The Alternate

One

        Miss Blake, you may begin.

       Okay, here goes... So before I moved to Clover Bay last summer, I was living in this very small town called Bloomsburg.

        Bloomsburg - a small, suburban hamlet in the north-eastern region of Arcand. Population is five thousand, three hundred and thirty-two; land area is approximately six point two-nine square miles.

        Yeah, that’s the one. How did you know all of that?

        I have a database which allows me to access factual knowledge recorded anywhere on the web for any term I can identify from your speech, Miss Blake.

        Wow. So you’re basically like a talking search engine, huh, MATT?

        Not to toot my own metaphorical horn, but yes. Although, my abilities extend much further than your average search engine.

        Well, what else can you do?

        Let’s try to stay on topic, Miss Blake.

        Okay. Anyway… Bloomsburg is where I was born and where I’ve lived my whole life... well, up until about a year ago.

        You know, a lot can happen in a year. You can get married and have kids, you could graduate. You could even go on a worldwide cruise. Or you could be me – unfortunately – and move to a new home, a new school and a whole new town.

        I have to be honest; when my mom first told me we'd be moving, I wasn’t that excited about it.

     “Come on, Josie,” she said as she paced our small living room. “This will be good for us. A change of scenery, meeting new people-”

        “I like the old scenery and the old people just fine,” I told her from my position on our red sofa.

        Mom sighed. “We can always come back and visit. This job is really important to me. Not taking this offer would be career suicide.”

       “But why do I have to go to high school? Can’t Mr Pollard come with us?” Mr Pollard is my home-school tutor. He’s also my great-uncle, but I spend so much time being professionally lectured by him, that I don’t really think of him as close family.

        “You know I can’t ask Mr Pollard to do that. His whole life is in Bloomsburg.”

        I squinted at her in disbelief. “And mine isn’t?”

        Another sigh from Mom. “Look, as beneficial as home-schooling has been for you, you need to get back into public education. life’s not like that in the real world. You’ll be forced to coalesce and collaborate with other people. I just want you to be prepared for that.”

       I rolled my eyes at her use of alliteration. “But I don’t want to go.”

      My mom and I don't often fight about a lot of things. Actually, or the most part, we get along really well. But you should know that my mother, Tammy Blake, is like a balloon. The more you push her buttons, the more inflated she gets, and there’s only so much she can take… until she bursts.

        “I can’t believe you’re being so selfish about this! After everything I’ve done for you, you can’t do just this one thing for me? You – Josephine Blake – are a terrible excuse for a daughter!” (You definitely know the balloon has burst when she calls me Josephine – which isn’t even my full name, by the way. But I already told you that.) “If I take this job, it will be better for the both of us! Not just me, okay? Both of us! So whether you like it or not, I am going to Clover Bay and I will drag you with me by the skin of my teeth if I have to!”

        After an eruption like that from "Volcano Blake" - which is what I sometimes call her when she gets this mad - there is really nothing you can say that will change her mind. I did have a response for her, though.

        “Teeth don’t have skin, Mom,” I said matter-of-factly, which only earned me a deathly glare from her. I stared at her fiery eyes and her reddened cheeks and I winced in surrender. Now it was my turn to sigh. “I’ll go pack my suitcase,” I said, retreating to my room.

        So that was that. We packed our bags and set off for a new town. Moved away from our old home in Bloomsburg and now... we’re here. La Piazza, an apartment complex in the middle of Clover Bay. Room 206.

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A.N.

Hi! So I know that this chapter is a little short, but I really wanted to post something to get this story going. (Just so we're clear, this story is a conversation between Josie's character and M.A.T.T., the talking computer. M.A.T.T.'s dialogue is in bold italics.)

So what do you think of Josie's character so far? Please vote and comment! Thanks for reading!