I slapped my bedside alarm and yawned sitting up. My bed creaked underneath me and I winced slightly, traces of pain still shooting through my back. Eric was already getting ready, slipping into his shirt. I sighed and stood up.
“Good Morning Lucas” he said.
“Morning” I replied moodily. Eric looked me up and down.
“You going to be ready in time? I’m pretty sure we have to be on the bus in thirty minutes” he said. I groaned again.
“I’ll be fine” I said, stepping into the bathroom. I grabbed my toothbrush and started the shower, before glancing in the mirror. I looked stupid. My pyjamas barely fit me anymore thanks to this stupid growth spurt that had happened over the past week. I’d always wanted to be taller, but growing four inches in the span of two weeks wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. People hadn’t really said anything to me, not that I really spoke to anyone but Eric, but they’d definitely noticed. I was nearly as tall as Quinten now, which was saying something. He’d let me borrow spare shirts, and trousers, but I definitely needed to get new clothes. All my casual wear was too small, and it was starting to get embarrassing.
-
A group of students stood outside the back of the school filling onto a coach. Mrs Jane waved students on, ticking names off her list as she went. I stood behind to Eric, hunched as he excitedly talked to Rachael about the trip. Jaden stood next to Quinten talking with him. Fortunately, Keiko was talking to Jada further ahead in line, so I didn’t have to worry about either of them. Someone accidentally jabbed me with an elbow, and I yelped, straightening out as a sprite of pain lance through my back.
“Oh Sorry” the guy behind me said. I shot him a glare and didn’t say anything else.
“Hey, are you taller than me?” Rachael said, turning to me. I shrugged and mumbled a groan.
“He definitely is. He grew like half a foot in the past week. He’s just slouching all the time, so it’s hard to notice. It’s crazy” Eric said. Rachael frowned at me.
“I don’t believe this. Stand up straight” Rachael said, staring at me.
“I’m good” I replied. Rachael rolled her eyes and went back to conversation with Eric. We slowly filed onto the bus, and I found myself sitting towards the front, next to the window seat.
The bus started after a quick talk from the teachers, and we made our way through the early morning New York traffic. I watched the buildings as we passed through the streets. They were still doing construction work on the road I’d obliterated, and there was black tarp over the buildings the ski speedsters had ruined. It felt weird being in a bus. I’d gotten small glimpses of New York from my escapades as spider, but never really from the street. It was like I was rediscovering the city. Pretty cool to see the buildings from below rather than above. Really made me think about how high some of the buildings I’d been on were.
The best pulled into a parking spot, and the teachers had us quickly file off the bus. I looked up at the fantastical piece of architecture we’d stopped outside. It was a modern behemoth, with lots of reflective glass, and a uniquely modern style the building definitely stood out. The Bederson Research Centre. A more than recent science centre established in the city of New York dedicated to creating renewable energy and solving ecological problems. I didn’t know what architect had designed it, but it had definitely been a famous one.
“Alright everybody, we’re going to start with a guided tour of the museum area, and then some of the labs. You’ll be allowed to explore on your own after we’ve had lunch. Listen to all the instructions you’re told, for your sakes and ours, and if you have any problems please tell us. Understood?” Mr Tanner said to the group.
“Understood Mr Tanner” everyone said in unison. We walked down the road to the entrance of the building. The large marble steps leading to the arching, yet rigid structure of the entrance didn’t exactly feel welcoming, but who was I to judge.
The group made its way up the stairs and towards the reflective glass doors. I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass and straightened out slightly. I looked seriously moody slouching so much. I wrapped a curl of my hair around my finger, brushing it away from my eyes. I really needed a haircut as well.
We stepped inside, the lobby a wide and open modern space. Off to the right there were artifacts hanging from the ceiling and a statue of Bederson outside the entrance to the museum, with a large plaque that I could barely read with my improved vision. The father of nuclear energy. Now that was a title. The statue in the lobby was a bit much, but I guess if you were as prolific as Jack Bederson people made monuments for you. I mean the place had been built in his memory after all.
I yawned as we made our way over to the museum entrance, glancing up at the artifacts tethered to the ceiling. They were large overlapping hollow spheres with an empty socket in the centre. They looked scientific, but old. They were probably World War Two fission cores. I didn’t bother to read the plaques on the wall to find out the specifics.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
We stopped outside the entrance to the museum, a group of tour guides greeting us. They all wore blue polo shirts with BRC initialled in gold on the chest.
“Hey everyone!” a bright and excited bespectacled olive-skinned brunette said, with a bit too much cheer. “Welcome to the Bederson Research Centre. I’m Izzy”
“Jason” A fair skinned tall blonde-haired guy said stepping forward.
“Hayden” A mid height dark skinned guy with a buzz cut said.
“I’m Peter” a shorter brown haired guy said raising a hand awkwardly.
“And I’m Gwen” a short blonde said stepping forward. “We’ll be your tour guides today. We’ll be able to go in once we’ve sorted out groups. I do have to inform you that the cinema room is closed due to a few technical issues, so we won’t be able to watch the short documentary as expected. Sorry about that. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy today’s tour anyway” she said turning to glance back at the other guides, nervously.
Great. We’d been stuck with a bunch of newbies and weren’t even getting the full tour. So much for getting our money’s worth.
“Alright everyone” Ms Jane said turning to us. “There’s 30 of you so get into groups of six.” I glanced at the others. I didn’t mind if I wasn’t in their group, but I didn’t know who else I’d group with apart from them. Eric seemed to take the hint.
“I’ll stay with Lucas” he said.
“I will too” Quinten said moving to stand next to me. I frowned.
“It’s not a bad thing you know” I said annoyed. Quinten rolled his eyes, as Jaden moved next to him.
“You can go with Keiko and Jada if you want” Eric said uncertainly to Rachael. She frowned at him and sighed, before huffing and making her way over to them.
“Well she didn’t seem happy” I said. Quinten elbowed me and I felt a slight spark of pain.
Cole and Callum joined our group, and we were assigned to Gwen, the blonde. Our group left first, making our way down a small snaking hallway with matt black walls and sparkling small lights that emulated stars. Gwen talked about the mission of the research centre and something else but I couldn’t be bothered to listen, boredom already drowning out my surroundings. I’d signed up for the trip out of curiosity and from a day off school, but now all I felt was apathy. The past few days had been pretty boring, and today didn’t feel any different.
We made our way down one of three corridors and up a set of stairs. We exited the starlit hallway into an even larger open area with a high ceiling, and white walls. There were exhibits and monuments littering the hall, with pictures covering the walls.
“Welcome to the Bederson hall of history. This part of the museum is dedicated specifically to the father of nuclear energy, and the history behind his discovery before and during the Manhattan project” Gwen said, a small smile playing across her face. Well, at least someone was enthusiastic.
-
I lay down on a bench taking up all the seating space. We’d mostly finished the tour, and were taking a quick toilet break. The Bederson halls of history had been pretty boring, just stuff we’d learned in class with a few bits of framed memorabilia for show. The history of sustainable energy had been a lot more interesting, but still nothing you couldn’t read off the internet. Right now we were halfway through the history of ecological research which was just a mess. I don’t know if they’d expected to have more than three exhibits because I had no idea what was going on in this section. You had animal research history, climate change history, and some stuff about energy again. It was like a mishmash of random things they couldn’t fit elsewhere. There’d even been a project by someone from our school a few years back for recycling that was still up.
I sighed.
“Uh, you okay?” a semi-concerned voice asked. I leaned my head slightly to see Gwen, our tour guide standing over me slightly.
“I’m fine” I replied turning back to the ceiling.
“Oh ok. If you feel sick or anything, just let me know. Ok?”
“Will do” I replied sighing again. I blew my hair out of my face again and caught her still looking at me concerned.
“What?” I said with more anger than I’d expected.
“Sorry for staring. You probably get that a lot. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with heterochromia in person before” she said chuckling nervously. I frowned.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
She raised an eyebrow looking at me quizzically.
“Your eyes. They’re different colours” she said.
I jumped up, reaching for my face. The tour guide stared at me confused so I bolted for the toilet before things got weirder. I stopped in front of a mirror lifting my hair up to get a good look at my eyes. I paused, frozen in place. Neither of my eyes were brown anymore. One of them was purple, and the other a reddish amber. I dropped my hair over my face and stepped back from the mirror. What the hell? I looked down at my hands and thought about what had happened over the past few weeks. I’d just assumed the changes had stopped, that I’d gotten superpowers and that was it. But with the growing, and now the eyes, who knew what else was happening to my body.
I needed to tell someone. I needed to make sure whatever the hell this was wasn’t changing me on some fundamental level. I had to make sure I could at least hope to live some kind of semblance of a normal life. I breathed deeply, failing to calm myself. My hands shook and I felt myself break out in a cold sweat.
“I thought you said you didn’t need the toilet” Quinten said walking over to the sink next to me.
“I’m fine” I replied back. He frowned, looking at me confused but didn’t say anything. I wiped my forehead and walked out of the bathroom and sat back down on the bench.
“You, okay?” Gwen asked me, more concerned than before.
“I’m fine” I said.
“Good. Sorry if I said something weird” she responded.
“It’s ok” I replied still shaken. She breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the opposite end of the bench. Quinten stepped out of the bathroom, and sat down next to me, between the two of us.
“You enjoying the tour?” she said, turning to him.
“Yeah. All the exhibits are really cool”
“Nice. What’s been you’re favourite part?”
“Probably the history of renewable energy. Some of the animal ones seemed pretty cool too”
“Yeah, everyone likes the history of energy. It’s the main thing this place is known for besides Bederson”
The conversation seemed to still for a second, before Quinten spoke up.
“What’s your favourite exhibit?”
“Ehh… I’d probably have to give it to exhibit about the electron cores. They’re cool and it’s what my mum works on.”
“You’re mum works with electron cores?”
“Yeah, she works at this research centre. It’s part of the reason I’m an intern here”
Their conversation dragged on until the others came back. I was too focused on trying not to break down and have some sort of existential crisis to pay attention to the rest of the tour. We reached the lunch hall, and sat down to eat our food in groups, everyone discussing how cool the museum had been. I ate my food slowly, and quietly trying to deal with the nagging feeling in my stomach. I didn’t have anyone I could tell. No one I knew that knew anything about science at the very least.
Suddenly my danger sense buzzed and I jumped up, spinning around frantically. Two people in lab coats looked back at me surprised. I stared at them surprised too. I recognised one of them. An older Hispanic man who’d I’d last seen years ago, at my parents funeral. He stepped forward, taking off his glasses.
“Lucas?” he said.