Firedown Sun

"I'll tell you right off," Sorin started. "This is the most important class you'll take, so pay close attention."

I was already bored, my fingers twitching to the spot where my matches were kept out of sight, staring up at my teacher like I was riveted, but really lost in a day-dream filled with flames and no stupid rules.

Sorin Imbouro was a deep-voiced man with cold, dark eyes that matched his coal-black hair. He definitely seemed the type of adult to be put in charge of teaching students the Rules and Regulations of Monten. There was no mercy in his hard expression, not even a crack of a smile until he was making fun of a student. And his first victim was not me, though you'd think it wasn't below him to make jokes about someone lost in her own world. He actually seemed to be avoiding looking at me, as if he knew I'd be the most trouble and was saving me for later.

It was a small, timid girl in the front line of desks who hardly looked old enough to live on Heavenlight Row that he attacked first. Her arms were so thin, all her bones visible beneath her freckled skin. I wondered if she ever ate.

Her parents were Creature Keepers, friends of my parents, Tyma and Joka Twigley. Such a last name for a skinny girl would only add to Sorin's twisted fun. I squinted my eyes, struggling to remember the doomed girl's first name. H. It started with an H.

"Hey, twig," Sorin-- the Heartless Teacher, I nicknamed him in my mind-- hissed between his bared teeth. The grimace must have been meant as a smile, but it looked more like he was about to grow fangs and feast on us all. "Can you tell me what the most important rule in Monten is?" he asked the girl.

Havva! I remembered. Her name was Havva. Havva Twigley quivered, twisting a straw-colored lock loose from her long braid- it was her hallmark, I knew, from the sixteen years of living right next to her and catching glimpses of her now and then-- coming outside in the morning to board the bus, in her oak tree after school, playing jump-rope on the sidewalk in the summer. Now, beneath Sorin's piercing gaze, she stuttered, "T-to always... k-keep to the Order?"

"Wrong!" Sorin yelled in her face, although I probably would have said the same thing. From the look on most of the kids' faces, they would have, too. "Any other geniuses want to answer?"

I saw Havva's cheeks flush and her gaze fall to the floor, and my jaw dropped. Had he really just insulted her like that in front of the whole class? A GENIUS? Who the devil did he think he was? That jerk had no right to-

Suddenly, my breath caught in my throat. He was looking at me. I swallowed.

"Just spit it out," he said in a quieter voice. "There's absolutely no need to raise your hand if you know the answer, is there."

It wasn't a question. And it was directed at me. His eyes bore down into mine and I trembled just as Havva had, trying to think straight. Why was he staring at me like that?

But I was saved. A boy with a dragon charm on his neck chain piped up, "To never leave unless you're given permission to go?"

Sorin faced him, his voice harsh and cruel again. "Guess again."

A girl with straight, red hair asked, "To burn something every last day of the month in the Fire Pit?"

"To always be on time!" Jaz Erewing cried. It felt like a direct hit at me, since I hardly ever was, but he didn't even glance over my way. Of course, he would be the first to know if I was ever late, since he lived across from me and all and had for the past sixteen years. So would Havva, come to think of it. She lived close by, too.

"Both wrong," the teacher growled. He grinned wickedly and spat, "You're all geniuses, aren't you? What's in those minds of yours?" His eyes were on me again. "Doesn't ANYONE know the answer?"

I saw, from the corner of my eye, Lune's hand pop into the air. Although my lips had opened to try and form an answer of my own, Sorin's eyes drifted away from mine and he waved toward Lune.

"Yes, Lune Drumer. How about you?"

Yes, how about you? How about you get it dead wrong in front of the entire class? I couldn't help but smile at the thought of his humiliation. I hoped Sorin yelled at him, too.

"The most important rule," he begin, his voice smooth and rich like chocolate, "is to obey every order you're given with exactness, all opinions set aside and every ounce of strength put forth to be the best citizen of Monten since the beginning and never questioning a single rule."

We all watched as Sorin's face became blank, almost pale, and he quickly went to his desk, fumbling through drawers, slamming his fingers in one of them. Finally, he pulled out the one book citizens were allowed to keep, the Doctrine. It was the written compiling of all one hundred of our rules, although we were supposed to know all of them by heart anyway. Sorin flipped his worn copy open, gazed back at Lune in astonishment and said three stunning words:

"You're word perfect."

I leaned forward, my mouth falling open again, only this time in disbelief. There was no way. No one knew the rules word for word, not at our age!

Lune stared back at Sorin with an unreadable expression. "Was I?" he murmured.

The entire period passed that way, with Sorin stumbling over himself to ask him question after question about rule after rule and how each was significant. The Drumer boy got every one right; it seemed he knew everything cover to cover about that wretched book, even tedious things like how the weather control worked and the regulations involved with using it. Actually, he could spew out anything you wanted to know about every sort of technology there was here in Monten. He went on and on about how they worked, what they did, and how to repair them if-- Leaders forbid-- something went wrong. Sorin's face lit up like a new match-flame after every one of Lune's answers and hardly had the time to tease the rest of us, even skinny Havva. He even left me alone, the fire-infatuated rebel.

As I listened to Lune and Sorin go back and forth, back and forth, and as the rest of us were asked to flip through our copies of the Doctrine for proof of how smart Lune was, I realized something.

I was jealous. I could never be better than him, could never be so easily liked by any teacher like him. I hated his guts, and I didn't want a thing to do with him, but envy put a whole new swing on this game.

It meant, despite how I loathed him, I admired him.

It put me in the worst mood humanly possible, and if I hadn't been desperate for a flame before, I was dying for a lit match now.

*

The time for lunch came after my next three classes: Life Studies, World History, and Robotics. Life Studies was okay, but a little too familiar; we took it every year. World History had also been a requirement since I was twelve, and it bored me to tears. The Teachers changed things up a bit here and there, like adding new, harder assignments or more complex ways of thinking about a certain event that happened, like a war or a record-breaking natural disaster. But besides that, nothing was new.

As for Robotics, I'd never even heard of it. But it kept me awake when a boy named Pharis Cuppard kept knocking into things that the Teacher-- Jodancer Tempess-- said might burst into flame or explode if bothered, and we spent half the class trying to keep him out of trouble.

I found a moment when Jodancer was describing a machine I already knew about and went to Pharis's side. "Pharis," I whispered, "don't you think you should just keep still, so you don't kill us?"

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be such a genius."

I smiled. "I'm sure you don't. Just try not to blow anything up, okay?"

He stared up at me under his long lashes, smiling a little himself. "Okay."

But anyway, the announcement to report to lunch came just as Jodancer was finishing her tour. "Alright, you're dismissed. See you tomorrow!"

My need for a flame was growing worse, but I was starving, and there were two people I knew I'd disappoint by ditching, so I followed the crowd to the Eating Room, trying not to think about the thirteen matches in my pocket. Two girls waved to me from the back of the room by the windows, and I put on my most convincing smile and headed over.

"Hey, Kitten! Nice to see you!"

"How was your summer? Did you have fun?"

"Oh, wait, Hexa, let her order for lunch."

I smiled at my two only friends. They accepted my freakishness, even let me slip out of sight occasionally to play a few flame games before we left for class. But that might have changed. Some summers did that to people.

"My summer?" I sat down and shrugged. "Not too special." I leaned over and pressed my lunch token into the slot within the brown grain of the wooden table right at my place. Immediately I was asked for my order. "Um, sandwich, peanut butter and cherry jelly. Chocolate milk, half on orange. Oh, and surprise me for dessert."

There was a responding click, a puff of cold air, and my lunch appeared in front of me: a sandwich wrapped in tin foil, an orange sliced in half, a glass of chocolate milk, and a small bowl of what looked like tapioca pudding. I bit into my sandwich first. The jelly was a little sweet, perhaps, but even it brought back memories of my cherry orchard...

"Ew, tapioca," Hexa said, wrinkling her nose. "How can you stand that stuff?"

I laughed and ate a spoonful of the stuff. "Mm," I said, licking my lips. "Delicious."

Hexa pretended to gag.

Laughing along with me, Resh dug into her plate of raviolis covered with red, spicy sauce. I never touched hot foods, but she had a passion for them. Her short, dark brown hair was pulled back into her trademark half-ponytail. Only a portion of her hair was tied back by the orange ribbon, while the rest hung down to just below her chin, sort of spiky at the ends.

Hexa was different; instead of her hair being her trademark, she wore a neck chain made of tiny, silver links with an oval ruby at the center. It rested at the hollow of her throat, impossible to miss. She'd traded it for a bag of potatoes from Asrid Roygreen. How that deal had worked out, I have never been able to figure out.

"So," Resh said, putting her fork down and smiling at me. "I hear you've got homeroom with Farrens."

"No way! She does?" Hexa sighed, telling me, "You are so lucky, Kitten. Farrens is way better than nasty, old Weever."

"Aw, that stinks," I sympathized. I knew the guy from years of walking down school hallways and seeing him stomp around, always angry, always complaining. I hadn't had him for a Teacher yet, and if I could get away with it, I never would. "Mm, I feel for you."

Resh chuckled without humor. "Says someone who has an awesome homeroom Teacher."

I rolled my eyes and changed the subject. "So what schedule card did you get?" They both said they had red, and I made a face. "It's just not my day today, I guess," I murmured.

"Who's in Farrens, anyhow? Anyone fun? I heard the X fanatic's in there."

"X fanatic?" Puzzled, I thought back to previous school years when we nicknamed all the other students so we could talk about them three feet away without them knowing. "Oh, right. Xentri. Yes, he's in Farrens', although I haven't really paid attention to him." He was just some guy that always dressed in black and hardly ever spoke with too many X's in his name-- Xentri Exavix.

"Of course you wouldn't." Resh sipped at her cherry vanilla smoothie. "So, any cute boys?"

"Resh," I breathed out, staring. "You know I wouldn't have a clue even if there were."

"Just making sure," she mumbled, eyes dropping to the floor. "After all, people can... change... over the summer."

There was a strange silence between us. We were all thinking, I suppose, about friends we'd lost over the years. Lune the best-friend-stealer came to mind, and I scooped more pudding into my mouth in an attempt to distract myself from such vexing thoughts. Hexa, in an effort to break the tension, leaned in, asking in a rush, "So, Kitten, do you still... you know?"

"Yes." Sighing, I shrugged. "Not as much as I used to, I guess. It's still an obsession, but... well, it's getting harder to trade. Eventually I'll have to call it quits. Cold turkey, you know?"

She raised her eyebrows. "How many do you have left?"

"Thirteen, but I'm going to Ankun's later. I still have a few books to trade. After them, though..." I stared glumly at the rest of my lunch, no longer hungry.

Hexa let her hair fall into her eyes and looked away, muttering, "Well, I should've guessed, I suppose. You would never give up burning. Even if the world was ending, you'd still take the time to light a match and-" She quieted as a Teacher walked past, also not finishing her lunch. Only Resh continued eating.

"Speaking of matches," I said when the teacher was out of ear-shot. Getting to my feet, I studied my two best friends. "You don't mind, do you?"

In answer, Resh asked, "Can I finish your pudding?"

I slid it across the table to her. "Enjoy."

"You, too," she said, picking up a spoon.

I nearly ran down the hallway. Luckily enough, no one was there to stop me. Usually I run into a few problems, but everything was just... empty. Like the entire school board was at the Eating Room, ignoring the absence of one rebellious student, even though it should be ringing off alarm bells in their heads right now.

Maybe they'd forgotten I existed. That, I thought with a smile, I could live with.

I pulled out a single match and struck it against the scratchy surface of the wall as I rested against a door. Perfect. It lit immediately, and my world became infinitely better, my day turning from horrible to amazing in just a matter of seconds. The warmth from the little fire relaxed me, and I slid down the wooden door to the floor, cupping my hands around the match and wishing for nothing better. The orange and red flame would soon run down near the bottom and I'd be risking my hand, but I wasn't willing to let go at the moment. I'd already waited long enough for this break and I wasn't checking out quite yet.

Then I heard footsteps. Loud, but not an adult's. A teenager? Who would follow me? Had anyone noticed my quick escape from the Eating Room and suspected my motives? I held my breath as they approached, hoping beyond hope that they would pass by.

But he turned. And those familiar hazel eyes were reflecting my fire even from the two foot distance.

I blew it out.

Lune glanced down at my cupped hands curiously. His eyes narrowed, like he was trying to figure out whether or not to turn me in. But then he just focused on my face. "You're that Zigbol girl, right?"

How charming. Being so educated in the rules of the Doctrine, shouldn't he know using someone's last name was insulting? Like you didn't trust them enough to be on first name basis.

"You're the Drumer boy," I shot right back at him.

And he didn't even mind! He nodded, still glancing back at my hands. I interlocked my fingers together, glad I'd thought to blow the flame out before I did so.

"That's illegal, you know."

"What is?" I pretended to be absolutely innocent, but he didn't buy it. I've never been a very good liar. Especially since that, too, was against the rules.

"I could turn you in," he said, halfway turning around, like he really would.

That would be just like him. Stealing my best friend, then handing me over to the Ordermen. I got to my feet, my voice cold. "You wouldn't."

"I might," he replied calmly.

Suddenly, I was pleading without meaning to. "Don't! Please don't, I can't be turned in. I've... I've done hardly anything wrong. Just a flame. Just a tiny, little flame. What's that got to do with anything?"

"You have more in your pocket."

My fingers twitched at my side. "What's your point? I wasn't going to light them yet. I was... saving them."

Lune studied me, not sure whether to believe me or not. "You're going to save them?" When I nodded, he frowned. "For what? For burning down the school?"

I couldn't help it. I giggled. Uncontrollably. In vain, I pressed both hands to my mouth to block the sound, but I was grinning from ear to ear behind them, sure that Lune would turn me in now, since I laughed at the thought of destroying the school.

Lune just stood there, watching me with unblinking eyes. Finally, he turned around and went back the way he came. Was he getting an adult? Even as fear struck me, I had to fight each spastic fit of laughter.

And then he glanced back, and our eyes locked as he whispered, "Just don't get caught."

My eyes followed him, and the funniness of the moment ebbed. I lowered my hands, just staring after him.

Then I grinned again. "Wouldn't dream of it!" I called.

He paused a little before he turned the corner, and I knew he'd heard.

I inhaled deeply. Sure, he appeared and spoke to me. Sure, I laughed and smiled. Sure, he hadn't turned me in, and I should be grateful.

Instead, I only detested him more. I saw through his act. It was all some little game to him. Ruin Kitten's life, kiss up to Sorin, pretend to want to be nice to Kitten, look like the nice guy. But in the end, what was he?

A best-friend-stealing, stupid, rotten, pigheaded worm with no hope to impress me at all.