The Whizz-Kid
See prologue for disclaimer, rating, summary, etc.
A/N: Thank you so much for all of your comments. I'm sorry it took so long to post another chapter; however, I must say that it hasn't been beta read so I'm sorry for eventual wrong sentence structure. I'll try to find another willing beta reader; it is not a easy task now that the story is started. Anyway, I swear it won't take as long to post the next chapter. I've got three or four of them just sitting, dying to be published. On that, have fun reading! ^^
A/N 2: This chapter starts five years where the last one left us. Zane is now fourteen years old. Brin is one year older.
Chapter 6: All that Zoom-Zooms for Wham-Whams
(Or, I prefer watching grass grow)
Boise, Idaho, USA
0722 hours, May 14, 2014.
"Sabrina! Come here right away! Your breakfast is getting cold!"
Zane put a spoonful of cereals into his mouth and chewed the food slowly. His seemingly half-closed eyes were very much alert behind his eyelids. From his sitting perch at the island counter, he was observing his adoptive mother's every move in the kitchen as she prepared the lunch bags for the three of them. She was so responsible, so task oriented. She took great care of Brin and him.
"Brin! Get your lazy butt down here, young woman!" Susan shouted; Zane closed his eyes when the noise reached his sensible ears. "I swear that this girl will drive me crazy with taking hours to get ready."
He chuckled slightly while chewing. He looked as his mother accidentally spilled some of the orange juice she was pouring onto the floor. "Damn it," she voiced, grabbing a washrag from the sink and bending down to wipe it up. A few heartbeats away, she stood back up and sighed deeply, gazing at him.
"Zane, can you please go up and get your sister?"
"Kay," he mumbled, getting up from his seat. He took the stairs two at a time. When he arrived in front of Brin's door, he banged on it. "We're gonna be late for school, Brin," he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Zane heard an aggravated sigh coming from the other side of the door. It was quickly followed by make-ups being put aside and loud footsteps. Brin opened the door. "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming, geez." But she went back inside her room in front of her mirror. Zane entered in the bedroom; it smelt of fruity perfume and another scent he associated with Brin. He sat on her bed. He studied his sister from the new angle as she applied lipstick on her lips.
He felt the strange desire to taste them. As the envy crept its way up his spine, he forced himself to remember that Brin –the annoying, girly and lightheaded Brin- was his sister. Since a few months already, his thoughts, his feelings and his perceptions of things were different than what they used to be. He didn't know if it was a bad or a good thing yet. He felt that he was growing up to be a man. Or maybe was it the beast in him trying to pop out. What he did know was that his hormones were at fault; he could felt the changes boiling inside of him. That caused him the desire to see under every girl's tees he met up with. Like Sasha. Or Janis. Or -
"Well, you're coming or not?"
Zane shot out of his reverie. He looked at Brin; she was waiting for him at the doorway. She turned on her heels and headed downstairs with the dramatic way of teenage girls. He followed her down, rolling his eyes. "Whom do you want to impress with the make-ups, anyway?" he asked to get under her skin like the good little brother he was.
"Shut up, Zane," she responded as they made their way to the kitchen.
Susie sent a reproachful glare to Brin: "Don't speak to your brother that way."
"Is it Jim? Or is it Anton? Please, tell me it's not that geek from computer class..." Zane taunted her; he liked it when she got her knickers in a twist.
"Ha-ah! That's very funny. I said s-h-u-t up."
"Sabrina! Don't use that word! Zane, stop harassing her!" Brin shot him a furious scowl; he grinned at her. "Brin, eat your breakfast already," ordered their mother.
"I'm not hungry, mom."
"Well I'm bone-tired and I still need to go at work all day long. Do you see me sleep? Take an apple at least."
Brin took her lunch bag and the offered fruit, knowing better that refusing it. Susan Sanford may not have been from Manticore, but she could become very nasty if one didn't follow her rules. Zane took after her, picking up his own lunch bag with an apple and a banana from the fruits bowl on the counter before leaving. He didn't know how Susan happened to put her hands on such rare goods but he wasn't one to let them go unnoticed. He grinned boyishly at Susan, blew her a kiss and took off.
As they walked toward the school, Zane peeled the banana and took a bite out of it. He was half way between chewing it and gulping it when he spoke again: "Be careful with those heels, sis. You may kill someone."
"You're such a brat, Zane," she deadpanned, the pounding of her heels increasing proportionally with her annoyance with him. He smiled to himself, satisfied with her reaction to his teasing. She scowled at him for what seemed like the billion times and decided to walk in silence, ignoring him.
"I see you woke up on the wrong side of the bed," he said sarcastically. Again, her eyes shot daggers. He rolled his eyes and kept chewing in silence.
"It's Anton," she finally dropped after some time.
"I knew it!" He saw a smile appeared at the corner of her lips but she kept her annoyed expression firmly in place. "Captain of the basketball team; that's better than the geek, I guess," he continued.
"Zane, I hate to break it to you like that but you are a geek."
"Nope. I'm a computer genius. Big difference. I don't get off by being behind a computer screen."
"Yark. That's just gross."
"Anyway, it's not my fault that I was born with computer skills. I wonder which animal had geekiness in its cocktail."
"Wild card here: you?"
"I guess we'll never know," he added with a false pout.
That finally got a laugh from Brin. They continued their route in companionable discussions. When they arrived at school, they separated, heading toward their respective friends. Zane spotted Tommy and Simon, his pals, and he approached them.
"Yo, Z, my man," exclaimed Simon. Zane smiled at him.
Thomas spoke: "We thought you'd be late. You'd have missed the show."
"Artists never miss their grand opening," said a grinning Zane. They chuckled lightly at this.
Without any more word spoken, the three of them turned around, facing the bricks-made facade of the school. Students were gathering inside, getting ready for the upcoming classes. He could see Brin and her girly chums. They were all wearing something beige - it must have been beige day in their little clique; they were a weird lot. They were speaking animatedly, certainly fussing about their uneventful weekends or latest respective crushes. "I see that the show hasn't started, yet," Zane spoke with connivance, crossing his arms over his chest smugly.
"It's a matter of seconds now," answered Thomas as he checked his watch. "Seven seconds to eight. Five, four, three, two, let the waterworks begin..."
At the exact second, two things happened. First of all, the school bell rang; that was a non-surprising event as they were all waiting for the damn thing to let the torture begins and ends their fun. But at the very same instant, something one could qualify of a total disaster, or a totally rocking idea –depending of one's point of view on the matter- occurred. The main hall sprinklers jerked to life, soaking to the bones all the students with water. Zane and his sidekicks saw the red-colored water raining down everywhere in the building; Zane's mad grin widen as he heard indignant and furious screams.
"I guess we could now say that it's a beige-no-more day," said Simon. The three boys started laughing uncontrollably.
***
One minute they were bumping fists, happy with the stunt they had pulled, and the next one they were sitting in the principal office with the very fuming –not to mentioned wet– principal. Simon opened his mouth to speak but his tentative was cut short with a glare of the administrator. The man was staring at them in stony silence.
Zane was bored. His legs were jerking impatiently, itching for some action. He sighed restlessly.
"I see that you are as bored with the situation as I am, Mr. Sanford. "
Zane kept quiet and ignored the man; he had learned over the time that looking casual was the key in pretty much every situation of life.
"What are we waiting for, anyway?" asked Tommy.
Principal Putman looked at Thomas coldly: "We, Mr. Jenkins, are waiting for the firemen to report the situation to us" Zane rolled his eyes and the principal's gaze went back on him; he swore the man had hawk genes in his cocktail, "so we can decide of a punishment up to your prowess."
Almost half an hour later, a fireman entered the room and made his way over to Mr. Putman. They exchanged hushed words – words that Zane took no interest in eavesdropping - and he left. Principal Putman sat back in his seat and eyed the three boys. "I have been informed that this was a false alarm, as I suspected. Apparently, someone poured red dye into the fire sprinklers reservoir and set a trigger device in the alarm system. Does anyone of you, by any chance, know something about this? " His interrogation was met with more silence. "Or maybe we should ask that question to your parents?" the man continued.
"What do you want from us? Confessions?" Thomas spoke up again.
"It's quite simple what I want, Mr. Jenkins. I want the truth. I'm not an unfair man, but I am prepared to give each one of you more than just a few hours of detention if no one speaks. Hacking into the school emergency system is a very serious crime."
The room felt quiet once more.
"I did it," Zane spoke up for the first time since he had put foot in the office. All eyes in the room zeroed on him. "I hacked into the emergency system, set up the sprinklers and poured dye into the water tank." He knew it would be better if only one of them was to be disciplined, and why not him? He was stronger both physically and mentally; he would take the blame for his friends. He only risked a month of detention or two weeks of expulsion at top. He could handle that; he had once endured much more at Manticore.
Simon growled at him: "No! The whole thing was my idea."
"It was my doing," added Tommy.
Zane shot them both nasty glares. He was trying to make things easier for them, and there they went, ignoring his bravado and sacrifice.
"Well, well, Mr. Sanford. That's very brave of you to put all the blame on yourself but I think there's more to it than your version. I'm sure the master achievement of the hacking was your work - I know all about your impressive achievements in computer classes- but do not flatter yourself; I do not think you've come up with that entire scheme all by your little self. "
Zane scowled. Was the man questioning his intelligence? It had been his idea. Sure, that wasn't him alone that had poured the red dye but nonetheless, it had been his plan. He was pissed now. No, he was beyond pissed. He frowned fiercely, thinking about standing up from his seat and leaving the room. Slamming the door angrily behind him would be a nice touch too, he added mentally. However, he breathed deeply and tried to calm his raging nerves. He ran a hand through his wind-ruffled hair furiously and finally settled for crossing his arms and feet in mute anger.
"Since I have all the proofs that I needed, I'll say that three weeks of suspension and two months of detention after school will be enough of a sanction. That is for the three of you. I think the school walls won't mind a little clean up from all those graffiti."
Putman was a real despot. Somehow, the man must have known the tagging were their doing. Zane clenched his jaw firmly. Life had a bittersweet way to kick you back in the crotch. A god up there was certainly laughing is ass off on him.
***
"I know that television rocks your world but, will you get out of that couch sometime today? "
He looked momentarily at Brin; she had her hands to her hips, looking quite the aggravating teenage girl that she was. Her shoulder-length black hair was falling upon her barely covered shoulders. She was wearing a mini jeans skirt and knee-high socks. Zane refrained himself from double-checking her petite frame and instead, concentrated on her annoying words. The ability to easily multitask was a good advantage to being an X5, he decided. He couldn't care enough about what she told him; she still was pissed off about the whole sprinklers dealio. Sure, it had cost her one of her favorite outfit but nonetheless; he was tired of having her on his case. It had been nearly two weeks ago; couldn't she get over it?
Shrugging, he scratched his chest lazily, grabbed a soda and cracked open the can in a hiss. "I'm planning to peel off my navel-fluff and zzzzolch all day long. Give me the remote before you leave, would you? " Zane asked back, unaffected by her antics.
Brin rolled her eyes; it was such a typical Zane response. He had already turned his gaze back to the television. Sighing loudly, she grabbed the remote from the coffee table and put it brutally in his waiting hand. "Have fun with your fluff. Mom is coming home late tonight."
Zane waited until he could hear her clacking heels no more and tuned in the television volume. Putting his hands behind his neck, he brazed himself for the rough day to come.
***
Sometime during the afternoon, he woke up with a start; he must have actually fallen asleep. His eyes fluttered open as he studied his surroundings; no one but him was home. He was still alone. Yet, he wondered for a second what had awakened him. Maybe the neighbor's cat was chasing a rat once again, or maybe he was having a weird dream or something akin to that.
He yawned, turned off the TV and climbed on his feet, needing to pee. He was heading toward the washroom when his attention diverted toward the hallway. Something within him -call it a sixth sense or a warning bell- alerted him that he was not alone anymore. He hadn't heard anything but he felt that someone was in the dinning room. That stopped him in his tracks. He pushed himself against the wall, taking out his Swiss army knife, and waited patiently, holding his breath.
Then, he heard light –almost inaudible- noises of footsteps; had he had normal hearing abilities, he would never have picked up on them. They were coming his way. They belonged to a normal weight person and judging by the laps of time between each footstep, he knew it had to be a person about his length. Hadn't he known better, he could have mistaken the intruder for Simon, but the person was trying to be silent and silence wasn't Simon's motto in life; his friend was more of a 'heading noisily toward the kitchen to raid the refrigerator' type of guy. The unwelcome visitor stopped quietly in the doorway, inches away from him. Zane knew the guy was seconds away from checking out the hallway to see if there was anyone there.
Zane decided to act first. With his right hand –his left hand was holding his pocket knife- Zane grabbed the guy by his coat and pulled him out of the kitchen. The stranger struggled to keep his footing and Zane took the momentum to encircle his arm around the guy's chest and to bring his weapon to the guest's throat.
"Zane?" the guy asked. Zane assumed his opponent's quick breathing was due from both the surprise effect of the attack and the short altercation it had ensued.
Zane frowned but answered anyway. "In the flesh. Care to say who you are? "
In the split of a second, the rival had Zane losing his balance with a backward kick in the shin and an elbow jab in the stomach. Zane's knife went flying in the air as he struggled to keep his footing.
"I'm Zack."
To be continued...
_________________________________________________________
