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The man in brown gets up, “Do not worry. The teachers know and the school has rescheduled any tests you need. You will be ok but for the bruises. Thankfully our People’s Medical Center was close by and were able to treat you right away.”
The person walks out leaving Alexis confused. Zara stirs some whimpering in pain but thankfully returns to silent sleep.
The next few days she is allowed back to school. Her room’s furnishings have been replaced from whatever happened. She has her room to herself for a few days and has Ghim came over most of the night. They enjoy the adult entertainment unit channels using Zara’s account. Alexis giggles over it as the girl would scream over it if she were present being more frigid then Alexis by all accounts.
Alexis makes it back to her dormitory room later then normal a week after her accident. Her roommate returned the day before. Looking over as she takes off her white sweater she notices a message light on her communications unit. Not expecting any messages from her father or anyone else she curiously clicks to see who left it. The message is not what she expects to ever have heard.
The young woman sits down with a thud of surprise. Acceptance it says, she was accepted and never even put in a request for it. She checks the message reading the information while her brain is slowly taking it in. There is a list of puzzling things she must do. Alexis mutters to herself as she reads some of it. “All physical possessions must be disposed of. One bank account with all her wealth put in to Central Bank.” She took a look out of the window at the boring sight of straight lines of roads filled with the same sort of vehicles and buildings all with the same bland facade. It was so fake, but in a few weeks she would be gone from here.
She has much to do and her first priority is her father. The pudgy woman dresses in the off campus yellow uniform. The communal tram takes her a few hours to get there. Alexis walks in while he is at home drinking a depressant. His place is spartan in furnishings as always and very impersonal. At least he keeps it clean.
The woman looks to the man, “Father I have been giving an assignment to go on a RX-34.”
The man looks up from the drink wearing a rumpled tan suit. “So they are sending you.” He never asks her a question, but gives her a statement that almost always rings true. “And you want my help.”
“Yes, I want some information on it. I know you can get it to me.” She swirls her hair in her right hand as she talks to him feeling like a child younger then her years.
“I will have it on a dataslate in the morning. I will leave it here for you.”
Alexis blinks, “You are going back to work tonight?”
“It is my job. I have two experiments that should be completed by then. It is late you need to go to school still. You can sleep in the spare bedroom” The man turns and refills his glass.
Alexis knows when she has been dismissed and goes to what was her old room. It is left as she had it when she went off to school. Inside are many items she left when she moved to the larger school. She smiles looking over many remembering the past.
She wakes from the bed that still feels large to her. Even after all these years the old bed still makes her feel like a child.
She goes out and can see her father’s door is closed signifying he is asleep. She goes and gets a morning ration of pills and a protein bar. The dataslate is on the table. She checks it as she eats finding the information very complex.
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Thankful as Alexis is she knows her father and just leaves without seeing him. She leaves him a message on the table, he might get it a month later when he notices it.
The trip back makes her miss her classes but she does not care. She goes to her dorm room and looks around at her possessions. Walking around her place she wonders what to do with all the stuff. It has taken her a lifetime to gain it.
Her first stop is her cloths. She opens up the drawers and just tossing all out on to the open middle floor area. It’s almost like a tantrum she keeps tossing her stuff in to the middle of the room. A giggle bubbles up as she is doing this. Favorite items and keepsakes along with just the everyday items that are needed go in a pile. The mound is large but Alexis thought her life would have more.
Plopping down the pudgy woman starts to toss items in to the trash or on her bed. She has to empty the trash receptacle many times before she is done. Her bed has less then two weeks of clothes and a few items for friends in the end. She ends up giving a few items to her roommate when Zara finds the mess.
She leaves a few items that she feels her father would want including a small icon of mother she kept. The first thing she does is get those items mailed to him.
She has a bag of other items and a case that gets more and more empty as the school day goes on. One class she is met with by some of the more popular girls.
Alexia, “Well if it isn’t the other Alex.” The blonde gets a sarcastic tone, “What are you doing?”
Alexis glares at her but finds Gramie behind her preventing her from getting away easily. “What do you want Alexia?”
Alexia gives that wickedly sweet smile, “I was just wondering why you were giving all those gifts to everyone out of the blue. Trying to buy popularity?” She mocks, “Like it would work.”
The short woman smiles and offers a case that has been her ‘science project’ from a few weeks ago. “I wouldn’t open it till you are in your room.” Alexis has one of her smiles as her foot stamps down slightly behind her and Gramie yelps in pain. The short woman takes the opportunity to get out of there. The girls yell a bit as she dashes out of the classroom. She decides not to come back to class since she doesn’t need to anyways. She gives away the last few items over the week.
At her room she has been reading on the RX-34. It is not as modern as the RX-40 design that has been undergoing testing this decade but looks to be very reliable with well-proven technology. They have been around for over two centuries and the dataslate is crammed full of information. News reports she has found reports that over 40 of them returned. By her time to leave she has mostly read or at least scanned over the data.
Zara has been out of it this last week and finally the drugs have cleared from her to notice the change. She still has a limp, “What are you doing?”
Alexis smiles, “Moving out.”
“You pack stuff not throw it out or give it away when moving.”
Alexis feels a need to chat more with the girl. While she has never been close to her the knowledge she will not see her again gives her impudence to say more. “Well I am going pretty far away.” She replies, “How are your injuries from the accident?”
Zara frowns, “I am well. We buried the two that didn’t make it a week ago.”
“Not much I can say about them. I wish I could remember why I was going with you zealots to some party.”
Zara holds up her religious tome. “If I had more time you would join us properly.”
Alexis laughs, “Not likely. I am sorry for their deaths still.”
“They will be missed. As the Prophet says…”
Alexis interrupts her, “The Prophet should take one of their places not say stuff.”
“That is mean. He has much work to do.”
“Whatever. He say words over them?”
“He is in hiding. The State will not allow him to openly preach. Time changes many things and one day his sermons will reach every corner of our great nation.”
“If you say so. It behooves me to say this but I might miss you.”
“I will pray for you.”
The trash receptacle and the recycler takes the last few items she owns leaving her with just the yellow clothes on her back and a dataslate to read when the time is done. Her account has not much in it but it will build up over the time she will be out on the ship. She goes around and says goodbye to her few friends before leaving.