Maximum Ride at H.I.V.E. ch11
Shelby pops the question, and Seth gets a surprise,
-.-.-.-
Shelby woke suddenly. She'd dreamed she was stuck in a digital world, like in the movie Tron. It took her a moment, but she realized she was still listening to Seth's iPod, stuck on the DJ Splash folder. She must have rolled on the repeat button.
Norwegian Rebel was playing in her ears. She loved it. This had to be the first time in ages that she'd actually heard music since arriving at H.I.V.E.
"No-one can stop us now!"
Shelby totally felt like she agreed. She was really pumped up, despite only having just woken up. She started dancing around, swinging her body to the techno, nodding her head to the beat.
"No-one can stop us now!"
She danced and danced and flicked her head around. Next up came Energise, which wasn't what had come up last time. Seth had left it on random. She didn't care; she had music to listen to.
"Well, glad to see you're awake, at least," Laura yawned from the doorway.
Shelby spun over and whispered in her ear, "No-one can stop us now!" and twirled around the room, eventually tripping up on one of the beds.
"Oh, you've re-discovered music," Laura saw the black wires trailing from Shelby's ears. Her voice was slightly drowned out by Come Into My Life.
"What?" Shelby asked loudly, trying to speak over the music only she could hear, still wiggling to the beat, sitting on the bed. Laura just shook her head and pulled out the mini speaker systems.
"We still have classes today!" she loudly reminded Shelby, who winced.
"Not until after lunch though, right?" Shelby asked, reaching for the earphones. Laura sighed and handed them back.
"We've still got to have breakfast and study for the exams," Laura said. Shelby didn't really want to bother with the exams. Studying… even the thought of it made her want to fall asleep again. She was about to put the earphones back in when she thought about who they belonged to.
"Any news on Seth and Max?" she asked, concerned.
"They might be getting released later, in between the first and second class periods. But Max is going to be really tired." Laura told her. Shelby nodded and put the speakers back in her ears. Revolution was playing. She danced her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth and do other things while Laura went back to her room.
Each song passed and a new one started before Shelby realised it was over. It was glorious. She quickly got into her uniform and stuck her Blackbox in one pocket and the iPod in the other. She decided that she might keep the earphones hidden until she was at the library "studying". It was a real shame that Nero didn't let them put music on their Blackboxes…
But then again, she'd never asked.
-/-/-/-
To: HIVEMind
From: Shelby Trinity
Hypothetical question for you: if we were able to get a hold of music, could we put it on our Blackboxes? And would you guys supply head/earphones for us?
-/-/-/-
To: Shelby Trinity
From: HIVEMind
O_O
-/-/-/-
To: Shelby Trinity
From: Nero
Please refrain from using the word "Hypothetical" around HIVEMind
-/-/-/-
To: Nero
From: Shelby Trinity
Forwarded (HIVEMind): Hypothetical question for you: if we were able to get a hold of music, could we put it on our Blackboxes? And would you guys supply head/earphones for us?
-/-/-/-
To: Shelby Trinity
From: Nero
I'm surprised that nobody has ever bothered asking that. Of course, but how would you get the music?
-/-/-/-
To: Nero
From: Shelby Trinity
You guys have a copy of the internet in storage, right? That also means a copy of every YouTube music video :)
-/-/-/-
To: Shelby Trinity
From: Nero
I suppose so…
-/-/-/-
To: Nero
From: Shelby Trinity
OMG THANK YOU! U R THE BST TEACHA EVA!
-/-/-/-
Shelby paused before hitting send. Then she added a Z to the OMG.
"No-one can stop us now!"
-.-.-.-
Sick Bay
"Heh, I've changed the world already," Seth laughed weakly, seeing the message that just appeared on his third, or was it fourth, Blackbox. He guessed he was on the Blackbox Blacklist over at stationary supply.
Max just sighed and rolled over away from him, but then froze in pain as something in her neck clicked. Max just rolled back to where she was before, facing the ceiling. "So what could you have possibly done from here?" Max asked tiredly. Her body was extremely worn out, but her mind was, unfortunately, as bright as ever.
"Have a look," Seth tried to pass over the Blackbox, but Max stopped him.
"Does it look like I can read it from here?" Max exasperated, annoyed.
"Ahhh, no." Seth lay back and simply read it out for her. "YouTube music videos are now an available resource for students if they wish to have music while they study. Earphones and headphones are available from the stationary storage area next to the library. From HIVEMind to everyone," Seth read. "I think someone found my iPod,"
"You had an iPod with you?" Max asked the ceiling.
"No, of course not," Seth said in a different voice, pretending to be the ceiling, using the Action Hero voice. "However that handsome devil lying in the bed next to you does,"
"You're a ceiling," Max pointed out. "Your version of handsome probably consists of bland, unordinary, and water-proof!"
"That's hurtful," Seth started coughing, and the fit lasted for what felt like forever. When he was done, he fell back down onto the bed, drained. "That ceiling hates you now," he croaked, still trying to make light of it.
"And why might that be?" Max said sarcastically.
"Because you're not bland, unordinary, and water-proof," he grinned.
"Well that makes two of us," Max laughed. "You really are smooth with the ladies," she imitated the tone he'd used when he'd said it.
"I'm in trouble now aren't I," Seth said with a depreciating smile.
"Oh, yes, just as soon as I can throttle you without breaking my own neck, I will," Max grinned evilly.
Seth, unfazed, brought up the thing they'd both been so shocked about yesterday morning, a time that felt like it was several eternities ago. "Remember that text? From Agent Walker to Geneticist Batchelder?"
"Yes," Max shifted moods entirely. Batchelder had brought her to miserable life in the School.
"I think he was my dad," Seth said, still rather shocked at the thought of it.
"Then…" Max frowned, "we might be siblings. Was your father Jeb Batchelder?"
"Yeah. My mother was Marian Batchelder." Seth told her.
"Half-siblings then," Max amended.
"But how?!"
"Half my genetic material came from Jeb Batchelder, half of it from a human egg donated to "science" and a little input from the Avian spectrum." Max explained.
Seth still thought this was impossible. "But dad died when I was a kid! He drowned!"
Max thought about it for a moment. "More than likely it was a fake death. However he actually did die when I escaped the School. The School was the genetic research facility where I was bor- I mean engineered,"
"Oh. So… you're my sister…" Seth paled.
"Yeah, real smooth with the ladies,"
-.-.-.-
Fang Martinez and his sister, Jessica Martinez, had been given their own bunkroom, but didn't have any of the veteran students bunking with them. Jessica was still pestering him to call her Nudge. Fang himself had dark skin, but he wasn't African-American like Nudge. They were family only because they had been adopted when they were kids. Nudge was actually a fair bit younger than Fang, but got to bunk with him because of the whole family thing.
"We aren't actually going to be studying, are we?" Nudge asked, flicking through the new resources available to them on the computer. "I mean, we wouldn't even have a clue of what to be looking for anyway,"
Fang just nodded silently, then cringed when he remembered Nudge hated that almost as much as him calling her Jessica. "Yeah. We might as well just grab some music instead,"
"What are you looking for?" she asked.
Fang didn't really know. "No idea. Possibly something with a good beat."
"No duh! You can be so vague sometimes. I think I'll grab something like Taylor Swift, maybe Justin-"
"Don't mention his name!" Fang quickly interrupted his adoptive sister. "H.I.V.E. hasn't been spoiled by him yet, and I think it should stay that way,"
"Be… yah, maybe not. Are you gonna grab some dubstep or some crap like that?" Nudge asked, quickly deleting the last four songs she'd converted.
"Could you imagine me listening to dubstep?"
"No. But then again I can see you doing the soulja boy. Maybe you'd like rock, or goth stuff, or emo-"
"Please, stop," Fang moaned, swinging around on his chair and pushing the heels of his palms into his eyes. "I'll tell you what I've got later, when I actually have it!"
And he tried to ignore Nudge, fruitlessly, for the next hour as she went on and on and on and on and on and on…
-.-.-.-
All over H.I.V.E., students of all ages abandoned their studies. There were very few who didn't like the notion of music. Aside from the goons in the Henchman stream with the broken Blackboxes, almost everyone wanted to listen to the sounds of imagination.
"Do you think HIVEMind would like techno?" Seth asked Max. They'd decided to leave the attempts at hitting on each other out of their lives for now. They liked each other a lot, but now they knew it had simply been blood instinct to love your family, and nothing else.
"Huh?"
"You know, techno music?" Seth was appalled. How could she not know?
"Uhh, no, but it sounds like he might like it." Max replied, sitting up.
"My god, you really have been missing out," Seth told her. He checked with HIVEMind to see if Laura was still their roommate, but he wasn't entirely sure Laura would have set something like this off. "Oh, looks like we've got Shelby in our room,"
"That's nice. I don't like like Otto anymore."
-/-/-/-
To: Shelby Trinity
From: Seth Walker
You kicked this off, didn't you?
-/-/-/-
To: Seth Walker
From: Shelby Trinity
I have no idea what you're talking about :)
-/-/-/-
To: Shelby Trinity
From: Seth Walker
Can I have my iPod back? Max doesn't know what techno is
-/-/-/-
To: Seth Walker
From: Shelby Trinity
OMG! For real?!
-/-/-/-
To: Shelby Trinity
From: Seth Walker
Telling us we're allowed out now. Meet us by stationary
-.-.-.-
Shelby grinned and finished copying and pasting the music files from Seth's iPod to her Blackbox. She could have had a look at the CIA folder, but she was worried about what she might find. So she didn't open it.
H.I.V.E. was buzzing. It was like music could truly change everything here. Shelby walked past smiling Alphas who were discussing the good things about each type of music. Techno, rock, alt, pop, Gangnam Style, there was heaps going around.
She worked her way to the stationary storage areas, passing by Block and Tackle without incident. Well, they did start fighting each other when Tackle said something about Beyonce. Shelby told them both they were idiots who shouldn't be wasting their brain cells like this, and they turned on her. Shelby ran around the corner and straight into Raven.
"Hi Raven!" Shelby shouted gleefully, before twisting away from her. "Oh, did you know that Tackle loves Beyonce?"
Raven blinked. Then, as Shelby continued to rush away, she thought about what she'd said to her. Tackle and Beyonce, together? That thought would warm Raven's mood for years to come. It was just too funny to contemplate.
-.-.-.-
"Hey guys," Shelby greeted Max and Seth just as they'd received their headsets. Seth had a couple of sets of headphones wrapped around his arm and two sets of earbuds in his hand. He was a bit paler than usual, but he was doing better than when Shelby last saw him.
"Hey," Seth smiled, "good work. You've started a H.I.V.E. changing experience for everyone!"
"I know, isn't this awesome?!" Shelby clapped a high-five with Seth's free hand. "But seriously, I'm really glad to see you guys are OK,"
"We sorta discovered something else while we were stuck in sick bay," Max looked uncomfortable, and was holding her left forearm lightly. "We can talk about it when we get back to our room," she said, stemming the flow of questions ready to flow from Shelby's mouth.
"Trust me, this one's big," Seth grinned like an idiot. "Even bigger than some of the CIA's secrets,"
"Really?" Shelby was once again sceptical, hand on hip.
"No."