High Noon on Jefferson: Chapter Seven

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

At dinner, I attacked Mom's piroshki like a starving T rex trying to get the first meal it had since the asteroid fell. However, that was only the first one. The second, I started to eat with gusto, but...by the end of it, I was eating slower than a turtle. Actually, a snail would have eaten that piroshka faster. Unfortunately, that was as far as I got for food. That was bad. Mom definitely noticed. She wasn't happy, because, well, she had made all this by hand. Mom doesn't let a bot near her kitchen. ANd normally, I'd wolf down everything she put in front of me.

C'mon, there has to be foods you will pig out on, right?

I really don't believe you.

Yes, I know the power and energy expended by the push-away.

You're trying to get me to roll my eyes so much I expend extra calories, right? Please.

At any rate, she asked me what was wrong and I simply said I might have learned something about someone that really upset me and that I needed to find out if it was true. Except, I didn't say it that way. She had to pull it out of me like I was resisting torture or something. Do you really think I gave up my unreasonable, mopey teen card yet? I was still 15, not 19 and 364/365.

She was less than thrilled and just told me I would have to find out. Dad might have told me to either find out or let it go. Mom wasn't like that. It was always find out with her. No matter what. In this case, she was very right. It was still very troubling and she started to try to find out who I was talking about, but, no, I was not going to tell her. Things were complicated enough between her and Dad. Even the suspicion of this was going to add kindling and weapons grade plutonium to their relationship already.

She tried her best to get the information out of me, but I had inherited enough from Dad, namely his stubbornness, to resist. I excused myself from the table and went to my room. For a bit, I just laid there on my bed. Then came my brother. He actually snuggled up to me like we did when we were little. It was very sweet and caring. He did it just for a bit and then gave me a kiss on the back of my head and left.

He was worried about me and wanted to cheer me up. He did. A little. Enough.

We were both the children of our Dad and since we weren't evil. Quite the contrary! I am the absolute opposite of evil! Really! Despite being a teenage girl! Promise! Because we weren't evil and we were half Dad, he couldn't have done this. He wouldn't have so blatantly broken the law like that. He wouldn't have done something so dangerous as that either. It would have ruined our lives as well as his. And that was that. Dad didn't do it. I had to prove it.

I hopped up, self convinced, at least for the moment and then tackled my homework. I plugged into the academic network via my booster and then closed my eyes and got to work. I was done about three hours later. Homework wasn't less in the 22nd century, it was just different.

I prepared for bed and got in.

Then the doubts crept back in.

Hey, I can overthink if I want to. It's my right as a teenager! We're not supposed to be so sure of ourselves. We just pretend to be. Acting like you're a know it all and being one are different things! We fake it til we find wisdom. Some never actually do...oh gawd, what if that's me?

More seriously and a bit less jokingly, the only way to know was to go. I worked up a tink and set it to queue for first think in the morning. I was asking Dad if I could come out for the weekend with some friends and goof off. I thought that would be the best way to approach this. If I rushed out today or tomorrow, it would have upset Mom and it was only Wednesday and my Pranksters wouldn't be able to come til the weekend anyways...

So weekend it would have to be. Weekend it was.

I laid down in bed and prepared to sleep...and couldn't.

Normally, I am out like a light. Dad was the same way. However, this was bothering me too much. So I lay there in bed for an interminable amount of time, or so it seemed. So I started researching the history of the repticulates. I found as much as I knew already, but there was no mention of anything off Earth. This meant the repticulate we found was of new manufacture. Here on Jefferson.

And...I passed out.

I don't know exactly when I did, but I just did.

My sleep wasn't good. I must have had bad dreams, but I woke up exhausted. But at least this time I was awake on time, even a little early. I showered, cleaned myself up, made myself presentable and went downstairs. I grabbed and nuked a piroshka, a cup of tea and plopped myself down. I munched and sipped and then got up to make my lunch. I was up a bit early and Mom normally did this. It was sweet of her, but she didn't need to. I was certainly old enough. And, besides, she was going to have to drag my brother out of bed shortly. That's not a job I'd wish on anyone.

I grabbed a sandwich and, yes, another piroshka. I went to find mom, gave her a hug and went out the door.

I half grumpily trudged my way to school and was debating whether I ought to stop at the coffee shop to actually get a cup of coffee and risk my parents' collective wrath if they found out when I ran into Maven. And her Derplicates. Just what I needed.