When the bell rings, he's the first one out the door, hooting and hollering while some of the other students make plans for the War Games tonight. It's a school sanctioned event, like football, with the students playing in robot suits to prevent unnecessary injuries. He moves left imperceptibly for one group of kids who aren't afraid of him. Preps slated for Garrett-Stone Academy, their parents are rich and it's a precursor to military school, if they pass the grueling entrance exam.
Probably get slaughtered in the next invasion, he thinks to himself. The eight stars in the Cross System are not sympathetic to one another, but politics are boring, and there's enough volunteers that he will never get drafted. Still, he can't help notice Liberty Jones. His stomach tightens a little when he looks at her, she's that fine, but he knows he doesn't stand a chance. It's more than her looks, she has a way about her that makes his cold heart ache when he thinks about her at night, and she's actually the only one on the planet who's nice to him.
Cool and popular are not his strong suits. She's talking to Ranada Hall, whose boyfriend, Bradly is hanging all over her. That guy is such a tool, thinks Grayven. He would punch him if he could get away with it. Evil thoughts fill his head and Grayven makes a mental note for a great practical joke next week, but not tonight. Tonight, he has plans.
While the other kids speed off in tricked out air cars and bot driven limousines, Grayven hops on his micro-fusion scooter and makes a beeline for home. His parents would have gotten him his own car, except he'd been grounded every other week for three years. Who gives a crap, he thinks as he pulls up to his house. It's a glass dome set halfway in the mountain, mono-chromatic windows turned against the young star burning low in the evening sky, lower middle class if there is such a thing. He sees his dad is home by the small shuttle off to the side, and his heart sinks.
There's one thing which grates on his nerves like nails on a chalk board. The sound of his dad's voice. It sends him into a rage and he's not sure why. When his dad talks, Grayven wants him to shut up and listen. When he's silent, Grayven wants to scratch his eyes out and punch him in the face. Just the thought of getting one up on his dad makes life worth living. He enters the laundry room and stops around the corner, listening in.
"What did he do now?"
What do you think of Grayven? Can he help anyone besides himself? Is there any hope. Just kill him now?
vote and comment.
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