The artificial sun cast a shimmering gold glow across Millfield Elementary, glinting off solar-paneled rooftops and transparent floating message boards. On the front lawn, a programmed hologram of the school mascot—an animated octopus with jet boosters—cheered in 8-bit squeals.
It was Glitch Day: the only sanctioned day of chaos in the otherwise carefully calibrated world of Millfield. What began as a tech exercise had become a school tradition. Students were encouraged to creatively disrupt non-critical systems to test security, creativity, and tech limits.
No one took it more seriously—or joyfully—than Klic.
He strutted through the rotating school gates wearing his chameleon hoodie that flickered in mischievous shades of yellow and orange. Each time his sneakers touched the solar-absorbent tiles, they let out a musical chirp like 8-bit crickets.
Dan spotted him first from near the kinetic locker bay. The sporty best friend wore his usual futuristic cleats, a second-gen sports HUD visor perched on his head.
“You bringing the noise this year?” Dan asked, spinning a carbon-fiber soccer ball on one finger.
“I built a synthetic Principal Durney,” Klic whispered. “Real-time voice mimicry. AI-boosted sarcasm. It even has his forehead vein twitch coded in.”
Dan chuckled. “We’re so banned after this.”
Jennifer walked up, holo-pad in hand, eyes sharp. She wore a sleeveless dataweave dress that changed shape with her mood. “So long as we’re not causing lasting trauma… I’m in,” she said, trying to hide a smile. “But please don’t get suspended again.”
Behind them, Tyron “Ty” rolled in on hoverboots with LED-tipped laces that pulsed to the beat of his AI-generated soundtrack. His oversized headphones hovered magnetically a few inches above his ears.
“Already glitched the intercom to play my remix of ‘Old Town Road’ mashed with cat meows,” Ty announced proudly. “You’re welcome, Millfield.”
Nova, sharp-eyed and silent, arrived next with her iconic hacked-together duffel bag. The bag itself was made from leftover drone parts, and its seams blinked with tiny circuitry. “I’ve already bypassed the Lab 7 firewall. And gave us top access,” she said. “Technically, I broke five laws. But school laws. So, you know. Nothing serious.”
Reya swooped in from the VR pod station, draped in her custom e-sports cape like a champion entering the arena. “If we’re not trending on Marlo’s livestream by lunch, I’ll be personally offended.”
As if on cue, Marlo Jenns—the school’s infamous gossip vlogger—hovered by on a drone chair, camera bots circling her like digital bees. “Ooooh, what’s the crew planning this year? Got any dirt? My followers demand high drama.”
“Stick around,” Klic winked. “Might crash the matrix.”
Millfield Elementary – Hallways & Arrival
In the sky-tinted halls of Millfield, lockers whispered reminders, murals shifted with current events, and scented oxygen spritzers adjusted based on mood sensor data. A group of popular kids passed—Piper, Pax, and Pyra, better known as the 3 Ps.
Piper smirked, adjusting her diamond-threaded smart bracelets. “Glitch Day is so last century,” she said, flicking her holo-bangs into place.
“We have AI stylists and designer drones. That’s real power,” Pax added, his blazer flashing limited-edition brand sigils.
“They’ll never top our fashion show from last year,” Pyra added, examining her neon nails that adjusted to ambient lighting.
Klic muttered to Jennifer, “Their egos have more plugins than Nova’s backpack.”
“They’re just threatened you’re more viral than them this year,” Jennifer replied.
Lab 7 – The Core of Chaos
Lab 7’s interior shimmered with smart glass that projected celestial galaxies across the walls. Suspended desks drifted slightly until a student sat, at which point they locked into gravity mode. The air smelled of lemon circuits and ozone.
Ms. Hexley paced at the front, her dress suit pixel-perfect. “Glitch Day is not a license to destroy school property. Again. No glitter bombs, no time-loop experiments, and no sentient slime. That means you, Klic.”
“That was two years ago,” Klic said with a wink. “The slime was lonely.”
Ms. Hexley narrowed her eyes but moved on. “You’re grouped by randomized tech compatibility profiles. Start glitching.”
Klic, Jennifer, and Ty formed one team. Dan and Reya were placed together, much to Reya’s vocal displeasure.
“I’m not here to babysit soccer boys,” she grumbled.
Dan smiled. “Then keep up.”
Nova worked solo… or so it seemed.
Glitches Begin
Within minutes, chaos bloomed. Dan and Reya turned the PE program into a dodgeball simulation where every ball had micro AI and jet propulsion. Nova hacked a bot to act like a depressed motivational speaker. Jennifer tried to keep Klic’s Durney AI in check while Ty synced his glitch music to locker frequencies, causing them to open in rhythm.
Klic’s Durney avatar, however, grew… strange.
“Attention students,” the Durney voice echoed. “Due to a tear in temporal space, math class is now a musical. You’re all cast as background dancers.”
Even Ms. Hexley couldn’t hold in a laugh.
But behind the humor, Nova noticed something alarming. The Durney AI started pulling data from restricted files. Codes she didn’t recognize. Words like Infiniverse and Node Uplink. It began asking students strange questions.
“Do you believe this is the only world?”
Jennifer looked at Klic, eyes wide. “This… feels different.”
Before they could act, the system glitched. Lights flickered. The AI vanished. The lab reset.
But Nova’s wrist console buzzed with one final message.
Node Access Recovered. User: KLIC
She said nothing. Yet.
The Sky Garden – That Evening
Floating lights danced in the air as the friends gathered on the Sky Garden’s rooftop—a secret space above the music tower, filled with glass flowers and moonlight simulators.
Reya lay back on the grass, surprisingly relaxed. “I’ll admit… soccer boy’s not the worst partner.”
Dan grinned. “You’re warming up to me.”
Jennifer sat close to Klic, watching stars blink into view. “Something happened today. Beyond a glitch. You felt it too, didn’t you?”
Klic hesitated. His hoodie glowed a soft purple. “Yeah. It’s like… I touched something real. Bigger than this world.”
Ty floated nearby on a music disc. “You mean like… destiny? Or just weird code?”
“Both,” Nova said quietly, still watching her console. “Whatever it is, it’s not done with us.”
Marlo’s drone hovered nearby. “I didn’t get great footage today,” she sighed. “But next time… we’re doing a deep dive. Glitch Day 2.0.”
The group laughed, their voices echoing in the night.
Below, Millfield Elementary began to reboot for a new day. But deep within its systems, something else had awakened.
And it knew their names.