Time Travel Society

chapter three

                The plane ride to Washington DC was tedious. On the Private jet President Bane would not shut up about how much I would love the building and that they had just bought all the new gadgets for us to use. He wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise to ask about the people I would be working with. I stared out the window for hours. Fluffy clouds lazily strolled around, reminding me of my dream.

                When we finally arrived, I was so relieved I wanted to fall to my knees and kiss the ground. With much personally restriction I did not. After the plane we got into a limo and the same torture as before began again. I stared at the trees that were placed around the city, tall buildings shadowed the streets. Famous people immobilized as statures littered parks. I had a peek at the Washington Monument’s top.

                We soon arrived at a tall brick building. An ice-cream parlor and a metro station were nearby. I got out the car. My stomach fluttered and my heart pounded unhealthily in my chest. In through a set of double metal doors. A lobby was the first thing I saw, a wood desk with a typical looking women sitting behind it. By typical I mean blonde hair that reached her shoulders and blue eye, she was wearing a navy blue pantsuit. A name tag read Samantha Overlander.

“So, you must be Allen Benson. Welcome to American Time Theory Society. ATTS for short. Your room is number four, here is your key. If you could just sign here. Thank you.” I signed a sheet of paper with a blue ink pen and took my room key.

“Thank you Ms. Overlander.” I said following the president through another door. Ms. Overlander called after me. “Please call me Samantha!” I nodded so she knew I understood.

Through the next set of doors and up a few stairs a large room came into few. This room contained a flat screen TV and an open kitchen. Orange chairs surrounded an island, sleek white appliances and white marble counters. In front of the TV an orange couch and white coffee table all sat on top of a white and orange chevron rug. Light wood panels covered the floor.  

Then president entered one of the eight doors that surrounded the main room. Following after him I entered. A long sleek table occupied most of the room, it was made of something that looked like glass. Three people sat around the table, all about my age. A girl was the one who caught my gaze first. She was pretty with Red curly hair that came right above her shoulders. A small nose and unusual ice blue eyes. The eyes are what caught my attention because only about 1% of red haired people have blue eyes; that is about the same chance as finding a four leafed clover. I could also tell my eyes caught her attention, she held my gaze longer than anyone has before. She then smiled brightly.

“Hi! I’m Annabel Jerkins, the computer scientist.” She shook my hand. The other two also shook my hand. The first a girl with extremely long brown hair that reach just above her waist, she had small lips and pointy ears, also one galaxy green eye and one warm chocolate brown eye. “I’m Elizabeth Owens and I’m the mechanic engineer. It is very nice to meet you.” I had suspicions that everyone had strange eyes and my hypothesis was proven correct when the next kid looked at me. Not to sound old fashioned but, by golly he was the strangest. He was black with golden eyes, and reminded me of a snake. “Hello I’m Samuel Rose, I’m human scientist.” I was quite sure what a human scientist was but I nodded.

“….and you are?” Annabel asked.

“I’m Allen Benson. Mathematician.”

“What’s 9 million divided by 100,000?”

“90. If you’re going to quiz me make it difficult.”

She smiled. “Oh you shouldn’t have said that. Square root of 4,224,559?”

“2055. 37320212.” I sat down in a swivel chair.

“Okay, you pass.” High fiving me. I like this girl!

“It’s time to set some ground rules and work regulations.” The president began talking from the head of the table “Rule one: lights out at 10:00 sharp, no exactions. Rule two: persons of the opposite sex may not be alone together in any dormitory room at any given time. Rule three: no outside person may enter work spaces or dormitory rooms. Rule four: no alcohol or drugs. Rule five: you must ask to leave Ms. Elizabeth to leave the building and you may not leave before seven in the morning or after eight at night. All required appointments for doctors, dentists, psychologists E.C.T. must be scheduled by Ms. Elizabeth. Does everyone understand?” we all nodded.

“Now for work regulation. Regulation one: you must be clocked it, just slide your room key over the scanner inside of the work space, for six hours a day with the exceptions of Saturday and Sunday or sick days. I know that is not very much but you are still kids. Regulation two: inside the testing and mechanic workspace tennis shoes must be worn. Regulation three: no hacking CATH.” When he said this he look straight at Annabel and she blushed. I guessed she not only was a computer scientist but a great hacker. “CATH is our computer; it stands for Computer Activated Theory Helper. Voice activated she is the newest gadget around. Good morning CATH.” Automatically a digital voice said,

“It’s afternoon now, Mr. President.”

“Yes, it is. Bring up 3D cube.”

“okay.” The black glass table we surrounded glowed with life. A hologram cube popped up in front of each of us.

“Go ahead play with it. You can hold the cube in your hand. Yes, there you go. You may also talk to CATH.” This was awesome, CATH reminded me of JARVIS from Iron Man. “CATH break the cube in to fourteen smaller cubes.” I told the computer. “Yes, Mr. Benson.”

“Call me Allen.”

“Will do, Allen.”

I could tell already I would like it here.