The Dome Chronicles: Lies

Six

As I walk back into school on Monday, I'm surrounded by people, mostly my friends, asking about the triplets.

Besides the short little text conversation we had, they don't know anything about them.

"Hey Freaya, what did your parents name the triplets?" Kat asks eagerly.

"How are they? What are their names?" Nadya questions, her eyes wide.

"How was your weekend?" I look to my right. Hawk has a giant grin on his face.

He knows that too many questions about a subject, especially a new sibling, can stress me out. We've been friends since level 2, so he knows that sometimes my anxiety can get the best of me.

"It was good." I smile back. "Yours?"

"Pretty good." He shrugs. "My oldest sister came back from college. That was nice, I guess."

Hawk has two older sisters, one in college and one two years older than us, a level 12.

"Is Natasha looking forward to being done with intermediate school?"

"Yeah." He chuckles. "She's looking forward to 'beating level 12'." He makes the finger quotes as he says it.

"It's always amusing when someone finishes a level of school. It sounds like a video game." I reply.

"Yeah. My locker's over here. I kinda think you knew that already though." He winks. "I'll see you later."

"See ya," I reply, and then go the other way towards my locker.

Once I get to my locker, I do the fingerprint scan and hear a click. I hear the automated voice system inside my locker say "Welcome, Freaya Johnson."

"Thank you," I say back sarcastically even though I know it can't hear me.

The one thing I can't stand is when people call me Freaya Johnson. Parker is the last name I was born with, but at my school, if you have two last names they go with the one that's more toward the beginning of the alphabet, so at school my last name is Johnson.

Just one more reason to hate the school system.

I pull my Segway out of my locker.

Since we like to keep things classy here at Nicholas Johnson Jr. intermediate school, everyone gets a Segway to roll around in during the day. They replaced the stairs with ramps a long time ago so it would work. They also painted lanes so the traffic is divided and no one crashes into each other.

In case you're wondering, yes, the school is named after my stepdad. It can get a bit embarrassing being his step-daughter because everyone knows who you are.

I turn my Segway on and it greets me with a smiley face on the tiny screen in between the handlebars. It, too, says "Welcome, Freaya Johnson."

I hate my school.

I put my books for my first few classes in my bag and sling it over my shoulder, then slam my locker door. I hear the automatic voice say "ow. That hurt." I can't help but giggle. They try to make the tech here as realistic as possible, which can sometimes be funny.

I steer my Segway in the direction of my first class, which is Level 10 Advanced Geometry. I absolutely hate math, especially geometry. No matter what anyone says, unless you're a graphic designer or something, you won't have to use math involving shapes in real life.

Since Friday was the end of the term, all of the classes switched around, which means I have a new teacher and classmates. I hope some of my friends are in it.

I roll down a series of ramps to the first floor and find the room I'm supposed to be in. When I reach it, I already notice Hawk, who had scooted in just before me.

"Hey, Hawk." He turns around and smiles when he sees me.

"Hey!" He exclaims. He smiles and I can't help but think it's cute. We're just friends but sometimes his dimples and perfectly shiny white teeth just get to my head.

"Where's your cube?" I ask him.

"Last column, second from the back. Where's yours?"

"Second to last column, second from the back. We're neighbors!" I grin.

Our learning cubes are like the office cubicles you see in big company buildings, except much smaller and with a door. They also extend all the way up to the ceiling so there's absolutely no air coming in there.

Very smart.

"Well, I should go and get my stuff ready. I'll see you later." I roll my Segway towards my cube and park it, then get off, enter the cube, sit down and start organizing my books. The screen in front of me is black, which means that the teacher hasn't turned her camera on yet.

I get out my math book and tablet and stare at the homework that was supposed to be due today.

I have no idea what I am doing. I tap the button on the right side of the screen and hope for the best. If the words "Calling admin" appear on the screen, it means that the teacher turned her camera on. If it does nothing, she didn't.

I wait for a little bit and then the words appear on the screen. A split second later, I see my annoyed teacher's face appear on the screen.

"Who's cube is this? What do you want? What's your name?" She questions.

She reminds me of a lady from an old movie called the Incredibles.

I think her name was Edna.

I can tell by her tone of voice that she's already done with children, even though first period hasn't even started.

"My name is Freaya Parker and I have questions on the homework. My cube number is 24."

"Well, Freaya Parker, there was no homework. I have no idea where you're getting your questions from."

She sighs and I see her push the end call button, then my screen goes black.

I lean back in my chair and sigh myself. There are only two more months of school left. I got this.

Suddenly, I hear the speaker in my cube turn on and then I hear feedback. I cover my ears because my speaker is turned up all the way. Whatever i***t before me that decided to do that clearly thought they were funny.

They're not.

"Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?" I hear tapping, then more feedback.

Suddenly, the screen turns on and an older lady's face appears.

"Can all of you see me?" She asks. I hear the other students chime in and mumble, "Yes."

"Great. This new-fangled technology, I swear." She turns on the Plasma behind her, which is what she teaches from. "Before we get started, I might as well tell you a bit about myself. My name is Mrs. Willis and I'm a long term sub for Mrs. Cox, who just had her baby last week. I'll be here for the rest of the year." She pauses and I hear some shuffling. She's getting out the sub plans that Mrs. Cox left for her. I see her turn her face back towards the screen.

"I'm proud to say that I have been married to my wonderful husband, Ben for over 50 years. We have 5 kids and 16 grandkids." She boasts proudly. I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to brag but she did nonetheless.

Ha, I think to myself. 5 kids? That's nothing. Try 12 on for size.

"Well, I guess the screen is on now. Let's start this thing, shall we?" She pulls up the notes on the Plasma.

"First off, we have some definitions to go over for this lesson. Since we're doing volume, we also have formulas for each shape..." I hear her drone on as my eyes start to close. I was up late last night because Rilynn wouldn't stop shrieking. Apparently, my mom and Nicholas thought it would be great to put all three of the triplets in the kids' room during the night, which is when they are most active.

The next thing I know, Mrs. Willis is saying "And that concludes the lesson for today. I'll give you the homework now. If I can find it."

I hear some other kids snicker and then she goes "Ah-ha! Here it is! I'll send it into your guys' little box things or whatever."

One kid chimes in "They're called learning cubes who even are you?"

Mrs. Willis looks straight into the camera and growls, "Do not talk to your teacher like that or I will have you down to the office in two skips and a whistle." The phrase she uses is old fashioned which is why I hear some kids giggle. She is so done with our class right now that she doesn't even care.

I see a piece of paper come through the homework slot and grab it. I take one look at it and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and cry.

After 30 minutes of not-so-productive work time, the bell rings. I exit my cube and realize how hot it was in there. I always forget to turn the fan on.

Second and third periods pass by painstakingly slowly and by the end of the third, I'm starving. Thank goodness it's lunchtime.

I decide on the way out of the third period that it's not worth it to waste my time trying to figure out this assignment during lunch.

Food is definitely more important, I think as I roll out of the classroom and into the lunchroom on my Segway.