Free Fierce September by Fleur Beale Page A

star!’
    We laughed, but I wished I could have been there to watch. ‘How did Vima get on?’
    ‘She did okay.’ But before he could elaborate, Fergus came into the communal dining room with Malia beside him and asked for our attention. His announcement drove everything else out of our heads. When we’d finished our meal, he told us, our task was to choose clothing from the storeroom in the basement. We were to go in relays, beginning with the stratum below ours who were deemed old enough to choose their own gear.
    ‘Never wear the suits you’ve got on now other than in this centre,’ he warned us. ‘Those images have been broadcast, so those outfits will make it obvious you’re from Taris.’
    ‘Are we in danger, then?’ Aspa asked.
    Fergus turned his mouth down. ‘We didn’t think so, but this morning rather suggests otherwise. Willem is trying to find out more.’
    Then Malia spoke. ‘People of Taris, I hope you won’t be offended, but we have arranged for you all to have your hair cut. At present it makes you very identifiable.’
    Silvern grinned at me and muttered, ‘You reckon?’
    Malia read out a timetable. My stratum would get our turn the next morning.
    ‘Good,’ said Wenda. ‘I’ve been feeling like the hairiest goat in the flock from the moment I saw Leng.’
    But I couldn’t see that any cut would tame Wenda’s crazy curls, and I wasn’t happy about letting anybody chop off my hair. I hoped I wouldn’t feel sick to my stomach the way I had on Taris when we still had to suffer the weekly head-shaving. I ran my fingers through my hair – maybe a light trim of the ends, but no more.
    The events of the morning suddenly seemed long ago. Clothes! Something different from our Taris tunics and the Outside tops and trousers that made us look like some sort of weird sports team. I couldn’t keep still, and I wasn’t the only one. Brex was practically doing cartwheels, Silvern had a huge grin on her face, Pel and Shallym were arguing about style and colour, while Dreeda’s and Wenda’s faces were dreamy. Even the boys looked slightly interested, although Rynd yawned and said, ‘It’ll just be a load of old stuff that other people chucked out.’
    ‘How long are those kids going to be?’ Brex demanded. ‘I’ll explode if I have to wait much longer.’
    ‘Explode,’ said Marba. ‘Not the best word to choose.’
    She gave him a shove. ‘Shut up, grandpa!’
    Marba looked startled – we’d always given him due deference. Then Brex hugged him. ‘Sorry. I’m just excited.’
    The hug startled him more.
    I laughed. ‘So, Marba, how did it make you feel when Brex behaved unexpectedly towards you?’ Perhaps, at last, he was beginning to experience emotions the way the rest of the world did.
    He looked thoughtful. ‘It was interesting. Different. Disconcerting.’
    ‘That’s our Marba,’ Paz said. ‘The honest scientist.’
    Shallym clapped her hands. ‘Look! The others are back. Let’s go to the clothes!’
    We clattered down the stairs and Fergus grinned at us from the middle of the storeroom. ‘We have to put a limit on what you can take, so choose carefully.’ We listened carefully too as he told us what sorts of things we’d need, then he handed each of us a linen bag and told us we had thirty minutes.
    The first thing I found on the list was the warm jacket. It was bright red with a fur-lined hood. I folded it and put it in the linen bag.
    ‘Jeans!’ Wenda squealed. ‘Oh wow, I so hoped these would still be around.’ We’d seen them often on young women in the documentaries and films we’d been shown on Taris.
    I found a greeny-brown patterned zip-up top to wear with my own blue jeans.
    ‘Ah,’ said Fergus, ‘I see you like the vintage style.’ He took pity on my puzzlement and told me that most clothes now fastened simply by pressing the edges of the fabric together. ‘It’s a sophisticated form of Velcro, if you know what that is.’
    That explained how you