Tulip of Tekna – Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Flopping down on my bed I quickly dialed Tori and she picked before a ring could even go through. I guess she was just as anxious to talk to me.

“I can’t believe this!” Tori and I gasped at the same time.

“How are we going to survive?” Tori asked rhetorically. I honestly didn’t have an answer to that and was hoping she would be able to come up with an idea but apparently she was just as lost.

“Ugh! 3 months in LOT? I’d would any day exchange that to be a Mortl”, Tori continued.
I knew LOT was going to be horrible, but I needed to convince Tori somehow that it wouldn’t be that bad or else the she would’ve honestly run away to Mortl land.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad…” I said trailing off, waiting for her reaction. There was a gasp and then silence on her end. “…maybe..maybe by being in LOT, we’d get to collect inside information on how to overthrow the government!” I said the first thing that came into my head.
“OMG you’re right! Why didn’t I think of that?! You’re such a genius bestie!” Tori said squealing with joy.
Wow, that was easy I thought to myself. If only it were that easy to convince my parents into not sending us, but I’m sure there was no chance of that.

Tori and I spoke for a few more minutes and decided what were going to take and then she hung up because she needed to go to her Pilates class. I decided that I needed to go work out too, to blow some steam off. So I put on my gym clothes and headed to the kitchen to pick up a water bottle.

Inside the kitchen I noticed Meera was attempting to teach a struggling Jonah on how to wash the dishes. It was truly a rare sight and I never thought I would say this but I actually felt bad for Jonah.

“Hey bro!” I said walking up to him. He didn’t say anything but he looked up and I realized that his eyes were red. If it were any other day I would’ve made fun of him for crying, but I knew how he felt. His friends would never let him live this down when they found out.

I don’t know what came over me at that moment but somehow all I knew was that I couldn’t leave Jonah at home for the next three months. He seemed pretty tough on the outside but really that was just a front. He was the kind of guy who’d write mushy love songs and play guitar but he behaved like a jerk because of his friends.

It was around nine at night so my parents were in the living room watching news. I actually didn’t know what I needed to say until I was standing in front of them.
“If you’ve come here to ask us to not send you to LOT, then we’re telling you now not to waste your time because nothing is going to change our minds,” my dad said before I could even open my mouth to speak.

“I know and I deserve that. But that’s not what I’m here to ask you.” I said, hoping they’d calm down a little after I accepted my punishment. “I wanted to tell you, well ask you, if you’d let Jonah also go to LOT. It’s just I know him well and I know that in a few days he’ll just end up getting in trouble because all his friends are still here, and making him do the dishes for three months isn’t going to bring up his grades or change his attitude. Whereas if he went to LOT with me, he’d probably learn a few things and also stay away from his friends.” I said, all in one breath.

Mom and dad looked at me quizzically “Hmm, that’s actually not a bad idea…” Mom said looking at dad. I was doing imaginary cartwheels in my head. Dad looked convinced already. Anything that mom agrees to, dad has to agree. “Fine then. Jonah will go with you too. Maybe something will go in that thick brain of his while he’s there.” Dad said and then returned to watching tv.

I walked out of the room grinning. I felt good doing something good for someone.

I raced down to the gym and did a full one hour workout. My body was aching by the time I was done, but it felt good to get my mind off about thinking about tomorrow.

True I had convinced Tori that it was going to be fun, but I wasn’t so sure myself. It’s not like I had much of a choice anyway though. It would suck to be stuck with a bunch of plastic perfect people inventing more ways to destroy Mother Nature, but I had to do it. At least I’d have Jonah around to make fun of. He hated science even more than me and he understood literally nothing.

Later at night when I was lying on my bed looking at the glow-in-the-stars I had stuck to my ceiling, somebody knocked on my door.

“Come in. It’s open” I said lazily. Jonah walked in. He was so quiet, maybe he thought going to LOT was a lot worse than cleaning. I just hoped I hadn’t made him more miserable, but I didn’t have to worry any longer as he gave me a huge bear hug. “Thank you so much T! I love you so much right now” he said ruffling my hair. “Hey! I’m not a puppy!” I yelped pushing him away playfully.

Sigh. I was so relieved he wasn’t pissed at me. “Really, I don’t know how I would’ve spent three months washing those dishes. It is so complicated!” He said with a seriously confused look on his face.

I just laughed. Jonah tended to find even the most easiest thing complicated. “You owe me bro!” I said throwing a pillow at him which I knew was the start of a full fledged pillow fight.

“Oh no you didn’t!” Jonah said with an evil look in his eyes and lounged at me with another pillow. I squealed and ran around the room trying to avoid the flying pillows and flinging more pillows at him.

Tulip pf Tekna – Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“I’m home” I yelled as I entered my house and tossed the results on the table in the foyer. I hadn’t done great but my brother had done worse; he’d failed in Government Studies so today he was gonna have to bare the brunt of their sarcasm and “is this what I raised you for?” questions, so I was in the clear for a while.

Running up to my room taking two steps at a time, I was already thinking about all the free time I had for the next three months to explore the city of the Mortls. Freedom at last!

I took a long, hot shower and was almost done when Meera, our housekeeper knocked on my door and told me dinner was ready.

I gave my shower one last longing look, wrapped a towel around myself and got out. Honestly I wasn’t hungry at all but in my family you couldn’t miss dinner unless you were on your deathbed, so I dragged myself to the closet to pick out something ‘ladylike’ as my mom said, to wear.

Finally after standing for around half an hour and day dreaming, I picked out a dark emerald, knee skimming evening dress. I hoped this was enough ladylike for my mom. After trying to pin back my crazy frizzy red mane of hair and get them to behave I decided to just leave them as they were because they’d just get back to their original state in five minutes.

Instead of taking the elevator, I decided to take the stairs down to he dining hall, thinking this would save time since I was already two minutes late, but then figured this was a bad idea because that’s when our butler decided to bring out the dishes from the kitchen.

“Oops sorry Gerard…” I said as I almost knocked our butler down the stairs in my hurry. “No worries, Miss Tulip” he yelled out while trying to regain his balance. I hated people calling me Miss Tulip. For gods sake, I wasn’t some school teacher, but my mom insisted on all the house staff to refer to us as Misters and Miss’.

Ignoring him I hurried down the stairs and stopped just outside the dining room to catch my breath. “How could you do this?”, my mom’s shrill voice drifted towards me. Perfect. Mom and dad were grilling Jonah for his grades, which gave me enough time to gulp down my food quickly and disappear before anyone noticed me there.

I took a deep breath and entered the room. No one paid any attention to be as dad was yelling at Jonah about how stupid it was for him to fail in Government studies. Sigh. These were probably the only times I loved having my brother around.

I sat down on my chair in between mom and dad and reached out my hand to get the chicken gravy. I realized it was a big mistake as just then I saw mom give me a cold stare that could freeze the Sahara desert and say, “is that how ladies in this family are supposed to behave? By laying themselves across the table to get a dish? We have butlers to serve you!” God. Laying was a bit of an exaggeration. Firstly I didn’t understand why we had to sit on such a long dining table when there were only four of us eating. And moreover I wasn’t a handicap that I couldn’t even reach out my hand to take a bowl of gravy. But deciding it was stupidity to argue with my mom, I mumbled and quick sorry and Gerard came to my aid by taking the bowl and putting gravy on my plate.

By this time they had gone back to yelling at Jonah about his grades. I picked up my fork and dug it into the potato, as I wasn’t really in the mood to eat. Thank god I didn’t take a bite, because what I heard next would’ve made me spit out my food on dad’s face.

“So Jonah, since you’ve got appalling grades, you will be made to clean the bathrooms and the do the dishes for the next one month.” My mom said. The look on Jonah’s face was literally priceless. I mean yes he had had his fair share of punishments for getting bad grades, but this was going a step too far. Jonah had his entire summer planned out to party and plot with his friends and now he was made to clean the bathrooms!

After hearing this I decided it was best for me to quickly slip away before anyone noticed. But my luck wasnt always in my favor and as soon as inched the chair back, my dad daid in his crisp, automated voice, “and how were your grades love?” He asked in what seemed to be a very sincere tone but every word was dripping with sinister intent.

“Well, I umm…I passed in Government Studies” I said hoping this was enough to get me off the hook; apparently it wasn’t as they didn’t look all that pleased. “We’ll yes, you did pass GS, and that too only by 4 marks, but what about physics and history? Shall we discuss as to why you only achieved just passed marks in these two?” I swear I saw Jonah smirk out of the corner of my eye.

“Well the paper was quite difficult and most of the students failed” I tried convincing them that passing was good compared to the students that had failed, but I should’ve known better, that never works with my parents. “Are you living with the parents of those other students?” my dad asked sarcastically. “Anyways, since you too have failed our expectations, you will attend LOT’s summer program along with Tori, as her parents and us have deemed it necessary for you both to get some hands on learning before you follow in the footsteps of your older brother.” He finished by giving Jonah a disappointed look.

The LOT? As in Laboratories of Tekna; this was my worst nightmare come to life. I hated anything to do with those labs where they defied nature and created plastic food and fake weather, and now I was to spend three months of my life there?! But as they say every grey cloud has a silver lining, at least me and Tori were going to suffer together which made it seem less agonizing. I couldn’t wait to finish dinner and go up to my room to call Tori, so I quickly gobbled up my chemical tasting potatoes and vegetables and excused myself from the dining table. Jonah was still sitting there staring at his plate unable to believe how he’d spend his summer. At least I didn’t have to clean poop and leftovers.

***

Tulip of Tekna – Chapter 1

So a few months ago I finally got around to writing my first novel and I want you guys to give me your opinion on whether I should continue it or quit writing it.
So here’s the first chapter!
Fingers crossed xx *hold breath*

Chapter 1

I stared intently at my watch as it ticked closer to 3 o clock. Finally this nightmare of a day was over. Not that everyday wasn’t a nightmare at Tekna Secondary, it’s just today was extra nightmarish because we had received our final results and we all knew what that meant. Trouble.

It didn’t really matter whether the exams that were set were probably written for people in Mars, or the fact that most of us scored really well. What mattered was why we lost that one mark? Where was our concentration? Did we want to end up like the Mortls? *gasp* Government forbid that would happen (we weren’t allowed to say God forbid because the government considered itself God.). So basically we were all in some deep shit, some deeper than the others, like my brother for instance who was now doing some sort of a celebration/victory dance atop the teacher’s table. Since it was the end of school, this sort of behavior was allowed to an extent, and this gave my brother liberty to continue his stupidity.

I looked at my best friend, Tori, and grinned, she looked back at me and I knew what she was thinking; we were going to spent our holidays locked up in my room coming up with plans to overthrow the Government. Perfect past-time for two seventeen year olds.

After the final bell rang Tori and I picked up our backpacks and ran out in the corridors before we got trapped inside by overexcited, holiday crazy teenagers.

We raced till platinum street, which was where Tori and I lived. Platinum lane was the most expensive street in the city and only the richest and most favored by the government could live here. Since mine and Tori’s families had been the staunchest supporters of the government even before the divide, we were given lavishly decorated mansions to live in. All of which didn’t really have any effect on mine and Tori’s hatred for the government.

I knew that I should have been thankful for the luxurious life I had got compared to what the people on the other side of the bubble were living. They were known as the Mortls, as they didn’t have the luxury of being immortal. They had a weakness and that was that they would eventually die of old age.

The Immortls were the privileged ones as old age could never consume them. These people had discovered a successful concoction of chemicals that allowed them to capture youth in a pill.

The Mortls and Immortls were separated by an invisible bubble that went round the whole area of Immortls. The emitted strong waves of current so that the people didn’t associate with each other. The bubble was also transparent so that the Mortls could see on the luxurious life they missed out on by not supporting the government and it was also a reminder for the Immortls to not to ever go against the government or else they would end up like the people on the other side if the bubble.

And that’s why I hated the government; because in Tekna, everything was superficial and fake. Yes we had all the luxuries one could ever want, but the one luxury that ironically we couldn’t afford was happiness.

No one was happy here. Not the adults, nor the children and definitely not the government. The adults would spend their lives minting money and establishing fake connections to climb the social ladder while the children would find ways to cause havoc and defy the adults in any possible way. And the government, well the government wasn’t happy because they couldn’t have enough money.

The city of Tekna had been taken over by greed and the thirst for money and immortality.

So what do you guys think???