More from the adolescent fiction archive

In my 9th grade advanced english class with the theatrical and batty Mrs. Kramer, we had to write a sci-fi story.

Here's an exerpt from my story. Somehow it ended up to be 17 pages long (single spaced!). And obviously, from my breezing over it just now, longer does not mean better.

I was also reading a lot of Star Wars stuff back then which is pretty obvious. The Han Solo Trilogy is still my fav, BTW. Han Solo is really the best character in the fictional world — ever.

I don't have a title for this, but read it if you dare.

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An exerpt of John's 9th grade sci-fi story

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The alarm rang out in the dark bedroom. Dan jolted awake with a start, and reached up to hit the snooze bar, then fell back into the warmth of his synthetic wool comforter, to begin his “pre-getting up wake up.”

As Dan lied in bed, he started thinking through his schedule. I wonder if I have any homework in Mr. Chronister’s class, Dan thought. “Man that is one virtuous guy”, Dan said aloud. As Dan was letting his eyes adjust to the darkness, he looked around the room until his eyes came to rest on the window. It wasn’t a normal window as you might have imagined, but a quadruple-paned, air-tight, UV filtering, ceramically insulated, titanium reinforced “window”, that was barely big enough to look out of.

As Dan’s gaze was fixed on the window he couldn’t help wondering whether windows always had to be so strong and airtight to keep out the sun’s damaging rays and heat. “Dan! Time to get up Dan”, his mother’s voice, interrupting his thoughts, said over the intercom in Dan’s room. “I know mom, I’m getting up” Dan grumbled. I’m 16 he thought. She doesn’t have to tell me to get up every morning. “Geez, parents”, Dan mumbled to himself.

Dan pulled himself out of bed and flipped on the illuminator, then grabbed some clothes and headed for the shower. He paused momentarily to hit the UNLOCK button on the airlock terminal he called a door, stepped through, then walked down the hall to the shower.
After a refreshing shower and a fresh shave with his new SUPER SHAVE 2000+ that he got for his birthday, he was feeling pretty good, and hungry. As Dan made his way down the stairs to the kitchen, his nose was met with the wonderful telltale smell of fried Dalorian wafers with Mlle strips. Dan stepped in the kitchen and took a seat at the table. Immediately Dan was served by Mildred the kitchen droid. “Good morning Dan”, Mildred said in a metallic alto. Dan gave a grunt in reply as he dug into a steaming Dalorian wafer.

”MMHHMM, that was excellent ”, Dan said handing his empty plate to Mildred. “I’m sure glad mom bought you that gourmet cooking program. If only we could do something about mom’s cooking,” Dan said mockingly. Mildred, in reaction to the joke produced a kind of rough, brassy noise from her voice speaker, that would sound like just static to the unfamiliar ear, but to Dan was Mildred’s form of laughter, that Dan enjoyed more and more.

Dan was growing fond of the little green droid. Since his mom had gotten a new job recently, she had been working more and more, and spending less and less time at home. Dan couldn’t remember the last time they’d done anything together. Dan had been raised without a father. Once he’d tried to ask his mother about his father, but she was working on an “important” project for her job, and didn’t want to talk about it, and Dan didn’t bother to ask her again.

Sure, his mom’s new job got more money, and was a great accomplishment for her, Dan’s mom had said once when Dan and her had gotten into an argument about it once, but with that big new accomplishment as she called it, did she ever once stop to think about me? Dan recalled bitterly. At first Dan had been angry with his mom for taking the job. He didn’t care about having an expensive house, or a flashy car or nice clothes. In the end Dan just didn’t care anymore.

Then there was Mark, her boyfriend. Dan had only talked to him a few times, and that had only been small talk. Out of what little time Dan’s mom spent at home, about half of it was spent with Mark. Dan didn’t like the way Mark treated his mom, so Dan tried to avoid them when they were together all he could. For all I care they can just go off and get married, I’m fine by myself, Dan thought.

Dan came to his senses with a start, at the sound of the door-bell. Mildred had already cleaned up the kitchen and stood in the corner with her standby lights flashing. Dan wondered how long he had been sitting there in the kitchen thinking. He glanced at the chrono on the wall as he made his way to the door, and realized he must have been sitting in the kitchen for almost 20 minutes. He would have to hurry if he didn’t want to be late for school.

Dan peered in the view screen that showed a camera view of who was on the porch. It was Dan’s friend Mike, who came by to pick Dan up every morning. “It’s open”, Dan said as he hit the UNLOCK button. Every house had to be airtight, and fitted with an airlock at every door, so the house wouldn’t be exposed to the heat and sun. Mike stepped in the airlock, and waited for it to pressurize before opening the inner door with a loud hiss.

Mike was Dan’s best and only friend, and Mike and Dan were alike in the fact that they both had only one parent. But Mike was different in the fact that he came from a poor family and a tyrannical father. Mike’s mom had left his father and him when Mike was very young. Dan often noticed bruises and wounds on Mike’s body, but said nothing of them, and tried to block it out of his mind. Dan and Mike were best friends, and that was all that mattered.

“Hey Dan”, Mike said enthusiastically after taking off the helmet to his ozone protecting body suit. “Good morning” Dan retorted. “Sorry, I’m running a little late this morning. Why don’t you sit down on the couch, and I’ll be ready in a few” Dan stated. “Ok, whatever, it’s not like I’m in a hurry to get to class”, Mike said lazily as he stretched out on the Armani leather sofa.

It only took Dan a few minutes to get ready and put on his O-S (ozone suit) as people called them, and then he and Mike were off for school. Dan was supposed to get a car for his birthday, which was 6 months ago, but his mom said that “they” meaning her, were too busy to shop for a car. Big surprise there, Dan thought. But Dan enjoyed Mike taking him to school every morning.

They arrived at Virginia Springs High School #4 just in time to get to class before the tardy chime rang. Dan’s first class was Atmospheric Science, with Mr. Listless. “Today class, I’m going to pass back your “Wind, and the effects it has on the land” tests to you. Lisa, would you mind passing them out?” Mr. Listless droned. “Sure” Lisa said throwing her auburn hair out of the way of her sparkling green eyes.

Oh man, Dan thought, what a babe. Lisa meandered around the room passing out papers, and gradually made her way over to Dan’s desk. “Is this your paper?” She said in a smooth flowing tone. Dan, who had had his head on his desk thinking about what he ate last night, snapped to attention. “Uh, my paper, uh, yeah, it’s mine. What?" Dan stuttered shyly.

“Is this your paper?" Lisa asked again in the same beautiful tone that made him sweat. This was the school’s prettiest girl, and she was talking to him. “Uh, oh, yeah, that’s mine, uh, thanks?” Dan said shakily.

“Well, the reason I ask, is that you got a really high grade, and I well, didn’t do too well on my test. So I was wondering, if maybe you could tutor me sometime, if you’re not busy?”

“Tu-tu-tuootor” Dan’s voice cracked. “Tutor you?” Dan asked in disbelief. His heart rate had gone up considerably, and he was sweating openly now. Dan was ultimately thankful that this was his best subject.

“Yeah, if you have some time.” Lisa quipped. “Uh, yeah, I have time, lots time, uh huh, uh when?” Dan stammered. His head was spinning, and he was having trouble breathing.

“Well, tell you what.” Lisa said matter of factly. “I’ll give you my number, and when you have some time, you can call me, and we’ll get together, ok?” The words flowed through Dan like some hypnotic drug, and his mind was warped into a twisted mangle of warm thoughts and dreams.

Somehow Dan managed to get out a reply. “Yeah, uh huh, that work fer me, uh, yep.”

“Well ok, just call me when you have some time, or if you just want to talk, ok?” Lisa inquired.

“Yeah.” Dan said with a sigh, but his thoughts were on far away things.

“Thank you soo much Dan.” Lisa said genuinely. With that, Lisa handed Dan his paper and returned to her seat.

For the rest of the day Dan was in a trance. A little love spider had knitted a small little web inside his heart. At lunch, Mike found it hard to communicate with Dan, but somehow managed to get the story about Lisa out of him, though in small parts at a time, and with long sighs between phrases.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully for Dan. Eventually the euphoria of the "Lisa” encounter wore off, but he was still mindful of her number in his back pocket. After school Dan met up with Mike and started walking toward Herb’s Rib Rack for a drink as they often did after school, and it was within walking distance from the school. Mike, glad that Dan was consolable, engaged in conversation.

Dan and Mike made their way over to The Barn when a voice floated across the lawn that met Dan’s ears.

“Hey, Dan, wait up.” It was Lisa. Dan turned and was greeted by the all too familiar face.

“Hey”, he managed to say.

Dan introduced Mike to Lisa and the three of them made their way towards the restaurant. As they were rounding the corner of Elm Street, Dan heard something that made his blood run cold. “Hey, Danny boy, where ya going with the nerd clubbb…...”, the words of the infamous bully Damont Jones were pinched off as he realized who Dan was with, or rather who was with Dan.

“Uh, Lisa, uh, I didn’t know it was you.” Damont pleaded. “Why are you hanging around with these losers?” Damont said with a twinge of jealousy in his voice. The ever-present “backstreet” boys accompanied Damont.

“Hey, poor Mikey”, one of them said. “Where’d ya get your clothes, the shipyard?”, another one piped, and they all snickered.

“Hey, back off guys.” Dan said a little shakily.

“Ooh, look at Danny boy here, finally got a back bone boys.” Damont said hostily, and the boys chuckled dumbly to one another.

“Hey, Damont, why don’t you take your Backstreet Boys to their YM photo shoot?" Dan jested.

Damont stepped up to Dan, and grabbed his suit. “Look punk, you better show a little respect for me and my boys here,” Damont said in Dan’s face. Quicker than the blink of an eye Dan grabbed Damont’s suit and pulled a quick Judo move that instantly put Damont on the ground.

As Damont lay on the ground writhing in pain, the Backstreet boys looked sickly and horrified. Damont managed to get up off the ground with the help of the gang.

“I won’t forget this.” Damont muttered as he staggered off followed by the rest of the gang.

Mike, who had been quietly watching the whole thing, was now a buzz of excitement. “WOW, you showed him Dan!”

“Dan, I didn’t know you knew Judo.” Lisa said with disbelief, and interest.

“Well, I picked it up a while ago,” Dan said kind of embarrassed at all the attention he was getting.

“Drinks are on me today buddy!” Mike said proudly slapping Dan on the back. The three of them marched triumphantly the rest of the way to Herb’s to enjoy some victory drinks.