AN: Hi all! I'm back with another update to my little story. I hope everyone's having fun on my little rid through the Matrix world. I only wrote this story, really, to pass time and to amuse myself late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping. Actually, most of this story was written either really late at night or between early classes in school when I had long breaks between classes. Shorter breaks were for notebook writing and working on other stories. I hope all of you continue to stick around as the adventure unfolds. Please feel free to leave a review after you're read! I really do appreciate my reviewers. You guys rock like a box of socks!
LiMiYa: I'm glad you liked the details! I, actually, was told by Creative Writing professor to tone down on the details I used. I'm not quite sure why. Personally, I think he didn't want to read all that much of what any of us handed in. Anywho, here's the next chapter. I hope you like it.
pixie88: Thanks you! I'm happy you like my original characters and I guess they really do tend to be kids who wind up stuck in hard luck situations. Hospitals do get a bad rap since they're also the place to go to get better after being sick for so long. As for The Matrix aspect to all of this, it'll get tied in eventually. I too am a big fan of the first movie and not so much of the second. The third was pretty good, though, even though it negated most of the second movie. That's cool that you studied the movies in school! It's probably one of the most fun things to discuss in class since it's usually something everyone knows. Anywho, here's my next update! I hope you like this one just as much!
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters I made up and their Real World alter egos. I don't own The Matrix, The Animatrix, or any of that cool stuff. I'm broke and in graduate school studying biology. All I own are my Pointe shoes.
Keys clicked merrily as a lanky eleven year old worked on her school project. A small radio was turned on in one of the corners, the song "Jack and Diane" filtering into the room.
"Diane, can you get down here? We're suppose to meet the new kid today," called a voice from the end of the hall way.
Long ago, the eleven year old learned to ignore the screeching that appeared to be a constant part of life in the home she lived in. For three years, three long torturous years, Diane had lived in this home for children with no families. No one wanted to foster her and she knew why. Her medical bills were far too high, the chances of her living to see her eighteenth birthday were far to slim.
She continued to work, her mind far too occupied with the project at hand. She was supposed to be writing and illustrating a science-fiction story for her English class. Diane was no great shakes at drawing-puzzles being more her area of expertise-but a nifty computer program was helping her to create images for her story.
"Diane, are you deaf or just dumb? I said, let's go," the voice called, as its owner stalked into Diane's room.
She turned in her swiveling chair to face the owner of the voice. Framed in the wooden doorway of her room was an older girl who lived three doors down from her own by the name of Allison. Diane regarded Allison with a tired expression on her pale face.
Lately, she'd been unable to sleep.
"But I'm doing homework," Diane protested.
Homework was not the only reason Diane did not want to go down to meet the newest member of their establishment. She knew that, going down, she would have to face the others who lived in the center...others who spent most of their free time and energy making her feel unwelcome and, generally, making her life a nightmare.
That wasn't high on the list of things she was interested in doing at the moment.
"Never mind the homework. We all know that assignment is due in like two weeks. Let's go," Allison said, starting to pull Diane off of her chair.
"Fine," she said with a resigned sigh, "just let me save my project. I'm not all together keen on losing my work,"
Pulling out a neon green disk from a black case and trying to ignore Allison's moans and groans about her being obsessive and making them look bad by being late, she saved her work and shut down her computer. Moments after, she was being dragged down the hall by an obviously eager Allison.
The home had talked about nothing other than the eminent arrival of the new boy for days on end. Most of the elder girls wanted it to be a boy about their age...someone knew to drool over for the three boys at the home were no longer interesting. They wanted something new to look at and ogle over.
Diane knew that, whatever the age of the new person was, as soon as he spoke to the others, she was going to be…discussed. For a while, though the councilor said she was just being paranoid about things, she had been convinced that there was some unwritten rule preventing the others from talking to her. The councilor got a good laugh out of that one...
They reached the rec room as Diane began to wheeze for breath. She found a chair far removed from the others as Allison wandered over to her tight knit group of friends. They began to talk animatedly, occasionally throwing glances over in Diane's direction. The young girl guessed her making them wait was not a popular decision.
Diane, however, tried her best to ignore them, focusing her dwindling energy on catching her breath. She knew she didn't look like them, which caused part of her problem. She was wiry thin with long black-brown hair and brandy brown eyes. Her eyes, though, were covered with a pair of coke bottle glasses, so thick one wondered how she could see through them. She tended to dress in comfortable clothing, jeans and t-shirt or coveralls, because she was sick all the time. She figured better to be sick and comfortable than not.
A tall man, with a shock of radioactive blond hair and violet eyes, entered the room, hiding a person behind his tall form.
'Attention everyone," he called, gesturing for the room to listen to him.
Atypical of the group of preteens and teens they were, not a single soul paid attention to the radioactively blond man.
"Yo, cats, Ran the man is trying to speak. We's got to give him his props," called one of the boys, after breaking the air with an ear drum splitting whistle.
"Thank you, William," Ran- short for Randall- said to the whistler.
"Yo, man, it's Waldo, not William," the whistler protested, running a hand through his ice blue hair.
"Whatever the case might be," Randall said, cutting Waldo off before he could continue his protests, "you know why we're all here. I'd like everyone to give a warm welcome to our newest family member...Jack White."
Randall stepped aside and the entire room audibly groaned. Jack was most certainly not what everyone was expecting.
He was a short boy, just slightly taller than Diane, with arms that seemed to extend past his knees. He looked to be about her age, maybe just a hair or two older. His hair was bristly, buzz cut and black as ink. Immaturity shone from his nearly black eyes.
With the announcement made and everyone unhappy with the newest member of the home, most went back to their small groups. Diane took the initiative and slipped out of the room, going back up to her own private little sanctuary where she could work.
"Yo, newbie, come here," whispered Waldo.
Jack pointed at himself, taken aback by someone speaking directly to him.
"Yes you, moron," spoke a boy with slurpee green hair.
Jack walked over, moving as if his body was held together by loose rubber bands. He appeared afraid of the three older boys standing in a tight knit group on the far side of the room.
"Ah...ignore Sam. He's just being stupid," commented Waldo, throwing a dirty look in the direction of the green haired boy, "Got a name, kid?"
Jack looked oddly at the older boy- Hadn't his name just been announced? - but replied with, "Jack Trevor White."
"Fancy name, kid. Are we suppose to call you that whole thing?" came the question from a boy with apple colored hair.
"Well, most people just call me JT," he commented.
"JT is it, then. Look, if you're going to get along here, JT. There are just a few rules you need to understand," Waldo said with the air of someone who was truly in control of his surroundings.
"Are you sure you want him to come into our little circle, Waldo?" whispered the apple haired boy.
"Shut it, Spaz, he has to know. Otherwise how's he going to live here," Waldo hissed to the apple haired boy.
"What rules?" JT asked, trying to sound tough.
"First things first, we do what we want when we want. Ran the man and the girlies don't stop us. Second, we're in control of both floors here and the rec room no matter what. Thirdly, we leave Diane Ford alone," Waldo recited, as if his words were the law of the land.
"Who's Diane Ford? Why do we leave her alone?" JT questioned, sounding confused.
"She's probably gone up now. She's not very social. She's a geeky looking kid- big glasses and the works. She's always sick, too," explained Sam.
"We leave her alone just because we do. I'm not really sure why. You know, Waldo?" added Spaz, who looked none too bright to begin with.
Waldo shrugged and threatened, "If you know what's good for you, you will too. Feelin' me?"
Wanting to be accepted more than anything, after untimely disappearance of both of his parents, JT, firmly, stated, "I gotcha."