Another World (Chapter One)

Chapter I

"Don't you wish we could just sit up here forever?" The teenager asked, whose dark hair flowed through the wind like a current as the summer breeze swept the tree house. The other teenager whose hair was a slight tone light than the other youth's replied with a simple but melancholic: "Of course."

The nostalgia of previous summer fun was rushing through their brains, they thought of the times they spent watching movies at the City Dynaplex or all of the quaint parties they had with their group of socially misfit friends. Each summer felt like it was growing shorter than the previous year's which, for two teenagers, was not what they wanted. As the season would change and the leaves would begin to fall, every adolescent was sent back to the Public Schooling System in their city for eight months of electronic paralysis, otherwise known as learning from a screen. The dark haired teen was lying against the wood of the tree house and was staring into the view of the sky.
This day was the prime example of a blissful Summer day: big cotton ball clouds and an ocean-esque sky with temperatures that were chilling enough to run around outside yet warm enough to keep one from shivering. This day did not come often, since it was the end of Summer, most days were sweltering. Due to complaints amongst citizens, the city had recently installed Air Pockets onto the sidewalks which were big hits among the elderly and the obese. All a person had to do was insert $1.50 into the machine and he or she would be blasted by a wave of heat-breaking ice.
"I don't want to go back to the School. I'm just not ready," stated Cameron, the darker haired youth with a crooked smile. Usually this statement would be conceived as end-of-summer lamenting, however there was a much more sentimental value to these words.
"Me neither. I really don't want to go back to the screens and holograms. If I spend more time looking at those screens I swear I'll slap someone." These words, spoken by Dakota, the other teenager, although perhaps bitter were also just as meaningful. These two had spent enough time staring at screens of math equations and holograms of human anatomy and getting on the Teleporter to the School every day. What these two teenagers really wanted was to get away from the highly-futuristic society in which they lived and to live in a more simpler world, a dream that was not common among adolescence of this time. Most teenagers around the age of eighteen were perpetually staring into the screens of their Apple Eyeware and Google Watches; two technological inessentials that made life convenient but less interactive. At the flick of a wrist, a indolent man or woman could have a pizza ordered directly to their house without picking up a phone or searching through hundreds of numbers in a phonebook; which had become nonexistent. They could also quickly contact anyone they so desire just be speaking that person's name into the microphone of their Watch. Dakota and Cameron were two adolescent rebels who fully understood the value of communication over convenience.
Cameron achingly stood on two legs and approached the wooden railing of their aging treehouse, which over the years had collected many stories to tell if the walls could speak. The concentrated boy stared into the face of the electric city before them.
"Do you wanna go somewhere?" Cameron asked, with a tone that sounded less like a direct question and more like a firm offer.
"Like somewhere in town?" Dakota confusingly replied.
"No, I mean just somewhere else. Entirely." Cameron turned and looked directly into Dakota's eyes with a confident glimpse. Dakota felt as though Cameron had been holding in this question nearly all day and perhaps the boy had been.
"Where do you mean, exactly? Like a vacation?" Dakota continued to be left in the dark by Cameron's words, each sentence sounding more bizzare than the last.
"Just hear me out--what if we hop on to one of the Space Pods at my Mom's Lab and take a trip to the Moon or something?" Space travel had become very common in this time, which to compare, was as common as just driving a Sedan back and forth . The greatest minds on Earth had spent much of the working man's money on researching space exploration and after a pain staking one-hundred and twenty years it was finally complete. Traveling back and forth between Earth and its Moon took a mere forty-five minutes, traveling to Venus or Mars took nearly an hour and a half. Those sister planets were as far as NASA had explored and permitted no one to explore any farther, despite other amateur explorers trying to go deeper into the thick vacuum of space. Space exploration, like the Internet or Satellite television, was no where near perfection. It wasn't often that there were difficulties getting workers and stressed out vacationers to and from planets, but people had been known to not return from the vast world of Space.
Cameron's mother, a researcher in the city's Space Flight building had always promised Cameron that she would take her beloved son on a trip to a far planet one day. Cameron felt it was time for her to fill the promise.

"So just another crazy scheme?" Dakota wittily replied.
Cameron began to pace back and forth while trying to explain this "scheme," which to Dakota, was yet just another ridiculous fantasy. A fantasy that, as crazy and half-brained as it seemed, both of them strongly desired more than anything.
"This isn't a scheme! I've...been planning it." Cameron shyly stated, as he wasn't sure how his friend would react to such a preposterous idea, but he knew he had to be said.
Dakota slowly rose as he stared into Cameron's innocent but confident eyes. It was once every few months that he created a new plan for the two of them to run away but never before had he thoroughly planned it. Dakota knew that he was serious this time and not just joking around like usual.

"Planning it? How?" He asked as his curiosity grew.

"You know how my mom keeps promising to take me to the moon or something? I figured I'd finally ask to go." Cameron used his hands to emphasize his words and did so with forceful motions. He had to get across to his friend that he knew what he what he was saying.
Dakota covered his face and tried to think of ways to be rational no matter how wonderful the idea sounded. "Oh, Cameron, I don't know. The moon? It's crazy, it's spontaneous, it's--" He was quickly interrupted by Cameron, who knew that Dakota was thinking of ways to back out of the seemingly impulsive idea. "Its what we've wanted! To go away together! Just for a while!" He exclaimed, as he embraced Dakota, who was still in shock.
"I'll...think about it." Although these words would be perceived as a mixed signal or a level of doubt to some, to Cameron it meant he was most definitely for the idea. The two boys continued to discuss the idea until dusk when it was time for Cameron to return to his home across town. That night all Dakota could think about while bathing, while brushing his teeth and while attempting to sleep, was Cameron's plan. During that same night all Cameron could think about while performing the identical rituals was Dakota's answer.