The next morning was the beginning of another school week. Dev looked forward to school days because unlike the weekends, he had people who he could talk to. All of them were considerably poorer than he was, though it was rare even among rich circles to find anyone worth half the amount of the Dimmadomes.
He rubs the sleep from his eyes, sitting up in his bed. From his bed he can see his posters on the adjacent wall. The posters are of his three most favourite things in the world. The Tap-Dancing Tarantulas game series. The most recent inclusion being 'Time Traveling Tap-Dancing Tarantulas' which he has over fifty hours in. The Crimson Chin, the poster was for the new 'Chinifinity Wars' movie due to air in theatres later this year. Apparently, the comics have been around since his dad was a kid. The last poster was of his favourite manga 'Prime Meridian Love: Romance Cruise Ultra' though most fans, including himself, referred to the series as Prime Meridian Love, or Prime Meridian. The manga is his most niche interest and is the one series he has never talked about publicly.
He gets out of bed and walks to the dining table. His two personal O-pair drones, O-pair one and O-pair two awaiting their orders by his usual seat. He sits down and thinks for a moment about what he wants for breakfast before settling on pancakes. "O-pairs make me pancakes!" he exclaims, snaping his fingers. Upon hearing the command, the two O-pairs fly into the kitchen and start preparing the chosen meal. As always, his dad isn't at the table. The only sign that he is home being a nearby O-pair carrying his daily glass of lemon water to his office. One of his own O-pairs then places down his pancakes in front of him, the other laying down the utensils and tying a napkin around his neck. He wishes the O-pairs would stop doing that, it makes him look like a baby. He hastily digs into his pancakes, syrup coating his mouth, which an O-pair wipes away with the napkin. Once he's done with his meal, they clear the table and remove the napkin from his neck. Throwing away the napkin, as well as the used plate and utensils.
After breakfast, he heads into his own personal en suite. The O-pairs following close behind. Once in the bathroom he goes directly to the sink, the drones hovering beside him. "O-pair one, activate teeth cleaning program" when the command is made the drone's default claw hand is replaced with a toothbrush with the appropriate amount of toothpaste pre-applied, which it uses to vigorously brush its master's teeth. Once the brushing function is completed, he spits into the sink bowl. The residue being washed away automatically by the sink's self-cleaning system. The drone then switches out the toothbrush for a flossing stick. He opens his mouth to allow the O-pair to start flossing his teeth. Once the flossing function is completed, it returns to its default programming. He used to think that if he brushed and flossed his teeth enough, his teeth would turn gold, like his dads. It took an embarrassingly long time for him to realise his dad's gold teeth were fake.
He goes into his room. Picking out a white hoodie with gold accents, black jeans and a black t-shirt to wear for school. Not like he could pick anything else to wear since all his clothes were the same. His dad says that it's important for fathers and sons to match aesthetically, he did so with his own father, so Dev must do the same. He puts on his outfit for the day and slips on his shoes, tucking the laces to avoid tripping on them. As he walks out of his room he grabs his sunglasses, putting them on as he heads off for school.
He strides down the school hallways. Scooping out the school body for this morning's target. His O-pairs aiding him by scouting out ahead. He goes through his mental checklist of all the kids in his grade. Picking out which ones he could harass and the ones he should avoid.
When he first started going to school. He went to this fancy schmancy private school where all the uber rich families would send their kids. He was kicked out after three years for his "appalling behaviour and atrocious manners" his dad tried arguing with them, but it didn't change anything. The next school he went to, was a military school. He only spent a year there before they gave him the boot. Every private school his dad tried sending him to afterwards, rejected him. So that's how he ended up going to his current school 'Dimmadelphia Enrichment Academy' aka, the city's local public school. A couple thousands in the school's (and the principal's) pocket ensures that no matter what he does he won't be expelled, suspended or sit in detention for the rest of elementary. He practically runs this school.
He's been going here for just over a year now and he's already gained a reputation or 'superlative' as the school calls it, for being the meanest kid. That's just code for having an intimidatingly cool presence that all the kids respect.
He spots one of his listed targets, a tall lanky boy with curly hair and glasses. The kid is in his class, but he doesn't remember his name. He doesn't remember most of his classmate's names. Most of them being forgettable nobodies. The only reason he recognises the guy is because he's the tallest boy in the grade. Which would be a problem for him, if he wasn't also a massive coward. He doesn't really feel like dealing with his whiny voice this morning, so he continues searching.
Then he spots her. Jasmine Tran. The girl with the voice of a siren, a police siren that is. She's also the most annoying kid the grade. She tried being all buddy-buddy with him when he first got here. Bombarding him with all sorts of questions and generally just being super annoying. She pestered him for an entire week before finally giving up. Then she had the nerve to call him rude. With his rage reignited, he walks over to her. His O-pairs tailing behind him.
"What you up to Daisy?" he jeers, slamming her locker door shut. The sudden noise causing her to jump back in surprise. She turns to him "My name is Jasmine" she says with her arms crossed. "Yeah, whatever Violet"
"What do you want Dev?"
"Oh…I was just curious about that thing your holding…" snapping his fingers one of the O-pairs snatches the object from Jasmine's hand. "h-Hey! Give that back!" she waves her arms up trying to reach for the object. The O-pair hands it's master the desired object, which turns out to a ticket for 'Crash Nebula the Musical' that is five years out of date. "Ooooo…I sure hope you enjoy the musical from FIVE years ago!" he laughs as Jasmine tries desperately to grab the ticket from him. She gives up, choosing to plead to him instead. "Please Dev…give me back my ticket, it's a keepsake from the first musical I ever went too, it means the world to me…" she starts to cry.
Seeing the tears, he starts to feel a deep pain bubbling in his chest, threatening to rise to the surface. He pushes it down, like he has always done. "Fine, here's your stupid ticket back, you big cry-baby" he hands her the ticket. "Thank you…" she wipes the tears from her eyes and walks away. The bell rings and Dev not in the mood to walk, activates the O-pairs seat command. The two O-pairs forming a seat that he can sit in as they take him to his class.
Lunch comes around and Dev quickly rushes out of the classroom as soon as the bell rings. Using his O-pairs to make sure he is the first one in the cafeteria. He goes up to the lunch lady and gets the same slop everyone else gets. It seems that no matter how much money you pay them, public schools will always serve you the same old slop. He walks over to his favourite table and sits on his self-made O-pair throne. Because there is no way he is sitting on those nasty bench seats.
During his first few weeks he wouldn't step foot in the cafeteria. Making his O-pairs grab his lunch and eating in the classroom. But his teacher, Mr. Guzman, kept bugging him saying that he was "worried about him not connecting with his fellow classmates" and other mushy junk like that. Eventually he got so sick of it he just decided to go and eat in the cafeteria. That's how he met his buddy Trev.
He eyes Trev in the distance. He's fairly easy to spot due to his bright green hair. He waves over to Trev "Hey Trev! Over here!" Trev sees him and walks over to him with a disinterested look on his face. It's hard to tell if he's interested in something or not, since he always looks disinterested with everything. Trev takes a seat on the cafeteria bench next to him, putting his lunch tray down on the table and pulling out his phone. "So…how was your weekend?" Dev asks looking over to his friend. "Good" Trev replies curtly, scrolling through his phone. "That's good…" Dev fidgets in his self-made seat. "My grandpa came to visit during the weekend, he and my dad got in a fight…"
"Mmhmm…" Trev replies, not looking up from his phone. "You're still buying me those Chinifinity Wars tickets, right?" he asks, still not looking up from his phone. "Yeah of course I am, what friend would I be if I didn't?" Dev scoffs, trying to ignore the fact that Trev has yet to look at him the entire conversation. "Cool" Trev says, with his mouth full of food. The two sit in silence for the rest of lunch, eating their meals. The silence only being broken by Trev's obnoxiously loud chewing.
After school Dev heads straight home. He would have liked to hang out with Trev, but he said that he was busy. Which was the same thing he said last time, and the time before that…, he's probably just super busy after school.
He enters his house and calls out for his dad. "Dad? I'm home" no reply, he must be at one of his meetings. He goes into his room and plays on his computer. The computer is set up for optimal gaming, with multiple monitors and a gaming chair. He plays on the computer until it's time for dinner. The O-pairs made ramen for dinner which he slurps up greedily. His dad works a lot of late nights so it's rare that he gets to see him at dinner. This is one of those days. After dinner he plays on his iPad until it's time for bed.
He has a quick shower. Changing into his pyjamas for the night, a white button up pyjama set with accents of gold. The only lettering on them being a golden D on the right side of the chest. He brushes his teeth and puts himself to bed. The O-pairs tucking him in for the night as they read him a bedtime story. He knows that's he too old for bedtime stories, but he can't seem to sleep without them. He makes the O-pairs use his dad's voice when reading to him, it's as close as he will ever get to his dad reading to him. Since he's always too busy to do so himself. As he closes his eyes, he feels that same painful feeling in his chest. But he pushes it down. He doesn't know what that feeling is, but it scares him. So, it's best to just avoid it. He feels himself drifting off to sleep as the O-pairs leave the room.