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"I can't believe my babies are heading off to be in some big government program," Mom said, sniffling slightly. I couldn't help but find this kind of stupid - she had said the exact same thing on the first day of data school many years again. Since the data eaters were started and run by the government, it still applied.
"It's not that big, I'm guessing," Ianto replied. "We went to a school of about two thousand, and only four of us were selected from that group to go to the Intel Initiative."
"I'm very proud of both of you," Dad said. "It's quite an honor to know that my children have been chosen out of so many in order to go off and help our country. If only I could have made such a difference when I was your age..."
While I loved and respected my parents, I avoided getting involved in this mushy mess. I understood just how big of a deal it was to them - it was just as big of a deal for me, after all - but I didn't want to do be stuck standing there awkwardly. I spotted Ronnie making her way towards us along with her parents and I began to smile.
"Ah, Ronnie," Mom said once she was in earshot. "It's good to see you here. I should have known you'd be a part of this - you're practically a Parr."
Ronnie just smiled, glancing behind to her fathers. The three shared a look that apparently allowed them to communicate without speaking. The next thing I knew, both of her dads were working to distract my parents.
"Thank you, I guess," I said, letting out a laugh.
"This is supposed to be fun. I don't want all of this other stuff making it seem less than fun before it even begins," Ronnie replied. "Then again, Ianto doesn't look like he's in that great of a mood."
My eyes now tracked over to my little brother and I realized that she was right. He was frowning down at a book that he held in his hands. It was that same book about the nervous system that he had carried into my room back on the first day we found out we were in the Intel Initiative.
"He'll have to get over it," I decided. "He's going to enjoy this in the end."
In the back of my mind, I was pretty sure that I knew what was going on. Since this all had to do with data eating, he was afraid that he was going to be forced to delete enormous of data permanently. It would go right to his worst fear, and we both knew it.
Truth be told, I was impressed that he had suppressed his fear from most people for as long as he had. The fact that no one outside our family really knew about it went to show just how good he was at hiding it. You'd think that he might actually not have that big of a fear with how well he could pull it off.
But I knew better. I had seen the pure fear in his eyes when we were children. There's something traumatizing about that, something that no one ever gives it credit for. You can never felt forget true terror, whether it's your own or someone you love.
While my mind drifted away to all of these deep and dark thoughts, Ronnie punched me on the arm.
"You're getting all dewy eyed," she said. "You're not getting sentimental all over this, right? If you're going to cry, I'm going to have to walk away. I'm sorry, Parr, I don't want to deal with that right now."
"I'm not going to cry," I replied, rolling my apparently dewy eyes. They must have watered up when I was staring off into space for several minutes. "Don't worry about it, Truitt."
The time finally came for us to board the train. While Ronnie opted not to look back at her dads - they didn't mind, their goodbyes had already been said and done - Ianto and I turned around with small smiles gracing each of our lips. Mom was teary eyed as Dad took her into his arms, a prideful grin widening his face.
This was exactly what I had been trying to avoid. I tried to erase the scene from my mind as I gave one final wave and turned away from my parents. Now I just had to focus on getting through this without crying. I didn't want to know what Ronnie would do to me if I did cry. I wasn't willing to find out, either.
We climbed in, clutching our luggage tightly in order to get it in faster. We had brought along quite a bit - no one had really given us any information as for what we would need. All we knew was that we were going to be away from home, and that meant that we needed to bring along clothing for a good amount of time.
"We made it," Ronnie announced. "Seventeen years old, and I'm getting out of the house. Well, at least it's a year earlier than most people."
"This is a really nice train," I noted, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat.
"Nice observation, Parr," Ronnie said from behind me. "I hadn't noticed, thanks for telling me."
"Come on. Truitt, you have to admit it's nice!"
"Well, yeah. The government's the one who's spending all their money on it," Ronnie said. "Even if there's fewer people in poverty because of the Reforms, there are still people who are much richer. Then, of course, there's the government."
I just let out a sigh, not willing to say anything more. There wasn't anything I was really willing to fight over. I knew Ronnie had brought the Reforms up just to irritate me. This time, I wasn't going to let her win. She would have plenty of other times to win with the Intel Initiative keeping the two of us together. At least, that's what we were all expecting. No one was really sure of anything.
"Where are we supposed to go?" I asked, hoping that someone would have the answer. "I mean, it's a train and all, but..." I looked over to Ianto, seeing that he held a map in his hands. I didn't understand why he had a map to begin with - it was a train - let alone where it came from, but I decided not to question it.
"It says that our main car is just a few cars up," Ianto said, glancing up from his map.
"Then what are we standing around here for?" Ronnie asked, propping a hand on her hip. "We should go there."
"I agree," I said, a grin widening my face. "We should go see who else is involved in this. They'd probably be over there in the main car, wouldn't they?"
"Ugh, a crowded and stuffy train car filled with kids," Ronnie said.
"Truitt, you are a kid," I said, shaking my head. "We all are."
"Doesn't matter," she replied. While I found this to be a rather subpar attempt at trying to deflect what I had just said, I decided against pressing the matter any further. I found that I had done a good job at upsetting Ronnie in various ways.
"Come on, this way," Ianto said, trying to change the subject away from the matter. Once again, fighting was making him uncomfortable. I couldn't blame him - it was making me rather uncomfortable as well. "It shouldn't be too far away."
We dragged our luggage behind ourselves, moving in a straight line. Ianto led the way, Ronnie behind him, and me following straight behind her. There was room enough for us to all spread out, but we continued in a line anyways. Ronnie wasn't going to move, and neither was I.
When we finally made it to where the main car of the train was, I could only see a little from around the two people and their luggage in front of me. But once they stopped, I was able to step out and see what was going on.
Aside from Ianto, Ronnie, and I, there were five people in the room. One of them was Nell - apparently she had gotten on before us. Somehow I wasn't surprised with my near miss of a storm of tears. But I didn't recognize any of the rest of them. I wondered if anyone else was coming - but I found my question answered very quickly.
The train began moving, causing those of us who were still standing to be jolted momentarily. We adjusted to the movement quickly as it began to accelerate, but we had a bit of a wobbly start.
"Well, that must be everyone," Nell said, beaming. "I doubt that they'd leave anyone behind from such an important government group."
Now that it was clear that we didn't have to worry about anyone new coming, we all began to introduce ourselves, one by one. Ronnie began it all with a genuine smile - she truly looked radiant when she smiled like that, so I didn't understand why she couldn't beam like that more often.
"The name is Ronnie Truitt. If anyone tells you that my name starts with a V, then they're wrong. Doesn't matter if my parents gave me that name at birth. It's not my name. Now, Parr, you go."
Being suddenly pushed into these sorts of situations had never been my strong suit, but I tried to adapt quickly regardless. After all, speed was supposed to be my thing. Besides, I didn't want to give Ronnie another thing to tease me about.
"My name is Alia Parr," I began. "And this is my little brother-"
"I can introduce myself," Ianto grumbled. I let him do just that, shutting myself up. "My name is Ianto Parr."
Everyone nodded politely - we even got a few smiles. But the fact of the matter was, we were surrounded by all sorts of strangers. It was going to take a while to get used to all of this, I was sure of it.
The next person to speak up was a girl with luxurious dark waves and a pretty heart shaped face. "I'm Britta Kelvin," she said. "I'm really glad to be here - even though I'm not really sure what this is all for. I've found everything we've gotten so far to be extremely vague."
"You're not alone," said a boy with dark hair who was sitting across from her. "I'm pretty sure none of us really know what's going on." He realized that he hadn't introduced himself yet, and began to do say. "My name is Everett Wayne," he explained. "So. Has anyone heard anything?"
"I've got a few ideas," Nell said, piping up. Everyone turned around to face her as she announced her name. "Nell Arken here," she said. "Just like Britta, I'm glad to be here. Really."
"Care to explain any of those ideas?" another boy asked, this one with golden hair and shining eyes. "I'm Zeke Rees, by the way."
"Well, nothing's for sure, but I think that we might end up being sent out somewhere in the world," Nell replied.
"You don't think we'd be going to China, do you?" the last boy asked. He announced himself to be Deric Miller, his dark eyes matching his black hair. "I mean, we're this close to war with them." He put his fingers up in order to demonstrate how little distance we had from war. I hated to say it, but he was right.
"I don't know," Britta replied. "It sounds far too risky in my book. Doing anything with China just seems like we'd be trying to make our relations with them even more volatile."
"It seems like it'll have something to do with China, though," Everett sighed.
Ronnie and I looked at one another. While we both knew quite a bit about the situation concerning China, we weren't willing to start analyzing it just because there was a chance it might have something to do with the Intel Initiative.
"Well, we're going to find out precisely what's waiting for us soon," Ianto added in. "There's likely clues to what we're going to be doing - we just haven't noticed them yet. It's not definite, but it seems very likely that's the case..."
"That's a good point, Ianto," Nell said, sending a smile over towards him. I could have sworn I saw him develop a bit of a flush, but he turned his face away before I could examine it any further. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to have noticed it, but no one brought it up.
"There's eight of us," Everett noted, deciding to follow through with noticing little details like Ianto had mentioned. "Four boys and four girls. That can't just be a coincidence."
"I agree," Nell said. "There's got to be some sort of system to it."
"Well, maybe they're trying to follow the Reforms," Ronnie suggested, glancing over towards me mockingly. I marked it down as the second time she had used the Reforms to make fun of me that day - that hour, for that matter. "It must have something to do with equality."
"I don't know about that..." Everett replied.
"You'll have to excuse Truitt here," I said, stepping in front of Ronnie. "She's just trying to mess around with me because she knows how much I respect the Reforms."
"You two already know one another?" Deric asked.
"And Nell and Ianto already seem to know each other..." continued Zeke.
"Since Ianto and Alia are siblings, they must have all gone to the same school!" Everett determined.
I shrugged, not really sure why this was such a big deal. "Yeah, we all went to Ross Academy before we got accepted into this Intel Initiative thing."
"Wait, wait, wait. All four of you are from Ross?" Britta asked, her jaw hanging open.
"No need to be so surprised about it," Ronnie said. "You're looking at some of the best data eaters you've ever met."
Zeke sent a smile over in our direction and said, "And you're looking at some of the best data eaters *you've* ever met."
Ianto didn't seem to be fazed by this at all. In fact, he didn't even seem to notice as he said, "You're trying to say that none of the rest of you came from the same school?"
"Er, no," Deric said. "We're all from different schools."
"Five schools are represented here, but we've got eight of us," said Nell. "That's kind of strange to think about."
"Well, keep thinking about it," Ronnie said. "It seems like we're going to have quite a long trip."
In the frenzy of conversations, I had forgotten that I was traveling on a train. Only the initial burst of speed as the train rushed off felt like movement - now you had to look outside in order to tell that you were moving anywhere. There were no bumps, nothing.
"This is going to be great," I murmured to myself, starting to beam as I looked around the train car. The new faces were gradually beginning to set into my mind. I could feel myself getting used to the surroundings.
But as I continued smiling around at my fellow members of the Intel Initiative, I couldn't help but feel excessively inadequate. It was one thing when I saw that Ianto, Nell, and Ronnie had all been brought in along with me. Now seeing that all of these others were the top of their classes at various other data eating academies, my stomach began to sink.
I was shocked at how simple it was for me to hide away my inner thoughts with all of these people sitting around me. Never had I really labeled myself as much of a liar - but I supposed this was something different. This wasn't a lie. This was a cover, a shield, something to protect my inner emotions.
Everyone had been talking about we were the best data eaters ever. Now that I knew that four of us were from Ross, I felt a little less adequate. The other data eating academies had a similar amount of students - Deric, Everett, Zeke, and Britta had to be the very, very, very best. More than ever it seemed like I had been shoved into this because of Ianto.
Was I ever going to be able to rise up to their standards? Even worse, what would they think of me when they realized just how inadequate I really was? I didn't know half of these people - literally. There were eight of us total, and four of them I knew. Of course, one of these four people were me. For all I knew, I was sitting next to seven of the biggest geniuses in America.
Then again, maybe I was just being melodramatic about it all. My name had certainly been on that letter that brought Ianto and I into the Intel Initiative. If I hadn't been good enough to get in, then I wouldn't have got in. Besides, no one really knew what we were going to be doing. For all we knew, my speedy typing skills might have been more useful than any other skill.
Or maybe I was just in a bout of wishful thinking. Somehow, that didn't seem to be very far out. I closed my eyes and heaved out a sigh, my lips sore from being stuck in a grin for such a long time.
"Parr, stop standing around moping and come over here," Ronnie said, her voice slicing right through my thoughts. "It's going to be a long ride. You might as well sit."
For a moment I just stared at her, realizing that most of the other people in the train car had started staring at me. I didn't think I had been acting that strangely - but then again, I had been spending a little bit too much time with Ianto lately.
I walked over and plopped myself down right beside Ronnie, taking in another deep breath. Who knows how long I'd be stuck with these seven other people? Trying to erase my thoughts, I looked out the window at the blurry world passing by. Goodbye, home.
A/N I didn't put an author's note with this at first. Oops. But anyways, the lovely banner on the side is courtesy of my even lovelier friend Gallixie! Go check her out - she's an amazing writer and also makes killer graphics (such as the cover to this book).
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