I left Maddie alone.

It was working too. That is until her sister’s wake of course.

I should have just walked away. I should have just stuck with my guns and left like I wanted too. The only problem was that I erred and decided to be human.

See, being human leads to nothing but problems.

Yesterday I set about to talk to Maddie. I wanted to clear the air. I wanted her to know that I knew the kiss was nothing and that she was upset. Except she wasn’t in school yesterday. I suppose I couldn’t blame her. She was still grieving. After my grandfather passed away, I spent two days crying in my room. I couldn’t even bring myself to go to the funeral. In fact, to this day, I have yet to visit his grave. I can’t do it, it’s just too painful. He was the closest thing to a true friend and definitely a true parent I had. Sure, Mom and Dad were there but they weren’t really. They worked all the time and grandpa; he was the guy who had my back.

Crystal and Maddie were like that too.

So it was only understandable.

Only human.

So after I finished staring at Ted’s back, I decided to see if I could find Maddie. It actually wasn’t all that hard. She was the girl sitting at the table all by herself. The table that was away from every other girl on her side of the cafeteria. Oh yeah, I forgot about that stupid superstition. Somehow, people actually believed that the Ratio was cursed and that anyone who came in close contact with them was cursed as well. That if you even sat next to them, somehow the curse would activate and that either you or one of your loved ones would become the next Alpha.

It was by far one of the stupider ones.

I took a deep breath and started toward her.

I dropped into the seat across from her, though she barely noticed.

I decided with something light to break the ice.
“Hey”

I’m going with the classics here.

She looked up at me, surprised at first.

“You sure you want to be seen sitting with the pariah. You might get cursed and grow boobs out of your forehead or something.”

“I’ll take my chances”

Maddie smiled. God she had a great one.

I was glad to see she was a lot happier today too. Her gloom was gone and in its place was something slightly more her. Her hair was still on the shade of dark but at least it was purple and not black. Her makeup was still black though. She was also sporting a black ring. Most people didn’t really go for the whole black is for mourning anymore. Now the trend was to wear rings. Even the guys wore them but usually only on their thumbs and no more than a day or so. I did notice a few of the other girls wearing similar rings. A lot of the Uppers had them on too, mostly Crystal’s friends.

It was kind of nice they were showing their support.

I thought about getting a ring too but I think it would have soiled my whole loner image.

The Loner cares.

Yeah.

Not.

Good.

“So” I said, trying to find something worthy. “Are you feeling any better today?”

She set down her fork. Not that she was really eating to begin with. All her food was still on the tray, untouched. I think she was just using the fork to move everything around.

She sighed. “I’m sorry, Ok.”

“About what?”

“The kiss”

“Oh” I said, shrugging. “Nothing to apologize for. You were upset. I told you something nice, it was a perfectly normal reaction I suppose. I mean I don’t want to ruin things between you and Ted.”

She scoffed. “Me and Ted?”

She laughed a bit.

“Don’t get me wrong, Ted is a nice guy but there’s nothing going on there” She laughed even louder. “He’s just a friend. I mean he might think something more is going to come out of all of this but I can assure you that Ted and I are never going to happen.”

So maybe I recorded that bit.

Sue me.

I just wanted to make sure I had it on file if Ted ever got into my face about all this shit. I knew Ted. He’d stew about this for a bit, get pissy then boil over. When I least expected it, he’d strike. Usually I just let him come because well he’s Ted. He gets filled with hot air a lot and tends to overreact to the littlest things. He would come at me with this eventually and now I had something to use if he got too carried away. I didn’t want to hurt him, of course, but like I said, sometimes he overdid things. I can still remember what happened when I got a hover bike first. He avoided me for a week then came by with an even better bike. It probably cost a fortune and Ted got it just because he wanted to prove he was better than me.

He was like that with a lot of people.

In fact, it was pretty common when one of your parents was an Alpha. Living with perfection and not being a part of it, it tends to rub people the wrong way. Every once and a while there was a News Vid about some Alpha’s kid going ballistic and doing something stupid. It went with the territory.

Ted was no different.

“Are things Ok with you two?” she asked, clearly looking over my shoulder to see him.

I only half turned, catching him out of the corner of my eye. He no longer had his back turned to me. Instead, he was now staring daggers at us. I could only imagine what this must have looked like to him.

I sighed.

Fuck him.

“I’m fine but you know Ted.”

She nodded. “Unfortunately.”

She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “You should have seen what happened after you left. I mean I only saw because they didn’t see me at the top of the stairs but I caught this argument between Ted’s Mom and that assistant guy of hers”

“Jeremy” I said.

“Yeah him” she said then continued quickly. “I’m not sure what the argument was about but she kept calling him a moron. She was saying something about the wrong one. I think he screwed up some business thing. I overheard her talking to Mom earlier about business. Mom was in the den, on the holo with her. I think that’s why she was there.”

“So she couldn’t even come there to mourn your sister?”

“Yeah I know right” Maddie looked slightly hurt. “Say what you will about Alphas but sometimes those people are real asses.”

I bit my lip. “So do you ever hear from Ryan?”

It was clearly a sore subject, especially from the sneer it provoked.
“We don’t”

“Sorry” I said softly.

I knew her brother was a sore subject and I’m an ass for bringing it up. I remember Ryan growing up, he was kind of cool. He was about ten years older than Maddie and I. Ryan was one of the coolest guys I knew. He used to let me help him wash his hover car on the weekends. When he manifested I was only five. I don’t really remember much of the specifics only that I was upset because I thought maybe Maddie would have to move away. But the only one who left was Ryan. I cried a bit because I was upset that we couldn’t hang out anymore.

Of course, it wasn’t the last I saw of him. Well her now.

After Ryan emerged, he became a super star.

Everyone knew Rachel Monroe.

She was the star of several Vids and Commercials. Her face was practically everywhere these days. There wasn’t a person in the whole Zone who didn’t want to be her friend or to even be in her company. To be in the shadow of Rachel Monroe was like walking in the shade of a giant. I’m even ashamed to admit that I even have a few of her Vids in my personal file storage.

“She” said Maddie, putting it in air quotes. “Wants nothing more to do with the Jects who she once called family. The overbearing bitch could even keep our Ject name.”

Yeah lots of bad blood there.

Open mouth, insert foot.

Gods, I’m such an idiot.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to bring up such a sore subject.”

“It’s ok” she said and sighed. “That person is not my family anymore. She’s not my sister and never will be. I have a sister and she was great. Rachel Whats-Her-Face can go suck it for all I care.”

A single tear rolled down her cheek.

On instinct, I reached out and touched her hand to comfort her. She didn’t pull away. A moment later, there was a pip.

“Dude, Minus” it was Joe. “What are you doing, you can’t touch her!”

I of course ignored him.

I continued to keep my hand on hers for another minute or so. She didn’t try to pull away once. Of course it didn’t last. When we finally did pull our hands away, both of us were smiling. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this good. It was a nice feeling actually.

“So are you excited about this afternoon?”

Was I ever? I think I might have mentioned more than once about wanting to be a Sentinel. Well this afternoon was the first step on my road to achieving that goal. Today after lunch, we were all to meet with our Placement Specialists. We’d get a standard physical then answer a series of questions. For once in my life, I was actually kind of excited. I hated feeling this way knowing that was feeling so bad but from the look on her face, she looked really excited too.

Maybe this Placement was what she needed to help her move on.

“What Placement are you going for?”

“Medical, I want to follow in Crys’s footsteps.”

“I think she would like that.”

Maddie smiled. “How about you? You still want to be like your grandfather?”

Holy crap, she remembered.

“You remember that?”

She laughed. “Of course, Benjy. You used to run around with that old Sentinel hat of his and pretend to arrest all of us. It was so darn cute.”

I laughed. “I just want to make the Old Man proud.”

She touched my hand this time.

“I’m sure he is.”

Pip. “Great now you’re double cursed.”

Still ignoring. I also made up my mind about something. To hell with Ted. She didn’t want him and he clearly didn’t have the gall to do anything so I’m going for it. If she laughed at me then I could take it. I have thick skin but I had to try.

“So Mad, if you’re not doing anything this weekend, you think you might want to catch the new Vid with me?”

Ok so it was lame but I had to take the plunge.

She stared at me for a moment or two.

I was convinced I was toast.

Then she smiled.

“Sure, Benjy, I’d like that.”

BANG.

SCORE.

BENJY ROCKS!!!

A few seconds later the tone sounded, ending lunch. Maddie and I got up separately, carrying our still uneaten lunch to the recycler. We walked out of the cafeteria together, the rest of the world a mere memory for that one split second of a moment.

I found myself grabbing her hand as we walked out the door.

I was so excited I could actually feel the tingle.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF