Firedown Sun

When my eyes fluttered wide, I found myself staring up at my bedroom ceiling, and then I felt the bodies of two girls curled up beside me. I grinned and sat up. "Morning, you two."

Resh opened one eye, then groaned and covered her head with a pillow. "Five more minutes, Kitten, please."

"No way." I nudged her until she was annoyed enough to sit up. "Hexa, you, too."

"No, I'm NOT getting up!" she mumbled, more like a drowned scream. She buried herself in my blankets. "The alarm didn't go off."

"Yes, and it won't today," I reminded her gently. "Hexa, it doesn't work, remember? I burnt the wall and-"

"To heck with you, then," she growled. "You can't make me get up! Stupid fire addict! It's your fault!"

Resh laughed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Oh, Hex, what did she ever do to you?"

"She woke me up without an alarm. Her fault. She didn't HAVE to burn the wall, you know."

"Nope," I agreed, sliding off my cold, still damp mattress. "And I don't HAVE to give you hot chocolate this morning, either. Perfectly fine. Resh and I just get more, that's all. You get more sleep until an alarm goes off or something. I doubt it will. Which means you'll be late for school, we'll have drunk all the hot chocolate by then, and then you won't get ANY and you'll be miserable all day. Goodbye, then!"

It only took a few seconds for her to drag herself from the warm haven of covers, turning to glare at me. "I hate you, Kitten. Hope you know that," she mumbled, exhausted, stumbling toward the door to get her hot chocolate downstairs.

"Love you, too," I shot back.

We headed down the stairs, Resh and I laughing about the mood Hexa was in. Hexa kept silent, probably fighting the urge to spin around and strangle us. But I doubted my mother would appreciate walking in on us with her hands around our necks.

But it was not my mother but Dad that appeared in the kitchen when we descended the stairs. "Dad, what are you doing here?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound ungrateful. It was just unusual for him to be here for breakfast. He usually ate in his private room. The thought of the last time I'd been in that room gave me the chills.

"I'm more curious as to how come you three are all up," he said, not even glancing our way. He watched the sunshine dance on the wall as the clouds drifted across the sky, drinking his hot drink. "Huh. And in the same house, too. That's interesting."

"They spent the night-"

"I see that," he said, setting his mug down and turning to bore his dark gaze into my forehead. "That's not what I meant, Kitten. I'm curious to know what in the world you're all doing awake at five in the morning. Hm?"

We exchanged glances with each other, the sleep disappearing from our eyes. "What?" we all muttered under our breath, staring with an open-mouthed NO WAY expression. "Five in the morning?" I repeated. "You've got to be joking."

"Nope, 'fraid not. Kitchen wall?"

The wall beeped, "Hour five, minute seventeen, seconds thirty six."

Dad raised both his eyebrows at me, a feat I couldn't figure out how to do. I could only lift my left one.

I began blinking rapidly as my mind spun for an explanation to this sudden discovery. "How can it be freaking five seventeen already?" I yelled for no one in particular to answer, just as long as someone did.

"You'd think we'd have slept IN, not gotten up early, what with our running around last night." Hexa's groan didn't help the puzzled atmosphere much. Her lips froze into a pout, and she glared at me. "Thanks so much for getting us up! I could've slept longer."

"Shut up, Hex," I breathed icily. "This is hard enough to stomach without your whining."

"Mm. Love you, too, Kitten."

"BOTH of you shut up!" Resh didn't look any more pleased than we did about the early rising. But she was better at controlling her emotions than Hexa or I. "This is a good thing, alright? Since we're up..." she shrugged her shoulders, her voice faltering, "we're up. No going back to sleep. So now Hexa and I can eat and run without much rushing. We won't need to hurry to get on the bus on time because we've got extra minutes. So both of you stop fighting."

We nodded, giving each other brief, sympathetic glances. "Resh, you're a lifesaver," I mumbled.

"Good thing, too, or you'd both be dead."

"Just don't start turning against us, please," Hexa asked politely. "I'd prefer to have a lifesaver that didn't try to suddenly kill me."

"I'll do my best."

We sat down and accepted the mugs of hot chocolate my dad had already heated up for us. I gave him a warm smile, asking where Mom was. He told me she was still in bed. She was NOT an early riser.

And I couldn't help but feel like this was new. I hadn't known my own mother hated getting up early. How could I not know? What sort of sick trick was that, not to know your parents inside and out? I should know what their favorite color was, what my mother's favorite flower or perfume was, what sort of fun activities my dad liked to do in his free time. But I didn't. I didn't know anything of the sort when it came to Mom and Dad. They were just my parents. My guardians. The ones that provided a home and life for me. What else could there be? Did any other kids hug their mothers? Did other teenagers say, "Hi, Dad, how's work going? Did you have a fun day today?"

No.

Did parents sit down with their child and ask how they were doing? Did either one of my parents know that I hated the color pink and that no, I didn't like my food touching, that each portion of food had to be separated from everything else? Did they ever ask me if I had fun at school or what my favorite subject was? Did my mother know I thought her hair was pretty and just the perfect length? Did my father know that I loved how he always sang a little bit off-key when we were required to sing for the festivals. Had I ever told him how I loved how his eyebrows rose when he was trying to hit a high note completely out of his range?

No. Of course not.

"Ah, hot chocolate. Finally," Hexa murmured contentedly. She sipped at the steaming drink slowly, but I knew she was dying to just chug it down.

"It's official," I laughed. "You're addicted, Hex."

She nodded, closing her eyes in pleasure as she drank more. "What's for breakfast?" she murmured into her mug.

"This first," Dad told us, standing and tossing the newspaper at us. "Explain!"

As I read the headline, I knew all three of us were sharing the same exact thought.

Oh crap.

*

It was all over school. Newspapers spread throughout the building almost as fast as the rumors, and before long, the stares and whispers began. At first, it was only the younger kids when we passed by them in the hallway. Then it was every age group, even the older ones, the ones that usually had so much more control.

That was when we knew we were in a really big pickle. That was when we knew it wouldn't last just a few days for it to end.

The school, the city, the entire population of Monten, might never stop talking.

I plopped down with a sigh, pushing my lunch token into its slot and ordering the usual. Cherry jelly sandwich, a surprise dessert, and a glass of lemonade. Hexa, Lune and Resh sat in front of me, but I could see we'd have more than just the four of us at the table. The rebel gang was gathering, sitting down and putting in their own tokens.

I took the time to make a mental list of everyone in the gang.

Obviously, my best friends, Lune and I were the prime members. Fawkes, naturally, and Jaz sat with us. Havva Twigley and Pharis came soon after. Tyeson, Poppi and Perisnow, and then Zarther Summon, I realized were also part of this group. The three others were kids I didn't really know that well at all: Puna Bearshadow was a black-haired, wire-thin boy with glasses always sliding down his nose and trademark bangs that never quite stayed out of his soft green-blue eyes; Kirtessa Lansheer had that all-knowing-without-being-bratty look, her blond hair swept back into that identifying ponytail way up on her head and secured with a yellow ribbon. I learned as I studied her more closely everything about her was yellow. The shade of her outfit, her shoelaces, her hair, her hallmark, her slightly golden eyes. She was her own ray of sunlight.

The final addition to the group was short, obnoxious Demin Northwind, a rare bundle of crazy energy. He could hardly keep still, and his eyes kept shifting from person to person, like he expected one of them to spontaneously combust. He had messy hair so blond it was white and yet everything he wore was black. He seemed to get along fine with Poppi, or at least he would if he could sit still without twitching.

"I'm guessing you all read the paper today?" I asked, miserable. I was secretly hoping no one knew what was going on, but then I knew I was no good at pretending nothing was wrong, so even if they were clueless, I'd have to break it to them, anyhow.

"How could we have missed it?" Zarther pulled out his personal copy, flipping it around on the table just so I could read the bold message splayed on the front page: REBELLIOUS TEENAGERS ON THE RISE? I met his eyes, and I knew he hated it as much as I did, especially reading what lovely Dasumne and Mendrick Drumer said about seeing us kids running around, and the faded, blurry picture of the group of us on our scooters. Only if you looked hard enough would the adults recognize our faces. But every single kid that saw us in school would know it was us in a heartbeat.

I took a gulp of lemonade to moisten my dry, scratchy throat. "It's stupid," I muttered when I came up for air. The gang seemed to agree.

"We're not on the rise."

"What do they know?"

"It's probably because they're scared of an overthrowing."

"Aw, that's just 'cause they're not strong enough to push us back."

"No, they wouldn't hesitate if it came to that."

"I didn't say they wouldn't hesitate, Puna, but that doesn't mean they could TOUCH us if they tried! I bet they're too old and stupid to know the difference between a fork and a spoon!"

As the murmurs spread throughout the gang, I sighed and pushed the paper away from me. It slid across the table's surface, and I felt Lune's eyes on me. I ignored his gaze. I hadn't looked at his face ever since last night, after he'd waved goodbye and my heart had fluttered violently and I'd felt too ashamed to do the same. His soft whisper rang true in my ears.

"They won't do anything rash yet. They need more evidence. And with what little we've left behind, I doubt they can accuse anyone. No one's getting taken away."

Yet. No one was getting taken away yet.

How much longer? A few weeks? One? Was it selfish to hope for that much time before they acted? Rebellious teenagers on the rise meant a serious problem for the city. They wouldn't let rumors continue for an extreme length of time. Whether it be because of the protests of the people or the fear that struck their own hearts, they would act.

One month at the most. One month, and we might not even be sitting here, breathing and eating and living, ever again.

"We've got to fix this," I said in a hushed tone. "We can't let them keep thinking we're gonna revolt."

"How can we change how they think?" Kirtessa Landsheer blurted. "It's their own head, they've got brains inside them. We can't rewire them."

Very true. "I know that," I said. "But I've seen people taken in for questioning. It's not a joke. It usually means something serious."

"Your dad was taken, right, Kitten?"

"What'd they do to him?"

"Is it as bad as the rumors say?"

I shook my head. "I haven't heard the rumors, but I'm sure they exaggerate." I set my half eaten sandwich down and met their curious gazes- naturally skipping Lune's, of course- and told them, "They just asked him questions about what he knew and sent him home. Nothing horrible."

"What he knew about what?" Kirtessa wondered. "What was he taken for?"

I bit my lip, lowering my eyes to bore holes into the black laces of my boots. "Me. And my... non-conformities."

Everyone at the table got silent and ate their lunches, sharing the silence in a strange way, like we all knew what the other was thinking.

The leaders knew all about my tendency to rebel. They'd already marked me as a troublemaker. So of course Dasumne and her husband, not to mention the newspaper people, would combine against me. Because I was already a threat to society in their eyes. So anyone associated with me was labeled as troublesome, too.

Again. Guilty by association.

Must I have no friends in the world at all? They'd stolen Fawkes from me once. Could they take all these kids away from me, too? Would they dare?

Or would they just flick me off the face of the earth so they wouldn't have to deal with me?

Which was better? Kill of the people that supported the rebel? Or get rid of the rebel herself so they wouldn't have anyone to follow? Or would they both fail anyway? Could our end lead to the revolution of the entire city?

I doubted that in a heartbeat.

The announcement came to go to our next class. The rebel gang stood all at once, not so hating-Monten-ly as before. We dreaded school today. It seemed like everybody dreaded us now, too. No one said hi in the hallways. They just stared. And whispered something to their neighbor.

As I moved to grab my bag, I found that the spot where I'd placed it was empty. "Now, where did I-"

"Looking for something?"

Out of habit, I glanced up, and then felt something course through me that made everything move in slow motion. My thoughts got jumbled, and I couldn't help but stare.

No way. This wasn't happening.

Resh and Hexa hadn't been too far off when they'd laughed about me "hitting it off". Just a bit ahead of the game.

As I saw Lune's face for the first time that morning, I knew in a split second... that I had a horrible, stupid, unforgivable crush. I'd heard of them, always made fun of the girls that crushed on a guy. Like I'd thought Tyeson's declaration of love for Resh was amusing.

I'd never EVER considered that I might go through the same thing.

"Thanks," I murmured as he handed my bag to me. I slipped the strap over my shoulder and knew I was blushing just as bad as Resh had last night. If not worse. I hurried out of the Eating Room.

New plan for the day: stay as far away from Lune as possible.