I have uploaded a picture of Dayden on the right. I will put a picture up for each chapter. If you enjoy 'Fly Boy' please vote and comment to let me know - you'll make my day if you do. Thanks:o)

Prologue

Raised as an army brat, sixteen-year-old River Reynolds had gone to a number of different military schools, but never one as posh as Braxton Hall Academy. It was the top co-ed school in the Northern Region. Normally she would be thrilled to be accepted there, but nothing was normal about her present circumstances. She had spent her first day moving her few belongings into her new room, which was by far the nicest dorm room she had ever stayed in. For the first time she didn't have to share it with anyone either.

Her second day she wrote her entrance placement tests; the results of which determined she would be skipping another grade, a feat almost unheard of at Braxton Hall. A feat for which she held mixed feelings. The way River saw it - she would have three strikes against her going in. Yes her studies would be more challenging, but she would be placed with students that were two years older than her, making it that much harder to fit in. Secondly classes had already been in session for two months. This meant she would be joining classes midterm, making an already awkward situation that much more uncomfortable. Then finally she would be completely alone for the first time in her life.

She had learned to be strong three years ago after the death of her mother. Her mom had succumbed to the deadly X virus after a long, hard-fought battle. River was luckier than most though. She still had her father. Unfortunately he was a high ranking officer in the air force and because of that, was away a lot of the time. Still they had kept in contact daily by telephone calls and text messages, right up until his plane went missing in combat just a little over a month ago.

News of her acceptance to Braxton Hall had fallen on uncaring ears. She instead lived in a constant state of anxiousness, always waiting and hoping to hear news of her father. Even the stares from the other students as she was introduced, could not provoke a response. She just quietly made her way to her assigned desk and quickly pretended to listen to the lesson being taught by each new teacher. By lunch time she was exhausted from all the pretence. The last couple of days were catching up with her and taking a toll. All she wanted to do was sneak off to her new single dorm room, crawl into her bed and slip off into a dreamland where she could be with her mother and father. But, students were not allowed in the dorm rooms during the school day, so instead she headed to the school cafeteria and joined the line for food.

Her appetite had disappeared along with her ability to concentrate, so she chose some soup and crackers and a bottled water and then looked around for an empty table to sit at. Braxton Hall was the largest military school in the Northern Region but since the virus hit, it's numbers like all other schools had dwindled to less than half what they once were. The twelve hundred students remaining were divided into their years at lunch time. The Freshmen ate first followed by Sophomores, then juniors and finally the seniors. This meant there were about three hundred seniors all eating lunch at the same time. Because the numbers were way down, there were lots of empty lunch tables. River picked out a table off in the back corner and started to make her way over to it.

Just before she made it to the table she was hit from behind by what felt like a Mac truck. It seemed almost like slow motion as she watched her chicken noodle soup roll out of the bowl and cover her head in warm yellow noodles. At the same time she was knocked to the ground. She was in shock, not just from the instant-soup-bath, but also from the force of the impact. She rolled from her hands and knees, over onto her bottom and sat up. Looking around, she realized the Mac truck had actually been a tall, rather muscular looking guy, who was sprawled out beside her, proudly displaying a football he had just caught by holding it up high in the air.

No way, she thought to herself, please tell me I did not just get bowled over by some doorknob trying to catch a football in the middle of a busy lunch hall. She could not stop her eyes from widening or her mouth from gaping open, as she wiped dripping noodles from her face.

"Hey sorry about that. My bad," the guy said quickly, with a huge smirk on his face. He sprung easily to his feet and brushed himself off and then reached out a hand to River. What he was brushing off himself, River did not know, because not even a drop of soup landed on him. How was that fair?

She ignored his outstretched hand. "That's it? That's all you're going to say?" she asked him holding her dripping hands out in front of her, palms up. She was totally dumbfounded by his uncaring attitude.

"Look I said I was sorry," he growled puzzled by her reaction. His hand dropped and he slowly tossed the football back and forth between his hands. "What more can I say?"

She was flabbergasted. What more could he say? "Well how about you say that you are a stupid dumb jockdweeb that shouldn't be throwing a football around a busy lunchroom for starters," she snarled up at him. Now that he was standing she found she had to look way up, just to see his laughing face. He was laughing? Grrrrrr.

He extended his hand down once more to help her up, but she refused to take it. Instead she climbed to her feet on her own, wiping noodles from her school uniform as she stood. "Hey pipsqueak are you sure you even belong in here?" Jockboy asked with narrowed eyes and a chuckling voice. "How old are you anyway?" River really didn't like his condescending tone.

She could not get over the audacity of this guy. He had her so flustered that she was actually sputtering, he was making her so darn mad. "What? How dare you? My age is none of your concern and don't you call me pipsqueak, you Sasquatch." This made him laugh even harder, which in turn made her even angrier. "All you need to know is that I am right where I''m suppose to be in order to eat my lunch, unlike a certain mammoth idiot, who decided throwing a football around a place where people were trying to eat, was an okay thing to do. What's the matter with you?" River ended her diatribe with her hands on her hips, but the fact that she was over a foot shorter than the annoying guy in front of her, and she had noodles dripping from her hair, she knew the impact from her speech was totally lost on him.

"Ha ha whatever. Look I tried to say sorry. It's not my fault if you are walking around with your head up your ass," he said as he stopped twirling his football to reach out and pick a long noodle off of her shoulder.

"Don't touch me," she cried out smacking his hand away as she jumped backwards.

He just laughed harder and returned to spinning his football. "Fine with me. Your on your own pipsqueak," he chuckled as he walked away shaking his head.

'What a jerk,' River thought to herself. She couldn't believe someone could be so rude. It was right about then that she noticed everyone staring and laughing at her. She knew she must have looked ridiculous standing there all covered in chicken noodle soup. River quickly picked up her empty tray and gathered her empty soup bowl, spoon, water bottle and crackers and made her way to the closest dish rack. After stowing her tray and dirty dishes in their proper places, she grabbed her water bottle and crackers and headed towards her dorm room to change.

She didn't even care if they caught her at this point, she was so angry. Water and crackers would have to do for lunch. She would have to take a quick shower, which would make her late for her next class for sure. So much for making it through this day without mishap. All she had wanted to do was fly under the radar and blend in.

After a quick shower she threw her dripping wet hair up in a quick ponytail and dressed into her one remaining school uniform. She quickly rinsed out her soup-covered uniform and hung it up to dry. Then checking her schedule she headed to her next class arriving about fifteen minutes late to physics. River decided to play the new card and luckily her teacher let her off without having to get a late slip. She heard some muffled chatter and laughing at the back of the room, but ignored it as she took a seat at a desk located at the front of the room, just off to the left side. She was determined to get through the rest of the day without any more problems.

Mrs. Branton the physics teacher explained to River that the class had been about to listen to Jake and Dayden present apposing arguments in a physics debate. She told River to listen along with the rest of the class to both arguments. Once the debate was done the class would be allowed to pose any questions and then vote on who they felt had presented the winning side. Mrs. Branton told Jake to begin.

A red-headed guy of average height stood up in the middle of the room and delivered a half decent argument for why nuclear power was better than solar power. When he was done Mrs. Branton thanked him and asked Dayden to deliver his argument. When River turned to see who was talking she was shocked to see it was the same doofus that had hit her with the football at lunch. He was right in the middle of making a point when a huge smirk appeared on his face and then he had the gall to wink at her. It seemed as though everyone in sync turned at the same time to see who he had just winked at. Meanwhile Dayden continued right on talking, as if nothing had happened. River immediately felt her face heat up with embarrassment from everyone's stares.

She turned back around in her seat determined to listen carefully to the points he was making. She had to admit he was good, much better than Jake unfortunately. Jake had presented ideas on how nuclear power was much superior to solar power because it was more cost effective and had a much higher capacity for producing energy. Dayden countered Jake's arguments though by mentioning that solar power was cleaner and safer. He put major emphasis on Chernobyl playing on the heartstrings of the students.

Dayden was winning the debate hands down. River pulled out her phone to look up some stats. When Mrs. Branton asked if Jake had a rebuttal he remained silent. Then she asked if the class had any questions. No one put up their hands. She then asked if either boy had anything further they wanted to add. When both guys declined River knew Dayden would win. She couldn't hold her tongue any longer. Her hand flew up into the air as she turned in her seat to address Dayden. Mrs. Branton seemed pleasantly surprised that River was participating in the discussion. She motioned for her to go ahead.

"Ah... Dayden," his name felt like barbed wire rolling off her tongue. She didn't look at him as she read from her notes. "You mentioned that solar power was safer than nuclear power, but isn't it true that according to nextbigfuture.com, which is a reputable scientific website, solar power produces ten more deaths per Tera watt hour than nuclear power?" She lifted her eyes from her notes and looked at him as she hit home her point. As her eyes locked on his she saw his surprise. "So essentially nuclear power is ten times more safe for everyone involved." River cocked her head to the side as she waited for Dayden to respond.

"Ah I hadn't heard that stat," he said narrowing his eyes into a lethal deathstare. "I guess it's possible." He cocked his head to the side too, as if to ask what she thought she was doing.

River ignored him though and immediately asked another question. "Um... you stated that solar power was cleaner, but isn't it true that solar power is in fact no cleaner than nuclear power, as neither produces greenhouse gasses or burns fossil fuels?" As she lifted her head to look at him this time, she gave him a big smile.

"Ah okay." Dayden didn't seem to know how to answer this question either. His deathstare quickly turned to a scowl and she could see him starting to get his back up.

River wasn't finished yet though. "Um... you also made the argument that you could store the sun's heat in molten salts and produce 5 megawatts of power but ah... 5 megawatts of power is the amount of energy that the Northern Region uses in less than thirty seconds, so is that really even feasible?" River looked up and winked at Dayden as she asked this final question and happily watched Dayden's face harden.

"Ah I guess if you put it like that, it may not be feasible right now, but it's headed in the right direction." He was visibly getting angry now.

"Ok so then wouldn't you agree that a nuclear power plant that can run all day and all night whether it is cloudy or rainy and which could provide much needed power more often and more reliably than a solar power plant that can only gather it's power during the sunny daylight hours, would be more efficient?"

"Well...ah... yeah, I guess... but still there is a chance of a nuclear disaster, a melt down like Chernobyl." He was scrambling now to rescue his argument.

River knew she had him. She went in for the kill. "Yes but isn't it also true that our nuclear plants are built much stronger and safer and are made to withstand all weather disasters? They've even gone so far as to document that neither a Chernobyl or a Fukushima could ever happen here in the Northern Region?"

Dayden turned to look at his teacher. Holding his hands out in defeat he asked, "Ah Mrs. Branton isn't Jake the one I'm suppose to be having the debate with?"

Mrs. Branton laughed as she agreed that yes, Jake should have had River's information to use in his debate, but she also agreed that the class were allowed to ask questions and River had done an excellent job especially considering she had no advance notice. Dayden made a point of giving River one more nasty look before crossing his arms and falling into his seat. River didn't care she was very pleased with the final results. The class voted and Jake won.

The class ended a few minutes later while River was still writing down her homework assignment. She was startled when Dayden purposely bumped her desk as he walked by. "Payback's a bitch pipsqueak," he mumbled under his breath, "so you better keep your head up." At first she thought he might be seriously angry and maybe even was threatening her, but then she noticed his smirk as he looked back, when he walked out the classroom door. She realized he'd been a good sport about it all, but no doubt he would be out to get her when it was her turn to present her debate.