The Fire, Part 1
"Well, do you think the machine's gonna work?" Maggie asked her friends. The five friends had been working on their science project for the Bellmont Science Fair for the last few days. But of course they had much more time than that, but being lazy and all being teenagers, they procrastinated, like most projects they had.
"Well, only one way to find out," Brandon said. Sparky was the leader of the project, but Brandon led most other things they did. Caitlin secretly had a crush on Brandon for about a year now, but she was afraid that saying anything would ruin her friendships with everyone else. "Are we ready to test?" Brandon said with a creepy grin.
"Let's do it," Timothy, usually referred to as Sparky, approved.
"I'm ready," Mikayla said.
"I'm down," Maggie said.
"Yes, it's time," Caitlin said and took a deep breath.
Brandon flipped the small white switch upward. The machine began to start up, making a rubble sound and shaking slightly. They gave it a minute or so to let it warm up. "Okay, who's first?" Brandon said.
Maggie stepped forward and placed a few sprinkles of dirt onto the conveyer belt. The machine sucked it in, and within a few seconds, it dropped dirt out of it, but now each sprinkle was about the size of a golf ball. All of them gasped. "It works!" Caitlin exclaimed.
"Well of course it works," Sparky said. "That's why they call me Sparky."
Sparky stepped forward and placed a battery on the belt. After a few moments a battery the size of a shoe box. Sparky removed the battery, and Brandon placed a small plastic he had filled with his breath onto the belt and out of the other side came the same thing but much larger. Caitlin stepped forward nervously and placed a tiny container with one drop of water inside into the machine.
"Will the water being inside a sealed container still work?" Brandon scratched his head. Sparky was going to respond, but seeing a perfect result come out of the machine made is next response pointless. Mikayla walked up to the machine and inserted a match. Sparky was going to stop her from putting that in, but he was too late. The match was already inside the machine.
"That match might ignite the whole machine," Sparky said. "We should get out of here before it explodes." But there was no reason to thankfully, as a larger match emerged from the machine. Mikayla, inspected it and nodded her head.
"So, we've done it. The world's first Enlarging Machine!" Brandon said, loud and proud. Caitlin, Maggie, Mikayla, and Sparky cheered in response. Brandon continued, "Now that we've tested it, we should shut it off." Brandon flicked the switch off, but the machine didn't turn off. Instead it got louder and shook more violently. The five teens watched in horror as the machine began to bug out and release arcs of energy throughout the room, blasting everyone in the room. All Caitlin remembered before falling unconcious was seeing blue energy shoot at her and other colors hitting her friends, and knock everyone to the ground. As her vision blurred, she heard the machine explode, sending parts in all directions.
Caitlin woke up that morning in her bedroom around 6:30AM, and quickly got up to go take a shower. She locked the door behind her, took off her pajamas, stepped into the shower, and closed the curtain.
After getting cleaned up, she brushed her short blond hair, which rested just touching her shoulders. She put her usual make-up on, brushed her teeth, and opened the door to walk across the house. She walked down the hallway to her room, and locked the door behind her and got dressed for the day. She put on a white tank top, blue jeans, and a dark blue flannel sweater. She put on her high-top skater shoes and reloaded her backpack from the previous day. She looked up at the clock on her nightstand. "7:15?! I'm running late for school again!" Caitlin exclaimed, and grabbed her backpack and headed downstairs.
"Good morning honey," Caitlin's mother greeted her. Caitlin's younger brother sat at the dining table eating a bowl of cereal and ignored her, as usual.
"Good morning," Caitlin responded, and poured herself a cup of coffee in a travel mug. She grabbed her car keys off the ring by the door and gave her mother a hug.
"Why are you leaving so early dear? Is it Wednesday again?" her mother asked. She didn't have an actual job, so there was no reason for her to keep track of the day of the week. Caitlin nodded and waved her brother goodbye, who again ignored her. Typical. Caitlin opened the door and closed it behind her.
Caitlin walked down to the driveway, unlocked her car (She drove a minivan she bought for pretty cheap from her cousin), hopped in the driver's seat, and started the car. After placing her bag on the floor in front of the passenger seat she backed up down the driveway and began driving down her street.
It was Wednesday, which meant it was her day to drive her friends to school. They all drove as well, but to conserve gasoline, they all carpooled with each other, each taking a school day. It only seemed fair, so Caitlin went with it.
First stop just down the street was Brandon's house. She was always nervous knocking on his door so she parked the car in front of his house, pulled out her phone, and texted him that she was out front. Instead of confirming he was ready or almost ready, he replied with a GIF of him dabbing over and over again. Caitlin chuckled. This was a normal thing for Brandon to send stupid stuff as responses. But within a minute or so, Brandon came out of his house, closed the door and locked it behind him, and hopped in the passenger seat, closing the car door behind him.
"Good morning Caitlin," Brandon said cheerfully. Today he was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and white basketball shorts with black running shoes. Caitlin was going to make a comment about his choice of an outfit but then she let it go.
Caitlin sighed. "That GIF you sent me has got to be up there for the cringiest thing you've sent me."
Brandon laughed, and Caitlin drove a few blocks around the neighborhood to pick up Maggie and Mikayla, who happened to live next door to each other. Caitlin always thought they were lucky to be neighbors, but if only she lived next to Brandon. Caitlin parked out front and waited for the two girls. Maggie and Mikayla were definitely morning people, so they were always waiting for the driver, and when they drove they were always early. Maggie and Mikayla hopped in the middle row next to each other and set their backpacks down at their feet. Maggie and Mikayla were matching, both wearing a black blouse, pink skirts, and really high black socks with pink stripes, they both wore a pink flower in their hair, Maggie's being on her left and Mikayla's being on her right.
"'Morning girls," Brandon greeted. "It seems that pink is the theme today right?"
"Well at least we look presentable," Mikayla remarked. Caitlin went "Ooooooohh" and Brandon scowled at everyone in the car and kept to himself for a while. Caitlin put the car in drive and was about to drive off when she got a text from Sparky in their group chat.
'What does it say," Caitlin said as she began to drive down the street.
Maggie checked her phone. "He says that he's sick and he probably won't make it to school today."
"Oh," Caitlin said. "Well tell him to get well soon or else." Brandon laughed again, and Maggie began to frantically type a response on her phone.
The four of them headed onto Bellmont Boulevard and followed the road for about a mile until they pulled into the school parking lot. Caitlin parked the car in their assigned parking stall, put her school parking permit onto the dash, and the four of them grabbed their backpacks and began to walk towards the school.
Mikayla looked at her phone. "We have about six minutes until class starts," she said. They began to pick up the pace as they entered the front gate of Bellmont High School. Caitlin, Maggie, Mikayla, ad Brandon each headed their own way to go to first period. For Caitlin first period was math. She hated math. But she was grateful to have it early in the morning, because having it in the afternoon would result in a very long class. She sat through the teacher's lecture about graphing polynomials and how to manipulate parabolas.
After an hour the bell rang and she walked across campus to her history class. She again sat through another lecture, but this time about Napoleon's Conquest. Or at least the first conquest anyways. But at least this one was more interactive in the sense that they had a game if RISK going on in her corner through her phone and the people around her. Usually her corner of the room just played games like that during history lectures because Mrs. Debright, well, wasn't very bright. She didn't pay attention to her students and didn't really care for her subject. The quizzes were so easy you didn't have to know anything to pass them. But after the hour the bell rang and it was time for a fifteen minute break. Caitlin walked over to the library to meet up with her friends. When she got to the table she not only found Maggie, Mikayla, and Brandon but Sean's presence was there as well.
Sean was basically the 'jock' of all the Juniors, and all them being Sophomores, he took this opportunity to hit on Maggie. Everybody knew that he had a crush on Maggie, and he was very open about it.
"Eyyyyy Maggie," Sean said putting his hand on her shoulder. "You're looking fine today my girl!"
Maggie took a deep breath. "Sean, if you don't leave me alone, I'm going to punch your tiny little dick inside out."
Sean backed up a few steps, and said, "Aw come on Mags, I know you want to go out with me. Just say the magic words and I'm yours."
Maggie grabbed the table in anger. "Sean, I swear, if you don't leave now ..."
Sean read her body language and walked away. Maggie took a deep breath and muttered, "I really hate that guy." Maggie, Mikayla, and Brandon began a very faced paced conversation, which Caitlin was about to join when she felt a shiver down her spine. She looked around instinctively, and nothing caught her eye, until within the crowd she saw five students that ... no it couldn't be. She blinked and they were gone. She could have sworn that she had seen her and her friends in the distance, including Sparky, who wasn't there that day. But that was impossible, because Caitlin and her friends were sitting nearby.
"Is everything okay Kate?" Brandon asked. Caitlin turned to face him. He was no longer sitting at the table but was standing in front of her with one hand on her right shoulder. Caitlin was at a loss for words. She thought she had been hallucinating, and now her dream boy was making friendly physical contact with her. She forced herself to say, "Yeah. I'm fine. I just ... need some water." Caitlin walked away to the water fountain and pushed the button with one hand, pulled her hair aside, and drank some water. When she finished, she didn't feel any better about her hallucination but she decided to let it go.
Third and fourth period flew by like a breeze. English class was easy because the students were watching a movie as a treat for doing really well on the unit test as a class. Fourth period was P.E. and they were doing a test to see if they met the state standard for fitness exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. Each day was going to be a different activity, and that day was the push-up test. Caitlin spent most of the time on her phone checking her social medias. After changing back from her P.E. clothes to her regular attire, the lunch bell rang. Caitlin would have hung out with her normal friends during lunch, but she was part of a Super Smash Bros.TM Tournament, and she was competing in the semifinals for the tournament of over 100 students. She was actually really good at the game, and fortunately she won the semifinals but unfortunately lost the final round, leaving her with second place. The crowd cheered at the end of each of these rounds, as the tournament was being held in the auditorium for everyone to see. She wasn't upset about her defeat. She was happy to get that far in the competition and get second place.
At last fifth and sixth period began, and these were Chemistry and Graphic Design repectively. Chemistry was a lecture from the professor, which was boring as hell, but Caitlin was secretly texting in her friends' group chat.
'Hey, the science fair is coming up,' Caitlin texted. 'Should we work on it more today or put it off until tomorrow?'
A few seconds later, Maggie replied, 'I'm down. Can we go over to your house to finish it Caitlin?'
Caitlin texted a thumbs up. Then she typed in, 'Is everyone available for work?'
Everyone approved the project workday with random emojis. Even Sparky, who said he was feeling better but didn't want to go back to school for an hour and then go home again, agreed to work and told Caitlin he would meet her at her house.
Sixth period came by, and it was strictly a work day, which was to be used to continue working on the animation project. Caitlin had decided about a week before to make her animation based on a smash fight. Obviously she could have just recorded a video of a brawl and turned it into a GIF and be done, but what's the fun in that? So she had started from scratch. She was making progress, but she was nowhere near done. Luckily she had another two weeks to work on it so it wasn't too big of a deal to not be close yet.
The last bell of the day rang, releasing the students from the school day. Caitlin walked out of her class and stretched. She went to her car and waited outside for her friends. After a few minutes Maggie, Mikayla, and Brandon were all in her car and she drove them to her house to work on their Bellmont Science Fair project. The top three entries voted by the judges were offered a prize of $5,000, and first place getting $15,000. The friends had planned that if they won they would take a vacation to Japan during the summer with that money plus money they all had been saving for the last few years between allowance and work.
Sparky waited outside Caitlin's house for everyone to arrive. Once everyone was at the house they went inside.
"Hi honey," Caitlin's mom greeted. "Hello everyone! How are you all today?"
Everyone responded along the lines of "good", "alright", and "ehhhh" and Caitlin told her mother, "We're gonna be in the tree house working on the project, but we'll put our stuff down in my room first."
"Sounds good dear. Have fun," Caitlin's mother said. So the five friends went to Caitlin's room and put their backpacks on the floor ("It smells good in here," Brandon said. Caitlin blushed). They then went into the backyard and up the stairs into the large tree house. They then spent about an hour finishing up their project, led by Sparky.
And that's Chapter 1 folks! I'm so excited to see where this story takes me. I wanted to venture out of the realm of Pokemon with the writing skill I've developed over the last few years, and I'm honestly happy with the way Chapter 1 turned out. Please let me know what you think below and if you want to be tagged in future pieces of this story.
"Well, do you think the machine's gonna work?" Maggie asked her friends. The five friends had been working on their science project for the Bellmont Science Fair for the last few days. But of course they had much more time than that, but being lazy and all being teenagers, they procrastinated, like most projects they had.
"Well, only one way to find out," Brandon said. Sparky was the leader of the project, but Brandon led most other things they did. Caitlin secretly had a crush on Brandon for about a year now, but she was afraid that saying anything would ruin her friendships with everyone else. "Are we ready to test?" Brandon said with a creepy grin.
"Let's do it," Timothy, usually referred to as Sparky, approved.
"I'm ready," Mikayla said.
"I'm down," Maggie said.
"Yes, it's time," Caitlin said and took a deep breath.
Brandon flipped the small white switch upward. The machine began to start up, making a rubble sound and shaking slightly. They gave it a minute or so to let it warm up. "Okay, who's first?" Brandon said.
Maggie stepped forward and placed a few sprinkles of dirt onto the conveyer belt. The machine sucked it in, and within a few seconds, it dropped dirt out of it, but now each sprinkle was about the size of a golf ball. All of them gasped. "It works!" Caitlin exclaimed.
"Well of course it works," Sparky said. "That's why they call me Sparky."
Sparky stepped forward and placed a battery on the belt. After a few moments a battery the size of a shoe box. Sparky removed the battery, and Brandon placed a small plastic he had filled with his breath onto the belt and out of the other side came the same thing but much larger. Caitlin stepped forward nervously and placed a tiny container with one drop of water inside into the machine.
"Will the water being inside a sealed container still work?" Brandon scratched his head. Sparky was going to respond, but seeing a perfect result come out of the machine made is next response pointless. Mikayla walked up to the machine and inserted a match. Sparky was going to stop her from putting that in, but he was too late. The match was already inside the machine.
"That match might ignite the whole machine," Sparky said. "We should get out of here before it explodes." But there was no reason to thankfully, as a larger match emerged from the machine. Mikayla, inspected it and nodded her head.
"So, we've done it. The world's first Enlarging Machine!" Brandon said, loud and proud. Caitlin, Maggie, Mikayla, and Sparky cheered in response. Brandon continued, "Now that we've tested it, we should shut it off." Brandon flicked the switch off, but the machine didn't turn off. Instead it got louder and shook more violently. The five teens watched in horror as the machine began to bug out and release arcs of energy throughout the room, blasting everyone in the room. All Caitlin remembered before falling unconcious was seeing blue energy shoot at her and other colors hitting her friends, and knock everyone to the ground. As her vision blurred, she heard the machine explode, sending parts in all directions.
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Caitlin woke up that morning in her bedroom around 6:30AM, and quickly got up to go take a shower. She locked the door behind her, took off her pajamas, stepped into the shower, and closed the curtain.
After getting cleaned up, she brushed her short blond hair, which rested just touching her shoulders. She put her usual make-up on, brushed her teeth, and opened the door to walk across the house. She walked down the hallway to her room, and locked the door behind her and got dressed for the day. She put on a white tank top, blue jeans, and a dark blue flannel sweater. She put on her high-top skater shoes and reloaded her backpack from the previous day. She looked up at the clock on her nightstand. "7:15?! I'm running late for school again!" Caitlin exclaimed, and grabbed her backpack and headed downstairs.
"Good morning honey," Caitlin's mother greeted her. Caitlin's younger brother sat at the dining table eating a bowl of cereal and ignored her, as usual.
"Good morning," Caitlin responded, and poured herself a cup of coffee in a travel mug. She grabbed her car keys off the ring by the door and gave her mother a hug.
"Why are you leaving so early dear? Is it Wednesday again?" her mother asked. She didn't have an actual job, so there was no reason for her to keep track of the day of the week. Caitlin nodded and waved her brother goodbye, who again ignored her. Typical. Caitlin opened the door and closed it behind her.
Caitlin walked down to the driveway, unlocked her car (She drove a minivan she bought for pretty cheap from her cousin), hopped in the driver's seat, and started the car. After placing her bag on the floor in front of the passenger seat she backed up down the driveway and began driving down her street.
It was Wednesday, which meant it was her day to drive her friends to school. They all drove as well, but to conserve gasoline, they all carpooled with each other, each taking a school day. It only seemed fair, so Caitlin went with it.
First stop just down the street was Brandon's house. She was always nervous knocking on his door so she parked the car in front of his house, pulled out her phone, and texted him that she was out front. Instead of confirming he was ready or almost ready, he replied with a GIF of him dabbing over and over again. Caitlin chuckled. This was a normal thing for Brandon to send stupid stuff as responses. But within a minute or so, Brandon came out of his house, closed the door and locked it behind him, and hopped in the passenger seat, closing the car door behind him.
"Good morning Caitlin," Brandon said cheerfully. Today he was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and white basketball shorts with black running shoes. Caitlin was going to make a comment about his choice of an outfit but then she let it go.
Caitlin sighed. "That GIF you sent me has got to be up there for the cringiest thing you've sent me."
Brandon laughed, and Caitlin drove a few blocks around the neighborhood to pick up Maggie and Mikayla, who happened to live next door to each other. Caitlin always thought they were lucky to be neighbors, but if only she lived next to Brandon. Caitlin parked out front and waited for the two girls. Maggie and Mikayla were definitely morning people, so they were always waiting for the driver, and when they drove they were always early. Maggie and Mikayla hopped in the middle row next to each other and set their backpacks down at their feet. Maggie and Mikayla were matching, both wearing a black blouse, pink skirts, and really high black socks with pink stripes, they both wore a pink flower in their hair, Maggie's being on her left and Mikayla's being on her right.
"'Morning girls," Brandon greeted. "It seems that pink is the theme today right?"
"Well at least we look presentable," Mikayla remarked. Caitlin went "Ooooooohh" and Brandon scowled at everyone in the car and kept to himself for a while. Caitlin put the car in drive and was about to drive off when she got a text from Sparky in their group chat.
'What does it say," Caitlin said as she began to drive down the street.
Maggie checked her phone. "He says that he's sick and he probably won't make it to school today."
"Oh," Caitlin said. "Well tell him to get well soon or else." Brandon laughed again, and Maggie began to frantically type a response on her phone.
The four of them headed onto Bellmont Boulevard and followed the road for about a mile until they pulled into the school parking lot. Caitlin parked the car in their assigned parking stall, put her school parking permit onto the dash, and the four of them grabbed their backpacks and began to walk towards the school.
Mikayla looked at her phone. "We have about six minutes until class starts," she said. They began to pick up the pace as they entered the front gate of Bellmont High School. Caitlin, Maggie, Mikayla, ad Brandon each headed their own way to go to first period. For Caitlin first period was math. She hated math. But she was grateful to have it early in the morning, because having it in the afternoon would result in a very long class. She sat through the teacher's lecture about graphing polynomials and how to manipulate parabolas.
After an hour the bell rang and she walked across campus to her history class. She again sat through another lecture, but this time about Napoleon's Conquest. Or at least the first conquest anyways. But at least this one was more interactive in the sense that they had a game if RISK going on in her corner through her phone and the people around her. Usually her corner of the room just played games like that during history lectures because Mrs. Debright, well, wasn't very bright. She didn't pay attention to her students and didn't really care for her subject. The quizzes were so easy you didn't have to know anything to pass them. But after the hour the bell rang and it was time for a fifteen minute break. Caitlin walked over to the library to meet up with her friends. When she got to the table she not only found Maggie, Mikayla, and Brandon but Sean's presence was there as well.
Sean was basically the 'jock' of all the Juniors, and all them being Sophomores, he took this opportunity to hit on Maggie. Everybody knew that he had a crush on Maggie, and he was very open about it.
"Eyyyyy Maggie," Sean said putting his hand on her shoulder. "You're looking fine today my girl!"
Maggie took a deep breath. "Sean, if you don't leave me alone, I'm going to punch your tiny little dick inside out."
Sean backed up a few steps, and said, "Aw come on Mags, I know you want to go out with me. Just say the magic words and I'm yours."
Maggie grabbed the table in anger. "Sean, I swear, if you don't leave now ..."
Sean read her body language and walked away. Maggie took a deep breath and muttered, "I really hate that guy." Maggie, Mikayla, and Brandon began a very faced paced conversation, which Caitlin was about to join when she felt a shiver down her spine. She looked around instinctively, and nothing caught her eye, until within the crowd she saw five students that ... no it couldn't be. She blinked and they were gone. She could have sworn that she had seen her and her friends in the distance, including Sparky, who wasn't there that day. But that was impossible, because Caitlin and her friends were sitting nearby.
"Is everything okay Kate?" Brandon asked. Caitlin turned to face him. He was no longer sitting at the table but was standing in front of her with one hand on her right shoulder. Caitlin was at a loss for words. She thought she had been hallucinating, and now her dream boy was making friendly physical contact with her. She forced herself to say, "Yeah. I'm fine. I just ... need some water." Caitlin walked away to the water fountain and pushed the button with one hand, pulled her hair aside, and drank some water. When she finished, she didn't feel any better about her hallucination but she decided to let it go.
Third and fourth period flew by like a breeze. English class was easy because the students were watching a movie as a treat for doing really well on the unit test as a class. Fourth period was P.E. and they were doing a test to see if they met the state standard for fitness exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. Each day was going to be a different activity, and that day was the push-up test. Caitlin spent most of the time on her phone checking her social medias. After changing back from her P.E. clothes to her regular attire, the lunch bell rang. Caitlin would have hung out with her normal friends during lunch, but she was part of a Super Smash Bros.TM Tournament, and she was competing in the semifinals for the tournament of over 100 students. She was actually really good at the game, and fortunately she won the semifinals but unfortunately lost the final round, leaving her with second place. The crowd cheered at the end of each of these rounds, as the tournament was being held in the auditorium for everyone to see. She wasn't upset about her defeat. She was happy to get that far in the competition and get second place.
At last fifth and sixth period began, and these were Chemistry and Graphic Design repectively. Chemistry was a lecture from the professor, which was boring as hell, but Caitlin was secretly texting in her friends' group chat.
'Hey, the science fair is coming up,' Caitlin texted. 'Should we work on it more today or put it off until tomorrow?'
A few seconds later, Maggie replied, 'I'm down. Can we go over to your house to finish it Caitlin?'
Caitlin texted a thumbs up. Then she typed in, 'Is everyone available for work?'
Everyone approved the project workday with random emojis. Even Sparky, who said he was feeling better but didn't want to go back to school for an hour and then go home again, agreed to work and told Caitlin he would meet her at her house.
Sixth period came by, and it was strictly a work day, which was to be used to continue working on the animation project. Caitlin had decided about a week before to make her animation based on a smash fight. Obviously she could have just recorded a video of a brawl and turned it into a GIF and be done, but what's the fun in that? So she had started from scratch. She was making progress, but she was nowhere near done. Luckily she had another two weeks to work on it so it wasn't too big of a deal to not be close yet.
The last bell of the day rang, releasing the students from the school day. Caitlin walked out of her class and stretched. She went to her car and waited outside for her friends. After a few minutes Maggie, Mikayla, and Brandon were all in her car and she drove them to her house to work on their Bellmont Science Fair project. The top three entries voted by the judges were offered a prize of $5,000, and first place getting $15,000. The friends had planned that if they won they would take a vacation to Japan during the summer with that money plus money they all had been saving for the last few years between allowance and work.
Sparky waited outside Caitlin's house for everyone to arrive. Once everyone was at the house they went inside.
"Hi honey," Caitlin's mom greeted. "Hello everyone! How are you all today?"
Everyone responded along the lines of "good", "alright", and "ehhhh" and Caitlin told her mother, "We're gonna be in the tree house working on the project, but we'll put our stuff down in my room first."
"Sounds good dear. Have fun," Caitlin's mother said. So the five friends went to Caitlin's room and put their backpacks on the floor ("It smells good in here," Brandon said. Caitlin blushed). They then went into the backyard and up the stairs into the large tree house. They then spent about an hour finishing up their project, led by Sparky.
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And that's Chapter 1 folks! I'm so excited to see where this story takes me. I wanted to venture out of the realm of Pokemon with the writing skill I've developed over the last few years, and I'm honestly happy with the way Chapter 1 turned out. Please let me know what you think below and if you want to be tagged in future pieces of this story.
