Ender's Game (Ender Wiggins Saga)

yellow.”
      "Very good. My name is Dap. I'm your mom for the next few months.”
      The boys laughed.
      "Laugh all you like, but keep it in mind. If you get lost in the school, which is quite possible, don't go opening doors. Some of them lead outside." More laughter. "Instead just tell someone that your mom is Dap, and they'll call me. Or tell them your color, and they'll light up a path for you to get home. If you have a problem, come talk to me. Remember, I'm the only person here who's paid to be nice to you, but not too nice. Give me any lip and I'll break your face, OK?”
      They laughed again. Dap had a room full of friends, Frightened children are so easy to win.
      "Which way is down, anybody tell me?”
      They told him.
      "OK, that's true. But that direction is toward the outside . The ship is spinning, and that's what makes it feel like that is down. The floor actually curves around in that direction. Keep going long enough that way, and you come back to where you started. Except don't try it. Because up that way is teachers' quarters, and up that way is the bigger kids. And the bigger kids don't like Launchies butting in. You might get pushed around. In fact, you will get pushed around. And when you do, don't come crying to me. Got it? This is Battle School, not nursery school.”
      "What are we supposed to do, then?" asked a boy, a really small black kid who had a top hunk near Ender's.
      "If you don't like getting pushed around, figure out for yourself what to do about it, but I warn you-- murder is strictly against the rules. So is any deliberate injury. I understand there was one attempted murder on the was up here. A broken arm. That kind of thing happens again, somebody ices out. You got it?”
      "What's icing out?" asked the boy with his arm puffed up in a splint.
      "Ice. Put out in the cold. Sent Earthside. Finished at Battle School.”
      Nobody looked at Ender.
      "So, boys, if any of you are thinking of being troublemakers, at least be clever about it. OK?”
      Dap left. They still didn't look at Ender.
      Ender felt the fear growing in his belly. The kid whose arm he broke-- Ender didn't feel sorry for him. He was a Stilson. And like Stilson, he was already gathering a gang. A little knot of kids, several of the bigger ones, they were laughing at the far end of the room, and every now and then one of them would turn to look at Ender.
      With all his heart, Ender wanted to go home. What did any of this have to do with saving the world? There was no monitor now. It was Ender against the gang again, only they were right in his room. Peter again, but without Valentine.
      The fear stayed, all through dinner as no one sat by him in the mess hall. The other boys were talking about things-- the big scoreboard on one wall, the food, the bigger kids. Ender could only watch in isolation.
      The scoreboards were team standings. Won-loss records, with the most recent scores. Some of the bigger boy's apparently had bets on the most recent games. Two teams, Manticore and Asp, had no recent score-- that box was flashing. Ender decided they must be playing right now.
      He noticed that the older boys were divided into groups, according to the uniforms they wore. Some with different uniforms were talking together, but generally the groups each had their own area. Launchies-- their own group, and the two or three next older groups all had plain blue uniforms. But the big kids, the ones that were on teams, they were wearing much more flamboyant clothing. Ender tried to guess which ones went with which name. Scorpion and Spider were easy. So were Flame and Tide.
      A bigger boy came to sit by him. Not just a little bigger- he looked to be twelve or thirteen. Getting his man's growth started.
      "Hi," he said.
      "Hi," Ender said.
      "I'm Mick.”
      "Ender.”
      "That's a name?”
      "Since I was little. It's what my sister called me.”
      "Not a bad name here. Ender. Finisher. Hey.”
      "Hope so.”
      "Ender, you the bugger in your launch?”
      Ender shrugged.
      "I noticed you eating all alone. Every launch has one like that. Kid that nobody takes to right away. Sometimes I think the teachers do it on purpose. The teachers aren't very nice. You'll notice that.”
      "Yeah.”
      "So you the bugger?”
      "I guess so.”
      "Hey. Nothing to cry about, you know?" He gave Ender his roll, and took Ender's pudding. "Eat nutritious stuff. It'll keep you strong." Mick