"Hey, wanna play bionic bowling?"
That was how my day started. I wasn't quite sure what bionic bowling entailed, but it was bound to be more interesting than what I was doing (staring at the ceiling) so naturally I agreed. I was currently setting the pins up while Adam was some form of a warm-up that involved a lot of unnecessary heavy breathing. We were about to start when Bree and Chase walked into the lab after work.
"Hey guys, check it out! We just got our first pay checks from Tech Town!" Chase bragged.
"Good job," I congratulated, "Though you're about a month too late from when you actually needed that money."
"Which means I get to spend it irresponsibly!" Bree cheered, "Whoo!"
"That wasn't the point," I said.
"So," Leo asked, sidling up to Chase, "A video game? New kicks? A birthday present for a sibling who wants a video game and new kicks?"
"Nope," Chase replied, "I'm gonna open a savings account."
"I wanna like you," Bree told him, "But you make it so hard."
"Just keep it separate from Uncle D's" I advised, "Just in case Douglas gets itchy fingers again."
"Got it," Chase said to me, ignoring Bree, "I forgot how helpful you were when you weren't mad at me."
"Mad at you?" I asked, then not wanting to invest the energy in this conversation, "You know what, I'll just let that one slide."
"Anyways," Chase said, "The job also comes with perks."
He pulled out a phone. I was still waiting for the perk, but Leo revealed why it was a perk pretty quickly.
"The new ePhone 7!?!?" Leo exclaimed, "Those aren't even out yet! How'd you get one?"
"Well, Leo," Chase started dramatically, "As a rising star of the Tech Town empire—"
"We all got one," Bree deadpanned, cutting Chase off as she pulled out her new ePhone.
"People are already lined up for the big release Friday. You should have seen the crazed looks in their eyes when I walked by with this thing," Chase continued, and upon seeing Leo's eyes bulging out of his skull, "Yep, that's the look."
"What's the big deal?" I asked, "Is it really that much better than the ePhone 6? Or the ePhone 2 El Chie or whatever the frick phone I have?"
"The 2 LC?" Chase clarified.
"There we go, that sounds about right," I replied.
"What's the big deal?" Leo exclaimed, grabbing Chase's phone from him, "This versions's got the new auto-centering feature to help you take better selfies."
He took a selfie, and it was the cringiest thing I had ever seen since the last time Leo had taken a selfie. At least this one was centered. I think.
"Yeah, I don't photograph well," Leo admitted.
"Point that bad boy over here!" Adam called, bringing us back to the main event, the bionic bowling, "You're gonna wanna record this perfection!"
Leo started recording, and Adam grabbed a bowling ball.
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"I'm Adam Davenport and this— is Bionic Bowling," Adam announced.
"Adam is six-foot-two and a rare combination of strength and not much else," Leo narrated. Adam took another deep breath, and then used his super strength to chuck the ball at the pins and knock them all down.
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"I'm Zoey Dooley, and this— is Invisi-Bowling," I announced.
"Zoey is four-foot-eleven but can and will sock you like she's seven foot while simultaneously saving our family from my mom's terrible cooking," Leo narrated again. I took the ball and rolled it slowly towards the pins. I then turned invisible and ran to the pins, knocking them down once the ball came close. Feeling accomplished, I reappeared in front of the camera like I had never moved in the first place.
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"I'm Chase Davenport and this— is Molecular Kinesis Bowling," Chase announced.
"A native of Mission Creek, Chase's hobbies include being a tattle-tale and creeping out girls," Leo narrated once again. Chase then put the ball down and held out his hands. He activated his molecular kinesis and rolled the ball, getting the 7/10 split.
"Oh! The dreaded 7/10 split!" Leo wailed mockingly, "Devastating! Just devastating!"
Chase just smirked and used his molecular kinesis to knock the last two pins down.
"Oh it's on!" Adam declared.
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"I'm still Adam Davenport and this— is Blast Wave Bowling," Adam said. He then put the ball down, generated a blast wave, and hit Chase with it, launching the poor boy into the pins and knocking them all down. We all ran over to him.
"And we have a loser!" Leo proclaimed.
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"Hey Rachel!" I called from across the food court.
"Zoey!" Rachel cheered, running over and hugging me, "Aaah I've missed you so much!"
"Hasn't it only been a week?" I asked.
"What is this thing you call time?" Rachel replied, "Also, sorry I'm late. As I said, I have no sense of time."
"It's totally fine," I said, "To be honest, I wasn't here at 12 either."
"So, food. I need food," Rachel said.
"And this is why I like you," I agreed, "To the food!"
After getting way too much food, we sat down at one of the tables. I had gone to the Asian buffet because that was the only place where they could completely screw the food up and I wouldn't notice. Rachel got KFC. I had to restrain myself from jumping the counter and showing those people how to actually fry a chicken. The poor chicken did not deserve to be manhandled like that. And don't even get me started on what a disgrace those biscuits are. Do those people even know that gravy is supposed to be made with meat? Ricers make rice, not mashed potat— you know what, I should probably stop now.
my fried chicken is crispier.
i'm done now.
Anyways, Rachel and I sat down at one of the tables, and Rachel started talking about her new school.
"So, I go to some pretentious private school now because my adoptive parents get a discount there, I guess," Rachel rambled, "It's funny, I think the kids there are even more judgmental than at Mission Creek but apparently I'm 'cool' because I went to public school and Trent gave me so many scars that it looks like I was a part of a gang or something which is much more awesome than getting pushed off the swing into a pole in kindergarten, at least I think it was kindergarten, who knows, also I took some advice you probably gave me and took self defense classes which makes me look even cooler at oh God why can't I remember the name of that school oh and apparently I'm the only black girl there which means I'm ghetto and crap which is really really racist but it makes me even cooler and let's be honest you saw the house I used to live in and I really need to take a breath how's your life going?"
Rachel took a deep breath.
"Wow," I said, "I had to punch Trent in the nose to earn that kind of respect. You just needed to show up."
"Too bad, I've always wanted to punch Trent in the nose," Rachel mused, her chocolate brown eyes sparkling, "But seriously, how's Mission Creek going?"
"It's going all right," I replied nonchalantly, "We saved Perry from a live wire and helped Trent graduate, both of which I kind of regret."
"Huh," Rachel said, "How are you and Chase doing?"
"Oh, yeah, that..." I cringed.
"Okay, who ended it?" Rachel asked.
"It's... more complicated than that," I replied, "And technically, we're just taking a break..."
"And how long has this break lasted?" Rachel asked.
"A month and a half?" I guessed.
"Oh honey," Rachel deadpanned, "Good luck with that one."
Suddenly, my phone vibrated. It was a call from Chase, speak of the devil.
"What did you do?" I asked immediately when I answered.
"Okay, so you know how we took videos of the bionic bowling last night?" Chase asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Yeah, well, I lost my phone at the phone boxing station," Chase continued, "So if you don't want our secret to be exposed, get over here now!"
"For the smartest guy in the world, you sure can be an idiot," I commented before hanging up.
"Chase?" Rachel asked.
"You bet," I said, "I'm really sorry, I'll be back, I gotta fix another one of his mistakes."
With that, I jogged up the escalator and stepped into Tech Town to see Chase trying to fend off customers from the ePhones.
"Alrighty, you don't know where the phone is?" I asked.
"No! I need something to get these people away from the phones!" Chase hissed.
"Okay, I guess I'll be the diversion," I drawled, sidling over to an outlet. I snapped my fingers and stuck them in the outlet, effectively short circuiting the store and causing the power to go out.
"Oh no! There's been a power outage!" I deadpanned, "You should probably leave the store."
No sooner had I said that then everyone mobbed out of the store. After making sure everyone left, I headed out too. But I didn't get too far before someone grabbed my wrist. Yanking my hand away, I whirled around to see Scott.
"Oh Zoey!" He said, "Fancy running into you here."
"You didn't run into me," I corrected, "You grabbed my wrist."
"Same thing," Scott said, "Anyways, it's weird that my heavily optimized store suddenly had a power outage. Usually we're the one store that still has power."
"Well, isn't that frustrating," I chuckled, "But as I've told you on multiple occasions, I know nothing about electronics. Have a nice day."
"Hold up!" Scott said, "Chase has been acting weird this past hour. You have any ideas why?"
"Beats me," I said, trying to sound emotionless so Scott didn't catch onto anything, "You know, you should really leave the store. It's dark, you could seriously hurt yourself with all this glass around here."
"I'm an adult I know that," Scott said.
"There could be ghosts," I added for good measure. Scott looked at me like I was an idiot as I left the store. I discreetly became invisible then and went back into the store. I tapped Scott on the shoulder, and when he saw that there was no one there, I blew into his face. He yelped, jumped back, and promptly ran out of the store. After brief contemplation, I walked over to Adam and Chase, who were going through the ePhones. I whacked them both upside the head for their idiocy and Adam jumped straight up.
"Chase!" Adam panicked, "There's a ghost!"
"Oh for Christ's sake it's me!" I shot back, striding out of the store and turning visible again.
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"Hey again," I said to Rachel as I got back to the food court, "Sorry about that."
"It's fine," Rachel reassured, then looked down at her empty plate, "Sorry, I kinda finished without you..."
"Hey, I was the one who abandoned you," I said, "Hopefully that doesn't happen again."
"Yeah," Rachel laughed as I finished my food. We chatted about other things for a good 15 minutes until Rachel got a text that she had to go.
"Holy crap, I lost track of time again," Rachel panicked, "I gotta go."
"That's alright," I replied, "Hey, great catching up with you again."
"You too," Rachel said, "And Zoey, thank you."
"For what?" I asked.
"You saved my life," Rachel said, "Not just from my dad, but because you believed in me, I actually feel like I am somebody. You gave me the confidence not to be some bullied shut in at my new school. And that's a debt I'm never gonna be able to repay you for."
"Hey, I didn't give you confidence," I said, "I just helped you find it for yourself."
Rachel's phone buzzed again, and she said, "I really do have to go though. We need to get together more often."
"We really do," I replied, "See ya!"
With that, Rachel jogged out of the mall. I thought about going home, but saw that Tech Town had power again. I decided that I should probably make sure things weren't going too badly.
There was still a crowd when I got up there. I was about to enter the store when Scott got in my way.
"Zoey, if you want and ePhone, you're gonna have to wait in line," Scott said, "Now do you wish you took up my job offer."
"Look into my eyes," I said, and he looked, "Does it look like I want the new ePhone?"
"Well, how can I trust—" Scott started, but Caitlyn interrupted him.
"Go home everyone!" Caitlyn shouted, "The sale's over! We're out of phones!"
"Nice chatting with you," I said, brushing past Scott and looking for Chase. Before I got to him though, someone suggested, "What about the display model?"
We all looked at the girl messing with the display model, and she was looking at a terrible selfie of Leo. No, actually, the terrible selfie Leo had taken on Chase's phone.
"No no no no no no no!" Chase groaned, "Leo?"
"Oh, he really doesn't photograph well," Adam remarked.
"Yeah, I suppose we could sell the display model," Scott mused.
Once he said that, everyone charged for the phone. Actually, not exactly true. Scott and I quickly got out of the way of the mob. Everyone was fighting over the phone until Caitlyn got a hold of it, screaming, "STOP IT!!!!"
Everyone backed away.
"Look at you people," Caitlyn ranted, "It's just like the last pretzel except it's a stupid phone. This is why I hate crowds! You're all loving gadgets, when YOU SHOULD BE LOVING EACH OTHER!!!!!"
She screamed and smashed the phone on the ground, jumping on it a few times for good measure.
"Caitlyn," Scott said meekly, "You're fired."
Turning to him and batting her eyelids, Caitlyn asked, "May I ask why?"
Scott looked at me, "You said you could be moral support."
"Why are you loo— do you want me to carry her out or something?" I asked.
"Well," he replied, "I can't exactly."
"Fair," I shrugged and carried Caitlyn out of the store. She was actually fairly complicit with the whole ordeal. Once we got out, she started kicking and screaming, and I promptly put her down.
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"So here's what I don't get," Chase said. We were out on the roof, or more accurately, I was sitting out on the roof and Chase unexpectedly joined me.
"I don't get a lot of things," I mused, "But sure, I'll take a crack at it."
"You're usually so, I don't know, all-in with everything," Chase said, "But today, you didn't even seem to care that our secret, yours included, would be exposed by the person who bought my phone. That's really not like you."
"Oh, you never figured it out?" I asked. Chase shook his head.
"Our secret was never gonna be exposed," I explained, "You know how I don't trust all this techie stuff, and having a video record of us using our bionics just didn't seem like a good idea, especially after Leo told me about your photo library being stored in some cloud. So, I deleted the videos last night."
"Really?" Chase asked, "Wait, how did you get into my phone?"
"You never changed your passcode," I deadpanned, "Also, your name in binary? Really?"
"And the picture of Leo?" Chase asked.
"Oh, I sent that one to myself," I chuckled, "Everyone needs to experience that picture."
"You're not wrong there," Chase agreed, "Hey, can I see it again?"
"Sure," I said, pulling my phone out and showing him. Chase cringed.
"Man, the display on that thing is crappy," Chase muttered.
"Is it really that bad?" I asked.
"It's the display from the low cost model of a phone released 5 years ago," Chase deadpanned, "Yes, it's that bad."
"Well, I can barely use this as it is," I replied, "I'd rather not try to figure out how to use another new fangled thingy majig."
"Here, I'll make you a deal," Chase said, "Get a new ePhone, and I'll show you how to use it."
I thought for a minute, before saying, "Sure, why not."
"Great!" Chase cheered, "Vive la future!"
"Vive la past!" I cheered, "I'm partial to that one."
Chase ran back inside, excited about writing an instruction manual or something. For a minute there, I had forgotten about all the crap we were going through. And I think he had too. Maybe Rachel was wrong, maybe there was hope for us.
Then I remembered the night we got back from running away, and my smile faded. What did I know about hope anyway?
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April 7, 2018
Alrighty, here we go. I'm feeling inspired again, which is good, because Zip It and Mission Mission Creek High (and even the Jet Wing to a certain extent) felt a bit like I just was trying to get the part finished. However, by dragging out the writing process on this one, I feel pretty good about it. Let me know what you think (especially the end...).
So, as far as life, you know you live in Michigan when it snows during spring break. On multiple occasions. When, subsequently, all of you friends are on the beach in Florida or South Carolina or wherever. But who needs sun when you've got the artificial white light of the Wattpad editor! Wattpad doesn't give you sunburns.
Anyways, here's to scrambling some orbs next part,
AJ