The Theodore Project

Heartstrong (or whatever its future title it will be) is a science fiction drama story (but not a lot of drama) aimed for a young audience (kids, maybe?). It can be a really, really thick novel, or a trilogy. I've been writing it since I was eleven (twelve, maybe), so that was a long time ago, and the story--since back then my writing really sucked--has went through many changes, rewritings, trials, different cheesy titles, themes, et cetera.

The basic plot (so far) is about a brilliant but sickly young boy who is forced to train in a space school with a couple of other kids for a war that will come years later. He is trained normally...until the authorities have learned that the boy is the product of two powerful family lines intertwined together. The boy, then, is forced to pull out from the school and, with his grandfather, his last surviving relative other than his exiled father, decides to hide from the Imperium, a small group of scientists who are researching about foreign extraterrestrial life, and are out to get the boy for his unique alien bloodline. But as time pass on, the war looms closer, and the boy must make decisions. Will he help save his home planet and surrender himself to the authorities, or continue to run away?

There's actually more to this, but let's stick with the really, really basic premise.

And now, here is an excerpt of the draft I'm currently working on (oh, it better be the draft). It's nothing special, really. It's just...a part of the draft of the novel.



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They arrived at the headmaster’s office. Mr. Berry sat on his chair, the tips of his fingers together. He wasn’t alone in the office. Someone was standing at the corner of the room, like a soldier. He was tall and young-looking, and he wore a blue collared shirt with a familiar insignia on the chest pocket. The star force. Did Theo really do that big a damage to bring high ranking personnel, probably to arrest him? It was ridiculous, just thinking about it.

“Sit down, Theodore,” the principal said. Theo suddenly felt uneasy when the principal mentioned his name. He sat down to the chair the principal had pointed out. The teacher who brought him left, leaving Theo the only child inside the room. He shifted awkwardly on his seat, waiting for Berry to speak.

Instead, it was the soldier who spoke first. “Mr. Revoire, my name is John Fleming. I’m a soldier from the force and, you’ve probably heard, your dad’s friend.”

Theo nodded.

“We’ve asked permission to pull you out of this school, and transfer you to another school that is more suitable for you. It’s in a higher level than this one, and all your tuition and other needs are paid in advance by your dad. We’ve come to discuss it with the headmaster, but, unfortunately, he declines. Then we had asked to bring you here to set the decision straight.”

So he wasn’t brought here because he caused trouble. Fleming invited Theo to come into a better school, a better lifestyle. And his father was with them.

“He can’t be transferred to that school, you can’t be serious,” said the headmaster.

“He rarely does anything good here, and his grades aren’t high enough to be qualified.”

Theo and Fleming didn’t say anything to him.

“The school is Xeras University, located in the planet Xeras, evidently,” Fleming continued. “It’s only two months away from Earth, so it isn’t going to be a long ride.”

“Ah.” Theo had heard of Xeras and about the prestigious school it hosted, but he only knew a little. And he never had dreamed of going to that school. “What does the school have?”

“Pilots, soldiers, fighters, doctors, scientists,” Fleming said. “Sometimes commanders, but that’s a rare occurrence.”

“The place’s a hard rock, Theodore,” Berry said. “They’re harsh and really strict, I heard. No fun at all.”

“But this school’s no fun.” Theo could’ve sworn he saw Fleming smirked.

The headmaster’s eye twitched at the response. “Well, that’s because…”

“You’re also hard-boiled on discipline as well,” the soldier said to the headmaster. “All schools are. But the schools all have different approaches to the children, to tell them what kind of ‘fun’ they contain and serve. Your school’s ‘fun’ doesn’t appeal Theo’s.”

“But sending him at his age?”

“There are other children who are around his age as well, and have the same interest as Theo, so I doubt he would feel lonely and isolated.”

Even though Theo didn’t like the school he currently went, he had made many friends here in Schuster. He had set up a reputation for himself and made his own rules of survival. He didn’t like the teachers. Not because they were treating him badly, but because they were treating him like a toddler, like the rest of the children here. He didn’t want that. Even if he was only ten, he wanted to be treated like the big kids in the school, being shouted and punished and shaped into a better person. Theo wanted to be a better person. He knew that going against the school was the wrong plan to do so, but he did it anyway. The teachers in this school were holding him down. Whenever Theo corrected one of his professors, especially in classes, with a fact that supported his theory, they would look frustrated and ignore him. But the kids loved him.

“Berry is right, though,” Fleming noted. “Xeras is a tough place. Students went through tough things. They think we aren’t watching over them, but we really are. If you do well at school, you might emerge as a pilot in an early age, maybe even a commander.”

“What’s the purpose of the school?”

“That is classified information, young man.” Squall glanced at the headmaster. “But I’ll tell you that the school’s built for something big coming.”

“Aliens?” the headmaster said.

Fleming snorted. “You digging on your favorite science fiction books, aren’t you?”

Mr. Berry blushed, looking annoyed.

“Every kid becomes important when they study at the school, and they leave as an important part of the world…any world, including Earth.”

“How cheesy,” Berry commented.

But leaving Schuster meant that Theo would leave his friends here, and then he would have to restart again. He would never see Allen and the rest of his classmates. But still, he would have the muster the best of what he could do in Xeras, and put it into good use, to get reputation. There were children like him, troublemakers. Would they cause trouble for Theo, as much as he caused trouble in his previous school?

“The school,” Fleming added, “will also sponsor for your treatment of your sickness, Theo.”

The unexpected information had surprised Theo. Treatment? Impossible. There was no way they could find a cure. It was incurable after all. He closed his eyes, placed a hand on his chest. He could hear the faint beating of his weak heart. Theo sighed. “Do you want me that badly?”

Fleming nodded. “Very badly.”

“Is it because of dad?”

“This is the only way he could meet you.”

Theo opened his eyes. “I’ll go.”

Fleming smiled, took Theo's small hand and shook it. "Welcome aboard, Theo."