Authors note: The girl in black is who we will later in the show come to know and love as Scaramouche. At this point, however, she has no name. Lyrics taken from the show version of 'Radio Ga Ga'.
Complete control
you are the power
our lives are programmed by the hour
Globalsoft
All we hear is radio Ga Ga
video Goo Goo
Internet Ga Ga
All we hear is Cyberspace Ca Ca
Marketing Blah Blah
Always something new
Globalsoft
All your world loves you
The next day at cyberschool, Delilah entered the classroom fashionably late, meeting Poppy and Stacey on the way. They ignored each other until they were actually inside the classroom. Anything worth saying was worth saying where they could be overheard, but she'd always though it stupid that you 'just don't' say hello to a friend unless they're on their own, and even then only if they've arranged to meet up with you. The door slid open with a slight hiss as they approached. Inside, clumps of segregated GaGa girls and Zone boys sat on the edges of desks facing inwards, gossiping about the latest computer games and consoles in the case of the boys, fashions, zone boys and CG popstars for the girls. Poppy and Kylie slotted into their places in their circle immediately, and Delilah, being relatively unpopular, stood at the edge and started pushing a less prestigious girl out of the way so that she could hear what was being said.
'She doesn't even, like, care. I mean, what a freak.'
'I'm gonna talk to her.' said one girl in green hotpants.
'Why?!' the others replied, aghast.
'She's a freak Kelly, you don't wanna be seen near her!' Kylie said.
'Duh, I'm not gonna be NICE.'
'Oh, right. Go on, then.'
'Yeah, go on!'
'Go on, I dare you to ask if she's a lesbian.'
'Right, I'm going.' She stood up, brushed imaginary specks of dust off her clothes, and touched up her lipstick.
In a corner of the classroom sat one solitary figure. She didn't wear pastels and although her hair was dyed purple, she hadn't bleached it first, and it looked like it had been in the same two ponytails for months. She sat staring moodily at a switched-off screen, holding her hands over her ears to keep out the inane drivel pouring over her from all quarters of the room. This girl was completely different to the others. She scuffed her illegally downloaded boots against the leg of her desk, moodily pulling at her sleeve. It hadn't turned out the same as the other one, as the craft knife she'd stolen ron Technical Studies had slipped when she was slashing up the front.
A pink bubble appeared and burst in her face.
'Oi. Weirdo.' Kelly said, sucking her bubble gum back into her mouth.
'What?' the 'weirdo' in question replied sullenly.
'What you doing?'
'What does it look like I'm doing?'
'Why you staring at a blank screen? Did you forget how to turn it on?' Kelly recieved a cold stare before the girl in black spoke up again, slowly and clearly, as if to a very small child.
'I like it. It's black. It's the only black thing in here.'
'Your clothes are black. Are they black cos you can't keep them clean? I bet you can't.'
'Fuck off.' Kelly bent over and looked under the desk.
'Did you lose your shoes or something?'
'I said, fuck off. It's a short sentence, I thought you would be able to understand it. Leave me alone.'
'Those are men's boots. Are you really a man, or do just wear them because you're a lesbian?'
'I'm not a lesbian.'
'Yeah you are. I've seen you staring at my tits.' She got a disgusted, incredulous stare in return.
'Even if I was a lesbian, and I'm not, I would not find you in the remotest bit attractive. You're a self-obsessed, boy-obsessed, image-obsessed sad little girl.'
'I'm sad? I'M sad? Hah! I've got friends. I've got wearable clothes. I've got -' she leant down and raised her voice. By this time, quite a few others were watching and listening. '- a boyfriend! But then again, you wouldn't want one of them, would you?' Her group exploded into a bout of high pitched, comradely giggles. Kelly smirked and flounced back to them. The girl sighed and dropped her head onto her keyboard.
*Every day. I get this every sodding day. Everybody hates me, including myself. I've got to get out of here. I hate my life. I want to break free.*
'I told her.'
'Yeah, you told her.'
'Did you see? She was so lookin' at your bum when you bent over.'
'She is SO a lesbian.'
'Yeah, I knew she'd be staring at my arse.'
'Well, you were kinda waving it in her face...' Delilah said, timidly. Kelly, Kylie, Poppy and Stacey stared at her in horror.
'Are you tryin' to say I fancy her?' Kelly spluttered.
'Well no, but you weren't exactly disencouraging h-'
'I don't believe it. I thought you were meant to be my friend.'
'Oh no Kelly, I am!' Delilah said, aghast at her stupid mistake. If she couldn't rectify the situation, she could lose her place in the group. And then she'd lose her friends, and before she knew it she could be sitting on her own in the classroom, staring at an empty screen, not caring what she looked like, maybe even wearing black...
'She'd have been staring at your bum anyway.'
*Change subject, change subject...*'She's such a freak. Hey, did anyone see the new hotpants? I was online late last night and I... Hey wow, you're wearing them! That's so cool Kelly, you always manage to be in fashion before everyone else.'
'Yeah.' Kelly said smugly 'My mum stayed up and got them as soon as they were downloadable.'
Kylie and Stacey tugged uncomfortably at their miniskirts. Alright, they weren't officially out of date yet, but they weren't comfortable knowing that there was something newer. They both made a mental note to download them as soon as they got home.
'Got the new boots, too.'
'You have as well.' Kylie said mournfully. 'I feel so last week.'
'You've got the same jacket, though.' Delilah offered, consolingly. 'You're doing better than me.'
'Delilah, are you ever gonna join the VIP club?' Poppy asked.
'Yeah, my dad signed me up last night.'
'Oh good. It's embarrassing, trailing you around in last week's clothes.'
'Yeah,' added Kylie 'I mean, we've got a reputation to think of. We're all in the club, and you're - well - not. You let us down.'
They didn't mean it unkindly. They were simply stating facts, and it didn't cross their fluffy little minds that Delilah could possibly take it badly. Fortunately, she knew this, and didn't.
'Well, I won't be disappointing you much longer.' Delilah said, with a slightly forced smile.
*Why do I have to join fancy clothes clubs to keep my friends? Why can't they care about me?*
There was a triple beep and then the figure of a woman in plain, boring, middle-aged looking clothes flashed into existance at the front of the classroom.
'Good morning, kids.' rang out the voice of the cyberschool principal from the micro speakers in the ceiling and walls. The groups dissipated, and the teenagers sat down and switched on or logged in to their consoles. When the last little red light on her monitor turned green and she saw the whole school was paying attention, the head teacher continued to broadcast her morning message.
'Settle down, please. Now, I know you are all excited because it's the last day of term, but please remember that we do still have this one day to complete. Today is special, because it marks the end of another successful year for all of you. For one particular class, however, it is an especially important day - for it marks the end of their school career and the start of their lives as Globalsoft employees. And I think they all deserve a special mention, as they have all-' for a moment, her mind drifted to Gordon Jones. That boy had so much potential, but he just wasted it... and insisted on being called Galileo Figaro, for some reason. He practically made her weep. All that nonsense about hearing sounds in his head, when he would make such a good programmer if he could just concentrate... And of course there was that girl. They were carefully kept apart, in case she gave him even more bad influences.'-nearly all had a most successful school career. Congratulations to you all, graduation class. Apart from that, enjoy your last day of ths academic year and have a fun summer.'
The hologram disappeared and was replaced by the individual form minders. Delilah sat back and turned on her messenger. As it was the last day of term, no real work would be done, just some form-filling and idle chat. The day was busy and fun, packing in some last-minute contact-making and acquaintence refreshing, and a lot of surfing.
At lunch time, Delilah and Kelly, Kylie, Poppy, Stacey, Annelie and Candice all went to stock up on bubble gum, fast food and popcorn. They went back to the classroom to eat, not wanting to mingle with anyone else.
As they arranged themselves on the desks surrounding Kelly's, Poppy turned on her console - adjacent to Kelly's - and clicked onto the radio homepage. They were playing the current fast song, 'Everybody Dance', and as she perched on the edge of Kylie's desk and carefully arranged her burger and fries so that they wouldn't fall off, Delilah started tapping her nails on the hard plasti-wood surface in time to the beat. Stacey gave her a slightly odd look, but Delilah was too wrapped up in the conversation to notice.
'So anyway, he emailed me to say why he didn't turn up afterwards, but he left me standing at the VR arcade for fifteen minutes, waiting for him. I felt so ashamed.' Kelly paused to take a bite of her burger, and Kylie said
'Yeah, that's like what Justin did to me. I spent three hours blow drying my hair and all he said when he finally turned up was 'Oh, that looks nice.'. I spent so much time doing it, and that's all he had the decency to say.'
'Oh, that's well out of order.'
'Yeah.'
Delilah wanted to point out that it was quite impressive for Justin to have noticed that Kylie had done anything to her hair at all, but decided it would be best not to. Kylie was very sensitive about her hair, especially after that horrible accident she'd had when she mixed up the codes for her coloured streaks. All the green ones had gone purple, and all the orange ones blue - and her outfit that week was lilac. It was a disaster to her, although Delilah privately thought that it actually looked a lot better than it would have done if she hadn't got her numbers mixed up.
'Yeah, well I dumped him after that. It's the third time he's humiliated me like that.' Kelly said, bringing the conversation back round to her own relationship.
'Yeah, don't blame you.'
'My god, leaving you standing there for a whole fifteen minutes.'
Delilah, not having a boyfriend yet, didn't add anything to the conversation. She idly picked up a few fries and popped them into her mouth, humming along to the song. Again, she got an odd look, but his time from Poppy as well as Stacey.
'Well, after a while I knew he'd stood me up, so I just left and went home. I went shopping and bought a new bag.'
'What one?' 'Oh, just some giant logo thing. I threw it away yesterday when I got this one.' She kicked her newer bag, a flat transparent one with the Ga Ga logo printed in the middle. 'The other one was all logo.'
'Aw yeah, that one's nice.' Candice said, absently.
The girl in black was still siting at her desk, moodily picking at a sandwich. She listened to the gaggle's conversation purely because there was nothing better to do.
*I don't really mind being unpopular.* she thought *I wouldn't want to be popular with them. But I hate it when they get me wrong. They call me stupid, and I'm not. I'd like to see them fool the network into giving them a male ID to download clothes with. And they wouldn't know the first thing about repairing their wristWAPs, they hardly know how to turn them on. If they break they just give them back and buy a replacement. Yet somehow they think they're so superior.* She gave up on the sandwich and leant back, rolling her head back to stare at the ceiling. She glanced at the clock and did a lightning quick calculation. *Two hours and thirty four minutes left. An hour and a half of that is Physical Exercise, so I only have to stare at this room for another hour and four minutes. After that I don't have to see this place ever again. Mind you, I do need to finish my microtranciever's timing circuit so I'll have to stop at the tech lab for about an hour after school. So what if it's the last day of term? This is the only place I have access to the equipment.*
The next song had been introduced and was playing. Almost completely left out of the conversation(this time about the VIP club membership fees, and which payment plan was best), Delilah had started absent mindedly singing along. She didn't notice when the conversation died around her, being so involved in the song. She reached a phrase she thought was a bit too boring and ornamented it without thinking, and didn't see that everyone was staring at her. She only realised she was the centre of attention when Kelly said, rather annoyed,
'Deli, why do you always do that?'
She started slightly, suddenly aware of the disapproving stares and rolling eyes.
'What?'
'It's a perfectly good song, why do you have to ruin it by wailing all over it?'
'Sorry, I didn't think I was ruining it. I just like it, that's all.'
'Yeah, well so do we, and you're just making it worse.'
'Sorry.' she mumbled. There was an unpleasant silence, until Candice, trying to save the moment, asked
'Deli, why've you got such a weird name? I mean, 'Delilah' - it's not normal, is it?'
'Dunno.' she said quietly. 'It's just what my mum called me. Dad wanted me to be called Crystal, but mum insisted.'
'Weird, Crystal's quite a popular name. Thing is, your nickname makes you sound like an Indian take away.'
'Yeah, it does, doesn't it?' Delilah laughed falsely, hoping the conversation would turn to other topics. She didn't want to talk about her mother. Not her real one. She still tried not to think about her in case she cried, which she knew she had to avoid at all costs. Ga Ga girls are happy. Ga Ga girls do not cry. She had a perfectly good computerised mother, so there was no point in mourning the absense of an inferior human one. Even so, she had to blink away a tear. She remained more or less silent throughout the rest of the break, just listening and eating her lunch. It was her punishment for upsetting the group - she was excluded from the remainder of the conversation. After the bleep went to mark the end of lunch they trooped down to the exercise hall and changed into their white PE uniforms and caps. Most of he girls hated the caps, as they ruined their hair, but it was generally agreed that having their hair ruined by it being exposed to constant movement and sweat was even worse. And sometimes it was fashionable to have closely-braided hair, anyway. Delilah saw that they had skirts today, instead of shorts, which had been the last week's norm. During the next hour and a half, the girls did quite well in avoiding doing and actual excercise themselves, hanging around the edges of the hall watching the boys.
They had to join in for the final group routine, though.
'So weird to think this is our last ever lesson.' Delilah commented to Poppy.
'Yeah, isn't it cool? After today the summer is ours.'
'Yeah.'
They finished the lesson with the oath, swearing allegiance to the Globalsoft corporation. Then the computerised voice which had so many times in the past told them that they had five minutes left of break, or which esson they were scheduled to be at next, announced:
'Students of Virtual High, school's out. Get out there and have some fun.'
The whole school reverberated to synchronised cries of 'Hurrah! Hurrah!' as the kids poured out of the building. Delilah went with Kelly and the group out of the school, where Candice and Annelie made their excuses and left them.
'Shopping!' Kylie squealed gleefully. 'School's out, let's go!' They strode towards the closest shopping centre chatting happily about what purchases they were going to make.
'I desperately need to do something to my hair.' Delilah said, patting her plain blonde coiffe. 'It was ok for last week, but now I think I need some colour.'
'Me too.' said Poppy, and most of the others nodded their agreement. Kelly said
'Hey, why don't we all get something done? I know a great place, I got my streaks done there the other day. I could do with a trim, while you lot get the same thing.'
Everyone agreed. They linked arms as they made their way down the road, almost completely blocking it for anyone else who might want to pass. In the hairdressing outlet the girls logged in as they sat down in the salon chairs. The weekly selection of available hairdos appeared on the screens inside the styling helmets, spinning gently in thumbnail mode. That week a high ponytail, two styles of bunches, a round and flicked bob were available, all with rainbow streaks. Kelly already had the high ponytail, and Delilah opted to copy her, reasoning that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Kelly was definitely into flattery. Kylie got the flicked bob, Poppy the round one, and because she'd seen Candice had it, Stacey chose the high bunches. Inside the helmets, lasers cut, robotic arms styled and jets dyed. After selecting the style, the whole process took about half a minute, if the network wasn't too congested. The longest anyone had ever had to wait was 5 minutes, and that was when the whole system had crashed and had to revert to emergency memory banks. The girls were out of the shop within 10 minutes. They spent another half hour or so browsing the shops in that end of town, before deciding to explore the complex at the other end. To get there they went past the school.
They arrived at the front steps just in time to see a heavily-laden girl in scruffy black clothes trudging down the steps.
'It's her.' Kylie said quietly. An unpleasant smile grew on Kelly's face.
you are the power
our lives are programmed by the hour
Globalsoft
All we hear is radio Ga Ga
video Goo Goo
Internet Ga Ga
All we hear is Cyberspace Ca Ca
Marketing Blah Blah
Always something new
Globalsoft
All your world loves you
The next day at cyberschool, Delilah entered the classroom fashionably late, meeting Poppy and Stacey on the way. They ignored each other until they were actually inside the classroom. Anything worth saying was worth saying where they could be overheard, but she'd always though it stupid that you 'just don't' say hello to a friend unless they're on their own, and even then only if they've arranged to meet up with you. The door slid open with a slight hiss as they approached. Inside, clumps of segregated GaGa girls and Zone boys sat on the edges of desks facing inwards, gossiping about the latest computer games and consoles in the case of the boys, fashions, zone boys and CG popstars for the girls. Poppy and Kylie slotted into their places in their circle immediately, and Delilah, being relatively unpopular, stood at the edge and started pushing a less prestigious girl out of the way so that she could hear what was being said.
'She doesn't even, like, care. I mean, what a freak.'
'I'm gonna talk to her.' said one girl in green hotpants.
'Why?!' the others replied, aghast.
'She's a freak Kelly, you don't wanna be seen near her!' Kylie said.
'Duh, I'm not gonna be NICE.'
'Oh, right. Go on, then.'
'Yeah, go on!'
'Go on, I dare you to ask if she's a lesbian.'
'Right, I'm going.' She stood up, brushed imaginary specks of dust off her clothes, and touched up her lipstick.
In a corner of the classroom sat one solitary figure. She didn't wear pastels and although her hair was dyed purple, she hadn't bleached it first, and it looked like it had been in the same two ponytails for months. She sat staring moodily at a switched-off screen, holding her hands over her ears to keep out the inane drivel pouring over her from all quarters of the room. This girl was completely different to the others. She scuffed her illegally downloaded boots against the leg of her desk, moodily pulling at her sleeve. It hadn't turned out the same as the other one, as the craft knife she'd stolen ron Technical Studies had slipped when she was slashing up the front.
A pink bubble appeared and burst in her face.
'Oi. Weirdo.' Kelly said, sucking her bubble gum back into her mouth.
'What?' the 'weirdo' in question replied sullenly.
'What you doing?'
'What does it look like I'm doing?'
'Why you staring at a blank screen? Did you forget how to turn it on?' Kelly recieved a cold stare before the girl in black spoke up again, slowly and clearly, as if to a very small child.
'I like it. It's black. It's the only black thing in here.'
'Your clothes are black. Are they black cos you can't keep them clean? I bet you can't.'
'Fuck off.' Kelly bent over and looked under the desk.
'Did you lose your shoes or something?'
'I said, fuck off. It's a short sentence, I thought you would be able to understand it. Leave me alone.'
'Those are men's boots. Are you really a man, or do just wear them because you're a lesbian?'
'I'm not a lesbian.'
'Yeah you are. I've seen you staring at my tits.' She got a disgusted, incredulous stare in return.
'Even if I was a lesbian, and I'm not, I would not find you in the remotest bit attractive. You're a self-obsessed, boy-obsessed, image-obsessed sad little girl.'
'I'm sad? I'M sad? Hah! I've got friends. I've got wearable clothes. I've got -' she leant down and raised her voice. By this time, quite a few others were watching and listening. '- a boyfriend! But then again, you wouldn't want one of them, would you?' Her group exploded into a bout of high pitched, comradely giggles. Kelly smirked and flounced back to them. The girl sighed and dropped her head onto her keyboard.
*Every day. I get this every sodding day. Everybody hates me, including myself. I've got to get out of here. I hate my life. I want to break free.*
'I told her.'
'Yeah, you told her.'
'Did you see? She was so lookin' at your bum when you bent over.'
'She is SO a lesbian.'
'Yeah, I knew she'd be staring at my arse.'
'Well, you were kinda waving it in her face...' Delilah said, timidly. Kelly, Kylie, Poppy and Stacey stared at her in horror.
'Are you tryin' to say I fancy her?' Kelly spluttered.
'Well no, but you weren't exactly disencouraging h-'
'I don't believe it. I thought you were meant to be my friend.'
'Oh no Kelly, I am!' Delilah said, aghast at her stupid mistake. If she couldn't rectify the situation, she could lose her place in the group. And then she'd lose her friends, and before she knew it she could be sitting on her own in the classroom, staring at an empty screen, not caring what she looked like, maybe even wearing black...
'She'd have been staring at your bum anyway.'
*Change subject, change subject...*'She's such a freak. Hey, did anyone see the new hotpants? I was online late last night and I... Hey wow, you're wearing them! That's so cool Kelly, you always manage to be in fashion before everyone else.'
'Yeah.' Kelly said smugly 'My mum stayed up and got them as soon as they were downloadable.'
Kylie and Stacey tugged uncomfortably at their miniskirts. Alright, they weren't officially out of date yet, but they weren't comfortable knowing that there was something newer. They both made a mental note to download them as soon as they got home.
'Got the new boots, too.'
'You have as well.' Kylie said mournfully. 'I feel so last week.'
'You've got the same jacket, though.' Delilah offered, consolingly. 'You're doing better than me.'
'Delilah, are you ever gonna join the VIP club?' Poppy asked.
'Yeah, my dad signed me up last night.'
'Oh good. It's embarrassing, trailing you around in last week's clothes.'
'Yeah,' added Kylie 'I mean, we've got a reputation to think of. We're all in the club, and you're - well - not. You let us down.'
They didn't mean it unkindly. They were simply stating facts, and it didn't cross their fluffy little minds that Delilah could possibly take it badly. Fortunately, she knew this, and didn't.
'Well, I won't be disappointing you much longer.' Delilah said, with a slightly forced smile.
*Why do I have to join fancy clothes clubs to keep my friends? Why can't they care about me?*
There was a triple beep and then the figure of a woman in plain, boring, middle-aged looking clothes flashed into existance at the front of the classroom.
'Good morning, kids.' rang out the voice of the cyberschool principal from the micro speakers in the ceiling and walls. The groups dissipated, and the teenagers sat down and switched on or logged in to their consoles. When the last little red light on her monitor turned green and she saw the whole school was paying attention, the head teacher continued to broadcast her morning message.
'Settle down, please. Now, I know you are all excited because it's the last day of term, but please remember that we do still have this one day to complete. Today is special, because it marks the end of another successful year for all of you. For one particular class, however, it is an especially important day - for it marks the end of their school career and the start of their lives as Globalsoft employees. And I think they all deserve a special mention, as they have all-' for a moment, her mind drifted to Gordon Jones. That boy had so much potential, but he just wasted it... and insisted on being called Galileo Figaro, for some reason. He practically made her weep. All that nonsense about hearing sounds in his head, when he would make such a good programmer if he could just concentrate... And of course there was that girl. They were carefully kept apart, in case she gave him even more bad influences.'-nearly all had a most successful school career. Congratulations to you all, graduation class. Apart from that, enjoy your last day of ths academic year and have a fun summer.'
The hologram disappeared and was replaced by the individual form minders. Delilah sat back and turned on her messenger. As it was the last day of term, no real work would be done, just some form-filling and idle chat. The day was busy and fun, packing in some last-minute contact-making and acquaintence refreshing, and a lot of surfing.
At lunch time, Delilah and Kelly, Kylie, Poppy, Stacey, Annelie and Candice all went to stock up on bubble gum, fast food and popcorn. They went back to the classroom to eat, not wanting to mingle with anyone else.
As they arranged themselves on the desks surrounding Kelly's, Poppy turned on her console - adjacent to Kelly's - and clicked onto the radio homepage. They were playing the current fast song, 'Everybody Dance', and as she perched on the edge of Kylie's desk and carefully arranged her burger and fries so that they wouldn't fall off, Delilah started tapping her nails on the hard plasti-wood surface in time to the beat. Stacey gave her a slightly odd look, but Delilah was too wrapped up in the conversation to notice.
'So anyway, he emailed me to say why he didn't turn up afterwards, but he left me standing at the VR arcade for fifteen minutes, waiting for him. I felt so ashamed.' Kelly paused to take a bite of her burger, and Kylie said
'Yeah, that's like what Justin did to me. I spent three hours blow drying my hair and all he said when he finally turned up was 'Oh, that looks nice.'. I spent so much time doing it, and that's all he had the decency to say.'
'Oh, that's well out of order.'
'Yeah.'
Delilah wanted to point out that it was quite impressive for Justin to have noticed that Kylie had done anything to her hair at all, but decided it would be best not to. Kylie was very sensitive about her hair, especially after that horrible accident she'd had when she mixed up the codes for her coloured streaks. All the green ones had gone purple, and all the orange ones blue - and her outfit that week was lilac. It was a disaster to her, although Delilah privately thought that it actually looked a lot better than it would have done if she hadn't got her numbers mixed up.
'Yeah, well I dumped him after that. It's the third time he's humiliated me like that.' Kelly said, bringing the conversation back round to her own relationship.
'Yeah, don't blame you.'
'My god, leaving you standing there for a whole fifteen minutes.'
Delilah, not having a boyfriend yet, didn't add anything to the conversation. She idly picked up a few fries and popped them into her mouth, humming along to the song. Again, she got an odd look, but his time from Poppy as well as Stacey.
'Well, after a while I knew he'd stood me up, so I just left and went home. I went shopping and bought a new bag.'
'What one?' 'Oh, just some giant logo thing. I threw it away yesterday when I got this one.' She kicked her newer bag, a flat transparent one with the Ga Ga logo printed in the middle. 'The other one was all logo.'
'Aw yeah, that one's nice.' Candice said, absently.
The girl in black was still siting at her desk, moodily picking at a sandwich. She listened to the gaggle's conversation purely because there was nothing better to do.
*I don't really mind being unpopular.* she thought *I wouldn't want to be popular with them. But I hate it when they get me wrong. They call me stupid, and I'm not. I'd like to see them fool the network into giving them a male ID to download clothes with. And they wouldn't know the first thing about repairing their wristWAPs, they hardly know how to turn them on. If they break they just give them back and buy a replacement. Yet somehow they think they're so superior.* She gave up on the sandwich and leant back, rolling her head back to stare at the ceiling. She glanced at the clock and did a lightning quick calculation. *Two hours and thirty four minutes left. An hour and a half of that is Physical Exercise, so I only have to stare at this room for another hour and four minutes. After that I don't have to see this place ever again. Mind you, I do need to finish my microtranciever's timing circuit so I'll have to stop at the tech lab for about an hour after school. So what if it's the last day of term? This is the only place I have access to the equipment.*
The next song had been introduced and was playing. Almost completely left out of the conversation(this time about the VIP club membership fees, and which payment plan was best), Delilah had started absent mindedly singing along. She didn't notice when the conversation died around her, being so involved in the song. She reached a phrase she thought was a bit too boring and ornamented it without thinking, and didn't see that everyone was staring at her. She only realised she was the centre of attention when Kelly said, rather annoyed,
'Deli, why do you always do that?'
She started slightly, suddenly aware of the disapproving stares and rolling eyes.
'What?'
'It's a perfectly good song, why do you have to ruin it by wailing all over it?'
'Sorry, I didn't think I was ruining it. I just like it, that's all.'
'Yeah, well so do we, and you're just making it worse.'
'Sorry.' she mumbled. There was an unpleasant silence, until Candice, trying to save the moment, asked
'Deli, why've you got such a weird name? I mean, 'Delilah' - it's not normal, is it?'
'Dunno.' she said quietly. 'It's just what my mum called me. Dad wanted me to be called Crystal, but mum insisted.'
'Weird, Crystal's quite a popular name. Thing is, your nickname makes you sound like an Indian take away.'
'Yeah, it does, doesn't it?' Delilah laughed falsely, hoping the conversation would turn to other topics. She didn't want to talk about her mother. Not her real one. She still tried not to think about her in case she cried, which she knew she had to avoid at all costs. Ga Ga girls are happy. Ga Ga girls do not cry. She had a perfectly good computerised mother, so there was no point in mourning the absense of an inferior human one. Even so, she had to blink away a tear. She remained more or less silent throughout the rest of the break, just listening and eating her lunch. It was her punishment for upsetting the group - she was excluded from the remainder of the conversation. After the bleep went to mark the end of lunch they trooped down to the exercise hall and changed into their white PE uniforms and caps. Most of he girls hated the caps, as they ruined their hair, but it was generally agreed that having their hair ruined by it being exposed to constant movement and sweat was even worse. And sometimes it was fashionable to have closely-braided hair, anyway. Delilah saw that they had skirts today, instead of shorts, which had been the last week's norm. During the next hour and a half, the girls did quite well in avoiding doing and actual excercise themselves, hanging around the edges of the hall watching the boys.
They had to join in for the final group routine, though.
'So weird to think this is our last ever lesson.' Delilah commented to Poppy.
'Yeah, isn't it cool? After today the summer is ours.'
'Yeah.'
They finished the lesson with the oath, swearing allegiance to the Globalsoft corporation. Then the computerised voice which had so many times in the past told them that they had five minutes left of break, or which esson they were scheduled to be at next, announced:
'Students of Virtual High, school's out. Get out there and have some fun.'
The whole school reverberated to synchronised cries of 'Hurrah! Hurrah!' as the kids poured out of the building. Delilah went with Kelly and the group out of the school, where Candice and Annelie made their excuses and left them.
'Shopping!' Kylie squealed gleefully. 'School's out, let's go!' They strode towards the closest shopping centre chatting happily about what purchases they were going to make.
'I desperately need to do something to my hair.' Delilah said, patting her plain blonde coiffe. 'It was ok for last week, but now I think I need some colour.'
'Me too.' said Poppy, and most of the others nodded their agreement. Kelly said
'Hey, why don't we all get something done? I know a great place, I got my streaks done there the other day. I could do with a trim, while you lot get the same thing.'
Everyone agreed. They linked arms as they made their way down the road, almost completely blocking it for anyone else who might want to pass. In the hairdressing outlet the girls logged in as they sat down in the salon chairs. The weekly selection of available hairdos appeared on the screens inside the styling helmets, spinning gently in thumbnail mode. That week a high ponytail, two styles of bunches, a round and flicked bob were available, all with rainbow streaks. Kelly already had the high ponytail, and Delilah opted to copy her, reasoning that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Kelly was definitely into flattery. Kylie got the flicked bob, Poppy the round one, and because she'd seen Candice had it, Stacey chose the high bunches. Inside the helmets, lasers cut, robotic arms styled and jets dyed. After selecting the style, the whole process took about half a minute, if the network wasn't too congested. The longest anyone had ever had to wait was 5 minutes, and that was when the whole system had crashed and had to revert to emergency memory banks. The girls were out of the shop within 10 minutes. They spent another half hour or so browsing the shops in that end of town, before deciding to explore the complex at the other end. To get there they went past the school.
They arrived at the front steps just in time to see a heavily-laden girl in scruffy black clothes trudging down the steps.
'It's her.' Kylie said quietly. An unpleasant smile grew on Kelly's face.