The Bygone Years

Arrival

Author's note: This is my new story. I hope everyone enjoys! This is the official first chapter. I combined the epilogue with the first part of the supposedly first chapter for a better flow of the story. Anyone who had read the epilogue can skip down to where I divided the plot points (the dividing line). I know it is a bit confusing but please bear with me this time! 

John Windsor liked to think that he is a calm and collected person. He frequently kept his emotions in check, he rarely talked higher than his rather monotone voice, he always prefered to avoid conflicts around him rather than interfere unless absolutely necessary. The fact that he hadn't thrown something at Carter could destroy any opposition to his statement. Damn, thinking about it, he must have the patience of a saint to not physically hurt his friend to this day. Someone should give him the Nobel Peace Prize for it, writing the congratulatory speech seems like a more interesting and enjoyable job than working overtime on a nearly due project because half the club quit halfway.

"John, John, over here, watch this. This is the coolest shit I've seen all day."

"Carter, if it's cats slapping each other on Youtube again, I will throw the screwdriver at you. Now drag your ass over here and help me with the cables. And we have to fill out the engineering journal too. We have to get this blasted robot done soon for Alan to start with the coding." John raised the hand he held his screwdriver up with to show he was serious. In fact, maybe he should aim for the head, he really wanted to know what kind of substance had replaced grey matter in his friend's skull to ignore the urgency of the situation they were in. "We have exactly four fucking days left to finish this blasted piece of metal, get Alan to code it, test run, fix any possible errors and finish the journal for the completely-unimportant competition we all signed up for. So excuse me if I cannot stomach another of your silly videos."

"You wouldn't do that to your best friend. Oh! How I miss the days when you and I would go on adventures together! When we climbed into old Hudgens's house to steal those apples, when we would sneak out of my parent's house at night during sleepovers. Where has your sense of humor and love for life disappeared to?" Carter Robinson ducked his head reflexively, a shit-eating grin splashed over his face, hands holding the phone for John to see. Fuck, it actually is another cat slapping video. He wondered how many years of his homicide sentence he could talk his way out of.

"They did not disappear, just tucked away in times of urgency like this to actually get work done if we want to have any chance of winning the FTC, so if you can get over here and not be complete carbon waste and help me it would be very much appreciated." Sending a glare at his friend, John got back to work. He had confidence in his technical skill, but when building machinery like this there would always be problems, especially when they had not even done a test run, and trial-and-error work was always painful and time-consuming. He wanted to go home - staying in the cramped clubroom was not really his idea of comfort. "And also, all the past incidents you mentioned involved you coming up with a stupid idea, which includes but is not exclusive to us stealing, sneaking out of home past midnight, and me pulling us out from the mess we got ourselves in. I am not really a fan of getting yelled at by your parents for an hour straight, or being nearly bitten by possibly-rabid dogs, so you can shove your love for adventure up your ass."

"Fine fine, I'll help." Carter laughed, the humorous and bright demeanor never leaving his face throughout the conversation. "Really though, you need to relax sometimes John, all that sarcasm and spite for life will just drive girls away from you, and consequently, me too." Carter finally hopped off his chair and walked over to the robot they had been working on since the school bell signaling the end of the day rang, and started managing the cables into a decent state. "I will never understand how someone with a personality like yours can be blessed with a talent like that, did you make a deal with God or something? Like: 'God, please put all my charisma points into intelligence. I don't really need to be liked by anyone anyway, just make me smart.' We have only been here for three hours, and you got the mainframe, the wheels, the retrieval system, the obstacle detector all in place from scratch. Why do you even need me here, you nearly finished it all by yourself."