Spark- Chapter 2

Chapter 2
With large grey buildings, long boring hallways and walls covered in squeaky steel lockers, Kalhound was a pretty regular high school.
Seth was really enjoying history class that day. And not just because Lily sat by him. Okay, only because Lily sat by him. Mr. Lewis, the history teacher, stood behind his desk, in his ever-so-enthusiastic manner, speaking in a low monotone stopping only to tighten the knot on his tie.

“In the 70’s, the Cold war reached its peak. The U.S, The Soviet Union and Germany were discovering new scientific breakthroughs. From race-specific biobombs to robotic assassins all three countries stock piled weaponry of all sorts.” Mr. Lewis droned on.
War, Seth thought. He wondered what incentive a country would have to send its soldiers into another country and destroy it. Justice? Self defense? Or the illusion that one’s country was superior to others’ and as such should be the hand of justice? Another one of those great unsolvable mysteries of the universe. Like why is Friday so close to Monday and Monday so far from Friday?

He looked around absent mindedly at his classroom. Like every other classroom on that floor, it was painfully boring. White walls, a black board, a blank bulletin board that had been blank as long as he could remember were the interesting items. Lily sat beside him, taking notes furiously, giving Mr. Lewis every aorta of her attention. Matt was behind Lily, looking around distractedly. Like me, Seth thought. He caught Matt’s eye and smiled.

As he looked around, he noticed more familiar faces. Kerri, tall blonde. IT girl. Dumb as post. As usual she was flanked left and right by Giselle and Kady.

Daniel sat in the top right corner, looking bored. He wouldn’t look so bored if he knew every single girl in that room had, at one time in their life had a crush on him. Beside him, Kyle and Rurik were engaged in an argument.

Then Seth noticed someone that didn’t fit. He was sitting at the farthest corner of the class, his face buried in a ruined notebook. The freshman! , he thought, remembering the events of that morning.

“But of all these horrors, the greatest weapon came from our soil. Project E.A.G.L.E was the most controversial weapons project ever commissioned by the U.S.A. I assume you already know why it is?”

The class remained quiet. Lily’s hand shot into the air. Mr. Lewis nodded at her and she launched into her answer.

“Project E.A.G.L.E was the most controversial weaponry project ever commissioned because the U.S was the first of the three warring nations to develop something people had fantasized about for years. The super soldier.” She said, not once stopping for a breath.

“Very good. But not correct. True the U.S military succeeded in creating the super soldier. But the really disturbing fact is that the scientists involved used children, babies in fact, to test the weaponry after they discovered adults reacted dangerously with the genetic weaponry.”

Seth’s eyes were wide with excitement. Super soldiers? Genetic Weaponry? He made a mental note never to sleep in History again. He raised his hand carefully.

“Mr. White, do you have something to contribute?” Mr. Lewis said, mockingly.

“Uh, what happened to the babies? After the war ended.”

“Well that is a very interesting question, Mr. White. As you know, after the Goldman treaty was signed in ’72 all of the stockpiled weapons were destroyed. We can safely assume the children got disposed of.”

“They killed them?” Seth said, disgusted.

“Tragic indeed. But that is especially what made this such a controversy in the first place. Well I can see my time is up now. Good day. And don’t forget to hand in your papers on the ethics of Genetic Engineering on Wednesday.” He said, as he picked up his briefcase and walked out of the room.
“Sad…” Seth said.

“Yeah, those children never stood a chance.” Lily said, scrambling to pack up her books.

“I mean, what sort of sick person would experiment on babies?”

“Seth, calm down. It was a long time ago and it didn’t happen to you!”Lily said, smiling.
She’s smiling again, he thought.

“I know, it’s just-”

“Sad?” said another voice.

Seth looked around and saw a skinny, dark skinned kid with a dark jeans and boots.

“Hi, Phillip!” Lily said as she got up and grabbed her books. “S’later, Seth!” she called as she ran to her next class. Seth’s eyes followed her until she was out of sight.

“You know, Seth, Gwen would be pretty pissed that you like someone else.” Phillip said, putting his feet on the table.

Oh my god, he thought. Phillip couldn’t know. She didn’t even know.

“Who? Lily? Please.” Seth said.

“Hmm. Whatever you say. Anyway, we got a chess match today at the library.” Phillip said, getting up and wearing his leather jacket.

Phillip Burke was a weird one, Seth thought as he left. He was by far the most intelligent person at the school, and his grades were horrible. He was also, as he heard some say, a pretty good looking guy. He didn’t have a girlfriend, or girl friends for that matter apart from Lily. He preferred to keep his bad boy image, chain smoking with the other delinquents in the parking lot.
Seth walked out of the history class into the hallway. He was about to get himself a nice unhealthy hamburger when he saw her. Gwen Matthews ran towards him and kissed him in full view of everyone there.

“Hello to you too.” He said

“Oh God, Seth. I missed you so much and…”

Seth groaned inwardly. He had learned to tune out her I-love-you-so-much-if-you-ever-leave-me-I’ll-kill-myself speeches. He didn’t even know why he was with her. He sure as hell didn’t love her or even like her for that matter. As he stood there cringing uncomfortably, he saw Lily pass by. Lily saw them, looked down and kept walking.

“Um hey, I’d like to keep talking but I have class now. Later.” He said and walked to the library, with a sigh of relief.

The library, he thought. The place where the hard working students got together and studied. Very loudly in fact. Their loud research about the Kerri’s house party was only somewhat restrained by a frail old librarian shushing them. As he walked to his usual table and waited for Phillip. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, a half hour went by and Phillip still hadn’t shown up. He got his phone out and he had a text from Phillip. “Can’t come. Meet me at the parking lot.” it said

Seth, while wary of Phillip’s company, didn’t want to miss out on the chess game he had practiced so hard for. So he walked out of the library and went to the parking lot. As he walked towards the parking lot, he felt a little spasm at the back of his mind.

If only he listened to it.