imperfect (2 page)

Glenn had a nasty smirk pasted across his
face. Lunch would have to wait.

“
Think you’re better than
everyone else, being able to come to my dad’s speech late, don’t
you?” he asked.

Henry and Michel, his two staunchest
supporters, nodded their heads in agreement. Henry resembled a
grizzly bear to some degree; his hulking figure certainly helped
with that image.

“
What do you want, Glenn?”
Kristi said. “It’s not my fault I was late today.

Glenn arched an eyebrow. “Are you implying
it was my fault that you were late? If so, would you be so kind as
to explain why it’s my fault I made you late?”

“
I could’ve gotten here on
time if I had my bike,” Kristi lied.

“
It’s your own fault you
don’t have your bike,” Glenn said. “Maybe if you were more careful
when riding it, you wouldn’t have run it into a fence.”

“
Glenn, would you just cut
it out and leave me alone? I know it was you who slashed my bike’s
tires.”

“
I wouldn’t be so sure.
According to the records, it was your stupidity that caused your
bike to be currently unusable.” Some Perfects streamed out behind
Kristi. Glenn winked at a group of girls, eliciting a chorus of
giggles from them.

Kristi tried her best to rein in her temper.
If she started a fight in public, she would get sent to the
detention center.

“
Tell me you did not hack
into the records,” she said.

“
Oh, don’t worry,
I
didn’t change the
records.” Glenn gave Michel a meaningful look.

Michel sneered at Kristi. “You poor thing,
running around getting yourself in trouble. What are you going to
do next? Ride your droid-horse into a wall?”

“
Glenn!” Speaker Quincy
called out. “Get over here now. We have a college tour at Westland
University in two hours.”

Glenn mockingly tipped an imaginary hat at
Kristi. “Until next time.”

Kristi watched the three boys file into the
solar-car. Her electro-slate vibrated against her jeans, announcing
she had an instafication.

“
On,” she commanded the
electro-slate. “View instafication.”

The message popped into view.

To: Kristi Shea

From: Leo’s Bike Shop

Message: Kristi, your hydro-bike is ready
for pick up at any time.

“
Dad’s not too happy with
you.”

Kristi spun around to face the voice. Jaiden
stood behind her, scrolling through his electro-slate while he
spoke. “You know how he dislikes negative attention being cast upon
our family.”

Kristi laughed without the slightest hint of
humor. “What else is new? He’s always complaining about my
mistakes.”

“
Although it may seem like
he’s being tough on you, he does care about you.”

“
Not enough to allow me to
skip Sunday Gatherings.” Kristi stowed away her electro-slate.
“Don’t you have someplace to be?”

Jaiden glanced at his smart-watch. “Yeah. I
have to assist Professor Smetana at the lab in an hour. Stay out of
trouble, will you?”

“
It’s not like I purposely
go chasing after trouble. By the way, how many points do you have
on your electro-slate? I might need to borrow some of
yours.”

“
A bit over eight hundred
points. Why do you need some?”

“
Glenn had Michel hack and
alter the damage report I submitted to hide the fact that my
hydro-bike was vandalized. He didn’t want to be found guilty of
slicing the tires. So now it’s my fault my hydro-bike isn’t
functioning. Insurance doesn’t cover self-damages.”

“
All this bullying needs
to stop,” Jaiden said. “I think I’m going to confront Glenn
tomorrow.”

Jaiden was a year older than Glenn, but
Glenn’s dad held a considerable amount of authority over the town.
Getting on the bad side of the Quincy family may not end up
well.

“
Please, don’t,” Kristi
said. “It’s not worth it.”

“
We’ll see,” Jaiden
said.

He wordlessly sent Kristi some of his points
and then left; Professor Smetana expected her lab assistants to be
punctual.

“
Kristi Shea,” Kristi said
to
the girl behind the reception
desk.

“
ID?” The receptionist
held out her hand for some form of identification.

Kristi pulled up her ID page on her
electro-slate and allowed the girl to scan the barcode.

“
Your bike is in garage
five,” the receptionist said.

Kristi found Mechanic Leo organizing tools
in garage five. She rubbed her arms; the chilly air being blown
onto her from the overhead air conditioner stimulated goose bumps
to run up and down her arm.

Mechanic Leo set down the wrench he was
holding and wheeled Kristi’s hydro-bike over and gave a quick
report. “I replaced both of the tires and the seat. I also gave the
bike a quick weather-proof seal of paint.”

Kristi grasped the memory foam handles of
the bike. “Thank you. How much for the repairs?”

“
A hundred and fifty
points.”

She wired the points to Mechanic Leo’s
account and thanked him again.

Kristi headed to the stables in her backyard
as soon as she parked her bike in the garage. Of course, there were
no real horses in the stable because that would be silly; nobody
wants to clean up the mess real horses make. Flurry, a droid-horse
Kristi had received for her tenth birthday, peered at her with
mocha-brown eyes.

“
Good to see you again.”
She fondly stroke Flurry’s face. “Wish I could stay longer, but I
have to go. I promise I’ll take you for a ride right after I finish
my homework.”

Kristi gave Flurry one last scratch on the
withers then left for the library.

chapter two

[ Troop ]

Troop had never
particularly enjoyed chemistry class, and he
wasn’t enjoying it now either.
The
only reason why I haven’t fallen asleep yet is because Jennifer is
in this class.
As if hearing his thought,
Jennifer twisted around in her seat and flashed Troop a
smile.

Her silky, chestnut hair cascaded impeccably
past her shoulders. Although Jennifer had shown interest in Troop
for a while, he’d never considered her to be more than a
friend.

She tapped her electro-slate, letting him
know she’d sent him an instafication.

“
Jennifer,” Mr. Brunes,
the chemistry teacher, said. “Since I am sure you have your
complete attention on my class, please tell me the name and number
of valence electrons of the newly discovered element made by Dr.
Snyders last week.”

“
Name: Novium. Number of
valence electrons: eight,” replied Jennifer without missing a
beat.

Troop tilted his electro-slate so that Mr.
Brunes couldn’t see his screen. Then he opened up the instafication
from Jennifer:

Chem is such a bore. Want to hang out at
Eden’s Park after school today?

Troop slid a sideways glance to make sure
Mr. Brunes was occupied with some other student before
replying:

Sorry, but I can’t. I promised to hang out
with my guys today at the indoor snowboarding center. You can come
if you want.

He looked up to see Jennifer cast him a
pout. Fortunately, the bell rang, saving Troop from having to deal
with Jennifer’s puppy-dog looks. She was so damn adorable when she
used her full-on persuasive powers; Troop sometimes found it hard
to say “no” to her requests.

“
What’s up?” Darrel,
Troop’s right hand man, met him at the door.

He gave Troop what
he
considered to be a
light punch to the shoulder. However, because Darrel was built like
a linebacker, the punch really wasn’t light at all. Troop masked
his wince from the blow though; he had a reputation to maintain at
Ludus High.

“
Chem with Brunes,” said
Troop.

Darrel made a face. “Tough class.”

“
Not so much as tough as
mind-numbing.”

“
Tompkins was looking for
you. Said he found the perfect person for VicDay.”

VicDay. It was a day Troop both loathed and
loved at the same time. It was a monthly event started by him, so
there was no one else to blame but himself. But it was a necessary
event—something that couldn’t be skipped.

“
I’ll see Tompkins at
Shawn’s Snowboard Center after school today. He can tell me the
person’s name then,” Troop said.

“
Jennifer’s still hounding
after you.” Darrel jerked a thumb in her direction. “She’s ogling
you from across the hall. Never mind—she just looked
away.”

“
Just drop it. I already
made it clear to Jenn I don’t want to date her.”

Darrel snorted. “Why, is she not good enough
for you? Honestly, I can’t figure out why you haven’t picked a girl
yet. I swear, more than half the girls at Ludus are willing to cut
off their arm if that meant they could go out with you.”

Troop suppressed a sigh. “How many times do
I have to tell you? I’m just not interested in a relationship. I
have to go to World Studies class now. See you later, alright?”

Darrel gave Troop another friendly punch
then headed into the chemistry lab. Troop turned away from
Jennifer, feeling her eyes bore through his back like lasers, then
strode through the crowded hallways. He didn’t have to shoulder his
way through the crowd, though; most of the students parted before
him, acknowledging their place on the social hierarchy.

A few members of Troop’s faction exchanged
curt greetings; a brisk nod here, a high-five there. It was good to
be king.

Some students regarded
Troop with reserved respect; others threw themselves at his feet,
hoping to brownnose their way into his circle. However, every so
often, Troop would spot a student look at him with dread burning
bright in their eyes. It was these students Troop’s conscience
often bothered him about. After all, it was his fault that they
feared him.
Better to be the hunter than
the hunted.
Troop extinguished his guilty
conscience like a candle being blown out.

R-i-i-n-n-g.

Two minutes until the next period started.
The World Studies classroom was in the opposite wing of the
chemistry lab. The fact that Ludus High was a massive school didn’t
help. Troop sped up and crossed into the classroom just as the
final bell rang.

There was an empty desk in the back corner
of the room. Troop grinned to himself. That was his seat and others
knew better than to take it. Not unless they wanted the rest of the
school year to be pure misery; Troop’s gang had that type of power.
It never ceased to amaze Troop how the right connections could make
the difference between being the alpha or the omega.

He slid into his designated seat and
promptly tuned out the lesson being taught on the smart-screen. He
could always swipe the key points of today’s lesson from Darrel
later.

Flipping on his electro-slate, Troop saw
that Jennifer had sent him three more instafications.

Want to come over to my place after
snowboarding?

I got some new music I know you will
like.

Okay, are you just going to ignore me? Fine.
Be that way.

Typical Jennifer,
thought Troop. He typed back a reply:

Jenn, I’m not ignoring you—I just don’t
check my inbox every other second of the day. Like I said before,
you can come along to Shawn’s Snowboard.

Troop lazily took a few bullet points’ worth
of note. When he returned to the home screen of his slate, Jennifer
had already answered his message.

Nah. I’ve never been good at snowboarding. I
guess my parents were too cheap to code some snowboarding skills
into my DNA.

Troop didn’t bother to reply Jennifer
informing her athletic skills couldn’t be genetically coded.

He started to reply but got
interrupted—another instafication from Jennifer. He began to wonder
if he should block her from his contact list.

It’s Maya, isn’t it?

Troop creased his forehead and typed back a
message:

Who the heck is Maya?

Jennifer’s reply:

Don’t pretend you don’t know her. She’s the
girl with blue eyes, black hair…good snowboarder. You’re meeting
her after school today, aren’t you?

Now Troop remembered who Maya was. New girl
at Ludus; moved to the city a few weeks ago. She was pretty, but
not exceptionally eye-catching in a school full of Perfects. Troop
thumbed back a reply, hastily covering his electro-slate for a
second when the teacher glanced his way.

Sounds like you’re jealous of the new
girl.

He didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

I am so not jealous of her. I mean, really,
blue eyes and black hair? That’s so cliché. I bet her parents were
“Ravenhood” fans back in their days and wanted a daughter that
looked just like Raven.

Troop grinned, fully aware that Jennifer was
a Ravenhood fan herself. Ravenhood was a popular e-book published
thirty years ago. Although the novel was no longer on the top ten
books of the year, most people still recognized the title
“Ravenhood.” Troop had read the story only once—he didn’t find it
especially interesting.