Radioactive [Early Draft, On Indefinite Hiatus]

Chapter 8 - I'm New

Chapter 8:

I'm New

In the morning, Derek woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon wafting through the air. The wafting aroma of breakfast crammed into his nostrils, and he couldn't resist. He jumped out of bed and began running towards the scent. Derek was still in his pajamas, which consisted of a grey T-shirt with black sleeves with a picture of a ninja using pizza as shurikens, and large text that read 'Pizza: The Ninja Food'. Derek also wore grey pajama shorts to match, which bore black stripes on both sides.

Derek was starving when he got to the table. He pulled up a chair and seized the knife and fork in his hands. Rodney said good morning as Derek grinned with delight. He was ready to eat.

"Ew, Devan!"

"What?"

Derek looked over to see Chelsea and Devan looking down at their pajama shirts, which were soaked in orange juice. They had tried to make it themselves, but instead they just made a mess of pulp in the blender... and on them.

"You got orange juice on my shirt, you jerk!"

"You mean you did, princess."

"Shut up!"

Over at the stove, Rachel was juggling the scrambled eggs, bacon, and turkey sausages all by herself. She almost seemed to be everywhere at once. He kept whispering a steady chant as she went along.

"Eggs, bacon, sausage, eggs, bacon, sausage..."

Derek felt a little guilty about watching his friends struggle to make breakfast, but he couldn't help but enjoy the show, with a content smirk forming across his face.

Afterwards, everyone had worked together to create a delicious meal. The juice was perfected by Devan and Chelsea, Rachel was assisted by Derek after reconsidering, and Rodney even chipped in by adding toast to the mix. When everything was ready, the six children got dressed into proper clothes, and then returned to the kitchen. In the end, it was worth all the effort.

"Mmmm, best eggs I've ever eaten. Great job, Rachel."

"Thank you, Rodney. Really, I'm flattered..."

Derek narrowed his eyes for moment, then returned to his eggs.

"Although, it could use a little something."

Rodney got out of his chair and opened the cupboard. He reached in and moved the other items aside. He retrieved a bottle of ketchup, returned back to his seat, and starting squirting out all of the condiment onto his eggs. Derek and the others were utterly confused.

"Uhhh..."

"There, that should do it. Now let's see..."

Rodney stabbed his fork into the mountain of ketchup and breakfast and and pulled out a piece of egg, which he gingerly inserted into his mouth.

"Mmmm, mmmm, that is good!

"Rodney, that's disgusting."

"You want some, Chelsea? Here!"

Rodney held out his fork for Chelsea.

"Um, ew, no."

"Suit yourself. More for me!"

With that, Rodney returned to eating his nauseating breakfast. Chelsea shuddered.

"Ummm, weird..."

Rachel looked down at her wrist to check the time on her watch. She gasped.

"Guys! We're late for registrations! Let's go!"

"Oh snap!"

"C'mon!"

Rodney was just about to take a bite sausage when Derek yanked him out of his seat before he could eat the bite of meat.

At about 8:30, the kids arrived at the surprisingly empty main hallway, and made their way to right side to register their song. As they got close, Derek heard a familiar voice. It was that of a girl's...

"I'm sorry, but this song is completely irrelevant to the theme of what we're looking for. We do appreciate your participation, however. Thank you, and have a nice day."

When the kid who tried submitting walked away to give a clear view of who was at the desk, what Derek saw made his jaw drop.

It was Allison.

"Hello, I'm Allison McKinley, I will be judging your choice today. Are you a group or..."

Allison's voice trailed off when she saw Derek standing before her.

"DEREK?! Oh my..."

She cupped her hands over her mouth in utter shock.

"Derek! It's so good to see you!

Allison ran from behind the small booth and hugged Derek.

"Hey, no sugar for me?" Rodney interjected disappointedly.

"Wait, hold on now. You know her?" Lewis asked, fascinated.

Derek turned his head to face Lewis.

"Yeah, from school. She was there when I became Radioactive."

Allison released him and started jumping up and down.

"OMG! OMG! OMG! Derek, your here! Oh my gosh! How'd you get here?!" Allison screamed.

"Okay, let me start the beginning."

Derek inhaled a large amount of air. Everyone fastened their eyes upon him before he exploded into a frenzy of words.

"First my mom handed me a registration form for here after I told here I was radioactive and my dad drove here then Miss Dodd registered me and I entered my room and met these five guys their names are Rachel, Chelsea, Devan, Lewis, and Rodney-"

Rodney frowned upon being named last.

"-We really have a lot in common and then Rodney suggested that we register Radioactive as our song for the school anthem and then we met you here and the rest is history."

Derek panted hard, desperately grasping large amounts of air.

"O-kay. So, in a nutshell, you have some connection to the school and the legend of-"

Upon hearing the word "legend", Lewis quickly cut in.

"Great! Now that we've had our little reunion here, we can get back to getting our song registered. How about it, Allison?"

"Oh, okay, Lewis. Your name is Lewis, right?"

"Yep."

"Alright, then."

Allison returned to the desk and sat herself back down.

"So, if I heard Derek's lightspeed recap correctly, you said you wanted to register the song Radioactive?" She asked, getting back to buisness.

The group of five nodded.

"Considering it has all the elements the school committee is looking for in a song, I'll right you down."

As Allison scribbled down their names and their song, the five kids took turns high-fiving each other.

"Well, you're all set. We appreciate your participation. Thank you and have a nice day."

"Thanks Allison."

"Anytime, Derek. And friends."

The group departed from the desk, feeling triumphant. On the way back to their room, Rachel whispered into Derek's ear.

"Do you like her?"

Derek had to think about it for a moment, which surprised him.

"Eh, sort of."

"Oh, okay."

Rachel seemed bothered by that.

Derek couldn't think of why. He also couldn't think of how Allison arrived at the Academy for Radioactive Kids. She was never exposed to any chemical substances. Or was she?

Whatever the case, Allison McKinley was here to stay.