July 1, 2008  2:35 pm
St. North Church, Malison
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▫️Enzo:

Every Sunday, Aspen always drags my adopted-dad, Luke, to church. Nothing is more distracting than having Emler drag me to Luke in the middle of a testimony.

Emler had driven me here after school was out. Before that, I was just chilling outside by her car playing on my Net-pad. But now, I am getting dragged by my arm to the front of the church like a witch about to be burned at the stake.

Whoever built this church has put a crap-ton of effort into it, because it has thousands of details etched into marvel on pillars. These carvings were supposed to tell stories, but I never got them. There are also many balconies and benches, made from the finest wood money could buy, for people to sit in so everyone could see the preacher and his choir at the front. The windows are stained glass, depicting scenes from our religion... I didn't get those stories either....

Church is already a struggle to get to, and Aspen always whacks me across the head whenever I'm late. I finally thought this week I could miss it because of the field trip, but turned out fate is not in my favor.

"Take him." Emler shoved me onto the front row with Luke and Aspen. "I'll send you a text about what he did."

The preacher and the congregation just stared at my scene from their many rows of wooden benches, it was so embarrassing.

Aspen looked furious, with her jet black hair hanging around her shoulders in curls and her green eyes piercing mine. She wore a white church dress. It was almost ironic about how scared I was of her based off of her angelic style. Luke looked just like her, short black hair and green eyes that just looked full of hate... yet, were the only thing I could trust. If nobody knew better they would assume they were siblings and not a couple.

"Enzo." Luke whispers hissing at me. "Care to explain?"

"Praises to the highest!" I stand up and started clapping my hands like an idiot. "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" Then I start to sing, man....was my voice terrible. "Every Sunday I come to sing praises with my family, I made sure I would never miss a week! Especially this week Pastor! It's Sunday! Sunday! Rise and shine for he that is glorified-"

"Enzo!" Aspen smacks the back of my head. "Show some respect, we are in church!"

"Aspen," Luke addresses her. "Can you excuse me and Enzo for a moment?"

"Fine," she huffs. "But you better be back, or I will pray for your soul to burn."

"Okay, I will sweetheart. Carry on everyone." Luke waves to the congregation as he drags me out of that awkward situation.

"What is the matter with you?" Luke snaps once the doors closed behind us. "Why do you always have to be such an ignorant, selfish brat and ruin my day date with Aspen?"

"I don't think that's anyways to talk to me in church dad," I sass.

"I will talk to you however I want to talk to you in church. Because I don't care where I end up." Luke pushes me down a small hallway so we are hidden from anyone who might catch us arguing in church.

"Well, neither do I," I say. "So we should just put this whole thing behind us and forgive and forget. I believe we learned that in church last week, but I think you fell asleep in the men's session." I use church against him again.

"Oh....after I get done with ya, you will be caring a lot more about where you end up," Luke threatens me.

"You can't touch me." I strike my words at him like a whip. "Or I will touch you, and you will need to care about where you end up!"

"I could cut your hand off." Luke snuck me a peek of a blade he had hidden in his coat. "Your move stupid, what are you gonna do with one hand, and a pool of blood?"

"I would-" I tried to think of something, but in this game, my hands are off and I'm probably lying on the floor bleeding to death while crying for Aspen to help me. "Umm..."

"I win." Luke grabs my arm and drags me out the main doors into the parking lot. "I'm taking you home."

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"This school was supposed to be a good start." Luke lectures me the whole way back. "You promised you would be a good kid. You promised I wouldn't hear about anything here... what am I suppose to do with a brat like you?"

"I am a good kid!" I sat in the front seat beside Luke, I didn't dare meet his gaze. "It just that everyone hates me and I have no friends, and my life is the absolute worst." I stare out the window at the high buildings we passed on our way home. There were people everywhere, either going to church or coming home from church. Most of Malison was very religious, but there was a few like Luke and me who just didn't care.

"Now, now." Luke pats my shoulder. "This isn't about who your real dad is. Nobody cares about that, this is about how you are treating and acting around others."

"It's about my real dad," I insist. "Everyone calls me Seven Junior or Villain in Development."

"That's not because of your father," Luke tries to assure me. "It's just-" He paused. He couldn't think of anything, his eyes just stay focused on the road.

"You don't have anything to say because it's true." I stare at my reflection in the side mirror. I look so different from my father, but I am the same person. His DNA flows through my blood, making him literally in every part of me. "I feel like the world is against me."

"Enzo," Luke sighs.

"Just listen to me! I touched someone and I think they died but I don't know because I was too afraid to check. I don't want to kill people."

"What are you going to do with your life to make sure that doesn't happen then?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure what I want to be yet." I feel tears coming into my eyes, wanting to fall, but I can not show I am weak. I look away from Luke and go back to looking out the window. We have almost made it home, I can see the forest in the distance.

"I was thirteen when I decided to be a neurosurgeon," Luke tells me. "It took me five years to get through that course, I was the fastest to graduate in history. It's okay that you don't know what you want to do, I barely knew what I wanted to do at your age."

He was only a year older than me when he knew what he wanted to do. I can't help but feel like I need to compete with all my uncles and aunts who skipped grades and graduated college before they were eighteen.

"But my father did," I argue, looking at him once before gazing out the window yet again.

Malison was a lot like most of the planets in the universe. It had a dark blue sky and forest green grass... but most of Malison was just one big city covering the whole planet. We use to have wheat farms but those were destroyed to build a new public school, Akko Academy... which is probably where I will be attending next... since it is the only school I haven't been kicked out of yet. The city line stretched up for what felt like forever, each building had about a hundred floors. Fountains line the streets, bright lights shined across cars... you could never tell when it was dark outside, it was so bright in the city you would have to look up to see the stars to tell if it was the night. The biggest building on Malison was the Zodiac Family mansion, located on the giant hill just outside of town. This is where every Zodiac lived in our giant messed up family. That's where Luke was taking me, it was in the middle of everything, and on the edge of the dense, vast forest, so everyone could see and remember us like we were some great legacy from a history book.

As I looked out the window I saw something catch my eye. There were figures on the street in uniforms that I wasn't familiar with. They wore navy blue cloaks with ruby red shirts. I couldn't see their faces, they had a hood covering them. But they were making quite a hurry to get through the crowd.

"Who are those people?" I asked, pointing to the mysterious figures. "Are they new to the military?"

"Those are Zodiac Rangers," Luke tells me. "They work under Ames, his brilliant idea actually. Those who possess the Zodiac DNA that can control their powers go off to do business for our planet, whether that's fighting in a war, or simply going to propose a treaty, or so door to door collecting taxes. Either way, they make our lives a lot easier, especially in the fight against Seven."

"I thought we Zodiacs aren't supposed to use our powers?" I say as I study them.

"We aren't, but they get to with special permission," Luke explains as he waits for the stop light.

"How many are there?" I ask out of curiosity. "Where did they come from?"

"Just enough, Ames gives Mike and I names of those that fail the Malison 12 exam. We go collect them from their homes and they start their job. They train at cheap public school, Akko Academy, which is where you are going to school next because it's the last school on Malison that you haven't gotten expelled from."

Bingo! I guessed right! Show me my prize.... wait- I get no prize. I got expelled, this is a punishment. The only plus side to all this expelling is that I haven't been in a school at the time they take the Malison 12 exam. The Malison 12 exam is a special test where you get locked in a room for three days and you need to write an essay answering a question posed by the instructor. This testing is very dangerous, people have died of starvation, stress, and lack of sleep. Only 100 of the thousands of students that take the test pass. It must be a very frustrating environment, which is why I am happy I haven't gotten a chance to take it. I would probably fail since I can't write to save my life.

"So others can become like us?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's rare though," Luke says. "Almost everyone dies during the DNA part. But you are just going to train to be like military... maybe you will pick up some good traits." He mumbles that last part but I hear it and it still stung in my heart. I won't ever make him proud.

"Huh," I ponder as I watch them knock on a door. These guys were probably tax collectors.

The stoplight turns green and Luke drives away from those fascinating people. How cool would it be to be that... I would love doing that. It would be way better than being a disappointment with legs. I kept my eyes peeled for more wandering through the streets of Malison as Luke drove through all roads, traveling back to our giant house. But I never saw any more.

Our house was more like a hotel than a house. We had a long driveway, that Luke parked the car on, by the marble staircase that leads to our front door. Red flowers far from their home across the universe blossomed along the pathways as I got out of the car. Even though it was surrounded by the city, the only forest left on Malison cut through our backyard, like our own private area to relax in nature.

I walk from the car up the steps and see a package on the front porch. "Luke!" I yell and hold up the small package for him to see. I could almost guarantee he rolls his eyes before getting out of the car and running up to me.

"If this is a bunch of middle fingers again..." Luke mutters as he takes out his knife and opens the box. We are both hit with the smell of day old fingers. I gag a bit as Luke quickly closes the box. "I swear..." Luke huffs under his breath as he walks to the big garbage can to throw away the box. "Whoever keeps sending these I am going to kick them into next week!"

After throwing the nasty box away, Luke walks back to his car, but before getting in he looks at me. "I'll be back to talk to you later." Luke directs me. "Go inside, go straight to your room, think about everything you did. I'm going back to Aspen."

I nod my head and Luke drives away in the sports car. Once he was out of sight I ran into the backyard along with a stone path into the woods behind the house. As I travel deeper into the forest I come across my favorite spot to sit and think. A metal bridge with a crystal clear deep river running smoothly under it. The old thing cracked and rusted each time I a took a step. The thing I like about this bridge is that it doesn't connect me to my father, same with this whole forest.

Luke never told me anything about my father and these trees. I'm glad my dad and I don't share another similar interest. That's the last thing I need right now.

I rest my arms on the railing and let all my feelings fade as I listen to the water scrape against the stones, carving out the path of the riverbed. This is my happy place, where I can come and feel peace in my mind after every rough day.

My fingers move up to my deck and search for something. They pull out a necklace from around my neck. It has a small piece of silver metal I found by a tree about ten feet away from where I stood now. The metal piece was round and made into a point on one end and the other end was flat. On one side of the metal was a red stain, probably from the soil. I found this metal piece to be fascinating. I was bored one day and decided to make the piece of metal into a necklace to wear, so I would always have a piece of my happy place with me.

I can't believe I ruined my chances at another school. Again.

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Hey!! Thanks so so much for reading my book! You all are so amazing!
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Have a heavenly day everybody!
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