The screen in front of her bleeped annoyingly. A notice outlined in red flash across the screen: You do not have proper access to this file. Please refrain from attempting to access. Mira sighed. She had seen this message a million times over and over again, and they never changed her mind- what was the point?
Beside her, Hiroki Ishiyama shifted from foot to foot, bouncing up and down impatiently while Mira's fingers flew across the keyboard. She felt instantly satisfied, as her laptop returned to normal. She brushed her black curls out of her face and turned to Hiroki.
"There, you see? Nothing to it. I hack into the school's grading system every day," she said, trying not to sound too proud of herself.
Hiroki looked slightly nervous. "Well, I, um… thanks, anyway. I just wanted one grade changed- my latest science test."
Mira nodded. She could tell that Hiroki wasn't feeling all that confident about asking her to change his grades. She had learned long ago not to ask customers why they wanted what they wanted- it often got her into trouble. Not that trouble particularly bothered her. She swiveled back to the laptop, and entered in the grade, changing it from a D- to a B+, deciding not to make it too perfect; it only aroused suspicion.
Hiroki looked uneasy, and then broke into conversation. "Thanks, I'm not trying to be stuck up, but I don't want my parents disappointed, and my sister, and I just didn't want them to think I'm dumb…"
Mira laid a hand on his shoulder. "It's fine, Hiroki. Everyone asks me a favor once in a while. I do it for free- hacking, believe it or not, is actually a hobby for me."
Hiroki nodded, and backed out of her room. As soon as the door shut behind him, she could hear his footsteps pounding away as he sprinted for the staircase. Mira smiled and shook her head. Not a very confident rule breaker, she thought. A glance at her watch, followed by the loud ring of the bell, told her it was dinner time.
She folded up her laptop, and took one last glance around. The bed on the left, dresser on the right, and the desk behind her made up the furniture of her room at Kadic Academy. She hated how the desk had to be right in front of the window- the sun always got in her eyes when she was working.
Dinner was not all that appetizing. Mira was not fond scrambled eggs, or- for that matter- eggs of any kind. She skipped them and just took a salad and a glass of milk. She then headed for the table where her friends always sat.
"…Yeah, I know, and I heard that Mrs. Hertz was actually flirting with Jim… Oh, hey Mira!" Her friend Teralyn waved wildly for her attention. As always, Teralyn had that cocky little half smile on her face, and her dark red hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a blue shirt that said "Life's what you make it" on the front, with her usual gym shoes and jeans. Mira took a seat across from Adam, who was more outspoken than most in Mira's gang, with white blond hair and his boring green shirt and sweatpants. The quietest in the group, Tom, sat across from Teralyn, and poked at his eggs in silence. He wore the same old gray hoodie, as well as a pair of baggy jeans. Mira could picture him drawing into his sweater like a turtle. His hair was a wavy, subdued brown.
"So, was Hiroki happy with the service you gave him earlier?" asked Adam, turning his gray eyes from Teralyn to Mira.
"I don't know if I'd call it happy. He seemed really nervous the whole time," Mira said, noticing that Hiroki was also here, and avoiding any eye contact with her.
Tom chuckled quietly, looking up. "That's how it always is with first timers, right Mira? They all get a little intimidated that you can break so many rules in one go."
She shrugged, saying that she guessed so. Her mind was now already back in her room, where a rather large pile of algebra homework awaited her.
Teralyn leaned in and lowered her voice. "Hey, Mira, Tom and I are going to check out that old factory down by the river tonight. We think it might be a great place to hang out, but we're going to do a little reconnaissance first. You in?"
Mira thought about it and agreed. "I'll regret it later, but I need a little a change of scenery."
"Sorry, guys, but count me out. I've got two hours of detention with Jim. I deflated the soccer ball again," said Adam, grinning. "See you later."
The other three said bye, and then simultaneously rose and deposited their trays. Just as they were about to exit the cafeteria, they were confronted by none other than Principal Delmas himself.
"Miss Anderson," he said with that grownup authority in his voice. "I just wanted to let you know that a new student will soon be arriving, and that you will temporarily be rooming with her."
Mira nodded. Her curiosity peaking, she asked, "Who's the new student?"
The principal adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. A sign of being unsure, thought Mira. "Her parents have told me that she would rather not reveal her name just yet." With that he strode away toward William Dunbar. "Mr. Dunbar, what's this I hear about spray painting the locker room..."
"C'mon," hissed Teralyn, "It'll be dark out soon!"
The three of them ran the long distance to the factory, Teralyn pausing only to ask why Mira was lugging her laptop along with her.
"You never know when a laptop might come in useful," Mira panted in reply. They arrived later than they had originally planned; the sun was already setting to Mira's right as they ran across the bridge.
"Watch out!" Tom shouted, skidding to a stop just short of the entrance. Mira slowed down, but Teralyn didn't react quickly enough, and crashed into Tom. The two of them teetered for a moment, fear on both their faces, before toppling over the edge into the ominous building.
"Guys!" Mira called down, just able to make out their forms in the thickening darkness. She searched about frantically for a way to get down there as well, and noticed a rope hanging directly in front of her. She grabbed it, swinging down and landing with both feet on the hard floor. She ran to her friends, dropping to her knees next to them. "Are you alright?"
"Fine," said Teralyn, who sounded dazed. "Sorry 'bout that, Tom," she said. Tom groaned and pushed himself up in reply.
Mira, satisfied that they were okay, got a good look at her surroundings for the first time. The inside seemed even larger than the outside, with many steel support beams all over. Immediately her eyes were drawn to a freight elevator on her left. She got to her feet and headed over to it.
Tom and Teralyn followed her, glancing around at the interior. Tom looked genuinely interested, but Teralyn seemed unimpressed. Ponytail swinging slightly, she examined the elevator along with Mira.
"You think we should see if it works?" asked Tom, joining them.
"I don't know… I kind of want to, but it could be dangerous..Mira no, don't!"
Mira had already pressed the down button on the elevator. She held her breath and waited, excitement pounding through her veins.
Nothing happened.
Teralyn swore. "Next time, tell me when you'll do that?" she said angrily to Mira.
"Sorry."
Mira examined the button, a frown forming on her face. "That's odd… there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it. There must be a password of some kind. Fortunately, I happen to be the master of passwords." She opened her laptop and pulled out her mini connection cord. Opening the box in between the up and down button, she plugged the cord into a tiny little outlet next to a keypad. It only took her several minutes to crack the elevator's security system.
"Bingo!" exclaimed Mira, causing both her friends to jump out of their reveries. "The password is 22784243." Without waiting any longer, she punched the code into the keypad. The three of them gasped simultaneously as the door closed on them. Mira felt the going down sensation, and wanted to jump as she had when she was younger to see if she would float. Her victory made her feel like a child again.
The elevator jerked to a stop, and the door lifted to reveal an almost completely white room. It seemed to light up as they entered, blinding the three. Mira strode forward, then stopped and watched in awe as an enormous cylindrical structure rose out of the floor beneath her. It flashed black and gold, the steam issuing from beneath it making its entrance more dramatic, somehow.
Its emergence seemed like an eternity. When it finally halted, silence filled the room. Slowly, Mira took one step toward the thing, then another. More hesitant footsteps could be heard, and she knew that her friends were advancing toward it as well.
Tom was the first to break the silence. "What is it?" he whispered, eyes still wide with amazement.
Teralyn shook her head, clearly clueless. Mira, however, had an idea. "It reminds me of the inside of a computer," she said. Something on the machine caught her eye: a small lever, which hung down. She then noticed that the device was not blinking or flashing, like a normal device might. It wasn't even whirring. Mira then deduced that either it was an incredibly quiet computer, or it wasn't turned on.
As if in a trance, she began to move toward the switch.
"Are you crazy?" asked Teralyn, speaking for the first time since entering the room. "We don't know what this thing is, or what it does, or… or anything! For all we know, it could destroy the entire planet!"
Mira already stood in front of the thing. Her hand reached for the switched, and grasped it… she could feel the cool metal beneath her fingers. For a second she thought she might chicken out, but then she was pulling up with all her might.
The change in the room was almost instantaneous; the air started to get warmer, and a low humming started. Teralyn and Tom both gasped, while Mira simply stared as the structure began to light up, illuminated in its power.
Mira shook herself. What did I just do? she thought, panic beginning to build inside her. Teralyn's right, this was a mistake…
"Hey guys. Check this out," said Tom. He pointed to a set of rungs on the wall, which formed a ladder. The ladder led up to a small hole, which most likely opened into another room above.
"We might as well see what's up there," muttered Teralyn. "It can't get any worse."
After climbing the ladder, they received another shock: a room full of tube-like machines, which were open for whatever reason. After discovering that the ladder went even further, they climbed it again, and Mira's eyes were met with a hacker's wildest dream.
"I knew it, I just knew it, it is a computer!" she said happily, rushing over to the monitor. Pressing the spacebar on the keyboard, she waited impatiently while the screen loaded. All at once, in the center of the room, a structure popped up out of nowhere. Teralyn and Tom both yelled at its appearance.
"It's a holographic system," said Mira, without even looking. Her eyes were already glued to the monitor. "I don't believe this, it has such incredibly exclusive access to the web, I could hack the government on this thing…" Her fingers already raced over the keyboard at incredible speed.
Tom rolled his eyes, while Teralyn looked at her watch. "Oh no!" she said, sounding panicky enough to make Mira look away from the monitor. "It's almost nine o' clock. We need to get to the dorms now, or Jim'll kill us!"
"Okay, okay… hey, I can bring up the elevator from here." Mira typed in several equations, and seconds later the door (which looked like a giant lock) opened to reveal the elevator. She reluctantly shut off the monitor, and picked up her laptop from the floor to join her friends in the elevator. At that moment, she couldn't explore the computer's configuration fully, but she would definitely come back again later. Her only thought as they ran for school was that she couldn't wait to get there tomorrow.