Chapter One
I look up at the sky and see a group of business people flying overhead on their jet packs.

“Lavender, come on. We are going to be late,” My best friend, Hera, calls back to me from near the school gates.

I race to catch up with her and we make it inside the school gates just as the bell rings. I give a sigh of relief, happy to have made it to school on time and avoid getting grounded for a month. I race off to my classroom with a quick wave to Hera. I stop running when I am at the door of my room. I wave the chip on the inside of my wrist over the small screen on the wall inside the door. It takes a couple of seconds before it flashes with my name on the screen and marks me as in attendance. I carefully make my way over to my brown laminated desk and pull out my holo-tablet from my bag. I look around at the almond coloured room and see the same data computers in the back of the room. The same ferns are growing outside the windows. The same people are flooding into the room and taking their seats. The last person to come into the room is my history teacher Mr Dunaway.

“Good morning class,” Mr Dunaway says as he sets his briefcase on the desk. “Today we will continue studying the 21 st century.”

Everyone fixes their holo-tablets to the last thing we were studying. “Okay, so the last thing we studied was the time before everything was electronic when students still studied from things called textbooks. I have one here to show,” Mr Dunaway says pulling an ancient looking, bulky object out of his briefcase. “Please, pass this around, Miss Capone,” Mr Dunaway says passing the textbook to me.

I grab it from him and look at it wondering what kind of information it could hold while he continues with the lesson, and I make sure to pay attention. It takes me a couple of moments before I figure out how to open it and see that it has maths equations on the pages. I put my hand in the air wanting to ask some questions about the textbooks.

“Yes, Miss Capone?” Mr Dunaway asks clearly curious about what I have to say.

“I was wondering how it is that the textbook works? It is I believe you called a “Hard-copy” so does that mean it can only hold a certain amount of information? How would they get more information once they have learned everything in this one?” I inquire wonderingly as I pass the textbook to the person next to me. “What about the information on things like English, Art and other subjects? Would they have more than one textbook?”

“Those are some very good and interesting questions, Miss Capone and also very some very valid ones,” Mr Dunaway says looking happy to have someone interested in his class. “The students in the 21 st century had a different textbook for each of their school subjects. They also got a new textbook each year for each subject. However, their classes were much the same as the ones we have now in the 31 st century.”

“How would they answer their questions that are in the textbook?” I ask curiously.

Mr Dunaway pulls another antique item out of his briefcase. “They would write the answers in this,” He says handing me the antique piece. “It’s called a notebook. It’s where the notebooks of today got their name from.”

“Did most objects that we have today come some way from an invention in the 21 st century and since?” I ask enjoying the healthy debate.

“That is true. Most of the inventions of today have come from something in the 21 st century and since,” Mr Dunaway says as the last student to look at the textbook passes it back to him. “I’d like everyone to answer the questions that are on their holo-tablets.”

I quickly set to work answering the questions that are on my holo-tablet making sure to answer them correctly and thoroughly. I sit quietly and do my work until the bell rings.

“Tomorrow, we start studying the Triassic period and we have an excursion. So make sure to get you permission form signed,” Mr Dunaway says when the bell rings. “Class dismissed.”

I carefully and quickly pack up my holo-tablet and proceed to my next class which is English where we are studying a romantic classic “Love, Rosie”. When I reach my English class, I again scan the inside of my wrist over the small screen inside the door and wait until it flashes my name and then I take my seat in front of the room. I carefully pull out my e-reader and fix it so that it is on the last page of the book that we read in class. When Mrs Glover enters the classroom, she sets us to work reading the chapter and then answering the questions about the chapter. When class ends an hour later, I am happy because I have the one class where I get to have a bit of fun, Sports. Don’t get me wrong I love my other classes but I like sports because it means that I get to have fun and enjoy myself a bit. I race from the classroom and to the gym. As I run to the gym, I hope we are playing hover ball because it is my favourite sport. When we studied it in sports theory, we were told that it is similar to a game that was played in the 21 st century called basketball. The only difference being that hover ball is played in the air using hover shoes and basketball was played on the ground. When I reach the gym, I scan my wrist on the small screen inside the gym door before heading to the change rooms. I quickly get changed making sure my hover shoes are properly laced and won’t fall off before going back out to the gym. When I get outside, the only other person in the main gym and not the change rooms is Coach Miller.

“Well done, Lavender. You’re the first one ready which means that you get to be our first team captain,” Coach Miller says when she sees me come out of the changing room.

“What are we playing today?” I ask hoping for hover ball.

“We’ll be playing hover ball,” Coach Miller tells me with a smile knowing it is one of my favourite sports. “Here comes the rest of the class,” She says as the remainder of the class comes out of the changing rooms. “Colton, you can be our second team captain.”

Colton is the same age as me with his brown hair carefully styled in a messy look. He is tall and has an athlete’s physique that is lightly muscled, he has a chiselled jaw bone and a soft and curving mouth. He is handsome but not in an obvious way. “Ladies first,” he says after coach tells us to pick our teams.

“Liam,” I say after doing a quick assessment of the class.

It quickly moves back and forth between each of us picking a team member. Once everyone is picked and on a team we each take our teams to different ends of the court.

“Okay, everyone, we need to play the best that we can and it doesn’t matter if we win as long as we have fun,” I say to my team before we move to the middle of the court to start the game.

When Coach Miller tells us we can turn on our hover shoes, we do and the game begins. My team starts with possession of the ball and quickly move down court passing the ball back and forth between my team members and we score the first goal. The game progresses quickly with the score being tied at twenty all with five minutes before class is over. I make a go to score again and hopefully put my team in the lead, Colton comes at me to block my shot and runs into me. He somehow knocks my shoes and the hover ability in my shoes malfunctions and I fall to the ground with a crash. The last thing I see before I pass out is Colton’s face above me with an anxious look on his face. His lips move to shape something I can’t understand then everything goes black.