Title: The Best Homework Excuse Ever
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not claim to own the Matrix trilogy, the canon characters, story or anything related. I can only wish that I did. I make no profit from this – I am merely exercising my writing skills for the reading pleasure of readers. However, I own this story. I own the character Chase, and Lady Delerith owns Ari.
Authors' notes: Solia: Formatting on the last chapter - I realise that it didn't work. Please don't blame Delerith completely. It's my fault for being completely computer-illiterate, resulting in her having to load it for me. All of those reviews would have been frame-worthy if the formatting thing hadn't been screwed up. Oh, well, I'm over it.
One more thing, though: This story is not a normal story. It was originally a prequel to another story, taking place three years later, but the original kind of never got finished. Therefore, The Best Homework Excuse Ever does not have the usual structure of a story. Ie, a beginning, complication, suspense build-up, climax and resolution. It might, I'm not sure, but there you have it. It was written as a prologue.
Lady Delerith: Thankyou all for all your reviews. Solia and I have a bet against each other about who has the better character. In your next reviews please say if you prefer either Ari (Lady Delerith, because she is soooo cool) OR Chase (Solia, who is not) Thankyou :p.
THE BEST HOMEWORK EXCUSE EVER:
Chapter three
Chase let her head lie on the cool table in the mathematics class. She loved maths – it made such perfect sense to her, like so little did – but today she just wasn't in the mood. How could she be? That weird person was contacting her at school now, too.
"I can't believe you got detention," Carrie said, rolling her eyes. Like usual, she sat beside her in this class, mostly so that she could copy Chase's answers and stay in the top class. "In your favourite class, too."
"I'll get another one for my second favourite class if you don't shut up, and I'll make sure you pay dearly," Chase threatened, although her heart wasn't in it.
"That Kye girl was in your class. Did you sit with her?" Carrie asked, ignoring the threat.
"Yes."
"Really?" Carrie asked in surprise. Chase wasn't often very social.
"Yes."
"How are you gonna get home? You know Mum has to be at work by four – she can't pick you up at four and be at work at the same time."
"I know that. I'll walk."
"It's a long way."
"I'll catch a bus." Chase was getting annoyed with this interrogation. "Just tell Mum where I am."
"You got a detention first day back," Carrie said gleefully, leaning over her sister's shoulder to peek at her answer to question six. "Oh, it was eighteen point three... Right, I get it." She scribbled down the number. She did a few pretend calculations, carrying non-existent ones over and so forth. Chase sighed, handing her the entire sheet in her absent-mindedness. Carrie took it and began copying everything exactly while Chase stared into space.
How strange that both computers had flicked off and played the same messages. Maybe whoever it was that liked contacting her and teasing her with strange half-answers hadn't known which of the two girls was Chase, and had just sent the words to both 'odd children'. Chase very much doubted whether her parents would want her hanging out with someone like Kye Saunders. Someone so alike herself, a dreamer with weird ideas, maybe badly influential. Well, definitely badly influential if one counted the suicide scars on her wrists. They looked old, though, years old.
"Remember – homework due tomorrow morning," Miss Mason announced to the class. "You are all dismissed."
Great – homework, the last thing Chase needed today. Oh, well, she was pretty good at coming up with homework excuses. Maybe she could think of a brilliant one overnight. Carrie got up beside Chase, shoving both sheets into her bag.
"Sophie," she said, frowning. Chase looked back at her. "I just got the weirdest feeling. Like I might regret this moment if I don't say the right thing. You ever get that feeling?"
"Yeah, usually just before I insult a teacher," Chase answered with a grin. Carrie rolled her eyes, not amused.
"Well, I know what I want to say," she said, annoyed that she hadn't been taken too seriously. She believed in twin telepathy and psychic bonds. Chase didn't. "I hope you get run over on your way home. Or kidnapped."
"That isn't nice," Chase said reasonably. "You should be careful what you wish for – it might just come true."
"Wouldn't that be wonderful?" Carrie wondered aloud. Joking, of course.
"You know, one day you're going to wake up and I'm not going to be there any more," her sister said in annoyance. "One day I'll just be gone, either having run away or been abducted. Then you'll be sorry. Who's going to give you maths answers when I'm gone?"
Carrie laughed as she walked off.
"Bye," she added over her shoulder, joining Linda, her answer. Because if Chase disappeared or died or whatever, Linda would make a good substitute.
"I'll see you later," Chase called, not realising the untruth of her words. She turned to the library door, across from her maths room. She almost walked straight into the first of the year eight girls rushing out.
"Sophie." Sadie caught her arm and pulled herself out of the mad rush from the doors. "Come on, let's go home," she said. Her pigtails had fallen down during the day, so now they hung loosely but prettily down.
"Can't. I got a detention," Chase answered. She patted her sister on the head jokingly. "Innocent, perfect little Sadie will get one of those one day. Carrie's already going to the car. Tell Mum I'll catch a bus or something. I didn't eat lunch so I think five dollars will be enough."
"Okay," Sadie said, leaning away from her pats but not leaving yet. "This school sucks, by the way. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I did. We all did."
"Yes, but I didn't think you were serious," Sadie answered. "At least all of my teachers thought I was smart."
"Maybe they did want Sadie for Sadie after all," Chase said, not in the mood to be mean right then. Like her twin, she had the feeling that if she was, she would forever regret it.
"I'll be off now," Sadie said, flicking her pigtails over her shoulder. "Enjoy your detention. And remember – don't take rides from strangers, no matter what candy they offer."
She grinned and left, sandy-brown hair swinging. With a final sigh, Chase checked the empty hall. After the last bell, people cleared out pretty quickly here. Kye wasn't anywhere to be seen. Chase shoved open the doors, entering alone.
Mr Barry sat at one of the long desks, examining some papers. He pretended not to notice – one of his annoying traits apart from his dislike of abbreviations – even as Chase walked all the way up to his desk.
"Ah, Miss Evans," he said, looking up and discontinuing his pretending not to notice her presence. "I am afraid that your friend, Miss Saunders, got here long before you, and she got the detention job of filing my new paperwork away. You, I fear, have been left with the task of scrubbing desks." Chase nodded, but inside she was groaning. Not only had she been given the worse job because of her dawdling with Carrie and Sadie, but she also she hated the way Mr Barry talked. It was annoying. Hadn't the guy ever heard of abbreviations?
"Yes, sir," she agreed, going in search of hot soapy water and a sponge.
Thirty minutes later, she finally got to tip the murky water down the sink. Nobody had cleaned the library desks over the holidays, those lazy cleaners. In fact, they hadn't been cleaned since she was in year eight. She should know – she was the one to clean them. That was what she got for accessing an off-limits, locked school program in an attempt to change her grades. Chase pretended not to notice the tiny flicker of bright green, barely a speck, in the dirty water as she shook the bucket in a funny circle. That was one kind of weird errors she saw every now and then, although the rarest kind. The speck wasn't quite big enough to make out what it was, nor did it ever last long enough.
It was an odd thing that existed, although not logically, so Chase chose to ignore it. It didn't do to dwell on what she alone could see. People already thought she was a weirdo.
Once Mr Barry had her word that she wouldn't turn her computer off before time again, he cleared her, and she left, grumbling quietly. She had no idea what time the buses ran in the afternoons around the school. Bag slung over one shoulder; she wandered across the front lawn of the school, alone. There were no people around now, but she got the smallest feeling that she wasn't alone at all. With a slight frown, she turned in the direction of the school woodlands.
Sitting in the lush lawn not twenty metres away was small, fluffy white rabbit, his little pink nose delicately sniffing the air.
"How adorable," she murmured. She started to turn around, then froze.
Follow the white rabbit...
Without much consideration, Chase walked over to the small white animal. As she got closer, it slowly hopped closer to the woodlands, slowing down and peering over its shoulder as though making sure that she was following. Which she certainly was. Her curiosity drove her after the little bunny, following it along the lawn. She glanced down at her feet as she walked, and saw that she and the rabbit were travelling along a strip of mustard- coloured bricks laid into the ground as a path for the groundkeeper.
Follow the yellow-brick road...
Chase didn't care about the woods. She wasn't scared of insects and stuff, so she followed the rabbit into the bushland. Most of the trees were quite dense, but Chase managed to squeeze past them in the dimmer light of the woods.
Into the woods...
Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a second white rabbit jumped into the small path. Both bunnies hopped forward and underneath a rotting log as another person walked straight into Chase's path.
With a squeal, both Chase and Kye jumped back, pressing themselves against trees. After a moment, they both burst into nervous giggles.
"I was just trying out that crazy rabbit thing," Kye laughed, embarrassed. She nervously ran her hand through her low ponytail. Her hair was obviously naturally quite dark, the only proof being her slight regrowth, as her skin was light, like Chase's. Her hair had been dyed to mahogany purple, perhaps to compliment her lavender eyes.
"Me, too," Chase said, looking around for whatever she had come here for. Kye was doing the same. They would have been staring around in circles – in all the wrong directions – if it hadn't been for the fright of their lives.
"Look up!" somebody shouted from nearby. Chase and Kye both stared upwards.
And saw the man perched in the tree above them, waiting. He was dressed in a brown suit, with shaded glasses and a mean, cold expression. He looked terribly menacing, especially to two teenage girls with no idea what they were facing. Suddenly the man leaped down at Kye, his movement spider-like.
With a scream from both of them, Chase grabbed Kye's wrist and bolted, through the trees. She could hear the man crashing through the trees behind them, but she didn't dare glance back. That is, until Kye tripped over a fallen branch Chase had tried to drag her over.
"Ow!" Kye cried out, stumbling. Chase turned to catch her wrist again, but she missed, and was shocked to see the evil-looking man shoving the branches aside with amazing speed and strength.
"Hurry!" she shrieked, hopping on one foot, ready to bolt again as soon as Kye had her footing. By the time she had a second later, the man was gaining on them. Their only advantage was that they were smaller, and could move quicker and quieter through the trees, although at the moment the quiet part wasn't an issue. Getting enough space between them so that they should be quiet was the problem.
"Hide!"
Hearing that same warning female voice again, both girls ducked underneath a low hanging branch and stopped a moment later behind a thick-trunk tree. Chase, breathing hard, peered around it in fear. That man was still advancing, but now numerous gunshots rang out. Chase flinched and saw a few thick vines snap as well-aimed bullets severed them. They had been holding a long-dead branch from falling for quite a while, but now that its only supports were gone, the heavy branch fell earthwards, cracking away from the remainder of where it had been attached to its tree.
The man looked up a moment before it fell and pinned him. He struggled beneath the branch.
Still terrified, even though the threat was now apparently stuck, Chase bolted for the edge of the woods, Kye right behind her. That man had weird strength – he looked like he'd be able to get that branch off in a while if he tried.
Chase didn't stop running until she reached the safety of the girls' restrooms. She fell against the brick wall, panting. Kye supported herself on the sink, her breathing uneven and heavy. She looked up at herself in the mirror above it. Her face was pale, her lavender eyes wide. Chase met her eyes in the mirror. She, also, looked like she'd seen a ghost.
"Who was that?" Kye gasped out. Chase didn't have an answer. She wondered if that man was the one who had been contacting her. Had she led Kye into danger? "What was that?"
"Maybe he sent us that stupid message?" Chase suggested. But Kye shook her head.
"I reckon it was that girl," she said stubbornly. Chase, taking deep, calming breaths, looked at her.
"What girl?" she asked. "What do you mean?"
"I think that girl who helped us sent the message," Kye said.
Chase frowned.
"I don't get it. What girl? I didn't see any girl."
She honestly had no clue what Kye was on about.
"The girl – well, she wasn't really a girl, I don't think. About twenty or something, I'd say. The one who yelled out to us."
"Oh, did you see her?" Chase asked, feeling both her breathing and heartbeat returning to normal. She had gotten a huge fright, but now she was recovering. Kye nodded. She turned on the tap and took a few quick mouthfuls of water.
"Tell me," she said, wiping the water away from her mouth. "Do you think we were really in danger back there, or do you think we just had tight nerves, and overreacted?"
Chase considered it. Honestly, a man dressed in a suit jumping from a tree in the way she would describe and chasing them through woodland – it did sound a little out-there. Nobody would ever believe their account.
"I think maybe we overreacted," Chase admitted. "It scared me half to death, though. Maybe it was just the scary lighting or something."
Kye nodded hopefully. Like Chase, she obviously wanted to make what had happened seem completely unreal so that she could look back and say that she had been safe. It was human nature to belittle terrifying situations and make them appear, to themselves, stupid, to reduce the fear later on.
"Perhaps we were all worked up about following those little rabbits, and the yellow grass. And maybe..." Kye continued, but Chase felt her heart falling. Kye had had the same experience.
She had followed the rabbit, a path of yellow grass, gone into the woods... it made the whole thing seem a little more real, a little more dangerous. Someone was playing around, being deliberately scary...
But the worst thing was that this person, maybe that young woman Kye was talking about or the man in the suit, had two teenage targets.
This person was targeting Chase and Kye.
"Maybe we just have serious cases of paranoia," Kye finished. She hesitantly started for the door, peering out first before stepping back into the sunlight. Chase followed.
"I need to catch a bus home," she said, glancing at her watch. Four- fifteen, which meant she was late if there was a four PM bus. Kye shook her head.
"I can't believe we were so scared," she said, laughing shakily. Obviously, the fright was still haunting her memory, too. "I catch a bus, too. I just don't know where the bus stop is."
Chase led the way across the front lawn of the school, not daring to glance at the woods. Talking and laughing, they started down the road, not remotely scared now.
"I'm going to go home and lock myself in my room, and read Matilda," Kye proclaimed.
"Why?" Chase asked. Personally, she loved reading, but Kye didn't strike her as the type who liked it, too.
"I don't read books other than that," Kye said with a grin. "It's my favourite book ever. I... Well, I like to think that... My life is kind of like hers to begin with. I can only hope that my special abilities get noticed and that I get taken away from my crappy parents." She smiled. "Do you hate your parents, too?"
"No, I love my family," Chase said, surprised. "They love me, too, although they don't understand me."
"Do they understand your sister?"
"Which one? Carrie? Yeah, my mum and dad understand Carrie and my other two sisters, but not me," Chase said with a shrug.
"How weird – you and Carrie (that's it, isn't it?) are identical twins, but you sound like such different people," said Kye.
"We are. Isn't it scary – even twins can be so different?"
They had almost reached the abandoned little bus shelter when a sleek black car with tinted windows pulled up beside them. The door opened.
"Need a ride?" the young woman inside asked. She had dark brown hair, darker brown than Chase's, maybe even black, and it was cut boyishly short. But the style was still quite feminine. She had cool blue eyes, and she wore a black leather jumpsuit that was tight to her slight, slender frame.
"No, thanks," Chase answered, remembering Sadie's parting joke and moving away. Beside her, Kye hadn't yet seen into the car, but she also moved forwards and away, nervous now.
"Sure?" a male voice sounded from the unknown interior of the car.
"We're sure," Kye answered tensely, speeding up.
"Run, Kye," Chase mumbled. The car was still slowly following their progress. They broke into synchronised runs.
"Ari and Chase?" the young woman called.
Chase stopped dead.
Kye did the same.
How did the woman know that name? It was a secret identity, and nobody who knew that Chase existed knew what she looked like.
"What did you say?" Chase asked, her voice shaky. The two people in the front glanced back at her. There were two men, one bald with a thin moustache, and the other tan brown with a dark ponytail.
"How do you know?" Kye demanded, leaning around her new friend. Chase shot her a surprised look. What did she mean?
"Get in, I'll explain on the way," the twenty-or-so-year-old woman said. But Chase shook her head.
"So this is what adults mean when they talk about not getting into cars with strangers," she said.
Kye frowned.
"You're the one who helped us just now," she said, realising.
The woman nodded.
"I swear we won't hurt either of you. You followed the rabbit and the path into the woods. Now take the carriage home."
Follow the white rabbit... Follow the yellow-brick road... Into the woods... Take the carriage home...
This was Chase's chance to get the answers she was searching for. She sent a silent thought to her little sister: Sorry, Sadie, but this candy is too good to pass up.
"You sent me those messages." Both girls looked at each other in surprise as they said the same thing in unison. Both had thought that those messages were for themselves.
Now they knew.
They were for both of them.
Dun dun DUNNNN! Tune in next week for the next episode of 'The Best Homework Excuse Ever'.