Cindy Psi: Spy In Training

Cindy Ann Parker looked up at the sky and sighed. It was raining alright. Not a heavy rain mind, not a torrential, potentially thrilling monsoon-style rain; no, when the Galactic Central Council Terraforming Team formatted one of these new suburban planets like Oliver County for habitation they always built geography that would result in mild weather conditions. This meant pleasant sunshine much of the year with just enough rain to grow plants and fill reservoirs. It also meant there were no epically tall mountains, no treacherously wide oceans, no life-threateningly barren deserts. And it meant that when it rained, it was just the kind of half-hearted, drizzly rain that was enough to turn the world a bit grey and get your clothes annoyingly damp.

Of course, it wasn’t just the rain that was the cause of Cindy’s bad mood. It was the fact that today was Tuesday, and Tuesday meant you still had loads of the week to go at school, and right now Cindy wasn’t having the best time at school. She liked learning, she even (if she looked deep into her heart of hearts and forced herself to be honest with herself, which she was prone to do as Cindy was by nature a very honest girl) liked her teacher Ms Primp. She understood that even though you could easily access everything you needed to learn on your PCD wherever you happened to be – like maybe sitting in your comfortable house out of the rain – it was IMPORTANT to have contact with other people your own age. It was good to learn to SOCIALISE. And even that would be fine but for a couple of reasons.

As the monobus approached, hissing along on its single track like something Cindy had read about on the history pages – was it a snake or something? – she became suddenly aware that one of those reasons was on the bus just waiting for her. Jacinta Pembroke.

Yes, Jacinta Pembroke. First year in the school. First year on the planet, in fact. Her family had moved to Cindy’s small town of Tenterfield from Planet Ramsay six months previously as her Mother had taken a Local Councillor role in the regional council office, a fact you learned within about thirty seconds of meeting Jacinta. Cindy’s Father also worked for the regional council office, but nothing so senior as a Local Councillor; he worked on the Infrastructure Discretionary Services team as a Junior Administrator. Mr Parker’s job was to help plan how to keep all the fibre optic cables, transmission points, service units and interstellar gateway servers hidden into the landscape so the residents of Oliver County could enjoy their green (well, currently grey where Cindy was) and pleasant land. He wasn’t the boss of his team, unlike Jacinta’s Mother. She outranked him. In fact, she outranked his boss. And his boss’ boss. And you learned this within about 45 seconds of meeting Jacinta if you were Cindy.

Now Jacinta was making her play to get accepted into the Top Group at school. This wasn’t an official body, it was that group of students that every school year has – the ones who decide what adjustments to the uniform were cool this year, whether you were meant to be studious or rebellious at the moment, which celebrities you should have resident in your PCD today. And, unfortunately for Cindy, right now the Top Group were a bit mean, and Jacinta, no-one’s fool, had picked up on Cindy’s outsider status and was using this to try and work her way in. Brilliant. The bus pulled up at Cindy’s stop.

“Good morning, Cindy,” it intoned as it opened its door to her. “I hope today is a great day full of learning!”

“Good morning bus,” replied Cindy. Under her breath she added “I’d just settle for an ok day with no Jacinta, frankly,” and she moved down the bus and took her seat.

It didn’t take long. Her PCD vibrated within about 5 seconds of sitting down.

JP: Nice Dress D:<

Cindy sighed as she read the message. She was stuck now. There was no option not to engage, as this would just lead to even more merciless harassment. Her only real option was to try not to say anything Jacinta could use against her. But, as ever, Jacinta had picked just the right thing to target for maximum embarrassment.

The problem was Cindy’s uniform was a little old. She hadn’t got around to buying a new one, and since she hadn’t done much growing over the last six months or so, it just didn’t reach her list of priorities. It was only Cindy and her Dad at home, and so tasks like keeping up to date with school clothing fell to her – her Dad had enough to worry about with work, cooking (which Cindy was keen to learn but hadn’t yet), and generally just being Dad. And no matter how much she tried, Cindy couldn’t get too excited about how she looked in the way some of the girls at school seemed to. As far as she was concerned she was a not-very-interesting-looking, slightly-below-average-height, plain-shoulder-length-(slightly red)-haired normal girl with the usual number of eyes, ears and limbs, and anything else was just trim, really. Unlike someone like Jacinta; always immaculately turned out, always on top of just how the uniform should be worn this term, seemingly a new dress every week.

CP: It’s the school uniform

JP: Oh is it? I thought the uniform was meant to be a little shorter. And definitely a lot cleaner. (?_?)

CP: It’s not dirty. It’s just a bit old.

JP: Oh yes, I forgot, your Dad is an assistant to an assistant to an assistant to my Mum – I guess he doesn’t make enough money for new clothes. >:P

CP: We do fine. I just haven’t got around to buying a new uniform this year.

JP: Why don’t you get your Mum to buy it? >:)

CP: I’ve already told you I live with my Dad. You’re just being mean now, and I know why.

JP: Oh yes? ಠ_ಠ And why is that?

CP: You’re trying to impress the other girls so they will accept you into the Top Group.

JP: Why would I want to do that?

CP: To be honest with you, I don’t know. If you want to join up with a bunch of sheep who only hang out with each other because they’re scared to be themselves that’s up to you, but do you have to use me to do it?

Too late Cindy remembered that the other thing Jacinta was doing to accelerate her acceptance was volunteering for everything. Including managing the class messages for Cindy’s class, which meant she had the class group code, and could share things with everyone.

Which she did just then, with the last three messages in her exchange with Cindy.

As the members of her class turned en masse to glare at her, even the ones who weren’t in the Top Group, Cindy stared out the window at the rain and sighed – for about the tenth time today, and it wasn’t even nine o-clock yet.

Yes, contact with other children at schools was IMPORTANT. Good for learning to SOCIALISE.

Brilliant.