A moment before immortality. Juriy Tashkinov
yard has been swept. Hardworking janitor bees have no time for sleep early in the morning: they are preparing for the arrival of the younger generation. The cleaning robots didn’t get into the Temple of Science: let them clean the corridors of the Centrum. Children need to be led by example, and isn’t a clean schoolyard worth a thousand words about cleaning and cleanliness? A flag flutters above the entrance, and next to it is an electronic board with the name of the school. Around the corner, high school students are eating the first forbidden fruits of the gray serpent. Some time ago, young people dabbled with electronic devices, but doctors proved that vaping is more dangerous than a regular cigarette. Although, what should we tell them about the danger: who among us did not break the rules during our school years? But this is the main right of youth – to make mistakes for which you are not ashamed later.
The cloakroom attendant smiles welcomingly. The high school students on duty have been on their feet since early morning. They meticulously check everyone’s shoes and demand that they put their jackets in the cloakroom. Children are running along the corridors, laughing. A couple of boys are playing table tennis. The dining room smells like cutlets. It’s morning, but there’s already a line at the window for rolls and pizza. Teenagers are constantly hungry. They grow and change beyond recognition every month. These very similar schools have completely different students. Each of them is a whole world, a universe, with its own experiences and problems. Hobbies. This short, smiling guy has been going to judo for seven years and earns medals. And this one seems to be a future cybersportsman. Here is a flock of guys huddled at the windowsill. Under the proud gaze of the excellent student, they copy something from her notebook.
«I’m thinking about leaving,» said Violetta Stepanovna. – I was offered a place at the Ideal school, and every day I want to agree to go there more and more.
Vasya and Seryozha looked at each other. There were various rumors about these very Ideal Ones. They said that the Government, through cloning, bred people who never got sick and could work at least twice as hard as any mortal. But the main thing: they were not bound by bonds of emotions. Even children are always cultured and courteous, and have never committed any offenses. The ideal couple now studied at this school. Too sweet, according to their classmates, but most of the teachers’ attention belonged to them. Their peers hated them.
– Please don’t leave! – Vaska burst into tears more than ever. – We won’t do this again. True true! It was the last time. Don’t change us or them!
But this story is not about ideal people. Of course, we all strive for the ideal, but a monotonous life is gray and boring. Violetta Stepanovna will work at the Ideal School for some time, but then return to the regular school: once you set foot on its threshold, it is difficult to imagine yourself in another field. Fifth-graders who are taking their first steps into adulthood will also remain without our attention for now. But these two guys, who already look like adults, are head and shoulders above the teachers, or even more. But they are adults only in appearance, but at heart they are still the same tomboys. The games just got more serious, older
Dimka squinted one eye so that the cigarette smoke would not corrode the mucous membrane of the eye. Ask any smoker why he started smoking, and he is unlikely to tell the truth: «I just wanted to be like everyone else, I don’t have my own opinion.» A white cap hid a chip reader on the back of his head. Behind his back is a bottomless briefcase with many «treasures»: screwdrivers, knives, wires. Mitya is two heads taller than Dima.
– What did she tell you? – asked Mitya, a boy with a piercing in his left ear and a tattoo of a skeleton on his right hand.
– Yes, that’s what she said. Like, let’s just be friends. Is this why I carried her briefcase five years ago? And wrote essays on Shakespeare to stay in the «friend zone»? I drew flowers for March 8th. My mother is raising me alone: where can I get money for real flowers? Nowadays, plants are rare, almost a curiosity. They are worth a lot of money! Vasilko, he gets money from his father, he is a Guardian. Do I have to spend a thousand years looking for a girl? Or neither eat nor drink – save up for a flower?
A bone-chilling wind was blowing. The sun was hidden behind fluffy gray clouds. A fine nasty rain fell. But spring is even in the smells. And there was no question of hiding from nature under an umbrella: it was about to get warm. It’s anticipation in every second. There are no trees in megacities for a long time, but the first birds, obeying age-old reflexes, have already begun to return home to the roofs of skyscrapers.
– Let’s beat up Vaska? – Mitka suggested. – I will skin anyone for my brother!
– Thank you brother. I didn’t have a good relationship with my siblings, although I found a kindred spirit in you. But I tried yesterday. Do you see the bruise on his face? – Dimka turned around. There was a black bruise all over my cheek.
– Yeah!
– Same thing. He rarely walks alone, hanging out with his buddies. I told him: «Come on one on one, be a man!», and he set a mob on me. In the evening, my mother also told me that I wanted to fight. World is not fair!
– So let’s call our friends. I have many good friends. They won’t refuse me.
– And you, Mitka, are my only friend. I guess I’ve known you for ten years. We even went to the same kindergarten. You can’t have many friends: one, maximum two, and only if you’re lucky. The rest are like acquaintances, fellow travelers in the gravity car of life. Like a sieve, she will weed them out, leaving the most devoted ones. I don’t want to make such «temporary friends»
– So who are we going to call?
«No need,» Dima said confidently. – I’ll figure it out myself.
– Exactly?
– Yeah!
– You speak up if anything happens! – Mitka winked conspiratorially, and Dimka, sad until that moment, smiled for the first time during the break.
The bell rang. The children gravitated to the old school – the only stain of the past, pre-skyscraper era.
– Let’s go to? – Mitya stood up and hung his backpack over his shoulders. Backpacks have not gone out of fashion – every young man has one on his back. And what is convenient and practical. – There’s no need to be late. Otherwise Violetta Stepanovna will swear again.
«I won’t go to mathematics,» said Dima. – Why did she give in to me?
– But the test. And exams are just around the corner.
– Don’t care about exams! Why do I need a diploma? Should I get in line for mating? Not with anyone. Marinka made it clear that she would not be with me. I’d rather go to the Guardians.
The time for open relationships is long gone. The state took control of family planning. And now, in order to have a child, you need to stand in line for mating. After all, even the construction of skyscrapers did not solve the problem of overpopulation. But not everyone got this right: only the smartest, or the strongest, or in other ways superior to other people. An ordinary «C» student does not need to prolong the family line, according to the state.
– Mitya, you go to mathematics yourself.
– And you?
– And I’m going to rob Centrum Bank! Look, I can get Marinka this way too! – Dimka laughed hysterically. But Mitya knew his best friend too well: he rarely joked. And in general he had no sense of humor.
«I’ll go with you,» said the boy with a piercing in his ear, lowering his backpack onto the asphalt.
– But I was joking!
– I know your jokes.
– Don’t be stupid, Mitya. Okay, I’m going: I have nothing to lose. And why do you need it?
– Why should I catch on the «tower» without you? It’s just