A/N: The damn computer place still hasn't called. They've been "gonna get
back to me" about my computer for a week. And it was supposed to be fixed
by the 20th. Computers suck- have I said that lately? Well, they do.
I got my retainer today. That sucks, too. Just when I get the braces off,
giving me a month of freedom and then loading my mouth with crap again is
such a tease. They shouldn't be allowed to do that, it's all just wrong.
My last thing that I'm gonna say sucks- homework. I'm sick of it. It's
seriously interfering with my fic-writing time. Although, with they way
certain people have been yelling at me (I won't mention any names, but it
starts with Maria..), yous have probably all noticed, too.
Ok, and please note that skip in dates fro that start of this chapter. I
have writer's block again and this is the only non-incredibly-boring
solution I could think of.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 11: Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous
September 2, 2036
"She looks so cute," Jondy gibed at Lex as she pinched her cheek, only to receive an icy glare. "Aw, c'mon, give the camera a nice, big first-day-of- snooty-private-school smile."
"Bite me," Lex snapped back through her cereal.
"Jondy, give up already," Max roll her eyes as she heaved a heavy sigh and grabbed the camera from Jondy's grasp.
"Yeah, don't you have anything better to do?" Lex poured herself another bowl.
"Actually, no. Shop's being tented for termites, so I can dedicate my morning to seeing my favorite niece off to school," Jondy couldn't resist taking full advantage of Lex's irritable state.
"Unfortunately, and I'm your only niece," Lex grumbled as she headed off to the bathroom to brush her teeth and bumping into Logan on her way out. Mumbling something that sounded like 'hey', she disappeared around the corner.
"What's wrong with her; she sick or something?" Logan scratched his head, wondering if his half-asleep state had something to do with it.
"No, it's just the first day of school," Max assured him.
"She's this grumpy every year. When she was five, she hid under Max's bike screaming, "You can't make me go!"," Jondy let out a laugh-like sound.
"She's usually ok by the time she gets home, though," Max told Logan. "Hopefully she'll meet someone she likes."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cedar Ridge Academy Room E-016
"Welcome to all you As through Ds of the freshman class. I'm Mrs. Crail and I'll be your homeroom teach throughout your four years here at Cedar Ridge," the middle-aged woman greeted the students with smile far too cherry for 7:30 a.m.
Lex sat at her desk near the window, contemplating the many ways in which she could make this woman mysteriously disappear. "Squeal one more time, and it gets taken out on those damn cat figurines on your desk," she thought to herself. After the repetitious torture of filling out seven different emergency and attendance cards, class schedules were finally passed back. When Lex got hers, she stared down, insulted and in disbelief. Biting the bullet, she walked up to the teacher, "Um, excuse me. Where's the office? There are some problems with my schedule."
"Well, what's wrong with it, pumpkin?" Mrs. Crail asked with another blinding smile.
"Ok, first off, don't ever call me pumpkin. But I didn't sign up for half these classes and I want them gone," Lex was in no mood to be further agitated.
Sighing, Mrs. Crail gave Lex directions and a pass, wondering what she was so angry over, "Probably another spoiled little princess," she thought and shook her head as Lex walked out the door.
Pushing the double glass doors open, Lex walked up to the first secretary without a line of students, "Hi, who do I talk to about schedule adjustments?"
"Name?" the woman's response was robotic, like she was already fed up with complaints.
"Alexa Cale," Lex still didn't like the sound of that. She had reasoned that it was mainly because Cale didn't sound good next to Colette, but deep down she knew that it was because she didn't want to sound tied down to her new life.
"Oh, another Cale!" the woman's face suddenly took on a brighter appearance. "I'll take you over to Ms. Barlow, she's free right now," the woman motioned to escort Lex around the corner to a row of offices.
Glancing back at the crowd of waiting kids, Lex knew it was the last name that was getting her ahead of them, "Guess Brittany wasn't kidding," she laughed to herself.
"Ms. Barlow?" the secretary opened the door. "A Cale to see you."
"Cale? I didn't know there were anymore Cales after Miss Brittany," the woman behind the desk stood up to shake Lex's hand. "Welcome to Cedar Ridge, it's a privilege to have you here, Miss."
"Alexa," Lex couldn't believe the shows these people were putting on when they heard that last name.
Once the secretary had left and closed the door, Ms. Barlow offered Lax a seat and sat back down herself, "So how may I help you Miss Cale?"
"You can just call me Alexa," Lex tended to save the shortened version of her name for people she felt comfortable around. "There are a lot of classes on my schedule I didn't sign up for."
"Like what?" Ms. Barlow brought up Lex's file on the computer.
"Well if you look at my records from my last school, I already got the credits for science and history up through graduation, but you have those classes on there. You've got me in calc two, when I did that last year, and I never signed up for band or Spanish."
"We thought those class credits were mistakes, how could you have passed senior courses when this is your first day as a freshman?"
"Easy, I'm smart," Lex fought her natural instinct to get bitchy.
"Alright, so I guess we can take them out," Ms. Barlow attempted to conceal her surprise as she typed the commands into the program. "What were the other things?"
"You forgot the take off the math; I looked and you don't offer anything higher than calc two," she pointed out. "And I don't play anything, so I signed up for chorus, not band."
"Alright. yes, there's room in chorus."
"And finally, I never signed up for Spanish," Lex gave her last request.
"Well, you have no foreign language credits and you need three to graduate," Ms. Barlow took her hands off the keyboard.
"Ok, well, how would I get the finals for them?" Lex shrugged, figuring this day wouldn't have been free of crap anyway.
"Finals? But you need to learn how to speak Spanish before passing the course, Alexa," Ms. Barlow shook her head,
"Muchos gracias, Capitana Obvia," Lex rolled her eyes. At the blank stare she was returned with, Lex translated her remark, "Thank you, Captain Obvious. I already speak Spanish, so just lemme take the finals for whatever three levels and we'll be good to go."
"Why would you want to take the finals on the first day?"
"Duh, so I don't have to take the class. Look, it was how I did things at my old school. First day, I come in, take the finals for those kinds of classes, gets As, and then I'd just fill that in with study halls. Every year, all I took was my PE and health semesters, and art and chorus majors. After the first three periods of the day, I'd leave for work. I got a job teaching swimming at the Rec center across the street," Lex explained.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Foggle Towers 12:36 P.M.
"Greetings," Lex threw her backpack down next to Logan and began raiding the fridge.
"What are you doing here?" Logan tapped his watch, wondering if it had stopped.
"Your watch is fine," Lex laughed as she crushed up a packet of Raman and popped it in the microwave. "I actually would have been home over an hour ago if they hadn't been so skeptical about the Spanish finals."
"Finals? On the first day?"
"Yeah, remember my little system from back home? Well, they didn't believe I could answer six hundred questions in two hours, so they made me stick around while the first one was graded. Good news- they feel like idiots now and I'm done with foreign languages. I would have stuck around to do those English finals, but I'll tackle them tomorrow. I brought them up on the computers- nothing but grammar, vocab, and literature."
"So would this be deemed as a good day or a bad day?" Logan tried to get a sense of Lex's mood.
"For a first day of school, pretty good," Lex sat down next to him with her lunch. "So, what have you been up to?" she asked with a mouthful of noodles.
"I think I finally cracked the drug trafficking case I was working on. Some creep named Grayer Clasin thought he could hit the jackpot with it after his shipping deal with Canada fell through. Turned to drugs, thinking he knew what he was doing, but he's not quite as clever as he thought."
"Disappointed you didn't uncover something big?" Lex nudged Logan's arm.
Smiling at Lex's version of affection, Logan shook his head, "Not really. Taking out one source should cut down on how much of this stuff is in floating around China and scare some other men like him out of undertaking illegal side projects. If Clasin gets a good sentence, that is."
"Well, maybe Eyes Only could get rid of two creeps?" Lex suggested.
"Read my mind," Logan nudged Lex back.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
St. Andrews Academy Salem, Oregon
"Hello?"
"Fe'nos tol," Senator McKinley greeted the high priestess when she answered her phone.
"Fe'nos tol," the priestess returned. "This had better not be another request for more time to find something we can use."
"No, I've found something," McKinley promised. "It's the offspring, she's not in public schools, and she's using an alias."
"What leads you to believe something like that?"
"At a private school in sector nine called Cedar Ridge, they had an Alexa Cale taking three finals this morning."
"Could it be make-up tests?" the priestess was skeptical McKinley just had another dead end.
"The girl finished all three in under two hours and didn't get a single one of the six hundred questions incorrect. Aside from that, she has the same date of birth as 452's offspring."
"Well, I believe you've actually done something right for once. I'll send a troop out immediately."
"Fe'nos tol," McKinley obeyed, glad he wasn't going to have to undergo whatever the priestess had been threatening to do if didn't find 452.
"Fe'nos tol," she hung up.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jam Pony
"I just don't know what to expect," Max took another bite of the soft pretzel she'd bought down the street as she talked about Lex's reaction to Cedar Ridge. "Hell, I'd go nuts if I had to spend the day around people like Logan's relatives."
"You know, I still can't believe you have a kid," Sketchy appeared to be deep in thought.
"Why not?" Max was curious as to Sketchy's thoughts.
"I don't know; you just never seemed like someone who'd have kids. Look at the rest of us, in our thirties and still alone. I just always figured we'd all be in the same place."
"Fool, don't make Original Cindy put you in the world's a hurt. There been some fine shorties over the years, they just ain't been with you," Cindy cut in with her defense.
"Can we get through one lunch without pissing and moaning about this?" Alec complained.
"Yeah, well, sometimes finding someone doesn't make life any easier," Max hung her head.
"How's it going with Lex and Logan, anyway?" Alec asked.
"I really don't know. It's not something Lex really brings up, and I don't know what to ask. He said she called him Dad once, but if she's ever said it a second time I don't know about it," Max shrugged.
"Why would baby boo only say it once?" Original Cindy wondered aloud.
"Don't ask me," Max sighed. "They seem to be getting along fine, but Lex seems to treat him more like a friend than her father. Maybe that one 'dad' was her just seeing how it sounded."
"Well at least she's speaking to him, period," Sketchy offered his words of wisdom. "Seriously, how many teenagers are there in the world who treat their parents like friends?"
"Gotta admit, fool has a point," Cindy was always surprised when Sketchy said something intelligent.
"Better you than me raising a teen, Max," Alec shook his head. "I don't see why people have kids at all."
"Sometimes it's because you run out of condoms," Max smacked him upside the head. "But the world doesn't need any more of you running around, so keep that attitude until you're sterile."
"Ouch, Max, that hurts," Alec put a hand over his heart, pretending to be offended.
"Ok, Original Cindy's getting depressed over this crap, so who's in favor of changing the topic?" Cindy threw up her arms.
"Please," Max agreed.
"Ok, so I was at Crash last night showing off my new bike trick- "
"And you saw some hot girl and fell flat on your ass trying to get in her pants and then woke up wondering how you got on some strange couch," Max and Cindy fished Sketchy's story in unison.
"Bip bip bip!" Normal tapped his watch with his pencil. "Let's go people, you don't get all afternoon for lunch!"
"Ten bucks if you shove that pencil up his ass," Max threw her head back and broke off another piece of her pretzel.
________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Well, I finally have a computer back in my room. Of course, it took the damn place two weeks to get back to me and then it was, "Yeah, the monitor's too old; it's not worth fixing". So I got a new one. But why it took them two weeks to be able to tell me that, I don't know. And, Maria- Vin just might be in the next chapter.. Of course, you know what have to do to make sure of it.. Ok, this is usually the part where I beg for reviews, but instead I'm asking a question- are you guys loosing interest or something? I went to upload this and noticed that this fic only has half the reviews WAMM did. I don't know; that just set off some alarm bells because I really am trying here. So is the story boring? Do you not like the plots? And I think I've made it perfectly clear that you don't even have to give a suggestion, just let me know that this story is being read. Call me insecure or bitchy if you will, but just click the purple button if you wanna see a new chapter soon. Please.
Chapter 11: Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous
September 2, 2036
"She looks so cute," Jondy gibed at Lex as she pinched her cheek, only to receive an icy glare. "Aw, c'mon, give the camera a nice, big first-day-of- snooty-private-school smile."
"Bite me," Lex snapped back through her cereal.
"Jondy, give up already," Max roll her eyes as she heaved a heavy sigh and grabbed the camera from Jondy's grasp.
"Yeah, don't you have anything better to do?" Lex poured herself another bowl.
"Actually, no. Shop's being tented for termites, so I can dedicate my morning to seeing my favorite niece off to school," Jondy couldn't resist taking full advantage of Lex's irritable state.
"Unfortunately, and I'm your only niece," Lex grumbled as she headed off to the bathroom to brush her teeth and bumping into Logan on her way out. Mumbling something that sounded like 'hey', she disappeared around the corner.
"What's wrong with her; she sick or something?" Logan scratched his head, wondering if his half-asleep state had something to do with it.
"No, it's just the first day of school," Max assured him.
"She's this grumpy every year. When she was five, she hid under Max's bike screaming, "You can't make me go!"," Jondy let out a laugh-like sound.
"She's usually ok by the time she gets home, though," Max told Logan. "Hopefully she'll meet someone she likes."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cedar Ridge Academy Room E-016
"Welcome to all you As through Ds of the freshman class. I'm Mrs. Crail and I'll be your homeroom teach throughout your four years here at Cedar Ridge," the middle-aged woman greeted the students with smile far too cherry for 7:30 a.m.
Lex sat at her desk near the window, contemplating the many ways in which she could make this woman mysteriously disappear. "Squeal one more time, and it gets taken out on those damn cat figurines on your desk," she thought to herself. After the repetitious torture of filling out seven different emergency and attendance cards, class schedules were finally passed back. When Lex got hers, she stared down, insulted and in disbelief. Biting the bullet, she walked up to the teacher, "Um, excuse me. Where's the office? There are some problems with my schedule."
"Well, what's wrong with it, pumpkin?" Mrs. Crail asked with another blinding smile.
"Ok, first off, don't ever call me pumpkin. But I didn't sign up for half these classes and I want them gone," Lex was in no mood to be further agitated.
Sighing, Mrs. Crail gave Lex directions and a pass, wondering what she was so angry over, "Probably another spoiled little princess," she thought and shook her head as Lex walked out the door.
Pushing the double glass doors open, Lex walked up to the first secretary without a line of students, "Hi, who do I talk to about schedule adjustments?"
"Name?" the woman's response was robotic, like she was already fed up with complaints.
"Alexa Cale," Lex still didn't like the sound of that. She had reasoned that it was mainly because Cale didn't sound good next to Colette, but deep down she knew that it was because she didn't want to sound tied down to her new life.
"Oh, another Cale!" the woman's face suddenly took on a brighter appearance. "I'll take you over to Ms. Barlow, she's free right now," the woman motioned to escort Lex around the corner to a row of offices.
Glancing back at the crowd of waiting kids, Lex knew it was the last name that was getting her ahead of them, "Guess Brittany wasn't kidding," she laughed to herself.
"Ms. Barlow?" the secretary opened the door. "A Cale to see you."
"Cale? I didn't know there were anymore Cales after Miss Brittany," the woman behind the desk stood up to shake Lex's hand. "Welcome to Cedar Ridge, it's a privilege to have you here, Miss."
"Alexa," Lex couldn't believe the shows these people were putting on when they heard that last name.
Once the secretary had left and closed the door, Ms. Barlow offered Lax a seat and sat back down herself, "So how may I help you Miss Cale?"
"You can just call me Alexa," Lex tended to save the shortened version of her name for people she felt comfortable around. "There are a lot of classes on my schedule I didn't sign up for."
"Like what?" Ms. Barlow brought up Lex's file on the computer.
"Well if you look at my records from my last school, I already got the credits for science and history up through graduation, but you have those classes on there. You've got me in calc two, when I did that last year, and I never signed up for band or Spanish."
"We thought those class credits were mistakes, how could you have passed senior courses when this is your first day as a freshman?"
"Easy, I'm smart," Lex fought her natural instinct to get bitchy.
"Alright, so I guess we can take them out," Ms. Barlow attempted to conceal her surprise as she typed the commands into the program. "What were the other things?"
"You forgot the take off the math; I looked and you don't offer anything higher than calc two," she pointed out. "And I don't play anything, so I signed up for chorus, not band."
"Alright. yes, there's room in chorus."
"And finally, I never signed up for Spanish," Lex gave her last request.
"Well, you have no foreign language credits and you need three to graduate," Ms. Barlow took her hands off the keyboard.
"Ok, well, how would I get the finals for them?" Lex shrugged, figuring this day wouldn't have been free of crap anyway.
"Finals? But you need to learn how to speak Spanish before passing the course, Alexa," Ms. Barlow shook her head,
"Muchos gracias, Capitana Obvia," Lex rolled her eyes. At the blank stare she was returned with, Lex translated her remark, "Thank you, Captain Obvious. I already speak Spanish, so just lemme take the finals for whatever three levels and we'll be good to go."
"Why would you want to take the finals on the first day?"
"Duh, so I don't have to take the class. Look, it was how I did things at my old school. First day, I come in, take the finals for those kinds of classes, gets As, and then I'd just fill that in with study halls. Every year, all I took was my PE and health semesters, and art and chorus majors. After the first three periods of the day, I'd leave for work. I got a job teaching swimming at the Rec center across the street," Lex explained.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Foggle Towers 12:36 P.M.
"Greetings," Lex threw her backpack down next to Logan and began raiding the fridge.
"What are you doing here?" Logan tapped his watch, wondering if it had stopped.
"Your watch is fine," Lex laughed as she crushed up a packet of Raman and popped it in the microwave. "I actually would have been home over an hour ago if they hadn't been so skeptical about the Spanish finals."
"Finals? On the first day?"
"Yeah, remember my little system from back home? Well, they didn't believe I could answer six hundred questions in two hours, so they made me stick around while the first one was graded. Good news- they feel like idiots now and I'm done with foreign languages. I would have stuck around to do those English finals, but I'll tackle them tomorrow. I brought them up on the computers- nothing but grammar, vocab, and literature."
"So would this be deemed as a good day or a bad day?" Logan tried to get a sense of Lex's mood.
"For a first day of school, pretty good," Lex sat down next to him with her lunch. "So, what have you been up to?" she asked with a mouthful of noodles.
"I think I finally cracked the drug trafficking case I was working on. Some creep named Grayer Clasin thought he could hit the jackpot with it after his shipping deal with Canada fell through. Turned to drugs, thinking he knew what he was doing, but he's not quite as clever as he thought."
"Disappointed you didn't uncover something big?" Lex nudged Logan's arm.
Smiling at Lex's version of affection, Logan shook his head, "Not really. Taking out one source should cut down on how much of this stuff is in floating around China and scare some other men like him out of undertaking illegal side projects. If Clasin gets a good sentence, that is."
"Well, maybe Eyes Only could get rid of two creeps?" Lex suggested.
"Read my mind," Logan nudged Lex back.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
St. Andrews Academy Salem, Oregon
"Hello?"
"Fe'nos tol," Senator McKinley greeted the high priestess when she answered her phone.
"Fe'nos tol," the priestess returned. "This had better not be another request for more time to find something we can use."
"No, I've found something," McKinley promised. "It's the offspring, she's not in public schools, and she's using an alias."
"What leads you to believe something like that?"
"At a private school in sector nine called Cedar Ridge, they had an Alexa Cale taking three finals this morning."
"Could it be make-up tests?" the priestess was skeptical McKinley just had another dead end.
"The girl finished all three in under two hours and didn't get a single one of the six hundred questions incorrect. Aside from that, she has the same date of birth as 452's offspring."
"Well, I believe you've actually done something right for once. I'll send a troop out immediately."
"Fe'nos tol," McKinley obeyed, glad he wasn't going to have to undergo whatever the priestess had been threatening to do if didn't find 452.
"Fe'nos tol," she hung up.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jam Pony
"I just don't know what to expect," Max took another bite of the soft pretzel she'd bought down the street as she talked about Lex's reaction to Cedar Ridge. "Hell, I'd go nuts if I had to spend the day around people like Logan's relatives."
"You know, I still can't believe you have a kid," Sketchy appeared to be deep in thought.
"Why not?" Max was curious as to Sketchy's thoughts.
"I don't know; you just never seemed like someone who'd have kids. Look at the rest of us, in our thirties and still alone. I just always figured we'd all be in the same place."
"Fool, don't make Original Cindy put you in the world's a hurt. There been some fine shorties over the years, they just ain't been with you," Cindy cut in with her defense.
"Can we get through one lunch without pissing and moaning about this?" Alec complained.
"Yeah, well, sometimes finding someone doesn't make life any easier," Max hung her head.
"How's it going with Lex and Logan, anyway?" Alec asked.
"I really don't know. It's not something Lex really brings up, and I don't know what to ask. He said she called him Dad once, but if she's ever said it a second time I don't know about it," Max shrugged.
"Why would baby boo only say it once?" Original Cindy wondered aloud.
"Don't ask me," Max sighed. "They seem to be getting along fine, but Lex seems to treat him more like a friend than her father. Maybe that one 'dad' was her just seeing how it sounded."
"Well at least she's speaking to him, period," Sketchy offered his words of wisdom. "Seriously, how many teenagers are there in the world who treat their parents like friends?"
"Gotta admit, fool has a point," Cindy was always surprised when Sketchy said something intelligent.
"Better you than me raising a teen, Max," Alec shook his head. "I don't see why people have kids at all."
"Sometimes it's because you run out of condoms," Max smacked him upside the head. "But the world doesn't need any more of you running around, so keep that attitude until you're sterile."
"Ouch, Max, that hurts," Alec put a hand over his heart, pretending to be offended.
"Ok, Original Cindy's getting depressed over this crap, so who's in favor of changing the topic?" Cindy threw up her arms.
"Please," Max agreed.
"Ok, so I was at Crash last night showing off my new bike trick- "
"And you saw some hot girl and fell flat on your ass trying to get in her pants and then woke up wondering how you got on some strange couch," Max and Cindy fished Sketchy's story in unison.
"Bip bip bip!" Normal tapped his watch with his pencil. "Let's go people, you don't get all afternoon for lunch!"
"Ten bucks if you shove that pencil up his ass," Max threw her head back and broke off another piece of her pretzel.
________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Well, I finally have a computer back in my room. Of course, it took the damn place two weeks to get back to me and then it was, "Yeah, the monitor's too old; it's not worth fixing". So I got a new one. But why it took them two weeks to be able to tell me that, I don't know. And, Maria- Vin just might be in the next chapter.. Of course, you know what have to do to make sure of it.. Ok, this is usually the part where I beg for reviews, but instead I'm asking a question- are you guys loosing interest or something? I went to upload this and noticed that this fic only has half the reviews WAMM did. I don't know; that just set off some alarm bells because I really am trying here. So is the story boring? Do you not like the plots? And I think I've made it perfectly clear that you don't even have to give a suggestion, just let me know that this story is being read. Call me insecure or bitchy if you will, but just click the purple button if you wanna see a new chapter soon. Please.