So Much For Prada

Tori looked at the boy with amazement. His fingers had moved so fast. She had never seen anyone work a computer like that.

The boy typed and clicked a few things and reluctantly closed his laptop and slid it into his bag.

Professor Millis turned back to the class to restart his lesson, his droning voice and the lesson he taught was a recipe for Tori to fall asleep, but she glanced at the boy, Mr. Griffon was what the Professor called him, before returning to her story.

The bell rang and Siri and Tori exited the room.

"Did you see that guy typing?" She asked, curious.

"Yeah. What about him?" Siri seemed to be preoccupied by something.

"Well," Tori said casually, "he was only typing a hundred miles per hour." She made herself sound bored by the fact, sarcasm colored her words.

Siri didn't seem to care so Tori let it go. It wasn't like he had just saved the world, he just typed really fast.

Siri turned to go to her next class, and Tori headed straight for sniper training. The test was soon and she wasn't scared by the fact of failing, but by disappointing herself in front of Coach James. He knew her limits and knew how well she could shoot, therefore, he'd know if she made a "bad" shot. Tori grabbed her rifle from the armory and headed up the stairs.

The sniping roof was warm with the morning sun and the rest of the sniper class were sitting next to their cases. Tori took her place and set her case down next to her, ready.

Coach James said nothing, he just pulled out his stopwatch. "Begin!"

Everyone turned and jerked open their cases. The clicks of the metal filled the air. Tori was in position within twenty seconds, she still had forty left.

Coach pushed a button, "Time!" He examined the ready students.

"Collins. Fifty-two seconds. Murphy, forty-nine. Abram, nineteen." Everyone stared at her, but Tori didn't want to meet their stares. They always stared.

Coach then began the test. He gave the students a set time and there was a hostage with five targets. Tori hit the targets in a single sweep without coming close to the hostage. Three other students killed the hostage and the others injured it. Tori and five other students managed to not hurt the hostage, but only Tori and another boy managed to kill all five targets.

Tori was happy after class. She had shot "well", better than last night.

"I want you to decode this!" the teacher yelled. His wire-rimmed felto the edge of his nose, and with a sniffle, he pushed it back up to his nose.

A simple binary code blipped up on Mike's screen. He looked it over, and within a few seconds he was waving his hand in the air with a sight gripe of pride. "Sir, it is a code used in world war II to construct nuclear warheads."

The teacher looked at him in awe. He let out another sniffle. "H-how do you figure that, Mr. Griffion?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "It is simple. The code is imputed with basic commands such as launch and abort, but also commanding for a chemial holding. However, the poor construct the built code implies that is was a prototype, quickly used before others. The slight miscalculation in the third row allowed it only to reach 10% mass, only allowing to destroy one city. Thus, I rest my case."

He folded his arms in triumph. The teacher shook his head in disbelief.

"That's impossible! It took me weeks to figure to figure it out!"

A smug grin spread over Mike's face. "Get used to it."

"Another boring hour wasted on math," thought Siri as she exited the math classroom. She found herself face to face with a guy about her age with a smirk spread across his face like after-breakfast jam.

"Excuse me," she said shortly.

"For what?" he asked smugly.

"For giving you a smack on the arm." she followed her words, gave his arm a hard punch and walked calmly away.

Ooo. How she hated coming across people who didn't know when to be quiet.

Tori felt reassured by her shooting, and now that her classes were finished, she could successfully enjoy the sunshine.

She placed her rifle in her armory locker and headed outside. The air was fresh and warm.

She wasn't the only one taking advantage of the good weather. Many studentss were heading out. Tori saw Siri making her way down the sidewalk at a fast pace. Tori ran over to her roommate.

"Wanna go to the park?" Tori asked, innocently enough.

Siri just looked at her like she was stupid.

"It's good for you." Tori tried.

Siri just kept walking.

"Come on. I really don't want to go alone." Tori begged.

Siri sighed.
"OK."

They linked arms and walked out of the courtyard.

"Something bothering you?" asked Tori.

"I think the cafeteria crud is catching up with me," groaned Siri. "Give me a punch next time I say I want Mystery Meat."

"You have any cash on you?" Siri shot her a startled look.

"Yeah, why?" Tori shrugged.

"If we hurry, we could get to the village and raid the local grocery. I'm not fond of cafeteria glop, either."

Siri raised an eyebrow.

"You know how to cook?"

"I know you do, because you're at the top of cooking class, according to Penny in the next dorm over."

"That's not answering my question, but whatever. I know a great recipe for cookies."

"Cookies!" Tori almost squealed.

"Oh, crap, it's him."

Tori perked up.
"You have a crush now?"

"No, you dope," said Siri, eyes fixed ahead. "There was this jerk blocking my way earlier and I punched him."

"Surprise," muttered Tori.

Mohon was pirched on the roof overlookin the courtyard. Siri and Tori walked passed below him, both scowling at someone or something hidden under out of his sight.

Swaggering as he walked, Mohon jumped down to the opposite roof and stared at the two girls. But he couldn't keep his eyes off of Tori.

Tori and Siri headed for the parking lot where Tori's car was parked.

Tori couldn't help but feel like she was being watched. She looked around, but no one was looking.

The guy Siri had hit saw them as they passed.

Siri glanced up from the car, staring directly at their pursuee, and glared at him, making a rude hand-gesture in his general direction.

"Siri!" gasped Tori, giggling nervously as Siri whisked herself into the car, smirking. "If any teachers saw that...."

"If any teachers were nearby, they would see that we were being followed...by a guy."

Siri rolled down the window and put her feet on the dashboard.

"How does shepherd's pie sound to you?" she asked, putting the seat back.

Mike couldn't help but laugh at the two girls that desperately ran to get away from his line of sight. He admitted to himself that the one named Tori did have an attractive physique. But then again, he had no interest in pursuing some of the more common masculine subjects.

Sure, it looked like he was following them. That was a mishap of judgement. He had just happened to be going in the direction they were at the same time. Of course, they woldn't have minded if he was a little more chisled and had a great personality, but again, he had no interest.

As strange as it was to him, however, he became heavily tongue tied when around this "Tori." A dizzying affect would take over him, one of which he was not used to. But of course, he was not going to dwell on the subject in his mind much longer. It was obvious she would take no idea to even introducing herself by the gesture her friend made towards him.

He sighed. "You are such a jackass, Mike."

He pulled out his laptop once again and did they only thing he knew how to do.

Tori pulled out of the parking spot and sped down the street.

"Shepherd's pie sounds perfect." She said. The village was a few miles away from the campus.

Tori toyed with the radio dial, but gave up when she found that all of her favorite rock stations were on commercial break.

"Here," She told Siri, "find a station you like."

Siri sat up neatly and fiddled with the dial for a few seconds, finally settling on a station that had a emo-sounding song rolling. Siri listened to the refrain, and then, at the next refrain, re-sang the words mockingly.

Tori laughed in spite of herself as Siri sang about her "shattered teapot" while the radio man warbled on about "shards of souls".

"I think," announced Siri as Tori parked the car and the radio flicked off, "that, in celebration of our incredible awesomeness, that a visit to the snack isle is in order. My treat."

"Poppycoooooock," murmured Tori, eyes lighting up.

"Not before bed. Come on, let's get the stuffs..."

They entered the store and headed straight for the snack aisle before getting the ingredients for the shepherd's pie.

"What was with the guy from earlier?" Tori asked looking at a container of icing, she pulled away before she decided to get it. "I mean, why'd you hit him?"

Siri was looking for cheese a little ways down the aisle.

"I have no idea. Yes....Colby. But he was smirking as if the world were in the palm of his hand."

"So you hit him."

"He was being an idiot."

"By smiling! Sheesh, Siri!"

"Be glad you weren't the one being hit. I have a strong right-hook. Doritos?"

*
Fifteen minutes later they were back at the dorm.

(*Action action action ACTION! where's it?!*)

"How'd you do on your exams?" Siri asked Tori while she fixed the pie.

"Fairly well." Taya said looking at a new issue of Guns & Ammo.

"Meaning, you aced it." Siri placed a plate of pie down in front of Tori and took her own seat.

"I suppose you could say that, but I had hoped to refrain from gloating."

"Like I care about sending lead flying through the air from a big metal stick."

"You put it in Neanderthal context for my benefit?" Tori smiled, her fork half-way to her mouth.

"Of course." As Siri said it, there was a knock on the door. Tori stood up and answered it.

"Tori Abram?" A man dressed in a sharp black suit and sunglasses stood outside with a wire connected to an earpiece leading into his collar.

"Yes, sir. That's me." Tori said calmly, though confused.

"Is Serenity Rosewell here, also?" He asked, in a serious tone.

Siri came to the door. The man handed Tori an envelope. "You have been selected to be on a special team. You will receive a call at 1900 hours tonight." He turned and left.

"CIA?" Tori asked as she peered out the door. The man was gone.