People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. –Kierkegaard

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"ASHA KATHERINE THOMPSON! GET DOWN HERE!"

Asha bolted upright in her bed, dirty socks flying everywhere, and whipped her head around to look at her clock. 7:30.

"Shit!" the sixteen-year-old cried, throwing back the covers and leaping from her bed. She looked around the floor and picked out a wrinkled pair of jeans and a red t-shirt. "I'm coming, Mom!" she called through the slightly ajar door as she yanked the shirt over her head and zipped her pants. Grabbing her books and shoving them into her pack, she slung it over her shoulder and slid down the stairs, where her mom was waiting.

"You're late. The bus already left," said Mrs. Thompson with narrowed eyes. "Your brother will have to take you to school."

Asha groaned and accepted the cold piece of toast her mother was holding while fluffing her cropped ash blonde hair with her free hand. "You know he'll make me walk two blocks down the street," she complained. "He's so weird!"

"I'm sure your brother has his reasons, and good ones too," said her mother gently. She looked up as her oldest son, Cade, came down the stairs. "Cade, I need you to take your sister to school."

"She missed the bus again?" asked Cade with a roll of his eyes. "I'm gonna start refusing to take you."

Asha smiled sweetly at him. "But I love you ever so much, Cade!"

"Yeah, yeah," he grunted. "Let's go, I have to meet Natalie before school."

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Asha distractedly twirled a lock of short blonde hair around her finger as Cade's black Acura RSX rolled across the highway at a reasonable speed. The buildings melted away on either side, with the occasional person swooping by like smeared paint. She glanced down at the road and decided to count the stripes since there was nothing better to do. One… two… three… four… five…

The car hit a small dent in the road and lurched, causing her to fly forward and bash her head on the dashboard.

"I told you to put your seatbelt on," commented Cade, not looking over at her.

Asha glared at him and stubbornly kept her seatbelt off. "Yeah well you should drive more carefully."

Just then a police car came dangerously close to their rear bumper. Cade kept glancing in his rearview mirror, his demeanor becoming very nervous and skittish. He tapped the steering wheel with restive fingers and continually licked his suddenly very dry lips.

Noticing this, Asha asked, "What's wrong?"

Cade shook his head. "Nothing. That guy should get off my bumper, that's all," he said, though his eyes gave away his lie.

Asha looked in the side mirror at the police car, which had tinted windows on all sides so that she couldn't see inside. That was weird. After the Pulse, tinted windows were hard to come by due to the dying car business. "Maybe you should get out of the way?"

"I'm not in his way. I'm going the speed limit, but if I speed up to change lanes he'll have me," said Cade, licking his lips nervously. "Damn, what's wrong with this guy?"

BOOM!

Asha hit her head on the dashboard as the car lurched again, then snapped back and put her seatbelt on. "What the hell was that?!" she cried, turning around in her seat to look at the police car, which had rammed them from behind.

"Sit down, Asha," instructed Cade quietly. "Don't look back there." When she opened her mouth to reply, he quickly said, "Do what I say!"

Shrugging, Asha turned back around. "Okay, okay. Don't have to get all weird on me."

Cade pulled off the highway onto the exit ramp, visibly relaxing as the police car kept going on the road.

"Why did he do that?" asked Asha, gathering her things as the school came into view. "Are you sure you were going the speed limit?"

"He would've gotten paid if I had crashed and he had assisted the wreck. Nobody would care if I said he caused it, so he wouldn't get in trouble, either," answered Cade calmly. He was stopped at a stoplight two blocks down from the school.

Asha moved to get out, but he put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'll take you there today," he said, staring straight ahead.

"Alright." Asha closed her door and settled back in the seat. "Thanks, Cade."

He nodded and wiped his forehead as the light turned green. The rest of the trip was silent, except for when Asha threw open the door and stepped out. "Have a good day," called Cade as she rushed into the building.

Asha slid into her first class just seconds shy of the bell, and the teacher gave her a disapproving look nonetheless. She set her things out and sat low in her chair at the back of the room, readying herself for another day of boredom and gossip.

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"Mom! I'm home!" Asha called as she stepped into her living room and tossed her rucksack onto the couch. A sweet smell was drifting in from the kitchen, and the young girl followed the smell to find her mom baking cookies. "Mmm… peanut butter?" Asha reached for the pan that her mother was holding, only to have her hand smacked.

"Not until after dinner," said Mrs. Thompson sternly.

"Yeah, yeah," groaned Asha. "Hey, can I go to the movies with KJ tonight?"

"What movie are you going to see?"

"Uhhh… the Matrix 8, probably," she said with a shrug. "Pleeeease?"

"My car's in the shop. You'll have to convince Cade."

Asha moaned and smacked her hand to her head. "Cade won't take me! He already took me to school!"

"Well, if you hadn't lost your driver's license for crashing into that fire hydrant then we wouldn't have this problem, hmm?" Mrs. Thompson narrowed her eyes at her daughter.

"Okay, it wouldn't have been taken away if that police officer wasn't standing behind the stupid hydrant! And what are they doing putting a hydrant there, anyway?" wailed Asha, getting down on her knees and grasping her mother's apron with both hands. "Pleeeeease! I beg of you! Find some other way to take me there!"

"Nope. Ask Cade."

Asha grumbled under her breath and stood up. "Well… well… well FINE!" And with that, she stomped upstairs into her room and slammed the door.

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Dinner rolled around a few hours later, and Asha picked at her overcooked chicken while looking at Cade from the tops of her eyes. He was staring at his broccoli and moving it around his plate like a restless child. The youngest child of the family—ten-year-old Chris—was happily gulping down some chocolate milk, oblivious to the tension being tossed back and forth between his older siblings. All the while, their mother looked back and forth between her two oldest children suspiciously. "Asha? Cade? You two are awfully quiet today," she commented after a long while.

Cade looked at her briefly, then put the broccoli in his mouth. "I got fired from the gas station today."

"Oh… Cade, it's okay. You'll find other work," said Mrs. Thompson, patting him on the shoulder. "Did they say why?"

"Budget cuts. Apparently there's someone who will work for below minimum wage, and lots of hours too," answered the young man before taking a long gulp of water. "I ran into Mrs. Cale at the station earlier."

"Oh really? I haven't talked to her for a few days, how's she doing?" asked Mrs. Thompson, lighting up at the mention of her good friend.

"Eh, fine. Logan's coming home from college this summer, ya know. He's graduating a year early," replied Cade nonchalantly.

"Oh yes, I heard that. He's such a pleasant young man! Smart, charming, good-looking!" She looked at Asha and her eyes sparkled with the possibilities.

"Yeah, if only he was a few years younger," said Asha in disgust. The geek, she thought bitterly. Well, he had been a geek the last he saw her. Thick glasses, a bit of an acne problem, braces from age 12 to 18, too-short pants and too-large shirts. She hoped college had at least knocked some fashion sense into his thick skull.

"Mrs. Cale says he's changed a lot," commented Mrs. Thompson. "I can't wait to see him again!"

Chris make a gagging sound and giggled along with Asha.

"That's not very nice, Chris," scolded their mother, standing up. "Are you done with dinner?"

There were some mumblings of "yeah" and "sure" so she picked up their plates and put them in the sink. "Chris, it's your night to wash."

Groaning, the boy hopped from his chair and pulled a stool up to the sink so that he could reach.

Asha turned to Cade and decided asking him to take her to the movies was worth a try. He was, after all, her brother. "Hey Cade?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you take me to the theater?"

Cade stared at her for a bit, then sighed and said, "I have nothing better to do…"

Asha grinned from ear to ear and threw her arms around his neck. "Thanks!"

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…And so there they were again, driving down the road in silence. The movie theater was a little farther away than Asha's school. Asha studied her brother as they drove, brownish eyes taking in the powerful young man that was Cade Thompson. Ever since they were young, Cade had been extremely intelligent and quick. Being a mere year apart, they had been as close to each other as twins would be. That is, until Cade turned 16. Ever since then, his relationship with his sister had been going downhill to the point where they hardly ever talked, unless there was nothing better to do. Cade's girlfriend of three years, Natalie, was never brought over to the house. Once or twice the family had been invited out to dinner and she just happened to be present, but otherwise the only thing they knew about Natalie was what he told them.

Asha's mind drifted away from her brother to the young woman who she had seen once or twice. Natalie was a stunning, exotic beauty of Vietnamese descent. She had actually lived in Britain until she was 8 or so, giving her a crisp Manchester accent. Her long, silky hair was dark brown with the ends tainted dark red. She had faultless tan skin and a slender build, though she was no more than five feet tall. Her graceful walk gave her a floating effect, and her dancing brown eyes held a strong gaze like knives. Just thinking about Natalie's eyes—which Asha seldom dared look into—made Asha shiver.

It was odd how Natalie and Cade had come together. From what Asha had gathered, they met during a school pep rally and a mutual friend had arranged a dinner between the three of them that night. The friend had cancelled at the last minute, however, and neither felt it was right to leave just because their mutual friend couldn't make it—and things had progressed from a quick friendship to a long romance from there. Several times Asha had tried to get more of a story out of Cade, but he would rarely answer questions about Natalie.

"Asha," Cade's voice interrupted his sister's thoughts.

"Yeah?" She looked at her brother to find him very pale and looking nervous as hell. "Cade? What's wrong?"

"Do you have your seatbelt on?"

"Yes…"

Cade swerved to the side of the road and slammed onto the brakes, causing a thick black mark to form on the ground. He unlocked all the doors and honked.

Asha looked out the window and nearly screamed in surprise as four figures jumped from the tall grass on the side of the road, running towards the car. They were wearing ski masks and dressed in all black. "Cade?! What's going on?!" she shouted as three of the people jumped into the backseat.

The fourth person ran around to the back of the car and yanked off the license place before getting inside.

"Go, go, go!" shouted one of them as sirens began blaring in the distance.

Cade slammed on the gas, tires squealing against the ground before the car sped off down the road. Asha, unsure of what to do, sank into her seat and tried not to think about how fast they were probably going. She glanced in the side view mirror and saw blue and red lights coming up behind them—fast.

"Step on it!" cried the person with the license plate in a distinctly female voice.

"She doesn't go any faster!" protested Cade, who really had floored the pedal. "Where to?"

"Go into the grass!" instructed the first one who had spoken, removing his mask.

Asha gasped, unable to control herself. It was Billy Hammond—Cade's best friend since the second grade and her former crush.

"You guys caught me off-guard… I kinda have the squirt with me," said Cade as he pulled off the road and plowed through the tall grass.

The four passengers said nothing to Asha, but Billy shouted, "Turn left!"

Cade slammed the steering wheel to the left and the car nearly flipped, but managing to turn and head off in that direction. Grass and foliage slapped the windshield and bunched around the wheels, but Cade kept going until the grass broke and they reached the side of an apartment complex. Here he stopped and the four figures quickly jumped out. The sound of sirens rang in the air behind them.

"Wait!" Cade called to one of them, the female, who was re-attaching the license plate.

She turned and walked back over, lifting her mask to her nose. "Cade…"

He got out of the car and kissed her briefly but meaningfully before ducking back inside and revving the engine a few times. "See ya." Shifting the gears to reverse, he pulled back from the apartments and headed off in the direction opposite the road they had come from.

Asha was frozen in her seat. What was happening? Who were those people? Of course, she knew Billy, and there was no mistaking that voice—Natalie. What were they doing hiding in the grass late in the evening, looking like they were going to rob a bank?! Her head reeled with these questions and more, but as she turned to ask her brother—

WHAM!

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Asha jolted awake to find herself back at home, in her bed. Crickets merrily chirped underneath her window as the moon shone down through her half-open window onto her sweaty face. She put a hand to the back of her head and felt a sore bump there, the kind you get when someone hits you with something hard… So it couldn't have been a dream, could it? She gently peeled back the covers and picked up her jeans, checking the pockets.

…there was a ticket to the Matrix 8.

TBC…

So, whaddya say? Scrap it? And for the record, Asha is going to go through many last names throughout this story. I'm making believe that 'Thompson' is her real last name.