CHAPTER ONE
(as an equal)
"Listen, Artemis. It's wonderful that you know what the bloody heck 'sodium chloride' is," Lianne Ramirez snapped. "But – "
Artemis glanced coolly at his lab partner, then turned back to the experiment sheet. "I believe the layman's term is 'table salt,'" he murmured.
"Great. I'm glad we've cleared that up." Lianne scowled. "Too bad it's already written on the board! I was actually asking why you're typing up our experiment sheet, when we have yet to actually perform the experiment."
"I've already done this several times. My results, of course, were accurate. I believe I know more than Professor Stafford does about this experiment. There is simply no point in wasting time doing the experiment when you can just read what I have written and commit it to memory for the test," Artemis explained. He went back to typing, with a speed unusual for one his age, on the computer.
Lianne was tempted to strangle him.
It was the fourth day of classes for students attending Artisan Cliff, an elite private college that was considered to be one of the best in the world. It had a curriculum that combined academic, arts, and athletics. In its brochure, it claimed that over 80% of their graduates went on to gain national or international fame by the age of forty, either as artists, politicians, athletes, et cetera. It had a brilliant staff, excellent facilities, and a school population that was never allowed to exceed 160. Its tuition was also incredibly expensive.
Of course, the students could usually more than afford it. Or at least, their parents could.
Lianne was a rare exception. Her parents wanted her to receive the best education and to marry a wealthy man, so they had scraped and saved for years to come up with money. When they announced that they could finally afford to send their beloved daughter to Artisan Cliff as a college freshman, they were happier than Lianne was. Lianne was majoring in Creative Writing, and took as her electives Visual Arts and Music, Voice.
Lianne had nothing against Artisan Cliff. She was impressed by the fact that there was one computer per two students. She enjoyed it that the classrooms were air-conditioned in the heat, and heated in the cold. She respected the brilliant staff.
But she held Artemis Fowl, Junior, against the school.
Lianne had already decided that she would never forgive Professor Stafford for pairing them. She knew that Artemis was a prodigy, a genius, and incredibly wealthy, but she despised him anyway. She hated how arrogant he was about himself. She hated how condescending he was towards her, just because her IQ wasn't a million and five.
For his part, Artemis was equally irritated with her.
He had graduated from St. Bartleby's High School, valedictorian, of course. His parents had placed him in Artisan Cliff for college. Artemis quite liked the school, but he was growing increasingly annoyed with his lab partner. At St. Bartleby's, his former lab partners had either tried to pretend that they knew as much as he did to impress him, or they just copied what he did and reaped the good grades.
But Lianne seemed determined to work with him as an equal. Artemis continued typing, but inside he was frowning. Didn't she know that he was smarter than ten of her put together?
For all his intelligence, he was still stunned when Lianne suddenly reached down and unplugged the computer. The screen flickered, then went black.
"I hadn't saved that," Artemis said coldly.
Heatedly she retorted, "Thank god for that. Now let's do the experiment, like everyone else." She gestured around the room. The rest of the forty students in the class were clustered in pairs around the lab tables, looking back and forth between their experiments and the computers next to them.
Artemis didn't bother to hide his disdain. "I repeat. I have performed this experiment numerous times, with the same results every time. I can only conclude that the outcome was accurate."
Lianne wasn't a violent person, but right now, she was seriously weighing the consequences of slapping Artemis Fowl right on his super- intelligent cheek. She actually lifted her palm, held back only by the thought of what he would do to retaliate. Hack into her e-mails and sabotage them?
He noticed. Graciously he conceded, "But seeing how upset you are, I shall not reprimand you for your childish action. After all, I shall find it easy to type up our experiment report again."
That was it. Lianne marched away from him. Stopping next to Professor Stafford, she asked sweetly, "Professor, do you know anyone who is willing to trade lab partners?"
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
"Is anything wrong, Artemis?"
Artemis glanced up. He was sitting in the leather backseat of a Bentley, on his way home from school. Butler was driving, but as he did, he watched his charge in the rearview mirror, a bit concerned.
Butler studied his employer's face. It never ceased to amaze him how quickly Artemis had grown. His dark hair now crowned a tanned face, since St. Bartleby's had imposed a rule that required all students to take athletics during his junior year of high school. His deep blue eyes seemed to spill brilliance over the rest of his face.
But now, Artemis seemed a bit subdued.
"Nothing is wrong, Butler. I am merely mulling over the matter of my lab partner."
Butler stifled a smile. He had been hearing a lot about Lianne since the first day of classes, when Artemis first met her. Apparently, the girl wasn't impressed by him or his mental abilities.
"She attempted to change lab partners," Artemis said moodily. "I was all for it, of course, but Professor Stafford refused. He said he had paired us according to our abilities and compatibility, and that he had never been wrong." Artemis paused.
"What happened?" Butler asked.
"I informed him that the probability of his accuracy in pairing people continuing without fail was about 2%."
Butler roared with laughter. Had this incident occurred a few years ago, Artemis might have reproved him for his disrespectful attitude, but he had been closer to his bodyguard since the Artic Incident. They looked upon each other as the brother neither had had.
So Artemis only said, "Professor Stafford found it less amusing than you did. He ordered me to perform the experiment and sent Lianne back to her seat." He paused again, then added sourly, "She didn't gloat, but she might as well have. I performed the experiment, the results of which I had already memorized long ago, with her, and she had a victorious little smile on her face the whole time."
Butler smiled. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad, Artemis."
Artemis shrugged and sipped pure water from a crystal decanter. He didn't answer.
By the time they reached home, they were discussing the latest combat handguns available on the market.
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
Lianne was still triumphant over the episode in the laboratory that day. She giggled to herself as she recalled the look on Professor Stafford's face when Artemis had spouted percentage.
She headed to her brothers' room. Rico and Miguel were her twenty- three-year-old twin brothers, five years older than her, and they were away on a tour of Australia. They had saved their own money to fund it, because her parents had poured their savings into her tuition for Artisan Cliff.
They had a computer in their room. She turned it on now and logged on to her e-mail account, hoping to hear from the twins. She missed them terribly. They wouldn't be returning till the end of her freshman year in college.
Lianne laughed as she read her brothers' e-mail. They had sent her pictures of themselves diving and splashing around at the enormous Olympic pool in Sydney, which they had visited for the day. Like her, they were half-Asian, and shared her black hair and slanted mahogany eyes. But they inherited their height from their father. Lianne, like her Asian mother, was petite.
However, when Lianne went to bed, she was still thinking about Artemis. She had noticed his icy glare all throughout their lab time, as if he loathed being sent to the level of mere mortals, but she really hadn't been able to wipe the smile off her face.
She had heard the stories about him. They said he was a criminal. They said his father was, too. They said that he could be enormously vindictive. If the gossip was to be believed, he had been seen all over the world on the same day, the same hour. But she wasn't impressed. She thought the stories highly exaggerated.
She wondered what he would do to get back at her tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters here, except Lianne and the others that you don't recognize. The rest are from the Artemis Fowl books and are the property of Eoin Colfer.
PEOPLE: Please review! I'll post up the next chapter soon. :-)
(as an equal)
"Listen, Artemis. It's wonderful that you know what the bloody heck 'sodium chloride' is," Lianne Ramirez snapped. "But – "
Artemis glanced coolly at his lab partner, then turned back to the experiment sheet. "I believe the layman's term is 'table salt,'" he murmured.
"Great. I'm glad we've cleared that up." Lianne scowled. "Too bad it's already written on the board! I was actually asking why you're typing up our experiment sheet, when we have yet to actually perform the experiment."
"I've already done this several times. My results, of course, were accurate. I believe I know more than Professor Stafford does about this experiment. There is simply no point in wasting time doing the experiment when you can just read what I have written and commit it to memory for the test," Artemis explained. He went back to typing, with a speed unusual for one his age, on the computer.
Lianne was tempted to strangle him.
It was the fourth day of classes for students attending Artisan Cliff, an elite private college that was considered to be one of the best in the world. It had a curriculum that combined academic, arts, and athletics. In its brochure, it claimed that over 80% of their graduates went on to gain national or international fame by the age of forty, either as artists, politicians, athletes, et cetera. It had a brilliant staff, excellent facilities, and a school population that was never allowed to exceed 160. Its tuition was also incredibly expensive.
Of course, the students could usually more than afford it. Or at least, their parents could.
Lianne was a rare exception. Her parents wanted her to receive the best education and to marry a wealthy man, so they had scraped and saved for years to come up with money. When they announced that they could finally afford to send their beloved daughter to Artisan Cliff as a college freshman, they were happier than Lianne was. Lianne was majoring in Creative Writing, and took as her electives Visual Arts and Music, Voice.
Lianne had nothing against Artisan Cliff. She was impressed by the fact that there was one computer per two students. She enjoyed it that the classrooms were air-conditioned in the heat, and heated in the cold. She respected the brilliant staff.
But she held Artemis Fowl, Junior, against the school.
Lianne had already decided that she would never forgive Professor Stafford for pairing them. She knew that Artemis was a prodigy, a genius, and incredibly wealthy, but she despised him anyway. She hated how arrogant he was about himself. She hated how condescending he was towards her, just because her IQ wasn't a million and five.
For his part, Artemis was equally irritated with her.
He had graduated from St. Bartleby's High School, valedictorian, of course. His parents had placed him in Artisan Cliff for college. Artemis quite liked the school, but he was growing increasingly annoyed with his lab partner. At St. Bartleby's, his former lab partners had either tried to pretend that they knew as much as he did to impress him, or they just copied what he did and reaped the good grades.
But Lianne seemed determined to work with him as an equal. Artemis continued typing, but inside he was frowning. Didn't she know that he was smarter than ten of her put together?
For all his intelligence, he was still stunned when Lianne suddenly reached down and unplugged the computer. The screen flickered, then went black.
"I hadn't saved that," Artemis said coldly.
Heatedly she retorted, "Thank god for that. Now let's do the experiment, like everyone else." She gestured around the room. The rest of the forty students in the class were clustered in pairs around the lab tables, looking back and forth between their experiments and the computers next to them.
Artemis didn't bother to hide his disdain. "I repeat. I have performed this experiment numerous times, with the same results every time. I can only conclude that the outcome was accurate."
Lianne wasn't a violent person, but right now, she was seriously weighing the consequences of slapping Artemis Fowl right on his super- intelligent cheek. She actually lifted her palm, held back only by the thought of what he would do to retaliate. Hack into her e-mails and sabotage them?
He noticed. Graciously he conceded, "But seeing how upset you are, I shall not reprimand you for your childish action. After all, I shall find it easy to type up our experiment report again."
That was it. Lianne marched away from him. Stopping next to Professor Stafford, she asked sweetly, "Professor, do you know anyone who is willing to trade lab partners?"
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
"Is anything wrong, Artemis?"
Artemis glanced up. He was sitting in the leather backseat of a Bentley, on his way home from school. Butler was driving, but as he did, he watched his charge in the rearview mirror, a bit concerned.
Butler studied his employer's face. It never ceased to amaze him how quickly Artemis had grown. His dark hair now crowned a tanned face, since St. Bartleby's had imposed a rule that required all students to take athletics during his junior year of high school. His deep blue eyes seemed to spill brilliance over the rest of his face.
But now, Artemis seemed a bit subdued.
"Nothing is wrong, Butler. I am merely mulling over the matter of my lab partner."
Butler stifled a smile. He had been hearing a lot about Lianne since the first day of classes, when Artemis first met her. Apparently, the girl wasn't impressed by him or his mental abilities.
"She attempted to change lab partners," Artemis said moodily. "I was all for it, of course, but Professor Stafford refused. He said he had paired us according to our abilities and compatibility, and that he had never been wrong." Artemis paused.
"What happened?" Butler asked.
"I informed him that the probability of his accuracy in pairing people continuing without fail was about 2%."
Butler roared with laughter. Had this incident occurred a few years ago, Artemis might have reproved him for his disrespectful attitude, but he had been closer to his bodyguard since the Artic Incident. They looked upon each other as the brother neither had had.
So Artemis only said, "Professor Stafford found it less amusing than you did. He ordered me to perform the experiment and sent Lianne back to her seat." He paused again, then added sourly, "She didn't gloat, but she might as well have. I performed the experiment, the results of which I had already memorized long ago, with her, and she had a victorious little smile on her face the whole time."
Butler smiled. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad, Artemis."
Artemis shrugged and sipped pure water from a crystal decanter. He didn't answer.
By the time they reached home, they were discussing the latest combat handguns available on the market.
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
Lianne was still triumphant over the episode in the laboratory that day. She giggled to herself as she recalled the look on Professor Stafford's face when Artemis had spouted percentage.
She headed to her brothers' room. Rico and Miguel were her twenty- three-year-old twin brothers, five years older than her, and they were away on a tour of Australia. They had saved their own money to fund it, because her parents had poured their savings into her tuition for Artisan Cliff.
They had a computer in their room. She turned it on now and logged on to her e-mail account, hoping to hear from the twins. She missed them terribly. They wouldn't be returning till the end of her freshman year in college.
Lianne laughed as she read her brothers' e-mail. They had sent her pictures of themselves diving and splashing around at the enormous Olympic pool in Sydney, which they had visited for the day. Like her, they were half-Asian, and shared her black hair and slanted mahogany eyes. But they inherited their height from their father. Lianne, like her Asian mother, was petite.
However, when Lianne went to bed, she was still thinking about Artemis. She had noticed his icy glare all throughout their lab time, as if he loathed being sent to the level of mere mortals, but she really hadn't been able to wipe the smile off her face.
She had heard the stories about him. They said he was a criminal. They said his father was, too. They said that he could be enormously vindictive. If the gossip was to be believed, he had been seen all over the world on the same day, the same hour. But she wasn't impressed. She thought the stories highly exaggerated.
She wondered what he would do to get back at her tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters here, except Lianne and the others that you don't recognize. The rest are from the Artemis Fowl books and are the property of Eoin Colfer.
PEOPLE: Please review! I'll post up the next chapter soon. :-)