Kids of the Digital Era IC

[Awean8]

6:00 AM school starts in about three hours at nine. Ryuu was half asleep in the dorm room that he shared with his room mate. He spent the whole night playing video games, once again neglecting to do his informative essay on the eating habits of elephants that was assigned to him last week.

An ancient acoustic guitar was laid against his bed, obviously used frequently and recently. Poetry was scribbled on to it's wood like graffiti. It was the guitar Ryuu's grampa gave him. He uses it every friday when his band plays at various bars around the city.

Ryuu groaned "Ugh..", realizing his next class was Literature and he had an exam, but he refused to get up just yet. He'll probably wait until the last minute like usual and be tardy.

[XxGoddessxX]

Skye couldn't sleep. She never could. That was why she always woke up at six in the morning. Usually she would lay in the dark for a few hours, trying to remember the dream she was having before. She had been having the same dream for a year. She could never remember the dream, only small fragments of it. The rest was a blur. Her friend once told her that it was a memory buried deep in her subconscious. Skye wasn’t sure.

Her head hurt, and she didn’t feel like thinking of the dream anymore. She got out of bed and got dressed. She felt like a walk. Skye quietly opened the door, so her room mate didn’t wake up, and slipped into the hall. The hallways were silent, only the sound of her Converse tapping on the floor singled her presence. She knew how strange she must look. A girl wandering the halls at six in the morning, wearing pajama pants and a sweater, her pink and black hair a mess.

She found the vending machines in the nearest commons area. She studied the contents of the machine. The school filled it with pop, sweets, and chocolate. There were a few bottles of juice and water, but that was the healthiest it got.

[thesouleater]

Roy heard his room mate groan and he raised an eyebrow. He had long been awake and been practicing his Japanese for the test he knew he would have today. His parents had been Japanese, but he had only learnt English. He picked up Japanese extremely quick fortunatly and often muttered to himself in the language. It was very easily the most difficult language he was learning, but it was his favourite.

Being up at 6 gave a student a lot of time to do what they wanted, so Roy decided to have a shower while he could. After doing so, he straightened his hair and got dressed in the usual black skinny jeans and a bright red shirt. He layed back down on his bed, pulling his chunky headphones over his ears. He often listened to older music, stuff from the 21st century in A.D. Music hadn't changed a lot to him, but it was still different. His favourite band was Three Days Grace. So while he listened to music he typed away on his laptop. He had been working on a fantasy novel for easily a few years.

[Awean8]

Ryuu's room mate, Roy, was already up and dressed. The clock said 6:46 AM. He finally got up, slowly forcing his back to be fully erect without changing his usual lazy expression. He yawned, and walked over to the mini-fridge for something to eat, but Ryuu was absolutely horrified to find the fridge empty.

He wanted to rage, but he was way to tired to do so. He didn't make enough money last Friday, the bartenders are getting cheap. Without even putting out the effort to get changed from his pj's or at the least fix his wild hair he walked out of the dark dorm room only grabbing his Ipod Infinite. He would usually give an appropriate, "Sup", to his room mate but since Roy probably couldn't hear him over his music he just let him be.

After walking out, he decided his goal was to attain some FOOD! He already was in the commons area when he spotted a girl with pink hair seemingly pondering the contents of the school's snack machines. He wanted a snack but he didn't want to start to start an awkward conversation. Than again.....Ryuu also thought she was kinda hot. Surprisingly, Ryuu was conflicted like this often.

[zerotech57]

Ten minutes to 7:00 AM. All is quiet. Some people quietly walked toward the Common area, or to go meet up with friends before school, but there was no commotion. Then, all of the sudden, a door burst open in the dorm room, slammed shut, and all of the sudden a human battering ram was charging through the halls, bolting for the Common area. It moved low to the ground, implying a lack of height but an excess of bulk. A couple of freshmen had the misfortune of happening to be in his way with their backs turned, and one was unlucky enough to catch a shoulder right in the back, and fall flat on his face. Although he stopped for a moment to help the kid up, the battering ram was gone again as soon as he could, determined to get his breakfast. If there was one thing Aiden hated, it was missing breakfast.

Finally, he burst through the doors leading into the common area, panting slightly. He had woken up later then usual, and been in a bit of a panic. On closer inspection, he was easily 6'1, and well over 200 pounds. A few people waved at him as he walked in, but that was the extent of the attention he drew. He was a senior now, and he had been performing this morning routine for years. He wiped his forehead, chuckling slightly. His hand didn't quite touch his short-cropped brown hair, because the gesture was mostly for show. He wasn't actually sweating, just slightly winded. His large, hazel eyes scanned the room, looking for something to eat.

Aiden was about 215 pounds of solid muscle, but he loved to eat. When it came to food, he liked anything unhealthy, and easy to prepare. He was known for having an... interesting diet. To him, everything tasted better with chocolate. The only milk he drank was chocolate milk, and he tended to eat chocolate bars for breakfast if he was in a hurry. In fact, he tended to spend half his money over the course of a year on chocolate bars, chocolate milk and various other candies.

Fianlly, he picked out a little bottle of chocolate milk, and three chocolate bars, and a BLT sandwich from the cafeteria line (Just to eat healthy). It was his first course of the day, in the three-course meal he liked to call breakfast. He had the interesting habit of paying for the first course, and then hunting for the second and third courses. Bumming food off of others was a god-given talent of his. He knew a large percentage of the student body, so there was ALWAYS someone that was willing to give him food. Finally, he looked around, setting to work trying to find a table.

[Ushima]

Dark blood red eyes stared up at the ceiling. How long was he awake, he didn't know. Since three? Doesn't matter to him though, Mike didn't need much sleep. The young soldier just turned ihs head a looked at the clock and sighed and rolled out of bed before heading into the bathroom. He quickly showered and put some clothes on, camo baggy pants, black socks and dog tags around his neck and a black muscle shirt. Leaving his room and moving into the common of the dorm he noted his roomate was absent.

The tattooed young man left the dorm and headed to get some breakfast. Passing the vending machines head decided to purchase something, after all the breakfast menu didn't sell his prefered morning drink. Energy drinks pretty much drove his mornings. And it was way to early to start up on whiskey. "Hey." He said to some pink haired girl on the machine next to him. He knew her from somewhere, and vaguely remembers her name.

Not that he cared that much. "To damn early for this crap." He said grabbing his can before getting in line. Michael had some people say hi to him, others waving. He was sort of a celebrate in the school, being a soldier. His squad emblem was tattooed on his wrist. Michael just wanted to finish this year as soon as possible.

Grabbing his tray he came up next to his roommate. "This way Aiden." The other male was a little taller than him. Sitting down at a table Michael set down his tray, it held an apple, bowl of cereal, hashbrowns and three breakfast sandwhichs. "Another crappy day here."

[thesouleater]

Roy noticed the time on his laptop and decided that, if he didn't head out soon, he wouldn't get anything to eat. He quickly shut his laptop, but didn't take off his headphones. He shuffled out of the dorm room, dragging his feet. A senior bolted past Roy, but he knew who it was. It was pretty much the student's morning routine. A freshman had been rammed into, Aiden helped him up and bolted off again.

Roy walked up to the freshman. "You better go to the nurse buddy. That's gonna be bruised for a while." He said, smiling slightly before continuing his way to the common rooms. Once there he grabbed a bowl of sugary cereal and sat down at an empty table. It was almost like it was his personal table, since barely anyone actually sat there except for him and maybe the odd friend.

The junior student wolfed down his cereal and grabbed a bottle of water before heading back to his dorm room to pack up for the day's school work. He shoved his laptop into his computer bag, cellphone in his pocket, I-Pod in the other. A small pack of paper and a little case of pencils and erasers was also shoved into his computer bag.

That's when Roy realized he had another 45 minutes before the first classes started. "Well, better early than late." He muttered to himself. He picked up an old manga book his grandfather had given to him. It was really good, but he couldn't find the next in the series. Things like that was hard to find with all the technology around. One of the characters in the series actually reminded him of himself. Roy started to flip through the manga, just trying to get through the 45 minutes he had until class.

[zerotech57]

"Cheer up" Aiden laughed, taking his seat "You'll live a lot longer"

As he unwrapped his first chocolate bar of the day, he scanned around the room. There was a girl near the vending machine that it seemed like every guy in the room had an eye on. Aiden himself thought she was good-looking, but he had food on his mind more then girls, at the moment. Besides which, it was a big school. Plenty of great-looking women. No point in turning into a babbling idiot every time he saw one. Finally, the cafeteria was beginning to fill up with people trying to catch a quick breakfast before school began for the day. Aiden personally didn't care much for his classes. If he was hungry, sick, bored or tired that took precedence over class, generally speaking. He knew he was going to graduate soon, anyway. No point in creating stress over it.

[Akimaru Inzuka]

'beep, beep, beep'. The high pitched staccato beeps brought Alex out of his dream world and into the world of the living. Alex groaned loudly trying to drown out the noise of the alarm clock. With one hand he tried to hit the snooze button on top of the clock but only succeed in knocking it on the floor.

Realising that his efforts at sleep were useless he rolled onto his back and sat up. Again he groaned as he swung his legs out of bed and placed his feet firmly on the floor before bending down and picking up the fallen alarm clock. Turning it over so see the clock face he jumped up and dropped the clock again when he saw that the time was 8:35 am.

Grabbing the nearest, cleanest looking clothes he threw them on and pulled open the door to his room as he pulled his T shirt over his head. Looking left then right he dashed down the corridor down a flight of steps, through a few more corridors until he reached the cafeteria.

He burst through the door and glanced at the clock 8:45 am. He breathed out once, regaining his composure before he stood and walked over to where Breakfast was still being served.

"bugger" He thought to himself as he thought that every eye in the room was turned to look at him. Getting his lukewarm breakfast he thanked the serving staff before sitting on his own trying to blend into the crowd again.

[MikeZZZ]

Waking up around 8am was a habit for Edwin, he enjoyed the later mornings, and it allowed him to stay up later at night as well. Slowly rolling out of bed, he stretched and did his morning workout. After the workout, he washed up, and threw a nice T-shirt on, with his favorite band Skillet on the front. He grabbed his sweater and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast.

As he walked in, he decided to grab a drink from the machine. There was a girl in front of it, so he politly excused himself and snagged what he wanted. Then he grabbed a tray and had his usualy bowl of cereal. Looking around for a table, he saw a soldier sitting with someone, and no empty seats anywhere else. Shrugging to himself he walked over and say down. Ignoring everyone else, he started to enjoy his breakfast and plan out the rest of his day.

[XxGoddessxX]

Skye bought a bottle of water, and then turned around to find a boy with shoulder length black hair waiting for the vending machine. She noticed he had adorable blue eyes. She didn’t know what to say, because she felt awkward at taking such a long time deciding what she wanted from the vending machine. She smiled instead. Then another boy appeared and used the machine next to her. He had a buzzed hair cut and he was full of tattoos. She knew that he was some kind of marine, and that most of the girls swooned over him.

Skye realized it was getting late, and she still had her pajama bottoms on in a room full of students, but she didn’t care. She went back to her room. When she was ready she checked her cell phone, it was 8:40. She still had a few minutes. Her art class started at nine.

[Awean8]

"Shit", was all Ryuu could say when the cute pink haired girl looked straight at him and smiled at him. SHE PROBABLY THOUGHT I WAS SUCH A FREAK, was the only thought his brain could muster. This didn't usually happen all the time. He was anti-social but not usually shy, especially around girls. This girl, well, this girl was pretty cute. "Dammit"

After a Butterfinger he noticed on his Ipod Infinite that it was 8:50 and almost time for his class. He looked at the pajamas he was wearing shrugged and just carried on not caring in the least. He headed to class without even his books or a pencil for that matter.

[breannalucy]

Swearing under her breath, Mercer pulled a couple of muesli bars out of her gear bag. She always kept some in there, as she had learnt from her days as a freshman when she'd finish a row too late to go to the caf and ended up starving until lunchtime. As she shoveled the food into her face, she realized she had no time to get ready.

"Great, another day of being scruffy" the girl getting changed beside her said. That girl was still a freshman, and totally not used to the world of competitive rowing. But that said, rowing probably wasn't her family's sport either.

"You get used to it. Coach works us to the bone, but when we race, it pays off... I remember regatta's before I came here, and I was only middle of the pack... Now, Coach reckons I could go pro." That was another girl. They'd taken an eight out that morning, so there were a fair few of them rushing to make it in time for the second bell.

It was almost a comedic sight, watching eight girls and their coxswain race each other to the main building, before they parted ways to their various classes. With AP English first period, Mercer almost wished she was late. The teacher was crazy, and lessons were boring, though that was just her opinion. All she knew was, she was just waiting until she could catch up with her friends at lunchtime.

[Ushima]

"Don't talk to me about life expectancy." Michael took a bite out of his breakfast. "That hits the spot. One good thing about this place, atleast the food is good." He finished his food quickly and got up to throw out his trash. "See you at lunch dude." He left the cafe, quickly, to avoid his swooning fans. They annoyed the crap out of him. Not much he could do about it though, so he just sucked it up and lived with it.

Back in his room he grabbed his bag. A single black strap across his chest, red bag. It had the standard items, textbook and notebook. Putting it on he was out the door again and headed to class. Calculus, or as he liked to call it sometimes, nap time. Really it made no difference to him as he was smart enough to figure out the work he missed while he was sleeping. Entering the class he found there were a few people there, all with noses in a book. Michael shook his head and sat down and put his feet up on a desk waiting for the teacher.

[zerotech57]

"Always a breath of fresh air..." Aiden muttered, sarcastically. He checked his wrist watch, noting that it was almost time for gym. He also noted that he would have almost no trouble passing gym, even if he missed half the classes. So, considering that, he elected to continue to eat. After having piled on a second course, claiming that he had a study hall to the cafeteria workers, he decided to wander the halls, eating. If there was one way he liked to spend his morning, it was stuffing his face.

He figured he would just show up late to gym, and claim he had slept in. Then he would sit out for about 30 minutes, because he had to let his food digest and he refused to get a cramp doing something as redundant as gym. After that, he would seriously consider lifting weights, or butting into a basketball game, or something that generally didn't take a whole lot of effort on his part. He had specifically asked for gym in the afternoon the previous year because he never really felt like being active during the mornings. He liked having 'sleeper' courses, such as math or history, in the morning, where he could ensure that he got enough rest to be functional in classes that he actually cared about. Gym in the morning ran afoul of his every academic principle. Of course, the way he resisted the education system at every turn, it was a miracle in and of itself that he was even on track to graduate. Just about every teacher, coach and guidance councilor that he'd ever had made a point of telling him that if he had applied himself, he was capable of far more then what he was doing now, but to him, it didn't matter. In the grand scheme of things, all High School represented was a means to go to college, which just represented a way to gain permission to pursue whatever job he wound up deciding to pursue. After he finished there, who would really care how he did in school, as long as he did his job?

He leaned against a wall, chewing his chocolate bar thoughtfully. Finally, he finished off the last of his breakfast, and began his circuit through the halls. He had about 20-odd minutes to kill before he felt that he needed to get his gym clothes and inform the gym teacher he had shown up late, and he was in no particular hurry.

[MikeZZZ]

After his breakfast, Edwin had math, Calculus to be exact. He headed back to his room and grabbed some of his daily requirements. Mainly homework and his ever present pack of gum. Grabbing his backpack, he headed to class. Upon arrival, he took the farthest back row seat, and sat down. Quickly grabbing his phone he checked his facebook and then relaxed. Time for yet another boring class. It's not that he wasn't good at it, or didn't understand it, he just didn't like it. Who cares about the multiple rules and calculations in it. He wouldn't use them at all in the real world.

Sitting up a bit, he noticed the military kid from earlier enter, and sit in a corner with his feet on the desk. The guy didn't seem to even notice the teacher when he walked in. Talk about disrespect..... Edwin laughed to himself a little, "Of course he is not paying attention, no one enjoys math, he is just showing it more than others."

Grabbing his homework, Edwin started to do a last minute check before handing it in. There were not any mistakes, like the rest of his work, but it never hurt to double check things.

[Akimaru Inzuka]

Aki ate his breakfast reasonably slowly for someone who was late, hadn't washed and wasn't sure what his next lesson was. He had a funny feeling it was Japanese and if it was he could get away with being a little late. He wasn't one to boast but being second best in the class meant he could get away with quite a lot of stuff.

He watched the schools resident hero, the marine leave the cafeteria, lots of other heads turned as well mostly girls. What they saw in that overly tattooed, muscley, shaven headed marine was beyond him.

Aki finished his last mouthful and stood taking his plate over to the hatch where he slid it across to the kitchen staff with a mumbled "thanks". He turned and walked out of the cafeteria and headed back to his dorm room to check his timetable and change.

[Awean8]

Ryuu fell asleep during his last class and didn't wake up until the end. A puddle of drool dripped off his desk. How disgusting. He lazily walked off to his class still in pajamas and without any of the recomended school supplies. His next class was Creative Writing.

This was a class he actually enjoyed for he loved to write stories just not essays. He got there early so he started listening to his Ipod Infinite. It shuffled to some old acoustic music by Elliot Smith.

[thesouleater]

Roy had been half-asleep through his whole first class, which happened to be math... he had even arrived late. It was also one of his best subjects and he didn't plan on doing much with it. He was really only there so that he could improve on his speed in the equations. He quickly hurried to Creative Writing when they were dismissed from the class. One of his favourites. He loved to write, be it romance or horror. He would write any genre and could probably fit most of them into a book if he wanted.

Roy saw that his room mate was already there, listening to some music on his I-Pod. He remembered that a lot of people were in Creative Writing at this time and realized that if he didn't grab a seat he liked soon, he wouldn't get one. He decided that sitting beside someone he knew would be better than sitting on his own, so he slid into a seat beside Ryuu. Looking at the time, Roy noticed he had an extra few minutes and pulled out his laptop so that he could work on his book.

[MikeZZZ]

After math, Edwin hurried to gym aka Martial Arts, he always liked to have a little extra time to warm up before it started. As he started stretching the teacher walked in and gave a little nod to Edwin, his favorite student. Edwin didn't try to hard in this class, it just came natural to him. He enjoyed the Self Defense side more than the art side of it, but the teacher taught both anyway. Edwin watched as the rest of the class slowly filed in, and he saw a few new and familiar faces as well. As he strecthed, his mind went back to his past, and the things that had happened in it. He blocked it from his mind, he didn't want to remember alot of those times, and instead concentrated on his next excercise.

[breannalucy]

Having endured English, Mercer ambled over towards German. It was her favorite subject, and it made up for the dreadful first period she had just suffered through. The teacher was this crazy, but somehow innately awesome, little old guy who everybody loved; he made the lessons so much more fun than her other classes, and she knew for a fact that he was the only reason some people were taking German.

"Sorry für meine Verspätung. Ich war zu meinem Englischlehrer sprechen" (Sorry for my lateness, I was talking to my English teacher) Mercer muttered as she walked in to class, a good ten minutes late, having stopped by the Food room to thief some food off one of her good friends, an amazing cook. Not that she would ever admit her real reasons for being late to her teacher.

Locating the only spare seat, she sat back and prepared to enjoy the lesson.

[Akimaru Inzuka]

"Watashi wa osoku senseidearu koto no tame ni mōshiwake arimasenga, sore ga futatabi okoru koto wa arimasen."<I am sorry for being late sir, it will not happen again.> Aki said with a bow as he entered the Japanese class at least 10 minutes late. The teacher looked at him sternly before reply in English "It is OK Mr.Inzuka, just make sure it doesn't happen again". He turned and faced the interactive board writing symbols, translations and parts of grammar. Aki took out his pencil and a sheet of paper and began to copy the chaos of the board into some recognisable order on the page in front of him.

Japanese dragged very slightly and Aki was pleased when it had finished. They had covered most of what he already knew, but there was no harm in refreshing the basics.

After putting his books and other items neatly into his 'White Stuff' bag, Aki headed off with a small spring in his step. He wasn't skipping or prancing because men never prance. They walk, jog, run and may occasionally skip when left alone, but never prance. Akis' step was normal but there was a slight spring in his heel that normally wasn't there.

He walked into his second class of the day, creative writing, so many people had chosen to take this subject the venue had been moved from a small class room to a lecture hall. Aki took his seat in a rapidly filling hall. Putting his bag between his legs he pulled out paper and pencil, laid them out in front of him and turned to watch people entering the hall.

[Ushima]

Mike watched the teacher enter and start handing tests back. He scored perfect, not surprising. Moving into a better position he started doing work. The teacher just handed them a worksheet to do and he had it completed in five minutes before he took an nap. He didn't dream. Then again he was asleep for only thirty minutes before the bell went off. Grumbling he lifted his head off his desk, wiped away some drool off his face and left the class. He had creative writing next. It was a great class, he loved it. Stepping into the class he greeted the teacher with a smile. Taking a seat he got ready for when class started.

[zerotech57]

Aiden walked into creative writing, and plopped down directly in the middle of the room. Depending on what he felt like, he tended to change seats on a fairly constant basis. His teacher had, once upon a time, assigned him a seat, but he had simply chosen to disregard it and plant himself wherever he felt like sitting. Truthfully, the teacher didn't care. Aiden had a fairly solid grade in the class, because while his grammar wasn't always up to par, he made up for it with his imagination. In fact, one could even have argued that he and his teacher had a love-hate relationship. He enjoyed the class, and yet his every instinct dictated that he should mess around every chance he got and make a general idiot of himself at bad times. His teacher seemed to enjoy his cheerfulness, creativity and sense of humor, but hated his tendency to be a class clown, doze off, occasionally skip, and generally treat the class like it was inconsequential.... which to Aiden, it was. He was a large, physically strong person, clearly destined to work in some kind of trade. Things like creative writing were certainly fun for him, but it was hard to take anything that he felt was pointless seriously.