NaNoWriMo: Education Underground: Chapter 1
Education Underground
Chapter One
It was 6:15 AM on a chilly winter morning. At 56 Rothschild Boulevard in Maryland a shrill alarm clock sounded, eliciting a startled yelp and a loud thud.
“Oh good, honey, you're up!” Angelina Rogers chirped happily as she walked past her son's open door. Daniel, the aforementioned son, grumbled something from his undignified sprawl on his bedroom floor. His mother was way too cheery this early in the morning.
“Come on, sport!” his father, Nathan Rogers, called up from the kitchen where he was no doubt cooking eggs and bacon (growing boys need a good source of protein), “And get your brother up too, he needs to finish his homework before school!” Daniel just grunted again, this time not because his face was buried in his carpet but because he was just a difficult teenager. He took the few steps to his brother's door across the hall and loudly slammed it open.
“Get up squirt,” he growled, stretching out his foot prodding the lump in the blanket that was Gregory Rogers with it. The lump let out a strangled whine and rustled around a little. Daniel pushed harder, nearly rolling the lump over.
“OKAY! Okay, I'm up,” the lump cried, just saving itself from rolling off the edges of the bed. It tossed the blanket back to reveal a bed-head of brown hair, his mouth stretched into a humongous yawn allowing Daniel a lovely view of his younger brother's tonsils. His mission accomplished, Daniel went downstairs, following the smell of delicious breakfast. He had to admit, his dad was a breakfast gourmet. Whenever he had time to cook, the food was always delicious. Unfortunately, it was a rarity as his dad was often out of the country for work.
“What's on the menu today?” he asked, seating himself at his usual spot at the kitchen table.
“Pancakes with fruit, fresh orange juice, hashbrowns, bacon, and eggs,” his father listed off, flipping a pancake expertly in the skillet. He had attempted to teach Daniel how to do that once, but it had ended in the kitchen covered in pancake batter and both of them standing guiltily in the center when his mother had returned home.
“Awesome, pancakes!” Gregory yelled, bounding down the stairs and leaping into his chair, “Yay, Dad!” Nathan grinned over his shoulder at his two sons, adjusting his glasses with one hand while he flipped and caught a pancake in the other without looking.
“Oh honey, don't do that!” Daniel's mother chided, walking in with a basket of fruit, “Think of what a mess you'd make if you missed!”
“But dear,” Nathan said, slipping away from the oven to kiss Angelina on the cheek, “You know I never miss.” She giggled and they both blushed. Daniel rolled his eyes and snagged a piece of fruit from the basket. Gregory fake-gagged. On his way back to the oven, Nathan slid the pancake he had just finished cooking onto Daniel's plate and winked at him. Daniel rolled his eyes again, a good-humored eye roll this time, and smiled at his dad.
The happy family enjoyed the rest of their breakfast amidst jokes, loud conversations, and a few more artful pancake flips which nearly sent Angelina into fits. Eventually 7:30 rolled around and Nathan packed his children into the car, dropping Daniel at the high school and Gregory at the middle school.
~~~~~~
Upon entering into the main lobby of the high school, Daniel immediately found himself surrounded by people. His school was overcrowded, as per usual with schools in Maryland, and it showed the moment you walked in. People stood in clumps, friends with friends, keeping mostly to themselves and mostly to what they knew. Occasionally someone passing by would give a shy wave to someone in a clump and get a similar wave in response, but very rarely did people from different clumps interact. These weren't cliques, they were simply clumps of friends, some of which had known each other since infancy. And as with any group of people, some didn't get along with others and so they kept separate. This policy of non-interaction actually helped the school avoid the hallway fights and cafeteria brawls that plagued the educational system; true there were some, but nowhere near as many as in other schools.
Daniel pushed his way through the crowds, looking for his own clump of friends; Will, David, Ryan, and John. He found them in the foreign language wing, all huddled around multi-playing something via Nintendo DS.
“Hey guys, what's for play today?” he asked, pulling his DS out from the pocket on his backpack.
“Hold up,” Will said, not looking up from the screen. Daniel nodded, understandingly. You didn't interfere with a gamer in the middle of a multi-player free-for-all. You just didn't. It was in the rules. Or would be, if there were rules for interaction with gamers. There should be rules like that. Why weren't there?
Daniel was snapped out of his train of thought by a loud victory chime and John jumping up, screaming “Boo-yah!”, and dancing around the hallway like an idiot. People from other clumps were watching, but most just shrugged and went about business as per usual. This was normal in any hallway throughout the school that played host to gamer clumps in the mornings.
“Now then, what were you asking?” Will asked, turning off and closing his DS.
“What's for play?” Daniel repeated. Will ejected the game cartridge, handing it to Daniel instead of answering. It was Mario Kart DS. Daniel handed the cartridge back to Will and dug his own Mario Kart cartridge out of his backpack. The tiny card clicked ever so nicely into the game system, and all was set.
“All right, let's do this thing,” Daniel said, and settled into his daily routine.
~~~~~~
“Mom, we're home!” Gregory called, throwing open the door of the house, tossing his backpack unceremoniously to the floor, and running up to his room. Daniel slouched in after him, followed by Nathan, who closed and locked the door behind them. Angelina was waiting for them, drying her hands on a towel. She hugged Nathan, gave him a peck on the cheek, then repeated the actions with Daniel.
“How was school, dear?” she asked, smiling that kind smile she almost always had on, “Any tests? How was gym?”
“Meh,” Daniel replied, his standard response for as long as he could remember, “Boring as usual. There was a lab in Physics, but it was easy stuff. Had to measure and do math to make sure a little ball-bearing hit a target dead-center. My group got closest to a perfect bulls-eye. Gym was fine too, mostly spent it playing volleyball inside because the weather's mad cold outside. Was fun, I guess, but I swear the ball has it out for me. Kept aiming for my face.”
“I remember volleyball in school,” his mother replied, as Daniel slid off his shoes, “The ball always aimed at my face, too.” She giggled and Daniel smiled a lopsided smile.
“Now, go do your homework, kiddo,” his father said, hanging his coat in the hall closet, “And send your brother down for a full report on how his day went. And to get his backpack; I know he has homework to do and he'll never get it done if he gets into his games.” Daniel nodded and headed upstairs, his own backpack still slung over his shoulder.
“And you do your homework too!” Angelina yelled after him. Daniel gave a backhanded wave over his shoulder to let her know that he heard her. By the time he got upstairs he could already hear the orchestral background music of his brother's current game. Sounded like Kingdom Hearts; first, second, or RE: Chain of Memories, he couldn't tell, but that was definitely Kingdom Hearts.
“Hey squirt,” he said, kicking open Gregory's door with one sock-clad foot. Oh, it was RE: Chain of Memories. His brother was staring determinedly at the screen; dodge rolling, jumping, summoning, attacking. He was in the middle of the second Vexen fight. Daniel paused, remembering his previous thoughts on 'gamer-interaction rules' and allowed his brother to get his ass handed to him before continuing.
“Freaking Vexen!” Gregory yelled, tossing his controller angrily to the floor, then turned to his brother “What did you want, Danny?”
“Mom and Dad want a full briefing, Greggy” Daniel replied, using the nickname he knew his brother hated from anyone but him, “And you need to get your homework done for once.” Greg scowled at the use of the nickname, but got up and jogged downstairs. Daniel watched him go. Then he made his way to his own room, pulled out all his textbooks, surrounded himself with loose leaf paper, and settled in to work.
::Meanwhile, later that night::
Angelina and Nathan Rogers sat at the kitchen table, both sipping calmly at cups of coffee.
“So honey, how was work?” Angelina asked, that innocently kind smile gracing her face once more.
“Not bad,” Nathan replied, an almost identical smile on his face, “Just a few minor local accounting errors to work out. And your day, darling?”
“Oh, the usual,” Angelina replied, taking a long sip of coffee before finally adding: “Had a meeting.” Nathan, in the middle of his own sip of coffee, raised an eyebrow.
“And?” he asked one he had finished.
“Lined up the next few fund-raisers,” Angelina replied, “Sent out flyers for the next Basket Bingo letting parents know that they are expected to donate at least one item. Got in a few reports of claims that need to be followed through on.” She trailed off into another sip of coffee. Nathan nodded, and suddenly they were both very serious. The smiles were gone.
“Where do I go now?” Nathan asked. Angelina slid an envelope over the table to him. On the pristine, white paper was a very fancy, gold embossed insignia bearing the letters NPTSA. He opened the envelope and scanned the papers inside.
“There's a lobbyist group in Austin, Texas meeting to discuss the future of their school system's arts program funding,” Angelina explained, then she pointed to a photo on the page, “Your target is this man. Harold Levvins. He is pushing for severe budget cuts which would cripple the Texas school system's arts programs while redirecting all of that money from the arts into the more than well-funded sports programs.”
“Okay,” Nathan said, turning to the second paper and looking over it as well.
“And your second mission, should you choose to accept it,” (and they both snickered at her joke) “is to negotiate with this man,” she said, indicating the picture on the page, “His name is Noland Knox. He is the second-in-command of one of our fund-raiser donation companies. Lately he has been attempting to raise his paycheck and several other higher-ups in the company at the expense of donations to charities like our fund-raisers. He is doing this by trying to shut out our organization's good friend, Mr. Gerald Hogurth, the company's head. Mr. Knox needs to be dealt with.”
Nathan nodded and replaced the papers in the envelope. Once he had re-sealed the envelope Angelina handed him another paper with a printout of his plane ticket to Austin, Texas.
“Well then, I guess I'll be off to Austin tomorrow,” Nathan said, scanning the ticket, “At 9:00.” Angelina just nodded vacantly, then got up and brought their mugs to the sink. As she rinsed them out, Nathan came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. They stood there for a minute, swaying absently with each other before he kissed her on top of her head and spun her around ballroom-style.
“I think you need to get some sleep, dear,” Angelina whispered, the kind smile back on her face, “You have a lot of work to do over the next few days.” Nathan opened his mouth, about to object, when his words rapidly turned into a large yawn. His wife giggled.
“A good idea, Angie,” he replied once his yawn had ended, “Good night, honey.” They exchanged a quick good-night kiss and Angelina began to load the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Nathan began to make his way up the stairs, quietly so as not to disturb their sons, already asleep in their rooms.
“And dear?” he heard Angelina call after him.
“Yes?” he asked, turning around halfway up the stairs.
“Be careful,” she replied softly, “No unnecessary risks. And don't miss.” She looked at him from the kitchen, worry etched over her entire expression. He smiled lovingly (and tiredly) at her.
“But dear,” he replied, miming a gun with his hand, “You know I never miss.” And with that he made his way upstairs and went to bed, ready for work the next day.
Total Word Count: 2,159