9: Rules
Under Annette's expectant gaze, Jaiden trotted into her house. With a sigh, he sat down at one of the many tables and slowly put his backpack down next to the chair. Then, he looked up, saw that she was still looking at him, and lowered his eyes to his backpack. Trying to avoid a conversation about such a difficult topic, he began to rummage around in the bag. Finally, he got out two tiny t-shirts and held them up for her to see.
“I bought these because I thought they looked cute, but then I remembered that I don't know anyone who's small enough to fit into them.” He glanced past the t-shirts, only to see that she was still staring at him. “...So I thought that you might be able to use them for your little orphanage-thing.” He reached out and handed then to her. She took them with a curt “thank you” and laid them on the table behind her. They would fit the younger children perfectly.
“Oh, come on! Will you quit looking at me like that!” Jaiden complained, feeling rather awkward under her expectant gaze.
“Don't try to change the subject. You brought it up when you said that to those guys, so now you're going to have to tell me, too.”
“Alright! You should know me well enough by now, to know that I absolutely love being in control, but the truth is, I don't get to make all the laws.” Having lost the staring contest, he decided to start explaining himself. “The law says that we have to keep the average age of our collection city down at twelve years, to avoid the risk of a rebellion.”
Annette had her hands on her hips and nodded for him to go on.
“You're 23 years old already, so you're raising our average quite far.” He looked at her, but her expression was blank. “However- yes, there is that word!” He broke off when he saw the hope in her eyes at the word `however´. Why was he even telling her this? Sure, he did like her, but not so much that he'd want to take such a risk for a single person!
“Yes?” She asked expectantly.
“However, I have heard reports of people reaching up to thirty years in other collection cities...” He saw her eyes widen, so he quickly continued, trying not to let her hopes soar too high. “In those cases, that's when the government stepped in and destroyed half the cities, because they said that the owners weren't managing them responsibly.”
Annette's face fell.
“So are you going to-”
“No way!” Jaiden interrupted her. “I'm not going to risk the destruction of my beautiful city just for a single specimen. Even if it is you.” How could she even suggest that I would do something like that? She is getting way too full of herself, just because I'm treating her a little more kindly!
Annette shrank back at his sudden outburst of anger. She really hated these unpredictable mood swings of his.
“I'm going to try to let you live for another three years, but that's as far as I'm willing to go. We have to bring in more and more young children to balance out the average, and I'm sure you wouldn't like that either.”
“No, of course not.” She mumbled. He'd managed to hit just the right nerve: children.
“But maybe you'll be able to find a successor, to lead your orphanage by then.” Jaiden tried to cheer her up. The consolation only worked very minimally. The feeling of worrying for your life was just not something he could fathom.