Chapter 3: Meeting the driver

Alejandro suddenly awoke. He felt drowsy and it took some time for him to realize where he was. Looking around, he noticed that the two other Minors were still sleeping. It allowed him some respite to look at the Minor’s section of the plane. It wasn’t too bad, he had to admit it. A dozen of seats, extremely comfortable and they each had quite a lot of space around them, forming a circle inside the curvature of the sphere-like section. There were books and even pencils, papers, pens…

If it hadn’t been clearly designed under the nauseous idea that Minors all had a three-year old interests and intellect, it would have been great, he admitted. The young man shook his head a little trying to wake up for good. He felt as if he was forgetting something.

“Yeah, me?” offered Lindsey’s voice in his head.

“Urgh… that’s true, we’re bonded…” remembered a dejected Alejandro.

“Whoa, thank you… serve me right for making sure you got a great first trip in a plane” grumbled his sister.

“Oh come on, don’t be like that. You know I don’t like being bonded! I’m happy you helped me to avoid a fist-fight with that crazy gal, but just the idea of someone in my head for hours… Yuk!”

“If it makes you feel better, you didn’t dream of anything strange. Some places I never saw, Mama, Papa, Alaric and me, but that’s all…”

“You almost sound disappointed.”

“Well… yes. I expected more spicy dreams.”

“Damn it, I keep forgetting that you’re reaching that age…”

“Hey! I’m not like Al’!” barked Lindsey suddenly.

“What the… I haven’t even thought about it in a coherent way! Stop doing that!”

“You didn’t mind when Shannon…” begun Lindsey, but Alejandro interrupted it.

“LINDSEY FERRAND! You cut your crap right now or I swear I’ll break the bond right here, right now!”

“Okay, okay!” frantically replied his sister. “You can’t break the bond anyway, only a MAJOR can, but I’ll try and not go picking into your mind… even if it’s really haaaaard, you’ve no idea!”

“Yeah, well, that’s least I expect from you. And by the way, we should totally break the bond now, it serves no purpose.”

“Not until you’re in my arms” said Lindsey with a very final tone… or feeling, guessed the Minor.

“Lindsey…” he growled menacingly.

“That’s not for the reasons you assume it is, big brother” pleaded the pre-teen. “It’s just that getting out of a plane may be a little… chaotic and I prefer to know where you are and what you’re doing at all time while I can’t see you. As soon as we’re together again, I swear that I’ll break the bond!”

“Fine” gave up Alejandro. “But not one more second, okay?”

“Deal.”

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“Lindsey, you’re smothering me” muffled Alejandro.

“Sorry! It’s just… I missed you ‘Rando!”

“But we were in the same plane!” exclaimed the Minor.

He had to admit that being unbonded again made following his sister’s thoughts and ideas truly harder. Sure, he couldn’t read her mind like she could read his, but at least, he could glimpse at her feelings, it helped to know what was behind her words. Now, he just had to do what he had done most of his life and rely on physical contact and his five senses. Not that it was too hard to know that she did truly missed him.

The way she clung at him, pushing his head against her still absolutely flat chest –which gave him a rather disagreeable feel of her incredibly powerful pectoral muscles- was telling enough. It was another bout of over-emotivism from a MAJOR, and something which was expected. Soon enough, Lindsey would enter her early phase of puberty. From his experience, and what Izzellah had told him about Sabrina Rodriguez and her other MAJOR “friends”, it was the worst.

At that time, the giants became even more unruly than they usually were, fighting almost non-stop to assert dominance, becoming exceedingly aggressive, even on a verbal level. Al’ had been barely endurable when they had reached puberty, even if he had remained his twin’s protector and helper. In fact, at that time, he had even seemed to obey, if it was possible, his Minor brother’s wishes, which had helped calm him down.

He hoped that it would also be the case for Lindsey. The pre-teen was already far more prone to violence as a solution than Al’ had ever been, almost always the first to go and seek out a fight or something. Alejandro had no idea why it was the case, but he hoped that he would be able to mitigate it in the months to come. Not that his parents were too worried about it. Apparently, teenager MAJOR could get out easily even if they broke cars or something in a fight.

“Hey, can you drop me now, Little Lind?” asked the Minor.

“Why?” whined his sister. “You aren’t good in my arms?”

“Aren’t you feeling good in my arms?” corrected Alejandro absent-mindedly.

“Whatever…” pouted Lindsey, pushing him deeper into her embrace, to the point that it became uncomfortable.

“Ouch, Lindsey, careful!” he barked.

“Sorry! I didn’t want to…” begun the young MAJOR, but he interrupted her.

“Don’t sweat about it. Just, put me on the floor, I want to walk!”

“But we have to rush to get our luggage and then Shannon is supposed to have sent us someone to bring us at our flat! Wouldn’t it be better if I just put you on my shoulders?”

“I don’t know… we don’t have to rush now, I highly doubt that whoever our billionaire benefactor sent will leave if we aren’t the first to came out of the gates. Plus, you’ve been running ever since we got out of the plane, look, we’re already near our bags and all.”

“Fine…” relented Lindsey before carefully putting him on the floor. “Do you want me to take your bag?”

“No, you’ll have a hard time with your own, I saw how you were struggling at San Francisco” laughed Alejandro.

“I wasn’t struggling” growled Lindsey.

“Ah! Yes you were! But look, here they are!”

Alejandro sprinted toward the treadmill where his bag and Lindsey’s enormous case were fast approaching. Even if it was rather hard, with just one arm and because of the height of this stupid thing, the Minor teenager managed to catch his possession and quickly put it on his back, groaning under its weight a little. One second later, Lindsey caught her own and huffed, having to use her two hands to lift it.

“See… not strenuous at all” she said while visibly strained.

With a comical sigh, Alejandro walked toward the exit.

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“Damn it, I can’t see anything” growled the Minor as a compact crowd of MAJORS blocked his view. Even if Lindsey and he were among the first passengers to get out of the plane and into the airport proper, he was unable to notice from his viewpoint on the ground if anyone was waiting for them. It was a little unnerving, he felt kind of lost and in danger. Hundreds of MAJORS were looking in his direction, and even if only a dozen or so seemed to notice him, he felt exposed and wanted to sprint away behind his sister’s legs.

He pushed away this impulse as best he could, but it wasn’t easy. Even if he had learnt to be more relaxed around the MAJORS of Old Creek, they were mostly peoples he had known before the Incident, or too young to be truly interested in him. Here, they were all strangers and he felt like a rabbit stumbling in front of a very hungry pack of wolves. A cold sweat appeared on his brow but he didn’t dare show his weakness by getting rid of it.

“Excuse me!” thundered a masculine voice. “Alejandro and Lindsey Ferrand?”

The two bumpkins from Old Creek turned their head to see a massive MAJOR man coming toward them. He wasn’t that tall, realized the Minor, roughly 2m96 (9f7) but he had very broad shoulders and a way to walk, his shoulders well out, his torso outward, that made him look more impressive than he was. He was wearing a simple blue Hawaiian shirt, shorts made of jean and dark blue sneakers. He seemed rather jovial and laid back, but Alejandro remained on his guard.

“What do you want?” spat Lindsey, putting herself between him and the stranger.

“Oh, sorry, I’ve forgotten to present myself. The name’s Jim Paolini, but you can call me Jimmy. I’ve been tasked by Miss M. to get you out of the airport and bring you to your home, near your school” explained the MAJOR in a deep but sympathetic voice.

“And how can we be sure that you’re our real driver…” begun Lindsey, before being interrupted by Alejandro.

“It’s okay Lindsey. Shan and I discussed it, when she knew she couldn’t make it back for us from South Korea. She told me the name and all, plus a way to know for sure. I guess you and her are equally paranoiac. So, Jim. Three or two?”

“Two” replied extremely seriously the MAJOR, earning an approving nod from Alejandro.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Lindsey, curious now.

“No idea” replied the Minor with a smile.

“Humpf…”

“May I take your suit-case Miss Ferrand?”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s not that heavy…” huffed Alejandro’s sister, earning a sigh from him.

“Give him your luggage Lind, now. I don’t want to have to send you to the hospital because you’re too damn stubborn for your own good” he said, quite amused.

“But ‘Rando…” whined his sister, adding to his hilarity.

“No but kiddo. I’m the older brother, sometimes you have to do as I say!” he laughed.

“Fine…” relented Lindsey.

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“Sooo… I guess it’s your first time in New Orleans?” asked Jim as the three of them were stuck in the traffic around the airport.

“Not for me!” chirped Lindsey. “I’ve come with our parents some weeks ago to find a place with Minor’s accommodations near our school.”

“If I may ask, where will you be studying?”

“Benjamin Franklin High School” said Alejandro.

Jim seemed genuinely interested by their life, he had already asked a lot about Old Creek, what kind of town it was, that sort of thing. He had even revealed that, at a time, he and his wife had dreamed to move to the West Coast, but his family and hers were Louisiana born for generations now, and when they had had their first child, fifteen years ago, they couldn’t just pack and leave anymore…

“My Sammy will be in the same school as you then!” exclaimed their driver, quite happy at this strange coincidence. “Truth been told, without Miss Matthewson, I highly doubt that we could have sent Sammy there, but ever since I began working for her three years ago, she’s been nothing but helpful for us. And all her employees are treated like me, as long as they don’t try to double-cross her…”

“Well, I’ll be glad to meet your son” politely replied Lindsey.

“My girl you mean!” laughed Jim. “Samantha Paolini, I’m sorry if her nickname was misleading.”

“Wait a minute!” yelled Alejandro, suddenly agitated. “When you mean Samantha Paolini, surely, you aren’t talking about the two time High School champion of the Louisiana MMA championship!”

“Yes I do!” roared Jim. “But you’ve heard of her!? Man, she’ll be so happy to learn that!”

“Wait a minute!” asked Lindsey, clearly agitated now. “From where do you know her ‘Rando?”

“Well, at home I used to watch a lot of female championships, and I just happened to stumble on some of her matches. She’s quite… impressive, to say the least. I would like a match between her and Jessica McArthur, from Winton High, they kind of have the same build.”

Alejandro couldn’t suppress a smile. Before Shannon’s visit to Old Creek months ago, he had been in a hard place, sexually speaking. He was physically aroused by the massive MAJORS women who inhabited the world, especially the athletic ones like Sammy “The Iron Girl” Paolini or Jessica “the Mountain” McArthur, but the fact that they were MAJORS displeased him a lot, leaving him both attracted and repulsed and thus mostly frustrated.

Ever since Shannon had offered him his first sexual experience and helped him understand more where he stood in a relationship, even if he still had some hard time admitting that he could be a submissive partner, he felt a lot better, being able to admit openly his interest in women (and some MAJORS men, he had to acknowledge it, even if it was kind of rare, and usually they were smaller than average).

“Oh God, don’t talk about it with my daughter!” pleaded Jim. “She’s already trying to persuade us to let her move to Winton Heights during the next holidays to fight The Mountain… and while Miss Matthewson’s paycheck is generous, it isn’t that big!”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll have other things to think about for the holidays” hinted Lindsey with a wry smile.

“May I know what you’re implying here exactly?” asked Alejandro, quite suspicious now of his sister’s insinuations.

“Isn’t it obvious? Jim told us she’s in the same High School as us, we are bound to see her there and I’m sure that she’ll be as smitten by you as you are apparently by her.”

“Yes, but considering that we’ll remain bonded together at school, I don’t think that anything will happen” said Alejandro, trying it best to hide his anger, even if his tone was harsher than he would have liked.

“Oh, of course, but… hehehe…” replied Lindsey, catching on on her mistake and trying to play it cool, to no avail.

Alejandro looked at Jim’s eyes in the rearview. The MAJOR was clearly confused and looked at the two Ferrand children with his brow furrowed. Damn it! We’re still a week away from school and Lindsey's already blowing it in the open! How long will she last at BF before she blurt out to the friends she’ll have there that we aren’t bonded together? He wondered if he shouldn’t truly bond with her to avoid problem but just the idea of spending whole days with someone whole day long made him queasy…

“So, Jim,” the Minor begun, trying to steer the conversation elsewhere, “I’ve got a friend who should come down to New Orleans in two weeks or something, named Izzellah Ivory, with three others. Do you think you could pick them up? There would be two MAJORS and a halfy with her, if I remember right.”

At the mention of another Minor coming soon, Jim’s face lightened up and Alejandro almost sighed in relief. Except that he has forgotten a little detail…

“Izzy is coming here?” shrieked his little sister, almost bouncing up and down in her seat and making his special sitting apparatus shake dangerously. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Lindsey…” he tried, but his sister was far too exited right now to listen to him.

“Where do they’ll stay? At our flat, right? Well, Izzy and her halfy friend will. Their MAJOR chaperone will be able to leave as soon as they’ll have made sure that we have them right? Right?”

“LINDSEY!” roared the Minor, silencing her sister for a second. “Shut the fuck up, will ya? And calm down. Seriously, your infatuation with Izzellah is bordering on obsession, it has stopped being cute a long time ago…”

“But…” whined the pre-teen giantess, before being interrupted by the now really angry young man.

“No but! Izzellah is coming with her best-friend, Lisa if I remember right, Sabrina Rodriguez and said MAJOR’s best-friend. And let’s be clear, I expect you to be polite, considerate and not clingy and obnoxious! If Izzellah doesn’t want to be with you, as I suspect, you’ll leave her alone!”

“Why wouldn’t she want to be with me!?” screamed his sister, distraught. “I’m like, ten times better than that stupid Rodriguez girl and…”

“And she and Izzy are friends!” roared Alejandro. “So it doesn’t matter if you can lift hundreds of kilos at the gym, or how much more our parents earn compared to theirs, it doesn’t make you better. If you want to earn her love, you’d better shape up, dumbass! Get it?”

“Yes… I will shape up, I swear…” sobbed Lindsey.

“Oh come on, Little Lind. It isn’t worth crying because I told you the truth. You’ll be a teenager soon, punching everyone and everything to your heart content. I’m just trying to help you avoid destroying any chance you may have, when the planets are in an auspicious position, to actually score something with Izzy, that’s all. Because, punching her friend/sister/maybe more Rodriguez wouldn’t be the way to go, if you ask me!”

Lindsey didn’t reply, sobbing uncontrollably, reminding once more Alejandro of how emotive MAJORS could be. If she can’t take a rebuke now, how will she react once puberty will be in full-mode? Alejandro still had nightmares of his twin flowing into a rage-filled tantrum with their parents or someone outside before storming into his room and collapsing on the floor near him, crying like a baby and swearing that he would be better, calmer and all… several times a day. The idea to have to endure it with Lindsey once more was disheartening, to say the least, and she seemed ever more volatile than Al’ at her age…

“Ha! I knew you had to be one of them!” suddenly laughed Jim, drawing back the attention of the Ferrand children.

“Uh? One of them?” asked Alejandro, confused.

“Yeah, one of those special Minors! You’ve got the fire in your eyes, and also in your belly apparently. I was wondering why Miss Matthewson was asking me to pick you up, but now I know. And to answer your question from earlier… I’ll be happy to pick that Miss Ivory and her friends, don’t worry. While you’re at school, I’ll be their guide, if you wish” he added after a thought.

“Uh? Why would you do that Jimmy?” asked Lindsey, between her tears.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I’m your driver!” beamed the MAJOR man in the rearview.

“What!?” yelled Alaric while Lindsey stood there, stunned. “What do you mean, our driver?”

“Well, Miss Matthewson has tasked me to be at your disposal when you want to go somewhere in town our in its outskirt. For instance, I’ll be the one to bring you back and forth between your place and Miss. M’s abode.”

“Wait a minute… doesn’t she live with her parents near the Vieux Carré?” asked Lindsey.

“No, she moved after what happened at Old Creek” explained Alejandro, realizing that he had never talked about it with his sister, deeming her too young for that kind of story, despite her nature as a MAJOR.

“Yep, now she lives down South, near the coast” explained Jim. “So, any time you want to move out to see her, you call me and I’ll pick you up, Mr. Ferrand. I’ll give you my card so you’ll have my number.”

“Alejandro.”

"Excuse me?" asked a bewildered MAJOR.

“You can call me Alejandro, Jim. And please, can you tell us more about those special Minors? I guess you were talking about the ambassadors for her “Equal rights for Minors” campaign?” asked the small teenager.

“Indeed Mr. Fer… I mean, Alejandro” replied Jimmy. “They are… quite something! I’ve never seen Minors with such guts and characters. I mean, not all of them are as… gutsy as you, but even the meeker ones, they have, how could I put it... they have dreams. That’s right, dreams, that they want to realize. Sometimes it doesn’t look like much, there is one guy who want to create an all-Minor Football… I mean, Soccer, Team, for instance, another who just want to be able to paint and have her work be considered art and not scribble…”

Alejandro felt his eyes wet and he discretely wiped way the tears forming in his eyes. That’s what the kind of dream he found awe-inspiring. For MAJORS it seemed like almost nothing, feeble goals. But for Minors, it would be like finding the Holy Grail. The craziest thing was that Alejandro was quite certain that MAJORS would flock by the thousands to see a match between two Minor teams, or a painting created by a Minor artist, because it would be “cute” or something of the like.

For the older of the Ferrand children it meant that Shannon had probably been right when she had told him that millions would look at their picture together, used to launch the #minorthingsmattertoo movement, at first to leer but then to act and change the world, one small step at a time. Somehow, he found it awe-inspiring. Sure, a billionaire in love with a disabled Minor like himself had been needed to launch it, but in the end, it would be the actions of hundreds of millions of peoples who would change the world, not Shannon or him.

“I would like to meet them” said the young man, not realizing that he had spoken out loud before his sister replied softly.

“You will ‘Rando. Shannon won’t prevent you from meeting them. She’ll probably even want you to see them early on, so you could become one of her ambassadors real fast” she softly said, caressing the side of his face, wiping the silent tears which had fallen from his eyes without him noticing.

“Thanks Lindsey” said Alejandro, catching one her of fingers to squeeze it a little.

“You’re welcome big bro…”

“So Jim…” begun the Minor, trying to, again, change the subject of the discussion. He really didn’t want to look like an over-emotive mess, like his sister… or most MAJORS. “How long before we reach our flat?”

“Your flat?” asked the driver, clearly confused. “You mean, your home, right?”

“Herm, no” replied Lindsey. “With our parents, we selected an apartment on Elysian Fields Avenue and…”

“That’s not where Miss. Matthewson has told me to drop you. Your house is at the 6066 Avenue Robert E. Lee. She didn’t told you?” he added, taking stock of their shocked expressions.

“Didn’t told us what?” asked Alejandro, livid.

“Well… she bought out a house for you. At your name Alejandro, since you’re older than eighteen…”

Jim let his voice fall and became silent when he saw their expression, a mix of anger, wonderment and fear.

“I’ll have to talk with Shannon…. Like, a serious talk” simply said the Minor.

"Oh... Herm sure... But to answer your question... something like two hours to reach your home?" replied a really embarrassed Jim Paolini.