Outcasts, Beatniks, and Wanderers: A Collection of Short Stories

Broken Crowns

Broken Crowns - NaNoWriMo 2.0 Excerpt

Background: The main character, Sawyer Chase, is a prestigious protegee to McCarthy, one of the wealthiest men in the world. At the age of seventeen, he has attended the most expensive college in the United States on scholarship, and then pledged the rest of his life to work at a company named Macia Industries. Macia controls just about everything in the food industry, and even in the clothes industry as well. Not only that, but Macia also has control over some of the smartest adolescents in the country. 

Sawyer Chase is beyond intelligent, he's a genius and brilliant in decision-making. Despite these qualities, he finds that he shares competition with a young girl named Valeria. Val is head-strong, defiant, and cunning. She wants to take McCarthy's place much more than Sawyer could ever. You'll find out more about their relationship in the excerpt. 

The event being held in the second scene is a welcoming party at the town where the companies headquarters are based, a recently created town named Maciaton. The event is meant to welcome new students to the college and their parents, essentially a ploy to keep parents assured. The workers, including Val and Sawyer are required to keep these newbies in check and teach the new kids bits of wisdom before their enter the most vigorous college...ever. 

It's set in the near future, maybe 2025 or later. Probably laterish. 

Well, here we go.

Broken Crowns

“How about no?”

       “How about you stop being a pretentious-“

       Our banter was interrupted by an unbelievably loud roar from the next office over, followed by, “KNOCK IT OFF!”

       “It was Acualera,” I shouted to the owner of the roar, crossing my arms indignantly, “with her corny last name that literally translates to ‘watercolor’ in Spanish.”  

       “You try having your great grandparents under attack by the Japanese. Maybe then you’ll have to change your last name to preserve your life,” Acualera barked at me, holding a dangerously angry glare.

I stared back with mutual fury. “Bite me, Watercolor.”

“Wow,” Acualera snorted. “How utterly amused I am by you. I’m surprised you’re even intelligent enough to know Spanish.”

“Go to hell.”

“You don’t even believe in hell, you arrogant-”

Before we could continue our argument, the door to the office next door burst open. CEO McCarthy appeared before us, his nostrils flaring. “You two, in my office. Now.”

We fell silent and stared at our feet like children who knew they were about to receive a time-out or a spanking. As we shuffled to the head office, I sent Acualera a pained facial expression, one that she returned with mutual misery.

McCarthy began ranting about our immature behavior and how it will ultimately ruin our lives, droning on and on about things we already know, including: you’re extraordinarily lucky to be given this opportunity here; those folks out there, they’d kill each other for your jobs; you’re both seventeen, so get a grip or I’m sending you back to the University; you need to be ready for the party later or so help me. Our little meeting concludes as they always do, with a strict “yes, Sir!” and a heroic march off to our work stations.

“I swear,” Acualera fumed (once out of the CEO’s earshot), “if you call me ‘watercolor’ one more time, we’ll be living a cliché of romances novels.”