Notes
It's moving relatively fast at the moment but just to get it to a point where it becomes more interesting hopefully
The next week was pretty uneventful, Claudia went to detention each afternoon where her and Todd did as little as they could get away with and she sat through lessons spending most of her time trying to brake the encryption. Most teachers just left her alone, she had learnt that once you embarrass a few in front of their classes the rest would completely avoid you. However that changed on Monday during home room.
"Miss Donovan I would like to see you after school in the library today." Mr Nielsen told her quietly to not attract the attention of the other students, walking off before she could even reply.
After a day of worrying and desperately trying to figure out what the hell Mr Nielsen, or as she had discovered over the weekend Mr Weisfelt, wanted with her. He hadn't even spoken to her since that evening in the dinner. Walking into the library though she was relieved to see other students already there, two girls, one tall with long out of control hair, the other shorter with much curlier but tame hair and one boy.
"Do any of you guys know why we're all here?" Claudia asked interrupting the conversation they were having.
"Of course we do," started the taller of the girls turning to face her, "Wait you're the new kid. Artie you didn't say she was the new kid, she broke the record for the time taken to be sent to the principals office. No I can't be with her. This is for the gifted not those gifted at trouble making." She called out storming further into the library.
"Don't worry about her she just a little stressed, I can see you're a good person. I'm Leena, that was Myka and this is Pete." Said the smaller one moving towards her and looking her over after Claudia had backed away slightly.
"Awesome, well clearly I shouldn't be here though. The other girl, Myka, you said? Well she said this was for gifted people and I'm really not that so I'll just be off then." She said turning back to leave the way she came in before stopping suddenly as she almost walked straight in to a large brown mass.
"And where do you think you're going Miss Donovan?" Asked Mr Nielsen becoming recognisable as she took a step backwards.
"Home, I'm finally done with detention and clearly not meant to be here so I'm leaving school at a reasonable time for once." She replied whilst side stepping to try and move around him only to find him doing the same to stop her.
"Miss Donovan pull out your laptop," Mr Nielsen requested continuing to block her path, "As I am sure it is you who has been trying to gain access to the files this past week, good job on that by the way, at the rate you're going you would have been in in ten more days."
"Dude I would have been in in five." Claudia quipped back moving towards the desk while opening her bag, "So that's your encryption then, when did Mr Weisfelt learn coding like that?" she asked, placing the computer on the table.
"Ah I thought you might find that one, and yes, well partly, I had a few friends lend a hand. Though you. You nearly made it through over a years work of some of NSA top coders in a week." He spoke fast while starting to type on the computer, "Interesting, you said you made this yourself?"
"Yep about a year ago like I told you at the dinner. Why?" Claudia tried to look over his shoulder to see exactly what he was doing, if he broke it she would kill him.
"Made of spare parts, computer scraps. This bit doesn't even belong to a computer. Toaster? He asked while picking it up and looking it over.
"Careful with it! And yes what I could find, there's computer, toaster, microwave, anything I could salvage. I didn't really have any money to pay for parts."
"Of course. Of course. You coded it too, hmm." He turned to look at her, "If I gave you access to proper resources, what do you think you could do then."
She paused to think for a moment before replying, "Finally build a computer that could do all I needed."
"And what is it you need to do that this one cannot?" He asked inquisitively.
"That…" She paused for a moment, "Is not important right now, what is is was that an offer?"
"Come here every afternoon this week and maybe," he pointed his finger at her, "Just maybe it will be. For now though here's yours back." handing over the laptop he continued, "You were right though, it easily outcompetes anything commercially available. You said it would take you five days to get in right?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, well then you better get to it. There's a connection point over there if you need." He pointed over to a table near a wall.
"What is this group anyways?" Claudia asked already on her way over there.
"See if you can find out." He said mysteriously, "Myka get back here." he yelled out just a second later.
Sitting down with her computer she looked over her shoulder to see the other three all around a table facing towards a white board Mr Nielsen was writing on. The two girls were paying attention while Pete appeared to be trying to draw their attention away with a display of how many cookies he could fit into his mouth at once. Facing back to the computer she continued trying to find a weakness in the code. Maybe just going at by brute force would work she thought.
She was there for nearly two hours before she noticed the others getting ready to leave, Pete slung his arm around Myka's shoulder seconds before she shrugged it off, the two of them leaving together, while Leena stayed behind to talk to Mr Nielsen.
"Alright then, I'm off later Mr Nielsen slash Weisfelt."
"Stick with Nielsen Claudia, and here I'm just Artie."
Leena started to walk towards Claudia, "Hey I'll come with you." she said falling into step with her.
"Arn't you afraid my attitude or some shit will rub off on you?" Claudia asked sarcastically, most people avoided her, she didn't fit in anywhere are generally tried to avoid making friends, what was the point when you left a few months later.
"No, and anyways I can see you, the real you. That's someone worth being around." Leena turned to look at her while Claudia stood confused. "I have to go, my lift's here." Leena headed to a car in the parking lot, one of very few still there.
Claudia slowly walked home thinking about what Leena said, still not understanding what she meant. The real me, what the hell is that supposed to mean, she though letting herself in to the house and thanking God that no one else was home. Grabbing some left overs from the fridge she headed straight to her room, it wasn't really a bedroom though more an office with a mattress on the floor. The Sykes' really didn't have much space for her with everything having to be specially designed for Walter wheelchair. Claudia didn't mind too much though, the office had the wifi router and so the best signal. Setting herself up on her computer she ate the cold lasagne while continuing trying to access the dark vault, she was almost certain it had something to do with the gifted group though she had no clue why, she didn't even really understand what the group was at the moment.
She kept going to the after school group, watching the three interact with jealousy and continued trying to crack the encryption. She was always in the corner away from the others but she saw the looks she got from them, Pete and Leena looked intrigued, Pete had even come over and asked how she was doing on the third day, while Myka looked at her as if she was a bomb ready to explode at any second. She didn't really help herself though, she continued to talk back to teachers, spent lessons on her laptop and sat alone at lunch and break. But in the end it was worth it because just as she had predicted five days later she was staring at the now readable files.
This is one of the longest pieces of writing I have done so please do tell me if I need to fix anything