EVERYDAY LIFE IN A CORE

Italic for thoughts/speaking

Bold for texts and phone calls

The burger patty was drenched in hot sauce as the trio of friends chatted with one another. A dull eyed girl with long black hair smashed the bun back onto it and took a large bite of the processed meat and cheese combination. It would taste like the real thing to any normal human being but due to the teen's advanced taste buds it feel like eating grit and dust mites. Sauce dripped from it as she ate zoning back into the conversation before her.

"I was just saying that for someone to instantly be accepted into the academy with now orientation test or practice is obviously shady." Her cousin a beak nosed boy with a early two thousand's hair do said dipping his curly fries into mayonnaise. "The bitch is obviously some type of undercover agent sent to watch us pests for the headmaster. It annoys the hell out of me."

A amused huff left the remaining teen's mouth as she tried to keep herself from bursting into laughter. Her long dreads framed around her chubby face as she held a small black mirror in her hands and sat it down on the small circular table top. Watching the dull eyed girl stuffed her face with her burger forcing herself to not spit it out so she wouldn't have to be brought into the fight. Again.

"Sounds like your jealous." Her voice cut and the boy hissed grabbing at his chest in mock pain.

"You wound me Christy with your obvious bullshit." Flicking his wrist he grabbed the girl's mirror before she could stop him and waved it in the air. He looked at the small plastic thing accusingly and slammed it back onto the table leaning forward. "Did she give this to you? I can smell that girl's fake Victoria secret body mist all over it. Do they think we need there charity?! Do you want to impress them that bad!"

Choking on her food the girl grabbed a napkin to cover her mouth and spit some of it out. She was used to the rude way her cousin her spoke about those higher up than him with his emense pride and all however this sounded more like bitterness than jealously. Bitter about what she didn't know. Swallowing she sat in her side of the booth with her head held in her hand the other grabbing hold of her friends.

"Shush Cousin. Your yelling at Christy for no reason and if you continue you can go eat somewhere else." She avoided telling him to shut up not wanting to get his anger directed at herself a smaller and more feeble target. The threat in her words however rang strong and she made sure to look him in eyes to get the seriousness across.

"I-I'm sorry Christy. I don't know what came over me it's just I hate that we have to work our asses off to be even eligible to be in the academy's waiting list and people like that can just walst in like they own the place. " He said scratching the back of his head his cheeks turning a bright shade of red. The tense air around the trio shifted and a sigh left the lips of the girl that sat in front of him.

Christy grinned at him the simple gesture being all the apology the boy needed to reassure them. They couldn't blame him for his anger towards the way there world had begun to work but how could they simple teenagers with supernatural backgrounds change that? Choosing the abandon such a depressing subject they began to talk about civil things such as homework and what the summer had been like for one another.

Allowing herself to give a small grin at her friends the dull eyed girl fingered a small skull shaped ring on her finger. The ring was defiantly plastic however she felt attached to it and had always worn it since getting it from her father. She felt her mood dampen at the thought of her parents and pulled out a small rectangular pad with red runes on the side.

Right after humanity became aware of magic being real they had used it to enhance their own technology and make new life changing inventions. Cell phones had become a hybrid of magic and the newest tech allowing it's owners to use holograms and telepathic messages to communicate with each other. The girl rarely used it herself but she did enjoy reading new forum posts every once in a while.

Turning the small electronic on she watched as a ball of pure red magical energy danced in front of her. The magic flowed around her and tickled the back of her neck as whisps of silky air spun into a small loading screen and became a large awry of posts ranging from simple phrases to full blown paragraphs. Humming the girl sifted through the forum enjoying the growing the popularity it had reached within her week long absence.

Suddenly the posts came to a shutter and disappeared into thin air. Looking down at her tablet the girl cursed and put it back in her pocket. It seemed she had run out of data for that month and she didn't have any money to get anymore. She pouted and watched people from outside of her window next to the booth they had sat it, intrigued by the everyday life of others who where obvious to her growing despair.

Something grabbed her shoulder and she turned her eyes widening. "Oh did you say something Ivan?"

"No. You've been zoned out for the past twenty minutes and I started to worry." Noticing the smaller girl's open mouth and her eyes falling to the empty spot next to her he began to explain not wanting her to be alarmed. "Christy had to go make a phone call with her mom, something about her brother getting in trouble again. I don't think she wanted us to worry so she went to go talk to her in the bathroom."

"Oh." She answered simply blinking for a moment before asking quietly. "Ivan do you think that the academy might be right about us sometimes..."

Shock was on the older boy's face as he looked at his little cousin not knowing how to respond. Unconsciously she began to recoil instantly regretting what she had said and pulled up her jacket's hood in a attempt to hide herself. She could practically smell the raw heat of his anger and disgust from her words shivering from it's intensity. Putting her hands on the table she tried to calm him down eyes wide with worry.

"It's not like I'm ashamed for what we are Ivan! I just wish people wouldn't look down on us you know? See us as people night some monster hiding under some poor child's bed." Her words fell on death ears as she saw the vacantness in his eyes and curled into herself. What have I done? Damnit why can't I just keep my mouth shut! "Ivan just forget what i-"

"No." Just one word and her mouth shut fearing that if she said anything else she'd be crushed. Not that her cousin would ever hurt her on purpose but in anger anyone can do anything without wanting to. It was just the look of sheer hatred that had formed on his face sent chills down her spine.

"Humans are monsters. They only care for another so they can take from each other again and again! They kill their kind as they are just toys to play with and throw away! Humans have hurt you Suki They'd rip you apart again and this time we wouldn't be able to piece you back together! To them your nothing but a fucking machine!" He said grabbing onto her wrist and pulling her forward.

Suki gasped in pain and wrenched her hands away from him and stood up in shock. As if a switch had gone off in his head her cousin threw himself away from her and looked at his hands shaking. Bruises hand formed on the skin that his nails had dug into causing the girl to shark harder than she already was.

"I am not a machine I am a person." Trembling she grabbed her backpack and made her towards the front door of the dinner ignoring her cousins panicked cries. A machine. A machine. A machine. The words echoed in her head taunting her as she let a weak sob.

A hand grabbed onto her shoulder and she wrenched away from it tears flowing freely from her eyes. Anger began to flood her mind as she turned expecting to see her cousin's heartbroken face or Christy worried gaze beaming down at her. Only she was met with something that made her heart stop and legs turn to jelly.

It was the front of a gun.