"Attention, all students please report to the gymnasium," said a voice through the school announcement speakers. Genesis exchanged glances with Dryden as they started to follow the sea of students as they all began migrating out of the cafeteria.
Genesis locked eyes with Soren's red ones as he passed from a few feet away, his friends the purple eyed twins, and the green haired guy following shortly behind him. They glared at each other, and Dryden clapped his hands together cheerfully, snapping her out of the staring contest. Soren tore his gaze away, and Genesis noticed his hands were glowing with that red light slightly, before that light quickly disappeared and he vanished in the crowd.
"Well," Dryden said. "Should we get going? Never mind the creepy android."
"Yeah," Genesis said, cussing under her breath. "Let's just go."
They entered the gymnasium and took seats on the front bottom row of bleachers, off to the side, seeing as they were pretty full as it was with the entire school having been called there. The military was making an effort with the police, and they each appeared to be consulting one another. Rows of soldiers and police stood behind the principal and various Crest High staff. The principal was a lanky old guy, whose hair was gray and thinning, and he wore clear framed glasses and a suit with the Crest High symbol on it.
The awkward man greeted the last few staff members as they approached him and took their seats, and then everyone watched as he stood up to the microphone, tapping it not once, but twice for confirmation that it was ready to go before he spoke into it.
"Testing? Yes, hello," he said in a low, tired voice. Principal Satori was known for being tired, also having to have been rumored to fall asleep in his office on occasion, Genesis recalled with a small smile.
"Students, thank you for being present here with us today. I'm sure you're all very confused by our surprise guests," He gestured to the soldiers and police officers behind him, nodding at them to acknowledge them. "They will be here to protect and serve from right here in our school. As you all know, in recent years, an imminent threat has put us all at risk. Dangerous technological advancements, such as the invention of robots and androids, though very useful, have proven to pose a threat to the average citizen's safety. Not to mention the rising crime rates to date, which do hint at some modern day civil unrest. So as of today, all school androids will be taken for inspection or shut down, and I am displeased to inform each and every one of you that cellphones will now be banned on school grounds starting today."
The entire gymnasium gasped, and each student seemed to look at one another in confusion or disbelief. "They can't really do that, can they?" Genesis asked Dryden. She suddenly became aware of the absence of Cassie and her father, who appeared not to be present in the room with them. She tried not to overthink it, but something about Cassie not being there was striking her as odd.
"I think they can," Dryden said, shifting his weight beside Genesis. He ran a hand through his gray hair, afterwards shifting his gaze and pointing a finger to its direction. "Check it out," he whispered.
"Weird," Genesis said as she followed his gaze, which trailed across the gymnasium to one of the far corners near an exit, where police and soldiers stood, seeming to be messing with the androids. There were sport training droids, health and nurse droids, and janitorial droids alike all being inspected now.
Students were informed by the overhead speaker to report to their classes as the principal stepped down from the microphone and returned his attention to the other Crest High staff as well as to the government officials, who seemed to demand his attention the most. Genesis noted that she could hear the principal's heartbeat from where she was, and she noted it was pounding quite quickly and hard.
"I've gotta get to class," Dryden said, nudging Genesis. "You probably should too. By the way," he said, raising an eyebrow, before tucking a few white strands of Genesis' hair behind her left ear. "I really like your eyes."
Genesis smiled, and let out a small laugh. "Thank you," she said.
He smiled back at her, "It's true," he said. "They're very pink," he said, before turning to her to say one more thing. "Your wings. They're pretty too."
Genesis smiled again and Dryden sped off into the crowd and back into the hallway, disappearing down the corridor.
Genesis grabbed her school bag, turned her cellphone into the office and trudged through the sea of students, passing them, and found herself quickly at her locker. She swapped subject materials and then proceeded to finish the rest of her three remaining classes, and before she knew it she was retrieving her phone from the office again and on the bus, heading home.
When she got home, she went on her netpad. She logged onto her online profile to see two new friend requests; one from Dryden Sutcliffe, and one from Soren Sutcliffe. Genesis stared at the netscreen. In Dryden's photo he was kneeling in front of a large rock in a wooded area, holding up a peace sign. Genesis scrolled his profile, peaking at the music he liked, and when she scrolled lower she found an old status that stated "In a Relationship" with some girl named Aubrey, to which she sighed. She went back to check his dating status in confusion and was relieved to find he was currently single.
She stared at the friend request from Soren for a while, and decided to message him.
She sent a simple "hey" to Dryden, and returned to Soren's conversation tab, contemplating on what to say to him. She constructed a few well thought out paragraphs, before going back and deleting all of them. She pondered the night that he grabbed her wrist, the left one, which still had a red ring around it from some type of energetic burn, thanks to his supernatural Seraph abilities.
She sighed and a thought suggested and tempted her to throw the stupid netpad across the room but dismissed the idea. Then she typed, "what do you want from me" and worked up the courage to hit send. After two minutes of refusing to make a decision, she pressed the send button and watched the message go through.
Dryden sent her a message shortly after. It was a smiley face, along with his cellphone number.
A voice clip came from Soren's chat and Genesis was notified. She anticipated hearing his message, but found herself eagerly pressing play. "Hi, Genesis. Look, if you're wondering how I found you, I sort of asked my brother. Look, what happened was a misunderstanding. I can see why you slapped me. I just, I thought you were going to attack us, but I was wrong. I'm sorry," he finished. "And I'm sorry I called you a bitch." The message was cut out afterwards.
Genesis recalled the voice that made its presence known that day by the alley, and reminisced over the cryptic things it would say to her. It seemed to be a part of her, who harbored some type of anger or sadness. Maybe it was a part of her that carried resentment, for what she was. Or maybe she was actually losing it. Regardless, she would figure it out on her own. She was surprised that Soren apologized, seemingly out of nowhere.
Then, her netpad notified her of another voice message. She went to lift up the device again and when she did, she noted that the body scanning sensor was blinking. She addressed the internal AI Helper Miya, "Miya, stop body scanning," she commanded it.
"Failing to initialize," Miya replied. The screen zoomed in on the AI's digital face, a pink haired avatar that was staring lifelessly back at Genesis. The screen glitched for a split second, flashing red, before fuzzy lines and streaks distressed the device, and the avatar's face was zoomed in on even further. A loud screech came from its speaker and Genesis jumped, her wings fluttering in terror, as she threw the device down onto the bed where it proceeded to make the same unsettling sound for a minute straight.
When it stopped, Genesis turned the device off, and turned it back on again.
She decided to default to using her cellphone which was sitting at her desk charging. She opened Soren's chatlog and pressed play on the second and newest voice message.
"Look, there's something I have to tell you about my brother," he said. The phone glitched, flashing red a good three times, before shutting down and restarting. Genesis sighed and started to feel her irritance turn to anger, and she quickly noticed her palms were glowing a deep shade of pink at their centers. She walked to her vanity and stared into the mirror. Her eyes were deep pink, and they were glowing with an iridescent light.
She studied her reflection. Her white hair was tangling and messy, she looked drained, and frankly her reflection made her feel even worse. She was in some type of danger, especially now, with eyes like that of a Seraph, but how would she tell her father?
Her father always did have prejudice when it came to Seraphs and humans. He seemed to think, however, that Genesis was far better than others of her kind, that she was more "unique" because she was born with a pair of wings. Sometimes, though, Genesis felt like a labrat in her father's eyes.
She heard the front door down the hall open and shut, and what followed was the sound of rustling papers, followed by the sound of a crash and an angry cuss from her father. She walked out of her bedroom and met her father in the front room where her father's work papers were scattered all over the floor.
"Hi honey," her father said, looking up at her with sweat dripping down his forehead. He was still dressed in his lab coat, and he was clutching his personal computer and a thick folder filled with a stack of paperwork. "As you can see, I was telling the truth no more late nights."
"Yeah," Genesis said. "Look,Dad," Genesis started, anxiety causing a weighted feeling in her chest. "Something weird is happening at school."
"Do the military and police have something to do with it?" He asked. "Ah. Yes, they informed us just twenty minutes beforehand, and notified me through an email," he scoffed, clearly displeased. "I just suggest you leave your cellphone at home from now on honey, I wouldn't trust that it doesn't end up broken. Just shoot me a text before you head to school if you want from now on. I'm not spending late nights at the lab anymore."
"Okay, dad. How was work?" Genesis asked, following her father into the kitchen.
"Well, the anti-aging serum is in the works, officially," he stated proudly. "I'm currently holding a copy of the patent for it."
"No fucking way dad that's amazing!" Genesis said with excitement, jumping up to hug him. They embraced for a moment and she pulled back, bringing a hand up to tuck some high behind her ear.
"What's that, sweetheart?" her father asked, gently taking her left forearm, pulling it towards him. "It looks like a burn."
"What? No, its just. . ." Genesis considered Soren's apology and rubbed the back of her head. "No, dad, it was an allergic reaction to a bracelet. Must be my damn mutant genes," she joked. They liked to joke about her being a mutant, it helped her embrace who she was, wings on her head, pinks eyes and all.
"Hmm," he hummed, unsure. "Should we go to the walk-in clinic? It's going to be a big pain with all of the government presence, but sweetheart that looks really painful."
"No," she said. "I'm okay, really, I'm fine. It doesn't hurt," she said. "I swear it."
"You swear it?" Her father asked, running a hand through his graying and brown hair. He peered at her for a moment and let out a sigh. "Alright, but it's getting late. Have you finished your homework? I'll start dinner shortly."
"I finished it all like two hours ago. Just two assignments," Genesis reassured him.
"I'm proud of you honey, your mother would be, too," he said.
"Thanks dad," she said, "Oh. Something happened to my netpad, and my phone. It was weird, would you take a look at them? Scientist and all?" She asked. He smiled and sat in his leather recliner, holding out a hand.
"Let's see," he said.
"Sure, I'll have to go get them, they're in my room," she said. He nodded and she traveled down the hall to her bedroom, where the cellphone sat at her desk, untouched and still plugged in to the charger. She turned the screen on the reveal a few more messages from Soren, all audio clips.
She skimmed through the chat and found the most recent unopened audio clip, pressed play, and held the phone up to her ear, paranoid she was going to hear the same disturbing sound from earlier, she tried to brush it off and listened.
"I wanted to warn you that he's got some problems," Soren's voice said through the speaker. "He has issues, look, I can't explain, just trust me," Soren said. "I mean, I know you know I do, but please listen to me." The audio clip finished and she pressed play on the next one. "Just listen to me. Stay the hell away from him," Soren said in a stern tone, almost commanding her.
She giggled a little, what a ridiculous mind game trick he was playing on her. She exited the chat and brought her phone out to the living room where her father was sitting, scrolling through his own phone. She held it out to her father unlocked and handed it to her father.
"Now what exactly was the problem?" He asked, confused. "I'm running a system diagnostics test. Nothing's showing up."
"Huh, weird," Genesis said. "It's just that I swear that the screen glitched. It looks fine to you?"
"No viruses, no malware, no data breaches. You're in the clear," her father said, handing her back her cellphone with a carefree smile. She groaned, and rubbed her stomach.
"Are you still gonna make dinner?" She asked, resisting a hunger pang as her stomach growled.
Her father looked back at her, then pulled out a coupon booklet turned to a page filled with pizza coupons for fast food. "In the mood for some pizza?" He asked with a sorry look.
"Sure," she said, grateful that he was finally home. "Pizza's perfect, dad. The netpad did it too though, dad. It made a weird sound." When she said it, she noticed her father started to grimace, and an anxious feeling came over her..
"I'll take a look at it tomorrow. Now I'll get to ordering that pizza," he said, trying to smile, but he looked worried, and in turn, Genesis felt worried too.
She fell asleep that night, half expecting the strange voice to return, but her mind went quiet as it drifted to different places, and she was soon fast asleep.