Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops III - "It Ain't Me"

Elsewhere in the Pond that morning, on another avenue.

“I read some underground pamphlets the other day,” Piper explained, one finger pointed upwards, her hands covered by black fingerless gloves. “And I got inspired. You see, when America was fighting in Vietnam, I guess nobody liked it. I don’t know why they wouldn’t, because we were saving the world from communism or something, but nobody liked it. And this is the coolest part – they called it ‘Nam. Imagine that, Oksana! What a great name that is. What’s the equivalent for New England? ‘Land? I can’t imagine shooting bison out of one of those chopper things with that one song they always play in the movies and then going ‘this is ‘Land, baby!’ But I digress. It turns out the government lied to everyone. We were attacking all of the little countries around Vietnam but the government didn’t tell the public about it.”

She thought about it. “Well, I guess I can see why nobody liked it. But my point is that the guy who published the secret papers about the government’s lies, talk about a hero. That’s what I want to do. That’s why I want to be a journalist! I want to have my own Watergate. Watergate, Oksana! They caught the President of the United States of America with his metaphoric pants down. I want something like that, to find the truth! Know what I mean?”

“...”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m starting small, but just you wait! I even got that photo of the New York spy in our school all thanks to your idea of staking out the Tertiary Building that evening.”

Piper and Oksana passed under the shade of the trees that lined the avenue. Piper shivered; she wasn’t one for the cold that came with November. Next to her, Oksana paid the cold no mind, probably because she didn’t pay anything any mind.

On their left was the avenue, cars passing by on their way to work. On their right were lines of shops; butchers, delis, convenience stores, restaurants, bakeries. Some of them still bore the scars of last month’s raid by the State Police; many windows, previously made of glass, were now boarded up with planks of wood. Bullet holes and tattered awnings also served as reminders. Perhaps the biggest scar from the raid came from the look in the eyes of the shop owners and customers; slightly dark, slightly on edge. Though a month had passed, it would take a long time to return to a peaceful state of mind.

“And perhaps that peaceful state of mind will never come,” Piper continued. “There’s been shootings and bombings all over the city. There’s going to be more chaos than you can shake a stick at.”

Oksana rubbed her eyes, confused about which words were part of her inner monologue and which ones were said by Piper aloud.

Piper raised her hands triumphantly. “I’ll be famous!”

Well, that sounds like Piper.

After crossing an intersecting street, they arrived at a set of luxury stores. These were the hardest hit by the raid; unlike delis, which were merely shot up, luxury stores were robbed wholesale. Despite some support from Stockham and the Academy, many of them had to close down, leaving vacant storefronts in their wake. People with nothing else to do now sat on the stoops of their storefronts, fearful of what will happen to the apartments they lived in above the empty stores.

Oksana didn't like the eyes of those people.

They're not looking at me. They're not.

But she couldn't help but feel like their eyes followed her as she went.

One store that did remain open was an upper-class clothing store. As Piper continued on about the heroism of journalists (and how she would surpass their heroism through her intellect, rugged good looks, and her left and right fists, labeled Free and Speech, respectively), Oksana glanced at the store’s window and slowly came to a halt.

“And I think I’ll be a war reporter too,” Piper continued. “The solider of today deserves to have his story written down, and especially deserves to have his story written down by yours truly...”

Oksana stood in place, her eyes captivated by the item on display through the window.

“Whatcha looking at?” Piper asked.

“...”

“Yeah, you’re right. There’s only one thing in the window.” In front of them, behind the glass, stood a mannequin wearing an indigo colored dress.

“Looks pretty,” Piper observed. She then saw the price tag and let out a whistle. “Looks expensive.”

Oksana slowly nodded, not taking her eyes off the dress.

“Wow, I’ve never seen you want anything.” Piper patted her friend on the back. “Too bad the one thing you want has a helluva price tag attached to it.”

Oksana managed to straighten out the numbers in her head to do the math. State Police Section 15 Head Researcher - better known among those in the know (and Oksana was certainly in the know) as Oswald - gave her a monthly allowance, but since there was nothing she particularly wanted (besides getting better at waking up and falling asleep), the money slowly accumulated in her untraceable Squanto Bank account. But, even then, it wouldn’t be enough (it wasn’t exactly a large monthly allowance anyway).

Too short.

“...” Oksana grumbled.

“Yeah, you’re right. Life can be so unfair sometimes.” Piper wrapped her arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you. Stop N Go is running a two-for-five sale on their chicken caesar wraps. Who would’ve thunk chicken caesar wraps were inflation-proof! Two-for-five is highway robbery nowadays!”

Oksana felt meh about chicken and meh about deals, but someone calling out to them at the intersection they crossed earlier interrupted her mehness.

“Good morning!” Lynn exclaimed, waving her arm. She wore the school’s green greatcoat over the greenish blazer and gray skirt, same as Piper and Oksana. Piper withdrew her arm from Oksana’s shoulders and raised it to wave back.

Lynn looked back ways, then bound across the street, arriving on their side of the avenue. As she caught up to them, Oksana lowered her arm.

“Hiya, Oksana,” Lynn greeted. “You walking to school by yourself?”

Oksana glanced around her.

Piper was nowhere in sight. Her journalistic friend was completely gone.

Oksana rubbed her eyes.

That’s right. I walked with her to school yesterday. That entire conversation took place yesterday. I was just dreaming it aloud today.

“...yes,” Oksana answered. She gave Lynn a blank look. “Don’t you usually walk to school with Mackenzie?”

Lynn nodded. “Usually, but she had some super-special-secret class rep business today.”

“I see.”

Oksana’s gaze returned to the dress. Lynn followed her eyes.

“Looks pretty,” Lynnn observed. She then saw the price tag and let out a whistle. “Looks expensive.”

Oksana slowly nodded, not taking her eyes off the dress.

“Maybe if you get a part-time job, you’ll have enough to buy it,” Lynn suggested.

“...”

“Yeah, you’re right! A lot of places are hiring extra help for Christmas.”

Lynn pointed down the avenue. “Hey, we’re going to be late. We should get going.”

Oksana nodded and followed Lynn. As they passed under the shadow of an elevated highway, Oksana stood about a foot behind Lynn, tracing her footsteps.

“Hey, you can walk next to me,” Lynn said. “We’re classmates after all.”

Oksana nodded and caught up to her. The two walked side by side, emerging back into the autumn light as the elevated highway receded into the distance.

“Even though we’re classmates, I guess we’ve never really talked before,” Lynn supposed. “I mean, it makes sense. You were here as a first year and I only transferred here this year-”

He knows.

Oksana suddenly stopped and darted her head to her right.

Lynn scratched her temple.

"Oh, that guy watering the flowers," she realized, following Oksana's gaze to a man in front of a flower shop. "I wonder what kind of flowers are those. We're pretty late into the fall."

"Chrysanthemums," Oksana mumbled.

"Gesundheit."

Lynn chuckled, and the two continued on. As they walked, Lynn circled her thumbs around each other and swallowed.

“Anyway, since you enrolled in the Academy as a first-year, you did the Combat Simulation already,” Lynn explained. “So, I was wondering...do you have any advice for it? I’m actually...I'm a little nervous about it.”

Oksana tried to separate the real Combat Simulation from the ones she dreamt about. The real one...it was just a four v. four matchup. Let’s see...she was teamed up with Reed, Piper, and Mallory. Opposing them was Marie, Leekman, Mackenzie, and another user currently in Rddhi Theory class 2-B, Wheaton. Piper immediately pulled out her signature move, the Platinum Disco, a series of blinding lights that were just-as-immediately reflected back at her by Marie, who pulled a mirror out of her sleeve (thanks to her large mouth, everybody knew Piper's powers far ahead of time).

That reflected blast knocked out Piper, Mallory, and Reed all at once. That left Oksana to face off against four people alone.

“And I heard you beat all four!” Lynn exclaimed. “I think that’s amazing. I don’t have to do something as impressive as that. I just...I don’t want to make a fool of myself out there, you know?”

Nobody ever came to Oksana for advice, so she tried to think of how Piper would answer her when she came to her for advice (and she was the only who came to Piper for advice).

“You’ll be okay,” Oksana offered. “Piper always tells me to just be myself out there, though I don’t really understand it.”

Lynn let out a relieved sigh. “That makes sense. Thanks, Oksana.”

“...what does it mean?” Oksana asked.

“Being myself?” Lynn repeated.

Oksana slowly nodded. “I don’t remember what it really means.”

“Hmm...” Lynn mulled it over. “Being myself...or being yourself, I guess...you just have to be true to who you are.” She pointed at thumb at herself. “I’m the only Lynn Falls in the world, so I just have to be comfortable with who I am." The smile remained on her face, but she sighed. "I'm not always the best at that though. It's easier said than done."

An elevated train passed above them, heading for Tsukishima Station and the Academy, which was just coming into view at the end of the avenue. Students and teachers poured out of the station and went on their merry way through the Academy gates, into its courtyard. The big figure of Hanai loomed outside the front gate, his arms crossed against his chest (though even Oksana knew he was more bark than bite).

Oksana also knew Lynn was an optimist. “And it’s the same for you,” Lynn continued, showing no signs of feeling chilly on a cold day. “You’re the only Oksana Nazarov in the world, so you just gotta act like yourself, too. You’re you! You gotta have some pride in it.”

The only Oksana Nazarov in the world.

“Oksana?” the girl who looked just like her asked, telegram wires protruding out of her back and up to the ceiling, deep down in Oswald’s laboratory below Palmer Beach.

Oksana rubbed her eyes.

“Oksana?” Lynn asked.

Oksana stopped daydreaming and realized they had arrived inside the school courtyard. Sitting on a bench below an oak tree, Piper spotted them and bounded over.

“Look what I got!” she exclaimed, holding out two chicken caesar wraps, carefully folded up for delivery.

“Thanks, Piper.” Oksana took one and felt the texture of it, reminding herself it was real and it was there in her hands.

“Lynn, how are you?” Piper asked. She spoke again before Lynn could answer. “Oh, sorry. I only brought the two wraps. Here, I got an idea.”

Piper held her own wrap in her hands and tried to rip it in two, but she couldn’t get it off cleanly. Oksana and Lynn watched as the wrap’s innards spilled out through the incomplete rip in the wrap and wrapping. Growing frustrated, Piper tore harder at the wrap, only to bobble it in her hands and drop the wrap entirely.

The three girls looked at the dead chicken caesar wrap on the concrete courtyard pathway in mute silence.

Piper spoke first.

“Oksana...think you could split yours into three?”