Chapter 2: Fashionably Late

Like every other morning, Sable would sing 'Shooting Star' to start my day. Glancing at the red digits flashing, I smiled. "Good morning Sable…" I croaked before promptly falling back to bed. As much as I love to hear my beloved pop idol sing, not even she could get me out of bed after an especially long night. With a half-hearted grunt, I hit the snooze sensor.

Ten minutes later, the song went off again. Unable to find a comfortable position to fall back to sleep, I gave up. That's it. I needed a shower.

Dragging myself to the bathroom, I stepped into the splash zone, not bothering to tinker with the pre-set temperature. Standing in a daze waiting for the warm water to hit me, I wasn't quite expecting to be smacked by anything solid.

"Blizzard balls! Why is it so cold?!" The freezing water rivalled the temperature outside and I was positive half of my shower had already turned into ice crystals. What a brutal but effective way to kick-start the day. I should have known better than to trust myself.

Teeth chattering as I stepped out of the shower, I rummaged for clothes while yelling for Kevin to read me today's notifications.

"You have four notifications! Two mails from the Academy, one event marked in the planner and one urgent message!"

The obnoxious voice had me swearing once more before silently apologising. Mrs Peterman would have my head if she heard it. An enraged woman is definitely deadlier than any hitman.

I glared meaningfully at Kevin who remained painfully clueless about what he had done wrong. That was all it took for me to find my resolve. I am definitely altering his new update by the end of the week. There would be carnage in the Inner City if I had to put up with his annoying voice for any longer.

Back on topic, it was a little strange. Last time I checked, there weren't any events for today. If there were, Kevin should have reminded me of it before I went to bed. Was this another bug in the system?

"Play me the message."

"As you wish, sir!"

It should not have surprised me as much as it did but seeing Alastair Campbell pop up in an enlarged image when the mail started to play was enough to make me lose my balance for a moment. Damn those realistic images!

It was almost as bad as having the real deal with me. After all, he once dragged me out for stargazing a few years ago while I was still in my glorious pyjamas in the dead of the night. I was not expecting that and frankly, nobody was. However, over the years I learnt to expect the unexpected.

As the holographic message played, a tuft of snow-white hair came to view. Obviously, the boy was unaware that the video had started recording. The frown on his dumb face was enough evidence. The olive-skinned fourteen-year-old asked if the recording was working and laughed sheepishly when his virtual assistant answered affirmatively.

"Well, that was awkward for a moment. Good morning my Sirius! Did you sleep well? You know, I was very hurt when I found out you snuck out to another party again. You called the reporters from Inner City Daily's Publications, didn't you?"

I rolled my eyes and glared at the boy even though he was a mere image projection. Biting back on my usual retort at the poorly chosen nickname, I chose to listen on.

"Well, I am mad at you but that's not my reason for this video message. In fact, it's rather important. I accidentally forgot to inform you about the compulsory scheduled briefing meeting for all final year students by the headmaster. I can't remember the details but it starts at noon. In any case, I've sent you an event notification so you should be able to see it. Good luck and goodbye for now!"

The video faded away, leaving only silence behind. I should have known… Alastair would find out about the party. That boy's obsessed with writing and intends to follow his sister's footsteps to become a famous journalist. He's been tagging on me ever since he discovered my numerous accreditations even if his interest is more inclined to my reputation as a ladies' man. His sister, Io Campbell, is the only female journalist worthy of my respect. Io has the intellectual capabilities to cover technical research articles unlike her infuriating younger brother who prefers flipping through the gossip column, inhaling every tidbit of information like a starved man.

The second half of the message bothered me. There was something about a compulsory meeting this afternoon and I would have brushed it off as a joke since nobody said anything about it before. I had plans to finish reading the book I found yesterday but I suppose that has to wait. I couldn't exactly blame Alastair since he had apologised for the short notice. I did ask him to be my lookout for the times I snuck out of the Academy and yesterday had been one of those days.

Deciding to get over it, I turned to Kevin. "Show me the event notification."

Immediately the holographic planner materialised. Refreshing the planner twice, I stared at the reminder highlighted in red. No amount of crying will get me out of it. The compulsory briefing meeting starts at noon in the Crystal Auditorium. Is it too much to ask for a day of peace to do nothing but read?

Squishing the need to laugh hysterically, I collected myself and started planning. This is not the time to start going crazy. Although dejected, I readily accepted reality. Sometimes I wonder if being a hitman's apprentice had anything to do with my emotionally repressed state.

Pulling myself out of the stupor, I checked the time and started the cogs in my mind. I had a good hour or so to kill but that didn't give me enough time to finish the book I was reading. Then my line of sight fell onto Kevin. An evil grin formed as I went through the numerous experiments I would like to do with his newest update. As if the virtual assistant could feel uneasiness, Kevin repeatedly questioned my unusual expression even after receiving no answers.

Mandatory system updates were the bane of my existence. If I ever come across the person responsible for all those tasteless modifications, I will gut him and hang him by his bowels. If it turned out to be a lady, nothing short of scarring her face will satisfy me. That aside, I remembered there were still some notifications to check.

"Kevin, show me the two mails received from the Academy you mentioned  earlier."

"Right away, sir!"

I quickly scanned through the contents of the first mail. One was from Alicia apologising for her disappearance and neglecting to help me register for a visit pass. The other mail was from the headmaster requesting my attendance at the compulsory briefing meeting. Scrolling down to see who had been invited, I smirked when I saw my long time rival – Raoul Harper.

How I made an enemy of such an annoying pest? Long story short, I was lazy and mischievous in my younger days so things happened. In order to avoid all my investigators, I developed the art of stealth. There was no place in the Academy that I didn't know about. Hide and seek was always fun for me but it frustrated the ones in charge of locating me.

The upper cabinet of the chemical storage room was a good place for a nap that fateful day. Those investigators too dumb to look for a child hiding in the cabinets. I was about to sleep too when the sound of many footsteps disturbed me. The door to the room opened and I heard the annoying voice belonging to a certain roly-poly boy. Yes, it was no other than Raoul Harper – the epitome of everything that should never exist on Spxtro.

That fat boy was a braggart, an attention seeker, a coward, a bully, a people pleaser and a liar. Nothing good would happen from associating with him. Still, there were many who fawned over him for reasons not known to me. Of course, I avoided him like exploding Plantiumite.

Books made better companions than people in my opinion. They kept the loneliness away. For me, that was very important. Unlike most children in the Academy, I didn't know who my parents were. My guardian was someone called Spencer Creed but he was hardly home. I don't remember his face apart from the iconic thick moustache. As a result, I became obsessed with learning new things but not very much about achieving anything in particular. There was nobody to please and nothing expected of me, only an eternal void of boredom and loneliness to fill but I digress.

The voices came closer and there were many giggles. Still half asleep back then, I didn't register the doors of the cabinet opening. Only when a high pitched scream, that nearly shattered my eardrums, startled me to awareness did I notice what was going on.

The stench hit me like an avalanche. As the sleep induced haze cleared, I found myself staring at five-year-old Raoul Harper who had fallen on his behind, screaming his lungs out. Tears and snot ran amok but what surprised me the most was liquid pooling on the ground near his crotch area. The synthesised fabric was already drenched and the smell was obscene. All the girls in my cohort were witnesses to Raoul's momentary state of incontinence.

The commotion had alerted some investigators who dropped by the awful scene. While Raoul was being attended to, the girls decided to avoid the boy as if their lives depended on it. It went on for several years before they started talking to him again. On the other hand, yours truly was put on an even tighter watch by the Academy for 'causing inconvenience'. It was a rather feeble excuse for a bunch of incompetent adults but I didn't have a say in what they decided.

Remembering the good old days never fail to bring a chuckle out of me. It was nice to be young. I never made things easy for anyone in the Academy. Needless to say, after that incident, Raoul harboured a deep hatred towards me. It wasn't really my fault but he took it personally and constantly tries to get back at me whenever a chance presents itself.

The boy was always trying to one-up me ever since then and honestly, it was annoying. He had everything that I couldn't possibly have but still, he acted like a fool. He slimmed down drastically and paid careful attention to his looks because he didn't want to be unpopular with the ladies. It's quite funny how he doesn't seem to understand that the ladies weren't attracted to him because of his overbearing attitude more than his lack of visual appeal.

Everything changed the moment he got his accreditation in the medical field. I don't know how he did it but he was thirteen when he got his accreditation. I managed to get mine a year after him which was an equally impressive feat but that went unnoticed under all the glamour over Raoul.

Raoul shot to fame quickly and became a well sought after doctor even before he graduated from the Academy. With the Parliament's recognition, there was hardly anything Raoul couldn't do. His ground-breaking research about Pantiumite's effect on New-Man's body had garnered him more than enough funds to start working on developing a more efficient kind of Pantiumite.

Currently, a Pantiumite pill can last an average New-Man for about two weeks. With increasing population, the demand for Pantiumite rose. If Raoul succeeds in creating a more efficient Pantiumite that can last three months instead of two weeks per dosage, I wouldn't be surprised to see his head swell till it pops.

Long story short, Raoul was constantly attempting to put little old me down in front of the professionals, another reason why I hate attending meetings. The last conference I went for about the latest model of Medibot, Raoul had been the one answering all my questions that were never directed at him.

In my defence, all my questions were relevant and I was there for first-hand information. It wasn't until Raoul decided to answer all my curious questions that I decided to walk away. Raoul's scornful answers were enough to make the professionals deem him a promising talent and me a total fluke despite the numerous accreditations.

From that day onwards, I received many looks of pity and false concern while getting slugged by Raoul's merciless bullying. No one wanted to be the King's next target and I can totally understand why they would rather watch me get bullied. Honestly, it wasn't their fault. I didn't start out hating him but through the years of petty pranks, I'm coming close to my limit.

Closing the mail with a sigh, I glanced over at Kevin. The new update was a huge patch and time would be required to disassemble the program. Having picked up System Administration Science, it wasn't too difficult. Cracking my knuckles out of habit, I opened the disassembler program and started working on modifying the newest updates.

"Kevin, I need you to go offline for an hour or so. Put all my mail and calls on hold."

"Roger that!"

The screen became blank with a beep indicating that Kevin had successfully gone into sleep mode. Extracting the latest patch update, I copied it and ran it in the disassembler. When I finish the modifications, Kevin would be my perfect sidekick. I can't wait to try the new modifications to Kevin's simulation program.

From all the recorded history of my sparring sessions with Nash, I developed a program that will predict Nash's movements with the help of Horus. The new modification will allow Kevin to calculate Nash's next moves during our regular sparring sessions based on history and real-time muscle movements before Horus shows me the projected trajectory. The expected accuracy of Kevin's predictions would be raised to ninety-eight percent with this update.

"Tonight will be the night I finally defeat Nash!" I grinned crazily as the sound of typing continued on almost mechanically.

Time flew by faster when there was work to be done. Being late for an appointment was often the side effect, exactly the predicament I find myself to be in. Usually, it never bothered me as I had an extremely flexible schedule. However, I doubt the Academy will take too kindly to tardiness for a compulsory meeting.

New and improved Kevin helped locate my uniform suit while I fumbled around my room to find some socks.

"Sir, the time now is five minutes past noon. I suggest we use the charged orb to get to Crystal Auditorium."

Decisions, decisions. While getting dressed I had to contemplate my choices. The charged orb would save me a lot of time and with luck, the headmaster may not be seated yet. I might get away with it. However, being a fun-loving person, there were better ways of getting to a briefing.

My sight rested on a new gadget I was testing out. Light bending technology was long obsolete until I brought it back. Though imperfect, it will have to do. Grabbing the hair tie, I pulled my long blond strands into a loose ponytail at my nape before slipping on the ring.

Much like holographic images, the gadget hidden in the hair tie's bobble creates a wall of particles around me while I move. This allows me to become invisible to eyes and cameras. Hopefully, it would be able to give me an advantage over Nash for our spar tonight too.

As I twisted the dial on the ring to activate the invisibility field, I pondered over the other problem I would face. The only way into the auditorium was through that ridiculously huge door. Deciding it would be best to focus on running to the venue, I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind. No problem would be too big for Titus Crowley. I will cross the bridge when I get to it.

***

Outside the Crystal Auditorium, I peered inside through a small vent. The headmaster was already inside and I groaned softly. Not only was the headmaster present, the only strategic place I could sit in that small auditorium was behind the last person I wanted to see.

Well, what had to be done will be done. Timing to open the door when the headmaster's focus was on the attendance list, I slipped into the auditorium and settled behind Raoul. He was too busy ogling at Monica to notice me as I undid the invisibility.

"Lastly, Titus Crowley," the headmaster frowned when he heard no response.

Opting not to answer, I smiled and waved from my seat. The old man looked up and scanned the room after calling my name for the second time. I don't blame the man when he stumbled backwards in shock. After all, I wasn't there two seconds ago.

"How are you doing?" I nodded to the headmaster who was still unable to make heads or tails of my sudden appearance. My voice made Raoul jump from his chair. The fall was spectacular in a fashion of tangled chair and limbs.

"Y-You!" he spluttered with a crimson face and I gave him an innocent look. Sensing an argument coming, the headmaster was having none of it.

"Sit right down now young man! I don't appreciate being interrupted." I smirked at the fuming star student as he reluctantly sat down but not without a glare in my direction. Satisfaction burned in my chest when Raoul was reprimanded by the headmaster for behaving childishly. The smirk on my face widened as the headmaster droned on about the approaching and long-awaited graduation ceremony before delving into more details about our credit systems.

The talk lasted a grand total of two hours which I found myself sleeping through. Sometimes I wonder why the Academy would rather waste two hours talking about what we could easily read from the student guide they would be handing out after the briefing.

Before the headmaster could dismiss us, I was already making my way towards the door. Raoul could find his muse elsewhere since I wasn't in the mood to entertain. It was only two in the afternoon but my body felt as heavy as obsidian. I needed to sleep for a few more hours knowing that I would probably not survive the night in my current condition. Nash wasn't going to go easy on me tonight just because I was sleep deprived.

After entering the room and doing the paranoid ritual, I flopped onto the bed. The pillow was fluffy and the mattress soft. I was totally at bliss with how they seem to eat up my fatigue. I sank further into the bed after removing my shoes but didn't bother changing into sleepwear. With a large yawn, it didn't take long for me to drift off.