I thought some of you may enjoy this short story I wrote when I was in 10th grade (or thereabouts). It’s a morality tale of sorts chronicling a group of young hackers. Oh, those wayward youths on the fringes of society…

Brandon’s eyes stared intently at the clock hanging on the wall. Five minutes left in seventh period; he was eager to go home. Sure he did good in school; all his teachers knew him as remarkably bright. It was just that school wasn’t the place for him. Plus, he wasn’t very sociable and had only a few friends.
At last, the ringing bell pierced the air. School was finally over. Brandon collected his things and headed to his bus as usual. Brandon then came across his best friend Pedro.
“Hey Pedro!” Brandon called to his friend.
“Hey man!” Pedro replied, “Same time tonight?”
“Be at my house by seven,” Brandon informed him.
The problem is that these youths weren’t meeting for a friendly game of hoops, or cards for that matter. These troubled children were known as “hackers.” The two of them and one other friend, Max, made up their recently formed hacker group known as “The Reign of Terror” or RoT.
Brandon had received a computer for his eleventh birthday and has been using it ever since. What he used it for, however, was far beyond games and word publishing. Brandon had learned to use his prized computer to infiltrate advanced computer networks in order to steal information, telephone access numbers, credit card numbers and software.
Brandon greeted his mom as he walked into the house and grabbed his ritual after-school snack. He went to his computer room and started up his computer. He sat down in front of his computer, listening to the soft whirl of his hard disk drive. It was now three o’ clock and he had another four hours before his friends came over.
“Maybe I should start my homework?” Brandon asked himself thoughtfully. He then laughed at the thought and decided there would be plenty of time to do it later.
Brandon now used his speedy 56K modem to dial up to the Internet. He never had to pay for Internet access because he would use other people’s credit card numbers that he had stolen. This meant his Internet bill had to be paid by someone else which was perfectly fine in Brandon’s mind.
Brandon was now connected to the Internet so he downloaded his e-mail messages. All 53 of them. You see, Brandon was quite a popular character on the Internet. He had far more friends on the Internet than he could ever have in real life. True, most of them were hackers like himself but they offered friendship.
Brandon read through his 53 messages finding some interesting hacking challenges and a few more lists of credit card numbers he would distribute to others. One hacking challenge, however, caught his eye. Other hackers would test their skills to see if they could hack into the Pentagon’s computer network. So far, no one has been able to breach the Pentagon security.
“Ha! Me and my boys could crack into the Pentagon with a little work,” Brandon muttered out loud, “This is a great opportunity to establish ourselves as supreme hackers in the computer underworld.”
Brandon got everything setup so he and his friends could start working as soon as they arrived.
“This is going to be great! We’ll show those clowns what hacker group is the best! RoT forever baby!” Brandon yelled to himself due to his over excitement.
Suddenly, his mom burst in the door.
“Brandon, what is all that racket about? It sounds like a nWo match in here,” his mom asked.
“Oh nothing, sorry about that mom,” Brandon replied while his embarrassed face turned red.
“That’s okay. Why don’t you go outside and get some exercise…..play basketball or something,” his mom suggested.
“No that’s okay. I have some real important work to do,” Brandon answered politely.
The truth was that on the basketball court, Brandon was just another sorry white boy. On the computer, he was a god.
His mom left the room and Brandon just looked around the Internet to keep current on several hacker issues. Brandon wasted away four long hours surfing the Internet. Finally, the doorbell rang. Brandon rushed to answer it.
“Hey, hey, hey Brandon old buddy,” Max said as Brandon opened the door to let him in.
“Oh great! I see you brought your laptop,” Brandon responded.
“You know it dog! I’ve got the mad skills baby. Pedro should be over in a few so let’s get setup,” Max rambled.
Sure enough, as Max was unpacking his laptop Pedro arrived with a handful of computer disks.
“Hi ya fellas! I got some phat new hacker applications….password crackers, AOL punters, and other cool junk,” Pedro said as he arrived.
Brandon than gave them a rundown on the whole Pentagon hacking contest. Max and Pedro agreed it would be a good challenge. The trio got to work and spent the rest of their day trying to break into the Pentagon computer network. To get into the network in one evening would be remarkable-almost impossible. In the end, it took them three nights of hard work to breach the Pentagon security. On the third night, when they finally got in, the three found some interesting documents on nuclear weapons and targeting. They downloaded the file as proof to the other hackers of their break in. After posting the file on the Internet for others to see they gained increased popularity and recognition.
This was the good life for a trio of hackers. All too suddenly, the good life ended.
Brandon was on his way home one day when he saw police and news reporters parked in front of his house. His curiosity overcame his fear, something very common in hackers, and he went to see what happened. The Pentagon break in was in the back of his mind.
As he walked in the door a policeman grabbed him and swiftly slapped some handcuffs on his wrists. Brandon didn’t even have time to ask what was going on. Everything was happening too fast. His mom was sobbing out loud learning of how ignorant she had been of Brandon’s computer activities. Brandon then witnessed the confiscation of his computer and equipment. They loaded the equipment along with himself into the police car. On the long ride down to the station the policeman explained how they had caught his good buddies Max and Pedro. The policeman also told him how he was going to be the first juvenile to face federal charges.
“Oh man, this isn’t going to be on my permanent record is it?” Brandon asked the policeman.
“Shut-up boy! Do I need to smack you with my night stick? Think you’re so smart with your little hacking,” the police officer said, “Looks like you’ll be in prison for quite a while.”
The police officers found a piece of paper from Brandon’s computer room that said RoT for life. The officers laughed.
“More like RoT in jail for life,” joked one of the officers.
The other officers laughed heartily then went onto their tough job of eating doughnuts and running red lights.
The trio’s life was now changed forever……