Underground Pizza Delivery

Chapter 1 - The Shortcut

Northern Prokopolis

It was the morning of the first day of high school. Dennis was in the living room, nervously typing away on the family computer. From the other room, he could hear his mother scolding him while her and his father were getting ready for work.

"You'll be late for your first day of school if you don't get off that computer!" she yelled.

"I know mom! I'll only be one second. Just trying to put on a few finishing touches" Dennis replied as he frantically finished a summer assignment due that mourning. However, it wasn't his name, but his good friend, Vance Velazquez whose name he typed on the top right-hand corner, before hitting print.

The title of the paper was "10 Reasons Why I'm Excited to be at Prokopolis High". It was a 5-page essay, mandatory for students transferring in from Prokopolis Middle. Dennis finished his paper during the first week of summer break, but only recently found out he had to write his friend's too.

"What did I say about procrastination, Dennis!" his mother yelled, now walked into the living room while struggling to operate the hair curler Dennis' father had just bought her.

Dennis quickly secured his papers in his bag, making sure his mother didn't see Vance's name on the top, and began to walk outside. He suddenly stopped as he remembered to double check the contents of his rather large school bag.

"Calculator, Pencil, Black Pen, Red Pen, Blue Pen, yellow highlighter—" he began to recite to himself as he did every morning before school, until his mother interrupted him with a soft hand on his shoulder.

"I know you're nervous, Dennis. I was too on my first day of high school, but I promise; you'll love it. Your new teachers will love you, you'll make new friends, the girls-- Oh honey, the girls will adore you! I'll have to fight them all off with a stick!".

"But what's wrong with my old friend's, mom?" Dennis interrupted with a hint of defiance.

"You had friends?" His father jokingly replied with a smile as he walked into the room adjusting his tie. "Those boys were nothing but trouble, and you know that. I never liked any of them. The orphan boys were a bad influence on you, and don't get me started on that Velazquez boy! What was it again? Ranch? Vans?"

"Vance, dad! And they're not all that bad. They're just, misunderstood. That's all!" Dennis replied, trying not to get too emotional as he usually did when trying to defend his friends to his overbearing father.

"Just be careful around them, you understand?" his father replied firmly, then checked his watch. "and you should probably get going right about now. The bus should be outside any second."

Dennis checked his watch, gulping as he noticed the time. He quickly began to start zipping up his backpack to make his way towards the door.

"I love you Dennis..." His mother said with a kiss to his forehead. "Me too son" his father added with an unnecessarily rough pat on the back.

"Thanks guys, but I gotta run! Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" Dennis screamed as he tightened the straps of his bag and darted out the door. His mom and dad stood outside the door with unanswered waves goodbye as they watched their son run past the corner to get to the bus stop.

Now, this was not an ordinary neighborhood, nor was Prokopolis an ordinary city. The city of Prokopolis was the central city on the island of Prokopios and its entire population lived in buildings that were elevated about 3 stories above the old surface floor. The sidewalks were all completely fenced off by 15-foot-high barb-wired fences, keeping people from accidentally plunging into the surface streets. Most building were very tall, but no two shared the same height. Through most of the town, if you looked straight up, it appeared as if there were no sky above them, but the idea of a sky didn't mean much to the Prokopian people ever since the dome went up.