Cassandra Curran's Story

As usual, Cassandra wasn't sleeping at five o'clock in the morning. Since she could only ever manage a whole four hours, maximum, of sleep per night she had a tendency to use the time she should have been sleeping to play around with her computer. Like now, for instance, she was still sitting at her desk, tapping on the keys lightly with her fingertips and scrolling down each page she came to, in an attempt to cure her boredom as her room mate moved about in the room around her. After a few more minutes of this she felt her stomach growl in protest, causing her to realize it had been quite some time since she had eaten last, and she closed the browser and turned the computer off.

Her room mate, Skyler, tended to meditate at least once a week, which she was doing now. It was something Cassandra found easy to ignore as she got up from her chair with a sigh and, after placing her earphones in her ears, she blasted her music. She carried her iPod around as she found a simple outfit to wear for the day; a pair of dark-washed skinny jeans with a white belt and a black tank top to match her jeans, not bothering to shower for the second time within the hours as she knew it was a waste of water and time. Cassandra pulled on a pair of mismatched ankle socks, hardly noticing the blue and purple polka dots on one sock nor the green and white stripes on the other, before she shoved her feet in her plain white sneakers. She ran a brush through her long wavy golden hair before closing her laptop and tucking it into her bag as she left the room to go find something to eat, leaving Skyler to mutter in Korean to herself.

She took the stairs, as usual, but arrived to the cafe a mere two minutes after closing the door to the room she had to share. She said nothing as she walked in and found a seat, taking another few minutes to decide what on Earth she wanted to eat.. Finally settling on a piece of toast topped with strawberry jam and some yogurt, preferring to enjoy the simple things in life.

The 'techie' listened to the goings ons around her as she nibbled on her toast and spooned little portions of vanilla yogurt into her mouth, enjoying the mixture as her eyes glanced around. There was Faith and Aaron, the other 'techie's. The rest she didn't usually bother much with, preferring to stick to what she knew, though she was polite enough to them all.

Aaron smiled, "Well alright," he said, a Scottish lilt to his voice still ever present, though not as noticeable as when he was angry, scared, or sad. "We'll have to go to my room because the FOB's are still loading it up for you and Cassandra...speaking of which." He looked over and saw their third techie sitting alone and eating breakfast, he waved her over to come join the rest of the 'Team Geek', as he liked to refer to them as.

"I decided years ago that just because a program passes the computer tests doesn't mean it's fool proof and the best way to test it is get the best hackers to try and break into it. Of course I would help, but that would be cheating since I created the program, you know?" he rambled. He wasn't a horrible chatterer with the others, but with the other techies he found it was easy for him to over talk, mostly because they understood what he was talking about and got excited about the things he got excited about. That was one thing he like about the industry was that it automatically gave you a small group of people who had something in common with you, making it easier to feel more comfortable. Though not completely safe from home-sickness, of course he never had a home technically, so he was more 'ma-sick'.

"So any interesting projects the industry has you working on?" Aaron asked Faith, re-noticing that her laptop was open.

The blonde heard her name and looked up, her eyes immediately going to Aaron and Faith where they sat across the room with the male waving for her to join them. She stood and, pulling her bag onto her shoulder, grabbed the bowl of her yogurt before she walked over and took a seat at their table with a smile. With, of course, a bottle of water in her hand. It was either sickly sweet tea, with five or more scoops of sugar, or water... or hot chocolate, but that was a story for another, preferably rainy, day.

" Morning," Cassandra said easily as she lightly placed her bag back on the floor, making it rather obvious to the other two techie's that her beloved laptop was within the dark material. " Got a new program to crack?" She asked cheerfully before scooping some of her plain vanilla yogurt into her mouth, her blue eyes dancing eagerly despite her rather normal lack of sleep. She listened as Aaron had continued speaking, feeling like she was gaining more energy with each word. Normal people thought they were weird but, hey, what else was Cassandra, at least, supposed to do when she couldn't sleep anymore? Eat away her boredom?

No. She much preferred the alternative; creating and cracking codes, hacking into others' computers and playing games online and alone. Reading was another favourite past time, as was music, but technology always came first.

Faith listens and her eyes flicker over towards Cass as she sits down next to the them.

"So any interesting projects the industry has you working on?" Aaron asks, his eyes examining her laptop. She shrugs.

"Nothing big, but I just finished a demo for a new game my friends and I are working on." She turns her laptop towards Aaron for him to check it out. The graphics were realistic, a first person shooter.

Aaron gently tilted the laptop towards him to see the screen better. He knew how laptops could be to a techie, like instruments to a musician, just as delicate and personal, so he was sure not to offend Faith by doing this. He looked at the screen, the graphical design was amazing, every little thing was rendered down to the last detail so perfectly that it not only looked like you were there, but your brain told you that you were there.

"This is amazing," Aaron whispered as if he were afraid if he spoke to loudly it would disrupt the pixels and destroy this masterpiece. He turned the computer back towards Faith, "Let me know when you have it done, I definitely want to try that out." He looked at his watch, checking to see if the FOB's had had enough time to loud; and by his calculations, they should be just about finished baking.

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them a bit, "Well, I think the FOB's are ready for you two lovely and extremely intelligent women," he said standing up, "Let's see just how genius I am and put the firewall to the test shall we?"

Aaron's face seemed to drop a bit when he saw her new demo and she smiled with pride.

"This is amazing, let me know when you have it done, I definitely want to try that out." He hands Faith back her computer and she nods a small 'thank you' escaping her lips.

He clasps his hand together and claims the FOB's were ready and Faith packs her things into her messenger bag, "Let's see just how genius I am and put the firewall to the test, shall we?"

"Well, I don't see why not, Faith stands putting her messenger bag on one shoulder and she picks up her coffee cup, turning to Cassandra.

"So, how are you this morning, Cass?" She asks with a small smile.

The blonde had sat silently, finishing her typical small meal as she patiently waited and watched the other two techie's. As Aaron took over Faith's laptop Cassandra lifted her water bottle and, after unscrewing the lid, took a large gulp of the liquid. It was nectarine flavoured and overly sweet, of course; just the way the sleep deprived teenager loved it.

" Well, I think the FOB's are ready for you two lovely and extremely intelligent women," he said standing up, "Let's see just how genius I am and put the firewall to the test shall we?" Cassandra couldn't help the smile that overcame her lips at the sight of Aaron rubbing his hands together and stood with him and Faith, her hand firmly wrapped around her water bottle while she slipped her own bag onto her other shoulder. " Let's go," she agreed as Faith turned to her and smiled.

" So, how are you this morning, Cass?"

Cassandra shrugged and raised the plastic container she held, " The same; no sleep, lots of sugar, and still feeling like I can take on the world." She let out a light laugh as she responded, even her bright blue eyes lighting up to show she was genuinely pleased to be asked such a simple question. " How are you? ... And you too, of course?" She turned her head to Aaron as well but was mainly focused on Faith, the one who had asked.