Quinn's Code - Invite of the Geek - Part 3

Soon, the three teens were in Jane's room, leafing through the sketchbook. “These are really good,” Daria said.

“Thanks. I do have talent. It runs in the family,” Jane said.

Suddenly the house was shaken by loud discordant music from the basement. Jennifer gave Jane a look.

“Ok, most of the family,” Jane conceded, as her brother Trent continued to rock the house at its foundations.

'Must be a new song,' Jennifer thought. She didn't recognise the (rather vague) tune.

“Ok,” Daria said, she glanced at the page she had stopped at. The picture described by the lines looked unnatural. “You're really bursting out of the picture plane here,” she said.

Jennifer briefly looked at the picture. Her eyes opened with with shock before she looked away. 'That's just wrong,' she thought.

“Oh, yeah. That particular model was quite bursty. I think she had her bursts done,” Jane said. There was another jarring burst of rock/metal music from the basement. “Sounds like all of Mystik Spiral rather than just Trent,” she mused.

Jennifer nodded in agreement.

“Mystik Spiral?” Daria asked. 'Sounds like the name for a Doors cover band, rather than whatever they are attempting to be,' she thought.

“That's Trent's band. I could introduce you to them,” Jane offered.

Daria thought about it. “As much as I would like to meet your brother, we need to get to school,” she said.

Jane looked at the time. “You're right. You will have to meet Trent another time,” she said, wistfully.

Jennifer looked at Daria meaningfully. Daria sighed. Jane chuckled. Soon the 3 teens were on their way out of the house, on their way to school.

Andrea looked at the iMac screen as Quinn's AppleScript script finished running. She sat down on the robin's-egg-blue bed, next to one of Quinn's stuffed animals. “I must admitt that I was sceptical when I saw that you listed AppleScript on your application, Quinn.” she said.

“Like I would have a Mac, and not use it?” Quinn asked.

Andrea scoffed at that. “Why have a Mac at all?”

“Apple does make programs that are interesting, and their hardware designs are cute, especially the iMac, second to the iPod. Anyhow, OS X is a good operating system, especially the 'Tiger' release,” Quinn said.

'Of course she would think that the iMac is cute. This room just screams 'cute'. It says 'Hackers can be cute,' Andrea thought, as she looked around the room that was half 'hacker cave' and half 'typical popular 00's teen girl. It couldn't be more different to her own room if it tried. She stood up as she looked at a Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex poster. “I suppose so,” she said.

Quinn could see that Andrea was distracted, looking around her room. She wondered if it had to do with what she had said the previous day. “Are you ok?” she asked.

“I'm fine,” Andrea said, flatly.

“Ok, So what is the AppleScript score?” Quinn asked. 'Even if it's abysmal, it is worth finding out,' she thought.

“B+,” Andrea said as she produced a form.

Quinn took the form and placed it between the iMac and one of her desktop PCs. She saw that Andrea had filled it out. 'Of course she would,' she thought as she signed it. She handed it back to Andrea.

“You are now a full member of the Programming Club, though you can hand the form in yourself,” Andrea said, handing the form back.

“Cool!” Quinn said as she placed the form in her laptop case.

“I would do it first thing,” Andrea said.

“Why?”

“Best to do it that way,” Andrea said, enigmatically.

“Ok,” Quinn said. 'What is she up to?' she pondered, not for the first time.

Friday, October 8, 2005

Before homeroom, Quinn entered the office. “Hi, how may I help you?” the receptionist asked.

“Hi, I am handing in this club membership application,” Quinn said, as she handed over the Programming Club Full Membership application.

“A third club, Ms Morgendorffer? Ms. Li would be thrilled to hear that,” the receptionist said.

“She would?” Quinn asked, wondering why the Principal would be interested in her student's activities.

“Yes. Less than ten percent of the the Lawndale High student body has more than two extracurricular activities.”

“Why would she be worried about that?” Quinn asked, still curious.

“The Principal is of the opinion that one can never have too much school spirit.” the receptionist said as she typed.

Quinn thought, that certainly jived with what she knew of the principal so far. “That makes sense, what with the way she pronounces the school's name and all.”

“That's it, done. You are now a full member of the Programming Club, as well as the Computer Club and the Anime Club.”

“Cool,” Quinn said, as she left.

At lunch, Quinn sat with Cindy. “Where's Kristen?” she asked.

Cindy looked at Quinn “I'm not sure,” she said.

Just then Kristen came up to the table, carrying her lunch and talking on her cell phone. “Thanks, that's great. It's a great help.” A pause, then. “You too, bro, bye,” she said. She turned to Cindy and Quinn. “All settled, Keith will be able to drive us to Crewe Neck's main checkpoint tomorrow night.” She said, as she sat down.

Cindy considered this “But what about afterwards?” she asked.

“We still have to figure that out,” Kristen said.

“Many people will be going. It probably will be safe to walk back into Lawndale proper, right?” Quinn wondered.

“That's an option,” Kristen said.

“If they're all leaving at the same time, perhaps,” Cindy pointed out.

“Like that's going to be an issue,” Quinn said.

“True,” Kristen stated. It was likely that most of the people going would leave at the same time.

“But what about your sister? Wouldn't she want to leave early?” Cindy asked.

“Not to mention Jennifer. I know she doesn't like going to parties,” Kristen said.

“Oh yeah, but Daria will likely have her own transportation lined up. She likes having contingency plans,” Quinn said.

“Besides, Jennifer has a car,” Cindy said.

“Oh yeah,” Kristen said.

They continued their discussion about the party and their plans for it.

Saturday, October 9, 2005

Late in the afternoon, Quinn walked along the street, looking for Cindy's house. The street, located approximately halfway between Glen Oaks Lane and the Cranberry Commons Mall, was lined with many nondescript houses. She recalled the house number that Cindy had given her, and the way Cindy had described her house. 'Medium sized house, two thirds the size of mine, brown bricks, green tiles and blue curtains in the windows,' she thought.

She soon found the house, although the name BROLSMA in large letters above the name ROBINSON in smaller letters on the mailbox confused her for a moment. She shrugged and walked up the path.

Cindy answered the door. “Hi Quinn, come in,” she said.

Quinn entered. “I found it relatively quickly, though the mailbox was slighly confusing,” she said.

Cindy was amused. “Yeah, Brolsma is my father's surname, Robinson's my mother's,” she said.

“Ok,” Quinn said. 'Morgendorffer sounds cooler than Barksdale, thank goodness,' she thought.

“Kristen and Keith will be here at six, so we have some time to get ready,” Cindy said. She looked at Quinn, the ubiquitous laptop case had been replaced by bag of clothes.

“Cool! Lets go see what you have to wear,” Quinn said.

“I hope you're not going to go overboard?” Cindy asked, with slight concern as she led Quinn upstairs towards her bedroom.

“Depends on what you call 'overboard',” Quinn said. Cindy held back a sigh.