The Darcy Project

“You’re going to be at the lab for the entire weekend, so you’ll need enough of you stuff to last until Sunday night!” Micah called from somewhere in the house. As his words reached my room, my overnight bag was already zipped, sitting full on my recently made bed.

“I’ll be outside, ok?” I said, waiting to hear a response. It was sunny, surprisingly, and seeing as my bag was already packed, I wanted to enjoy the nice weather for as long as I could. After a moment I heard Micah’s reply of yes and smiled, exiting my room.

Just before I reached the front door, Sophia turned around a corner, almost bumping into me.

“Sorry, Sophia,” I said, stepping out of her way and keeping the polite smile on my face. She merely sighed, continuing into the kitchen. I turned, adding, “good morning!”

As usual, she didn’t reply, so I left the house, my mood brightening as the sun hit me. Sunlight was lovely, something to be treasured after spending a month in the lab without it. Not that I had minded at the time, it was just a bonus to living with Micah.

To my left I could hear the sound of a lawn mower. It wasn’t a pleasant noise, but it didn’t ruin my moment of basking in the sunlight. I glanced over in the direction of the sound and saw a boy, probably around my age, possibly older, mowing his front lawn.

His shaggy, light brown hair clung to his forehead, his face was slightly red and I could see the evident sheen of sweat on his fair skin. He was tall and lanky, towering over my height of 5’6ft. He was attractive, but I could tell just from looking at him that he didn’t get much attention from girls.

There was a loud crack that came from the lawn mower and it came to an unhealthy sounding stop. The boy frowned, leaning over the lawn mower as if he could survey the engine from the outside. He let out a indifferent sigh, wiping his hair from his brow.

That was when he noticed me watching him. He froze a little, his eyes widening. I smiled and waved at him, hoping I’d ease his discomfort. Slowly he raised his hand, bending it slightly to the side and holding it there. Like a deer caught in headlights.

In reality I couldn’t be as imposing as a truck or a car. People had a funny way of reacting to things. Here I was, a normal –Perfect– teenage girl and he was behaving as I were a predator staring down it’s pray. I decided I should introduce myself, seeing as this boy was undoubtedly my neighbor.

“I’m Darcy,” I called across the lawn, keeping the smile on my face. “I just moved in this week.”

After a brief pause he said, “Uh, I’m Topher.”

Topher. A shortened version of Christopher. I was intrigued by the fact that he went by the less common shortening of the name, instead of the usual ‘Chris’. Another short silence passed and I could tell he was feeling awkward. He wasn’t one for conversation, it seemed. He reminded me of Marie and Marcus. In the past week I’d gotten Marie to warm up to me a little more, but Marcus remained silent and unappreciative of my presence.

Besides the shy twins, I’d made quite a lot of friends. I ate lunch with Lily every day, and it turned out she was in a popular clique, which I got along with. The girls in my English and Physics class, Clara, Denali and Kristine, were part of a different sort of popular crowd, and although the three of them didn’t like me, their friends did.

“You’re in my physics class, aren’t you?” I said, breaking the silence. Topher nodded, but didn’t speak. I almost laughed. “What’s wrong with your lawn mower?”

He shrugged, “dunno.”

I glanced back at the house, but Micah was nowhere to be seen. I turned back to Topher, whose eyes snapped away from mine.

“Do you mind if I look at it?”

He opened his mouth and then closed it, obviously taken back by my question. He shook his head, taking a step back and held his hands open at the lawn mower, a gesture of permission. I strode across my lawn and onto his, crouch down by the mower.

“It sounded like you went over a twig, I think,” I said. After a few minutes of examining, I was able to remove the twig pieces and even tighten some of the insides of the lawn mower. When I looked up at Topher his eyes were the size of saucers.

“Should you have done that with your bare hands?” he asked, staring at the saws inside the machine. I peered down at them briefly.

“You shouldn’t,” I said, getting to my feet, slapping my hands together to clear off the bits of dirt on my skin, “but I’ve been trained to handle these sorts of things.”

Because I was perfect, my hands didn’t shake, I didn’t have moments where I wondered what I should do next. I was able to complete tasks with precision and accuracy. If Topher had tried what I had done, he’d probably end up getting a miniscule injury, but an injury none the less.

“You’ve been trained to fix lawn mowers?” he cocked an eyebrow.

I laughed, nodding and shrugging. This brought a small smile to his face. The front door to Micah’s house opened and I turned as he strolled out, carrying my overnight pack.

“Time to go, Darcy!” he called, heading towards the car. He peered back and saw Topher. “Hello, Topher!”

“Hey, Mr. Evans.”

“See you later,” I said to Topher, waving and running over to Micah. I was about to offer to take my bag, but he’d already opened the trunk and was putting inside. I climbed into the front seat, shutting the door. Through the tinted glass I could still see Topher. He was staring at the glass, an unreadable expression on his face. I smiled even though he couldn’t see me, due to how tinted the windows were.

Micah got into the car, revving the engine.

“You excited to see the team again?” he asked, pulling out of the drive.

“Yes,” I said in a warm tone, my words holding truth. It would nice to see Dr. Corey and Dr. Karlton again. The others on the team hadn’t been as kind as those two. Not that they’d been cruel to me, but they hadn’t been friendly. I was the fifth Darcy, it was logical for them to feel apprehension towards me.

I could still be unsuccessful for all they knew.

Only I knew I wasn't.