10AM
Zane sits with an irate expression at the back of the class, his arms folded as Professor Pryce lectures. He draws chemical symbols on the holographic board with a stylus pen.
"Ugh..."
He groans, his dark skinned friend with an Afro seated next to him leans in.
"What's up? I thought you idolised this guy?"
"You wouldn't get it, D.J..."
"Come on man, talk to me."
"I always imagined our first meeting would be him awarding me for a scientific breakthrough,not teaching me this basic stuff."
"When last did you open a textbook?"
"Your point?"
"Just relax man...he's here isn't he?The man you fangirl now works to teach you."
"I guess I didn't think about it like that. Wait, I don't fangirl..."
"Don't worry , your secret's safe with me."
Zane shakes his head and walks towards the door to leave.
"Going somewhere? Zane was it?"
"Yeah you got it right but...I need to step out, if I stay here any longer I feel I may get dumber."
"Oh?"
D.J slaps his own forehead.
"What are you doing,man?"
"I understand..." Pryce says."It's not everyone who can handle lectures so simple, primates could understand them."
Zane starts to grind his teeth.
"Alright then, try to teach me."
Pryce retains his deadpan expression as he tosses Zane the stylus.
"Okay genius, using annotated diagrams, explain the chemical constituents of soap and how they remove stains."
"Easy."
Zane starts drawing on the board
"...using Fischer's configuration. "
He pauses and scratches his head.
"What?"
"Oh my apologies, it just looked like you were about to use the displayed method which is...cute but I meant the structural method, you know like a real scientist."
For the first time in his life, Zane's intelligence has been threatened, a bead of sweat rolls down his forehead and into his eye. He feels the sharp sting of the salty droplet and tries to rub the pain away just as a voice comes from the public address speaker in the upper corner of the classroom.
"Professor Pryce, the principal would like to see you."
"Ah, saved by the bell. Well, I had only thirty more minutes anyway. Try to dry up those tears,my boy."
"Dammit...I'm not crying."
He says, still rubbing his eyes, as he makes his way to the door, he hears laughter coming from the classroom.
"Hey."
Six says,walking beside him.
"You should probably rinse that out, and don't worry, high school's a pain in everyone's ass."
"Yeah, whatever."
" Sorry, I was just trying to...never mind."
In the principal's office, a dark skinned man in a suit with circular glasses sits with his hands resting on a wooden desk in a room with the blinds slightly parted only allowing a few streams of light to enter.
The secretary opens the door for Pryce as he enters.the room.
"Good day, Professor. It was somewhat surprising you decided to humble our school with your presence and to even start teaching here. I'm not surprised after what happened at the UAGN summit." He says with a smile.
Pryce doesn't respond, only grinning from ear to ear as he stands before the Principal.
"Joseph the cloud."
"I..I'm not sure what you're talking about..."
"Yeah, you do. One hundred states, seven thousand and three casualties...that we know of."
"Throwing around accusations like that will not be tolerated!"
"I have the" Noir" files, Principal..."
The principal's smile disappears and his eyes widen. He gets up and locks the door behind them.
"What are you talking about? Those were supposed to be destroyed. That is my agreement with the king of the Ore kingdom."
"See...that's the fear I was looking for. Now, how I got them is my business but just so is your reputation..." he says looking at the man's wedding band on his finger."...How about you help me help you?"
"That was a long time ago, I am devoted to protecting my students' interests. I will not let you harm them."
"Whoa...relax...I'm a teacher here now,.that means I have no ill will towards them. Well, except one."
"What are you talking about ?"
"I hav happened upon information that one of the students here was responsible for the cyber attack..i have a limited number of days to find them.,"
,"I never pegged you for someone who followed a deadline."
"Well, that's just the thing, no matter how high up we are as humans, we all serve something even if we don't realise it."
"And who do you serve?"m
"...the future. "
He makes a phone call and puts it on speaker.
"My associate, Eduardo Bliss, is in your computer room, gathering student data.
He leans towards the phone
"How's it going Ed?"
Eduardo's eyes and veins glow light blue as he holds a router, hisneyes flicker as he sees multiple files of students containing their biodata.
"I'm still on it, Professor."
"You keep doing what you do best, Ed."
He ends the call.
"What will you do to the student, Professor? "
"Oh I won't lay a hand on the troglodyte but those above me are.far less forgiving."
As the bell rings over the public address system, some of the students pull out drones with remote controllers with screens on them .Other students gather to the windows as they activate the 14 inch by 5 housefly shaped machine with bright red glass orbs shaped like a house fly's eyes fixed to a rectangular metallic box with solar panelling attached to top of it with propellers on both sides.
They set them at the window as DJ stands between them holding a microphone.
"Ladies and gentlemen...! It's time for our biweekly qualifiers between Rick and Marcus! Who will soar to victory and who will eat dust? Place your bets now."
The students chant together as the drone pilots have their thumbs on the controller buttons.
"Three...Two....One....Fly!!!"
The drones hover and fly over the building and start racing against each other, A third drone hovers behind them, relaying visual feed to a tablet the students gather around to watch from.
Behind the lecture building is a one storey brown building with a silver roof and "BREAKFAST" sign written on the front with the first four letters in a neon blue, the next two in green and the last letters in red.
Students walk up to it and place a card on a sensor, then a holographic menu appears with their account balance in the top right corner.
Zane gets a drink and two egg rolls in a transparent nylon, he walks to an area under the trees where other students gather at rectangular stone tables and seats.
As he walks to a single stone block in the corner, he hears giggling coming from the students around him.
He clenches his teeth, resisting his urge to react. As he sat on the block, some students walked past him laughing at something on their phone.
"It's not their laughing at...it's not theirs laughing at."
"Actually, it is you."
Six says sitting on a chair beside him with a portable fan facing towards her.
"Wha...when did you get here?"
"I was always here, I even said hi a few times but your eyes were focused on something that would definitely piss you off."
"What are you on about?"
"So, I was added to the class group chat and..."
She shows him a video of him rubbing his eyes from earlier but a bib,bonnet and diapers are edited on him with the sound of a baby crying.
"Aren't you on the class group chat? "
"I don't mingle with morons."
He breathes deeply, squeezing the bottle of colourless soda in his hand.
He stands up, walking towards a group of students currently watching the video when he hears a voice in his head.
"What are you doing?"
He looks around but no one is that close to him. He turns around, seeing six covering the side of her head where her vein glows.
"I'm about to give them a piece of your mind."
"You really need to work on your emotional intelligence, they probably weren't responsible and you wanna attack them?"
"I wasn't going to..."
"I am literally in your head right now."
"Just come back and eat before the ants finish what you started."
The students all stare at Zane who's just standing in place.
He turns around and sits next to Six.
"See, that wasn't so hard..." She says, pulling a leaf off his head. "You have issues."
She says,verbally as the veins on her forehead stop glowing.
"Who are you again?"
She shows him the name on her notebook.
"Cecilia Smith...No I mean, who are you, really? The first time we met, I saw you when you were a kid."
"Must've been your imagination."
Zane stares at her.
"Look Zane...this isn't the time or place. I'll let you know more but...not right now."
"Fine..."
"Great, now today is Wednesday meaning there's a period dedicated to clubs then continues into break. What I want to know is what do you do?"
He pulls out his notebook and points to it.
"You cannot be serious."
"I am, I can't let people like Pryce embarrass me again."
"Dude, get out of your own head. When you are in high school, you're allowed to breathe every now and then."
"So what would you suggest?"
"Chess club?"
"Not my style."
"Book club...no even I'm not interested...um...drone racing?"
"I tried that, let's just say there's a reason that club was shut down for almost a year."
She groans.
"Okay, I think you'll like this one."
She stands up and extends her hand to him.
"You didn't say which club it was."
"I know now follow me...er...where's the computer room?"
Zane shakes his head and lets her help him up.
"Follow me..." she says with a smirk, she smiles and follows behind him.
They arrive at the ICT building, brown in colour and with a solar panel on the roof like the rest of the buildings. They walked in and the coolness from the air conditioner was easily felt.
They passed a room with tablets and PCs.
"Let's see...it says it's right beside the admin room...." Six says looking at her phone.
"oh!"
"Retro gamer club" was written on a piece of paper sticks to the top of the door.
"You're kidding." Zane says.
They both go in, the room is lit with christmas lights and littered with boxes with computer parts peeking out of them. There's an old school CRT placed on a stool so it's at eye level of the three seats in front.
Only One person is there playing metroid.
She shrieks hearing the door close.
"Potential members.?" She fumbles out of her seat and grabs two forms. As she approaches them,.the lights reveal a dark skinned female with a bowl cut. She smiles at Six but seeing Zane, his left upper lip curves upwards in disgust.
"You!."
"Hey, Julia." Zae says smiling.
"Oh, you know her?"
"Yeah, she's my ex."
"We never dated and I broke up with you!"
"Oxymoron. " Zane chuckles
"I just paid you to do my homework and you went around telling people we dated!"
"...and I enjoyed every moment of it."
Six is covering her mouth, failing to hold back laugh.
Julia looks at Six
"Hi...what unfortunate circumstances have put you in the orbit of this black hole."
"Oh you finally figured out the difference between those two." Zane cuts in.
Six smiles and responds.
"I'm Cecilia and I'm a new student and I just took pity on this poor soul."
"Helping the needy, I like you already.If you want, I can be your tour guide instead of discount Einstein Over here."
"Thank you, I'd really appreciate it."
"Anyway...here are the forms. You can come here every wednesday and you can bring your own games or cartridges, we have almost any system from the last decade you can think of.
She hands them the forms.
"You can fill these out later, just have fun for now.
They sit down and play games, as they do, sox smiles seeing Zane smile as he plays.
After school, Zane looks around for Six but he doesn't find her and eventually leaves.
She was in an office with Pryce seated.
"Progress report?" He asks
She sighs.
"Target trusts me and seems to be distracted from.your real motives."
"Good, you can go back to the loft now...and remember the lives of your friends are at stake, don't do anything foolish."