Liam Kingsley

  While most Father's had dens or offices, mine had a lab in the back room of our house. On more than one occasion he'd remind me, "I'm a man of science, not philosophy." My mind lingered over this while I sat waiting with him for test results in his sterile lab. He broke the silence between us. 
  “Looks good. I can see there's some change. We'll keep you on the current dose. It shouldn't be any worst then the last time.” he said, picking up the syringe in front of us.

   I couldn't help but tense up. He tightened his grip on my arm pressing it down against the cold wood desk. Making sure to inject slowly. A stinging sensation rose up my arm and continued up to my shoulder, on it coursed with each heart beat. Finally the stinging lessened, then realizing he was done.

   “I know this is what you don't want to hear,  try to relax. It will go smoother.”
  "Easy for you to say, " I commented.
   "I'm sorry, " he paused, "I wish there was another way."

   Like it really mattered. I was the one going through all this. I guess it could have been hard on him too, but he seemed so unconcerned about the whole thing. However that was just on the outside. I knew my father well. It was bothering him just as much it was my mother, he just hid it better.

   “Can I go lay down?” I asked.

   “You okay?”

   “Yes. I just want to lay down before I start feeling ill.” I stood up, already feeling zapped of energy.

   “I'll check on you in an hour, you should start feeling it then.” A faint look of regent shown on his face. I walked back to my room, sat on the bed and continued to listen to the stereo I had left on. I thought of Riley and wondered what time she would be leaving today for Henderson.

   I thought about her often, especially being stuck in bed with nothing to do made my thoughts of her more prominent.  She was all that consumed my mind. I'd thought she was beautiful from the first time I'd met her, in spite of her obnoxious remarks. I closed my eyes and tried focusing on the music.

   The room was getting hotter as the time passed slowly, it seemed like the songs began to get longer and longer until I realized it was just me. The toxin was working. Nausea was beginning to set in and I was becoming disoriented.

   “Mom!” I though I yelled out loudly, but she didn't come. Mustaring up every ounce of energy I had left, I yelled again.“MOM!” 

   She came through the door, with a bowl, wet towel, and a cup of water. “It's already working?” she turned toward the hallway, “Martin!” She put the cup next to me on the nightstand. Placed the bowl down to my side and checked my forehead, it was dewy and a bit sticky with sweat. Her hand was cool to my touch and it felt good to have it on my skin soothing me. She placed the wet washcloth on my forehead.

   “Thanks.” I looked up at her for a moment.

   She forced a smile, “Gladly.” Although she said it she wasn't glad about any of this. But I was grateful that she had left the choice up to me for us to try this.

   “He's already feeling sick?” Dad asked, but it sounded more of a statement then a question. He checked his watch. “That was fifteen minutes sooner than the last time.”

   “Did you up the dosage?” Mom looked concerned.

   “No. This is good,” She gave him a you've got to be crazy look. He continued, “his body is accepting it, chances are the next time it will be faster still.”

  I laid in bed in and out of consciousness for the next few hours. Fading back and forth in and out of reality. Minutes passed like hours and soon I found I had no concept of what time it truly was. My mother came in with a concerned look.

   “Riley's here. She wants to see you before she leaves. Are you well enough to handle it?”

   “Yes.” I sat up as best I could. Not really sitting up at all.

   “Go on in.” I heard her guide.

In her head

What a Character!

Riley White

Having lived in Overton, Nevada her entire boring life she's working towards obtaining a scholarship and get the heck out of this Podunk town.  Sophomore year becomes interesting when the town's first human clone moves in. Being a teenager in the year 2031 is hard enough, but having a clone in town is adding pressure onto an already difficult time in her life.

Liam Kingsley
The first human clone the Moapa Valley has seen. His father is Dr. Kingsley a renowned scientist in cloning research. His first day at school proves to be troubling when Riley nicknames him Xerox and the entire school joins in.

Jax Flores
Riley's best friends. He has a tendency to get into trouble from the boredom of living in a small town, he loves technology and movies and even knows how to hack into computers, but has kept that to himself.

Teagan Linfield
Loves drawing, sewing and dreams of designing clothes, She just got to know Riley last year when she moved to the area.  Her fashion apparel isn't always what's in, but has a flare for style all her own.

Sabrina Roberts
Lived in town for years. Her father is a local Reverend and she's "the rev's daughter." A tough stereo type to brake. Riley and her don't always see eye to eye, but in the end their friends.

Principle Marlin McFarlin
Probably the least bias of all adults in Riley's life, he's known for listening to the students and gives them a chance to tell their side of a story. Underneath it all, he likes Riley and finds her entertaining.

Sharleen White
Riley's single mother who's in over her head raising her daughter. Sharleen feels two steps behind and trying to keep up with her "too smart for her own good daughter" is proving to be constant struggle.

Dr. Martin Kingsley
A founding father of human cloning and Liam's dad. He started as a pediatrician, but after the death of his first son gave up his thriving practice and began working for Cel-Tech Corporation in scientific research.

Elaine Kingsley
Liam's mother, who's overly protective of her son, but it's not without good reason. Liam has limits as a clone. Going to the hospital for any emergency is always a roll of the dice when it comes to his rights as a human clone.

Madden Kingsley
Liam's cute little five year old brother. Riley doesn't know much about him, when ever the subject of Madden comes up Liam brushes her off or changes the subject.

Sheriff Keith Parker
Born and raised in the Valley, even attended the same high school as Sharleen White. He's always looking after Riley and her renegade crew. Riley thinks he has it out for her, in-spite of her not knowing he's the one who helped the charges from the tractor indecent go away.

Jax Flores

Jax's Movie picks

Movies that ROCK!
Matrix(only the first)
Transformers (again, only the first)
The Terminator
Blade Runner
Children of Men
Star Trek (2009)
Alien
Lord of the Rings (all Thee)
Jurrassic Park
Avatar
Close Encounters of The Third Kind
The Shawshank Redemption
The Godfather
Pulp Fiction
Se7en
Inception
The Silence of the Lambs

Teagan Linfield - Riley's B.F.F

Riley usually didn't wear much else than black when it came to picking out clothes. I would have loved to have seen her in a light pink, or even a rich blue once in a while, but she rarely wore anything out side the black, white, or gray color chart. School uniforms also made it difficult to express ones clothing style.

In fact I would have to agree with my friend, School  uniforms sucked! I loved creating new clothes, starting with the design, and moving into sewing them. Typically I took an already produced piece of clothing and accented it, giving it my own flare. It didn't matter if it was a pare of jean, hat, or even socks I'd changed all of these a time or two in order to create my fashion designs.

Most people didn't know, but I especially loved to analyze clothing choices of random people and change it in my mind. Finding a better style that would fit their body type or color choice. Most of the time it was ways to make their own outfit pop and give it a little zow!

I was currently working on a project, a jacket for Riley. I'd gotten at a second hand store with the intention of slicing it up. I'd cut the back of the black denim, sewn in a back casing and added a pink ribbon with eyelets crisscrossing the pink ribbon . It had turned out better than I'd anticipated and so feeling confident with my design choices, I was inspired to change the selves too, bring in the same pink into the cuffs.  It was amazing and the best part is that I'd made it better than the sketch I'd jotted down in my book.

Riley would love it, I knew she would. Even if it wasn't completely black I figured I'd work in a little color into her wardrobe. Pink always looked good with her skin color and I figured she wouldn't notice minimal color palette with little here and there and then in no time at all I'd actually get her to have more than black in her closet.

I guess some might have considered this manipulative, in reality I really did have her back, however-with a little flare of color. I felt like she'd gotten into a funk when it came to her clothes, but then again I was obsessed with clothes. I understood her "goth" style was a statement, I liked her in it, but sheeze!  Add some color to it once in awhile. Black, white, and gray is okay, but really adding some color here and there could really make it pop. (Now, if I could only get her to give up the rouged Docs.)

Introductions: Riley Meets Liam a Human Clone

   Teagan whispered, “I'm glad it's you as

my partner and not the freak in front of us.”

Making me curious, I looked up. Liam Kingsley

was directly in front of me. Noticing his partner

was Bianca, A grin spread across my face. Of 

all the people he could be partnered with,

she was well suited for him, she was the most 

manipulative person I knew. I didn't really 

care for her, she was self absorbed and snotty. 

It was rewarding to see that she would have 

to deal with being teamed up with the local 

freak.

    

   I leaned in closer to Teagan, “He'll have fun with

Bianca. That's going to be entertaining to watch.”

Teagan laughed a little too loud, catching 

Liam's attention. He turned, looking at us. He 

didn't blink, instead he just stared at me. No 

emotion showing on his face. The longer 

he looked at me the more uncomfortable I 

became.

   Instead of looking away or ignoring

him I stared back at him, my eyes hardening, 

my jaw clenching as my stomach tied in 

knots. Yet he didn't look away. Worried

Bianca or Teagan might say something. I 

spoke up.

   “What are you looking at Xerox!” I uttered.

   Glaring at me, “That's not very original.”

   “And you would know about being original?”

I bated. Unwilling to back down.

   “I take it you'd be the vociferous tellurian?”

He redirected. 

Confused by his words I couldn't find anything

to retaliate with.

   “Miss. White?” I looked up, Mr. Mathews 

 the math teacher was looking directly at me from 

the front of the classroom. He stopped the lesson.

  “As interesting as your conversation may be, 

can I please get your attention up here?” He 

warned me. Liam turned to the front giving 

Mr. Mathews his full attention. I continued 

looking towards the front, seeing Liam's

annoying brown hair blocking my view.

   Teagan wrote a note on the paper in front of

her. She tapped her pen on the cold black lab

table, pointing to what she'd written.

   In her bubbly penmanship; What did he call

you?

   I shrugged my shoulders mouthing, “I don't

know.” I was sure I saw him smiling towards 

the front. Infuriating me even more.

   When class ended I left Teagan behind,

heading back to my locker. 

I had a travel size dictionary there. It

bugged me not knowing  the term he'd called 

me.

   Vociferous: Conspicuously and offensively

loud; given to vehement outcry. “a vociferous

mob.” I flipped a few pages going back to the

T's and looked up the other word he had 

called me.

   Tellurian: an inhabitant of the earth.

   So basically he had called me a loud mouth 

person. I didn't know what upset me more, the 

fact that he had stumped me or the fact I 

had to look up the insult to understand it.

The Valley Gazette

Overton's Newest Residence Are In

The newest residents of the Moapa Valley are the Kingsleys of Maine. Dr. Martin Kingsley - a retired Pediatrician and renowned controversial stem cell scientist is the valley's latest addition to our local community.

He and his wife Elaine, with their two children, Liam-15, a registered clone and Madden-5 who is not on the National Clone Registry, are looking forward to the slower pace the city of Overton brings.

Although the doctors experimental scientific back ground may play a part huge part to local advocates, who protest human cloning.

Dr. Kingsley worked as a New York Pediatrician, until the death of his first child;  switching to scientific research with the Cel-Tech Corporation,  who's known for focusing on stem cell research. As we are all aware Cel-Tech Corporation was the first to successfully reproduce a  human clone in their medical facility.

Bridget Simpson a diligent activist against human cloning who has seen the atrocities of human cloning first hand, speaks out on the cloning process. She stated, "Human cloning is going against the natural state of  human reproduction, it's not sanctioned from God. The United States government is making a huge mistake by allowing this to continue, " over the government limiting the human cloning process. In 2011, the United States government placed restrictions on the amount of  human cloning produced,  after Cel-Tech announced their first success in human cloning.

Due to the resent verdict of Barker vs the state of Virgina. On February 19, 2031, a federal law evoking illegal actions for killing human clones.  Barker's statement at trial was; "In order to keep the order of God, I was cleansing the human race of vermin and mongoloids."

With so much conflict surrounding the Kingsleys it's this reporters view that Overton will never be the same whether you're for or against human cloning.