Second Day at School

Morning was set to start with maths. I hated maths. I hated maths as it had to be taught according to the curriculum. Half of the time was lost to the teacher going through the theory in the way that he was supposed to, and half was lost in the teacher actually trying to actually teach the theory properly. There was no time for questions, extended explanations, or any of the dialogue that was necessary for some to get some understanding at all. With the continued distractions and perils that sprung into existence the day before, it promised to be a particularly gruelling experience.

“Hello, Frank. Where have you been? I hope you weren’t **** and dragged off to Earth or something?”

Carmencita and the obnoxious trio were among the last students to arrive before the classroom door before me. As I arrived in the corridor, the prof had arrived, and all but us five were lingering behind the flow of pupils gushing into class. I should have walked by, gone in with the others. But even expecting to see this sort of thing, the sight caught me off guard. Melanie and Sheridan were minding their own business, leaning against the wall, on their phones, probably texting each other. Françoise however, was on her knees facing the wall, face buried between Carmen’s legs and dedicating her every breath to making her come. It’s difficult to say whether or not she was doing a good job. When I was just around the bend I could hear lots of breathy moans over the sound of the murmuring crowd filing after the teacher. But when Carmen spotted me, it was like she flicked a switch.

“Oh don’t stand there looking guilty. Fran is doing just fine; you and I can talk later.”

I nodded and moved past into the classroom. Behind me, the moans resumed at the same intensity as before, as if they’d only been muted for a few seconds. As I walked over to a free seat and started settling down, I thought of the implications of Carmen’s remark. She had to have been expecting some more action with me. I had a nagging feeling she wouldn’t be satisfied with me pleasuring Mother for an excuse. It seemed ludicrous in the context of the free-use mentality rampant at present, but I could well see her being jealous. That sort of possessive rage appeared to me perfectly fitted to the ever burning wildfire in her gaze.

Maths was only about an hour long, and there was a blank immediately after that lasted all the way to the smattering of language courses in the afternoon. Carmen didn’t have this blank, as she and a dozen others had taken a module involving study of the mechanics behind artificially moving celestial bodies at a distance. She fancied herself as a planet maker, but rather than go on the path directly through the various specialised schools and training programs, she’d gotten into the habit of always attending classes where she would just learn stuff about it. I was never remotely good enough to be able to assimilate any of it properly myself, but I enjoyed letting her talk to me about it. Few of her peers were in it for anything more than a few extra marks.

That we were separated for the remainder of the morning and I could take time to do some plotting. Home had proven to be a hostile environment to my working out some plan of action for the future, so the study room would have to do. And becaue I didn't know most of the other students with the same blank time slot, it appeared less likely I'd be bothered. I sat down in a corner far away from the bulk of the population. Hopefully, when they started fucking around (which they surely would), they wouldn’t notice me, and wouldn’t think to invite me.

I got out my portable computer and booted it up. I opened a document and started writing down every possible option I could think of for the long term, in my current situation. The most obvious was to leave the city outright, and travel the world to see the limits (if there were any) of the Great Change. It would be a monumenal gamble: if the other side of the planet was still sane, it could be a harsh new life for me, pretty penniless and without qualifications. If the madness were universal, then I would probably be returning home to a lot of awkward conversatios. There was always the spaceport in Lacus Solis of course, but I wasn’t willing to consider venturing offworld just yet.

If I stayed, and tried to find stuff out from within, there would be several obvious problems, and there was no way to solve them that I could see other than encountering someone like myself, an individual who was either immune to the **** in people’s bodies, or had fallen through the cracks, or something in between like me. If I had no one to trust, I thought inevitable that I would succumb sooner or later, whether accidentally as might have been the case several times since yesterday morning, or under pressure. There had to be some **** behind all of this, and I didn’t see it taking kindly to anyone not sharing the same unstoppable drive to sex as the majority.

The world database was slow at that time of day. I remember Carmencita explaining to me that it was to do with the sub-ether relays scattered across the asteroid belt. Thankfully my business didn’t require a particularly powerful signal. I merely wished to consult the departure times for the zero-contact Mag-Lev leading out of town right through the mountains. It was the longest and fastest underground line in the whole northern hemisphere.

After finding no trains at all for any time in the near future, and just as I spotted a news article mentioning an accident in the tunnels, someone spoke to me. I was already getting more anxious by the second, so when the voice hit me I nearly jumped in my seat. Fortunately I was recovered quickly enough to interpret the sounds into meaningful words on the first go.

“You look awfully dedicated to your screen.” said the girl, smiling.