Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is the home of Joshua Baroob. It's a two bed, two bath, two story little farmhouse. If you look at it from the front, it hardly seems to be there at all. Josh's room is actually in the basement. I'm sure you aren't surprised.

Character Start

Cait rubbed her eyes and stumbled through the gap in the bushes into Josh's front yard. She took a sip of coffee, and exhaled deeply feeling the warm on the unusually crisp morning. She pulled her zipper up a little closer to her chin, and rested her coffee cup on top of her messenger bag and against her hip while she waited for the school bus. Cait looked at her watch, it was 7:35, and there was a loud crash in Josh's basement. She rolled her eyes.

What classes did she have today? Hon Bio, Spanish, Hon English, and Theater class with Jay. Plus, they both had a SAUCY meeting after school. It was unfortunate that Rowena had made it into her spanish class. At least Josh would be there to keep her occupied.... She and Jay would have to work on their final project for theater. A costuming project. In fact, Cait had to tell Jay about the idea she'd had for the project. And how they could use them in the future. Cait took a sip of coffee and looked at her watch. 7:40. The bus would be there in five minutes. Josh had probably overslept again.

Cait turned her attention towards the trees. There were some birds twittering away, which made her grin. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, it was crisp but not too cold, there wasn't a cloud in the sky... The day would be good. It had to be. It was her senior year, she was supposed to enjoy herself. Instead, she was burried under a pile of BTY work from the school off island and she didn't have any free time outside of school to spend with her friends.

Cait looked at her watch and took a sip of coffee. It was 7:43. The bus would be there in two minutes. Cait sighed. If Josh missed school she'd have to skip spanish class. There was no way she was putting up with Rowena all by herself. And Jay had to be silly and take french. When would she ever need french anyway? Cait took a sip of coffee. It was hazlenut mocha with whole cream and 2 sugars in an Expresso Eddies stainless mug. She'd made the coffee herself, but the mug came with her everywhere. It had been a Birthday Present from the owner of the local coffee store because she had been buying coffee from him since her freshman year of high school. Cait looked at her watch. It was 7:44.

The bus pulled up early, and Josh was going to miss it. Again. So she'd miss spanish. Again. If she passed the class it would be a miracle because her attendence was so miserable. Almost as miserable as Josh's. The Yellow Slug pulled up in front of Josh's house and opened it's metal and plastic gaping maw to her. She climbed up the steps and climbed into a seat. She took a sip of coffee. it was 7:45.

<
Josh woke quite suddenly with a pit of dread in his stomach. Today was the first day back at school and he knew he'd overslept. He wondered how much of first period was over by now as he looked at his alarm clock. Seven o'clock on the dot. Great, he'd missed all of- Wait, seven o'clock? That was early! He could take his time getting ready today!

As he flopped out of bed, Josh wondered why he still felt like he'd overslept. It was almost like he'd completely lost track of the entire mini-vacation they'd had as a result of the break-in. It was almost like a community of authors had decided to skip it for the sake of some over-arching "plot." Very weird.

Shaking the thought from his head, Josh hopped out of bed. It was early, but the clock was still ticking. He took the stairs two at a time and was in the shower in a few minutes later. He dressed himself, actually taking the time to see if what he was wearing looked good. A few minutes into this, however, he realized he was a guy and just grabbed whatever was on top of the drawer. When he got himself out to the bus stop, he looked both ways for the bus and let out a deep breath.

"Sooo what now?"

Afterwards>>>

"Wow, that is weird," Penelope shook her head at Josh finished his story, "Any idea what caused it?"

"Actually," Josh scooted a little closer, dropping his voice and reminding Penelope what she wanted to ask him. "You remember when I was Captain Cripple, right?"

"How could I not," Penelope laughed, "You've told me that story more times than I could count!"

"Oh." Josh trailed off and looked crestfallen.

"No, but I love it! Please, go on."

"Right. Well Dr. Maverick said the brace was powered by some sort of experimental power cell. What if it did something to me?"

"Well, have you tried calling her?" Josh grinned sheepishly and Penelope laughed. "Of course not."

Josh popped off the bed and pulled his bookcase out from the wall. Behind it, a dent had been cut out of the wall. Josh tugged on one the edges, pulling loose them strangest contraption Penelope had ever seen. It hit the floor with a dull thud.

"I can't believe you wore that thing."

"You get used to it." Josh fiddled with the front plate of the mass of wires and metal until a screen popped out. "Call Dr. Maverick." The screen flickered and a ringing chimed out. It was cut short as a woman's face sprung up on the screen.

"Hello, Josh," She looked to be in her later thirties with wide blue eyes and blond-streaked black hair. There was something in her expression that seemed stressed and frantic.

"Hey, Doctor, I-"

"Since you're getting this message, I'm assuming you've changed your mind and want to proceed with the next stage of testing. I knew you would. Regrettably, that won't be possible. We had to shut down the project. I don't have time to explain everything now, but I need you to turn it off and keep it somewhere safe. Take care, Josh. I hope we meet again." And the screen flickered off.

With his hands trembling, Josh flipped the screen back down and shoved the thing back in the wall. Shaking his head, he pushed the bookcase back into place.

"Well, that was certainly weird." Josh jumped, he had somehow forgotten Penelope was still in the room.

"Yeah... I guess I'll never find out if that was what was causing it..."

"Hey, Josh? Mind if I change the subject?" Penelope swallowed her hesitation with a deep breath. Sure they had just learned some very strange news, but that wouldn't stop her.

"Sure, Penelope, what's up?"

"Josh? Uhh..." Another deep breath, "Doyouwanttogowithmetoprom?"

"What?"

"Doyouwant... Ahem, do you want to go with me to prom?" Penelope looked to Josh, every second ticking like an hour.

((Oh no! Cliffhanger!))