PHASE 1

The alarm clock sounds. It reads 6:00AM-2/14/2121. A seventeen year old teenager groggily tosses a shoe at the alarm clock. He gets up in a messy room, filled with trash from junk food (despite an unused trash disposal system) and dirty laundry (even with an untouched laundry chute). Plastic models of G-frames line shelves on the walls. An unfinished model kit rests on the desktop. A small multipurpose holographic screen on the wall displays an unfinished blueprint of a CG rendered gear frame rotating silently.

 

The boy gets up, takes a shower and brushes his teeth. His attempts at combing his hair fail miserably. Little time is spent selecting clothing, as it mostly consists of drab gray pants and dark blue shirts. He prepares his backpack and leaves the room. As the door slides shut he presses his hand to the bio-scanner on the wall to lock to his apartment. Halfway down the hall he remembers his homework is still saved on his PC. He curses, goes back in, retrieves the file, and then locks it again. On the way to the elevator he forgets the fact that he could have just accessed his PC from his laptop. One thing that he never forgets though is a pendant given to him by his grandfather that is embossed with the design of what appears to be a backwards letter S with a vertical line in the center and a diagonal one running from a little beyond the upper left ending with a pointed tip slightly past the lower right.

 

On his way down he is greeted by a girl with braided auburn hair. “Good morning Allen!” the girl says. A “morning, Char” is grumpily given in reply. Charlotte Arrowsmith is also seventeen, is the most attractive, most popular girl in school, and also Allen's childhood friend, as they were actually raised in the same household. That was the case until Allen deemed Himself old enough to live on his own. Her family is also very wealthy, operating Arrow Tech, the most advanced privately owned factory for manufacturing gear frames, specializing in gear frame guns. You could be assured of an superior firearm for your gear frame if it had the Arrowsmith family crest on it.

 

Allen, on the other hand, has few friends outside of the gearhead club, aside from Charlotte.  “Oh please Allen, how many times have I already told you not to call me that anymore” Charlotte says with a pout. “Anyway, after over a decade with you, it's just something I got used to” Allen simply shrugs.

 

 The two continue walking along the sidewalk until they reach the bus stop. “Hey there lovebirds, Wait up!” a voice sounds. Three more teenagers appear running towards them. A short, stocky girl grabs charlotte by the arm. “Morning Charlie” she says. “Hey dude!” a boy says. “Hey Al” another says. The first boy is tan with a closely cropped haircut, with a cheerful disposition hiding a sinister aura just below the surface. The second is pale, slightly overweight, sporting a neat haircut and clearly had the air of someone who obviously thought he was too good for his surroundings. Allen fist bumps them both. Abbey Gale Aberide, Markus Warp, and Voltice Garce are Charlotte and Allen's best friends. Much chatter ensues. The bus arrives.

 

 

 They arrive at school and have a relatively uneventful time. Teachers might as well be robots, having little emotion and no enthusiasm, excluding the new teachers who in time will succumb to the monotony of teaching. Allen and Markus, neither being even slightly physically active, find excuses to skip Gym class and play card games under the trees by the soccer field. Abbey, who happens to share English class with Allen, has a heated debate with him on whether the chicken or the egg came first. Voltice Challenges Allen and Markus to a soda drinking contest. He wins by default, being the last one to regurgitate the contents of his stomach. Charlotte and Allen have a talk about the significance of humanity under a tree at the back field of the school. As it happens to be valentines’ day, Voltice (under duress from Abbey) chooses that day to profess his love for Charlotte. She is surprised, but tells Voltice that while she likes him, she only sees him as a close friend. For a moment Voltice appears crestfallen, but immediately regains his usual composure. Charlotte tries to console him by giving him hug, but a teacher steps in and separates them for “public display of affection”.

 

That aside, school passes like a blur. The final bell rings. All classes are over for today. “So Al, want to come with me and Markus? We're gonna go online and play gear assault. The new update adds a bunch o' new frames” Voltice says invitingly, clearly trying to forget the day’s earlier events. “No thanks guys, gonna finish that model I’m still workin’ on” Allen replies. “Alrighty Al, whatever floats your boat dude” says Markus. Voltice and Markus decide not to play anymore since Allen isn’t joining them. Voltice, Markus and Abbey board the hover bus home. Allen begins to board as well when he feels Charlotte grab his wrist. She says that she wants to walk home. Her family's home, or more appropriately mansion is somewhere near the area of the apartment Allen stays in.

 

They both walk without silently, Charlotte with a princess-like gait from years of etiquette and tutoring and Allen with a caveman slouch from years of living alone with no one to teach him proper manner. Finally Charlotte decides to break the silence. “Ahem, Allen?” “mmph?” Allen grunts. “I was wondering, well, I got these tickets to go see the next gear wars match and-” “YOU GOT TICKETS TO SEE THE SEMI-FINALS!?!” Allen blurts out, suddenly standing erect and showing attention for the first time during the walk. Charlotte is pleasantly surprised. “Well, yes, and I was wondering if you would care to come with me and-” Charlotte is interrupted by an unexpected hug from Allen and “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Yes! Of course I’ll go! “Allen! People are staring...” Charlotte mumbles. Remembering that they were both standing in the middle of the sidewalk in open view of the public, Allen quickly withdraws from the hug. Regaining his usual composure (although not completely), he then says to Charlotte “Ahem, so y-yeah, i-it'd be cool to see it, uhm, with you”. He notices Charlotte is blushing, and she notices the same is for him, even with his sad attempt at hiding his feelings. “U-um Alright, g-great,” she manages to stammer out. “So um, does Saturday sound good? My house, see you then?” she says. “Yeah, so it’s a da- I mean, sounds like a plan” he manages to say.

 

Author's Note

Does it move along at a bit of a fast pace? friends who have read this say so.