A Humble Beginning
1,
A Humble Beginning
“Whatever tomorrow brings, through fire we will rise, and we will win.” -Braiden
I wasn’t supposed to have a near death experience this week. What I was supposed to have was another semi-boring, completely normal week like all the others, but alas, life changing coincidences always decide to catch you at a bad time.
The ‘I’ in question, as it would seem, was not your average American girl. With my white skin, ebony hair and yellow eyes, I stood out like a sore thumb among all the blondes and brunettes in my school.
And with my award - winning witty and psychotic personality, I was fortunate to get any friends at all, though a few decided I was worth the effort.
As I walked into the school, I was met by my friend from all the way back to first grade, Braiden. Braiden was more natural looking, with dark brown hair, and fair skin. She was unfailingly there for me, and always seemed to be drawing something amazing. She was also really good at figuring out riddles, and math. “Hey!” she exclaimed, “how are you?”
“Oh,” I said, “Doing good unless you have intentions of shooting me.”
“Who’s planning on shooting someone?!” Rio, a tall gangly fellow with wild brown curls, walked up to us looking very concerned, as AJ, a murderous and terrifying blonde German who had just come to their school that year, also sauntered in with the reply, “Me! Portland’s definitely getting it today. And I brought my katana!” Portland was the nickname for a jerk in our school. He acts all country-like, but then his mom drops him off in a fancy city car at school. so we all call him Portland. AJ glanced at me with her strange heterochromic eyes.
She grins at me.“Oh, hey nerd!” she said. She’s been calling me that ever since she found out I could make little gadgets out of spare parts. I am not the only one she picks on though, she rarely does, in fact. It’s usually Rio, who seems to be the punching bag for mostly AJ, but sometimes Braiden and I join in. I casually hid a pair of earbuds I had been working on as I replied with “What’d he do this time?” To which she flipped her hair and simply stated, “he existed.”
“Well,” I laughed, “that’s enough of an excuse for me! Honestly though, I don’t see why you’re wasting your time and energy on him, he’s obviously not got enough brain cells to appreciate it.”
“Maybe you should give him some of yours!” She snarks.
Still giggling, we made our way to our usual seats, to the left back of the classroom where the teacher doesn’t call on us as much. Braiden turned to me, “So...what’s the new gadget?” I pulled out my notebook and then, somewhat reluctantly, the broken earbuds I hid earlier. “It’s an earpiece,” I explained, “Made out of an old earbud, some motherboard parts off of a computer, and fan wiring. I can’t wait to see if it works!” Rio immediately pounced on the chance, “Ooh! Can I try it out with you once you’re done?”
“Of course,” Rio loves being the test subject for all the stuff I make, even though I once singed off his eyebrows due to a faulty pair of goggles I created from old glasses and parts of a truck engine.
I glanced at the clock, 3 minutes till class starts. “Ok, so whose house do you guys wanna go to after school?” We have a sort of schedule, where we take turns coming over to each other’s houses, so we don’t have to go hang out at the park where the usual gangs lurk. “Not mine today,” AJ commented, “Father is home.”
“How about my house?” Braiden suggested, “My parents are home, but they won’t bother us.” Okay, next time maybe at my house, if of course, my aunt is busy. “Sounds great! We can all ride the bus there.”
“Ug, I hate the bus.” For some reason, AJ has a thing about buses. “I’d rather run.” I laughed again, “So it’s settled then.” I shoved my earbuds in my backpack hurriedly as the bell rang and kids started filing in. We all did the handshake and turned our attention to the teacher.
