The Fate of Terra Ch. 01

Michael smirked and covered his mouth when Pandora started playing with her, moving her mouse, opening and closing windows, then moving on to navigate to some obviously lesbian-oriented porn sites (luckily, these machines lacked speakers). As the girl was desperately trying to figure out how to stop the intrusion, no doubt wondering why none of the more obvious help methods like "Ctrl+Alt+Del" and "cmd.exe" were working, Michael was reading the bio Pandora had put up on his screen.

Name: Catherine Flynn; Age: 18; An only child born to parents of Irish and English decent; Moved to town seven years ago after her parents' divorce; Currently lives with her mother in Forestview Apartments. Then, Pandora created a separate list regarding her hacking exploits. Michael's eyebrows rose as he realized he'd actually heard of the group she belonged to. They weren't major players, but they had done some fairly decent jobs. He grinned when he saw her alias, "Calypso;" a fellow Greek myth buff, apparently.

When yanking out her computer's internet cable hadn't had any effect, Catherine performed a hard shutdown. This wouldn't resolve the issue as Pandora had already copied herself onto the machine, but Michael told her to play nice and leave the girl alone.

As Catherine took a quick look around to see if anyone had noticed her escapades, she caught Michael looking at her with a slight grin on his face. Michael had quickly looked away and tried to school his expression, but she wasn't buying it. Catherine got up and walked towards him as the bell rang, signaling the end of second period.

Michael couldn't help but notice the slight bounce in her chest as she sat down in the chair next to him. She looked to have a very delectable C-cup going for her. She was staring at him intensely and Michael was studiously ignoring her as he logged off his machine and took out his flash drive.

Finally, she said, "You're going to buy me lunch and then you're going to tell me how you did that."

The corner of Michael's mouth quirked up at that; he had no intention of revealing Pandora to anyone, much less a stranger, but lunch with a pretty girl was nothing to scoff at so he shot her a smile that he hoped looked noncommittal and headed for the door.

Michael couldn't help stealing glances at her as they walked. He assumed he should have felt bad that he was still a virgin, but he was more concerned that he had never had a lasting relationship with a girl before. There had been one girl sophomore year that had latched onto him when she realized he had money to spend.

On the books, Michael probably made more than most of his peers' parents, selling software and testing security. If he was counting the income he received from more sinister means, it was many times as much. Michael hadn't had a problem splurging on his girlfriend either, it had just seemed to him that it was the 'only' reason she stayed with him. He supposed he should have gotten her to put out before he broke it off.

There was a commotion going on in the cafeteria as the pair entered. Joseph was facing four football players that didn't look too happy, with their cheerleader girlfriends behind them. Brock or Brian or something, Michael never bothered to learn, was hassling Joseph about something. Michael remembered checking out Joseph's schedule when he'd been puttering around on the computer and had seen that his second period class was 'Gym.' If he had to guess, Coach Rogers had cornered him and Joseph had declined to try out for football. How these guys thought they could somehow bully Joseph into accepting was beyond him.

Catherine muttered a curse as she took in the scene. Michael was kind of amused they would try anything against the giant. However, it soon became apparent that Joseph had no intention of getting physical. He wouldn't meet their eyes and kept trying to ignore them and work his way around the throng to reach the lunch line.

Michael knew ignoring them would only egg the crowd on.

Catherine supposed the four thought that because Joseph was here on a trial period, he couldn't afford to get caught fighting. 'They must be feeling pretty invincible right now,' she thought to herself in disgust.

Michael had a feeling that Joseph just wasn't a very violent guy, despite his imposing bulk. He sighed and stepped forward. As Michael planted himself beside Joseph and waited, the four quieted down and looked at him. The fact that Michael was in the cafeteria at all was an anomaly. He chose to avoid cliques about as much as he avoided bad food.

Normally, he skipped lunch and stayed in the computer lab or took his car to eat in town. Additionally, Michael may have been a loner, but he had never reached nerd status. Because of the money he was making, most of his classmates accepted his obsession with computers as his job. It was a hell of a lot better than working at Wendy's, which was what most of them were stuck with. He was also athletic, played sports and practiced martial arts, and in a small town everybody knew it, even if they didn't find out from him.

There was a silent communication that went on between the four and Michael. Everyone who was watching knew that if the four pushed too far, Joseph might not fight, but Michael would. Brock/Brian still stepped forward as if to make an issue out of it, despite his girlfriend's frantic tugging on his jersey. He froze as Michael leveled his flat, unblinking gaze on him, daring him to try something. Finally, the four glanced at each other and left towards their customary table.

Knowing that it would be uncomfortable for all involved to remain in the cafeteria, Michael tapped Joseph on the shoulder and said, "Come on."

As the trio was leaving the cafeteria, Michael caught Tammy, one of the quieter and unattached cheerleaders, gazing after Joseph worriedly. He also thought he saw Joseph glance back once in her direction before they turned the corner. Michael smiled to himself, 'Well, at least he has good taste.'

Michael led the group down the halls in the direction of the parking lot while Catherine tried to pry information from Joseph. When they reached the car, the two of them glanced at each other in surprise, but then hurriedly got in after Michael. He drove to a Teriyaki place he liked while Joseph talked a little about his home and what his experiences so far were like in the US. Michael got the distinct impression that he was a little nervous about the obvious shortage of black folks in the Pacific Northwest.

There was an awkward moment in the restaurant when Joseph timidly explained his school lunches were paid for by the program and he couldn't afford to get anything here. Michael brushed this off before Joseph had finished speaking and said he would be covering lunch for all of them.

Michael had just sat down with his steaming plate of Beef Yakisoba when Catherine began the grilling, "Okay, spill it. How did you do it?"

"Do what?" replied Michael, digging into his food.

Catherine stared at him for a long, hard moment and Michael was amazed at the rich emerald color of her eyes. Then she said, "You know what I mean, with the computer and stuff. You were controlling it somehow."

"Well, I admit I did observe your more Sapphic exploits, and found them to be quite enjoyable," Michael jokingly responded.

She blushed but didn't retreat, "Don't change the subject. I'm going to find out how you did it if I have to tie you down and force it out of you."

Michael grinned, "That sounds like fun. Are you this kinky with all the guys you just meet?"

Catherine sputtered and blushed scarlet. Joseph looked on silently between the two, enjoying the banter.

They arrived back at school just as the bell rang and the three split up to go their classes. All of them agreed to meet up the next day in the computer lab for lunch. As Catherine was leaving, Michael called, "I had a lot of fun Kat. I hope we can do this again some time."

Kat was halfway to her class before she stopped, realizing she had never told Michael her name. 'Oh, yes,' she thought, 'we're definitely going to have to do this again.' Smiling, she continued on, thinking about the mysterious boy with straight brown hair that had suddenly made school interesting again.