Competition

"No, no, move it to the left a bit…aye aye aye, too far…over, over!…oh, man, that's ICK right there…move it, move it, move it, keep going…Ah, don't push it over the video game system, man! That thing cost a lot! It'd take forever to get the hologram projector fixed! Move it THERE, not there!"

The robot grumbled. He had gotten bossier and bossier as he had grown…But he had moved the desk where Wilbur had wanted it. Carl had been with the Robinson family for ages, and had been there to seen Wilbur grow up. Now Wilbur was…oh, say, a good 18 years old, and still had an ego the size of a forty story building. And worst of all, he was popular. REALLY popular at school. Partly because of his charisma, partly because of how his looks had grown along with his charisma over the years. And being popular just raised in more. Wonderful.

"Carl, Carl, stop it right there! Perfect! Impresionante!" Wilbur yelled, jumping forward to stop the desk from moving any further. Why did he have a desk? Because he had just gotten a new computer to sit on top of the new desk. And he wanted it sitting perfectly in his room. And he had just found the spot. "Got it, Carl. Good work." He nodded, crossing his arms with a smirk, standing back to see how it looked again. In the years that had gone by, Wilbur hadn't changed much. His clothes had, but his hair was still about the same, maybe a bit messier from lack of caring about it, and those expressions he had never changed.

"Wilbur Jason Robinson!" A voice yelled from downstairs, and Wilbur cringed slightly. Angry voice. Uh oh. His eyes went toward the door.

"Yeah?" He yelled down. He knew what it was about anyway, so he really didn't have to ask. He sighed, ignoring the yellings coming back up to him to wander over to the corner of his room. He snatched up his backpack, and his hoverboard and ran down the steps. He slung the bag over his shoulder, skipping a few steps as he hit the bottom. "I know, I know! Late for school and all that, I get the picture!" He yelled toward his mom, rushing out the door and immediately jumping on top of the hoverboard. Really wasn't much, just a modern day skateboard without wheels. Boy, jet power really COULD do anything.

It took the usual amount of time to get there. Weave here, duck here, make a right here, turn around this pole here, and there was the school. It was his last year here then he realized he would FINALLY have sweet, sweet freedom away from school. No more math, no more homework, no more teachers, no more math, no more detention, no more getting yelled at for acting up…oh yeah, no more math. He reached the school, jumping off of the board and heading inside. He yawned, the minute he got inside, his sleepiness caught up with him. Meh. He'd live. He went through this every morning.

He shoved his board in his locker, along with his backpack and pulled out his binder and a pencil. All he really needed. He slammed the locker shut, turning around. "AH!" He yelled, jumping, almost stumbling backwards. He managed to hold his balance though. He relaxed though when he saw it was only Doofus. Well, his real name was Derek, but Wilbur always took it upon himself to just call him Doofus. Cause he was an idiot. "Don't DO that. Seriously." He commented to him, rolling his eyes and heading past Derek.

"Aw c'mon…I thought it was funny." Derek mumbled, turning around and trailing after Wilbur, as he always did. Wilbur and Doofus really weren't FRIENDS…Doofus just sort of followed him around…and Wilbur tried his best to deal with it. Wilbur was held up by a few people on his way, most either wanting to say hi, or for him to help them with their locker, but he finally made it to homeroom. He sighed, plopping down at his desk and leaning back casually, as he always did. His eyes scanned the area. The usual gossip group was over there…a few kids that usually just sat and read or did homework…a few that looked like they had no clue where they were….oh, who's that? He sat up a bit, noticing someone he'd never seen before.

It was a girl. Her hair was let loose down a little past her shoulders, and bright green eyes were scanning over a paper in front of her. Looked like a schedule. "Tch, new girl…" He mumbled, feeling stupid for getting excited. He looked back around, settling back into his position and watching a fly crawl across the desk in front of him.

"Wilbur, how many times have I told you not to sit like that?" A voice came from up ahead, and his attention directed toward the voice. The teacher was eyeing him and his feet, which were propped up on top of his desk.

"Uhm…hold on…about…okay, there was that time on Tuesday…about 34 times now. 35, if you count what you just said, but that was more of a question ABOUT how many times you've told me, so I'm not sure if that really counts or not." He replied, quickly pulling his feet off of the desk. Might as well not upset anyone today. The teacher sighed. Wilbur was usually this talkative…She just shook her head, going back to the business at hand.

"Anyway, you've probably already noticed Jade already. She just moved here from another city a ways away, and I figure you all should treat her as nicely as you can. Starting a new school is already an intimidating experience." As she stopped, you could already feel the eyes going back to her, judging her already by her clothes, or her looks, or the way she sat…just whatever they could pick out. Jade just could manage a smile, and that was about it.

Wilbur jumped slightly, a loud ringing in his ear coming from above. He heard shuffling around him, then a sharp stab in the arm with what felt like a pencil. The bell had rung…and Wilbur had fallen asleep. Again. He mumbled, sitting up slowly and rubbing his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm alive…hrm?" He opened an eye, spotting the new girl standing next to him. She apparently was the one the had poked at him.

"No one else was waking you up, so I figured I might as well." She nodded, and then headed for the door without another word, apparently embarrassed by doing such a rash action. Wilbur sighed, pushing himself to his feet and heading after her.

"Wait, wait…don't wander off so fast. You're gonna get lost wandering around by yourself. Might as well show you around." He then smirked that little 'Oh, I'm so awesome' smirk he had. "And besides, if you're seen with me, you'll probably be automatically cool." Jade just raised an eyebrow, not believing a word he said.

"You? Cool? Man, they must have low standards in this school…" Jade commented, shaking her head and heading on. Wilbur was momentarily stunned. No one had said that before…but he quickly headed after her.

"You have guts, you know that? I suppose that's good, for being a new kid and all, but still…" He started, but was interrupted by her speech again.

"Listen, if you want to hang out with me so bad, meet me after school. We'll have a bit of a study group. I don't get what you're doing in Reading here, since you're ahead of my past school." And she disappeared into the crowd, Wilbur at a loss for words.

"…since when did I want to hang out with her?" He mumbled, just shrugging and heading on. But, he thought he might as well see what she wanted. So he did indeed wait outside after school. And to no surprise, there she was, a lollipop loosely stuck in her mouth. Boredom, apparently. But as soon as Wilbur appeared from out the door, the lollipop stick was thrown to the ground.

"There you are. Slow, much?" She complained, pushing herself off of the stairs rail and heading over.

"Listen, listen, I just came to see how crazy you are. That's it…I don't even know your NAME…" Wilbur scratched the back of his head as he said this, making a point.

"Uhm, yeah, you do. That teacher said it in class today."

"Well, you think I don't have better things to do than listen to the teacher? Sheesh."

"Whatever. It's Jade. Jade Stryker. REMEMBER that." At the girl's last name, Wilbur cringed a little. Uh oh.

"Uhm…okay, I think I've gotta get home…sorry for ditching but, uh, I just remembered that, uh…uhm…my room's a mess. Yeah! That's it." He looked away, heading down the stairs without another word and darted down the street. He paused at the end of the road, looking around and shaking his head. "As if I'd spend time with a Stryker…" He mumbled, looking around and heading back for his house.

You see, Wilbur knew about the Stryker family moving in. They lived on the other side of town, in a house probably just as big as the Robinsons, without the big factory. The Strykers were famous inventors as well, and in Wilbur's dad, Cornelius's eyes, they were nothing but competition. In fact, he had even caught one of the Strykers even trying to break into their house the second they moved in just to steal plans for the time machine. From that second on, it became war. And Wilbur was determined not to fuel the war flame by fraternizing with the enemy. That was that…

TO BE CONTINUED.

(hopefully. )