A/N: Sorry about the short chapter! I would've written more and was thinking about it when I saw how short this was, but I think I like where it ends and with the content it has.
My first two weeks on the base went normally. I sat next to Damon and Ella in school, which obviously, was much harder than regular school, but I was doing pretty well.
My favorite part was the history class, where they taught us about the ruined cities. A hundred years ago, before the base'd been started, several of the world's major cities were obliterated. D.C., London, Hong Kong. They never pin pointed what did it, and they never really talked about it. By now, most of them have been rebuilt, but they left some untouched. Like New York City.
That's what the people in Sector 3 C called their town.
As promised, I've Commed Zora and Maine every day since I left. They tell me not much is going on,, except for some crazy weather, apparently. No snow in Wisconsin in the middle of January? Yeah, a little weird. We've always gotten snow, and Zora says they don't have a single inch.
My roommates were both born on the base (most of the kids here are, actually). They're nice enough I guess but they pretty much ignore me. I'm fine with that, really; I've never been the most social person. In fact, I don't even think I know the blonde one's name.
"Micah?"
"Take what you use and let the rest go by. Ken Kesey." I blurted out. Damon laughed. He thought my whole quote thing was funny. I glared at him "What?" He held up his hands as if to defined himself.
"Hey, I was just trying to keep you from running into that pole." Sure enough, I was standing about a half-foot away from a metal pole. Yeah, that would've been embarrassing.
"I would not have." I muttered.
"Yeah you would have." Ella giggled. She did that a lot, but I didn't really mind. Maine giggled a lot, too, and I was used to it.
"You're supposed to stand up for me, Ella." I tried for a glare but ended up smiling. Ella wasn't the type of person you couldn't glare at.
Eventually, Damon split off from us to buy something or other.
"What's the necklace mean?" Ella asked
"Huh? What necklace?" I cocked my head at her, confused. She rolled her eyes at me.
"The one you're wearing, genius." I glanced down. Right, that one. I always forget I'm wearing it…
"Helloooo? Earth to Micah?" She waved her hand in front of my face. I blushed, realizing I'd zoned out again.
"I don't know what it means."
"What, did it belong to your parents?" I stopped in my tracks and turned away from her, pretending to browse the books I was standing in front of.
On many occasions, I'd wondered if it'd belonged to my parents. I'd even asked my aunt and uncle once, and I never asked them anything about my parents. It almost hurt to see the awful, pitying look on their faces. They gave me the look when I asked about the necklace. They didn't know where it'd come from, and Aunt Valarie said she'd never remembered my mother wearing anything like it.
"Nope." I answered, instead of simply saying 'I don't know'. I didn't like not knowing things.
We fell into silence and I started to browse the books for real. They had a lot of good books here.
"What do you think of Damon?" Ella asked. I glanced over the top of the book I was previewing
"I don't know. He's our friend. Why?" Ella shrugged
"I don't know. Just, um, never mind." I shook my head at her and shrugged. If she didn't want to tell me, then I wasn't going to pry.
"Are you just going to stand there and read that entire book?" Ella asked, growing impatient.
"No, sorry. Let me go and pay for this. You can pick where we go next." Ella wasn't as big on books as I was.
"Damon is going to meet us in front of the video game store, remember?" I did remember. See, my problem wasn't my memory, it was my ADD. I was way too easily distracted.
"Right, let's go then." I said, sliding the plastic bag over my wrist and tucking a strand of loose hair behind my ear.
I followed Ella as she sped-walked towards the video game.
"You just passed it Ella." I told her. She paused and turned to me rolling her eyes.
"I know where I'm going, Micah. You were looking over the railing, how would you even know?" I shrugged, and pointed three stores behind us, where Damon stood. He waved, and shrugged as well. Ella sighed and shook her head. She didn't like being wrong, even if it wasn't very often.
"Hey Damon. We going to McCary's or not?"
Okay, I wasn't completely oblivious. During lunch Ella kept sneaking glances at Damon. I had a feeling I was missing something. Okay, maybe I was a little oblivious.
"You have milkshake all over your face, Micah." Damon said
"Really? I'm not even drinking a milkshake." Ella giggled.
"He's telling the truth, Micah. It's all over your cheek." I took and napkin and it came away with chocolate milkshake. I glanced suspiciously at Damon. He shrugged, but his grin gave him away.
"Hey, don't look at me. It's not my face."
Surprisingly, I didn't believe him.
When we finished eating, we left and just walked around. After about half an hour, Damon put his arm in front of me so I had to stop.
"That guy's been staring at you for like, the last twenty minutes." He said. I looked where he was looking, and there was a guy, maybe somewhere around thirty standing there. He wasn't looking at me.
"What a creep." Ella commented. I rolled my eyes at her.
"I don't think he was even looking at me. I don't know him."
Still, I felt the uneasiness of being watched for the rest of the day. And I hated that feeling.
A/N: This kind of a filler chapter I needed to introduce in the plot.
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