• When I made it to school I collapsed to my knees. I shouldn’t have run. I felt like I was about to pass out. I made sure to focus on my hands to stop the spinning. I knew if I didn’t I would throw up in my mask (not something I would want to happen).

    "Tess? Tess is that you? Are you okay?" a voice called.

    I didn’t answer. Not that I couldn’t I just didn’t want to. I knew exactly who it was and her voice annoyed me as much as my mother’s.

    "Tess, answer me! Please!" she pleaded in a shrill voice. Thankfully her mask was on. It was the only time I could tolerate her. She dropped to her knees and I saw her hands reach out to touch me, "Do I need to call someone? Tess—"

    "I’m fine!" I blurted out. I knew my sudden outburst would keep her from touching me. It worked.

    "A-are you sure?" She questioned. I could tell she was taken aback by my reaction and didn’t know what to do.

    I rose without answering. A move I regretted as my stomach quickly protested. I took a step and stumbled.

    "Tess!" she cried as she rushed to my side. Then she did it. She touched me. I felt worse.

    "I said I’m fine!" I shouted, quickly snatching away from her hands, "And how many times do I have to tell you that my name isn’t Tess? It’s Tessa! Tess—a!"

    "I-I’m sorry." She apologized in a mousy tone of innocence.

    I didn’t stay long to hear it all. I made my way to the Clean Room. I heard her footsteps scamper after me and her presence annoyed me further. We followed the lead of the other students. We began our routine almost mechanically. Step forward- get sprayed. Step forward- get sprayed. Step forward- remove Shield. Step forward- place Shield in designated suit incubator for cleaning. Step forward-type in student I.D. number. Step forward- process hand scan. Enter school. When the sliding door opened I quickly exited to my locker. I knew her identification process would at least give me a ten second head start.

    "Tess!" I heard her frantically call. Ten seconds wasn’t enough. I was hoping the system would glitch and name her an intruder. Then the Eradication Force would come and take her off my hands. But alas, no such luck, "Tess!" she called again as I rounded the corner and found my locker.

    Thank god for crowded hallways and thank god her locker was on the far end of the other side of the hall. I quickly punched in my code to the key pad and my locker popped open. I located my History, Math, and English books and slammed my locker closed. I ducked underneath the crowd and quickly made my way around the corner. I was home free and now I could finally focus on settling my stomach. I briskly walked to my home room class but was suddenly cut off.

    "Tess! There you are! I thought I wasn’t going to catch you in time!" she said with too much excitement for my taste.

    "How did you—"

    Hall 200 runs alongside Hall 100. I almost lost you in the crowd so I just went around." She explained in her perky voice. I was beginning to miss her mask already.

    "Well, the bell’s about to ring. We can’t be late." I said as I slipped past her.

    "Wait Tess!" she exclaimed while grabbing my arm. I quickly snatched away and glared at her. Wasn’t she getting the freakin’ hint? Back off already, "I’m sorry. Tess-a." she said a little too sarcastically, "I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. You collapsed earlier and—"

    I didn’t collapse. I fell purposefully. I was tired. And like I said before I’m fine." I said coldly.

    "But you stumbled—"

    "From rising too fast."

    "Oh."

    "Are we done here?"

    "So can you believe it? My brother gained another hundred pounds. My mom even had to take him out of school because he would cry if he didn’t eat. Not only that but he was way behind in class. He can’t even read a simple three word sentence. I’m worried about him."

    I didn’t understand why she was telling me all this. Obviously I’ve made it clear on more than one occasion that I didn’t want to be friends with her. She was like an annoying gnat that you couldn’t swat away. Her ignorance to my attempts annoyed me even more.

    "The bell." I said, cutting her off and turning away.

    "Oh." She said, acting almost too surprised, "Right. I’ll finish telling you at lunch then."

    I hated how she assumed she would see me. I began to seriously hope for the Eradication Force to come and take her. Just for being her.