A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

I have been feeling terrible for removing my stories from fictionpress, but at the time of removal I felt it was the safest thing to do. About two months ago I decided to give fictionpress a second chance, but had been gone so long I forgot my login information. I created a new account under the name JaneAustenAddict and have been posting my stories there for the passed two months. I finally managed to remember the e-mail I had originally used as CuteCognizant and from there it was only a matter of reactivating the e-mail address so that my fictionpress password could be e-mailed to me.

I am very happy to be back and hope everyone can forgive me for making such a rash decision in the past.

I will slowly be updating my original stories (and some new ones).

Lots of Love,
CuteCognizant

World Domination
By CuteCognizant

Chapter 1.

I felt like a popsicle.

It was Monday, December 21, just four days before Christmas, and the heater in my car decided to go on vacation early. I had spent the last five minutes jabbing buttons on the console while watching the other students drive out of the college parking lot in their warm cars. Once I had exhausted all attempts at starting the heater, I decided it was time to leave before hypothermia set in.

I adjusted the scarf around my neck and head and pulled the matching gloves even tighter on my hands. With no heater, all that was keeping me warm was what had earlier that day been my feeble attempt at stylish accessories. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw an extremely dark brunette with freckles dancing across a nose on which wire framed glasses were placed.

Yes, that geek was, and still is, me.

The scarf had not been the least bit stylish and now it was not keeping me warm either. It was just a little too green, a little too fuzzy, a little too thin, and the fringe was a little too long. It looked like someone had skinned Oscar the Grouch and then draped him across my shoulders. The scarf had been created by a designer who was in the later declining years of his career, at least I hoped it was the decline. If it was the apex of his career he was in trouble.

I stepped on the accelerator.

The car coughed before it lurched forward.

I grinned with pride.

The car might look a little battered and under the weather, but I knew she had a few hundred more miles left in her. She might have been a ghastly sight to see, but underneath her exterior shell the majority of wires and parts were functioning normally. I say majority because on this particular day the heater, like I said earlier, was being stubborn.

I looked ahead of me into the distance. The sun was beginning to set, giving off a faint red glow. If I did not know it was caused by pollution I might have given in and called it pretty, but I just could not call what might possibly be one of the causes of the extinction of the human race pretty, even if it was not supposed to happen for another hundred million years or so, give or take a billion.

There was a man on the side of the road, one thumb up in the air indicating he was a hitchhiker. I had been so busy thinking about the sky, my car, and my future plans for world domination, that I had not seen him until he was behind me.

I jammed my foot on the break, threw the car into reverse, and pulled alongside him.

He pulled open the passenger side door.

“What do you think you are doing?” I practically screamed. ‘What is so important that you are trying to get a ride from a complete stranger?”

His green eyes twinkled as he smiled and climbed inside the car. “I was dying for a cigarette and you are not a complete stranger. So, to the convenience store then?”

I rolled my blue eyes as I started to drive once again. “I am going to study for finals with your sister and the convenience store is in the opposite direction.”

“Afraid this jalopy won’t make it that far?” he asked me.

“Of course not. My baby is in perfect condition.” I lovingly patted the dashboard as I spoke.

“Then it won’t be too difficult to turn around.” He smiled again, a wicked smile. I had heard from various sources that his smiles had the ability to melt hearts and make women swoon. Apparently the combination of emerald eyes, shaggy blond hair, and a chiseled jaw was extremely attractive to females.

I never allowed myself to look at him in that way though. He was the older brother of my best friend and thus off limits. This meant his wicked smile had no effect on me. “No.”

“Fine, then just pull over and drop me off so I can find another ride.” He reached for the door handle, “And why the hell is your car so damn cold?”

“Heater died,” I said through clenched teeth as I began digging in the center console between mine and my passenger’s seat.

“Perfect condition?” he asked sarcastically.

When I found the treasure I had been searching for I tossed it at him, hoping to change the subject. “Now don’t say I never gave you a Christmas present.”

He stared at the half smoked pack of cigarettes in his hand. “Sophie Berger, when did you start smoking?”

“I don’t smoke,” I told him as I flicked on my turn signal.

“Then why was this in your car?” he probed.

“Alright, I confess, Mr. Stevenson,” I paused to take a deep breath as I collected my thoughts. “I heard you were coming home from college so I ran to the store as fast as my chicken legs could carry me and purchased a half smoked pack of cigarettes. I would have gotten a full pack, but frankly I don’t think you are worth it. Then I started driving up and down the road all afternoon in hopes of finding you. It was not a very complicated plan when you consider the intricacy I put behind my plans for world domination, but as you can see it still worked.”

With a perfectly straight face he asked me, “How are those plans coming anyway?”

And with an equally straight face I responded, “Rather well actually.”

Let me make one thing perfectly clear before I continue. Not now, nor did I ever, really want to rule the world. I am sure it would have some benefits to it, but in the end I hate responsibility. I have enough trouble worrying about my guinea pig, let alone the entire human population.

The problem is that I am exceptionally bright. I have an I.Q. that is so high they stopped trying to calculate what it really is. My parents refused to let me skip any grades or go to a private school for the gifted. They were afraid I would miss out on a normal childhood. I soon discovered that creating intricately laid plans for taking over the world helps to alleviate the boredom I often come across.

Andrew reached over and tugged on the green mess around my neck. “What do you call this?”

I swatted his hand away, “Most people would call it a scarf.”

“What do you call it?” There was that wicked smile again.

“I call it a scarf as well.” It began to flurry slightly and so I turned the wipers on.

“It looks like someone draped a dead children’s puppet over your shoulders.” He tugged on it again, “It feels like it too.”

“Any particular puppet?” I asked him.

“Oscar the Grouch, maybe. Whatever you do, don‘t wear it around preschool children.” He lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. “You will traumatize them for life.”

I smiled.

We pulled up in front of his parents’ house a short while later. Andrew made sure to stash his cigarette in my ashtray before we got out of the car. As we walked up the icy driveway to his house, lined with light up candy canes and a sign indicating we had just reached the North Pole, he asked me again, “Why did you really have cigarettes in your car?”

“That’s easy,” I told him as I pushed the front door open and walked inside. “You forgot them during Thanksgiving vacation. You know, the last time I picked you up off the side of the road.”