The Perfect World (The Perfect World Series Book 1) (9 page)

Cyrus Wright continued on with life after that incident, though he never quite forgot it. The idea of sickness was always in the back of his mind; however, he tried to focus on his computer and group lessons as a means of distraction. In addition, the young boy kept trying to get Ms. Linda to smile and asked her questions to see if she would answer them. She never did either, but having her consistent presence around was helpful.

Scott continued to wait in the bathroom for him on occasion, and they would discuss whatever it was they learned that day. Talking about how things didn’t seem right, even if it didn’t change things was enough to help the two of them put up with what they were going through. Other than that, everything remained the same. It was by this routine that the next couple years past.

Cyrus, now almost seven, sat down at his normal chair for group discussion. Scott still sat next to him, and Ms. Amelia still had a chair across from him, though she rarely used it. She always came equipped with the strained thin smile that she greeted every class with. That never changed. 

He did notice one change from the routine as the lesson started this time, though it wasn’t a new thing. Ms. Amelia had a white cone shaped hat on her head and passed out similar ones to the rest of the class. Cyrus put the hat on his head, knowing that if he didn’t his teacher would mime at them all how to put their hats on. He loathed the indignity of it. Scott looked over at him with a look of great displeasure at having to wear the white cone hats.

“We look stupid,” Scott mouthed to him. Cyrus smiled and nodded his complete agreement. He remembered that they did this once a year, but he couldn’t remember the occasion.

“Good morning, class,” Ms. Amelia said with sugary sweetness.

“Good morning, Ms. Amelia,” they all said at different speeds.

“Why hello, there. Today is a very special day for all of you. Can all of you tell me what day it is?”

“It’s our birthday,” Melody spoke quietly, expecting to be ignored by their teacher. Her expectations were met, and she stared at the floor, waiting for Ms. Amelia to give them the answer.

Cyrus suppressed a groan when Ms. Amelia confirmed what Melody had said. It was their birthday today. That meant another long lecture about fairness and uncivilized times. This birthday was going to be just as long as the last one.

“Happy Birthday everyone! Today is an extra special reminder of how special and wonderful all of you are. In honor of the day, I have something for each of you.”

Ms. Amelia pulled some plates out of a box and placed a small brown square on each of them. She passed the plates around to each of them, telling the kids not to eat until everyone had their piece.

“Okay, everyone has their brownie, right? Say, ‘Yes, Ms. Amelia.’”

“Yes, Ms. Amelia.”

“Now say, ‘Thank you Ms. Amelia.’”

“Thank you, Ms. Amelia.” Cyrus looked down at the brown square on his plate and tried to break a piece off. Finding it to be nearly rock hard, he wasn’t sure that she deserved any thanks at all.

“While you’re all eating your birthday treat, I’m going to give you another lesson about fairness,” Ms. Amelia said with fake enthusiasm. Cyrus refrained barely from rolling his eyes and continued to pick at his brownie.

“You see, back in Uncivilized Times, people used to have birthdays on different days. This made it so that individual people had a special day instead of a group of people. This is why birthdays used to hurt people’s feelings. Depending on when you were born, some people wouldn’t have their birthday celebrated by their classmates because school wasn’t in session then. Wouldn’t that make you feel sad if you had a birthday at a time when your classmates couldn’t celebrate it? Say, ‘Yes, Ms. Amelia.’”

“Yes, Ms. Amelia,” the children said, some with their mouths full. Cyrus had finally gotten a corner off and was chewing the hard, sticky thing very slowly. He was thinking that this thing made some of the worst meals he’d ever had seem wonderful.

“Thus, our wonderful experts designed a system where everyone would have the same birthday. After all, since all of you are equally special, it follows that all of you should have the same extra special day. Thus, August twenty-fifth is everyone’s birthday. Does everyone understand?”

All the children nodded. Cyrus did so in the hopes that he wouldn’t have to hear any more on the matter. He crumbled his square treat on the plate to make it look like he ate some of it as their teacher went on.

“Now, I have something to tell all of you.” Ms. Amelia’s voice took on a serious tone, so they all looked up and listened to her. “You are now old enough to be moved to a formal classroom setting. This will be the last group discussion that you have with me.”

They all looked between each other, not sure what kind of reaction she wanted from them. Cyrus felt a mixture of relief and happiness to hear that this was the last group discussion he ever had to endure. He kept his face neutral, however, not wanting to get into trouble. He looked at Scott and noted that he wasn’t bothering to be subtle about his feelings. He was practically bouncing out of his seat at the news. Melody also clapped a little bit at the announcement, though a withering look from Ms. Amelia stopped her. 

“I know you are all feeling sad right now that you won’t be having class with me any longer,” she simpered with her hands pressed firmly over her heart. “I can assure you all that I will always be thinking of you, and you will always be in my heart. Tell me that you’ll miss me, class. Say, ‘We’ll miss you Ms. Amelia.’”

“We’ll miss you, Ms. Amelia,” the children repeated, though Cyrus and Scott made it clear through their tone that the exact opposite would be true.

“Oh, you poor dears,” she cooed. This time, Cyrus couldn’t help but scowl. “It will help you if you make a place for me in your heart. That way I’ll always be with you.”

“No, thanks,” Scott muttered under his breath. Cyrus put a hand over his mouth to cover his smile.

“Now, let me explain what’s going to be happening to you,” Ms. Amelia explained in a more serious tone. “You will have a week off from class, then Ms. Linda will escort you to your school building just down the street. It’s number four hundred and seventy, and it’s a three-story brick building. You will be having class on the first floor of the building. Once there, this class will start receiving more advanced instruction, but I am sure a smart class like yours will handle it easily. The pace will be set in the fairest way possible, and everyone will come out with the same amount of knowledge. That I can personally guarantee.”

Ms. Amelia gave them another one of her big, stretched, absolutely fake-looking smiles and Cyrus was personally glad that this was one of the last ones he would ever see. She walked towards the door to the conference room and opened it for them, signaling that it was time to go. Ms. Linda came in and waited as Ms. Amelia made her last remarks.

“Farewell class. Please remember who your first teacher was when you reach your destiny. Now, for the last time, say, ‘Goodbye, Ms. Amelia.’”

“Goodbye Ms. Amelia,” Cyrus repeated happily.

“Goodbye class. Now, off you go.”

She shooed them off towards their caretaker, and the children started lining up to head back to their rooms. Ms. Linda waited until they were settled and then they silently headed into the elevator. On the way up, Cyrus and Scott were both smiling at each other, happy for the same reason. Cyrus managed to catch Melody’s eye and found that a similar smile was on her face.

Later that evening, Cyrus headed into the bathroom and wasn’t at all surprised to find Scott there. He grinned at Scott and Scott grinned back.

“Well, today finally gave us some interesting information.” Scott’s voice sounded lighter than he’d ever heard it.

“I know!” Cyrus agreed adamantly. “No more boring lessons, and no more ugly smiles.”

“No more of Ms. Amelia
period
,” Scott pointed out with an exuberant clap of his hands.

“So, what do you think it’ll be like?” Cyrus inquired, feeling more optimistic than normal about their new arrangements.

“It can’t be worse than here, can it?” Scott looked at his friend in jest, then furrowed his brows. “Actually, don’t answer that. I mean, what they’ve given us here isn’t great, but I could see how it could be worse, and I
really
don’t want that.”

“Me neither, but hey, nothing’s decided yet. We haven’t even seen the place. Let’s wait till we get there, and then we can say if it’s worse than our old classes. If it is, well, I guess we’ll have new things to talk about.” Cyrus ended with a shrug.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Scott said seeming mollified. “I just hope this new place has better classes that we go a little faster. That isn’t too much to wish for, is it?”

“I don’t think so.” Cyrus thought of something that made him wrinkle his nose in disgust. “I think I’ll wish for some good food if they give us some. No food we’re served there can be worse than that brown thing they gave us today. What was
that
anyway?”

“A birthday rock?” Scott guessed then chuckled.“Nah, it couldn’t be. Rocks probably taste better than that.”

Cyrus started to laugh, and Scott joined him. When they had both calmed down, Scott decided it was time to head back to his room.

“Scott,” Cyrus called out to him before he could leave. He turned around and looked at the other boy with curiosity.

“What?”

“I guess, whatever happens, we’ll keep talking, right?”

“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t we?”

“Just making sure. I don’t think I would have gotten through those classes without talking to you about them afterwards. And, if things do go wrong, then …”

“We’ll keep talking, no matter what,” Scott reassured him.

“Okay,” Cyrus said, feeling relieved. “See you later then.”

Scott nodded back and walked out. Cyrus finished up in the bathroom and walked back to his room with a skip in his step. He would get to go someplace new, and possibly better, by next week.

Now all I have to do is wait.
Cyrus thought as he lay down on his bed.

And wait he did. The week passed slowly and lazily for Cyrus. Without any computer classes or group discussions, there wasn’t much to fill his days with. The short visits from Ms. Linda were nice, as they gave him someone to talk to, but that was the only human contact he had all week. Thus, his days dragged by in idleness; much of them spent either in slumber or standing on his stool to get a better look out the window.

During the middle of the week, when he was considering bashing his head against the boring white wall for entertainment, he took out a few of his possessions, such as his notebook, pen, cup and different colored shirts, and tried to stack to make his own building. At first, he figured this activity would only last him a few minutes. To his great surprise, he enjoyed finding new and interesting ways to angle his possessions to create all kinds of different designs. There wasn’t much he could do with his limited possessions, but it was even more fun for him to imagine what kinds of structures he could make with a few more supplies.

He was still playing with the building designs when Ms. Linda came in to collect his lunch trash. He’d been so wrapped up in what he was doing that he hadn’t even bothered to eat it. Ms. Linda scolded him for that and to stop playing around. They were tools, not toys, she remarked as everything was filed in its proper place. Deciding that he had better listen to her for the time being, he laid back down on his bed.

After an eternity had passed, or at least that’s how it felt to Cyrus, it was Monday. It was finally time for their new classes to start at a brand new school. Cyrus eagerly got out of bed and got dressed, earning him an eyebrow raise and a question about the state of his health from his caretaker. Cyrus reassured her that he was fine, and she helped him finish his morning routine. He retorted to her that technically he was always ‘wright’ and Ms. Linda gave him a long stare to tell him just how unamused she was at his jest. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the expression.

Once she had left, he knew it was only a matter of time before they were ready to leave. His impatience made the time seem to go by even slower, but when the lock clicked, all his irritation with the time was forgotten as he raced out into the hallway. He lined up quickly, as did the other students, and they were on the way.

When their line made its way out of the double doors and turned right down the cement sidewalk, a sense of wonder filled Cyrus. He’d never been this way before, nor had they been allowed to go outside their building for this long except to see the animals. Tall buildings eclipsed them from all sides while metal barriers kept them away from the concrete streets. The streets themselves were empty, without a single other person passing by. It was blue skies overhead with only a whiff of cloud here and there to interrupt its clear unending color.

Ten minutes later, they had arrived at a rectangular building with white paint on all sides and a flat roof on top. The building was three stories high, and there were two different entrances to use to get in. Ms. Linda led them through the one on the left. Once inside, Cyrus noticed that the linoleum floor beneath his feet was mostly white with a few black freckles here and there. The walls were stark white as well, only offset by old brown lockers that crowded against the wall. They walked down the long thin hallway until they were at room one hundred and sixteen.