Wednesday 4 October 2017

Eve Mark 2

Selfie time"


Shouted Christy. Christy had done a fabulous job of making up her friends.


"Georgie, get to the front, you look stunning."


Georgina shuffled to the front of the gang, she didn't feel beautiful.


"Anabel, do that owl thing"


Anabel could turn her head further than most people like an owl, she also had perfect white teeth, an amazing smile and seemed to have perfect makeup all the time.


Anabel was an intruder, she turned looking lost on the council estate and Georgie's mum let her in to stay and now this freakishly perfect teenager was part of Georgie's crew and family.


"Right girls, now shout "Selfie" and no more pictures because we're about to get messed up!"


"Not that messed up, my mum will kill us," Said Gerogie


Georgi's mum was everyone's favourite person, she welcomed people into her home including the odd lost teen from the estate Georgie was a generous girl and happily shared her life and room with a lost girl. Annabel was different, she didn't cry over an argument with her mum, she smiled all the time and never answered back at school. Annabel's blond hair never needed fussing and her face looked selfie-ready without any work. Georgie felt something nasty, jealousy.


"When's your mum back"


Asked Lauren.


"Not sure, but make the most, if we get caught with booze mum won't let us do this next week."


The cans came out and the girls started drinking, apart from Annabel who turned everyone down politely.


"Why are you so fucking good?"


Asked Lauren after a few drinks. Annabel stared in front of her, she was strangely still.


"Well you are, perfect fucking grades, perfect fucking teeth, and that owl neck, that's really weird"


"Lauren, shut it, you've had too much."


Snarled Georgie.


"OK, it's your place"


Slowly the girls went to sleep. Annabel slept first as usual. Goergie noticed Annabel fell asleep on time, Annabel never looked at her phone, she never fidgeted she just slept like a corpse.


Lauren and Georgie stayed awake.


"What's it like, with princess fucking Annabel, you're a bit different. "


Whispered Lauren.


"I know, she's fucking strange, she's strange because she's so bloody good"


Whispered Lauren furiously.


"I mean Georgie, you're brilliant, just different, you're amazing with cars  and you're don't care what people think, you're one of the lads and one of the girls, just remember that."


"Thanks, Loz, but the teachers just love Annabel though, I never get good grades".


"You've got a job with your dad, so don't worry"


"Where did she come from? she just appeared, no family, no crying, no nothing."


Lauren started looking in a mysterious backpack with a strange logo, in smooth anonymous font it said,


"Eve, Mark 2".


"Get out of her stuff"


Whispered Georgie.


"Don't you want to know who the fucking princess perfect is, I mean she might be an alien"


"Lauren you're so wrong in the head, ok, one quick look."


The girls took out a tablet and turned it on.


"The Beacon Child, This is Eve. You can program Eve to answer to any name that suits your taste"


Glowed in the dark bedroom.


"What the fuck, is she a chosen child, shit, is it asking for a password?"


"No one's cleaned the screen, I can work out the pin by the fingerprints"


Whispered Georgie


After a few attempts, they found pictures and clips. There was the perfect. There were pictures of a perfectly made up toddler and film of her singing in tune at about 5. Her eyes were a super bright blue, her hair was long and lush and did exactly what it was told.


"Many children need an example of higher standards, they need a beacon of light to guide them to success"


Glowed the screen.


"Oh my god, they've brainwashed her, I feel bad for taking the piss now, it's the MK Ultra, they've made a Brittany Clone"


"Lauren it can't be that you watch too much conspiracy shit."


They read further.


"We bring a gift to all those parents who can't have children, a Beacon Child will bring light into any life. The Beacon Child is designed to be a perfect child in every classroom.


This is the Deluxe version, they also have talents and skills to your lifestyle and aspirations. Eve is the perfect child star, she can be programmed to make a singing sensation, a child model or beauty queen"


"Fucking hell, this girl's been sent to outdo us, that's messed up"


Lauren was furious and sounded incredibly angry.


"Geirgie, you can fuck this girl up, do you think she has feelings."


Even before the bizarre find Georgie wondered, this girl seemed to float through life and always had the right expression but never a genuine one. In class when there was chaos Annabelle would stare in front of her, oddly still like a character on a video game that had been left without instructions from a person.who was doing nothing now she knew Annabelle was a robot fooling everyone she was perfect, she was empty. Annabelle wasn't a creep, she could only ever do as she should.


The girls looked at the movies of the mini beauty queen and it was no longer cute, Annabelle's voice sounded auto-tuned, like a pretty robot faking having a soul.


"Why didn't anyone guess?"


Geirgie questioned.


"Fuck knows"


Said Lauren,


"but this is messed up, it's all just messed up, what if there are more of these out there, I mean we're all a pain the arse in our way. you cost your parents a bomb in extra lessons, I'm always getting detention for being me, Christy thinks she's god's gift to the world and none of us can sing, this fucking thing has it all, I mean what parent would want us when there's this thing?"


"That owl neck, I know why she's got it"


Burst out Georgie


"It's for those contests, look"


Georgie showed Lauen the film of the child beauty pageants,  she saw the sinister fake human look at the judges for longer than the primped, but imperfect organic little girls, little girls who sang sweetly but out of tune, little girls who fluffed their lines and lost, the questions that came to Lauren's mind, did their mother still love their imperfect little children as much, were they looking at this perfect child with longing and jealousy.


"She's made to look longer  the  judges so she always wins."


"Georgie, you're clever, what are we going to do about this doll thing, this is wrong."


"Tell everyone? Other people will hate this fucking thing as much as I do”


"She may have feelings, humans made her, if we hate her we humans"


Said Georgie


"What the utter fuck, we need to tell everyone this thing is wrong, a machine is outdoing us at everything, she can even sing, if people know our parents will want one of these things. I mean imagine having a teenager and looking forward to parents evening, imagine having a teenager who can feed your fucking ego by everything they do, it's revolting."


Lauren was red with rage and her head was hurting from the cheap booze.


"Don't you think your parents love you for who you are?"


Asked Georgie.


"Have you met my parents, they hate me just for being me, if they knew these existed I'd be shoved in a  corner and forgotten about."


Goergie had never heard Lauren be so honest, the strange discovery that their rival was a doll and hangover tore down Lauren's enormous fake ego.


"People love your gobbiness, you show those teachers up for who they are, I mean they can only cope with a life-size dolly, we must be too clever for them."


The girls realised that this dolly had everything they didn't and she was formed by God like scientists and she was a robot.


"This is why I need extra lessons and your main hobby is detentions, we're not programmed, we don't fit in, none of us does and if we did who would we be?"


Georgie was shocked at what she discovered. She was fed up with her "special needs" classes with smooth-talking tutors had good intentions but they were grooming her to be closer to Annabelle.


"I'm not stupid, I'm just not what they want me to be."


"Georgie, you're too much for them, you question stuff, you don’t just take what you’re told as fact. Haven’t you noticed that dolly never questions anything, that’s why she does well? Look at those stupid contests, she just pleases the judges, I mean the geeks programmed in a bit of cheek but she’ll never get sick of getting that enormous hair done, she’ll never say no like we do.”


“We could mess her up”


Said Georgie.


“We could show everyone what she is, I mean she’s kind of beautiful, the work gone into this thing is amazing, but you’re right, it’s kind of evil.”


“The worst thing is we hate this thing but doesn’t a bit of you want to be a bit more like Eve Mark 2?”


Georgie hated her own words, but her words were true when she put up a selfie with a filter after Christy covered her face in makeup Every Time she worked to join the popular crowd she was trying to be a doll. Trying to become a better version of herself meant she was becoming something else that she wasn’t.


“Georgie what can we do? You're technical.”



"We show this thing up for what it is."