Deborah would have to tell Lia the real reason she couldn’t come over. Deborah sighed. “You can’t tell anyone what I am telling you.” She paused and felt her face burn red. “It’s like this. This is really embarrassing so you can’t tell anyone.” She waited until Lia nodded. “Ever since Wednesday I’ve…” She leaned in close to Lia and whispered, “I’ve been wetting the bed.”
“You what!” Deborah had to clamp her hand over Lia’s mouth to keep her from blurting out.
“Be quiet,” she whispered loudly. “I don’t need that fact spread over the school too.”
“That’s why you don’t want to come over, isn’t it?” Lia leaned closer. “You don’t need to be embarrassed. I’m your friend.”
“Me, too,” she said. “Thanks.” She still needed that Spanish study session or she would be lost on Monday. “If you want, you can come over to my house after the movie and study.”
“That would be good,” said Lia.
The bus arrived at school just in time. Calculus and Physics were uneventful. In the halls between classes other students would point and start whispering. She knew they were talking about her accident on Wednesday. (Rather Alison’s accident as she did not trade bodies with Alison until after she had the accident.)
She made sure to use the bathroom before English class. It was Mrs Miller who had not let Alison use the bathroom in the first place which caused the whole episode. She did not know whether to blame her for the extra life on her conscious or thank her that she was still alive albeit in a different body. She met with Lia before class.
“Ready to face Grosstree?” she asked as they took their seats in the classroom.
“Sure,” Deborah muttered. She had spent Calculus and Physics reading Brave New World under her desk. It was really a different type of totalitarianism than 1984. One was awful in the creepy jack-booted-thug sort of way, but the other was a overly friendly creepiness. By Ford, it was beyond screwed up.
“It’s Mrs Miller now, dork,” said a sarcastic voice behind them. “She’s only been married for two months already. Can’t you adjust?”
Lia turned and stuck her tongue out. “Does it matter, Cindy?”
Before Cindy could come up with a retort, class started. They started right away with Brave New World discussion. Deborah tried her best to stay out of the discussion. At least in this class she didn’t have to hide the book in her lap and look under her desk as she read it. She simply had it open on her desk and read through it. Easy as pie.
She had to answer a question about what type of clone Lanina was. “Beta,” she said, “although Henry was an Alpha.”
“I can see you finally read the book, Alison,” said her teacher. “Everyone, papers are due Monday at the beginning of class.” The bell rang. “Class dismissed.”
Deborah and Lia got out of class quickly and went down to the cafeteria. “What joy do we have today?”
Lia looked up at the menu board. “It says Frito pie. There should be some kind of truth in advertising: chili poured over corn chips.”
“I actually like that,” Deborah said. She pulled a plastic spork from the container and grabbed a tray of food.
“Is this from Miss ‘It Tastes Like Prison Food?’” Lia took her own tray and they found a table together.
“Even in prison Frito pie has to be good,” Deborah said. Sadly, it had been the only thing she looked forward to during her twelve years on death row. She couldn’t go to the weekly movies they played for the general population because of security. She could read or listen to the radio. She mainly read.
“Whatever,” said Lia. She took a bite of her food.
“About tonight,” Deborah asked, “when does the movie start?”
“They’re showing it on a million screens, so there is one every half hour. I would like to go to an earlier showing so we can study earlier. How about just ride the bus to my house and we’ll drive to the theater. My brother is letting me drive his car.”
“Um, I can’t then. I got to go home so my mother can chew me out for peeing the bed.” Deborah’s face reddened. “My dad got home and she was too busy to finish chewing me out.”
“Oh he was at the execution of that horrible…”