Frank stared at the black hole at the back of his empty locker and took a breath. He stepped back to scan the flow of students for anyone watching his locker, but no one seemed to notice him.
“WHO STOLE MY BOOKS?” he yelled. The crowd stopped moving for a second, long enough for everyone to give him an awkward look. Then, the students continued to their next class.
“I did! I’m sorry!” A girl squeaked. Frank turned to see a short girl with dark hair approaching him. She wore a violet, translucent visor over her eyes. “I thought this was my friend’s locker!” she smiled. As she apologized she wiggled her fingers at the black hole. It moved forward to the front of the locker, then disappeared. It left behind Frank’s notebooks and laptop. He looked at her and smiled.
“Honest mistake. I’ve got my stuff back, no complaints,” he lifted his arm for a half-hearted introductory wave. “I’m Frank, a Diablito.” The girl grinned and returned a wave.
“Eury, La Muerte.”
“What’s the visor for? Is it corrective?” Frank asked. Eury shrugged but nodded her head.
“Kinda. It keeps me from killing people when I look at them.”
“Move,” a different girl said. Frank saw a head of black hair push Eury forward toward him. He managed to sidestep out of the way then catch her around the waist as she stumbled forward. Once he helped her get steady he turned to the dark-haired girl opening the locker next to his. She wore a visor like Eury’s, except hers was opaque black.
“Hey,” Frank started to say something, but Eury placed a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s okay. Abby’s just rude,” Eury smiled at him. She tilted her head at the girl behind her. “That’s my friend, la araña. I thought your locker was hers,” she explained.
“Oh. Well, nice to meet you, Abby,” Frank waved. Abby faced him and he wondered how she could see anything through the visor. It was so dark she might as well have been trying to see through tar. She kept facing him but did not acknowledge his wave in any way. Frank lifted his hand in front of her face.
“I’m not blind,” she said.
“Sorry,” Frank apologized and pulled his hand away. “So does your visor keep you from killing people you look at too?” he asked.
“No. It keeps people from freaking out,” she said. Frank gave her a confused look.
“Freak out about what?” he asked. He saw one corner of Abby’s lip tug upward when he asked.
“Nothing. Let’s get to class Abs,” Eury interrupted. She grabbed Abby’s arm to lead her away, but she turned to wave at Frank.
“I’ll talk to you later, Frank.”
“Uh, okay,” he waved, unsure why they left in such a hurry. He pulled his node out of his pocket and called up the school map. A green arrow guided him through the school. Frank split his attention between following the green arrow and looking up to get his surroundings. The school was almost as big as the shopping mall in his hometown and he wanted to learn the layout as fast as possible. No better time to start than the first class of the first day.
He reached the highlighted room and the arrow disappeared from the display. The moment he stepped in the room he heard his name.
“Frank!” Eury called. She sat at a waist-high black lab table with Abby on one side of her. They were the only people in the bright, fluorescent room. Each table in the classroom had three stools and Eury motioned for Frank to join her table. He sat next to her and smiled.
“Hey, cool. I wonder how many classes we have together,” he chuckled.
“Four,” she replied. A loud, hollow thwack sounded when Abby smacked Eury on the back of her head. The only thing Frank saw was a blur of motion, then Eury immediately burst into nervous laughter. “HahahHA! Or more. Or less! Who knows? Could be any number. There’re lots of numbers.”
Four-sight
