Sunset Boulevard
Prologue
This is only a Prologue. This is entended to be a multi-chapter story. I am currently looking for a beta. Contact me if you are interested.
I jumped as the bus rode over the first of many potholes on the old highway. The highway was on the outskirts of the city and was very close to being shut down. The last time it had been fixed was before the war, and that was a long time ago. Now the yellow lines were only slightly visible against the worn pavement. I have no idea why the bus still used the highway to get kids home from school, but I was glad it did. The highway's best feature was its sunsets. All the factories on the horizon were built in such a way that, for ten whole seconds, I could get a perfectly clear view of the sunset. This was one of the only places of beauty in the city. This was one of the only joys of my time there.
I was thinking about how sunsets when I was riding to school on October Ninth. It was a Friday. I hated school. Not because of grades or bullying. It was boredom. School was easy for me, so naturally I was recommended for the "Gifted" program (which was disbanded shortly before my departure), but my father didn't want me to become "snob". Gym was already gone by the time I was in school, but I heard it was stupid so it didn't matter. I was mostly ignored. That was better than being picked on for not being a Dook. My father was a member. All of my family was members in fact. They tried to get me to join. It didn't matter; I had no love for my family. Most of them were idiots.
That Friday was normal, easily getting A's in all my classes', not socializing in the hallways, hating everyone. Average. I was in 9th grade at the time. Over half the kids had already left school to join the Dooks. Most of the students were girls. Girls were not allowed to be Dooks. The few teachers that cared about students thought I should have already been in college, another thing my father thought was inappropriate.
At 11 A.M. an older boy came up to me and asked me why I was always alone. He was 17, made B-C grades, and was a member. He was obviously put up to this by the Dooks. One tactic for recruiting members for the Dooks was to find lonely boys, get older "role models" to befriend them, and start taking them to meetings. This tactic had mostly been retired as most boys became members, like their fathers, but it was still used on some stupid middle scholars.
I was pissed. They thought I was retarded. I made fists to try and control my anger. I leaned in very close to him. I grabbed his shoulders and whispered into his ear very slowly, "If you ever say anything to me again, I will mace you until you're blind." He ran away.
He was only the first of a long list of shit things that happened that day.