Clara was eight years old and already more talented than most children twice her age. Her father Blake Yllaris was a man of great renown. At age twenty, he founded his company, Yllaris Innovation and slowly built it into a vast conglomerate empire in the span of a hundred years. Because of this, everything came easy for Clara. If she wanted something, her dad would get it. She was his special darling, after all. Some might say that Blake Yllaris doted on his daughter too much, but her father always insisted that Clara had more than earned it. She had from an early age demonstrated a high level of intelligence, she had surpassed her peers in all academic fields and took extracurricular activities to be even better. She had an indeterminant drive to be the best, which is why it always stung her so much when she lost.
"Have you heard that new song by Mercy, it goes like chick, chick, chick, chau..." Madelyn started imitating the beat of her new favourite single. Madelyn, or Maddie as she was commonly called by her peers was a wealthy girl like Clara. She had long summer blonde hair and a flowery personality. She liked to put on her mom's makeup a lot and put a lot of effort into her appearance. She was the one person in Clara's friendship group who could consistently lift Clara's spirit up.
"Could you stop making that infuriating sound? It sounds like a dying hyena," Clara had a sudden outburst.
"What was that about?" Selena asked. She was a half-dwarf and therefore a bit short. She had curly brown hair that framed her cute little heart-shaped face. Her large brown eyes looked curiously over at Clara.
"Oh, Clara is just having boy trouble. As your friend, I really must advise you that you need to be open about your crush. The worst he can say is no." Marie the half-elf said with a self-satisfied grin. She had short black hair and bright green eyes. She was breaking school rules by having her legs up on the table and wearing a tank top instead of her school uniform shirt. She had a pudding in one hand and with the other hand, was waving around a plastic spoon.
"Ew gross no, I don't have a crush on anyone. Who would I even have a crush on?" Clara responded baffled.
"Sam of course," Marie said while rolling her eyes. "You're hyper-fixated on that guy."
Clara was furious, not only was she accused of having a crush but also of having a crush on her sworn enemy. It was ridiculous. "Who cares about Sam?"
"Oooooh, I think we hit a sore spot," Marie said.
"You treasonous bitch. I don't have a crush. I'm just upset I lost the debate, ok." Clara gave in.
"What debate?" Maddie asked. She wasn't in the same class as the rest of them.
"Mrs. Sastro had us prepare for a debate about various topics. Sam and Clara ended up debating against each other. He totally ran circles around her arguments." Marie said. "You should've seen it."
"Urgh, I bet he's feeling so smug underneath his nonchalant facade," Clara said while slouching back into her chair.
"Have you maybe like actually ever considered that Sam isn't putting on a facade?" Selena asked.
"Pfft yeah right, the guy is a total show off. He just thinks he's better than all of us." Clara said.
"Counterpoint, he is better than us," Marie pointed her spoon out.
"Trrrr, that's what makes it worse," Clara said and got up. "I'm going to take a walk and clear my head. See ya all later."
She walked through the hallways of the school and passed by the Computer lab. The dark-tinted windows of the lab allowed a clear view of every Computer and the people using it. By chance, she saw Sam scrolling through pages on one of the Computers. Sam was an unusually muscular boy with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Curious she walked inside, carefully sneaking up on him, to see what he was up to.
"First-order logic in Artificial Intelligence," she read aloud stupified.
Sam quickly changed the tab to a video game as soon as he noticed her and then looked up at her.
"I saw you switch to the game y'know," she said pointing at his Computer.
Sam sighed, "What are you doing here?"
"What I'm allowed to be here."
"That wasn't the question," Sam shook his head and eyed her suspiciously.
"What were you looking at?" she gestured with her head at the Computer.
"What do you want?"
"Relax, I'm not here to do anything."
"Mmmhmmm," He nodded. "Totally."
"Oh c'mon, I haven't even done anything to you in... like the last month and a half or so."
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," He said. "Look, why are you here?"
"Just curious what you were up to. Is that not allowed?" Clara feigned an innocent expression.
"Go somewhere else," Sam shooed her away. "I'm busy."
"With what, can I see?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you're too young to understand any of it. Trust me."
"We are the exact same age. How am I too young?" Clara shouted.
"Psshh, you are making a scene," Sam looked around.
"If you learned it at my age, I don't see any reason I shouldn't be able to learn it at the exact same age unless you think I'm too stupid for you. Do you think I'm just a failure?"
"No, what, no, no, you are literally top of the class. The thing is I'm just built different."
Clara needed a moment to process this, "Built different? Built different? Built different, how? Are you some sort of Alien from another planet who disguised himself as a young boy? Wait, you totally are, aren't you? That would explain so much..."
Sam looked at her slightly unsure, "Well... No... I mean of course not."
Suddenly the bell rang, marking the end of recess.
Clara opened her mouth wide, "Ohh, you totally are you are, that totally sounds like something an Alien would say."
"What no, stop being dumb. What kinda ridiculous conclusion is that."
"The more you deny it the more true it sounds."
"That's..." Sam scratched his head. "That's illogical. We should head back to class."
"I'm onto you Sam or whatever your name is. Sooner or later I will find out your secrets,"
"Ok, now you're just sounding silly."
Clara eyed him suspiciously for a couple of seconds.
"Look we are running late. Can we go now?" Sam pointed at the clock.
"Sure let's go."
They ended up walking together to their classroom when suddenly they heard gunshots.