TeleVista

TeleVista - Chapter One

Hey, so I've already got a bunch of this story written, which means very fast updates...like I seriously JUST posted the Prolouge...so here's Chapter one....hope you like it :) I tried to make the characters interesting, and the two guy friends are based off of friends of mine in real life. So, I know they're not typical "hott" guys, but at least they have character....I hope... :) They're a little on the weird side.

Chapter 1

Present day.  Larsa (Earth).

"My ocular cavities must have been metal coated at birth!  I swear the Bavarian crème donuts on that shelf right there are transmitting magnetic waves, compelling my retinas to obey their beckoning pull.”  Barlow Mediera had stopped walking in mid-sentence and with his hands grasping each side of his face, was fully in tune to the tasty occupants of the DoughDough Delite donut shop, whose window now fogged with his breath.  His two other teenage companions did an about-face and came back to his position on the Evans Street sidewalk.

"Low!" said Keaggy Munn, because Barlow's friends called him Low for short, "science will find a cure for you some day.  When they do, I will sneak in the lab at night and destroy it, 'cuz I don't ever want to not hear the rambling nonsense that comes out of your mouth.”

“Speak to me, oh pastries of wonder!”  Barlow rolled his head about as if he was no longer in control of his being.  Mr. Pardee came up close to the glass on the inside opposite Low's face and frowned, attempting in vain to wipe him away with glass cleaner and a paper towel.  Then Low switched to his evil genius voice, "I will not be deterred.  Your donuts will be mine.  Mine I tell you!!"

"C'mon dude, you're getting all Pavlovian again."

What an odd and wonderful pairing these two were, Barlow and Keaggy.  Low was once an attention-deficit wall-bouncer who grew up watching an abundance of what you might call intelligent cartoons.  Years of absorbing the likes of Dexter's Lab, The Fairly Odd Parents and Phineas & Ferb had actually had an educational effect.  He had grown into an intellectual couch potato of sorts.  Mostly of Cuban descent with hair that can best be described as a bad version of an old-school 'fro, Barlow wore thick-framed black glasses and a constant expression of amazement.  He was so randomly funny you couldn't help but love him.

If they were a comedy team, then Keaggy filled the roll of the straight man.  Still wearing some baby fat around his midsection, and always quick of wit, he supplied the sarcasm to act as a verbal counterbalance to keep Low from being too out there.  His mind was also a collection basin for ideas and details about popular culture, much of which kids his age weren’t supposed to know or even care about.

All of this suited the third member of their after-school trio just fine.  It was autumn in Larsa, Illinois, an urban center hugging close to Chicago’s south side.  The mild temperature at this time of day and the jabbering of Low and Keaggy made everything perfect as far as Gentry Sheehan was concerned.  Her dad told her this was when the weather best suited her clothes, which meant her preferred wardrobe of a baggy coat, and the knit cap with a fuzzy ball on top and flaps that covered her ears, was more in vogue now than during the summer months.  Her male companions were both unassuming brainiacs on some level; a trait she found immensely entertaining.

"Gen, grab my belt and stand firm!  My body wants to despectrify and rematerialize inside the DoughDough!” Low was still hyped about Bavarian crème.  Obviously slender little Gentry holding onto his belt wasn't going to provide much aid, but she laughed as Keaggy grabbed a hold instead and got him rerouted back to their after-school journey homeward.

“You need to rematerialize wearing Gen’s glasses.  They have more cred than yours” quipped Keaggy.

“With these glasses I see everything necessary for grasping those items that are self-evident concerning my inalienable rights.”

“That was a fast transition from donut-craving lunatic to Founding Father lunatic.  I'm gonna pursue some happiness of my own and slap a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" sticker on your back when you don't realize it.”

Gen changed topics. “Who do you guys have for your botany assignment?”

“Possibly the worst possible teammate, or lack there-of, possible,” Barlow cringed, then Keaggy joined him in revealing the foul truth. “Ann-Hollis.” 

“You mean it’s you two and Ann-Hollis Delany?”

“The evil snake herself.”  Low’s depression flowed forth. “We get placed in groups of three to work on this paper, and the Keaggster and I are teamed with Medusa’s daughter.”

Keaggy confirmed. “She’s already calling all the shots, like she’s in charge or something.  Told us to start on the difference between C3 and C4 plants, but was a tad bit vague on exactly what she was going to start on.  Who did you get?”

“Javiar and Taylor.  We have study hall together, so it should work out.”

“At least your partners are human.”  Keaggy thought about that, then retracted a portion of it.  “Taylor is awful tight with Ann-Hollis, she may have had her soul eaten by now.”

“Stop that.  Ann-Hollis moved here from Mississippi in Jr High.  That’s a tough transition.  Give her a chance.”

Keaggy slapped Low on the back.  “I volunteered my wingman to handle all the direct communication with her.  It’s better that way.”

“You didn’t just put that sticker on me, did you?  I don’t look very Irish, you know.

“Well I have some Irish in me, but I don’t need a sticker.”  Gentry made a left turn to cross the street and flashed a grin.  “Some Irish people are choosey about who they kiss, you know.  Love you guys,” she hollered looking back over her shoulder.  “See you tomorrow.”

“We love you tooooo” the boys sang out in unison.  Barlow said it to be silly.  Keaggy said it in silly fashion too, but lately was starting to feel a twinge of believing it.  "Did she just say she wanted to be kissed?"

"I don't think so."

"She said that right?"

"No."

"I swear she was looking at me when she said that!"

"She wasn't."

Gen may have had the fashion sense of a typical nerd girl, but her soul was P-U-R-E pure.  She loved everyone and everything and there never seemed to be a bad thought in her head.  Keaggy may have been just one of the couple hundred young guys finding his way at fairly large high school, but he knew quality when he saw it.  Gentry Sheehan was a quality person.  And a darn cute one too.

So there :) Hope you liked it...I'm not too confident when it comes to posting stories online...but if you like it, maybe I could get better :D