Chapter 21
The exchange chapter 21
Chapter Description: A new chapter I promised. not a lot happens in this one but it's building up to the next one
Sandra clung to her dragon toy as Anya held her baby girl firmly. Arlie and Anya seemed to be walking at a much more hurried pace than usual and poor Lyce was walking double time just to keep up. Sandra looked over at Lyce. He seemed lost in his own little world, probably worried about going to school. Sandra was worried too. She couldn’t think of where it was that she was going, what with Anya dressed to impress like she was.
They turned a corner and suddenly a couple were in the way, smiling grins that were clearly plastered on their faces just for show.
"Anya. Arlie. I was wondering if you could spare us a moment of your time." The man stepped in closer, causing Anya to step back. He had blonde hair tied into a neat pony tail and steel grey eyes. The woman with him was short and stocky and strangely had one of those node jelly fish creatures attached to a wire which floated above her head and seemed to directly plug into her ear.
Arlie stepped in between the man and Anya, one hand still holding onto Lyce. "We don’t have time for questions." he said sternly.
It was as if the man hadn’t heard Arlie at all. He flashed a dangerous smile at the family as the woman with the Node stepped in closer. The man spoke again. "Anya, Arlie tell us what it’s been like for the pair of you on this whirlwind ride of chaos. It hasn’t exactly gone as planned for you, has it Anya, with the warden’s call and Doctor Garcon leaving you and you quitting your job? Now having shacked up with Arlie here do you feel like you’ve landed on your feet? What do you propose your role on board to be?"
Anya backed away at the bombardment of questions. She was caught off guard and she didn’t want to suddenly find herself in this situation. The two reporters, sensing their prey weakening, matched her steps, pressing her with further questions.
"Hey can we get a shot of the two kids. The upheaval of being an exchange student must be hard enough without Sandra losing her key father figure and Lycian suddenly being thrust into a whole new family unit. What are your thoughts on that?"
Sandy could feel her mummy’s agitation and she felt her eyes fill up with tears. Lyce too was hiding behind Arlie’s legs trying to keep away from the two persistent reporters. The male reporter went to take Sandra off of Anya and instinctively Anya swiped Sandy out of the man’s reach. This action brought her back to her senses and her original startled expression quickly vanished to be replaced by one of severe irritation
"Lyce has his school induction today and I have a seminar I must attend to. We are both dangerously close to being late, so if you’ll excuse us please."
She spoke through clenched teeth, trying to keep her temper under control. The last thing she needed was to let all her pent up frustrations from the last couple of days pour out onto a pushy news reporter. That would not end favorably for her. Besides, as much as she wanted to lash out, the fact that she was holding Sandy meant that doing anything regrettable would be difficult.
She shoved past the two reporters. Arlie followed, glaring at the male reporter. Lyce followed close behind him; subconsciously the boy had stuck two of his fingers in his mouth and was hiding behind his hand. The two reporters stood in the middle of the hallway and watched as the family made a quick getaway. Anya was almost on the verge of tears. She knew that Sandy was regarded as being special and the unusual circumstances of the new family unit had only made the family all the more popular but today was going to be stressful enough without reporters hassling them.
The family trooped in silence for a while. Arlie was quietly grinding his teeth, a sure sign that he too was stressed. Sandra had buried her head into her mummy’s shoulder and was clinging onto her dragon toy as if her life depended on it, clenching and unclenching one of his crinkly ears in her pudgy fist. She sucked on her binkie in an agitated way. She had finally figured out where it was that they were going. Her mummy had said to the reporters she was going to a seminar, and that reminded Sandy that part of the deal her mummy had made with the exchange council to keep Sandy had involved Anya running classes on how to look after young children. She was going to be the subject of a lecture. She didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to be the center of attention. Would strangers be manhandling her? Dressing her? Maybe even worse. She hoped that wouldn’t be the case.
The four of them travelled the ever increasingly familiar corridors and soon they were standing outside The Exchange Centre. Sandy figured that it made sense for the school to be based at the centre, but the family didn’t go in. Instead the two adults faced one another. Arlie smiled apologetically at his new partner.
"This is where I leave you, I’m sure you’ll be fine," he said reassuringly.
"It’s not me I’m worried about" Anya mumbled quietly. Arlie smiled at her and Anya felt herself visibly relax a little. His confidence in her was reassuring.
"Seriously Anya, it’ll be over in no time. You’ll both do great. Good luck Ans."
"Thanks Arlie. You too." She then handed Sandy to him and knelt down to Lycian’s height.
"Have a good day Lyce. You’re going to have so much fun and I look forward to hearing all about your adventures today when you get home." Anya didn’t have the same connection with Lyce that she had with Sandy and it was going to take a while to get used to having a son as well as a baby daughter. She hoped as time grew, Lyce would look up to her as his mummy.
Lyce looked into Anya’s large exotic brown eyes and found himself swimming in the love that shone in them. He already felt comfortable with Anya. Maybe because she had helped him get changed the first time they had met, maybe it was just the fact that she was trying hard to get to know him. He smiled at her.
"Fanks Anya." he mumbled. The reporter incident had shaken him somewhat and he hoped that things like that wouldn’t happen too frequently. Hell he’d be happy if things like that never happened again, but he had a feeling that was being too optimistic to hope for.
Anya stood and flattened out a couple of creases in her skirt, then retrieved Sandy from Arlie’s hold and gave him a peck on the cheek for his help.
"See you later Arlie." She said quietly. Arlie just blushed at the public display of affection and scratched the back of his head sheepishly before gathering Lyce’s hand in his and leading the small boy away from the mother and baby.
Sandra watched as Arlie led Lyce away down the corridor. She guessed the school wasn’t based at the exchange centre as she had first suspected. The two males of the family turned a corner and were out of sight.
Anya gave a big sigh. The smile of her face faded slowly now that Arlie was gone. She adjusted the overfilled changing bag on her right shoulder and settled Sandy into the crook of her other arm. She looked at the front sliding doors on the Exchange Centre but she paused in entering. She looked down at her baby, who was looking up searching her mummy’s face for answers.
"Sandy," Anya spoke, her voice soft and full of regret, "I’m really sorry okay? You’re probably not going to enjoy this and I’m sorry for putting you in this position. It’s not fair on you, but it really was the only way the council would agree to let me have you back. This will get humiliating for you and I’ve been worrying a lot about this but it really is unavoidable." Anya hugged Sandy tightly. "Just know that I’m sorry okay. And that no matter what, mummy loves you very very much"
Sandra dropped her dragon toy and it fell to the floor with a surprised squeak. Sandy had thrown her pudgy little baby arms around her mummy’s neck and was hugging her tightly. Sandy knew she wasn’t going to blame her mummy for what was about to happen. Hell if it hadn’t been for Anya, Sandy would have been a real infant by now, neutralized by the syrup at the lab. Sandra squeezed her mummy tighter. They stayed like that for a while and when Anya finally pulled her baby free from the hug, Sandy could see Anya’s eyes glistened as if she were on the verge of tears.
"I love you," Sandy said quietly but it just came out as random baby noises, the tone of those noises seemed to convey some sense of what she meant though as Anya gave her one last quick reassuring squeeze.
"Come on sweetie. Let’s get this over with huh?"
With that, mother and child entered the building.
***
Arlie and Lyce had arrived at their destination. It had only been two more turns in the corridor from where they had left Anya and Sandy. They had stopped outside a large steel door and when Arlie held his hand up to the small palm reader the door had whooshed open revealing a large open meadow, not unlike where Kim lived.
The grass swayed in the artificial breeze which smelt of summer. Bugs droned and buzzed from exotic looking flowers and a small stream bubbled its way through the scene. It was warm here and sunny and up ahead a little way stood a large red building. Lyce was instantly reminded of an old fashion school house. It even had a bell tower. A small chuckle escaped him. He was probably millions of light years away from earth, in a space ship traveling to a distant planet and he had suddenly been transported to colonial America. If he had been reading all this in a sci-fi novel, this would be the point where he would be putting the book down and laughing at how unrealistic it was.
Arlie led Lyce up to the building via a small pebbled path that cut through the meadow. Lyce couldn’t get over how wholesome and good this place felt. If a psychiatrist had asked him to picture a happy place for a childhood, this would probably be it.
Arlie walked into the school yard with Lyce in tow. Lyce saw several other exchange students. Some were sticking close to their carer, others were running around the school yard chasing one another. Suddenly Lyce was knocked clean off his feet as something hit him. He landed face down. Pushing himself up he heard a girl giggling and as he sat up and he stared at the ecstatically grinning Becky.
"Lyce! Lyce, this is the bestest place EVER!" Becky squealed giving him a playful punch in the arm, he barely had time to react before Becky was quickly hauled to her feet by Kim and given a swift smack to the back of her legs.
"Rebecca! What have I told you about tackling people?" Kim scolded angrily. Becky didn’t cry but the smile on her face vanished as she rubbed the back of her legs where her mummy had swatted her
"I’m really sorry Arlie, you know how Becky gets." Kim apologized then scowled down at Becky. "What do you say to Lycian, young lady!"
The little girl looked at Lyce. "Sorree Lycey" She whined at him, her eyes told him she was expecting a response. Lyce sighed, hoping Becky wasn’t planning on sticking to calling him Lycey.
"Errr...That’s okay Becky. I’m okay" he lamely mumbled noticing his knees had gotten dirty as a result of him being knocked to the ground. This irked him a little. He had wanted to make a good first impression and now he just looked like some little kid who couldn’t keep tidy and clean. He tried to dust his knees down but that just made the mess worse.
Kim watched Lyce for a second and then looked up at Arlie. "Arlie. I was wondering if you could do me a huge favour. I’m actually double booked today. There’s somewhere really important I need to be, so could you keep an eye on Becky for a while? I’ll be back in a couple of hours or so."
Arlie was shocked by this. "It’s your child’s school induction. What could be more important?" He couldn’t imagine abandoning Lyce to his first day.
Kim waved a hand dismissively. "I know I know. It’s really inconsiderate isn’t it? But I really do need to be somewhere else as well. It’ll only be for an hour or so." Arlie looked down at Becky, feeling sorry for the child. He shrugged unsure what else to do. He spoke in a tired fashion.
"Okay, Kim, if you’re sure, just for an hour." Kim was already throwing her bag over her shoulder. The relief on her face was plain to see. She knelt down to Becky’s height
"Give mummy a kiss Becky and I’ll see you later." Becky looked confused for a moment and then did as she was told standing on tiptoes to give her mummy a peck on the cheek. She tried to hug her mummy round her neck but Kim was already straightening up so Becky settled for hugging her mum’s legs instead. Kim gently but quickly pried Becky off. Arlie and Lyce’s hearts both went out to Becky at the same time, and as Arlie held Lyce’s hand he gave his son’s hand a tighter squeeze. His brow was furrowed in concern and he was about to insist that Kim stay with her daughter when Kim flashed him a grateful smile and turned her back on him.
"Thanks Arlie, I owe you one! See you a little later sweetie." With that she was headed out of the school yard just as the bell in the bell tower began to toll. A man stepped from the entrance of the building. Lyce looked at the man, who wore a plain grey jumper and a pair of black jeans. He was quite a stocky man but tall, although to Lyce everyone looked tall. Lyce thought the man looked more like an American football player than a teacher. His hair was black although there were flecks of grey in it, it had been pulled into a neat ponytail. When the man spoke he had an authoritative yet gentle voice and Lyce instantly warmed to him.
"Students and carerss, Could I get your attention please."
The bell had quietened everyone quite effectively so everyone heard the man speak. "If we could all make our way inside now, we can begin the induction. Each student has a desk allocated to them. Please ensure that you sit at the desk allocated to you."
Lyce felt nervous excitement as he scuffed his shoes in the dirt. He was quite eager to see where he would be learning. Comparing his own classroom to one run by aliens was going to be strange. Becky scampered in ahead of him. Lyce saw Andrea and Alice were among those here in the play yard as was the girl who had won the pass the parcel game yesterday. Naomi? Had it been? That didn’t quite sound right. Lyce wandered in, being gently guided by Arlie, who seemed just as nervous as Lyce. They stood in the doorway of the main classroom, which again was not what Lyce had expected.
It looked like a mixture of the old fashion school house mingled with something from Star Trek. The room had chunky wooden seats and wooden desks but the tops of the desks were made of some kind of black marble stone. At the front of the class where he would expect a blackboard instead there was a long horizontal blind about an inch thick that sat in a recess close to the ceiling. Lyce wondered if it was some kind of projector. The walls were blank, but being a teacher himself he knew that at the start of a semester they were always clean and blank ready to have student’s project work displayed in the empty spaces. The blank walls had a warm grayish colour. The whole room felt airy, though not stifling or ominous. It still felt strange for him to be in the student role rather than the adult teaching position.
He stood there, taking this all in as Arlie searched the room, settled Becky into her seat and then found Lyce’s desk. "That one’s yours son." Arlie pointed to one next to the window. Lyce was ashamedly relieved to notice that Becky wasn’t sitting all that close to his desk. Arlie gently nudged Lyce into action and as Lyce walked over to his desk he wondered how Arlie had known it was his, when he noticed the back of the chair had symbols he had come to recognize as letters, inscribed in the wood. Lyce touched the symbols and it was only on touching the wood did he realize that it wasn’t actually wood at all. The seat, when touched, felt more like soft plastic than wood. He clambered up onto it, noticing how his feet dangled from the chair. He looked up at Arlie who stood by the desk.
The man who had beckoned them all in stood at the front of the class waiting patiently with a warm smile on his face. The clamour of the classroom died down and the man spread his arms wide. "Welcome everyone, My name is Owen Ventis. I am going to be your teacher here on our big ship Alexander. And hopefully when we reach Ixion you’ll be much better equipped with knowledge to adapt to our world. But first things first: If every student could place the palm of their chipped hand onto the centre of their desk that would be great."
Arlie dashed over to where Becky sat to make sure she followed the instructions correctly. He was a bit annoyed he had been lumbered with another carer’s student: he should be devoting all his time to Lyce. Lyce watched his dad help out Becky and then he stared down at the desk and hesitated until Arlie returned. All around the class students were gasping in surprise and Lyce was curious as to what was going on. Arlie returned and nodded.
"Do as Mr. Ventis says Lyce, there’s a good boy" Lyce looked down at the black marble desk and apprehensively touched his chipped palm to the smooth dark surface. Instantly the chair began to vibrate and change. Lyce noticed the chair becoming more comfortable and suddenly he found his feet touching the floor. The chair and desk had shaped itself to his frame providing support and comfort to perfection.
The black marble surface also shimmered and he stared down at his workspace. Down the left hand side were several primary coloured icons and the main surface of the desk was now white, as if he’d been given a large blank piece of paper. It looked like a basic drawing application on a desktop computer.
Mr. Ventis stood and watched as the classroom shifted to match his students. He loved the look of shock on the kid’s faces at the start of the semester. He waited a little while for the classroom to quiet down, but when it became apparent it wouldn’t hush down without his intervention he clapped his hands loudly.
"Now, students, you will see before you a P.A.C. system. It’s your own "Personal Academic Centre". Here we don’t use pens and pencils as you are no doubt used to where you come from. We simply use our fingers to draw and write directly onto the work surface. It stores all the work you do not only in the system but also on your chip as part of your personal history: simple, clean, effective. Everything you do here will be done on your own P.A.C. system. Let’s see how we can use this shall we? Your desk is currently in draw mode..."
Mr. Ventis clicked a little button that he had been holding and suddenly the little blind at the front of the class projected an image onto the front wall of the class. Lyce felt smug with himself that he had guessed it to be some kind of projector. The shape looked like one of those written symbols. Mr. Ventis continued to talk
"I want all the students to look really hard at me, then pick a colour by touching the colours down the side of your P.A.C. then try to copy this shape by drawing with your finger onto the work surface. It’s a letter of our alphabet. We have 31 characters in our alphabet and this is the first. It makes an ooo sound when you say it. If you make a mistake simply rub your hand over the mistake as if you were holding an eraser and it will erase the part you want to erase"
Lyce was stared really hard at Mr Ventis. It felt weird to stare so intently at someone. It felt rude. Lyce looked down at the colours and felt drawn to a really pale blue. It was almost translucent, but he picked it anyway. He looked over at the girl sat in the desk beside him. It was that Naomi girl...no Nadia! That was her name. Lyce grinned at finally making the mental connection of the black haired girl who was trying to trace the letter in a bright yellow colour. Lyce craned his neck back to see Alice and Andrea too, both scribbling away with intense looks of concentration on their faces, Alice was drawing in black and Andrea had picked a pale pink. Lyce looked down at his colour choice. Maybe he should pick something better, something brighter? He looked up at Mr. Ventis again and stared for a second then decided to stick with his colour choice.
Ever so carefully Lyce tried to copy the symbol. It was trickier than he had first anticipated. His motor skills in this new body betrayed what he was trying to visualize. But after a few moments he soon had something resembling the shape.
Mr. Ventis waited a few more minutes. "Okay? Everyone done? Let’s see what we have. Alice!"
Alice’s eyes shot up to meet the teacher’s, surprised that her name was called out. Suddenly the projector at the front of the class was displaying her attempt up on the wall. The character she had drawn was very neat and tidy"
"Very good Alice. Very neat writing you have. Any reason why you picked black?"
Alice didn’t like being singled out and she shrugged and looked down at her desk. Her carer, Mark, stood behind her and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
Deciding to move on, Mr. Ventis looked down at his own desk for a second and then smiled. "This is what I was hoping to see"
The picture of the symbol drawn in a pale blue colour flashed up onto the projector
"Lycian." He called out and suddenly Lyce’s attempt was over laid onto the symbol already being displayed. Lycian’s attempt was shaky and a bit of a mess compared to Alice’s. "Well done Lycian. Can you explain why you picked this colour?"
Lyce opened his mouth and gaped like a fish. He flushed red at being singled out. He looked up at Arlie who grinned down with pride shining in his eyes. This helped regain some of Lyce’s composure and Lyce turned back to face the teacher.
"well...I...looked at you really hard, like you said, and it...well...felt like the right colour to pick." he finished lamely and scratched the back of his head in the same bashful manner that Arlie was prone to doing.
Mr. Ventis studied Lycian for a moment, thinking deeply and then his grin broadened. "Well done, Lycian. Well done everyone. Let us put everyone’s efforts on show shall we?" he clicked his clicker again and all of a sudden everyone’s attempts were dotted across what had been the plain grey walls, instantly the already airy room took on a brighter more child like quality as the multitude of primary coloured letters covered the wall. Lyce’s stood out for being a dull colour in comparison but Lyce felt proud of himself for picking what was apparently the right colour, Although he didn’t understand what it signified. He would ask Arlie about it later.
"Now if the carers could place their hand on their student’s desk, we can have a little bit of fun."
The look of puzzlement on Arlie’s face made Lyce giggle as Arlie leant over and did as he was told. The black marble surface shimmered for a second and suddenly took on a different look. Arlie chuckled as he recognized his own P.A.C. being displayed.
"carers, I would like you to go into the same year that your charge is in currently and pick out your favorite piece of artwork. Then show it to your child and explain."
Arlie’s hands danced across the desk going into folders and sub-folders to find artwork from when he was four years old. Lyce watched Arlie sift through his childhood school days, giggling at all the scribbled pieces of writing and projects.
Arlie selected a picture and Lyce noticed a look of happy nostalgia wash over his face. The picture was very basic, It had a boy sat on top of what looked like one of those large cow bugs Lyce had seen at Kim’s house. Beside the bug was a girl holding some flowers. Arlie knelt in closer to Lyce, whispering in a conspirator tone.
"That’s me, when I was your age." He said pointing to the boy on top the bug "And that’s Anya." He said pointing to the girl. "We went on a school trip to see Qwents. I climbed on one. We weren’t allowed to do stuff like that but I was only a kid and...well, I got a little mischievous sometimes. Anyway, this Qwent obviously didn’t like some kid climbing on it so it started to get annoyed. They make clacking noises when they get angry and can give you quite a nasty bite. It’s really hard to annoy them. They’re usually really docile. Anyway. I couldn’t climb off for fear of being bitten, and well this girl came up, calm as nothing, with some flowers she had picked in the meadow, and she fed all the beautiful flowers to the Qwent and that calmed it down. It could have easily attacked her, but she was so calm and happy that the Qwent just relaxed I guess. And that was how Anya and I first became friends. "
Lyce thought it was a lovely little story and he felt privileged he’d had a small glimpse into his dad’s childhood. He looked over at Becky who was using her fingers to scribble some new pictures onto her PAC. Whilst all the other kids had adults, Becky stood out a mile being on her own. Mr. Ventis had already noticed this and had threaded his way through the class and was bending over Becky and was showing her a picture from his own childhood, his face creased in concern that her carer seemed to be absent.
Lyce felt angry at Kim. Now wasn’t the time or place to bring it up, but he really needed to express his concerns to Arlie when they got home. As Lyce had been a teacher he had seen neglected children before, and whilst Becky didn’t seem to understand that she wasn’t getting her carer’s attention as much as she should be, it was clear that Kim had little interest in the bubbly child. That made Lyce feel sad and suddenly he wished that Becky’s desk had been put closer. Becky needed someone to look out for her.
After about half an hour of the adults showing their individual charges pictures from their own childhood, Mr. Ventis returned to the front of the class.
"Alright class, recess is almost upon us. All the children are free to go outside and play. carers, if you could stay here so we can discuss a few things that would be great."
Kids started slipping out of their seats and heading for the door. Lyce didn’t really want to be separated from Arlie but he also had a secondary mission now and so with little effort he got down from his seat and gave Arlie a smile before heading over to Becky and taking her hand.
"Come on. Let’s go play" He said encouragingly. He knew he was setting himself up for some quite boisterous playing and he wasn’t really the sort of kid who wanted to run around and be all energetic, but he wanted to make sure that Becky didn’t feel alone. Andrea saw what Lyce and Becky were doing and she piled into the middle of the two of them throwing her arms around Lyce’s and Becky’s necks. She gave them both a quick squeeze and then tagged Becky.
"You’re it!" She yelled as she ran from the room and out into the sunshine. Becky immediately gave chase and Lyce felt compelled to run after them. He had been apprehensive about school but if it was going to be like this then he could certainly see himself enjoying it.
Arlie watched Lyce leave, leaving just the adults, in the room. He wondered how Anya was getting on. Today was certainly going well from where he was.
