Chapter I: Sit Around, Drink Root Beer, and Play Portals and Aliens

Twelve years later

 "Okay, strapped in?" Dan checked Hoverscooter 23's foot straps and puckered, blowing the two brown bangs that hung in front of his nose off his face. "Check! Ready to die?" He studied the Valley of Green's meadows and halted his hoverboard above Crater Lake. "Not really, but heck! I'd rather die than do the lawn." The lawn was sissy talk. Hoverscooting, the top sport of the 3020s, was what the cool kids did.

 Dan nose-dived for Crater Lake's slippery, shiny surface and clutched 23's red nose, covering her black outlines. "Watch this, Mom! I'm finally going to do it!" He slipped his hand into the pocket of his ruby-colored jacket and wrapped his long fingers around the fossil—his last good memory of his mom before she fell ill.

 Dan's bushy eyebrows arched up as he concentrated on the prize—to catch himself before 23 chucked him into the lake again.

 Success! Dan turned 23 just before he hit it and rocketed for Green's edge, suddenly feeling like he had left a dinosaur valley. "I did it! Whoo-hoo!" he cheered, lifting his arms over his head. "I rock!" Downtown Greenville's skyscrapers entered his peripheral, and Dan soared toward them, flying the fastest he had ever flown! "Oh yeah! Look at this baby go, go, go!" he said, showing off his hoverscooting moves: air reverses, layback snaps, etc. What a sick machine the hoverscooter was until...

 Puff! Puff!

 "Wait, what? Oh, come on, dudette!" Dan stomped on 23's smoking tail. "Don't do this to me!"

 Puff! Puff!

 Was this Dan's punishment for calling out of mowing? He dropped into his neighborhood, Chanticleer's, Titanic Park like a bird whom Mom kicked out of the nest. With so many groves in the area, it was sometimes difficult to see people, especially that hot blonde trekking down the sidewalk.

 "Molly!" Dan shouted. "Molly, look out!" Not that he didn't want to catch another glimpse of her sexy sundress moving up to her thighs at the sight of him.

 "Dan?" Molly's big, blue eyes flew out of her sockets, and she dove out of the way, landing in one of the many bushes that decorated the sidewalk's outside section. "You jerk!" Dan heard her yell.

 Him... a jerk? Dan admitted that he was, especially when it came to beautiful women—like Molly the Angel he's had a crush on since elementary school. That crush only grew after his mom died. Had it already been five years? What day was it again? Why was Dan thinking about this? He had to save his hoverscooter!

 He jumped off 23, took in a quick whiff of the sidewalk's bitter cement, and caught her before she smacked his flying goggles right off his head. Dan tucked her under his armpit, and 23 brushed against his black jeans and belt. Whoa there! Molly was the girl Dan liked, but she probably hated him currently.

 That she did. Molly crawled out of the bush, sticks and leaves clinging to her curls, and stood. "I hate you, Dan!"

 He laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, Molly, but my hoverscooter ran out of fuel."

 "If that's the case, then why don't you buy a car, you doofus?"

 "I'll get one eventually!" Dan hoped by his next birthday. That was coming up, right, the big 1-7?

 In a sarcastic tone, Molly said, "Sure, Dan, sure." She smiled and put her hands together. "Anyway... Happy birthday!"

 Wait, what? Crap! What an idiot Dan was! "Huh? Today's my birthday?" Seriously, who forgot their own birthday? Dan's car was probably waiting for him back home, and what did he do? His lazy bum called out of mowing.

 "Ha!" Molly joked, grasping her perfect, round hips. "Stubborn boy can't even remember his own birthday!"

 "Shush!" Dan's face burned. "I don't need ya rubbing it in." Because he only cared about that car, he choked out his words: "Ex... cuse... me... Molly, but I need to return... home and help Dad with the... lawn." Gosh, saying that hurt. Mowing lawns was so 21st Century. What happened to artificial intelligence? Why couldn't Geico do it? Then Dan could lay up sorry with his new car and reach the next level of Portals and Aliens—that embarrassing Level 3.

 "Sure, Dan, sure," Molly repeated. "Well, I'll see you later, then? I can whip your butt in Portals and Aliens again."

 Steam blasted out of Dan's ears, and his red face turned crimson. "You know, I wanted 3001: A Space Odyssey. But that never happened!"

 "Because you're lazy."

 Dan was too cool to admit that was true. "Goodbye, Molly. I'll see you later." With that, he turned on his heel and rushed away from her. Nevertheless, he slid to a stop and nearly dropped Hoverscooter 23 when he saw an empty water bottle tucked in one of Titanic Park's bushes behind the stage and soccer field. Dan scooped it up and looked around for a trash can. Bingo! There was one!

 He lifted the bottle over his head, inhaled, and chucked it.

 Halfway to the can, a green laser scanned it, and the can's top slid up, allowing the water bottle to land right in it.

 "Yes!" Dan clenched his fist. "That's ten points for Dan Matton! Victory is mine!" Cheering, he skipped down the sidewalk and headed for Titanic Park's suburbs and home sweet home. The whole journey home, he sang, "I am seventeen! I am seventeen!"

***

 After leaving Titanic Park, Dan found himself in the bulk of his neighborhood, thanks to the rows of four to six-story houses on both sides of him and the occasional moving sidewalk meant to assist those who had trouble walking.

 As lazy as he was, Dan hopped onto one of the moving sidewalks and placed his hands in his pockets.

 "Hey!" a few elders riding the walkway snapped. "You're young! You can easily walk!"

 Dan paid them no attention and saw his house at the end of the walkway. It was four stories tall, and the rays of the hot sun beamed down on the glass elevator, creating unexpected rainbows. Dan studied his house's white body and black window frames. Had its top always looked like a spaceship, or would his father start blasting off into space from home instead of the space center? Dan almost preferred that. Then his dad would, hopefully, spend more time with him.

 He ignored the sudden knot in his tummy and hopped off the walkway, approaching his house's white gate. Dan opened it and stepped into the yard. The grass touched his shins, but it did not look like his father was home from walking the dog, so he hoped his laziness could slide. Sure, Dad, I wasn't out hoverscooting at the Valley of Green. I did the lawn like you wanted. Lies, lies, all lies, but that was what Dan did best.

 With Hoverscooter 23 still under his arm, he pushed through the grass and climbed the front steps. He placed his palm on a gray pad next to the door and waited for artificial intelligence to do its job.

 The pad turned on, and holographic lights scanned Dan's hand—his fingers and everything. "Identity: Daniel Matton." The lights faded, and Dan heard the front door unlocking: first lock, second lock, third lock, fourth lock, fifth lock, and slide. It slid open.

 Dan poked his head inside. "Hello? Dad? Geico?" he whispered. What he saw was an empty house that was always too bright for comfort because of the enormous glass windows. A spiral staircase was to the right of the front door, the library to the left, and the kitchen straight ahead.

 "Geico?" Dan asked again. Strange. Usually, the Housekeeping Android was always the first one to greet him home, but today—

 "I think I'm good," Dan concluded, tiptoeing inside and shutting the door behind him. Too lazy to climb the staircase, he headed for the glass elevator (it was just outside the kitchen) but kept a wary eye for his father.

 Dan hastily pressed the elevator's up button and begged, "Come on, come on." He didn't want his father walking in on him. He had to get to his room, change out of his hoverscooting clothes, and go from there.

 He tugged on the collar of his navy blue shirt under his jacket but released it when the elevator's doors opened. "Welcome, Daniel Matton, only son of Benjamin E. and Becca Matton. What floor would you like to go to today?"

 "Fourth," Dan answered, entering the elevator. "I need to change and mow the lawn before Dad comes home." And then, hopefully, lay up sorry with my new car, Portals and Aliens, and laptop, he mentally added.

 "As you wish, Master." The elevator jerked, knocking Dan into the wall, and started to ascend upward.

 He found his elevator legs and shuffled to the machine's back, peering outside at Chanticleer.

 Teenage boys glided across the road and sidewalks on their hoverscooters, followed by girls who steered the hoverscooter's scooter form. One could freely switch between the scooter and hoverboard—one of the main reasons it was so popular. Dan currently couldn't change 23's form because she had a dead battery. It irked him, but at the end of the day, the hoverscooter was still a machine.

 A little bit later, the elevator reached the fourth story of his house and stopped, nearly knocking him off his feet again.

 "Attention, passengers," Intercom said, "we have reached the fourth story of the Matton household. Up here, you will find the game room, Daniel Matton's bedroom, the spare kitchen, the guest room, and the movie theater. Everybody off."

 Dan seriously had the best floor in the house. That was what he got as an only child.

 Exiting the lift, he found himself in the game room. He and his father owned a vast collection of games, but now that Ben was a full-time parent and astronaut, Dan ended up sharing the room with Molly, who was embarrassingly much better at video games and technology than him.

 He left the game room and headed down a glass window-filled hallway. Everything was going according to plan. His father wasn't home, and it didn't appear that Geico was, either. Even so, he noticed that the door to his room was unlocked. But Dan swore he locked it when he left. It opened with a touch of his finger, and he said, "I thought I... Ah!"

 Ben and Geico waited in his room, arms crossed and glaring.

 "Bros, don't scare me like that!" Dan begged.

 Ben was a buff-looking man who had short brown hair like Becca. Styled in a black stretchy suit with boots and fingerless gloves, he stood from Dan's un-made bed. "Daniel, you understand you were supposed to mow the lawn this morning, right?" He bumped Geico's white, humanoid body with his knee, and the android rolled away.

 Dan stepped over schoolbooks and clothes and went to his desk. He placed his hand on his Dell computer—it lacked a physical screen—and stated, "Of course, Dad. I was getting to that but went out to get some fresh air. You see, I'm subject to claustrophobia."

 A sound came from Geico's mouthless face, and he hid behind his six fingers, three on each hand.

 "Right," Ben sarcastically said. He fixed his eyes on Dan's hoverscooter. "And is there a reason you're carrying your hoverscooter around, Mr. Claustrophobic?"

 "Of course! You see, I tend to feel more comfortable when I have my hoverscooter on my—"

 "Save it," Ben interrupted. "You went hoverscooting at the Valley of Green again, right?"

 "Well, technically—"

 "Oh, I see. Your hoverscooter ran out of fuel, so you had to come crying back home."

 Dan shrugged. "Maybe. Molly also reminded me that today's my—"

 "Son, I know it's your birthday—happy birthday—but you're going to make up for what happened this morning. I won't give you your birthday present until you mow the lawn and clean this junkyard out. And just so you don't get distracted..." Ben approached Dan and shoved him aside, picking up his laptop. "This computer is mine."

 Dan gasped and reached for the computer, but Ben pulled it away and grabbed his wrist. "Father, no! You can't take that away! I'm writing a story about a Tyrannosaurus Rex who falls in love during the K-T Mass Extinction! It's just as important as the Neoproterozoic Era of the Precambrian Time!"

 Ben stared at him, but Dan understood why. His father was an astronaut, but he was an aspiring paleontologist and writer. Research, writing, and hoverscooting became his go-to activities after his mother passed. He needed something to do since Ben was hardly home.

 Although his father showed slight hurt on his face, he refused to return Dan's computer.

 Dan scoffed and sarcastically stated, "You should know I'm too lazy to clean my room, Dad."

 "Exactly! And it's getting on my nerves! Son, all you do is sit around, drink root beer, and play Portals and Aliens!"

 "Dad," Dan comfortably added, resting his palm on his father's shoulder, "that is my life. Just like yours is going into space and studying theoretical passageways. You leave the kid behind. I'm sorry life's so cruel."

 Not wanting to put up with his sassy attitude, Ben and Geico marched toward Dan's door and took the computer with them.

 He attempted to beg it back. "Can you at least let me write a paragraph? I did get some exercise today."

 "No!" Ben threw the door open.

 Geico zoomed past him and left him alone with Dan. His pink apron fluttered with his whirling.

 Dan tried a new tactic on Ben. "A sentence?"

 "No!"

 "A word? A letter? A line? A dot?"

 "No!"

 "Well, excuuuse me, Dad. I can't write on a cloud."

 "Don't you get smart with me, young man! You're not getting this computer back anytime soon, and that's final!" Ben followed Geico into the hallway and slammed the door behind him. It rattled on its hinges, and Dan heard Ben say on the other side, "Teenagers are exhausting."