Psyclone

Chapter 1

5 years ago

"Terra Brookes!" a ruler slammed down on my desk snapping me out of my daydreams and yanking me back into reality.

"Huh? What?" I dazedly glanced around the classroom full of students staring at me with a variety of looks.

"Since you seem to be paying so much attention to my class, why don't you repeat what I just said?" Mrs. Georgia stood before me with her arms crossed and her ruler gripped firmly in her right hand.

Mrs. Georgia was known throughout the entire student body as the meanest teacher around. There was even a rumor that she made a girl cry when she asked to go to the bathroom during a lecture. Do I believe it? Yes I do.

She cleared her throat to reinforce what she commanded me to do. I obviously hadn't been paying attention so I did the first thing that came to mind. I reached down into my bag and pulled out my ruler, swiftly slamming it onto the table "Terra Brookes!" I exclaimed while making an angry face.

The room erupted in laughter, but unfortunately for me, Mrs. Georgia wasn't amused with my little display. Her face was beat red, and she gripped her ruler so hard I thought it would either break or she would start to bleed. She opened her mouth to scream but the sound of the bell drowned out the scarring things she was probably saying. I grabbed my backpack and bolted out the room faster than I ever have before, heading straight for the locker room.

After a few moments of hiding out in the locker room, a familiar face came into my line of sight. "There you are!" she stated with a sigh "You know Mrs. Georgia is going to want your head on a pike now, right?"

I gave a nervous chuckle and ran a hand through my chestnut hair. "Well you know how cranky I am when I wake up. Remember that time when I took your phone and..." her hand shot across my mouth.

"We swore never to talk about that again." Her eyes were filled with a look of fierceness that I only saw when she was playing first person shooters.

"Okay! You're right! I'm sorry!" I held my hands up in surrender as she moved her hand away from my mouth. "You know, that reminds me, did that new game of yours come out yet?"

"You mean 'Dangerfare:The Next Level'? Did you forget already that I'm coming over to play it with you?" she pouted, and looked away from me with crossed arms.

"Awww come on, you know I'm looking forward to it. I've just had...A lot on my mind lately. Besides I have to go train at the dojo today, remember?"

"Oh that's right, I forgot you go there all the time lately." Sasha sighed "You just love punching things don't you?"

I smirked "We all get our kicks somewhere. My kicks just happen to come from punches."

Ever since I was little, I was more of a fighter than anything. I got bored watching shows and movies that didn't have action or explosions. Naturally, I wanted to go into mixed martial arts, but I knew my father would never be okay with it. Instead I just asked him to let me take classes so I could learn to defend myself. After months of trying to persuade him, he finally agreed, and I'd been training ever since.

"Oh no, I have a presentation in my next period class..." Sasha's face turned pale as she said this. She was extremely intelligent and book smart, but her shyness made it nearly impossible for her to give oral presentations without hyperventilating.

"Sasha we've been over this. You can do it. You work harder than anyone at this school, and I know you can rock the presentations." I clasped my hands on her shoulders and gave a large reassuring grin. "You've got this, girl!"

"O-okay, Terra. I'll give it my best shot." She nodded affirmatively.

"That's my girl. Go knock 'em dead alright?" I waved as she left the locker room and headed to her next class. "I wonder why she's still so shy after all these years..." I shrugged while thinking of a way to get to my next class without running into Mrs. Georgia.

Sasha and I have been friends since kindergarten. She and her parents had moved here from Korea and she was picked on for not knowing English very well. She was extremely shy though and never stood up for herself, which made me even angrier that she was getting picked on. It wasn't long before I was beating up the bullies and inviting her to come over to my house to play with me. Ever since, her family has become like an addition of my own, and Sasha and I became like inseparable sisters.

I waited a bit longer before running to the other side of the school and making it to my next class just in time. My school was called Magna Doctrina High School. It was the most prestigious private school in New York since its opening twenty years ago in 2750. The school had a dress code of course. Boys had to wear button down shirts and khakis while girls had to wear blouses and skirts. Students were allowed to personalize their uniforms as long as they kept the dress code, so I didn't face any issues from the teachers when it came to my outfit.

The school was large with thirty-two floors and even a few elevators and escalators. It started as this experiment to see how students would adapt to such a large campus, but eventually became a full-fledged school. Sasha was able to get in on grades alone since she's never scored anything lower than a 100 on anything besides presentations. My case however is a bit different.

My father was a scientist with the government. He had his own lab and usually got paid a lot of money for his work. My grades weren't awful, but unlike Sasha who was practically given money to go to the school, my father had to pay for my tuition. It wasn't hard for him though. Ten grand was like pocket change for someone with a salary like him.

I felt my cell phone in my pocket vibrate, and I quickly pulled it out to find a text from a familiar number with a message I've come to look forward to every month.

"Terra. You're on the chopping block. Tomorrow night. 11pm."

A rush of adrenaline flowed through me as I excitedly typed back a response.

"You're the best, Hal. I knew I keep you around for a reason ;D"

I slipped the phone back into my pocket and strode out of the locker room, forgetting completely about my incident with Mrs. Georgia.

"There you are you ungrateful little...!" The bell signifying that the next class has started rang, once again saving me from hearing whatever unholy things were coming out of that woman's mouth.

"Oh hey, Mrs. Georgia!Have you done something different with your hair? I like it! It suits you!" Ihoped that this would be enough to curb her rage, but I found myself grabbed bythe arm and dragged into the principal's office to get a lecture and a two hourdetention for disruption of the classroom.