Pages of a novel : February 2012

Gattaca

With her silky brown hair wind tossed, Jennifer jumped off the Oxyicar as it arrived just in time for school; beaming a smile in Elena’s direction and muttering a word of thanks, she dashed off, grateful that her best friend’s mother had seen her in the mass of traffic and decided to drop her off. She ran urgently into the school building with her long athletic legs pumping beneath her as she burst into the classroom. Like a practiced movement, her classmates swiveled around on their chairs to face the offender. Blushing furiously, she mumbled an apology before collapsing wearily into her chair.

“Haha, late again sleepy head, what time did you decide to wake up from that daydream of yours aye?” Serena chortled, her eyes glistening with amusement.

“Oh come on, I wasn’t dreaming about Jake alright? I just accidently forgot to set my alarm”, Jennifer replied defensively.

“Its year 2020 Jen, how can you still forget to set your clock, our technology and architecture have changed so much to accommodate our needs and this is your lame attempt at finding yourself an excuse?” Jennifer’s blond-haired best friend replied playfully.

“Would you two stop talking and start studying already? You’re disturbing everyone.” Jake’s emotionless voice came from the behind. Jennifer and Serena looked at each other in alarm, had it happened to him too? At the start of the year, everyone talked in class all the time, but then one by one, her classmates started to turn weird. It was as though they had changed to entirely different people. They preferred to study by themselves instead of going out. They were studying machines that no longer felt inclined to partake in any fun. Judging from Jake’s odd behavior today, it looked like he had also been affected. The two girls looked down towards their desk in fear, what was happening to their friends?

Uneventful days passed till one morning, Serena did not turn up at school. Sure, it was normal for people to miss a few days of school all the time but not for Serena. She was rarely sick. “Jennifer Carlyle, stop being pessimistic, you’re being paranoid.” She told herself as she sat in class. To her relief, Serena was in her usual seat the next day, Jennifer didn’t notice the unusual atmosphere in the classroom; it was only as she sat down in her desk did she perceive that something was up. Her best friend’s face looked blank and she was bent over a book. Jennifer’s temporary relief turned to horror, her heart accelerated rapidly as she forced herself not to panic. A wave of nausea rolled over her as fear threatened to engulf her while she struggled to accept the fact that her best friend wasn’t the same anymore.

Jennifer lay in bed, her thoughts were a tangled web, and sleep wouldn’t come. Was Serena alright? What was happening? Would she be next or was everything just her imagination? Questions milled about in her head for what seemed like hours; finally she drifted off into a restless sleep. “Jennifer, Jennifer, you must wake up Jennifer,” a soft voice spoke, rousing the sleeping girl with a start.

“Who are you? What do you want? Am I dreaming?” Jennifer asked aloud.

“This is not a dream; great danger befalls us at this moment.”

“What do you mean? What danger?”

“I’m your clone, and I would explain if you’d stop asking questions.”

“Fine, go ahead.”

“Well, you might have noticed that a few of the people surrounding you have changed? Well basically it’s because Ramon Lederfield is cloning people and replacing them,” the voice explained, “Ramon has tried to get his hands on every new born baby’s DNA and is now using it to clone them and replace the original person with the clone. He believes that by replacing the human population with focused, dedicated clones that submit to him, he’ll have a perfect human race at his hands.”

“Ok… well I do notice that some weird things have been happening, and I’m not sure if I’m imagining this but what exactly should I do to help and why are you helping me? Besides isn’t reproductive cloning impossible?”

“You can choose whether or not to believe me but I’m warning you, he will stop at nothing to ensure perfection. You must get to the old abandoned Candell factory right behind your school, where they are storing all the embryos with people’s DNA and the real original people he replaced, then you find a way to stop all this.”

The presence disappeared, leaving Jennifer mildly confused, so she was supposed to be the hero? Why couldn’t it be someone else? Gritting her teeth in determination, stood up, it wasn’t time to question anything, she had to do this for her best friend.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out the distant shape of the old factory, without a thought, she broke into a run. Arriving at the entrance of the factory, she took a deep breath and stole inside. She shivered in the freezing room that smelt of bleach. “I guess reproductive cloning really is possible.” Jennifer thought. Suddenly, footsteps sounded behind her, with only seconds to hide, Jennifer ducked behind one of the equipment tables nearby.

Pressing the filming option on her Multiwatch Jennifer was horrified to hear the beep pierce the silence to indicate the initiation of recording. Just as suddenly, the footsteps stopped and paced towards the place where she was hiding. Jennifer froze, afraid to even breathe. For what seemed like ages, the pair of feet stood just one metre away, and then to her relief the man uttered a tired sigh and walked away. Quietly, she filmed the odd dressed people as they pushed a cylinder to the middle of the room and attach what looked like feeding tubes into the cylinder. “Boss, the DNA has reacted well with the enucleated egg and the patient’s embryo has almost completed its final stage of growth. The common restriction enzyme EcoRI has recognized the palindrome sequence GAATTC and has cut between the G and the A on both the top and bottom strands, leaving an extension on each end, of AATT.” a female’s voice reported emotionlessly.

Creeping forwards, Jennifer dared a peek at the cylinder and gasped, floating inside the blue-green liquid of the giant cylinder was the identical figure of herself! “Well well well, who’s this we have here? the familiar wispy voice said. Jennifer’s breath caught in her throat as she spun around, facing the speaker. Strands of red hair clung to his head, his eyes were beady black marbles and he was relatively tall. He looked like a spider. With her heart thumping in her throat, she slipped her mobile out the back pocket of her jeans and dialed the emergency number. “Stop, don’t come anywhere closer or I’ll personally kick over that cylinder over there.” Jennifer spoke bravely, “I’ve got enough evidence here to get you arrested.” The man burst into a cold humourless laugh as he walked towards her. “I could easily dispose of you, so why should I listen to you?”

Without hesitation, Jennifer forced her legs to move, she sprinted down the nearest corridor, not daring to look back as she spoke into the phone. “Candell St 5079 the old abandoned factory near Candell State high school, urgent.”

“Catch her, don’t let her escape!” the man shouted. A siren started as the lights dimmed, footsteps pounded after the escapee as the man resumed the initiating process. Sweat beaded at her forehead as Jennifer stood at the end of the corridor, cornered. Advancing figures could be seen as she slid into fighting position, ready to defend herself. “Hit her with a tranquilizer!” a woman’s voice shouted.

A sharp pain pierced her leg just before the world beneath her spun dizzyingly and everything plunged into darkness.

Jennifer opened her eyes to find a high white ceiling above her. Warm hands held her own as she struggled to sit up. “Hush now, be still Jennifer your mother is on her way here, you must rest!” Elena’s voice chided gently.

“What happened to that man?” Jennifer asked stupidly.

“It’s fine now, sweetie, you called the police in time, and they found the video camera before it was destroyed, luckily two police officers were already patrolling the area when your report came.” Elena answered. Suddenly a bright familiar voice could be heard echoing outside, Serena her blond head suddenly popped inside.

“Sup sleepyhead, you actually saved the day! Thanks to you everyone is now getting switched back one by one! I’ve even brought you a guest,” Serena said, as another head popped around the door. His anxious dark eyes were framed by long lashes the exact same colour as his natural his windswept hair. It was Jake.

“Uhh… hi guys, Serena are you back to normal?” asked Jennifer.

“Yup, now talk to Jake”, Serena lectured. Gulping, Jennifer suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline, now was her chance to confess her crush on him since it wasn’t to real Jake anyway, only his clone.

“Umm hi Jake… I mean Jake’s clone, I um… I don’t know how to say this but I really like Jake. I know you’re only his clone but Serena’s been begging me confess for ages.” Jennifer said in a rush. Serena’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Jennifer,

“Um Jen? Did your head get hit a bit too hard? You do realize this Jake is the real one? He got changed back a while ago.”

Now it was Jennifer’s turn to stare, had she just confessed to Jake?

“No...I mean uh this can’t be happening right?” Jennifer croaked desperately. Jake suddenly spoke.

“Actually, Jen, there was always something I didn’t tell you as well but I never thought you would feel the same. I like you too.” Jake replied, looking a bit abashed.

“Well isn’t this wonderful guys? I think I’ve got a few things to do, come on mum lets go to the café to get some coffee, I’m beat.” Serena said, “Seeya later lovebirds!” Grabbing her mother’s arm, she pulled her out of the room, humming a happy tune.

“So even I have my perfect piece of forever after all. The only thing I had to do was always persevere. We find our fate, we control it. “

------------------------------------------------------------- the science fiction story I wrote in grade 10

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So, yesterday was my mum's birthday so we went out to dinner, she wanted to eat at this Thai restaurant near our house. It was alright, not bad but not my favourite either probably cause I like salty food and Thai food mainly consists of sweet, sour and spicy sooooooo yeah. The atmosphere was pretty good though :3 I ordered curry puffs!

Hmmm its pretty late at the moment, someone needs to slap some sense into me, why am I blogging at such a ridiculous time = = I have so much to do...its kinda depressing. English assignment to fix up and memorise, math C assignment to do. Speaking of that, i realised how sad it is that I can't even do it myself without asking friends T^T I'm so pathetic at math aso;ifnw;efoin yeah there you go cause complaining will totes help penny. Oh and a stack of sheets to do for chem&phy + MATH B. GOSH. I've been neglecting it so bad :s Haha yeah, as you can see i'm falling behind, not good, not good at all. Sad life lol, talking about school all day. Honestly not that bad as I thought it would be but still, I've got to catch up.

Got QCS practice results back today hahaha...uhm just passed LOL! Our grade average was 26.8 and state average was 27 or something. We all thought it was really crap until some teacher pointed out to us the state average was based on the 2010 cohort who actually tried doing the test properly while ours was a practice and like half the grade bludged it so taking that into account, we're probably not THAT dumb, well at least I hope ._." My best result was for the written task, got a (-1) even though my story was like the lamest thing on earth, well in my opinion anyway haha, the highest score you can get is +1 but no one in our grade got that :O but Chi got 1(0) so pretty good :D

Just cause I have nothing else to say, i'll just post the narrative i wrote for the QCS. If you're finding it hard to sleep just read the story, you'll probs fall asleep halfway liked I did when I wrote it haha. Woke up 20 min later to finish writing it -_- To the rest of you who have some weird perception I'm like genius at english or something, no i don't. Not even kidding, I have to sit in front of the computer for like 2-3 whole days to think up a decent eng draft + i have to check it for ages =\

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Golden tendrils of sunlight filtered gently through the thick canopy of the trees as the girl pelted her way through the dense undergrowth. Ignoring the branches and bristles that cut into her, she pushed on, desperate to get as far away from her home as possible. Everything just hurt too much right now. She didn't want to think about it - no, it wasn't that she didn't want to, she just couldn't. Angrily, she brushed away the few stray tears that had managed to leak out of her piercing ocean blue eyes. It was so pathetic, so weak to cry over this. Forcing herself to keep moving, the only thing she focused upon now was the blur of green, gold and brown. Of course, the pain in her heart still burned like a terrible fire but she tried hard to ignore it.

Her chest felt like it was about to burst and her arms were laced with angry red cuts from the brambles she had torn through yet she didn't want to stop running. She couldn't take it anymore, always being blamed for things she didn't do. It wasn't fair, it wasn't at all fair that her father always believed all the horrible things her step mother said about her. She felt hurt, yet angry at the same time. She wanted to scream with frustration and unleash the bitter tears which were threatening to take over. She didn't want to feel the look of disappointment her father gave her all the time, it hurt. Alot.

Gradually, the trees ahead were starting to thin out, she wanted to keep running but her aching limbs were telling her something else. Hating the relief of slowing down she finally made it into the clearing. She managed only a few wobbly steps until her legs finally gave out. Her golden hair glinted in the sunlight as she tumbled onto the ground, too exhausted to keep her eyes open. Laying there, her gasps for breath finally quietened and she regained enough strength to roll onto her back.

The first thing that greeted her as she opened her eyes was the imprint of red amidst the varying shades of blue in the clear sky. It took her a few moments to realise that it was a lone kite in the sky which was flapping gently in the breeze. It was a drop of blood amongst the blue of the ocean. She watched it in amazement, admiring the lone independence of the of the kite and suddenly everything lifted. The troubles which had imprisoned her like shackles disappeared. Now she was the kite, the kite which was climbing higher and higher, displaying its beauty and reveling in the freedom of flying.

Suddenly, she understood. Running away wouldn't help at all. No, like the kite, she would always be bound to the tether. No matter how far she ran, she couldn't escape the fact that she was her father's daughter, Isabella. It was going to be difficult but she was going to have to face her father. She was going to explain everything, she was going to tell her father that it wasn't her who gave her brother the bruises, it wasn't her who sold mother's picture for money. She was going to stand up for herself, to set herself free.

-the end-

LOL as you can see, this is a corny piece of crap with no plot if I do say so myself haha.

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