Pause

Chapter 3

Kids crowded the hallway, leaning against their lockers or sailing to first hour. More than one elbow jabbed me in the side. Constant chatter, shouts, and sharp laughter stabbed my ears. I gnawed the inside of my cheek and walked faster.

No clear path led to an exit in school. That was part of the reason I hated it so much. Too many people. Not enough space to run if I needed to, and I always needed to. Running didn't wear me out. It fueled my inner batteries so I could function. Vivian used to say I was a wild animal who refused to be caged.

My gaze darted to the faces of the students, hoping I didn't see an old, wrinkled one eyeing me over people's shoulders. But all I saw was youth. They looked like stars in another Pause advertisement, which I was glad it wasn't, because otherwise I would be nowhere near here. Still, the sight of all that young skin soothed my nerves. I hated how superficial that made me sound and - what was the word? - ageist, but none of my classmates had shown up unannounced in my backyard yesterday either.

Leland hadn't caught him.

Four bodyguards sent by Leland showed up at my house just as the sun painted pink ribbons across the sky this morning. They were outside watching the school, which made me feel a bit better. The bodyguards were Mom's idea. Since she had no idea where one daughter was, she was just a little protective of me

A stream of kids flowed into the business classroom in front of me. Elizabeth waved me over to our seats near the front, as close to the exit as I could get. Her dark eyes caught the fluorescent lights and twinkled excitement back. She gave a pointed look at the front of the room, and I followed her gaze. A substitute stood next to the video screen, arms folded so he could flex his piles of biceps. I tried not to snort as I sat.

"We got the hotty substitute," Elizabeth whispered, a smile playing on her mouth. "The class next door got some old lady."

"You've got a little..." I pointed to my chin. "Elizabeth, you're drooling. Stop."

She fingered the thick braid that hung down her back. "I can't help it." Her voice sounded dreamy, distant.

That time I did snort. "Whatever."

The bell rang, and the substitute's biceps unfolded. "Mrs. Humphrey is sick. You've just started coming up with your own business model. Continue with that."

The whole class mumbled complaints, then shifted seats into their assigned groups.

"Well, see ya'." I stood and made my way to the corner with a sigh. Away from the only exit.

"Mm-hm," Elizabeth said behind me. She was still mentally undressing the substitute.

I hated my assigned group. Hated with a capital H. That brunette girl, whatever her name was, wore too much flowery perfume and leaned over the table so everyone could peek underneath her low-cut shirt. Across from her sat the new guy she licked her glossed lips at, the one who always wore flannels and dark sunglasses. His name was Ryan something or other. And finally, the guy who contributed the most drool to the group rested his head on his desk, snoring.

With a sigh, I sank next to the brunette.

Ryan nodded at me. "Late night?"

I shrugged, and I could see my shoulders hitch in the reflection of his sunglasses. Did I look like I'd had a late night? "Sort of." I busied myself with pressing my thumb against one of the table's embedded computer screens.

But Ryan didn't look away. I could feel his gaze in the prickle of my stomach.

The brunette cleared her throat. "So, anyway. Would you talk to your parents about me? Make sure they know how hardworking and dependable I am?" She curled a strand of hair around a finger and batted her eyelashes.

Ryan glanced at her, then slid a notebook over the surface of his computer screen. No one used real notebooks anymore. Not in 2044. Skulls and monsters illustrated the cover, but he tipped it into his lap before I could get a closer look.

"I'll talk to them, Larissa." He thumbed his computer screen. "But in the here and now, I know who we shouldn't model our business after."

"Hmm." Larissa leaned farther over her desk like she was about to lick his sunglasses.

"Pause."

The name didn't even come out of my mouth, but a bitterness stabbed into my tongue as if it had. Maybe because the word was spit out, like Ryan could taste the sour, too.

"They control the city's water when water is a basic human right. We get fined if we use more than our share while they're taking it and turning it into a huge profit." Ryan shook his head. "And the Earth can't support everyone if fewer people are dying if they're drinking Pause. It's not the natural way of things."

Larissa rolled her eyes. "But don't you want to live forever? That's why I want to get a waitressing job. So I can earn enough tips to afford to be perfect and young forever." She looked at him under the fringes of her bangs. "Unless you think I'm already perfect..."

Ryan took a pen from the spirals in his notebook and clicked the top again and again. No one used pens anymore. Who was this guy? "What do you think about Pause, Jasmine?"

My reflection stared back at me from his sunglasses. Out of the corner of my eye, Larissa's smile faltered. Maybe Ryan ignoring her wasn't quite the answer she was looking for.

"I want to blow up the Pause building." The words rolled out before I had time to think. That summed up my feelings about the company, but it wasn't the most politically correct thing to say.

Apparently my group members agreed. They both stared at me, stone silent. Then Ryan clicked his pen faster and grinned, and it deepened the dimple in his chin.

Heat crept into my cheeks. "I'm just kidding," I mumbled.

"Right." Larissa dismissed me with a wave of her hand. "Anyway. Back to your parents and the restaurant."

"How about we get back to our project instead?" Ryan asked.

"Let's," I said.

With a series of shared looks and more clicking of that damn pen, Ryan and I steered Larissa away from Pause's business model. Our new plan gave natural resources back to the people by contributing a portion of our profits to dig fresh water wells all over the world. What a crazy concept. A business model that could actually help people? The horror! When Ryan came up with that idea, I couldn't help my smile.

A minute or two before the bell rang, we called it good enough for the day. I tried not to gag as Larissa stuck out her chest, pretending to stretch. Behind me, Elizabeth threw glances over her shoulder at the substitute who hadn't budged from the front of the room. Her group still worked but mostly argued, so I was stuck here.

The overhead lights faded in and out, throwing quick shadows over the room before the fluorescents won again. Everyone looked up, as if to see what trick they would do next.

I caught my reflection in Ryan's sunglasses again. He clicked his pen in short bursts and pauses. It took all I had not to snatch it away from him. A slow grin spread across his mouth, but it wasn't for me. It looked like he'd just figured out a punch line, but I never heard the joke.

The bell rang. Even though my group sat at the back table, I got to the exit first. I needed to get far away from Larissa's perfume and Ryan's mad clicking and grin dimple. Elizabeth would understand my sudden escape. She always did.

I hurried down the hallway to the bathroom as fast as the gush of students would let me. The heavy door blocked out the stir of noise and craziness behind me.

Flowery perfume clouded the air above the sinks, smelling just like Larissa's. I lifted the collar of my shirt to cover my nose. Someone had sent Jane, whoever that was, to hell via a lip-sticked message scrawled across all the mirrors. So nice of them. That would surely get the job done.

I sighed into my shirt and pressed my thumb against the door of the last stall. A green laser scanned it, and the door clicked open. This was to monitor our toilet habits. I wished I was kidding. If we flushed more than five times per day at school, we were rushed to the nurse. It was because of the whole water-conservation thing enforced by Pause. They should've just given us porta-potties and called it good.

Just as I finished my business, something clattered in the next stall over.

I jumped.

Silence. Until a voice right outside my door growled, "Icaries's shoes. Found you, Jasmine, and this time you can't run."