FLY BOY - Completed

Chapter 1

I have uploaded a picture of River on the right. 

Fly Boys – Chapter 1

It's been three months since River moved to Braxton Hall Academy. Not much has changed. They still had not found her dad, no news at all, good or bad. Everyday she waited to hear something, anything but all anyone talked about was who the next batch of Fly Boys would be.

Each year eight senior boys were chosen to be the next crop of Fly Boys. It's determined by how well they scored in the Arcane simulator. River could care less. She figured they were sexist tests that didn’t even take into consideration the female gender. Ever since the X Virus hit the world population, River felt society had taken huge steps backwards in gender equality.

River was not a true feminist but she did believe in a general equality. She thought that females could do just as well as males when it came to most things including the Arcane simulator tests.  If only she were given a chance, she could probably prove it too. But, that would never happen because females were no longer allowed to put themselves into dangerous situations. It was literally a law now. More females were lost when the X Virus hit. Three quarters of all deaths were female. They didn’t know exactly why, but it had something to do with how the virus affected the X chromosome.  Ever since it happened they didn’t want to put any females into any risky situations. They had become overprotective.

It's not that the Arcane simulator was dangerous, as it was only used for training purposes, but the government would never allow a female to fly a real Arcane Fighter. For this reason there was no point in letting them train in one either. Technically the Arcane simulator was identical to the real Arcane Fighters in every way, but most trainees preferred the real deal. They wanted the true in-flight experience because according to the trainers, 'to fly one was just so freaking awesome.'

River knew that the new selection of Fly Boys would be announced the very next afternoon, during a large school assembly. She would rather skip it and spend the time alone in her room, especially since Dayden was rumored to have a good chance of being chosen. She still butted heads with him at every opportunity. There had never been a boy who had been able to push her buttons the way he could.

He was annoying as hell, but he had also proven to be a formidable opponent. Once a week in Physics, the class held a debate and it had gotten to the point that it really didn’t even matter who the speakers were because eventually Dayden took up for one side and River took up for the other and then an all out battle of words ensued. Unfortunately River lost as often as she won. That darn Dayden was much smarter than he looked.

She would love to challenge him to a match in the Arcane simulator, but her skills were something she had to keep secret. It happened quite by accident really. Her father would often sneak her in late at night when he had a night shift. He had to log hours in the simulator each night and River would accompany him. At first she just watched, but then she started asking questions and finally her father started to train her. Eventually she even competed with her father for high score, surprisingly giving him a run for his money.

He taught her everything he knew and he knew a lot. After all he was the designer of the Arcane prototype. It was his baby. So it was part of his job to fix any idiosyncrasies. She learned from watching him, but she also got to spend valuable time with her father that would have otherwise been spent alone in bed sleeping. Those nights were her favorite. She and her dad had shared a common love for her mother - his wife and for two people who were still in mourning, they grew close during those many hours of training. No one could know though. Females were not allowed to be involved with anything dangerous and the Arcane Fighter was the best secret weapon that the Northern Region had in its arsenal. It was considered extremely dangerous, even though that had not been her father's intention when he had designed it.