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: Sorry for anyone waiting but since I received no reviews I had to assume no one cared anyway so I took my time in getting this chapter published. Actually, I've been helping Delerith plan chapters 12 and 13, which will be the first chapters in this story written by her. They're simultaneous fight sequences and they're going to be so cool.
The two chapters previous to this were just fillers to introduce you to Chase and Ari's new friends, who will be among their allies for the rest of the tale, and to Ari's enemy, Glorious. If you find any new characters particularly annoying, review and let us know now, because Cinnamon, Glorious and Tear will be in the fiction for a very long time.
THE BEST HOMEWORK EXCUSE EVER: Chapter nine
Carrie. Mum. Dad. Sadie. Keira. Jasmine. Rayleigh. Anne. Linda. Caroline. Jennifer. Sarah-Jane. Tina. Alyssa. Great friends. Popularity. Respect from both teachers and fellow students. A wealthy life. An expensive school. A beautiful house. A promising future. Great grades. A great education. Great teachers (generally). Sophie.
She, Chase, had had everything a teenage girl could ever want. Leaning over a balcony in the underground city of Zion, staring, depressed, at the surrounding earth and metal, it was hard to recall why she had given it all up. She had literally had everything. She hadn't wanted anything more, and she had known full well what she had. And she'd thrown it all away for this.
It wasn't like in movies, how the beautiful, popular rich girl gives up her riches and great education to be with a boy that she loves. No, nothing like that. Here, in Zion, the only real human city left on the planet, Chase still didn't have a boyfriend.
Two years and ten months had passed since Chase's first day of year ten at SMCAG. Chase was still counting. Ari wasn't. She was glad to be free. But somehow, despite being released from the Matrix, Chase wasn't quite free. In some ways, she had escaped one cage just to become entangled in another trap. In Zion there was absolutely nothing to do. Not like on school holidays when the cinemas are closed, and, even though you have videos and a TV, you tell your parent, "There's nothing to do". There was honestly nothing. No TV. No videos. No cinemas. No shops. No currency, even.
Zion offered Chase no escape from her miserable daydreams and memories of the life she'd given away. She turned from the metal and stone city to the door of the room she shared with her three friends. Instantly, Teardrop, the only one home, was begging Chase to let her practice bandaging on her. With a typical older-sister smile, Chase sat down at the table and held out her wrist for Tear to wrap.
Once the cheerful, friendly, intelligent socialite Sophie Evans, Chase was rattled to realise how insecure she'd become without her friends and family around to support her. She no longer had Carrie, her identical twin, so she'd latched on to Ari, practically adopting her as her new twin sister. She no longer had Sadie, the little sister she would always seek to protect, so here she had Teardrop. And without bossy, energetic older sister Keira, Chase had chosen Cinnamon Brown as her replacement.
How scary. She had become so lost that she'd actually chosen friends that related to her forever-lost-to-her family.
She had finally confided in Ari, wondering if that was true. For once, her friend had been serious, and, while she had rather tactlessly admitted that Chase was a little insecure, she insisted that Chase hadn't chosen her friends. Tear and Cin had just turned up in her life. "Maybe," Ari had said gently, "you're just meant to have us as your friends. We're all practically sisters anyway – so whoever it is that is arranging for us to meet isn't just targeting you. We're all friends."
Was it crazy to just assume that Ari was right? Would Chase always pine for what she'd left behind and lost? Would she ever be able to forgive herself for what she had done to her undeserving family? After all, she had just disappeared – after nearly three years, people would have accepted that she and Ari (Amanda "Kye" Saunders) were not coming back. Her parents would have been devastated to lose one of their precious daughters. Keira would have been in shock. Sadie would be lost and emotionally ruined. Carrie… she would have just gone numb. Chase knew she would have if Carrie had been the one to disappear without a trace.
And her friends, Jasmine and Rayleigh in particular? Jasmine had been her friend since forever, once her neighbour. What Chase had done to her family she had done to Jazz. Chase and Rayleigh didn't go back as far. They'd just met in RE on the first day of classes in grade eight and had immediately bonded over their lack of faith in spirituality.
The door of the 'apartment', as Chase had taken to calling their shared room, burst open, and Ari tumbled inside. She was breathing hard, and her face was flushed from running, but she was grinning uncontrollably. Chase looked up, but Tear, who was busily focussed on the bandage she was tying onto her unharmed wrist, didn't bother. Everyone was used to Ari's flamboyant entrances.
"Chase, take that thing off," Ari panted, glancing carelessly at the bandage. Chase stared down at Teardrop's careful work.
"I'm practicing!" Tear said defensively. She was very focussed on her goal of becoming a medic. Adults could upload all the information they needed into their heads, but Teardrop was only fifteen and the human brain doesn't stop developing until it reaches about twenty-five years of age. The experts had long decided that loading extensive courses like medical training into the undeveloped brain of a teenager could be potentially dangerous to him or her, so what took people in the Matrix five years to learn took adults in Zion a day or so, if that. It was going to take Tear at least another year. She got a lot of information uploaded into her head but it was at random, spaced-out intervals and she had to learn practically otherwise.
"Chase, brush your hair and whatever else you have to do. We've got an important appointment."
"What? Where are we meant to be?" Chase asked as Tear finished the bandaging. Ari sighed in frustration, walked over, and began ripping the careful, perfect bandage off Chase's arm.
"Hey!" Tear argued. "I said I was practicing."
"I said we're officially busy," Ari replied, handing the messy bandage back to her and pulling Chase to her feet. "Chase, brush your hair."
"What's going on?"
"The Nadir arrived fifteen minutes ago," Ari said, actually seeking out Chase's comb for her. "We're meant to be in the council chamber – or at least, we are if we want the position available onboard the Nadir."
"Oh my God!" Chase squealed, turning to the table and grabbing the comb Ari had been searching fruitlessly for. "I thought that was tomorrow?" She dragged the teeth of the comb through her hair. Just the same shade as ever, except perhaps without the past lustre it had expressed in the Matrix, Chase's hair was now the same length it had been two years, ten months ago, before she'd been released.
"Yeah, that was what you told me," said Tear. Chase and Ari had put their names down on the list of potential recruits for hovercrafts as soon as they had each turned seventeen. A man called Cairo who had worked onboard the craft Nadir was finally retiring, and both girls had applied for the position.
"Yes, I know, but this dumb summit thing got moved forward, so hurry before they give the job to Gore-r-us," Ari said in frustration, saying her nickname for Glorious quick enough that it sounded like her real name, except without the 'l'.
"So there's only one position?" Teardrop asked, making both girls pause momentarily. Cinnamon entered the room, slamming the door back against the wall.
"No, two," she said, having caught the last part of the conversation. "The Hammer is here, too. They're potentially looking for a new inmate."
"Crewmate," Ari corrected.
"Inmate. Roland is meant to be like a drill sergeant. Or so I've heard."
Cin still retained her English accent, although after two years it was slowly dulling. Tear still sounded American, and Chase and Ari were still some of the only Aussies in Zion.
"Well, we get what we get," Chase said finally, replacing her comb onto the table. She fluffed her hair a little to make it sit right and then turned to her friends with a deep breath.
"Good luck," Tear said, giving Chase a brief squeeze. Chase smiled, and some of the nerves that had been building up in her stomach died. Ari and Cin sighed in frustration and pulled Chase free of the hug.
"Dude, we have to go now," Ari said clearly. Chase nodded. "The summit was beginning when I came to find you."
"Damn it!" Chase muttered, rushing to the door. She turned and waved at the other two as Ari bolted past her. "See you later."
Ari grabbed her wrist and yanked her from the doorway. Then they were running together, the cabin doors flashing past, passers-by watching in mild interest. People always found a spare moment in the daily walks to glance at the girls, or had until just recently, when a nine-year-old boy called Milo with the ability to affect the Matrix code for water had been freed by the Logos. The people were very excited. Milo was apparently the twelfth and final of those extraordinary 'disciples', so now all of the faithful Zioners were anticipating the discovery and coming of the One.
They reached the elevator, which thankfully opened the moment before they got there. Two middle-aged women stepped out, chatting brightly, but went silent when Chase and Ari dodged past them and ran into the elevator. They glanced at each other and left as the doors closed, blocking them from sight.
"Come on, come on," Chase murmured, tapping her well-cared-for fingernails on the metal walls of the confined lift.
"You were the one mucking around," Ari replied, standing very close to the doors for when they opened. "But I guess it would be nice if it were to go faster."
The elevator stopped, and a group of kids their age got in, also heading up. Chase didn't glance at them, but somehow, she felt a little twinge of sadness. They stood at the opposite end of the elevator, like kids stand apart from adult strangers. But there wouldn't have been a year between the five occupants of the lift.
Being the tenth or eleventh of twelve special people, Chase was blessed with a quick and patient mind that helped a lot in her training operations. Unlike a lot of young people in her classes, she could free her mind. She could jump higher than the other three in her lessons. She was faster than them. She was better with a gun, and she supposed her abilities made her a better shot, too. Early childhood ballet lessons with Carrie and Jasmine were to thank for Chase's good balance.
All of this together put Chase at the top of her class. Ari was the top of hers, with Glorious a wannabe close second. The other two classes had their own respective top students – two people Chase had never met, she remembered the names as Ninox and Hal.
But despite being so special, and having a lot that the other teens here wanted, Chase missed her socialite life in the Matrix. Back then, as Sophie, she had always had at least half a dozen friends around whenever she wanted them. Now she had three and the other kids isolated themselves from her because, plainly and simply, she was different. She'd given up a life where people thought she was a little weird for a place where people respected her, but left her alienated.
Finally Chase glanced at them. Two sixteen-or-seventeen-year-old boys and a girl completely ignored her, watching the floor or picking at their nails.
The doors opened, and Chase shoved her thoughts away. She and Ari bolted down the bridge, headed for the council chamber. A few people shot them annoyed glances as they passed, dodging around anyone that stopped or moved unexpectedly.
Chase overtook Ari briefly, and heard a small knock as Ari collided with someone.
"I'm sorry," she heard twice. Then Ari was back in line with her. They were scarily evenly matched (Ari was a bit faster), even if Ari had turned out quite a few inches taller. There hadn't been a lot of difference between their heights and figures the day they'd met but now Ari was taller and thinner, and Chase was shorter and sort of curvy.
Only a bit more… Inside the halls… Through the tall, winding corridors… Around just one… more… corner…
Finally, Chase and Ari simultaneously collapsed against the council doors, breathing heavily. Chase mustered the thought and energy to knock. Someone answered and ushered the panting, adrenaline-pumped teenagers into the chamber.
"You are both potential recruits?" the usher asked. They nodded, and were escorted to the first row of benches. Glorious and three other youths were there already. The girls received a nasty glare from still hardly attractive Glorious as they sat down.
Sitting at the bench at the front was a very formidable-looking selection of important people. A Zion councillor, Hamman, was in the middle, with a juror-like hammer. Either side of him were a scribe and a busy-looking man with the paperwork. There was also Captains Morpheus, Roland, Niobe, Archangel and Glyph, along with a woman called Dianthe. The four examiners had arrived for the occasion, too. Ari didn't look pleased to see Dasne.
"Now that everyone is here, I suppose we can begin," Hamman said. Somehow, it didn't sound unkind, and Chase relaxed the tiniest bit. She was glad she had been seated beside Ari.
The man with the paperwork handed Hamman a sheet.
"According to this, Captain Glyph, you put in a note of preference for Chase and Ari two years ago," Councillor Hamman said, glancing at Glyph. The captain nodded. He was tall, with a light blonde ponytail. He seemed very casual. Glorious shot another malicious glare in the direction of Chase and Ari.
"You will of course know, then, that it is council custom to examine all potential recruits that have applied, regardless of preference?" Hamman continued. Both Glyph and Roland nodded. The councillor handed the paper back to the paper dude and accepted another. "There are two positions available for a hovercraft crewmember, one each on the Nadir, under the captaincy of Captain Glyph, and on the craft Hammer, with leadership from Captain Roland. Six young Matrix-born students of the training program have applied for these positions. These youths are Ari, Chase, Glorious, Ninox, Roux and Sina. To make the examination fair and just, each recruit has two references – the Captain that released him or her from the Matrix and also his or her class examiner."
That was why Morpheus was here – for Chase and Ari. Chase was glad that her teacher was here. Linden was nice and very complimentary. Beside her, however, Ari's jaw dropped in horror. Dasne seemed to hate Ari. No way would Ari want Dasne as a reference.
Chase didn't think it was so bad. Dasne hated everyone with a functional plug in their head, and that included Glorious. Despite her bad moods, Dasne was brutally honest, and if she could find few nice things to say to Ari, Chase suspected (by the widening of Glorious's eyes) that she had even less for Ari's enemy.
Hamman began reading basic statistical information on Ari, the first in alphabetical order.
"Applicant one: Ari, female, age 17, freed almost three years ago by Morpheus and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar. Height at time of release: five-foot-three. Current height: five-foot-eight. She is at the top of her class in the youth training program with Dasne as her teacher and examiner."
The captain of the Hammer frightened Chase a bit. He didn't look nice or cheerful or casual like Captain Glyph. She would hate for either herself or Ari to end up being stuck with Roland. Now he didn't even nod or change his taut facial expression. His hard eyes probed the six young adults.
"Applicant two: Chase," Councillor Hamman continued, catching Chase's attention. "Female, age 17, freed at the same time as Ari – in the same operation – by Morpheus and his crew. At time of release from the Matrix, Chase was five-foot-two. She currently stands at five-foot-five and is also at the top of her class, run by examiner Linden."
How embarrassing – Chase was officially one inch taller than Ari had been at the start of year ten. If they had stayed in the Matrix they would now be graduating from high school, and Chase hardly had the height to match the age. She glanced at her potential future captains. Roland seemed unimpressed. His expression was still hard and distasteful, almost a grimace, really. But Glyph was listening with interest, taking in the information. His facial muscles sometimes moved a little relaxedly, like human faces were meant to from time to time. Although he could pass for one of those guys at South Bank that pretended to be statues, Roland should take an example from Glyph and move his expression before it got stuck like that. Maybe it was already stuck like that.
"Applicant three: Glorious, female, age 20, freed at age 15 by Captain Roland and the crew of the Hammer. When released from the Matrix, Glorious was five-foot-seven. Current height: six feet. She is a high scoring student of examiner Dasne."
Glorious sat a little straighter, and Ari rolled her eyes and sat deeper on her seat, slouching and crossing her arms over her chest. Glyph glanced at her. Chase felt a small twinge of alarm – Ari's current stance betrayed her bad-girl attitude. That might set her back a few points in Glyph's mental scoring. Chase pulled urgently on Ari's arm, unfolding them. Despite Ari's mystified look, Chase sat straight, watching her expectantly and worriedly. Ari sat up, looking over at the summit members at the front and noticing Glyph's gaze. She studied Chase's perfect, eager-to-please, teacher's-pet posture briefly and copied it, taking a deep breath. Chase looked across to Glyph, hoping he hadn't been paying too much attention.
"Applicant four: Ninox," Hamman said, then cleared his throat. "Male, 17, freed at age 13 five years ago by Captain Niobe and the Logos. Height at release: five-foot-three. Current height: six-foot-two. Graduating at the top of his training class as a student of examiner Chiron."
The councillor took another sheet and read off that. Chase looked around. Wasn't Ninox another prophesised person? If she and Ari were tenth and eleventh in the line, he'd have to be, like, ninth. He was even their age! Why hadn't they met him before?
"Applicant five: Roux. Male, 22, freed at age 16 by Captain Osprey, represented here today by his successor and former ranking officer, Captain Archangel, an assistant in Roux's release. Roux's height then was five-foot-six and is now five-foot-eight. He received high scores from Chiron, his examiner and teacher."
Chase began fidgeting. How long would this take? It was a very formal trial, really, and those usually took ages.
"Applicant six is Sina," the councillor said, and he sounded as relieved to get to the end of the stats as Chase felt. "She is 17 and was freed at age 8 by Captain Dotterel, represented here today by ranking officer Dianthe."
Chase knew Sina, who was in her class, to have been the daughter of Dianthe inside the Matrix. When Dianthe was freed, she left her daughter in the capable hands of her boyfriend, but when she learned that he had been killed in an accident, she had gone back at great risk and released her child daughter from the Matrix.
"The daughter of Dianthe, Sina is a high scoring student of Linden, and she stands at five-foot-six," Hamman finished.
Papers were distributed between the two captains seeking recruits. An eerie silence followed. Chase glanced at Ari. This was awkward. They turned and looked down the row. Beside Chase was a young man, too old to be seventeen. He looked older than twenty-two as well, but the West-European guy beside her had to be Roux. He wasn't over six feet. Beside him was Sina, cute and elfin and of evident German decent. She spoke fluent English and German, and Chase, who had taken German as a subject at school, liked listening to her and learning from her.
Beside her was Glorious, and Chase couldn't see past the big twenty-year-old girl's bulk at whom she supposed was Ninox.
Finally, Captain Glyph asked to hear from each applicant's examiner. Chiron seemed lovely. He didn't have enough good things to say about his two students, particularly Ninox.
"I would like to add, sir, that my student Ninox is widely considered to be the ninth in a succession of twelve extraordinary prophesised potentials," Chiron finished brightly. Chase and Ari again turned and looked down the row. Still, Glorious blocked any possibility of view of this Ninox.
"But Dasne and Linden both have a student each with abilities relating to the same prophesy," Glyph said, as though contradicting Chiron. But he was smiling relaxedly as he took a paper from the paper dude. "Okay, Ninox, can you step forward please?"
The boy stood and walked down the row, passing the other five. Chase glanced up at him as he passed her. She met a pair of very familiar, very pretty hazel eyes.
Yay! Ninox! I couldn't wait to add him to the plot.