Diamond In The Dust

Chapter 2:

Anyway, enough about my problems. I was brought here today by the Council to tell you about something that happened in Sylvera maybe ten years ago. I was around eleven, twelve years old.

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I woke up yawning that morning. The morning that changed my life. Mom stuck her head into my room.
"Val, breakfast is ready!"
I groaned and rolled over. Just my luck, I had school that day. Great! Another day of death threats!

I hopped on my little hoverboard (yes, I have an actual hoverboard that, you know, hovers two inches above the ground?) and it brought me down my transportation chute into the closet, where a robot projected the outfit that I had picked out yesterday on white material. The white thing morphed into a sweater, jeans, and black sneakers. Then I collapsed my hover board, put it back in its little pink box, and walked into the kitchen.

My mom was busy instructing our kitchen robots to make scrambled eggs and bacon. The fragrant smell of sizzling fat wafted into my nose, and I inhaled. 

"Hi, Mom." I said as I sat down at our little kitchen island.

"Oh hi there honey, here's your eggs and I'll have the bacon ready in a second. Here, let me get you the ketchup." She threw me a packet. I opened it and I took out the little cup. Then I poured in the ketchup powder and the little crystals that turned it into a sauce. The light pink powder quickly expanded, turning into a thick liquid. It expanded so much that it almost overflowed the cup. 

"Here's your bacon, Val, you have twenty minutes. Your iBit and phone are charged, they're in your bag." My mom said, handing me my bacon and tousling my hair. 

I finished my breakfast, shouldered my bag onto my back, and grabbed my school drive and my hover board. I yelled "Bye, mom!" She waved at me as my hover board zoomed me away, towards the school learning center. 

I managed to get to my cubicle before our TeacherBot started our lesson and quickly arranged my stuff. I collapsed my hover board and tossed the little cube into its wireless charging port. 

Then I plugged in my school drive, a little thin stick that carried all my data and information needed for school, like homework and assignments. 

Then I strapped on my iBit, a screen that went around my wrist. It was almost like a "watch" but much more high tech. 

Lastly I opened my plasma screen. This was the most vital part of our lessons. The TeachBot would send our lesson onto the screen of the plasma screen and it would record everything we wrote on it and send it to "The Stick" which was my name for the school drive. 

I had three more minutes so I decided to link my mom on my iBit. The glass projected a light pink film in the air (I had chosen the color, yes I am a sucker for pink.) I said, "Link mom, please."   The Bit replied to me in a pleasant voice, "Sure, linking 'Mom'". A second later my mom's face appeared, replacing the pink with her smile 

"Hey sweetie, did you get to school?" 

"Yeah, I got here a little early actually," I told her.

"Good! Ok, I'm heading to work now, see you later!" She waved and blew me a kiss.

"Bye Mom, love ya." I grinned and shut off the connection.

Then I slumped back in my chair and groaned when I heard some familiar voices. 

"Honestly, you can probably get your dad to pay the school unit leaders to make you get good grades." There was the nasal and shrill voice of Lia Tetra, who was the single most irritating human EVER.

"Yeah! Like, you could totally do that!" Then,  Amelia Robinson, who had moved to my living district two years ago and instantly became popular (for unknown reasons, if you ask me)

And then finally, Gina Azul,who despised me. She was like a faulty robot with a designer iBit and everyone sucked up to her because either you loved her or she would make your life a living hell. "True, but like, he's saying that I need to start studying. Like, what does that mean?".

Amelia and Lia gasped. "Oh my goodness, he did NOT". Gina placed a hand over her chest and pretended to flick away a tear.

I muttered to myself "oH MY gOoDNeSs He DId nOt".

And then I heard a sharp clicking getting closer and closer to my little cubicle. Shoot, I thought to myself. An overpowering scent of strawberries and sugary artificial chemicals attacked my nose.