Friday, June 13, 2008

Chapter 3

Tuesday!
Ropota woke me up, once again. I got dressed, ate, brushed, moaned and whinged at my Mother and marched out, in procession with my siblings.
At school, I plugged in my laptop. As it loaded, me and Maggitha talked about... anything!
"So," Maggitha said excitedly, "That guy at the bus stop! I was like... Like... can't describe it sis!" She fell off her chair in excitement.
"But he was boring!" Sarah chipped in, taking Maggitha's hand, "And he was listening to a ipod Flaggo! You know how cheap they are! Even Mum can afford Jaffer ipods for all of us, even with her lame wage!
"I know!" sighed Maggitha, "But... just..."
I held Maggitha's other hand tight.
"He was cool at first," I said evenly, "But he is not worth you. I mean, look at you! You are one gorgeous thing!"
And I meant it. Maggitha was very pretty, darkly defined eyes, dark eyelashes, perfect eyebrows, soft, shiny hair and full lips. She was always casting her young eye around for some juicy guy to pounce on.
Shame.
The school 'bell' went off, and we hastily got ready as Mrs Burlington swivelled around in her chair, which was slowly rising from the floor.
"Hi guys!" she chirped in her high, squeaky voice.
"Hi!" we echoed back.
"Well," she continued, "Instead of having teachers for the rest of this week, you are going to be doing a special project on a scientist from the age 20o0-2010. Also you know-" (collective outbursts of laughter, awe and confusion rose from 4o teenagers) "-not many people did a great many good, so I will pick the person for you. And your groups. Of course, the Siquar septuplets-" (you know who the septuplets are!) "-will be a group."
She then went on explaining on how the project was to be done - by a VR (virtual reality) programme which she downloaded to our laptops.
"You have to make a tour through the life of the scientist," Mrs Burlington instructed, "You have been emailed the person and information on them. Jot down a storyboard in your groups. GO!"
Us septuplets scuttled off to a private corner, and we removed Richard's laptop from the table, to the corner. He was pink with excitement.
"I love this VR programme!" he said, all flushed, "It has so many cool things!"
Everyone was excited, mostly because, shy, quiet Richard was suddenly happy, jolly and excited.
"Here is an idea!" Alarina piped up, "We do a tour of her life, right, but we sort of uncover mysteries, like, if she wasn't supposed to do science experiments when she was young-" "What if the scientist was a man?" interupted Cameran rudely. "It's not," Richard said, receiving the e-mail from Mrs. Burlington, "Her name is Lina Richards and she made several mysterious discoveries she did not share with any one else. In fact, she was hardly noticed until a few years ago!" "-we could have the view from her Mum finding out!"
We all thought this was a good idea, and so we went back to our laptops and researched her. We hardly got any finds, apart from her diary, which she only wrote short jottings of her days, but she always wrote where she had been. She also had a very mysterious statement made on May 23, 2008.
"Here it is," said Rex boredly, scrolling down the document, "Everything has gone right. Metal binder, Rotorua's forest, New Zealand. The mysteries in the clearing, co-ordinates 17-18 will not be found by the present, only the past. Midnight, 2008, the clinking of a spade will never be heard there until a thousand years."
"No way!" Maggitha said excitedly. We all looked at her. "It is obvious!" she cried, "Lina made a folder with a metal binder of some sort, buried it in the scarce JapaJapa Forest, only a few minutes walk from here, at midnight, containing all her scinentific knowledge!"
"How come people from the past didn't find it?" Sarah asked, interested.
"Obvious!" Maggitha sneeered, eyebrows raised, "They didn't have the tecnology to use Grimeoslimeo!" She blushed, and everyone stared at her. Grimeoslimeo was a product forbidden by Mum, because she didn't like the idea of greazing your brain to make it function better. For some reason, Maggitha had ignored her and gone ahead anyway. That explained why she always took so long using the bathroom - she was soaking grime through her skin, skull to her brain.
"My goodness girl!" Sarah hissed.
"Anyway," babbled Maggitha, we go to a clearing at the coordinates Lina Richards suggested and then dig!"
"Good plan!" agreed Richard, "I will build a device that will detect the metal, and one that will dig for us." He laughed. "I bet we will have the best project!" he spluttered.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Chapter two

Who wants a normal life?
Seven children who I know of do - three what to be normal people, with normal A++ grades (like me!) and three want to be someone else.
Me? I am the one who wants to be me.
Today was SUCH a normal day.
It was Monday, fun as. I love Mondays, because it is my day off. We all do nothing on Mondays. Even Mum has a break from her obsessive house-cleaning.
What happened today:
For a person in 2005, a million years ago, they would be thrilled to live my life. Especially an only child. I mean, sheesh, only children in my class yearn to be us septuplets. We don't mind. We just wish we could kick Rex and his cronie Cameran out.
I woke up to Ropotora hollering "Monday-today. Please-get-out-of-bed-and-have-brekkie."
Mum has this thing about having things the old-fashioned way. So, maybe a person in 2005 may be a bit more at home.
So, I slid out of bed, with Maggitha close behind me. All of us kids share a room - but Richard gets his own little room. He has it all modern, though, crammed with his things, all his inventions that have been helpful around at home -the sensor that you use to write essays in the middle of the night (have your hand in front of the sensor, move it like you were writing something and the sensor passes the information onto a computer which copies your handwriting style, prints it our and voila you have an essay!
So me and Maggitha tidied our bunk (I am top) which had electric blanket, changeling blanket and duvet. We got dressed in a seamless cream blouse, turquoise detailed creased skirt, little pleated-hem black vest with a small Titran High School crest on the breast pocket and a navy tree-sap jersey with our crest. The school uniform.
We walked out of our room, which was tidied of our clothing and general muck, with light flooding in from outside. I ate Algae-supreme, a delicious cereal made of seaweed, algae and moss. Our plates are made of rubber - so, to clean them, you clean them with a cold-water dishwasher and stick them in a small machine. It heats the plates/bowls up so the rubber snaps into a plat plate. Thankfully, the cups are red, mugs are green, plates are purple and bowls are bright orange! If we want them to become what ever they were moulded to be again, we stick them back in the machine and...
I brushed my teeth while Ropotora packed our satchels with our laptop, essay folder, lunch coins and spare uniform.
Then, we slung our bags over our shoulders, waved goodbye to a soulful Mother and walked our of the automatic front door.
Our houses look like blocks - it is SO modern. All the houses in Auzealand are modern, because all the old, even Victorian houses in New Zealand and Australia crumbled under the sheer weight of all those quakes.
The roads are paving, red and blue bricks, hover-cars everywhere. At least the hopper-buses are fun to ride in. They have their own special roads floating about the roads for hover-cars, and the buses are a big rubber ball the bounces along the road. However, there is this circular room inside, with the domed roof, where children sit in peace and quit, apart from the smooth up-and-downs.
The paths for walking are yellow concrete. Very old-fashioned. We changed from grey and white to yellow about four hundred years ago!
We walked all the way to school - a ten minute walk.
At school, it looks just like the ones in the old days - like a school in 2005. But inside, instead of desks, there is a big circular table taking up most of room. There is a circle cut in the middle, and a semi-circle desk with a revolving chair. That is where our teacher sits.
So, seven identical children sit down, plug in laptops and sit down on the hard chairs. Other students file in, and when the big KABOOM goes off, the revolving chair come out of the ground with our form teacher revolving on it.
She is a kind, thoughtful, imaginative lady named Sasha Burlington. She is married to another... interesting teacher who teaches at intermediate accelerated learning class. I was in his class. It gives me great joy to know my teachers teach at A1 level - and I should be learning at year 13 level!
So, we have our roll; a little quiz; then science; English; Sheembal (the language made up by a computer freak about half-a-million years ago); Mathematics; A technology of our choice; then a language of our choice; Social Studies.
Some kids are taught by a big guy on a screen. My Mum says those kids are basking in the future, and that the past is much more fun.
We go home after an exhausting day of Spanish and P.E Tech, eat some fee-see cereal bars (tree bark, for some reason SO good) and have some Orange pulp, before doing an essay on how grass grows when not in hydroponics before being planted (the modern way), having a dinner of steak-and-kidney pie with apple crumble and putting on pyjamas, brushing hair and teeth, reading a book on our laptop, Maggitha writing an essay with the thing Richard made (referenced before), and falling asleep...

Monday, June 9, 2008

Chapter one

My oldest memory was when I was two. I was hugging my sister, on our birthday. Each of us seven kids cut the home-made vanilla sponge cake, and Happy Birthday was sung. Very old-fashioned. People a million years ago did that.
last week I went to my best friend's, Jackie, and we sung NOTHING, the cake come out of the metal and glass table, it was made at the best place in town, Tequila's Johnnycakes. Johnnycakes are the height of fashion. They are cakes with three layers, and in each layer is fizzle-pops. Jackie had a layer of chocolate, then inside that a layer of strawberry mousse, and inside that a layer of creamy vanilla.
Instead of having cheerio sausages and tasty popcorn with salt and butter, stuff Mum got at the Antique food store she runs, Jackie had mostaruo's, cheese-stuffed spinach rolls and Halliga's, honey-coated raisins with chocolate inning, with chocolate sprinkles. At least we both had fairy bread - buttered white bread with sprinkles on top. Very old fashioned, but those trends go around. Last year fairy breads were considered childish. Today my Mum had some on her birthday!

I was born, along with another six children - septuplets. More often than not a special system is used for couples to conceive. My parents conceived the natural way - the way humans have done it for the past two million years or so. Also, it is severely uncommon to have twins, triplets are very old-fashioned, and so on. Us seven kids are one of the only three in the world. it was so unusual to have something extraordinary in Qualag, Auzealand. Auzealand is the huge island Australia and New Zealand formed with the pacific islands when all the underwater volcanoes erupted and there were fifteen massive earthquakes 158 years ago. Five million people died. It was a huge disaster.
Anyway, back to family.
The eldest is Sarah, a rather old name, but it is still going strong. Sarah and the second-eldest are sport-freaks. Last year at the age of fourteen, those two won the Auzealand sportmen of the year trophy. Sarah has short-cropped hair the colour of honey, leaf-green eyes and a soulful expression. She always seems to wear t-shirts and jeans - how old is THAT? I mean, the stone-age people wore that! It is 3005, for goodness sake! She looks great in them though - she can show off her curvy body in those tight tops and jeans.

Next is Alarina. Her name was invented by our father, who passed away last year in Hospital from Leukemia. (I mean, blood cancer??? Every single OTHER cancer has been eradicated - why not Leukemia?) Alarina Has very short honey-coloured hair, with blue eyes, for some strange reason. Well, I think she is wearing contacts. She does need glasses you know. But when ever she wakes up, hair tousled, clothes sweaty from dreaming, she has blue eyes. Her expression - talk about drama queen! She is in constant pain - not only is she accident-prone, but she makes a fuss about the littlest thing. She is so sporty though. She is in every sport there is to play at High School. And at intermediate, and Primary. Even at Kindy she was seen kicking a ball around. She always wears seamless, footless bodysuits with short skirts. A modern thing.

Then, me. Hi, I'm Jemma. I have the honey-hair gene, as well as the green eyes. I alway seem to smile. Even when I fell over and broke my skull, dislocated my arm and leg and crushed three vertabrae in my back I was laughing through the pain from Hell.
I am also the smartest of us seven. I always have a plan, which comes in useful for when we are plotting schemes and things to get back on our parents and our school-teacher who we have no patience with. I like wearing Tops that come just above my belly-button - Tank-tops, I think that what they are called I forget. Oh, and I wear small skirts. Ones with ruffles and things. Hehe And I wear glasses. What every geek needs.

Fourth is poor old Richard. Old name, new mind! He is not as smart as me, but he can craft things so well, and he invents like a wild-fire! He had the honey-and-leaf face, they cute expression of "I am harmless!" and he never really does that much. He gets good grades, wears shirts and pants, uses dimonds to create his things - an average kid on the outside. I still don't know some of the inside.

Next, Rex. He has curly hair, not straight like the rest, but... yes, honey-and-leaf gene. He never smiles, just sits there like a lemon. He is in love with the computer. Honesty, all he does is stay in his room, with the old computer (40-inch screen with Hagra installation), looking up plants, space, history. He only comes out for school, he even gets his food delivered by out robot, Ropotrota. He loves wearing - pyjamas.

Sixth is my loyal sister Maggitha. She is cute with the blue-and-honey gene, like Alarina, but always sticks with me. She loves art. She draws, paints, sculpts, whatever, and helps build models of Richards things, and maps out my plans. She is helpful, charming and always on hand for a job. Definitely Mum's favourite.

Seventh is Cameran. He always looks up at us six older children. He doesn't have much of a personality. He Gets average grade, looks just like Rex, just without the curly hair, never smiling. He talks with us about school projects. He always get a B in his work. He doeseverything he's told. He is just like Ropotrota - talks in a monotone and walks slowly through the house, wearing a seamless T-shirt and seamfull pants.

Mum is Vanessa-Jessy. She has Green eyes and brown hair, lines all points down on her face, eyes big and sad. She struggles looking after us kids. She was also born in Texas, America. SHe gives us cold eyes at least three times a day, laughs about once a week and never thinks about anything but the nucular war in Russia, against Austria. We are all very worried about our poor Mum.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

prologe

Lina Richards poked her stick impatiently in the hard soil. Her watch beeped. She looked at it. Midnight she thought. Looking up into the navy blue sky, she positioned herself so she could see the night sky more clearly.
2008 is such a cool year for me she thought randomly. Then, she saw it. The beautiful southern cross. She heaved the heavy backpack off her shoulders, just as a lizard came scuttling from out of the dense forest and darted across the clearing. Lina flicked her light brown hair from out of her grey eyes as she assembled a telescope. She fumbled with her pockets, and pulled out a scarlet pocket-knife. She cut the cords of the telescope, and tied them together again. Finally, at 12:34, she was ready.
Lina looked up at the sky. She positioned the telescope until it was perfectly straight up and down. She looked closely at the handy constellation, southern cross. Then, she whooped with joy. She fiddled with the telescope, pulling it apart.
She pulled out a metre-ruler, which was portable. She unfolded it, and measured the heights. Then, she picked up a spade that was lying in the collection of tools and started digging. She dug until 1:46, and then the hole was big enough. She pulled out a huge metal book and flipped through its engraved pages one last time. Sentences like the world will end in 3006; the sun will have enlarged enough to boil water and kill animals with the heat jumped at Lina. She was sure that once her scientific investigation was found by the future humans, they would escape to Mars, where we could live for a long, long time while the sun cools it.
She smiled to herself, and placed the heavy metal book in the concrete-lined pit she had prepared earlier. She piled earth back in the pit. It took her an hour of hard work, because the pit was about ten metres deep.
She finally finished, packed up and ran to the edge of the forest. She threw her bags into the boot of her BMW, and jumped into the drivers seat. She quickly revved down the dusty road to the motor-way, all the way from Wellington, New Zealand, to Rotorua, New Zealand. She was confident her research would not be found by present scientists, only the futures'.

When she got home, she changed out of her dirty clothes, had a shower and went to bed.

Introduction

Hi guys, this is my futeristic, science-fiction(ish) story. I hope to be finishing it. I also hope that it will have good potential. I will write it so that the first chapter will be at the bottom, and the last at the top, because the layout doesn't let you go the way I want it to go. Grrr! Enjoy!