The Descendant

I felt a lot more tranquil after work and stopped at an ice cream store for a treat. Nothing says great job than a glob of rich, delicious premium ice cream. When I paid for it, the receipt from the bank deposit fell on the floor and I glanced at it on the way to the garbage can, then stopped dead. Nine thousand dollars for a freaking kids bedroom??????? My parents were freaking nuts. I went out to my pod feeling stunned and kind of pissed. I'd spent several hundred on mine (so far), which didn't include paint or the upholstery, but still. And the clothes that we'd gotten on the school shopping trip didn't come close to a thousand. It was pushing it to that threshold with the jewelry, and I didn't know what Uncle Steve was charging, but it couldn't be eight thousand dollars, I knew from the media that his pricing for couture was quite reasonable and he always gave the women in our family a little break because they were photographed in his clothes a lot. And that wasn't including the costs from the revisions to the design. I snorted, then licked my cone quickly to avoid drips. I went outside, my pod pulled up, and I'd finished the ice cream by the time we pulled up to Weller Craig, a jeweler well known for their striking designs. I walked out with a beautiful round tanzanite in a dainty ring sugared with tiny sparkly diamonds.

And on the way back home, we detoured to a woodworker's supply store, where I bought two locks for the drawers on my vanity and desk. Not that I had anything in the desk that needed to be locked up, it was the principle of the thing. Now that Deri knew I had nice things, she'd go trespassing. The guy very kindly helped me select a lock that was both sturdy and not hard to install and told me how to do it. I bought a chisel, a drill, and the special screwdriver needed for the screws. I also found a silver toned slide bolt latch that would keep Deri out when I was in my room.

Turned out to be too little, too late. When I opened my door, I found her sitting at my vanity, trying on the garnet earrings. Everything else was out of the drawer. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked in disbelief.

She spun around and tried a bright, panicky smile. "You're home early!"

"I'm not," I said grimly, scowling at her. Ok, it might have been more of an outraged shout. "Take out my earrings. Now."

"I was just trying them on," she said as she hastily removed them and slapped them on the vanity. "I wasn't going to take them."

"They're mine, you little creep, and you ask before coming in here and putting your grubby paws on my stuff. STAY OUT OF MY ROOM!" I grabbed her ear and pulled her up, then gave her a shove out the door, slamming it shut, then dragging the dainty vanity chair over to wedge under the doorknob.

I was so mad that it took several minutes to calm down, but my temper flared up again when I saw that she'd gotten all my things out of the vanity and had apparently tried everything on; even the clasp for the ugly pearl necklace was open. My earrings and the opal ring Aunt Amy had given me for that disastrous birthday were laying carelessly on the table. The little diamond had come off the chain. As I watched, the pharaoh's necklace slithered off and fell on the floor. She'd pitched a fit over the gift when she'd found out about it. And Grandma's feather was in the trash, a little worse for wear. I picked it out and smoothed it down, then closed the clasps for the necklaces, cleaned the earring posts, and put everything back in their boxes. Then I got one of the locks, followed the instructions precisely, and in half an hour, I had successfully installed the lock on the drawer, wiping up the sawdust with a damp cloth. I smiled, feeling victorious, as I turned the key smoothly both ways, then replaced the boxes and locking the drawer again, adding my new ring. Mom would probably have a fit, but they'd said I could spend the money as I pleased. It took even less time to install the second lock since I was familiar with the process now, then it was on to the slide bolt. I had to remove the chair, but that was ok since I was seeing to my security. That was easy too, and I felt a lot of accomplishment as I tidied up and put away my new tools on a shelf. Maybe I should get a container for them too, that way they'd be organized and neat. And I needed something for the Egyptian necklace; I could sew a pouch to keep it protected. I had that velvet that would be really pretty....

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning my room and bathroom, finding the perfect hiding spot for the drawer keys, and went up to my sewing room, where I made the little pouch out of the remnants from my pillow-making, lining it with some of the gray satin I'd used on some of my pillows. I made it a drawstring bag and would need to get cord to put through the casing, but it was really pretty and would protect the delicate beads and enamel. Not that I expected them to get damaged sitting in my drawer with little velvet boxes, but it was an important piece. I felt a lot better when I went down to pre-dinner.

As expected, Deri tattled on me, but she didn't get the support she was clearly expecting. "While Lys could have been calmer, you have no right to go into her room without her permission and go through her things, Derinoe," Mom said sternly. I kept my jaw from dropping just in time, but Deri didn't. "You must consider how you'd feel if your sister did the same thing to you."

"If I had nice things like that, I wouldn't have to look at hers," Deri said defiantly.

"I found the necklace that the pharaoh gave me on the floor," I told Mom. "The little diamond pendant was off the chain and I had to look around for a couple of the earring backs."

"You will not be given expensive jewelry if you don't treat it with respect, Deri," Dad said. "If you want to be given more responsibilities and privileges, you have to earn them with your conduct." Then to head off Deri, who was drawing breath, asked me quickly, "How did your audition go, Lys?"

"Pretty well, I think," I said, pleased that he'd remembered. "He gave me some notes and I ran through it again, so we'll see when he makes his decision."

"How about you, Deri?" Dad asked.

Her pout increased tremendously. If she started walking, she could trip over that lip. "I don't think I want to take dancing anymore," she said, tossing her head. I blinked. She loved performing.

"Cal won't allow her into his pointe class," Mom said. "Deri, you didn't do the work, so you don't deserve it."

"Whatever," Deri said sulkily. "I don't know anybody in that school anyway."

"Well, that's your choice," Dad said after a moment. "I'm not going to make you go if you don't want to. What do you think you want to replace it with? You need to develop well-rounded interests, Deri."

"I don't know."

"Well, give it some thought. Maybe there'll be an activity in school that catches your eye. Otherwise we'll find something for you." Deri looked a little worried. I covered my smirk by sipping my club soda.

The next few days, the last of summer, flew by. I finally found the perfect fabric for my bed curtains, a soft white with little sprigs of lavender and violets on it. It was a nice weight and the purples were perfect with my wall color. I found it when replacing the fabrics, and there was just enough left for my project. I would have high-fived myself, but that would have looked silly. I'd work on it next weekend as a reward for completing the first week of school, it would give me plenty of time get them done before it actually got cold. I remembered the time when I was in first grade that the insulation on the exterior walls had been replaced, the windows just before I started middle school, but inexplicably there were still drafts occasionally.

Monday came too fast/not fast enough. I was eager to get started, but at the same time kind of queasy nervous. I'd spent time Sunday memorizing the diagram of the school so I knew where everything was and how to best get from class to class. There was a parking garage connected to the school with an aerial walkway, so getting in and out of my pod was more secure than going around to the front. The parking fee had been part of my school fees and Dad really liked that aspect. I thought I'd see how the food was, so I didn't bring a lunch with me. I packed my backpack the night before, nervously rechecking it twice before I told myself to just stop. The next day, I put on one of the short skirts with a cute top and sandals, ate a light but filling breakfast, and set off. AI Tony was enthusiastic, wished me luck as we pulled into the parking garage, and then there I was. I summoned up my courage and went through the walkway into the school, where I took extra materials out of my backpack and kind of loitered, looking to see if other kids took their backpacks to class with them. There were ten minutes between each class, which should be more than sufficient to get from class to class, even if you needed to pause at your locker. Finally, sick of dithering, I took my tablet and went to my first class, trigonometry. I was torn, since I wasn't sure whether it was better to get the worst over first or whether it would just make me want to skip school. Not that AI Tony would be on board with that option.

At the end of first period, I had the uneasy feeling that I was going to hate trig even more than algebra.

But fortunately the rest of classes promised to be more interesting. We were going to start with Beowulf in English, and Comparative World Religions might actually be the winner of the bunch. Ms Romano had surveyed the packed class and smiled. "I have thirty-five students enrolled in this class. The other five periods I teach have no fewer than thirty students each, which is a lot since the class size in this school is about twenty students. Over a hundred eighty students, almost one ninety. But I'm always heartened to see the interest that kids have for this subject. Each and every one of you has a different conception and understanding of religion. This is based not only on your personal beliefs, which vary from person to person even within a belief system, to your knowledge of other religions, and your misconceptions about specific belief systems. And now we know for certain that gods exist, and that there isn't just your particular god, or just your pantheon. That kind of knowledge can actually be a little scary. It's not just a matter of belief in a god anymore. Some people have been dismayed to find that their conception of an afterlife is not at all what they were expecting, for example.

"Now, it's impossible to talk about and study each and every religion. This is a survey class, and we're going to focus on many of the biggest religions. I teach a second year of this topic every other year, so if you're interested, I cover less popular religions in that one, and I'm also available for independent study. We don't study religions chronologically; I've found that it's more helpful and interesting to study the most influential religions at this time. We'll be studying the Chinese pantheon, the Abrahamic traditions, subdivided into two of each of their major sects, the Norse gods, the Greek gods, Buddhism, Hinduism, sub-Saharan African pantheons, the Aztec gods, and the Egyptian pantheon. If you're interested, in the second year we cover the Incan, Mayan, Celtic, Chinese traditional religion, Zoroastrian, Shinto, Jainism, Sikhism, Mesopotamian religions, the Romans, and atheism and agnosticism.

"Religion is, at its core, an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. There is no culture recorded in human history which has not practiced some form of religion. In ancient times, religion was indistinguishable from what is known as mythology and consisted of regular rituals based on a belief in higher supernatural entities who created and continued to maintain the world and surrounding cosmos. Theses entities were anthropomorphic and behaved in ways which mirrored the values of the culture closely or sometimes engaged in acts antithetical to those values. Religion, then and now, concerns itself with the spiritual aspect of the human condition, gods and goddesses (or a single personal god or goddess), the creation of the world, a human being's place in the world, life after death, eternity, and how to escape from suffering in this world or in the next; and every nation has created its own god in its own image and resemblance.***

"So in all this span of history, you can see where beliefs have a huge variety of differences and we know from our history that people are willing to kill for their religion. The root purpose of this class is education, so that you understand the beliefs of the kid sitting next to you and vice versa. Diversity can cause friction, but understanding helps reduce that friction. You don't have to agree with somebody to understand where they're coming from, and religion is an important component of many peoples' lives.

"It's not a requirement to share your beliefs in this class. All the information I present has been gained from my conversation with acknowledged religious leaders, careful study of their texts, and my own studies. I have a Master's degree in comparative religion and I'm working on my PhD. If any student objects to what I'm saying, I'm open to discussing it with you, but probably after class, because we have a lot of material to get through, and as I said, there's a huge difference in the various denominations, for example, in Christianity alone. If you have a direct experience with a god, I'd be interested to hear about it, but you should feel in no way required to tell me and I will never pressure a student to talk about their personal beliefs."

So that sounded cool.

Chemistry.... well, at least there's the promise of lab work to look forward to. History follows the state curriculum and we're picking up in the 21st century, right where we left off in my other school last year. Networking was going to be interesting, although we were going to get a solid chunk of obsolete technologies to study too. I guess it's to make us grateful for speed of our current networks? But we were also going to learn how to set up and troubleshoot networks, so a good chunk of theory with actual practice. And the photography class was going to be interesting; there were twenty of us in class. There were only ten cameras, though, and we were told that if we wanted to bring in our own camera that we could use them in the class. The teacher also noted that he understood if we didn't want to invest money in something that we weren't sure we'd use past this course, which is why we could share the cameras.

Unlike my last school, we had seating charts, usually alphabetical, although in chemistry we were randomly paired with a lab partner and in world religions we were assigned to a team of four students for research and project purposes. That was nice because I didn't have to worry about asking somebody to be my partner and being turned down. But my positive mood had taken a hipcheck at lunch, where the first group of people I approached to sit with said no flat out. I'd retreated to a table where kids were reading or staring into space or listening to music. Nobody said anything against me sitting there, but they hadn't welcomed me, either. That was enough for the day, though.

At dinner I was happy to describe my first day as Anna to my parents (although I didn't mention the new nickname because: Deri) and listen to Deri's account of her first day back. She was starting to notice boys, and this added a new area of interest in school for her. Geeze, was I glad that I wasn't in middle school anymore. After dinner, I went upstairs and started homework. Yep. Tomorrow I was going to ask about tutoring for trig.

*** This description of religion is quoted from https://www.ancient.eu/religion/