This is the prequel to my other story 'Splicers'. This story can be read before you read 'Splicers', as the stories are not completely connected. The events in this story take place about 2 years before the events in 'Splicers'

Prom had been going perfectly, the entire night had been everything he had hoped it to be. Not only was Dante at the dance with the prettiest and most popular girl in school, she had asked him to come with her. Emily was even more gorgeous than he thought she could be and the pair of them had been having a great time.

It was the last song of the evening, some slow romantic song, but Dante was not really listening to the music. He was fully focussed in on Emily, taking in every second he had with her. Everything around him seemed to fade away, until it was just him and Emily spinning slowly in the middle of the gym. Emily smiled at him, and he smiled back.

Just as he was about to go in for the kiss, Dante was suddenly jarred into consciousness. The sun was shining through the windows in his room, the window shades having just been pulled open. He was fully prepared to go full nuclear on whoever did that when he heard his mother's voice.

"Dante, get up. You have to get ready for school. Your father will not be happy if you are late," she said as she shuffled around his room, picking items of dirty clothing off of the floor.

With a groan, Dante pulled his pillow over his head, trying to block out the sun. He heard his mother stop by his bedroom door,and set down her laundry basket. The pillow was ripped from his grasp and she playfully hit him on the back with it.

"You had better be downstairs in fifteen minutes young man. If you are even a minute late, I will reconsider letting you drive the car to school," she said in a serious voice, but Dante could detect a hint of amusement.

The door snapped shut behind his mother, and he groaned again. Mornings were not his favorite time of the day, it would be so much more logical for school to take place at night. He was always wide awake then.

Rolling over on his bed, he grabbed for the room controls. After a few moments of fumbling, he was finally able to find the touch pad. Hitting the morning button, he heard the shower turn on in his bathroom. Thankfully his father upgraded the system last week, it had been going wacky. From the touch pad he was able to chose any of the different settings he had chosen for his shower. It did everything from controlling the brightness of the lights in the room to how hot or cold the water would be. Most of the time the system worked perfectly, but then sometimes it would go wrong. Dante could not determine it was a system error, or just him hitting an incorrect button the the touch pad. One day Dante had walked into his bathroom, expecting a warm shower, instead he was greeted by the coldest water ever. That had sure been a nasty wake up call.

As he sat up in bed, Dante stretched and yawned widely. From his bedside table he grabbed his glasses, his room suddenly coming into sharper focus. He stood up and stumbled his way to the bathroom. His eyes were still adjusting and he stubbed his toe on a chair that he had not put away last night.

Once he was in the bathroom, his eyes had finally adjusted to the light. Before he got into the shower, he tested the water with his hand. No need to repeat last weeks event's. The water was the perfect temperature, so Dante stripped out of his pajamas, set his glasses on their shelf and stepped into the shower.

"Start shower cycle," Dante said sleepily.

The shower complied, spraying him with different soaps and shampoos. As he stood in the hot water, Dante took a deep breath. Today was going to be the day, he would talk to her even if it killed him. Ever since the 4th grade he had had the biggest crush on Emily. He remembered her playing jump-rope with her friends on the playground. The way that her blonde pigtails flew up and down in time with her jumps. Since that day he had been wanting to ask her out, but had never gotten up the nerve to ask her out.

After a few minutes, the shower turned off. Dante wished it would go on forever, but his mother had set the system to only give him ten minutes in the morning on school days. If he tried to turn the shower back on it would just douse him in freezing water. He had not found a way to get around that setting, but eventually he would figure out the override password.

Grabbing a towel, Dante wrapped it around his lower half and got out of the shower. Walking over to the mirror, Dante grabbed his contacts from the medicine cabinet and quickly put them in. Contacts were such a pain, he had begged his parents to let him get the eye implants, but they had said no. Seventeen was too young to have a major surgery, even though Dante knew a ton of kids in town who had had some kind of surgery. The surgery did not even cost that much money, but his father had said that he would not sign off on his son having cosmetic surgery. There was no convincing his parents, he would have to wait until he was eighteen to get the surgery.

Looking in the mirror, Dante flashed a killer smile. How was it so difficult for him to get dates? He carefully styled his short black hair into the faux hawk style that was sweeping the school at the moment. Apparently, this was the hair style to have over one hundred years ago. Vintage things seemed to be making a come back. His lips were thin, and his nose was small. Luckily for him, his parents had allowed him to get surgery when he broke it. There had been some worry that if it had healed wrong it could cause him some minor health problems in the future.

Dante flexed, looking at his biceps. His coach had said he looked like he was getting a bit flabby, and if he wasn't careful he would start looking gross and no girl in her right mind would wand to date a guy without a six-pack. Even though he knew coach was kidding, it still bugged him. If he started to get out of shape, it would make people think that he was losing his athletic ability. Dante could not always understand how high-schoolers minds worked, but he didn't want to question it.

He was always being compared to his father, strong, tough, intelligent. But then he had his mother's compassion, something that would sometimes got him in trouble. Nothing that was ever reported to his parents, because the principal always knew that any fight that Dante got in was just because he was trying to protect the little guy.

One time he had come home with a black eye. A few of the guys at school had been messing with some of the younger guys. Dante had intervened, and he was able to get the bullies to back off, but had gotten the shiner in the process. He had been able to convince his mother that it was just from a football accident, but his father did not seem to believe him. Luckily, his father had decided to not push the issue.

The only thing about his appearance that he could not place anywhere were his eyes. All of his family had brown eyes, but his were a bright green. His mother always said that green eyes were an indicator of greatness. But there was nothing really great about Dante, at least not to him.

Dante walked into his bedroom and quickly changed into his clothes. Nothing to fancy for today, just a pair of dark blue jeans and a brown plaid button up. Grabbing his bag and his comm device from his desk, Dante hurried down stairs.

He set his bag next to the door and headed into the dining room. His father was there already, reading the newspaper off of his holopad. As Dante sat down, his father glanced down at his watch.

"You're lucky, you made it with thirty seconds to spare," his father said in a deep voice.

Dante didn't answer, instead he reached over and grabbed a piece of toast from a plate on the table and took a bite. There was an awkward silence between the two, and Dante was about to reach for another piece of toast when his father suddenly cleared his throat.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper. He set it on the table in front of Dante, and looked up at Dante.

"Would you care to explain what that is?" asked his father, his tone angry.

Dante grabbed the paper and unfold it. Of course his father would figure out about this, he had hoped his teacher would have kept it quiet. But Dante's dad was friends with everyone, so it made sense he would get this.

His dad was a pillar of the community, or at least that is what everyone in town said. Mr. Vincora was the member of many different committees in town and one of the leading members of the town council. All of Mr. Vincora's friends were very highly connected, so he was able to get almost any information he wanted.

"It's nothing dad, you don't need to worry about it," Dante answered quietly, avoiding his father's eye.

Dante's dad raised his eyebrows and grabbed the piece of paper out of his son's hands. The look on his face was one of derision and anger. In his hand, the paper began to shake.

"Nothing? You call a B+ on a science quiz nothing?" his father said, his tone dangerous. "How do you expect to get into an Excelled College with a grade like this?"

It was impossible to avoid his father's gaze any longer. Dante looked directly into his fathers eyes. For a split second he considered arguing with his father, or telling him that he didn't give a damn about where he went to college, but he thought better of it.

"I'm sorry dad. I had an off day. I promise it won't happen again," Dante apologized.

His father nodded, satisfied with his son's answer. He folded the paper in half and slid it back into his jacket. Dante's mother walked up from behind her husband and bent down, kissing him quickly on the cheek.

"Did you have the conversation with Dante, Jason?" she asked quietly.

All Mr. Vincora did was nod, still reading his holopad. Dante's mother looked at him and smiled sadly before taking the seat next to her husband.

There was the sound of running feet, and Ross came tearing into the room. He was going full speed at Dante, showing no signs of stopping. Right before Ross collided with Dante, Dante was on his feet. He grabbed Ross around the waist and spun him around. Ross giggled loudly and squirmed. Chuckling, Dante set him down in his chair and poured him a bowl of cereal.

Ross was a spitting image of his brother, they looked almost exactly the same, except for the fact that Ross had brown eyes. Ross loved playing the game that every time a stranger came to the house, he would show them a few pictures of him and then a few of Dante when he was younger. Most would think they were the same person, which really amused Ross.

There was a few minutes of silence, broken only by the sounds of Ross messily eating his cereal. His mother looked across the table at Dante and Ross, and smiled slightly.

Sometimes Dante wondered how his parents had ever gotten married. His father was so strict and almost uncaring, while his mother was the complete opposite. She always had a kind word and was very encouraging. Most of the time she tried to keep the peace between her son and husband. While she never went openly against her husband's word, she seemed to have perfected the art of subtly affecting his decisions.

"So Dante, have you asked anyone to prom yet? Or do you have anyone in mind?" she asked kindly.

All Dante did was shake his head slightly, quickly investing himself fully in the piece of toast he was eating. Ross started to giggle and bounce slightly in his chair. He looked over at his brother with a mischievous grin.

"He likes Emily Triman, he thinks she's pretty," Ross said, smiling slyly.

Dante shot him a warning look, but Ross kept on smiling.

"Oh, I know Emily. Her parents are clients of mine. She's a nice girl. You should ask her." His mother was excited now.

Dante blushed slightly, and avoided his mother's gaze. His father looked up from the holo pad and looked at Dante.

"Mary, leave the boy alone. He has too much to worry about without adding a girl on top of that. Besides, if he goes out with one girl, all the rest of them would get jealous," His father said.

Dante could have sworn that his father winked at him as he stood up and walked away from the table. What was his father up too, he had never been even the slightest bit concerned in his son's romantic interests. His mother stood up and walked over to him, kissing him on the cheek.

"I'm sorry Dante, I just don't understand why you've never been on a date. You are popular and attractive, the girls must be lining up." She stopped talking when she saw the look on Dante's face. "Okay honey, I'll let it go for now. Come on Ross, we have to get going. The keys are on the hook Dante, make sure you drive safely."

She ushered Ross away from the table and hurried him out the front door. Dante heard her car start and pull out of the driveway. Finishing off his piece of toast, he headed towards the door and grabbed the keys off the hook. As he was about to walk out of the door, his father walked into the hallway.

"Dante, make me proud today," he said. "Remember everything you do reflects on your mother and me."

"Of course I will dad. I'll see you later tonight," Dante answered, before walking out of the door.

Hurrying over to the garage, he pressed his hand against the sensory lock. It hummed for a few seconds before the door rolled open. Inside was his car, a red 2193 Mustang. The car was last years model, but he loved having it. His parents had bought it for him as a seventeenth birthday present.

When his parents had given him the car, Dante had been extremely surprised. When his parents had told they were buying him a car, he had expected an old junker, something that would only get him from point A to point B.

His father had explained that since Dante would be going around soon to start interviewing to colleges and internships, he should have a car that shows that he was going to be going places in life. There was also the fact that this car would last long enough for Dante to possibly pass it on to his little brother eventually.

Dante put the key in the ignition and his thumb on the sensor pad. Most cars that came out these days only had the fingerprinting software, but Mustang had made the decision to keep a sense of nostalgia to their cars. As far as Dante knew, the Mustangs were the only cars to have a key still being used to start it. Most others companies had stopped using keys about seventy-five years ago.

As his car started up, Dante tossed his backpack into the passenger seat. He glanced at his watch, and saw that he had about twenty minutes to get to school. That would not be an issue for him, but if his father even thought for a second that he would be late for school then that would be trouble for him.

Just to make sure his father wouldn't freak out on him, Dante slowly pulled his car out of the garage and onto the street. He went the speed limit until he was off of his street, then he put the pedal to the metal and sped off to school.

Thanks for reading guys. Any comments would be awesome. Also, make sure you check out Splicers.

**Note: If you don't want to be spoiled about what happens to Dante, stop at Chapter 32 of Splicers.**