This observation made Seth's dark eyebrows furrow. "Huh... you know I haven't either." He said. "You think they have a way to heal them?"
"If they're healing them, why did Morgana seem so upset?" I said quietly and they both turned to look at me. "Upset? I thought she looked fine.." Seth muttered. "I mean, I've seen her when she's really upset. She just seemed a bit scared. Who's not scared when they get called into the Auxilium Center? For all you know they could be making you an automatic reject."
"You don't think that's what they're doing to her do you? Because she's disabled?" Jack asked, her lips pursed in thought.
"No. Storm may have screwed up laws but they're not that screwed up. Like Seth said, they're probably just healing her. Or that might not even be the reason she's going in." I said, tapping my knee with my finger. It's a habit, really. Something I do when I'm absorbed in thought. Jack and Seth were talking behind me but I wasn't listening. A question popped in my head. "Hey Seth, how did you know Morgana's number?" Seth shrugged, a bit embarrassedly. "I used to babysit for her-her Temporary Sighter told me to memorize her number incase something like this happened."
"Temporary Sighter?" Jack inquired. "Yeah. She helped her get places, and get dressed, that sort of thing." Seth replied, "Her name was Genevieve, which Morgana always forgot."
"It's an easy name to forget." I agreed absentmindedly. I'd never heard of Sighters before. I mean, sure, when I lived on earth blind people used service dogs, but I hadn't heard of someone that lives their life following around a disabled kid. It made me a little curious though. I hadn't grown up on Storm so I only did part of my schooling here, so I didn't know a lot about the planet. I graduated when I was fourteen. Don't say I'm all smart and stuff, it's just how Storm works. Unfortunately, you can't actually move out of the Haventown until after your Rejection Test.

The bus came to a stop, a lot smoother than normally. The side doors opened and I climbed out, turning to see Seth right behind me. I peered over his shoulder. "Where's Jack?"
Seth turned around and I walked to his side. Jack hadn't gotten up from her seat. She was staring at something off to the right in horror. Naturally, I followed her gaze.                                                                                                     I guess I was so lost in thought I hadn't heard it until then. The screaming. There was a man in a uniform-one that I recognized as an Auxilium Center uniform.. only it was for the cubing station. The screaming was coming from a little boy-no older than seven by the looks of it. The man was forcing the boy into the bus.                                                                                                                                                                         Jack sprinted over before I could stop her. And what happened next was kind of a blur. Jack was full on attacking the man and I somehow ended up trying to pull her back. Seth was helping too and we managed to restrain her long enough for the bus to leave. "What's the matter with you?" I said, maybe a little too loudly. "908! He-he's 908 Dex!" She said, tearing out of our grasp. "Morgana was 752... They're gonna cube them both! They called them together!...."
"Just calm down, okay? How'd you know that he was 908?" I asked softly. She was really upset about this. Jack looked up, her eyes watering. "He was in some sort of-of jacket.. Like.. A straight jacket, you know? It had the numbers on the collar of it.. Morgana's gonna get.. I'm so sorry Seth.."

Seth kinda just looked up at me. I frowned. "Hey, it'll be alright Jack... Maybe the uniform wasn't what you thought it was-"
"I know what the look like, Dex! You of all people should know that.." Jack said, running her fingers through her golden hair. I gently took her wrist and pulled her into a hug. As she accepted the gesture I noticed a slight look of disappointment on Seth's face...                                                                                                                 "How about we go home, okay?" I said gently, then decided it was best to add something else. "We can show Seth our outstanding dorms."                                                                                                                                                  Jack nodded into my shoulder. "Okay." She murmured. Jack stepped out of the hug, wiping her eyes on her sleeves. "Only if I get to show h-him my dorm first." She laughed weakly. "Because lets face it, mine's better than yours.." I rolled my eyes, hoping to make it a playful gesture. "Our dorms are exactly alike.."
"That's what they want you to think." She said, smiling lightly. Even after that traumatic experience, her eyes still shined. It was something I envied about her.                                                                                                  Yeah, guys want bright eyes too.

I wish I could say how we all stood in wonder at the exterior of Jack's dorm, but it was just so.. normal. Although I will admit, it was bigger than mine. But that's how it always is. The girls always get the better end of the deal here on Storm. Guess all the feminists from Earth caught up to us.                                                

In case you're curious, I'll tell you what the dorm looked like. The outer shell of the building was a light tan, like the tan on the walls of most HOA homes down on Earth. Unlike Seth's dorm, the curve was the roof on our dorms. There were slightly uneven windows sprinkled onto it, most had flowers on the windowsills. The door was white, as were the windows. One of the windows was noticably dirty, splotched with painted warnings. Warnings of what would happen to you if you were to break into that room. I smiled to myself, because I knew those warnings had one exception. Me.                                               

Jack led us to her dorm (which was, in fact, the room with the painted on window.). The interior reminded me of a brown Barbie doll house. There were yellow and pink flowers around every corner, and pictures of fluffy Earth animals everywhere. Anything from mice to panda bears, you name it, they had it. Seth seemed to be mentally taking pictures of everything. Although, not gonna lie, I did the same when I first came here. I had been determined to make me and Jack's friendship last, and I guess it worked.                                                                                                                      We finally turned to Jack's door, which had warnings made from duct tape, since no one was allowed to paint on the exterior of the door. I'll never understand how or why she took the time to make cursive letters out of SpongeBob duct tape.                                                                                                                                   Oh yeah. We still have SpongeBob. Even up here. That guys gonna be around forever.                                                                                       She pressed her hand to the scanner on the door, the let us inside once as it made an approving beep.                                                                                                                                                                                                      I let myself in, completely at home in her room. I used to come here every single day for awhile. I have her whole room down. Her bed is always set perfectly while her floor is a mess, [mostly candy wrappers and clothing] and she has probably fifteen different pillows on her bed alone. She has the most hideous curtains that are covered in cats spitting out hairballs [she bought them just to keep me away when she was mad at me,-long story-and she's never taken them down.]. Her bathroom mirror is coated in eyeshadow, lipstick, and some other make up that I can't identify, besides one small square, where which I assume she actually uses as a mirror. Her trash can is full of CDs of old artists [who uses CDs anymore?] and broken OtterBox cases. How she broke those, don't ask me. She's.. One of a kind.                                                                                                                                                                                                             Seth plopping down on Jack's creaky bed broke me from my thoughts. He seemed to have found Jack's secret stash of Ande's Mints, which even I didn't have access to. She sat beside him, sent him a sweet smile-or maybe it would appear sweet to him-, then she violently ripped the package out of his hands , whacking his head with it as he was just starting to smile back. Yeah, she's one of those people you have to smile back to. And that's when she attacks. She can be quite sneaky.. Seth just had a dumbstruck look on his face as Jack happily munched on the mints. I snickered. You just had to find it funny when someone else was Jack's prey for a change.                                
                                                                                   * * *                        

Almost four days had passed since my test. And Jack was now going through the steps leading up to her test. I was waiting for her outside on one of the benches, just drumming my fingers on my thighs.. The place was deserted.  It was driving my insane. I mean, I'd rather be out here than in there, getting shots, but I swear you could see tumbleweeds rolling out here. It took twenty minutes for her to come out. "Oh, I thought you'd thrown up from the serum or something." I remarked, getting to my feet. When I looked at her face, she looked like she might do just that. "You okay?"
"Just dandy." Jack replied with a slight smile. "You look dandy." I replied sarcastically.
"If I remember right, you were huge baby after your shots. So I'd slim it if I were you." She retorted. I raised my hands in defense. "I'm convinced that they take it harder on men."                                                             Jack snorted. "Then you should've had no problem, considering the fact that you're just a boy."
"Might I remind you that this 'boy' beat you in Monopoly the last five times we played?" I replied smugly.                                                                                                                                                                                                              "Four."                                                                                                                                                                                                                   "What?"                                                                                                                                                                                                           "The last four times. I won when we played after your test."                                                                                                          I paused, counting in my head. "And we played five times after, Jacky Jack. And you know it." I sang, earning an eye roll. "Whatever helps you sleep at night." She replied. "Let's go, we need to get to the race."                                                                                                                                                                                                      "Woah there, I'm not racing." I retorted.                                                                                                                                        "No one's expecting you to, Dex. But I do want you cheering at the finish line, preferably in one of the cheerleader skirts that all those girls wear." Jack teased. I wrinkled my nose. "I would, but pink isn't my color." She laughed. "Yeah, you're right. You're more of a magenta kind of guy."
I playfully shoved her shoulder, "Just thinking about magenta makes me want to puke." I said through a laugh.                                                                                                                                                           "Then I'll make sure to wear it on the day of my test, so if I'm a reject you can puke on the guards so we can make a run for it." Jack said jokingly. I snorted. "Oh yeah, that'd work out well."  
"You never know." She sang, a large grin on her face, but it vanished soon after. "You are coming to my test with me, right?" She asked, watching me.
I nodded. "Of course. Why you need me there, I'm not sure. I mean, I was fine on my own."
She just seemed annoyed by that. "Well, if you don't want to go, I could always ask Devan."
She always knew how to get to me.
"Okay, okay. I'll go. But you owe me big time."
"Sure. Last time you said that, you settled for a scoop of ice cream that had fallen on the floor, so I'm not too worried about owing you." Jack remarked playfully. Why would I eat ice cream off the floor, you ask?
Because it was mint chocolate chip, AKA the best ice cream in the universe.
Yes, I have tried all 31 flavors.

"But this is different! You'll at least owe me... three scoops!" I said.
"Oh, now I'm worried." She said sarcastically. "Okay, but for real, we have to go." She shoved me into the bus, then plopped down on the seat beside me. I made sure to sit by the window, despite how short the drive was. I loved the sky. Sure, the blue skies on earth are pretty and all, but this... Our sky has a fake atmosphere, man made. It reflects the sky around us, which is space. Well, sort of reflects.. You guys on earth would kill to see this, trust me.
It's mostly this dark, blood red, with silver dust throughout it. I can't even begin to explain it's beauty.
I know you're wondering; Do I miss earth? The question almost seems irrelevant. Storm has.. well, everything earth does. Maybe not as many plants, or animals, or well, freedom, but.. I like it here. The people I've met. The fact that I can live on my own, and I have been since I was nine. I love the isolation. Yeah, I technically have a roommate, but it's different. Everyone around me is my age. I don't have to feel the intimidation of adults hanging over my shoulder, making sure I color inside the lines.
I may not have earth's freedom, but I have a freedom of my own, and to me, that's worth more.