Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. “Hey, genius wake up”! A voice all to familiar to me shouted “you’re gonna be late”! What?OH, CRAP! SCHOOL STARTS TODAY! I looked over at my alarm clock; the display read 7:30. I had half an hour to get out of bed, get dressed, swallow breakfast, and get to school! I was always late the first day of school; you’d think that by the tenth grade I would have figured out how to get around that, but I guess some things never change.
I sprinted into the bathroom to brush my teeth, a process that takes way to long when you’re in a hurry. Next back to my room to grab my clothes, then down to the kitchen to grab a pop tart. Finally I hit the door with maybe ten minutes to run all the way to school; I’ve really got to start waking up on time.
I hit the school campus; my watch said I had exactly 120 seconds to get to class. It probably would have helped if I had looked at my schedule to see where my first class was, but being myself I decided that this year I would have plenty of time to memorize my schedule before class started. Idiot! I pulled my schedule out of my back pocket; my first class was English in room 201; where the sniggity was that?
“ No running in the halls!” Some teacher called out as I dashed through the quad trying to find room 201, which was weird because my school has no halls, the entire thing was open air, including the so called “hallways,” but I couldn’t worry about that now, I had to find my room. I glanced at the numbered doors flying past me: 199,200, 202 203… wait, what idiot numbered these doors?! This is a high school; you’d think the guy they gave the paintbrush to would at least be able to count! Well, I guess I couldn’t use the room numbers to help me, guess I was on my own…
I started running around the rooms in random order until I finally spotted the one I was looking for. Five seconds… four… three… two… my hand was on the doorknob… I opened the door and at the same instant the bell rang, I had barely made it on time. Again.
“Class please turn to page five of your student handbook,” said the English teacher with no emotion in her voice whatsoever. Why did I rush to come to school on time? Every year we read the SAME student handbook, go over the SAME rules and procedures, and do the SAME icebreaker exercises. Oh well, at least lunch was soon; just three more periods to go…
Finally the 4th period bell rang, lunchtime. I grabbed my stuff and sprinted to the cafeteria, and who could blame me, this was my favorite period of the day. I kicked the door open and it flew in with a satisfying BAM; I always did love to make an entrance. The smell of food cooking filled the air, chicken nuggets. I grabbed a tray, sat down at my usual table and waited for my homies to arrive.
Eddy came first. “Hey Jason,” he said’ “long time no see.” It had been a long time; we hadn’t spoken over the summer at all. Some other guy plopped down in the seat next to Eddy, which most people would have ignored, but this was OUR table. “Uhh, who are you?” I asked, completely ignoring the fact that I was making myself look like a complete jerk. “This is Jim,” Eddy announced, wrapping his arm around his apparent friend, “ he just moved here.” “Hi Jason, I’m Jim!”
“Uhh yes, yes you are. Where is Jim from?” Eddy answered, “he’s not from too far away, he just transferred to this school.”
“I’m not from too far away, I just transferred to this school.” I could’ve sworn this guy was a freakin’ parrot. “You do know Eddy just said that right?” I asked, he would have to answer this one; I was wrong, complete silence followed. Finally Eddy broke the silence “He knows,” eddy half sighed, “ He just doesn’t talk much when he feels uncomfortable around new people.” Jim was looking at the table and blushing, I guess that explained it.
“ Hey Laureli!” Eddy shouted all of the sudden; he was looking in my direction so I assumed she was behind me. Sure enough she appeared on my left and took a seat next to me and across from Eddy. “Hey Laureli,” he smirked, “did you get hotter over the summer?” Poor Eddy, he really shouldn’t have said that. “ No,” Laureli responded, almost as if she hadn’t realized what he had just said,“ did you get louder?”
“ What?”*CRACK* “OW! OW! OW! OW!”Eddy yelled. “Guess you did.” She must have stomped on his foot under the table.
Almost every time Eddy saw Laureli he would hit on her, and every time he would hit her she hit him; most people would have figured out he pattern after awhile, but not Eddy. Most people could understand why Eddy constantly endangered himself just to hit on one girl; Laureli was hot; and when I say hot I don’t mean just normal hot, I mean really, really, insanely hot. She was the kind of girl that would normally make me drool (literally) she had it all, curves in all the right places blonde… Any guy reading this knows exactly what I mean, I really don’t think I need to go into details. Make your own image, it doesn’t really matter; just know she was HOT (some would even say she was the second hottest girl at school).
“Hi I’m Jim,” My new parrot of a friend chirped from across the table, “nice to meet you!” Oh sure, he would talk to HER. *CRASH* Eddy had fallen back in his chair, silently doubled over in pain, poor guy. “Don’t worry, he’ll be able to put weight on that foot in a few hours,” Laureli must have seen the concern on Jim’s face. “ Yah know,” I sighed, “I still can’t figure out why he keeps hitting on you when he knows you’re going to hit him every time.”
“Eddy never was all that smart.” No kidding, I still couldn’t understand some of the stuff Eddy did, even after four years. “Hey, Where’s your lunch Laureli?” Why was he talking to her and no one else? “ Oh,” She responded looking at her watch, “ I ordered a pizza, and if it’s not here in five minutes it’s free.”
“I hope,” came a weak voice from under the table, “you’re going to share that pizza.” Well, I guess Eddy was feeling better now. “But who…” The parrot was talking again… “Orders a pizza… at school?” Looked like we would have to explain everything to this guy because Eddy had told him nothing. “Laureli’s parents are insanely rich. She orders delivery to the cafeteria all the time because she hates the cafeteria food. If I could I would probably do the same thing.”
“Uhh… thanks for saving me the explanation, Jason, but do you think you could have left out the ‘insanely rich’ part?”
“But it’s true,” Eddy said crawling back into his chair, “you are insanely rich… and insanely hot.” He never learned; that was all I had time to think about before I saw my food tray flying across the table right into Eddy’s face causing him to fall over in his chair again. “Aw man,” I groaned, “there was still a nugget left…” I was going to make her buy me a new tray, but I didn’t have time before the parrot started talking again.“Eddy are you bleeding?!”I looked over at my battered friend, once again crawling up from under the table, this time with something red all over his face. “No, it’s just left over ketchup. No harm done, just a wasted chicken nugget… That I was going to eat.” Oh well, I guess I had enough anyway. “Come on, let’s go outside,” I suggested, the cafeteria was getting kind of boring. “All right, let’s go,” Eddy said, getting out of his apparently unstable chair, but as soon as he put his foot on the ground he winced in pain, “maybe I should go to the nurse first.”
“And I’ve got to wait for my now officially free pizza to get here.”
“Ok, then I’ll meet you guys outside.”
I left through the cafeteria doors, taking up my normal section of the benches by the football field. You couldn’t really call them bleachers really; they were just three level aluminum benches on each side of the football field. Anyway, I sat down and stared at an after lunch football game already in progress. At first I was watching the game, but then, I ended up just staring into space; that happens to me sometimes, I don’t know why but every once in a while I’ll find myself just staring into space. “Hey Jason, Want a slice?”
Laureli had finally come outside, disturbing my near perfect space out, but at least she brought pizza. “Oh, hey Laureli. And yes, yes I do.” The pizza was hot and so good; the cafeteria food was good, but this was better hands down. “ I haven’t heard from you all summer. Where have you been?”
“Ninja training camp. I was in Japan almost all summer so I couldn’t really talk to anyone; I tried sending a letter though.” I didn’t really expect her to believe me even though it was true. “Sure Jason, you’re a ninja.”
“mmph oom oont.”
“Swallow Jason.”
“I said no I’m not. I’m just a trainee. I really only know the rough fighting technique right now.”
“Uh-huh…” More silence followed, and I continued my blank staring at the football game. “ You know Jason, it seems like you’re the only person at this school that treats me like a person.”
“Yeah, it’s a gift.”
“Are you gay?”
“What?” Did she just ask me if I was gay? “You know, every other guy here is constantly staring at me like I’m a piece of meat; it just seems strange that you would be the only one that doesn’t… So, are you gay?”
“Yup. Nothing turns me on like a hot piece of man meat.”
“Serious?”
“No, I’m completely straight. I guess I just never looked at you that way because I knew you since way before you were hot.”
It was true; I had known her for a long time. We had met the first day of kindergarten and we had been friends ever since. Then another thought occurred to me… Had I just called Laureli hot?
“ Before I was hot… does that mean…”
“NO, I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THAT! You know, we’ve known each other for a long time.”
“Are you two over here flirting again?” That voice… Mason!
“NO WE’RE NOT YOU PERVERT!” I YELLED.
“Alright, just checking, no need to get upset,” were the last words he muttered before walking off.
“Man he pisses me off!” I turned around to watch him be surrounded by his usual crowd of girls. “ How does he do it?”
“Do what?”
“How does he keep all those girls around him?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s because he’s so cute.”
“But we’re identical twins.” Hey, wait a minute… “He’s a total jerk. He’s so cold, how can anyone stand him?”
“ Oh, I wouldn’t say he’s cold really,” Laureli said, staring at the increasingly larger group around Mason, “I’d say he’s suave and mysterious.”
“I’m suave and mysterious.”
“No, you’re more goofy and I’m not entirely sure you’re sane.” She was one to talk about sanity.
“Thanks, you sure know how to make me feel better.”
“Anytime.”
“Oh well,” I sighed, turning back to the football game, “I guess I’ll never know.”
Another voice broke the silence once again. “Are you two over here flirting without me?”
“MASON!” I yelled, “I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE!” Then I turned my head so I could actually see who I was yelling at. “Oh… Hey Eddy… Are you okay?” He had a pair of crutches under his arms… and Jim was right behind him… as usual. “ Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded, “The new nurse says I just need to stay off the foot for a while. But she did seemed pretty pissed Laureli. Said something about you never sending me there again…”
“Please, what’s she going to do, Beat me with her cane?”
Yeah… it did seem strange that a forty-year-old nurse would have a cane... I mean forty isn’t THAT old… I didn’t have much time to think about it because the end of lunch bell rang right after she said that. Time for more crappy icebreakers and get-to- know-you tests (I know, I don’t understand it either.)
That Friday
*RING* Finally, the last bell of the first week. I could go home, relax, play my video games, read some manga; put simply, heaven. I went downtown after school to hit the comic book store and see if there was anything new when I heard a high-pitched girlish scream.
Have you ever had a moment when something catches your attention, but you know you should just leave it alone? Well, I was having one of those moments. I knew going to see what poor old lady was making that shrieking noise would probably get me in just as much trouble as she was in; but I had to check it out.
I ran to the corner where all the noise was coming from, and threw my back against a wall. Suddenly a strange machine-like whirring sound hit me… more noises to investigate.
I spun around the corner, and I know my jaw must’ve dropped when I saw what was going on. Catman, our cities local nutcase was being tossed around like a giant rag doll by a robot.
A note from the author: I know, real original, just keep reading. End
There was something weird that stuck out about his one though; it was made of wood! What kind of idiot makes a robot out of wood?
“Uhh…” I muttered as the high-pitched girlish screaming continued, “So much for my little old lady theory.” I stood still and watched Catman get beat up by the evil hippie robot for a few minutes, after all it was kind of entertaining, but eventually I decided I should try to help this idiot out.
I crept up behind the wood… thing… looking for a weak point. I circled it, staying out of sight as best I could, then I thought of something. The entire thing was made of wood!I could just smash through it! I crept up behind it getting closer, closer… “SHUT UP!” I yelled; that screaming was really starting to get on my nerves. The robot twisted around and threw one of its arms out at me. The attack was pretty easy to dodge, but I had lost my advantage. Now I HAD to take this thing down or else. I ran at the giant piece of scrap wood and landed a solid punch right in its chest, to absolutely no effect; I almost cracked my hand with that punch.
It was time to look at my situation again. The robot now knew I was there, I couldn’t punch through it, it had a hostage, and Catman’s screaming was really starting to piss me off. I could leave, or I could find it in my heart to help him. Or I could leave… Yup, that was the best option, I was outta there, and I wasn’t risking my life for this guy.
“Later, Catman,” I said, casually walking away. Saving this guy was NOT worth it. I still couldn’t figure out why I had tried to save him in the first place.
“Wait!” The cape wearing idiot yelled to my back, “You can’t just AHHH! Leave me here!” I turned around to watch the robot toss him back and forth aimlessly… He was so pathetic; I couldn’t just watch him get beat up by a giant log with arms. Curse my compassion.
I looked around for something I could use as a weapon. I had a few throwing knives hidden in my binder (ninja training) but from the feel of that wood it was way to solid for those to have any effect. I didn’t see anything I could use… but then I saw a light out of the corner of my eye; some smoker lighting a cigarette who found this as entertaining as I did. Wait… lighter plus wooden robot equals… FIRE! This was too perfect. I could take his lighter, burn down the robot, and I wouldn’t even have to fight!
“I need to borrow this.” I said, snatching the lighter from his hand. I easily walked up behind the robot this time; Catman was keeping it pretty well entertained.*click* I lit the lighter, touched it to the robot, and the entire thing burst into flames… it was almost like the thing had been soaked in lighter fluid. Catman was immediately dropped as the robot slowly burned to the ground.
“AHHHHHH!” screamed Catman running around with flames sprouting out of his back. Wait… flames… on his back… “OH CRAP, YOU’RE ON FIRE!” Ok, what was that thing they told you to do in elementary school when someone was on fire?
“I’LL GO FIND WATER!” I yelled. Geez, what was that thing?
“NYAHHHHHH!”
“NO WATER, NO WATER! WHAT DO I DO?! Oh, wait I remember now! STOP DROP AND ROLL CATMAN, STOP DROP AND ROLL!”
Catman’s only Response was “ AHHH IT BURNS!” He must not have heard me. I walked towards where he was running, stuck my foot out, and well, let’s just say Catman did stop drop and roll. Almost a little too well.
After Catman was successfully extinguished I began to walk of once again, my job was done.
“Wait!” He called after me once again, “come back!” What could he possibly want now?
“You know,” he said, “I could use a sidekick like you.”
“But you already have a sidekick.” And a hot one too…
“I know, but it seems weird to live alone with a teenage girl, and then having her save your life.” He responded.It was true, a full grown man living alone with a girl that young who probably wasn’t his daughter was a little creepy, not that living alone witha boy is any less creepy.
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ve got candy.”
“Candy?!” I asked. There was something else my mom always used to tell me that I couldn’t remember… never take something from something… Oh well, I wasn’t going to pass up free candy. “Why don’t I take a look around your hideout, then I’ll decide whether or not I want to stay.” He probably lived with his mom or something else pathetic like that.
“Hop in the Catmobile.”
In the Catmobile
“ So what’s your name kid?” Catman asked looking over at my shotgun seat.
“ It’s Jason, Jason Barrows. Hey… do you think I’ll get to meet that hot sidekick of yours today?”
A note from the author: Okay, I’m going to play around with writing in the second person now, so be ready for the switch. I’ll say something if I go back. End
“Yeah,” Catman responded, “she should be back by now.” Jason was excited.
Catman’s secret hideout
“Here we are!” Catman announced, “You are now officially in the Cat cave.”
“And,” Jason sighed with his eyes closed, “ I now officially know where your hideout is and how to get here. You forgot to blindfold me on the way over.”
“Whoops! I do stuff like that all the time! hehe” What an idiot. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour.”
“Okay,” Jason said, “but can I use your bathroom first?”
End of the hall, left door.” Jason headed down the hall to the bathroom when he walked into someone. “ Sorry Jason.” Said the voice
“ Oh, hey Laureli, it was my fault gotta go!” He broke into a sprint, ran down the hall about 50 feet then stopped. “Wait… Laureli?!”
“Bathroom!” JasonRushed the rest of the way down the long hall, did his business, and came back out a few minutes later.
“Hey,” Asked Jason, “Why is Laureli here?”
Catman responded, “Oh, You know the Kitten then?”
“ Yeah… I know ‘the Kitten’ we go to school together.”
“Oh, You wouldn’t happen to be Jason would you?”
“Uh-huh…” This was starting to creep Jason out…
“She’s said a lot about you.”
“ Like what?”
“ Oh, I don’t think I should… So, how about that tour?”Catman said, quickly changing the subject. “This is the Cat cave, my lair.” Jason looked around the huge cavern- it literally was a cave- in awe. Across from the door was the biggest computer screen he had ever seen. Gadgets and other machines lined the walls, and there was one circular desk in the middle of it all. It was every computer nerds dream.
“Nice place!” Was all Jason could say. “I think I’m gonna like it here.” Catman had a new sidekick.
“ Great, then I’ll show you to your room. It’s right upstairs.”
Catman lead him upstairs to a dark room with the door closed.
“Well, what do you think?” asked Catman flipping on the light switch.
Jason looked around the room, once again in awe. The room was huge, maybe three times the size of his at home. The only other place he had seen with a room this big was at Laureli’s house, although his room was still small compared to that (but still larger than most). To the left of the door there was a king size bed that looked like it belonged in the white house or some movie star’s mansion. There were two empty bookcases on the far wall, but what really caught his eye was what was between them: A huge flat screen TV. He couldn’t wait to play video games on that thing…
“Nice…” Said Jason, his voice trailing off at the end.
“Now, we just need to trick your parents into thinking you aren’t in the city or fighting crime” said Catman, “ We’ll also need to get your clothes.”
“ Ha! Don’t worry about that,” Jason assured him, “Just leave it to me.”
Jason’s house
“Dad, I’m home!” announced Jason.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HOME SO LATE?!” Asked Mr. Barrows, “AND WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER?”
“DID YOU JUST YELL AT ME?”
“YES I DID! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO BE HOME BY SIX!
“YOU’VE BEEN TALKING TO JONES AT WORK AGAIN HAVEN’T YOU?” asked Jason, “I TOLD YOU HE WAS A BAD INFLUENCE!”
“YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” YELLED Mr. Barrows, “I DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU!”
“THAT’S IT, OLD MAN, GO TO YOUR ROOM!” demanded Jason angrily.
“I HATE YOU!” yelled Mr. Barrows storming off towards his room.
“Has he been talking to Jones again,” Asked Mason walking next to Jason, “What are we going to do with him?”
“What are we going to do with you?” asked Jason with his arms crossed.
“What do you mean, you’re the loser.”
“Idiot!”
“Pervert.”
“BASTARD!”
“Jerk.”
“HIPPY! YOU SUCK!”
“Whatever,” Said Mason sighing, he then walked past Jason and Sauntered off to his room. Jason headed for his room, still pissed from his brief argument with Mason.
A note from the author:Ok, my first person writing is better than my second person writing, so I’m switching back. I’ll have to switch characters occasionally now, so I’ll let you know when I do by putting the character’s name in bold print on the side of the page. End
Jason
I stared into the pit that was my closet. I could probably shove all of my clothes in one duffel bag. I got down and dug under my bed looking for my duffle bag. My fingers ran over the rough material of the bag, and I pulled it out. Apparently I was right, all of my clothes fit into the bag with a little room to spare. I looked around to see what else I could shove into the bag, and it hit me, my Gamecube, of course! After all what good is a big screen TV without a game system attached to it? I had just enough room for the system and all of the games. Now all I really had left was my Manga collection… no way that was fitting in a duffle bag. I had managed to fill an entire bookcase with comics and I still wanted more. I guess I could just get a box and toss ‘em in there…
After boxing up my comics I started them, and some of my other stuff I decided to pack, out to Catman’s waiting limo.
“Where are you going?” Asked Mason from the doorway to the kitchen holding a sandwich.
“Wherever I feel like.” I responded
“Whatever,” He said, “It just means I can put my stuff in your room.”
“YOU’D BETTER STAY OUT OF MY ROOM!”
“You can’t stop me if you aren’t here…”
“Damn it!”
“Idiot…” Oh well, he was right, and he was only kidding… I hope.
I looked around at my now almost empty room, nothing was left but my furniture and my bulging duffel bag. I grabbed the bag and tossed it over my shoulder.
“Dad, I’m moving out.”
“Fine, I hate you!”
“Ok then,” said Jason, “Oh, and give me twenty bucks.”
In the Limo
“So,” asked Catman, “ What did you tell your parents?”
“I told my dad I was moving out, he didn’t ask any questions.”
“What about your mother?”
“Oh…” Jason Muttered, “she died a long time ago, when I was three…”
“ I’m sorry to hear that, I didn’t mean to bring it up.”
“No, it’s fine, but I’m telling you all this stuff about me and I still don’t even know your name.”
“I’m Bruce Wayne.” Catman announced. Bruce Wayne… a rich nutcase who had apparently gotten his hands on a few too many Batman comics when he was a kid. His birth name Was Carl Stark, but he later changed it to be more like his idol. He was constantly on the news for making some huge charity donation, which is the only reason why I know all of this stuff; I’m not his stalker or anything.
“So, Bruce Wayne is Catman,” I said.
“Catman, legendary defender of Carson City!” He announced.
“ Actually,” I said, “you’re not legendary. The only reason people pay any attention to you is because of ‘The Kitten.’ Teenage boys and perverted old men alike love looking at pictures of her, that and watching her fight is like a free kickboxing match.”
It really was like watching a kickboxing match; Laureli was a level two black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and her reputation showed it. She beat the crap out of Eddy constantly, and the teachers wouldn’t do anything because they were afraid of her. One day someone would do something…
“Well, we’re here,” Catman said opening the car door.
Jason’s room
Everything was unpacked, now I had nothing to do… I turned my head in the direction of the huge new window I had and stared blankly out the window, it was dark outside and the streetlights were on. So bored… Hey, wait! I could go talk to Laureli!
I walked across the room and opened her closed door.
“ Hey Laurel- OW!” I exclaimed when a shoe flew across the room and hit me on the forehead.
“YOU’VE GOT TO KNOCK BEFORE YOU COME IN, I COULD HAVE BEEN NUDE!”
“Sorry, I said rubbing the spot on my head where the shoe had hit. “That was a boot wasn’t it?” I think she said something after that, but I wasn’t listening because I had just become aware of something else: there were Inuyasha collectibles everywhere.
“So…” I said, “ You must really like Inuyasha…”
“ Yeah, isn’t it cool?” She asked.
Yeahhhh,” I said, “that’s not creepy at all, it’s completely normal.” I started looking around the room in more detail. There were Inuyasha action figures, her bed spread had Inuyasha on it, the wallpaper on her computer was Inuyasha, she had posters on the wall, it was everywhere; But somehow she kept it all neat.
The bed was perfectly made, nothing was on her floor, if anything could shine then it did, and I was almost afraid to touch anything.
“So,” I said, quickly getting over my fear of touching things and grabbing one of the action figures, “ What’s up?”
“ Oh, I’m just going through some of my old clothes. I think I need a new wardrobe, I never have anything to wear.” Normally I would have gone and checked her closet to see just what her wardrobe looked like, but I knew it would be crammed full. Her parents gave her a huge allowance, and what didn’t get spent on supplies for her experiments and inventions was blown on clothes. I wish I had a huge allowance.
“What about you,” she asked.
“ I’m bored out of my mind, nothing new.” I put the figure I had back,picked up a new one, and plopped down on her bed.
“What do you think about Jim?” I started examining the action figure, and found a little switch on the back.
“ He’s okay,” She responded, “ a little strange, but okay.”
I pressed down the switch to see what would happen… COOL! Windscar action! Screw Kung Fu grip this was way better!
A note from Kung Fu Grip: screw you too, jerk off! End
I pressed it again, and again, and again, and again, and-
“-Jason!”
“Huh?”
“I asked you how you liked your teachers this year.”
Windscar!Windscar!Windscar!
“Jason!”
“Oh, uh, they’re okay, I guess, what gets me is that new nurse, threatening you, what a joke. What was her name anyway?”
“ I think,” Laureli said, “ her name was Nurse Claymore, or something like that.”
Windscar!
“Uh-huh. I’m going to bed.”
“Good night Jason.”
The next morning
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. *BOOM* I jolted up in my bed, trying to figure out where that noise had just come from… I think it was below me! I rushed down the stairs, and suddenly the smell of smoke hit my nose. I followed the smell to what I thought was the basement door and tossed it open. A steamy smoke hit my face, and I was surprised, smoke wasn’t normally wet…flew down the stairs to see who was in the basement. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Laureli slumped in a corner. “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!” I asked.
“Owww…” she responded.
“Come on…” I said grabbing her hand to pull her up, “let’s go.” She stumbled up the stairs and I sat her down on the couch.
“What were you doing?”
“Just an experiment,” she said in a weak voice.
“Some experiment,” I responded, “are you alright?”
“ I think so,” she responded, in a stronger voice this time, “I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so…” I said, “I’m going to go get dressed.”
“Ok,” She said, sounding way more chipper this time, “ I’ll order breakfast!”
Order breakfast? You can do that? I knew you could do it for lunch and dinner, but breakfast?
“You can order breakfast?” I asked.
“Yes, we have to,” she said, “the chefs have the day off and I can’t cook…”
“You can’t,” I asked, “I thought everyone could cook.”
“Well then, if you can cook…” Laureli said, “then you can make dinner!”
“Hey, wait a minute!”
“Thanks!” She said hopping up and running back downstairs before I could say anything else.
“Awww, son of a-” Well, guess I had cooking duty tonight.
I wouldn’t have to worry about dinner until later, for now I had the day to sit around and play video games, sweet, sweet, video games. Some people would have said I wasted the day playing video games, but I would say it was a day well spent. At about five I looked at the clock and started throwing dinner together.
I looked at the culinary masterpiece that lay before me: chicken, Broccoli, and corn on the cob. Wait, did I smell smoke?
Laureli
One of these days I would figure out how to make this stupid thing work… A pile of parts sat in front of me on my workshop table. I suppose it was a pretty advanced design, but still I had to try it. If I could make this thing work there could be an unlimited possibility of things to come. No one would need batteries anymore, free energy would be available. Did I smell smoke? I ran up the stairs and followed the smell of smoke right into the kitchen.
“ What’s burning?” I asked, curious to see what he could be TRYING to make that could smell so bad.
“Dinner’s ready!” Was Jason’s reply.
“Dinner?” I asked “but you burned it, we can’t eat that.”
“ I didn’t burn dinner,” He replied, “ I just lost myself in a moment of self worship and burned the cake I was making, dinner’s fine.”
“ Well, okay then, let’s eat.” He looked like he wasn’t really with me anymore…
“Jason…”
“Huh? Oh, sorry!” He put a plate in front of me, and I suddenly lost my appetite. The chicken was obviously burnt, the broccoli was over cooked, and the corn looked raw.
“ You know, I don’t feel that hungry anymore,” I said, “I think I’ll just go back downstairs.” Normally I might have picked at it, but Jason would eat anything, this wasn’t something I could take his word on.
“Alright,” he said, with more than a hint of disappointment in his voice, “if you think my cooking is that bad I guess I can’t stop you from leaving, even though it was your idea to have me cook in the first place.” He was almost making me feel guilty. Almost.
“Okay then.” I turned and walked away.
“ Oh, and Laureli,” Jason’s voice came from behind me, “TRY IT!” I swung around to face him, but something surprised me, he was right in front of me. I had walked pretty far away be fore he said that, so how could he be RIGHT there? I would have tried to figure it out, but before I had a chance I had a mouth full of chicken. It was… It was… GOOD!
“Give me that!”
Jason
“What’s burning?” Laureli’s voice came from behind me.
“Dinner’s ready!” I replied. She was going to love it!
“Dinner?” She asked “but you burned it, we can’t eat that.”
“I didn’t burn dinner,” was my response, “ I just lost myself in a moment of self worship and burned the cake I was making, dinner’s fine.” Yeah, I was so awesome; I made that jerk Emeril look like a novice!
A note from Emeril: The only novice around here is you, in the bedroom! BAM! End.
A note from the author: OHHH! That was cold! End
“Jason…”
“Huh? Oh, sorry!” I put a plate in front of her and waited for her face to light up. It didn’t.
“ You know, I don’t feel that hungry anymore,” she said, “I think I’ll just go back downstairs.”
“Alright,” I said, with more than a hint of disappointment in my voice, “if you think my cooking is that bad I guess I can’t stop you from leaving, even though it was your idea to have me cook in the first place.” Maybe I could guilt her into trying it…
“Okay then,” she turned and walked away. She wasn’t getting away that easy. I grabbed a drumstick and got ready to move.“ Hey Laureli,” I said. Before she had a chance to turn around I jumped across the room (using my awesome ninja skillzJ) and landed behind her. When she turned around I shoved my meaty weapon into her mouth, and this time her face did light up.
“Give me that!” She exclaimed, grabbing the chicken out of my hand and quickly cleaning the bone.
“ It’s spicy!”
“ I told you it was Cajun.” She quickly sat down at the long dining room table and started shoveling food down her throat. If most people had done it it would have looked sloppy, but somehow Laureli managed to make it look graceful, almost like an art. I had competition.
“ I knew you’d change your mind.” I said
“Mm-hm.” She said with a mouth full of food.
“There’s more in the kitchen.” I announced as she neared the end of her plate.
“ Good.” She said before grabbing her plate and walking off into the kitchen, followed by the scraping sound of a spoon on cookware. Almost too much scraping… I abandoned my plate at the table to investigate the noises I was hearing. I entered the kitchen to one of the most horrifying sights I had ever seen: every dish and utensil had been licked clean.
“Hey, I wanted more too!”
“Oh, Sorry!” She said. She wasn’t sorry; she was still licking a spoon.
“I couldn’t help myself! I’m so sorry!” She ran off through the dining room before I had a chance to say anything, again. Oh, well, at least I still had what was left on my plate… The sight that waited for me in the dining room was even more horrible than the one I had seen in the kitchen: Laureli had cleaned my plate on the way out.
“ BITCH!”
Laureli- The next morning
The oxygen and hydrogen mixture in the clear plastic bag was perfect. Now all I had to do was lower the voltage on the spark plug, press the button, and… *BOOM*
“Owww…”
Every time I tried that this happened. The bag would blow up, I would destroy another table, and mess up the lab. I had another clean up ahead of me. Maybe I should just stick to my free energy experiment.
“ Are you all right?” Jason’s voice asked.
“I think so…” I responded, getting up out of the corner I always got blown into- for the second time this weekend.
“What kind of experiment are you doing down here anyway? You’ve blown up your lab twice in two days.”
Well I’m trying to use an electrical charge to chemically fuse hydrogen and oxygen atoms with a 2:1 ratio, and keep a sustained reaction,” I explained.
“Uh-huh…” Jason mumbled with his trademark blank stare covering his face, “do you come with subtitles?”
Okay, maybe I should make this simpler. “I’m trying to make water with a spark and a few elemental gasses.”
“Why?”
“ So when there’s a drought or something else happens people can MAKE water from gasses in the atmosphere. I could solve a huge world problem!”
“But doesn’t hydrogen explode?”
“Well, yes, so does the oxygen, but-”
“But that spark is like throwing a match into a bucket of gasoline; it’s GOING to explode.”
“I guess so,” I admitted, “but the explosion wasn’t as bad this time… AND LOOK! There’s a puddle on the floor! It actually works!” Aside from the whole exploding thing…
“It’s only a few drops.”
“ More like a small puddle,” I retorted, “but let’s get upstairs before one of the smoke alarms goes off.” I led the way up the stairs before an almost satisfying sound met my ears.
“Owwww…” Jason had just slipped in “a few drops” of water.
Jason- back in his room
I was bored. I could play video games, but for some reason I wasn’t interested today… That did NOT happen often. My manga collection didn’t seem interesting either. Maybe Laureli would want to do something…
A note from the author: not that ya perverts. End.
I got up and walked into the hallway, and Bruce.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I took the time to actually look at him; he was wearing a tuxedo like he was going somewhere fancy.
“Where ya goin’?”
“ A charity luncheon,” he responded, “ I’m really not around that much. When something happens to the city I usually have to slip out of a meeting.”
That was okay with me.
“Well, I’m running late,” he announced, glancing down at his watch, “I’ll see you later.” He left at a brisk walk.
I continued my journey across the hall, threw open the closed door, and stepped inside just in time to get hit in the crotch with a shoe. I collapsed to the floor
“AH! SON OF A- OW!”
“I TOLD YOU TO KNOCK FIRST!”
“Sorry…” I managed to painfully roll up into a sitting position. I think she said something else, but I wasn’t listening because I had just become aware of something: Laureli was in a school uniform. It was strange because our school didn’t have uniforms. Then, taking a closer look I noticed something else: It looked like it had come straight out of Japan.
It was made up of a green skirt, a white shirt with a red kerchief and the collar turned into a shoulder length cape in the back. It looked, familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen it. I stared at it for a few more seconds then the answer hit me: she was dressed as Kagome. Creepy.
“Nice outfit.” I joked, “It’s really original.”
“I know! Isn’t it cute?” she enthusiastically responded, completely missing my joke, “Don’t I look just like Kagome?” No, she didn’t. Kagome had black hair, and Kagome was… well, smaller, if you know what I mean.
A note from the author: you know what I mean. End
“Yeah, you do. Dressing up like anime characters isn’t creepy at all, it’s completely normal.”
“I know it’s a little weird,” she admitted, “but it looks so cool, and besides this uniform is hot!” She started posing as if to show me her point
“Uh, it’s not kind of weird, it’s really weird.”
“SIT BOY!” Laureli demanded. She was starting to get a little too into character.
“Three things, Laureli,” I retorted, “one: that’s never going to work, two: that’s also creepy, and three: don’t mind if I do.” I stood up, plopped down on her bed and grabbed the action figure I had the other day. Another shoe flew across the room, this time hitting me in the cheek.
“Shut up,” Laureli commanded, walking in front of me. “what did you come in here for anyway?”
“I’m bored.” Was my response, “I thought you might have something to do.”
“Hmmm…” She actually seemed like she was deep in thought, it was kind of strange for such a simple question.
“I know! I’ll give you a tour of the neighborhood! We can ride our bikes and I’ll show you around!” That wouldn’t be such a bad idea; I hadn’t gotten out all weekend and I had no idea what there was around here.
“Alright, we can pick of my bike from my house and get going. Come on!”
“ Ohhh…” her voice trailed off. “Aren’t you going to change first?”
I retorted. “Aren’t you?”
“Of course I am, but what about you? You look like you just grabbed the first shirt and pair of jeans you saw in your closet and put them on.”
“So what if I did,” I defensively asked, “what’s wrong with that?”
“That’s it, before we go anywhere I’m taking you shopping!” Oh god no, anything but that.
“Laureli, No!” She grabbed my hand and started pulling me down the hall.
“Come on!”
“Nooooo!!!”
“Shut up.”
Yes ma’m…”
At the mall
If there was a god he would kill me now. I looked up at the white ceiling above my head. Waiting… waiting… guess I would have to wait. There were so many things I’d rather be doing right now: Hanging out with Mason, getting teeth pulled, burning in the fiery pits of hell, that sort of thing. I hated shopping.
Laureli had turned me into a combination pack mule/ Manikin. I already had three huge shopping bags full of clothes slung over my shoulder, and Laureli was still going strong.
“Can we please go home now?” I pleaded, “I think I have enough clothes to last me the rest of my life.”
“ But we still have three more stores left to go. We can’t stop now.”
“You enjoy doing this to me don’t you?” That was more of a complaint than a question
“Of course I do, the only thing more fun than shopping for yourself is shopping for other people.” She HAD to be kidding.
“Uhh, other people would like to disagree. They don’t like shopping very much.”
“All right, one more store.”
“Good.”
She led me into one of the stores in the mall, I wasn’t paying attention to which one it was, or even the clothes she was giving me to put on.
“Oh, that looks so cute on you!” she said when I put on one of the outfits she gave me. I wasn’t paying any attention to what she was saying.
Another store, another huge friggin’ shopping bag on my back.
“We can go now right?” I asked, anxious to leave this horrible place.
“Yes, we’re done.” She sighed. “Oh, wait, I need a new swim suit.” Great…
This time she lead me into what I assume was the swimsuit store and started browsing.
She picked some up, put some back down, and eventually only two were left.
“Jason, I need your opinion on these, okay?”
“Fine, whatever gets us out of here fastest.”
She walked into the dressing room then came back out. At that exact moment something occurred to me: Laureli was hot.
It wasn’t just the white bathing suit, although that was probably part of it, there was something else too. I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of the suit, but then again I didn’t really want to. Then another thought occurred to me: I was the last guy at school to realize this.
“Well, what do you think?” Laureli asked. She spun around once.
“Uh, it’s uh… it’s… it’s good!” Real smooth Jason, nice one, “I like it!” not much better…
“Okay, let’s try the next one.” She went back into the dressing room for a few minutes then came back out.
“How about this one?” I moved my hand up to where my chin should be like I was rubbing my chin, but all my fingers felt was my tongue.
Every time I saw a hot girl this would happen. My mouth would fall open, and the drool would flow. It was a curse. Even when I could gather the courage to talk to a girl that would scare them off, I hated it.I slyly shoved my mouth shut; I really hope she hadn’t noticed that.
If the other suit had been hot this one was on fire. I seriously didn’t know they made them that small. I quickly shifted my gaze down to my feet. Don’t look like a perv, don’t look like a perv…
“What do you think about this one?” she asked.
“Uh, it’s fine.” I never looked up from my feet.
“But you aren’t even looking. It isn’t that ugly is it? I liked it.”
I took the chance of looking up while she spun around again. Thong. There goes all the blood flow to my brain.
“Which one do you think I should get?”
Okay Jason, chill out. Think of nice, relaxing things, like ponies, the beach, hot girls in bikinis… NO! Not the last one! You can do this; just whatever you do DON’T look at her chest.
“Why don’t you buy them both? You can use the first one when you’re out in public, and the one you’re in now for when you’re at home sunbathing or something so you don’t get tan lines… or something.” Tan lines… man I was good.
A note from the author: and this isn’t even my big “plot twist.” End.
Laureli
“Jason, I need your opinion on these, okay?” I asked
“Fine, whatever gets us out of here fastest.” Jason groaned. He really must not want to be here, but it was okay, I knew how to make him feel better.
I went into the changing rooms and put on the first of the two bathing suits I had selected. It was a relatively modest white two-piece bikini, it wasn’t too revealing, but it showed a little. I walked out into the show room
“Well, what do you think?” I asked. I spun around once to let him see the whole thing
“Uh, it’s uh… it’s… it’s good! I like it!” He was stuttering… I guess that meant he liked it…
“Okay, let’s try the next one.”
I went back into the dressing room and put on the other one. It was a two-piece bikini too, but that was all it had in common with the last one. It was black, and left VERY little to the imagination. There almost was no bikini. This one would have a bigger effect…
I went back out into the show room.
“How about this one?” His jaw dropped, and his tongue flopped out along with it. He moved his hand up to his jaw and tried to shut his mouth without me seeing, but something like that is hard not to notice. He looked down at his feet.
“What do you think about this one?” I asked. I didn’t think he would have anything to complain about…
“Uh, it’s fine.” He never looked up from my feet.
“But you aren’t even looking. It isn’t that ugly is it? I liked it.” I thought he would have too, but I guess I should have stopped with the other one…
“Which one do you think I should get?” He took a second to respond.
“Why don’t you buy them both? You can use the first one when you’re out in public, and the one you’re in now for when you’re at home sunbathing or something so you don’t get tan lines… or something.” Tan lines… Sure…Nice try.
Jason- back in his room
A pile of brand new clothes sat in my corner waiting to be put into my closet, but I didn’t have time for them now- I had a few things to sort out. Laureli was hot. This was completely new to me. We had always been friends… Close friends… Friends with benefits… NO! Not that last one! We were friends, that’s all, and that’s all we would ever be. When friends go out they always seem to end up messing things up and wishing they had just stayed friends because they couldn’t even talk to each other; I wouldn’t risk that. I must sound lie a girl right now, “I won’t risk that,” But I really don’t care how I sound right now.
I got up and looked out of my window. It was dark out. Even if I was still in the mood for a bike ride now, it would have to wait until next weekend. I had better get to bed, we had school tomorrow…
The next day
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. “Jason, wake up,” a voice said.
“What is it Bruce? I’ve still got like twenty minutes of sleep left.”
“Actually it’s more like ten, but I have something to tell you. You have to take your normal route to school, or else someone might discover where you’re living.”
“Fine, just have the driver drop me off a few blocks from my house, everything will be fine. Can I go back to sleep now?”
The second week of tenth grade. Same campus same, same people.
“Is that you Jason?” Jim’s voice came from a few feet away.
“What’s up Jason?”Eddy asked
“Oh, not much, just the same old stuff.” That was about as far as far as we got before Laureli appeared- I had gotten to school before her- and Eddy was lost in her cleavage.
“Boobs!” Eddy exclaimed. When he got like this it was pretty hard it snap him back to reality. There was only one way that worked; you had to say the name of a really ugly woman, and the same name never worked twice.
“Cher!” I yelled.
“Boobs…”
“What are you doing?” Jim asked. I explained.
“Really?”
“Boobs…”
“Yeah, try and help me out, would ya Jim?”
“ Paris Hilton?”
“BOOBS!” It was a nice try, but he just went in the wrong direction…
“Uh… Michael Jackson.” I said.
“Ewww…” that brought him back fast.
“Hi guys!” Laureli said
“Well, hello…” He was still looking straight down.
“Pervert!” Laureli yelled. A quick, but hard kick to Eddy’s knee, followed the exclamation.
“OWWW!” hope fully that would teach him a lesson
Eddy looked straight back down at her chest; he never learned... Not that I could really blame him either… I think it was a new shirt she had picked up while I wasn’t looking. It was… open… in the front… I found myself riveted to the sight as well. The sight of Eddy’s twitching fingers caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at him and motioned for him to stop by moving my open hand in front of my neck. If he did what I thought he was going to do then he was in for a serious beat down…
Eddy’s hand moved away from his side before I could stop him and he grabbed “her”. “HONK HONK!” Eddy yelled, squeezing his newfound play toys.
“YOU PERVERT!” Laureli Slapped him hard, Eddy stumbled back then broke into a sprint as fast as he could with a damaged knee.
“I’LL KILL YOU!”
Everyone in the area stopped and looked at what was happening. Some started cheering on Eddy, others began rooting for Laureli; there were way more of the second one.
I pulled out my cell phone it would be needed soon. Laureli was closing the gap between Eddy and herself, she normally didn’t catch up this fast, Eddy’s knee must really have been slowing him down.
“AHHH!” Laureli had just tackled Eddy; I pressed the speed dial button on my phone, and put it up to my ear.
“ 911, how may I help you?” the voice on the other line asked.
“ Rashawnda?”
“Jason?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
She sighed, “did Eddy do it again?”
“Yup.”
“Kick him in the groin!” A female voice yelled. Laureli happily complied.
“AHHH! Mercy! Mercy!” Eddy’s voice came out higher than usual.
“DON’T CALL ME MERCY!” Laureli yelled back.
“Okay, I’ll send unit 28, they know the drill.” The voice on the other side of my phone said.
“Okay. So how’s little Sunny doing?”
“Jason,” Rashawnda’s voice replied, “Hang up the phone and make sure she doesn’t go back for seconds again, okay?”
“Fine… Bye then.”
I hung up the phone and shifted my attention back to the fight. Laureli was on top of Eddy bashing his face with her fists. I noticed that Jim hadn’t moved to help Eddy; it was a smart move. Anyone who got in the middle of Laureli’s fights got beaten as well as her original target. It also looked like she was winding down. I took my chance to grab Laureli’s arms and haul her off of Eddy.
“If you EVER do that again I won’t let you off easy!”
“Ohhh… It hurts…” I kinda felt sorry for Eddy…
“ Has this happened before?” Jim asked.
“ Yeah, but I lost count after about 50…” I responded.
The ambulance arrived and the medics scooped up the crumpled mess that was Eddy onto a stretcher. The medics pulled the stretcher past Laureli and she stopped it.
“Do that one more time and next time you’ll be in a body bag.”
“I couldn’t help it,” He weakly replied, “They’re so big…”
“I see…” Laureli’s elbow found it’s way into Eddy’s gut.
“Get him away from me.”
Math class: evil pure and simple. The only thing that made it slightly better than torture was the fact that I sat next to Laureli.
“That was some beating you gave Eddy,” I whispered across the isle.
“He deserved it, the perv.”
“Yeah… But now you’re going to be attacked by ‘The Nurse’ oooooh.”
“Mr. Barrows,” The math teacher interrupted, “would you like to tell me what X equals in the equation on page 5?”
I looked at the equation. It took up half of a page and I had no idea what half of the symbols on it meant, so I said what I always said when I didn’t know something.
“Uh… twenty-two?” The teacher shot me an angry glare.
“That is correct Mr. Barrows. Now, if you’ll turn to page six…”
“Anyway,” Laureli said returning to our conversation, “I’m not worried about her. Even if she does try to do something she can’t take me.”
Lunchtime! Jim and Laureli sat around the table. There was a tray of completely unrecognizable, but also extremely delicious gray meat on it.
“Jason, Do you want this?” Jim asked. I immediately shoved my fork into his meat and pulled it across the table. The meat slipped off of the fork about half way across the table and bounced its way onto my tray, but that was where I wanted it anyway, so I didn’t care.
“Did you see that?” Jim asked.
“At least mine is good.” Laureli boasted, “Especially the Calamari.” She had a huge sushi platter in front of her.
“Can I have a piece?!” Jim asked.
After we ate everyone went outside, with the exception of Eddy who was still at the hospital. We were on our way to our normal spot on the football field bleachers when a voice stopped us.
“Excuse me, are you Laureli?” The female voice asked.
“Yes, w-” She was interrupted when the woman’s fist flew at her face. She knocked the blow away with one of her hands.
I instinctively stepped back. Even with my training I didn’t think getting into this fight would be a good idea.
“I told you that if you hurt that boy one more time you would hear from me, and you sent him the hospital!”
“So, he deserved it, the pervert.”
“Who is this lady?” I asked myself out loud.
“Do you think she could be the new nurse? Her name was Mrs. Claymore, wasn’t it?” Jim asked.
That would explain the white nurse’s uniform. She even had the stereotypical white hat with the red cross on it, although her cane did seem out of place.
Nurse Claymore’s cane came off the ground and swung straight towards Laureli’s stomach. Laureli leaned forward and the move missed.
“Is that all you’ve got old lady?” Laureli taunted.
The two fighters began to slowly circle each other. Laureli jumped up, and when her knee was at the height of Claymore’s head and threw a kick to the side of her face. The nurse ducked and countered with a quick slash at Laureli’s knee when she landed, but the move failed because Laureli jumped over it. Both of them jumped back to calculate their next move, and the circling continued.
The nurse was holding her cane sword style, and it looked strange for a wooden cane to be held that way. Another thing that was strange was how she was using the cane. It seemed like she had some experience with a sword.
A sudden movement brought me back to the fight. Clay more charged in with her cane held high above her head, and brought it down towards Laureli’s head. Again, the move was blocked, but Laureli’s came in towards the nurse, that punch was caught. Now both of them were wide open to any attack. Laureli acted first with a fast round kick to the side of Claymore’s body and she stumbled back.
“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had a worthy opponent.” Nurse Claymore said, “Now I can pick up the pace a little.”
“Fine then, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Laureli closed the gap between them again, but before she could do anything the nurse caught her between her cane and foot, both attacks landed. Laureli staggered back, but she was followed by the nurse’s hand and cane. The nurse’s cane hit her in the knee, and her hit smacked Laureli straight in the eye. That would leave a bruise.
“Dude, look at that shirt!” someone from the crowd that had gathered said, “something could pop out!” Two people were fighting and all he could worry about were Laureli’s boobs; what a pervert. I was getting worried about Laureli though; this fight wasn’t going well for her.If this kept up I would have to at least try and do something soon…
Laureli looked slightly dizzy from the head blow, and Nurse Claymore didn’t miss the chance that provided.She delivered another blow to Laureli’s head with her cane, and a strong kick to her shoulder. Laureli was completely out of it now.Nurse Claymore raised her cane again, and shoved the end of it right under Laureli’s ribcage; it was a common move to make your opponent’s lungs temporally collapse, or in other words knock the wind out of them. Laureli fell, hard,, and she didn’t get back up from her back; that was all I could I could take.
I ran over to break up the fight, but before I could get over to the two of them Claymore had straddled Laureli’s body for another stab. I grabbed the middle of the cane with both hands and also straddled Laureli. I looked the nurse straight in the eye.
“Enough!” I heard Laureli’s exaggerated inhalation followed by heavy panting as she got her breath back.
I felt the nurse loosen her death grip on the cane and I let go completely. She took several steps back and turned away.
“Next time,” she threatened, “your little boyfriend won’t be able to help you.”
“Hey!” we weren’t going out. The nurse took a few more stops, the spoke over her shoulder again.
“And you better not come to me for an ice pack either.”
I had never seen Laureli lose fight before, never at all- and she had been in plenty. Nurse Claymore had taken her down so easily it was almost surreal. Come to think of it the villains I had seen her fight on TV never stood a chance either…
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Laureli’s voice came from behind me. “I almost had her.” I moved from over her to her side and knelt down.
“I know, but I couldn’t let you beat her too bad. We wouldn’t want you to get arrested would we?”
“Are you okay?” Jim asked rushing over now that the fight was over. Laureli sat up.
“Yes, I’m okay, but she’s the one who should get arrested.” Oh yeah, what had just happened probably was illegal…
Finally school was over. I had time to blow off my homework and relax. I surveyed my new room from the door. I could hit my Gamecube, read some Manga, or watch TV. I headed for my heavily used Gamecube, but before I could press the power button an alarm went off somewhere in the house. I rushed into Laureli’s room to ask her what was going on, but she met me in the hall.
“Come on!”
She led me down the stairs to the first floor, then down another pair into the Cat cave.The trip took more time than I thought it should because of Laureli’s injury, but we made it in a reasonable amount of time. She stopped behind Catman’s chair in front of the huge Catcave computer monitor and I walked up next to her
“What’s going on Catman?” Laureli asked.
“There’s a bank- WHOA! What happened to you?”Catman half said, half asked.
Laureli did look pretty messed up. She had a black eye that was completely swollen shut and several bruises on her arms from where she had blocked Nurse Claymore’s attacks. She wouldn’t be able to fight this one.
“I fell,” she lied, “now what’s going on?”
“There’s a robbery at the First National Bank. There are three armed robbers in the safe room now.”
“Okay let’s go!”
“Actually, I think you might want to sit this one out,” I recommended, “ You’re kind of beat up.”
“No, I’m fine!”She insisted. I poked her in the side just to see.
“OW!”
Maybe he’s right,” Catman agreed, “Why don’t you provide some tactical support?”
In front of the bank
I hopped out of the Catmobile and surveyed the scene. the bank was an unremarkable brick building with clean class doors. There was one patrol car in front of the building, and the officer looked like he was on break more than in front of a bank that was being robbed.
I had on my ninja outfit. It was all black with a hood and lower facemask, almost skin tight (it would have bee n kind of creepy if it was skin tight), and I had three throwing knives in pockets on each hip. I was ready for action.
“So, how do we get in? … Okay, if you say so.”
“Are you talking to yourself Catman?”
“No, of course not. Oh! I must have forgotten to give you an earpiece! Here.”
He handed me the tiny microphone, speaker combo and I put in on my ear under the tight hood.
“Come on.” Catman said. He led me to a door inside the bank.
“Okay,” Laureli’s voice said in my left ear, “Here’s the deal. I’ve hacked into the bank’s computer system, and I have live feed from the cameras in the safe room.” That was Laureli, all around super genius; it was impossible to tell what she would pull out of her sleeve next.
She continued. “There are three armed robbers in side that room. One next to the door with a machine gun, one picking the lock on the safe that isn’t near his gun, and one between the two watching the other one pick a lock. It looks like he has a semi-auto handgun.”
“How close is the one to the door?” I asked.
“Right next to the jamb, he’s on the right of the door if you’re going to do what I think you’re going to do.” Perfect.
“And where is the safe?” Catman asked.
“Straight across from the door.”
“Good.” He responded. “Jason can you help me with this lock?”
“Sure, I’ll take the one by the door and the one at the safe.”
“Are you sure you can take two on your first time out?”
“Yeah, now move out of the way!”
He did. I took several steps back and ran towards the door. My feet came of the ground and my left foot slammed hard into the door. The door flew open hard and I heard a moan from behind the door; one bad guy down. I dashed across the small room before the middle guy had a chance to react. By the time I had reached him he had managed to pick up his gun and was trying to stand up. I kicked his weapon out of his hand, and another kick sent his head into the steel safe door behind him. He was out like a light.
“DON’T MOVE!”
I slowly turned around. The ONE robber Catman had to take out now had him in a headlock with a gun pointed at his head.
“Don’t move or I’ll blow his freakin’ head off!”
“Damn it Catman!” I exclaimed. I made my body slump forward in an exaggerated show of frustration so Catman’s captor couldn’t see my left hand, which pulled one of my throwing knives out of its case.
The knives I used were collapsible, almost like a pocketknife, but balanced for throwing. Their casing – which was also the handle-, was black with many tiny pyramids sticking up for grip. The blade itself was painted black with only the edge of the blade shining silver. There was a lock on the back of the case that would keep the blade open once I had chosen to do so, and collapse it if I pressed it in. The entire thing blended in perfectly with the black fabric of my gloves.
I concealed the knife in the palm of my hand.
“Put your hands behind your head!” He yelled. I complied.
“Catman, How did you get caught that fast?!” I hoped he said something back.
“It was your fault, he saw you coming!”
“SHUT UP!” The armed man yelled.
He had made the escape of looking at Catman when he spoke. His temple was exposed to me and I didn’t miss my chance. I brought my hand from behind my head and threw the knife as hard as I could. I had left the blade shut because if I hadn’t it would have gone straight through his skull; an edge like that wasn’t anything to play around with. If it hit the right spot on his temple it would knock him out or daze him, and if it didn’t Catman might get shot.
The knife hit him right where I wanted, and the captor stumbled back. Catman grabbed his gun arm and swung it upwards so the gun was pointed away from me. He threw an elbow into the bad guy’s chest, then spun around and hit with an uppercut. A fast hook punch knocked the robber out of the conscious world.
We left the crooks in a pile in front of the squad car where the officer was still apparently “on break,” and headed back to the Catcave. The trip was eerily silent; probably because Catman had just been saved by a newbie on his first time out. I love it when I do stuff like that, it makes me feel heroic. It also made Catman look like an idiot, a complete idiot.
At school the next day
“Did you see the news yesterday?” Jim asked excitedly.
“Yeah,” Eddy replied, “Whoever that new guy is he’s pretty good. He took out one just by coming in! Oh, and when he softened that other guy up for Catman, that was pretty sweet!”
Eddy had apparently gotten back from the hospital today. He had his left arm and his right foot in a cast, and a crutch under each shoulder. Aside from that he looked relatively unharmed, unlike Laureli who had just walked up behind me.
“Hey guy’s what’s up?” Laureli asked.
“We were just talking about the- Holllly crap what happened to you?” (Laureli was still bruised)
“I fell.”
“Jim what really happened?” Eddy asked
“Would you believe the new nurse had a word with her yesterday after lunch?”
“Nope, but anyway it’s too bad The Kitten wasn’t there. If she was everything would have been perfect: you would have boobs and a fight all in the same place.”
“Remember,” Laureli whispered in my ear, “don’t get too full of yourself and blurt something out. If you give away your identity there’s no telling what could happen.” But it was so hard…
“I wish I had stuff like that, my mom would never trust me with a knife.” Eddy said. I couldn’t really blame his mom for that one…
“MASON!” A voice from behind me yelled.
I turned to see who was talking to him. All I saw was a blur of yellow hair coming at me before I hit the ground.
“ You must be slipping Mason, I’ve never tackled you before!”
“I’m not Mason, now get the HELL off of me Carla!” She propped herself up with her arms.
“ YOU can call me Candy. Has anyone ever told you how much you look like your brother?”
“Obviously, we’re twins, now get off of me and go away!”
“You know, I could never get your brother to pay any attention to me, he wouldn’t even respond to me… That’s it! I’ve decided you’re going to be my new lover!” I grabbed her face and shoved her off of me.
“You can’t just decide that for someone! Are you crazy?”
“Are you nuts? Come on you moron.” He grabbed my wrist, pulled me off the ground and half dragged me several feet away.
Remember a long time ago when I told you Laureli was the second hottest girl at school? Well, Carla, AKA Candy, was number one. It wasn’t that Carla was actually any better looking, she was just easier. Carla was almost the exact opposite of Laureli in every way. Laureli was smart, Carla was not, Laureli could fight, Carla could not, Laureli had self-respect, Carla sure as heck did not; it was kind of scary in a way.
“What’s wrong with you?” Eddy asked with his hands wrapped in the collar of my shirt. I sent my knee into his gut and he let go.
“I something most people like to call morals, Eddy. You should get some.”
“But you know what kind of reputation she has dude!” Yeah, I did and she had earned with almost every guy at school.
“How could you pass that up?!” I ignored him and headed to class.
Lunch again! Food galore!
“HI JASON!” Oh no, that voice… she was back. The evil witch sat down at her table, and it didn’t look like she was going to leave…
“Jason… Jason…” Just ignore her Jason…
“Jason… Jason… “
“What? What do you want?!”
“You’re so mean!” She acted like she was crying but it was pretty obvious she wasn’t. Eddy rushed over to comfort her.
“Awww… Is Jason being mean?” Baby talk? He must have been trying to move in on her. He could take her.
“Mm-hm.”
“Ohhhhh.” This was sickening.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this Laureli, but she just completely ruined my lunch.”
We were on our way to science class after lunch.
“Don’t worry about it Jason. She’s just a little annoying, you’d never do anything, right?”
“Yeah, you’re prob-”
“Jason are you okay?!” I had just walked into a cement support pillar.
“I think so…” I responded.
We started walking again, but this time I walked on Laureli’s other side.
“Any way you’re prob-” *Smack* I ran into a wall this time.
“You’ve got to start watching where you’re going.”
“I CAN’T TALK TO YOU AND WALK AT THE SAME TIME!” Man, I really couldn’t wait till this week was over…
“You know Laureli I seem to remember being promised a guided tour.”Jason said from the open doorway to my room. I shut the physics book I was reading and put it down.
“All right,” I said, “get your bike and let’s go!”
I showed him everything in the area, the corner convenience store, the helipad, the private club and spa, and lastly, the park.
“And this is the park. That’s everything, let’s go home.” I turned and crossed the street, but the sound of Jason’s brakes stopped me from going any further. I walked my bike back across the street, then dropped it and jogged to where Jason was standing.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. He was staring intently at a tree for some reason.
“Does something feel strange to you? Like there’s something special about this tree?”
“Um, no… Why do you feel something?”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure what…” This continued for several more minutes, until something happened.
“Jason, beneath you!” A circle of light had appeared under his feet, and he fell through it. Before I could react the circle expanded and I too was falling through it.
I was completely surrounded by a pure, white light that was almost blinding. I could see Jason’s silhouette beneath me. There was no ground under me, and the air movement turned me so that I was falling flat on my stomach. Jason’s silhouette disappeared.
“JASON!” I called out. That was all I had time to do before I left the light and the ground rushed up at me. After that there was darkness.
I opened my eyes, and pushed myself off of the ground with my elbows.
“Well, I see you’re awake.” A mysterious voice said.
I stood up, slowly; my head hurt. I took a brief second to survey my surroundings; there were wooden bookcases with no visible tops as far as I could see there was an earth colored carpet under my feet, and it seemed to stretch out endlessly in every direction. To my left there was a doughnut shaped desk, with piles of book on every inch of it. There was a man sitting in a chair inside of the perimeter
“Where am I?…And who are you?”
“You are in the library of souls, and I am the librarian. You’ve probably never heard of this place before so allow me to explain. The library of soul is where every soul goes when it’s perspective body dies. We sort the souls here into black and white books. Any questions?”
“Yeah, have you seen a boy, a few inches taller than me, with short black hair come by here?”
“Inches?”
I showed the man behind the counter how much taller Jason was.
“Oh, yes, he went that way,” He said pointing off behind me, “he wanted me to watch you, to make sure you stayed here.”
“Well if you’re going to watch me you’d better get ready to go; I’m going after Jason.”
“But I can’t leave this desk for any reason.”
“Well then I guess you can’t stop me.”
“No, but I can give you this.” He produced burlap sack from under the desk. “Here, you might need this.”
He tossed me a bag. Inside there were packages of junk food and bottled water. How big was this place?
“Good luck!”
“Uh, thanks…”
I left down the isle he had pointed towards. I walked down and picked up one of the black books and opened it to see what was inside. All of the pages were blank. I flipped through the pages to see if there was anything written on any of them, but there was a corked tube in the middle of the book in side of a pocket made by cutting out the center of many of the pages. The vial was all glass, and there was a swirling, shining gas inside; interesting. I wanted to investigate more, but the longer I waited the farther away Jason could be getting.
Several more hours passed, I had completely lost track of time. Steps echoed in the distance, I ran toward them and saw exactly what I wanted to see.
“Jason!”
“Laureli? I thought I told you to stay at the filing desk with the librarian!” Something wasn’t right here…
“You told me to stay? I tell you to stay! Sit boy!” Then, something unexpected happened: He fell flat on his face.
“What the Hell?!” Jason exclaimed from his new spot on the floor.
“What just happened?”
“Just say good boy so I can get up.”
“Good boy?” He promptly stood back up. “How did you know I had to say that?”
“Well, that’s how it works on Inuyasha right?”
“No.” Something was wrong; I could sense it.
“Hey, do I smell food in that sack?”
“Yeah, there’s food in there, but-” But it was all in sealed bags, there was no way he could smell that…
“Great!” He reached out and grabbed a bag of chips from the sack. “Now, which way is out?”
I led the way without saying a word. He was following me so he was slightly behind me on my left side.
“Hey, Jason,” I said.
“What’s-” I stopped and threw my left arm straight out. He easily stopped before he ran into my arm.
“What’d you do that for?”
“Who are you?” I asked. “And what did you do with Jason?” He wasn’t acting the way Jason normally would; he was acting more like Mason.
“Well,” The impersonator said. His voice suddenly deepened, taking on a far more mature tone. “It is not often someone discovers my identity so soon.”
A note from the author: And that Ladies and gentlemen is the plot twist. Twisty, isn’t it? End.
“DISCOVERS YOUR IDENTITY?! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO WITH JASON?
I threw a quick punch at his face, he dodged, and stepped back.
“I am Jason now. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I ran at him, jumped into a kick, and knocked whoever this was against a bookcase.
“Well, you’re a feisty one aren’t you?”
“You’re damn right I’m feisty!” Now what did you do with Jason?”
“I told you I am Jason!” He ran at me with his left fist and the air and threw out his punch, which I caught easily. It wasn’t a very good punch but it was really strong…
“Not much of a fighter are you?” I asked. He couldn’t stop any of my attacks or land a simple punch.
“I’m used to having a sword, this is a little different for me.” Heh, too weak to fight without a weapon. I threw him off balance with the hand he had just tried to punch me with it and hit him with a solid kick to the side, sending him to the ground. I tried to jump on him, but he rolled out of the way. He reached around into Jason’s back pocket and pulled out one of the three throwing knives Jason kept hidden in his back pocket.
“Well, this might be to my advantage.” He flicked the blade open and admired the knife. “Now, let us try this again.” I grabbed a book from behind me to use as a shield. I ran at him to make him use the knife, he easily fell into my trap and the blade plunged deep into the book. I pulled the book away, and the knife came with it.
“Why am I even wasting my time fighting you?” I asked. I was so stupid! I already knew his weakness and I hadn’t used it! “Sit boy!” Again he fell flat on his face, arms spread wide. I walked over to him. “Roll over.” He did. “Now, I’m going to ask you one more time! Where is Jason?”
“I already told you I AM Jason.”
“Jason would never fight me. I don’t think he even could.” He sighed.
“What I mean is that I will be assuming Jason’s role in this world now. I have taken his body for my own.” I didn’t believe this. I knelt down beside his right side to get closer to his face
“And exactly who are you? What make you think you can just waltz in and take over someone’s body, if you are telling the truth.”
“ I am an immortal I do not have a body, so I must use the bodies of others. It is not something I enjoy.”
“An… Immortal? You don’t have a body? Why Jason’s?”
“ Yes, I am an immortal, protector of the human race. I do not have a body because mine died long ago. I have chosen the body of this boy because it possesses great energy. I called him here myself. You were not meant to be here, I apologize. I would also like to apologize for this.” His left hand snaked around and delivered a hard punch to my temple, knocking me back. I stood up as quickly as I could, but he was on his feet first, and hit me with another hard punch I couldn’t block because I was seeing double. After that second punch everything went dark.
I woke up a while later slung over this person’s back like an old sack. My wrists were tied together and my ankles were too. Whoever this was really didn’t want me going anywhere. He was walking, presumably towards the exit.
“Who are you anyway?” I asked.
“I am an Immortal.”
“I mean what is your name?”’
“My name?” He stopped walking for a moment “My name… is John. Yes, that will do quite nicely.” John? That was kind of unoriginal.
“Well then John, would you untie my legs and let me down so I can walk? This is embarrassing.” If he would untie me then I could make him bring back Jason…
“No. I have noticed that you use your feet for attack more often than your hands.”
“Sit boy!” Again he fell forward allowing me to wiggle out from under him and squirm to my feet. “Good boy.”
“You didn’t try to run away?” He asked, getting to his feet.
“No,” I responded, “You’re the only one who knows what happened to Jason, and if I run away I’ll never find out where he is.”
“Let me explain this to you. When I enter a body I fuse with it and the spirit that was there before is removed and sent down here-”
“YOU MEAN THE PERSON IS KILLED?!”
“Well, you might say that, but anyway I take the body over and perform my duties.”
“YOU’RE TRYING TO TELL ME JASON IS DEAD?”
“I suppose that would be correct.”
“NO! I don’t believe that! Jason must be in there somewhere! You can’t just kill him that easily!”
“You will adjust.”
“NO! JASON! JASON!” He sighed and began walking away. I hopped after him, still screaming Jason’s name.
I must have kept that up for at least fifteen minutes before I tripped. Jason really wasn’t there… I sobbed, the tears running down my face. I couldn’t believe this was happening; it couldn’t be.
“MURDERER!”
He stopped, looked at me, then kept walking, but it looked like he tripped. He started writhing on the ground, fighting with himself.
“A little help here!” That was Jason’s voice!
“Jason?”
“Yeah, now come help me damn it!”
I ran over to his spot on the ground. His left hand was trying to punch his right side, and the right hand was blocking
“What do I do?”
“Kick! Just kick!”
“My feet are tied!”
“Then grab a knife out of my back pocket!” Luckily my hands were tied in front of me, and a knife had already fallen out. I cut my hands loose then tried to untie my feet, but I fell against a bookcase before I cut the pack’s strap off of my ankles. I got up and I kicked with all my might. It seemed to be having an effect.
“STOP!” John’s voice yelled.
“Not until you leave!” Jason retorted. I stopped to see what would happen.
“I can’t!”John exclaimed. “I am already partially fused. I cannot lave this body now, I can not leave.”
“You can’t?” I asked. So, this was all real then…
“No. I have never had a body that fought back, and I do not believe that this would be best for either of us, but I cannot leave.”
“So, I’m stuck sharing my body with a complete stranger who talks like he’s a robot?” Jason asked.
“That is correct. However it is possible that I may be able to help you since I will be unable to perform my duties while we are sharing a body. It would be as if you had your own guardian angel.” Okay then…
“I’ll pass on the guardian angel thing, but I wouldn’t mind having someone to stop me from looking like such an idiot.”
“Indeed? Come, we can talk more in private.” He began walking down the isles toward the exit again.
“Come on Laureli!” Oh, right. We have to get out of here.
Jason
This had been a seriously weird day. First I end up in some “Library of souls,” and now I’m forced to share MY body with some spirit who is supposed to protest all of mankind. All of this might not end up being so bad though; I could use someone to help me with my drooling problem.
The sound if breaking glass disturbed my thoughts and I whirled around to see a thin black fog creeping along the ground near Laureli’s feet.
“What is this?” Laureli’s muffled voice asked. She had her arm over her mouth like whatever this was could be poisonous. I suppose it could be, I hadn’t really thought of it.
“Do not worry.” John said. “What you see around your feet is not poisonous, it merely happens whenever a damned spirit is released.”
“A damned spirit?” Laureli asked.
“Yes,” John responded, “I am not sure exactly what that is, but I know it is not harmful. If that had been a white book the smoke would have been white as well.”
It felt really weird when John spoke through my mouth or moved my limbs. It was almost like I was watching a movie a movie of myself; I wasn’t doing it, but I was still completely aware that it was happening- I could feel it. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling either…
Laureli picked up the book that had contained the vile that was now spewing this black blanket of fog.
“Bob Calvados…” Laureli read, “That’s the name on the book’s spine. Is that whose soul was released?”
“Yes,” my new friend answered, “Another disembodied soul wandering the earth for all of eternity, although he would probably prefer wandering over hell.”
“Ok two things,” I said, begging my lecture, “One: Stop doing that! And two: What do you mean heck?”
“It is not heck, not hell-”
“Yeah, well I only curse when I really mean it, normally I find a substitute, but go on.”
“Yes, well the black books indicate that the soul dwelling within has been doomed to an eternity in hell. The white books mean that the perspective soul with that book is in heaven. You could say that these books are heaven and hell.” That was weird.
“Well, we should be go-” Laureli stopped mid sentence. Her entire body stiffened and went completely straight, and her eyes widened as far as they could possibly open. What was happening now?
“Laureli?” My voice sounded weak, and my whole body was numb with fear, and my feet felt like lead.
Suddenly she slumped to the ground, and her eyes closed until they were only half open.
“No…” John’s voice came from close by, but that strange feeling I normally had when he spoke was gone, however it did still feel like I was watching a movie- there was just no feeling now.I watched myself take several steps forward.
“What is it john?” I asked, but no sound came from my mouth, I couldn’t hear my own words.
Laureli sprang back up, looked in over at us, and ran in the opposite direction at a pace no human could possibly match. The image I saw ran after her, but it was hopeless, I wasn’t running fast enough to catch up, but the image suddenly accelerated to almost the same speed. The books and rows flew by in pursuit of Laureli, and I still didn’t know what was happening.
“John! What’s going on? John! John!” I fought to make my voice heard. Suddenly I found myself surrounded in complete darkness. I could still see the images of the world in front of my body, but there was another image now of complete darkness. There were no walls, there was no ceiling, just darkness, and where I was standing. John’s voice came from behind me in the darkness.
“Jason.”
I spun to see him standing before me.
He was a few inches taller than I was, the top of my head being just below his eye level. His hair was whiter than a little old lady’s and looked like it went down to the bottom edge of his shoulder blades. His face was sharp, every feature accented, but what really stood out about him were his eyes. The Dark blue irises provided a stark contrast from his light skin and pale hair. In the darkness it was almost as if there was a spotlight on him, because he was the only thing I could see. His clothes were… different to say the least. They reminded me off something you would see in an old samurai, but I didn’t have much time to look before he spoke.
“I believe your friend may have just been possessed.” Possessed… like by a demon? Like in the movies? No way…
“What do you possessed? You mean like by a demon?”
“Yes, that may have been what was happening when she fell.”
Fear suddenly gripped my body again. “What happens now?” I asked, trying to comprehend what was happening now.
“I do not know, but we must catch her now or there is no telling what harm could come to this world.”
A note from the author: Sorry the update was so short this week, but I was busy and many of my loyal readers didn’t even finish reading the last update. End.
I snapped my attention back to the real world and watched what was happening. John was running after Laureli, the books and isles of bookcases flew by in a blur. Suddenly she- or whatever this thing we were chasing was- took a right down own of the isles and I lost sight of her, but John didn’t skip a beat, followed, and I soon saw her again. The chase continued, but it seemed as though it was at a slightly slower pace; it seemed as though both John and Laureli were beginning to tire. In another effort to elude us the demon dove through on of the cases onto its other side, sending splinters of wood everywhere. John did the same, also breaking through the thin piece of wood that divided the case into two halves, but there was no one there when we got through.
“Where did she go?” I asked.
“Not out loud!” His voice hissed from the darkness. “You will tell him where we are.”
“So then how do we find him?”
“ I need silence.”
The sight in front of me went dark as john closed his eyes. The sound of heavy breathing was all that I heard, and then the sound of sniffing reached my ears. A light, flowery scent wafted into my nose. It was… It was… deodorant? I heard several more sniffs. Yup, now doubt about it, that must be Laureli’s deodorant; the only problem was that I COULD smell it. It wasn’t perfume I smelled, it was definitely deodorant, which I shouldn’t have been able to smell unless she had me in a headlock (the sad thing is that’s happened before).
John
I caught the scent of the girl I was looking for and sprinted towards the direction where the scent was strongest.
“John,” Jason’s voice said, “How come I can smell Laureli?”
“I will tell you later.” I answered. This boy was quite curious.
The truth was that every immortal has an ability no human has, and a wolf-like sense of smell was mine, because I am the immortal wolf. He would be even more surprised about what will happen once we are fully fused.
I continued chasing my quarry, I stopped at the end of every aisle, sniffed and followed the scent in the direction it lead. The scent continued to become stronger, indicating that I was getting closer and the demon had stopped; this chase would be over soon. In the middle of a row I stopped, and took in several sniffs.
“Why did we stop?” Jason asked silently.
“ The scent stops here. It is all around us, but it does not go any farther forward. I do not know where she has gone.
“Look up.” He said after a moment of silence, which was apparently thought. “In the movies whenever something like this happens the bad guy is always above the completely oblivious hero. That and when something like this happened at training camp the other guy was always above me.” Hmm… it was at least worth investigating… I quickly flicked my gaze upwards. There she sat, standing on the shelf as if it were a ladder- just where I wanted her. I pulled one of the knives from my back pocket, flicked the blade open and threw it as hard as I could. She leapt out of the way of the blade, and one of the tubes on the shelf- pierced by the blade- began spewing white smoke, creating a dense fog obscuring all vision save for a few feet in front of my face.
“WHAT THE HELL?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL HER?” Jason’s voice blared out of our mouth for the entire world to hear. “I WON’T LET YOU!”
Fool… Letting his feelings out like that would get him killed, and I did not care to lose this body. “We do not have time for this now. If we sit here and discuss matters he may escape.”
“I DON’T CARE IF HE GETS AWAY! YOU JUST THREW A KNIFE AT MY BEST FRIEND!” He again said everything out loud.
“Actually,” Laureli’s voice said from the fog, “I’ve had enough if this damn running. I don’t know who you are, or how you followed me, but it’s time for you to DIE!”
I widened my stance. There was about to be a fight.
“HAAAA!” She yelled, the fog rippled and she burst through, charging with her right fist up. The punch flew out into empty air; I had jumped above it, my feet completely over his head. I held back in my fight with the girl, but now I could unleash everything I had. I extended an energy kick, it landed and sent him flying into a bookcase; books fell everywhere.
“I see… So you know the art of energy fighting as well?” He asked.
“Oh yes.”
Energy fighting involves using your spiritual energy to put more power into your blows. With it the possession of super human strength becomes almost normal. I am a fighter of this art and it appears as if my opponent was as well. This fight would prove to be quite interesting.
The demon jumped at me in an attempt to tackle and succeeded. We both went to the ground, and tumbled, each of us pummeling the other. The demon sent a kick into my stomach and I flew into the air. It hurt badly, but I was used to the pain. I made a gentle landing and prepared to launch my counter attack.
“Stop this now!” Jason had a complete inability to keep silent. “You can’t fight her.”
A fist flew into my jaw and I stumbled back. I blocked another flurry of punches thrown at various places on my body; there were 15 in total.
“Say something!”A kick hit my chest; my body flew back, bounced on the ground several times and skidded to a halt.
“I can not talk to you and fight at the same time.”
“Then stop fighting!” Jason demanded
I charged the demon landed a solid punch into his chest, and he slid back. Before he had a chance to regain his balance and block me I ran, swung a kick from the ground into his chin and sent him careening into a bookcase. This time instead of falling he somehow managed to grab a bookcase and he hung there glaring at me. I pulled another knife out of my pocket and threw it, the demon swung out of the way and more black smoke bellowed out of it.
I jumped between the bookcases, back and forth, to reach his level. From the bookcase opposite him I jumped across with my fist straight out, but he jumped above me before I could hit him, so my hand merely struck more books and produced a more dense fog. I grabbed a shelf with one hand and hung there. I couldn’t see anything at all because of this fog, it would be a very bad idea to stay in this spot. I pulled my self into the air, above the fog now. It was almost as if I was still standing on the ground.
A faint glint of steel appeared before me. My adversary hung on the case in front of me, the knife I had just thrown in his hand.
“Bad!” Jason’s voice silently whispered.
“Indeed.”
I pulled the final remaining knife out of Jason’s back pocket. I would need it.
The girl’s body suddenly hurdled towards me, the deadly piece of steel straight out. I let go of my grip on the shelf and once again fell into the fog. I used the veil to maneuver carefully around my now armed opponent. If he stayed where he had been I should be in perfect reconnaissance range, just to see how he was standing before I made my attack. I slowly climbed up my case like it was a ladder, but I managed to keep myself facing towards the other bookcase. I slowly slid my head up out of the fog to see where he was. Nothing but books entered my sight.
“John, stop this!”Jason’s voice demanded. I ignored him.
I heard rustling above me and quickly looked up. I barely had enough time to raise my knife in front of my face before the demon’s blade struck my weapon. His knife slid down mine, taking off every speck of paint and sending out a shower of sparks. The demon fell through the fog. A glow caught my attention- one of the books had caught fire! The sparks must have caused this. I grabbed the book and threw it to the ground below before it caught anything else on fire; any kind of flame in this place could be deadly.
I crawled farther up the shelf to distance myself from the fog so that I would have more time to react when the demon attacked- he was on the ground and I did not know where he was. Suddenly he burst up out of the fog, just under an arm’s length. I knew I had climbed up, but he had overestimated how far I had climbed. He extended the knife, but he was too high to hit me. This was my chance.
I swung a foot and kicked him in the arm, just below the wrist. The blow made his hand open, the knife fell out, and I grabbed it. When the demon fell back past me I grabbed him and literally rode him to the ground. When we reached the ground I jumped off and put both knives back in my pocket; I might need them later. The demon in front of me slowly staggered to his feet. He was quite resilient.
The demon ran at me again; a flying kick almost hit me square in the chest before I stepped outside of it.I prepared to swing a kick to his side, but I found my feet strangely cemented to the floor. Whoever this demon was wouldn’t miss this open opportunity to hit me. I kick from the demon hit the bottom of my jaw hard and I found myself soaring above the ground of the library. My arms had moved on their own to block the kick, but they did not have nearly enough power to block such a powerful attack. Jason was involving himself in a fight he did not have the skill to be in.
“Jason do not do this! You could die!’
“Don’t do this? Who are you to talk? I won’t let you do this to Laureli!” So… He was willing to risk his life for this girl… I wasn’t; I suppose I would have to try this the hard way.
“Jason, I may be able to save her, but I need full control of our body and a small amount of trust from you. If you want to see her again I will need to place several more attacks. Please let me.” I let my attention shift back to the darkness where Jason was standing. His back was turned to me so I couldn’t see his face.
“Fine.” I shifted back to the real world.
I returned just in time to face a ferocious kick to the face from my opponent. The blow knocked me upwards at an angle, I flew through three bookcases, slammed into a fourth and fell to the ground; it was about a thirty foot drop. I heard Bob –which was quite an unusual name for a demon- crash through several cases and jumped on top of me before I could stand up. Luckily I had the time to bring my knee into my chest and coil up for a kick. He pulled back a punch, but I let my foot loose into his chest, he crashed into the bookcase in front of me, bounced off, and landed in the ground face up close to where I was standing. I leapt on top of him, and grabbed his right hand with my left. I used my free hand to karate chop his right shoulder.
“AHHH!” A loud cry of pain came from the demon.
“WHAT THE HELL-”
“I am almost done.”
He wouldn’t be able to use that arm for quite a while. I pinned down the working arm with my free hand, dropped the one I had just dislocated and wrapped my now free hand around her neck.
“You’re going to exorcise me?” He asked.
“Yes.” I responded. This fight was over.
“You can’t exorcise me you stupid bastard!” He wasn’t using Laureli’s voice anymore. The one that came out now was as deep as mine and the tone was mocking. “If you try to remove me you could kill Laureli, and I don’t think Jason wouldn’t be very happy about that.”
“John!” Jason exclaimed.
“ The risk is small. He has not had enough time to fuse. I should be able to remove him without harming her.”
“I’m already fused enough to access her memories!” The demon added
“YOU DIDN’T TELL ME YOUR PLAN COULD KILL HER!” He yelled aloud again. Any veil of secrecy that was left was now gone, the demon could read him like a book.
“I thought so…” The man’s voice boasted.
“I WON’T LET YOU DO THIS!”
“Jason, I need you to trust-”
“I ALREADY TRUSTED YOU!” He managed to keep his voice between us this time, “And you are still trying to kill my best friend! I already gave you a chance. It was foolish in the first place.”
I felt my grip on the demon slowly loosening as Jason once again took over.
“Fine.” I allowed myself to speak out loud. My grip stopped loosening and there was still one thing I could do.
I tightened my grip on the evil being in front if me and began a low chant.
“John if you’re doing something to hurt her!” I ignored him and focused on my work. The demon beneath me couldn’t struggle; this particular spell rendered him temporarily immobile. When I was done I removed my hand from his throat to see if I had performed the ritual properly. A glowing white crest consisting of three squares within and parallel to each other, a triangle cutting through all three of the squares with its base formed by the bottom edge, and a circle within the smallest square. It was where my hand had been and it meant I had done everything correctly.
“Now, allow me to tell you how you will behave.” I began to inform this demon how the rest of his life would be carried out. “ You will be allowed to reside within this girl. You will not possess her, and you will not interfere in her daily life. You will remain quiet in public places. If you break any of these rules I will be forced to do this.” I held up my right hand, index and middle fingers touching, every other finger curled tightly. I pulled the two erect fingers apart and a loud cry of pain erupted from the demon.
“If I curl these two fingers you will be exorcised. I WILL exorcise you from this body if I find reason, no matter what Jason may say. He does not have as much control over this right hand and he cannot stop me, do you understand?” I put the two fingers back together again so that the evil beneath me might speak.
“Yes!” He panted. The glowing symbol on his throat slowly faded away
I stood up and allowed him to stand as well. I had truthfully meant every word that had just come out of my mouth. Jason would have allowed Bob to escape so that his friend might remain unharmed; at the least this way I had a leash on the being that now stood before me. Needless to say I was not happy with what had just happened, a full exorcism would have satisfied me, but this would have to do for the time being.
“Let me speak to Laureli.” I demanded
“I can’t. She’s already been partially suppressed; if you want to talk to her you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
Jason
So, Laureli had a demon sharing her body now… I had felt sorry for myself when I found out about John, but at least he seemed to be a good guy. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had done the right thing as John followed the demon back to where we had started. What if this demon ruined her life and it was all my fault? I would feel horrible.
I was so deep in thought that it didn’t really bother me that we once again FELL through a portal to reach the world we had come from. Everyone managed to land on their feet. I didn’t even notice the scenery, time of day or weather once we had returned.
John’s voice disturbed me. “Jason, wake up.”
“Huh?” I must have fallen asleep on the walk back, the fight made more tired than I think I had ever been in my life. Something else occurred to me just then: we were walking. We completely forgot about the bikes!
“We are a few block from your house, Jason.” John stated. “I believe you should walk the rest of the way back.”
“Fine.” We could worry about the bikes later.
I finally took a look around me to get my bearings. We were only about two blocks away from Bruce’s mansion. The stars were out above me, and the streetlights had come on. We must’ve been in the library for a while.
I pulled out my keys, unlocked the door to the mansion and stumbled in, Bob in tow.
“Where have you been?” Bruce’s voice boomed from the stairs above me almost before I had a chance to set my foot in the door
STOP ASKING QUESTIONS AND CLICK!! Click to your doom…
And while you’re at it BOW B4 MY RANDOMNESS! End.
Jason (still)
“ I was about to call the police!” Bruce informed me.
“Geez, we were gone for a few hours and you were about to call the cops?” I asked. I may have been drop dead tired but I still had my attitude.
“Jason it’s Sunday.” Wait… When we fell into the library it was Saturday afternoon… and if it was Sunday night now…
“We were down there for a whole day?!”
Bruce seemed concerned. “You were down where all- Hey, Laureli where are you going?” Bob had walked up the stairs past Bruce.
“Bed.” He replied using Laureli’s voice. He had a good idea… I headed up past the stairs
“Talk to me tomorrow.” I continued to my room and shut the door. I guess he decided not to press the issue any farther because I didn’t hear a word out of him after the door shut; but then again I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, so I didn’t hear much of anything.
The next day
The alarm went off the next morning and I could barely make it out of bed. I went through my normal morning routines at a snail’s pace. I looked in the mirror while I was brushing my teeth. There was a small bruise on the bottom of my chin, and I could feel one on my back. This was going to be a long day.
“Well, you just witnessed your first energy fight, Jason.” John said out of nowhere I jumped; having voices in your head is a little hard to get used to. I was still brushing so I silently responded to him.
“Yeah, but I would have been happier if I was watching from my room with a Coke and a bag of chips.”
He laughed. “Perhaps next time, Jason.”
It was a miracle I made it to school at the same time I normally do.
“Jason!” Eddy’s voice greeted me. I walked over to the group.
“Hey guys.” I groaned.
“What’s the matter?” Jim asked.
“Yeah man, you look like crap. Are you hung over?” Eddy queried.
“What?! NO!” Why would I be hung over anyway?
“All right, just wondering,” He said delivering a hard slap to my back.
“OW!” Eddy chuckled, my pain seeming to entertain him. “Where’s Laureli?” I asked, “She should be here by now, she left before me.”
“What?” Jim asked.
“Nothing!” That was a little too close to giving away my identity.
“She’s over there.” Eddy pointed to where Laureli was standing.
She had her back to me, and she was staring at a wall. I couldn’t see her face, but I could imagine a depressed look on her face. Her head suddenly came to rest against the wall; that was a bad sign.
A note form the author: I have a book report to finish, so I didn’t get as far as I wanted. I think I’ll just put this on now and if I get done I’ll update it more later. Oh, and enjoy the websites above!(If you do not partake in their goodness I will find you)! End
“Oh boy…” I sighed. And here comes the guilt…
“Are you going to say something to her?” Jim queried.
“Uh, I don’t think so… I think it might be a better idea if I waited ‘til after school to talk to her.”
“HIIIII JASON!” Oh dear god no! Not Carla! I almost fell forward as her weight slammed into me.
“AHH!”
“Did you miss me Jason? I missed you!” Carla had her arms wrapped around my neck and her legs wrapped around my waist, pinning my arms to the side of my body. I ran around as fast as I could.
“CARLA GET THE HECK OFF!”
“My name’s candy!”
“Get off!”
“Hey, watch it!” someone exclaimed as I almost ran into them.
“Candy LET GO!” no mater how hard I tried I couldn’t pry my arms free and get her off.
“Say pretty please with a cherry on top!”
“I’m not goin-” A wall cut off my sentence. I slammed into it running full speed. This always happens when I try to move and talk at the same time.
A note from the author: I’ve been a bad writer and skipped giving descriptions for my characters (Bad Mason, BAD). All of them (with the exception of John). So now I get to tell you all about them. Buckle up, enjoy, and prepare to change the images you’ve made of my characters in your mind. End.
“Ow…” I staggered back from the wall.
“You truly are pathetic.” Mason, said, leaning on the wall in front of me. “You let Carla sneak up on you?” ”Mason!” Carla ran at him in an attempt to hug him, but he grabbed her face with his elbow locked, leaving her arms waving wildly in the air.
“ Hey, if you want her you can have her. Any way, gotta go.” I turned and started walking away.
“ Hold on Jason.” I stopped. “ What happened to Laureli?” He asked, gesturing over to where Laureli was standing with a motion of his head.
“Dunno.” I turned to walk off again.
“One more thing, Jason.” I looked at him over my shoulder. “Take your hooker with you.” A quick shove with his hand sent Carla on top of me again.
“Thanks…”
“Any time.”
“Come on Jason!” Carla demanded in her annoying high-pitched voice. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back to where Eddy and Jim were standing.
“Another run in with the creepy twin brother?” Jim asked.
“He’s not creepy!” Carla half yelled, “He’s cute, and cool! Just like Yoooooou Jason.”
She leaned in way too close to my face when she said that, so I allowed myself to shove her face.
“My, your friends are quite colorful.” John silently announced from the darkness. “Who are they?”
I returned to the darkness, our meeting room, so to speak.
“Well, that’s Eddy.” I pointed to Him. He was on the tall side, with spiky brown hair. He always had a strange look in his eye, the look… of a pervert. Anyway his eyes were brown, and he always seemed to be wearing some designer brand, in an attempt to wow girls with his “Sense of fashion,” it never worked.
“And that’s Jim.” I pointed to Jim. He was a short blonde, and everything he ever had to say ended in a question mark.He had wide blue eyes, and a smile was almost always on his face. He could easily be mistaken for a child if you didn’t know him.
“And that’s everybody.” With the exception of me, of course; I was kind of tall for a high schooler I guess. I had short black hair that I could never seem to straighten out. I always wore the first thing that came out of my closet before Laureli dragged me off on that shopping trip, now I haven’t heard as many laughs behind my back about what I was wearing; not that I cared in the first place. I always had kind of a laid back expression on my face; nothing really bothered me much.
“And that’s everybody except for Laureli, but you already know her.”
“What about that girl?” John pointed towards Carla.
Carla annoyed me. She was a few inches shorter than I was, and she had hair that was obviously bleached blond, and a high-pitched voice that worked my every nerve. Her clothes always showed at least a small amount of cleavage, and she loved to show “the twins” off. She had a well-earned reputation for being the school slut, and she was. Now, thanks to my jerk twin brother she was hanging off of my shoulder and I wasn’t happy about it.
“She’s not my friend.”
“Well, she seems to like you.”
“No, she likes Mason, but he won’t give her the time of day, so now she’s using me as a substitute.”
“Jason… Earth to Jason…” Eddy’s voice made me shift my attention back to the real world.
“You were really out of it man…” Eddy sighed.
“You must learn how to talk to me and pay attention to the out side world at the same time,” lectured John.
“Shut up!”
“But we didn’t say anything.” Whined Carla.
“Oh,” I said that out loud? “ I didn’t mean to- HEY GET OFF MY ARM CARLA!”
Carla had managed to wrap her arms around my arm in a hug.
“I forgive you Jason!”
“Aw man, why couldn’t she do that to me?” Eddy whined.
“Take her, she’s all yours.” I swung her off of my arm and into Eddy. He caught her to stop her from landing on her face.
“Well, hello sexy…”
“HI!”
“Would you two get a room?” Jim asked.
briiiiing* the first period bell rang; Time for class.
“ Hola, Clase!”
“Hola Senora Diez.” The class droned back. Second period: Spanish. Another class I loved to hate. Man I couldn’t wait until lunch…
“Jason, why don’t you tell us what day it is?” The teacher queried. I remained silent, maybe if I didn’t say anything Mason would think she had said his name and answer for me.
“I’m not going to mistake your name for mine and answer the question Jason.” How the heck did Mason know I was thinking that?
“Uh… It’s Monday.”
“Very good,” Joked Mrs. Diez, “Now can you say that in Spanish?”
“ Uh… huevos?” Laughter broke through the class.
“Why do I even try?” And that, boys and girls, is why I hate Spanish class.
Next up Social Studies! WOOOO (not)!
“And that is a brief history of time, class.” The teacher, Mr. Georsky finished. Oh well, at least History was a good place to catch a pre-lunch nap. My eyes were glazed over, my head lying on the desk, and I knew there was a small puddle of drool on my desk because of my open mouth.
“ Jason, how would you like to read the first chapter?”
“Huh?” How come they always choose me for questions and stuff like that?
“In 1816…” Sweet, Mason saved my life! I hate reading in class, but then I hate class period.
Lunch! WOOOO (for real this time)! I don’t know what it was we were having, but I liked it! Something was wrong though… I was constantly fighting of love attacks from Carla, meaning she was sitting next to me, meaning Laureli wasn’t, meaning Laureli wasn’t at the table, meaning… Wait what did that mean? Oh, yeah, she was still pissed off at me for the whole demon thing. That would take a while to make up for. It also ruined the rest of my lunch.
Skip to the last period of the day… SCIENCE! The one class I had that wasn’t always a huge waste of my time! Today we got to play with chemicals and it owned! We had instructions and materials in front of us, but I didn’t bother to read them. As soon as the teacher finished the instructions I got busy mixing chemicals.
“Hey Jason, you’re not supposed to do that yet- NO! we don’t need a Bunsen burner yet! What are you doing?!” My lab partner demanded to know
“Screw you Gary! Now give me that igniter!”
“No!”
I snatched it out of his hand. *Click, click*
“Jason stop you don’t know what could happen!”
* Click, click, BOOM!*The beaker blew up in my face and a thick black smoke filled the room. Everyone rushed out of class, and the smoke billowed out of the doorway.
“Dude,” It was Eddy. “Did you just blow up the chem. lab?”
“YUP! It was awesome, I had all these beakers and- Wait, what are you doing here?”
“Bathroom. Any excuse to get out of math class right?”
“Congratulations idiot.” My brother’s voice sarcastically said, “From the smell of this smoke I would say you managed to single handedly MAKE gasoline. Did you write down what you did?”
“Uh… no…”
“Figures.” Mason walked off. Jerk. The teacher walked over.
“Jason,” He was going to lecture me again, “You have to start following the instructions and blah blah blah blah blah, nurse, blah blah, blah.”
“What?”
“I said you’re bleeding, you should go to the nurse and let her take care of that.” Well, a beaker had just blown up in my face; I guess a few shards of glass might have cut me a little…
“Nurse?” Something that happened earlier came to my mind:
“Next time,” she threatened, “your little boyfriend won’t be able to help you.”
“Hey!” we weren’t going out. The nurse took a few more stops, then spoke over her shoulder again.
“And you better not come to me for an ice pack either.”
Oh yeah, that was from that time when Nurse Claymore beat the crap out of Laureli…
“NO! NO NURSE! I’M FINE, SEE THE BLEEDING STOPPED ALREADY!”
“Jason, you’ve got blood all over your face, just go to the nurse.”
“I don’t wanna!”
“Come on Jason.” Eddy put me in a headlock and began half dragging, half carrying me to the office, where the nurse’s office was located.
“Traitorous bastard!”
“Yeah, yeah, you'll thank me later.” I doubted that.
I peered around the corner made by the door to the nurse’s office. No one there, guess I could leave. I started to walk away from the door.
“Go in.” Eddy’s voice was accompanied by a hard shove.
“Oh my, you poor boy!” The nurse rushed at me from her desk, which was along the wall the door was on, explaining why I didn’t see her. I raised my arms to cover my face, preparing for a beating.
Instead of hitting me like I thought she would she grabbed me by the shoulders and slung me onto one of the three light blue, vinyl chairs that were on the back wall. I suppose they weren’t really chairs exactly, they were more like those couch things you would expect to see in a psychiatrist’s office, but you get the idea.
I slid off and rolled under the metal legs of the chair and hid. Wait, was I doing? I was a ninja (almost)! I shouldn’t be hiding under a chair! I should be hiding under something bigger! The nurse slid the chair away from me with her foot; I rolled back under it, and then prepared my next move.
“What are you doing?!” Her voice demanded.
“What ARE you doing?” John’s voice asked from our meeting room.
“Not now!”
I bolted out from under the chair, and ran behind the nurse’s desk. From there I could jump over the top of the desk and the door was only a yard or two from there. I could make my escape.
I hurdled over the top of the desk, and landed. I started running for the door as fast as I could before a white blur landed in front of me. I stepped on it and fell to the ground, face first. I looked at my feet; it was her hat! She had thrown her hat so I would trip on it and fall!
“Got ya!” She jumped on top of me and grabbed my arms and held them behind me. She then threw open a curtain and slung me into a chair which was identical to the rest aside from the fact that it was red. Before I knew what was happening she had me strapped in to the chair. I had a strap around my ankles, knees, stomach, and chest. I could barely move. What was a nurse doing with a chair like that?!
“Don’t hurt me!” I pleaded.
“Hurt you? Why would I do that? I’m supposed to help people.” She walked over to the counters and cabinets that line the two open walls.
“Yeah, well I just thought after that thing with Laureli…” she looked over at me while she was pulling something out of a cabinet.
“ Oh, you’re her little boyfriend aren’t you?”
“NO! I mean… No.”
“Well, anyway, people who hurt other people just bother me. I can’t stand watching them do things like that to someone.” Her voice stayed eerily cheerful the entire time she said that.
“Jason, can you reach your knife?” John’s voice asked out of nowhere.
“Uh… let’s see.” I tried to reach into my back pocket, and succeeded. I pulled out the knife and it easily cut through the straps on my stomach. I sat up, then something about what she said occurred to me.
The problem was what she said made her a huge hypocrite. When she was in that fight with Laureli she definitely wasn’t helping her. I mean, Laureli was bruised for days…
“Okay all ready!” She had a tray with cotton balls, a box of band-aids, a bottle of something, and a few paper towels.
“ How did you get manage to sit up?”
“Uh… straps broke. Anyway Eddy OW!” She had just dabbed a wet cotton ball on one of my cuts. I guess that bottle had alcohol in it. “Eddy had that coming to him; I mean he groped her for Christ’s sake.” Her expression suddenly darkened.
“He did what?”
“He- OW! - He groped her, you know he grabbed her boob; he played with her fun bags; he sexually harassed her; he got personal with her twins; he-”
“Okay, I get it!” She finished cleaning my cuts and put on a few band-aids. “Okay, you’re good as new.Now, if you’ll excuse me I have some business to take care of.” If she meant what I thought she meant it would really suck to be Eddy right about now.
“She seemed like a nice enough woman, I assume you are embarrassed.”
“Good.” Bruce was waiting for me by the door. “I was nice enough to let you sleep, but it’s tomorrow now, so talk.”
“Fine. You wanna know what happened? Then I’ll tell you everything.”I told him everything that had happened those days in the library and John introduced himself.
“Hello, Bruce, is it?”
“Yeah… Nice to… meet you John. So are you going to talk to Laureli then, Jason? I’d be happy to give John a tour when you’re done.”
“Why don’t you give him one now?” I wasn’t in a hurry to talk to Laureli anyway.
“No, I think you should talk to her now. You two need to work that out.” Great, just leave me high and dry, Bruce. I headed upstairs.
“Fine…”
“Jason, are you going to plan the conversation?” John’s voice asked me.
“Nah, when I plan things they tend to blow up in my face. I’m just wondering how I’ll start the conversati- Ow!” I had just walked into a wall. I turned and almost ran into Laureli.
“Laureli! Uh… hey.”
“Hey? Is that all you have to say to me, hey?”
“No, I mean, you see…” Maybe I should have tried to plan this out… “I mean… look, are you okay?”
“No, Jason. I have a demon inside of me, I’m bruised, my life has changed forever in the worst possible way, and you let it all happen! No, I’m not okay!”
“Laureli, I didn’t know… I didn’t want this to happen, I mean-”
“SHUT UP! DON’T TELL ME YOU DIDN’T KNOW! HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THAT LETTING A DEMON STAY IN MY BODY WOULD BE BAD?!”
“WAIT A MINUTE! IF I HADN’T LET THAT THING STAY I COULD HAVE KILLED YOU!”
“I’D RATHER BE DEAD! I HATE YOU!”
My world froze. Laureli’s hand came across my face with a painful sting and she stormed past me down the stairs.My cheek burned, but what really hurt were the words that had just come out of her mouth: “I HATE YOU!”
I stood there, for what seemed like an eternity, her words playing over and over in my head like a broken record player. “I’D RATHER BE DEAD! I HATE YOU!”I began to wonder, had saving her life been such a terrible idea? Something occurred to me then, what if I hadn’t saved her life, what if I had ruined it?
“DAMN IT!”
“Jason, it’s okay, you couldn’t have kno-”
“No, John, it’s not okay!” This entire conversation was taking place out loud.
“Jason, you know she could have died.”
“Even you said it wasn’t likely! Stop wasting your time trying to make me feel better, I don’t deserve it!”
John
No, he really did not, but if my plan were to work I would need him to think I cared about his feelings. He was weak, incredibly weak, even with such a strong body. It was hard to believe that he could have it. I wondered if that power would ever truly be mine.
Jason
“You did what you thought was best. You could not have known what would happen, you are only human, after all.” John said, again out loud.
“Just leave me alone. I don’t want to talk now.”
“Very well.”
I stalked into my room and plopped down on the bed. My feet were still on the ground, and my eyes stared up blankly at the ceiling. My mind returned to Laureli, what had happened, and what might. If the demon could somehow break John’s spell he could take over Laureli completely and go on a rampage doing who knows what. It occurred to me that I might just have unleashed the Anti-Christ, but all that didn’t really seem to bother me as much as how it had affected Laureli.
She had seemed so depressed today, I felt awful. Why did I care about her so much when there were other things so much bigger to worry about? Yes, she was a friend, and I had known her forever, but feelings like this didn’t come from friendship; no, it was something deeper.
Many emotions began to well up within me. Anger, fear, sadness, and regret, all piled on top off me, like a lead weight crushing my soul. It was almost too much, really, the kind of thing that makes you want to curl up in a ball and isolate yourself from the rest of the world. Hot tears began to stream down t he side of my face, a torrent of emotion.
“Awww…” came a mocking voice from my open doorway, “Is the sad wittle baby cwying? Do you need your bottle?”
“SHUT UP!” I yelled at the sick, evil spirit that inhabited Laureli’s body in front of me.
“Are you going to make me you bastard?” That was really more of a statement than a question. “You can’t and you know it, no matter how much you want to you know you don’t have the guts to do it.”
I raised the index and middle fingers of my right hand, touching each other. I pulled them apart as far as I could, and the effect was immediate. The demon dropped to the ground, moaning in pain, blue sparks jumping all over Laureli’s body.If I knew it was actually Laureli I was hurting I wouldn’t have been able to do it, but this was just a sick imitation; watching it almost brought me pleasure. I wanted so badly to curl my fingers and banish this demon once and for all, but I couldn’t for fear of hurting Laureli; he was right.
I stormed out past the twitching mass of evil in my doorway, and headed down stairs to the sparring room. I opened the door to the weight room, with its many pieces of equipment throughout the room had a large, but nondescript door. I opened it and walked onto the hard wood floor of the sparring room and began to set up the punching bag. We kept the 50 pound sand filled bag that almost reached the floor in this room because the large room’s walls were lined with mirrors that made it easier to see your form while you were hitting it. I found that hitting something, anything made me feel better when I was mad, and right now I was royally pissed.
I hung the bag from then 10 foot high ceiling from a chain that was left hanging from a ceiling so we wouldn’t have to use a ladder to hang the bag. I started punching it like there was no tomorrow. I think I must’ve attacked the bag for at least an hour before I finally slid down the bag, staring at myself in the mirror. I did feel better even though I was dead tired.
“Are you tired?” John’s voice asked in my head.
“Nah, I’m just giving the bag a rest.”
“Good, then I know something that may help.Feel the energy flowing through your body. Take a deep breath and focus on something you hate. It cannot be something you merely dislike, it must be something that you truly hate with all your heart.”
I was curious. “How do you feel energy? I mean, it’s not like you can touch.”
“Please, just try.”
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, trying to feel something I wasn’t sure even existed. I started to feel a tingling throughout my entire body.
“I-I’m tingling all over, is that what I should be feeling?”
“Yes,” John’s voice responded. “That is what your light energy feels like. That sensation will change when you switch to your dark side. Now, what do you hate?”
I hated lots of things: my brother, hippies, splinters, paper cuts, the taste of spoiled milk, but one thing stuck out above all else; Christian. If I hated nothing else I hated him.
A note from the author: from here on I’m changing the demon’s name to Christian. As much as I hate to admit Bob is a pretty lame name for a demon, even if the name itself does rock. Why Christian? You might ask, well here’s why: It’s ironic. Think about it. End
He was evil, pure and simple. I couldn’t stand him. The tingling sensation quickly intensified and turned into a burn. I call it burn because it felt hot, but it wasn’t painful; it actually felt kind of good. I wasn’t tired anymore either, I felt like I could have smacked the bag around for another hour; which sounded like a really good idea.
I stood up, light as a feather and began ferociously attacking the bag again. The bag swayed gently back and forth every time I hit it.
“Now try focusing some of your energy into your movements. That should make your attacks stronger.” I focused again, this time the tingling was only in my left arm. I swung and the bag swung back, bouncing on the chain. I had never managed to hit the bag that hard before.
“And that is the basic principle behind energy fighting. Do you like it?”
“ Oh yeah.” I had said that, but it was almost like I hadn’t; I didn’t mean to say it. I half watched as several more charged blows landed on the bag.
“You must be careful now, however. If you lose control of your emotions you may inadvertently switch your energy, from light to dark and vice versa.” I wasn’t listening. I was still punching the bag as hard as I could, savagely enjoying the power. I felt my hand go back into my pocket and pull out one of my throwing knives. I flicked the blade open and watched as I made a clean vertical slash into the bag. Sand poured out of the bag. My hand shot into the bag and pulled out a handful of sand.
I stared at my fist as the grains of sand poured out of it.
“John what the hell just happened? I didn’t mean to do that!”
“You lost control.” Was his response. “You normally use light energy, so you are not used to controlling your dark side. In time you will learn how to manage it.”
John
This boy was even more powerful than I thought, although he can’t seem to control his power. I like dark energy; the attacks are usually so much more powerful. One day, when his body was mine, I would truly be happy.
Laureli
I screwed the case on my newest invention shut, and held it up for examination. This invention could make free energy possible available for everyone. I held it in my hands, and nothing happened. I shook it, my frustration building, again nothing happened.
“AHH!” I threw the tube shaped invention at the wall, and it clattered to the floor.
“Heh, someone’s angry.” Christians voice snickered in my head. I shifted my world in the darkness that now existed in my mind. I stared at him, or I suppose you could say myself; he looked like my mirror image.
“We both know that your frustration wasn’t why you threw that. You’re angry with Jason. You hate him, don’t you?”
My attention shifted back to the table in front of me that I was standing over. My fists curled, and I said one word: “yes.”
A note from the author: Sorry the update was so short this week, but anyway I’ve been thinking: what if life was like an anime? Everyone would have that awesome anime hair, there would be giant robot dealer ships (I’d have an ’06 Wing Zero model), every school girl would be hot… That would pwn! Another cool thing would be the awesome super powers. Think about all the swords, and stuff you could have. Half of the people on friggin’ earth would be able to go super saiyan, then you could have swords like the Tetsiaga everywhere, and there would be a bunch of other weapons too. Then there would be all the weird animals and stuff. I would probably have one ofwhatever species Kirara is, that would be cool because you could take it to school with you, and then have it get all huge and you could ride it home. That would be so awesome… End.
Jason- back in his room
Switching from dark to light is kind of strange. It wasn’t that it was so much different from switching to dark, it was just that I went from feeling like taking on a few hundred guys in a fist fight, to barely being able to stand up again. I laid down on my bed, completely exhausted, but I still felt good.
There was still one thing on my mind, even though I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. When I switched back I had to thing of something I truly loved, and nothing worked, except for Laureli. It didn’t make sense, I didn’t… Did I? We were only friends; this didn’t make sense. Why did my life have to be so complicated?
At school the next day
I found myself laying on the bleachers, my head resting on my backpack. In my hand I had a manga, one of my darker titles to match my mood.
“Help, minose, I’m being taken over by a demon!” one of the characters screamed.
“Oh, no, Watasu, you’re being taken over by a demon! Do not fear, for I, Minose, will defeat the demon and rescue for I am good! I would not leave the demon within you, no, that would be very bad! I am the hero, so I will not let that happen! I-” I shut the book in disgust; sometimes it seems like the world is mocking me, even manga betrayed me… A hand snatched the book out of my hand.
“Whatcha got?” Eddy’s voice asked from beside me. I turned my head to watch him flip through the pages. “Garbage.” I felt my backpack moving underneath me; Eddy was rummaging through it.
“Uh, can I help you with something Eddy?”
“Don’t you have anymore of that hentai stuff, dude?” he asked.
“The last time I let you borrow a hentai the pages came back stuck together. I had to burn it. Speaking of which you still owe me ten bucks.”
“Come on, you must have at least a DVD…”
“Yeah, but you’re not getting your hands on them.”
“Aw! Come on, please?”
“No.”
“PLEASE!”
“NO!”
Skip to sixth period, gym class. We had to run a mile, not my most favorite activity, but it would give me a chance to try and talk to Laureli. She was already ahead of me on the dirt and gravel track that surrounded our football field. Anyone watching wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone in the class apart in our navy blue shorts and gray short sleeve shirts with the school’s name plastered across them.
I broke into a sprint to make up for the quarter lap lead she had on me. After a few seconds of running I caught up to her, she was only jogging, so it didn’t take long.
“Laureli!” I panted. I hadn’t gone all that far, but running wasn’t exactly my thing. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, then she quickened her pace and began to pull away from me; I sped up again.
“Hey! Laureli!” She did the same thing again, looking at me, and then speeding up. I sped up to meet her again. This pattern continued several times until we were both sprinting down the track as fast as we possibly could. After the second lap of doing this I noticed that she was getting slightly farther away.
“ Jason,” John said in to my mind, “switch energies, she will tire before you do.”
“No way! I hate the feeling of not being in control. I’m not switching back to darkness again, ever. It’s not just that though, I’m just… well, I’m a little scared, kind of, you know? Besides, isn’t darkness evil?”
“No.” John’s voice spoke to me in a stern tone. “Someone, somewhere, has confused darkness and evil. The two are not the same, it was most likely because they were afraid of darkness, but darkness is nothing to fear. It does not mean much about a person’s heart. Did you know Laureli’s aura is dark, Jason? My aura is dark as well. Oh, and you may want to begin running again.” Oh, I HAD stopped running, I started down the track again.
“Yeah, I guess if you and Laureli are dark it can’t mean anything, but what’s an aura?”
“An aura,” he responded, “is the energy that surrounds everyone’s body. You can be taught to be able to sense it when you touch someone. You use a person’s natural aura to determine their alignment. Before you ask a natural aura is the one you have before you switch to an energy opposite the one you are born with.”
“Hey Jason, what are you doing?” Mason’s voice brought my attention back to the real world once again. “They call it a mile RUN for a reason, you know.” Oh crap! I had stopped running again!
The bell rang before I had a chance to finish my mile, not that I cared. At any rate the end of the period meant another chance to talk to Laureli. I ran once again to catch up to her. I grabbed her arm and we both stopped.
“Hey, Laureli…”
“Let go.” Was her only response.
“Aw, come-”
“SIT BOY!” My body was drawn forward into the ground, and somehow my arms ended up straight out. Now I know how Inuyasha must feel, but without the necklace.
That’s how the next two days of my life went. Laureli still hated me, she wouldn’t talk to me and I felt like crap. I love my life.
John, at home after school
I hadn’t been entirely honest with Jason. The truth is that the alignment of your aura does effect your actions; the girl’s aura just is not very dark. The light energy within her is almost as strong as the dark, so the dark energy is mostly neutralized. Her aura would explain her violence at times, whereas I am a different story…
Jason
I hopped on my computer to start working on a science project I knew I should start working on, even though I wasn’t really focused on what I was doing. I mindlessly scrolled through the google results I had gotten for “jhghmjf” when john spoke.
“What are you doing, Jason? I have never seen any machine similar to this one.”
My response must have sounded dry. “It’s just a computer.”
“What is it for?” I continued scrolling through the results.
“Whatever you want it to do, really.” I replied in the same dry, almost asleep tone. “You can do spread sheets, surf the net, play games, whatever.”
“Interesting.”
John- a few hours after that, basically really late
This device was incredible! There was so much information available! World maps, military information, troop deployment, political agendas…
“Jason. I wanted- WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” Laureli Yelled as I turned to face her.
“ It is John, Laureli.” I had taken over Jason’s body and let it take on my image; the same image Jason saw when he spoke to me.
“ Well… Can I talk to Jason then?” She asked.
“He is sleeping.” I answered. “Would you like me to wake him?”
“No, that’s all right.” She seemed almost disappointed.
Jason, the next morning
Well, this was definitely a first. Never in my LIFE had I woken up typing before, sure I had woken with a keyboard pattern on my face, but never actually typing.
“John, what are you doing?” There was a GPS photo on the screen.
“There is so much information available.”
“Yeah, I love the Internet too, but it’s time for school. But if you think that’s good you should see some of the other stuff they have.”
“Really?”
School
Lunch time, once again. I sat all alone on the benches by the football field. Jim and Eddy had just kind of started staying away from me lately, probably because I’ve been so depressed. Actually, everyone had given me space with the exception of Carla, who really couldn’t take a hint.
A creaking on the bench next to me was the most welcoming thing I had ever heard. I looked over in the direction it had come from and saw the side of Laureli’s head. She was facing away from me, towards the school. Her expression looked troubled.
“Laureli!” I exclaimed. “Look I-”
“Don’t say anything, okay.” Her voice came out soft, like a whisper at any other time I would have been worried, but now I was just happy to have her talking to me.
A twig snapped behind me announcing the arrival of someone else; someone slightly less welcome. I threw a closed fist over my left shoulder and hit something solid, but squishy.
“OW!” Carla’s whiny voice yelled. “You hit me in my nose.”
“You deserved it.” I retorted
“That’s okay, I kind of like it rough.” This was really not what I wanted to deal with right now.
“Have I ever told you how cute you are when-”
Laureli finally snapped. “GO AWAY!” I couldn’t see, but I knew Laureli was glaring at her.
I listened to her footsteps as Carla slowly walked away. A heavy sigh came from Laureli, and that was the last thing I heard from her for the rest of the period. We just sat there, next to each other, neither of us saying a word.
Back at the mansion
I opened the door to see the same thing I saw every time I came in the door: nothing but the Oak staircase that lead to the upstairs bedrooms. This time though, there was something slightly unusual: Laureli was leaning on the banister, the one that lead to both of our rooms.
I walked up the stairs to put my backpack in my room, like I always do, but before I made it Laureli stopped me at the landing.
“ Wait.” Her voice was still soft, and now that I could see her face better it looked like she was going to cry. “I was going to ask you at school, but I couldn’t work up the nerve…” Her feet suddenly became the most interesting things in the world, and she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of them. “It’s just… Jason, I don’t hate you…”A fit of sniffling interrupted her sentence, “ I just got angry. Sometimes I just get caught up in things… I think… I would have done the same thing if I were you.” More sniffing could be heard, then she finally looked up at me with tear filled eyes, “Can you forgive me?”
Seeing her so sad made me sad. My left hand was drawn to her shoulder, and my right went behind her head, in an attempt to comfort her. I shouldn’t be touching her, we were friends, that’s all, but even knowing that I couldn’t stop myself. “No, I can’t forgive you.” Her sobbing intensified.
“Oh…”
“Whoa, hey, hey, that’s not what I meant.” I looked down in to her eyes, beyond just what I could see. “I meant I can’t forgive you because you didn’t do anything wrong. You have every right to hate me… No, I take that back; you SHOULD hate me, but I’m glad that you don’t.The real question here is can you forgive ME? I thought I was doing what was right, but now I think maybe I was wrong. I’m sorry Laureli, I’m really fucking sorry.”
The expression on her face didn’t seem sad anymore; in fact it was almost… Happy? I think a small chuckle came out of her, and then a blunt pain hit my stomach. She had hit me! I was trying to apologize, and she hit me! Before I had a chance to move back she was on me again, but this time she was hugging me. Somehow her head found its way to my shoulder, and three words came out of her mouth: “I forgive you.”
“I chuckled too. “Thanks.” And we stood there, at the top of the stairs- for I don’t know how long, hugging. It was… nice.
A note from the author: Holy Crap! I actually managed to pull that of! Did it seem realistic enough? Anyway, now that that’s over I can have some more funny stuff. That should be more fun to write too… End.
Later
“That was very well done, Jason.” John congratulated me on my previous encounter with Laureli.
“Yeah, well you could have helped, I mean you let me TOUCH her.”
“Ha! You did not need any assistance; you were managing everything very well by yourself. You seemed far more mature than you actually are.”
“Thank- Hey! What do you mean more than I actually am?”
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted; my head itched. It wasn’t just a normal, run of the mill head itch, no; this was like a just-finished-rolling-in-fiberglass-insulation itch. I couldn’t stop scratching! I rolled over in bed and looked at my alarm clock’s display, it was three AM. It was also way to early for this crap.
“Oh, man.”
The next morning (sort of)
A note from the author: As far as I’m concerned morning doesn’t start until sunrise. End.
The buzzer on my alarm went off, and I rolled over, half asleep, to stop the noise. My feet pulled me out of bed, and I shuffled to my bathroom (Laureli’s was separate for obvious reasons). I my hand went up to the top of my head. My reflection in the mirror still had its eyes half closed. Wait… Hand on top of my head, not the side… HOLY CRAP! MY EARS!
I stared in horror at my reflection in the mirror. Two gray ears sat perched on my head.
“AHHH! WHAT THE HELL?!”
“My,” John muttered, “those came in far sooner than I expected.”
“FAR SOONER TNAH YOU EXPECTED? YOU MEAN YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS AND DIDN’T TELL ME?!”
His response was incredibly cool, considering what was happening to me. “Did I not tell you? Those ears are the mark of the immortal. Every immortal has one in some form or another; I am the male wolf, so I have wolf ears. They come with the powers of being an immortal, Jason.”
“I don’t want the power! I don’t want any of this!” I leaned forward until my hands were on the counter, and let my head droop downwards. “ Why does this crap always happen to me?”
“Jason, what’s hap- oh!” I looked at the door to see half of Bruce’s body and his head sticking out.
I poked my new ears a few times to see if they were real. I felt every touch, so- unfortunately- they were.
“Hey Jason, why are you wearing those?” Now I could see half of Laureli and half of Bruce in my doorway.
“I wish I was just wearing these, Laureli.” I poked the ears a few more times; they were still real.
“I think I have an idea,” Bruce suddenly announced, “but you’ll need to stay home from school until the next time we fight a bad guy. If you don’t your identity could be revealed.” Well, at least these ears weren’t all bad, even though they made me look like a freak.
After doing everything I would have done if I were actually going to school, and then flopped down on my bed, staring at the ceiling in my usual thinking position.
“Why didn’t you tell me this would happen, John? I mean, what else aren’t you telling me?”
“I’m sorry, Jason. I didn’t know they would come in so soon afterwards.” He apologized, but it didn’t sound convincing
“So soon after what?” Great, what now?
“So soon after we have been fully fused.” His response was simple. “I had already begun the process when Laureli found me in the library, but I made the process happen slower because it is so physically draining. Were you more tired this week than usual?”
“No… I guess not…”
“Good, then it worked. Although you don’t like the ears, they also come with a few other abilities I believe you may like. For example, sniff the air right now, do you notice anything?” I obeyed.
“Well, Brice is putting way too much sugar in his Cheerios, and I think Laureli bought a new perfume, but that’s about it.” John let out a heavy sigh.
“Jason, where would Bruce be making Cheerios?”
“In the kitchen, I guess.”
“Where is the kitchen?”
“Downstairs.”
“Can you usually smell someone adding sugar to their Cheerios in another room, let alone downstairs?”
“Uhh…” I bolted up to a sitting position, “Hey, You’re right!”
“That sense of smell is my immortal power. Now, wait until you see what the other ability is…”
Laureli
Okay, let’s see, which outfit should I wear? Three choices sat on my bed, and I couldn’t make up my mind. Maybe, if I changed the shoe with this one… No, it looked better before… Well, if I changed the Blouse with these pants…No, I like the other outfit better… There were too many choices.
A soft scratching from my closed door brought my gaze upon the door. The noise stopped; maybe it was just my imagination. I looked back at my work; maybe a different skirt? More scratching came from the door, this time I walked over and opened it.
There sat the biggest dog I had ever seen. It was sitting on its haunches, with it’s mouth wide open, ready to take a bite out of my leg. A loud, uncontrollable scream came out of my mouth; I slammed the door shut, and grabbed the nearest weapon I could find. With the wooden bat in my hand I opened the door just far enough to stick the bat out, and swung down as hard as I could.
I hit something, then pulled the door open to rush the animal while it was off guard; instead, I found Jason slumped against a wall and pretty dazed. If life were a cartoon he would have stars floating around his head. I think I MIGHT have hit him…
“ OH MY GOD! Jason, I’m so sorry!” I knelt down next to him, and picked his head off of the wall.
“You’re not sorry,” Christian’s voice came to me, “you know you’re happy you hit him.” I ignored him, like I always do, but I wish he would have the guts to say something out loud for once, instead of just whispering the horrible things he says in my ear.
“Is that you, mommy?” Jason asked, still not aware of himself.
“Laureli, should I put a lock on your door?” I looked up to find Bruce standing over me.
“Why would I need a lock?” I asked.
“Well, I heard you scream, you’re still in your pajamas, and Jason is lying in my hallway semi-conscious. I thought maybe you were changing or something, and Jason was… Watching through the door.”
“No! I think he was checking on me. There was this huge dog, or wolf, or fox, or something in the hall, and-”
“And have a little faith, jeez, “Jason interrupted, apparently back to Earth now,” but I wasn’t checking on you, I was the wolf.”
“YOU WHAT?!” I yelled, dropping his head back against the wall “You nearly scared me to death!”
“I tried to warn him,” John’s voice announced out of Jason’s mouth, “That greeting you in that form would not be a wise decision.”
“That was beyond an unwise decision, I nearly had a heart attack, you-”
Christian interrupted “The great Laureli, scared? How did that happen?”
“What doesn’t make sense,” Bruce said, choosing a different topic, “Is how Jason could BE the wolf. This isn’t some weird sci-fi story, it’s real life, and stuff like that doesn’t happen.”
“It is simple, as an immortal I can turn into my animal.” The spirit within Jason’s body explained, “It is one of the most enjoyable aspects.”
“What doesn’t make sense to me, is why you stopped right in the middle of chewing me out a second ago, it’s not like you Laureli.” This time Jason’s voice came out.
I stood up, at last. “It was nothing to worry about. Anyway, I’ve got to get ready for school.”
I hadn’t told him about how much Christian bothered me, and I probably wouldn’t. Jason had enough guilt already, just knowing Christian was there, he didn’t need any more guilt. It didn’t really matter anyway, I knew all the things he said were lies, and I could just ignore him.
Jason
Later in the day, after Laureli and Bruce were both gone, I ran around the house in wolf form, just having a little fun. Up the stairs, down the stairs, up, down, up, down, into the kitchen, out of the kitchen, in, out, into the living room! Holy crap, everything was more fun in this form! I ran a lap around the living room before seeing something out of the corner of my eye; I followed, trying to catch it in my mouth. Every time I got close to it it would dart away again. I followed it still, running circles around my body.
“Jason, stop chasing your tail, you need to focus.” I completely ignored him, seeing something I hadn’t noticed before: we had a pool!
I ran towards it, the pool loomed closer, and closer.
“Jason, no! The door!” John exclaimed, but he was too late. I ran into the sliding glass door running full speed, which is even faster I wolf form.
I think I bounced off of the glass, because when I got to my feet I WAS a few feet from the door. I ran back up to the glass, furiously sniffing at the bottom of the glass. I could smell the pool, but I couldn’t get to it!
“Jason, would you please stop for a moment?!” I ignored John and continued my sniffing at the door.
“Jason, stop and focus!”
“Hey, do you smell that?”
“Jason, you are letting the animal instincts get the better of you and-” I began walking towards the scent.
“SIT DOWN!” I immediately complied; John was scary when he yelled…
“Good,” he said, lowering his voice, “Now turn around, and walk back to the door.” I did, still kind of freaked out.
“Now, how can you open the door?”
“I don’t know,” I responded. My words were jumbled together, like those of a five year old with a sugar rush. “ Maybe I could run through it, nose the latch, go through a window somewhere, but what about that smell?!” Even though I couldn’t say anything out loud I could still talk to John.
“Do not worry about that. Now, you said something about nosing the latch on the door open, try that.”
I walked up to the door, and with my front paws on the window I put my nose under the handle on the sliding door and the latch went up with a click. From there opening the door was a piece of cake. I felt a lot calmer now, although a swim did still sounded like a good idea.
After a refreshing dip in my newly discovered pool, I got out for lunch. I only had a sandwich, but it was pretty good.
“ Why do there have to be so many rules?” I asked my self out loud between bites of my ham sandwich.
“Because, rules determine how things work, without them, the world would be a confusing place.”
“But it IS confusing! I mean, why do the wolf’s instincts have to come with the body?!”
“You and the wolf form affect each other, you take its instincts, and it takes your intellect, however little there may be.”
“Hey!-” A loud, screeching alarm that filled the entire building interrupted me.
It was an alert that somehow, somewhere, for some reason something bad was happening in the city. Right when I thought I would have a few days off from school, too. Oh, well, down to the Cat cave.
In the cave I hit the button that turned off the alarm, then kicked back and relaxed. Before Laureli and Bruce got back I tossed on my ninja uniform on, it was my costume after all; but I did leave the hood off for now. So bored…
Laureli got down before Bruce did, which was surprising because she had to get out of school. She ran past, and began typing on the computer without saying a word.
“Hey, Laureli-”
“Not now.” The fast typing continued, and I watched as information scrolled past on the screen. After a few minutes of nothing but keystrokes breaking the silence Laureli turned around.
“Well, that was about as difficult as I expected,” she said, “I’m going to go change now. Make Bruce wait if he gets here before I’m back.”
Bruce did come before she got back, and in full costume, surprisingly enough.
“How’d you get in costume so fast?” I asked, curious as usual.
“I changed in a phone booth on the way over.”
“ Batman didn’t do that. It was Superman, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Bruce admitted, “But even though Superman is an egotistical bastard, knowing how to change in a phone booth is still a good trick.” Not really, I mean, they’re made of glass, and everyone can see, but I wasn’t going to argue.
“Ok, I’m back,” Laureli announced, hopping down the last stair. I was stunned. I had seen her in the skin tight white body suit on TV before, but it looked a lot better in person. It clung to every sweet, sweet curve…
“What have we got, Laureli?” Bruce asked, glancing at the computer screen. Laureli strode past me and took a seat in front of the monitor once again; I stared after her still in awe. Bruce walked past me on his way to the computer. “Jason,” he whispered, “close your mouth, you’re drooling.” I did. “Oh, and that costume is a little tight. In situations like this you may want to cover up.” What did he mean by that? I looked down at the bottom pf my uniform to see a strange bulge… Oh, that’s what he meant. “Ah,” John’s voice said silently, “the mind of a teenage boy.” I covered myself up and ignored him.
“It looks like there is a hostage situation in a building scheduled for demolition. They have about five people, and they’re making demands. The authorities say they are armed and dangerous, but they don’t know how many assailants there are.
“So,” I began, “What you’re saying is, We don’t know who’s doing this, why they’re doing it, or how many of them there are?”
“Pretty much,” she responded. “The police report was sketchy, but still way too easy to hack. I swear they must do that on purpose.”
“That’s all we need.” Bruce finished. “Laureli, Jason, let’s go.”
A few blocks away from the target area
I hopped out from the back seat of the Catmobile pulled my hood over my head, and pulled the face cloth into place.
“ By the way, Jason, make sure the news crews can see your ears.”Bruce requested.
“Alright,” I replied pulling out one of my knives, “but I don’t see what the big deal about my ears is.”
“You will, trust me. Laureli, get the grappling hook.”
After that, with my gray ears sticking out of the top of my hood, we headed through the zoo of reporters that had herded around the building. Instantly we were surrounded by reporters, cameras flashing and microphones in hand.
“Excuse me, Catman, why did you find it necessary to get another side kick? Are you that helpless?” One reporter asked, beginning a long line of questions.
“Why do work with such young children?”
“What’s with those ears?”
“Why are you dressed like that?”
“Would you like to go on a date with me, kitten?” Yeah, that was likely.
“Where are your parents?”
“Do you see dead people?”
“Just ignore them.” Catman yelled over the background noise. “We’re going to that building across the street.”
After managing to break free of the reporter mob we easily walked through the adjacent building, and took the elevator to the roof. We were at the top of a 20-story building, and the one scheduled for demolition was about eight stories higher. A waist high metal and cement railing surrounded both buildings.
“I didn’t realize the other building was that much taller than this one,” Catman groaned, “Maybe we should choose a different building. That angle is kind of steep to climb by hand.
“Calm down you big baby, that’s what I brought these for.” Laureli pulled three cylinders from behind her back. Two smaller cylinders were strapped to the sides of a longer one. She undid the strap that held the three together, and the two smaller tubes fell away from the larger one.
“These are Cable rockets,” Laureli began, showing us one of the… Whatever they were. There was a large hole in the middle one that went all the way through to the other side, and eight smaller ones that stopped somewhere in the middle. “You just open one up, snap it around the cable from the grappling hook, and it does the climbing for you. Oh, and there’s a button on the side that fires of the rockets.”
Rockets? Sweet! This was gonna be awesome! “The problem is,” she continued, “I only made two.”
“Dibs!” Catman exclaimed. “And Laureli made these, so she should obviously get to use one. Guess you’re out of luck, Jason.”
“That’s not fair!” I cried.
“He did call dibs, Jason.” Laureli admitted, not helping me at all.
Catman walked over to the railing, the largest tube over his shoulder like a rocket launcher. A harpoon-like barb protruded from the front, and with a hiss it shot out, towards the other building. With a distant clank the barb hit the other building and plunged into the cement; the cable tether attached to what was apparently “the grappling hook” went taunt. Catman pulled another cable out of the back; this one had a hook shaped piece at the end, and wrapped the cord around itself.
“Think that’s secure Catman?” Laureli asked.
“One way to check.Wolfboy, you’re going across first.” No one moved.
“Jason, go.” Catman commanded.
“Me? I’m Wolfboy? How come no one told me?”
“I just made up the name, now go.” I stared at the cable, swaying slightly in the wind. My gaze then shifted down to the many reporters below. They looked so small from up here. Sneaking in to this building would be a lot easier if it wasn’t broad daylight. Oh, well.
I leapt onto the railing, and then casually walked out onto the cable, tight wire style. The view from above the street was pretty nice. I could see a lot of the city, and all of the reporters below coming and going. The slight breeze made going over a lot more interesting, making the wire sway slightly more.
On the other building I turned to watch the others cross. Laureli attached her rocket first, and then wrapped her hands around the cable leaving her weight to dangle from the thin wire. In less than a second after she turned the thing on, she had shot across the gap between the buildings. She climbed over the railing next to me and took her invention off of the line, placing it gingerly on the ground.
“Are you keeping those?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied, “the rocket engines are spent, but we can still use the casings to slide back down. I was wondering, though, how did you WALK up the rope like that? Most people would have fallen off as soon as they put their weight on it.”
“Ninja training.” Can I get a what what? “That was nothing, you should see the elder ninja; they can jump that gap in their sleep.”
“Good to know,” said Catman, who had somehow snuck up on us, “now, let’s go.”
I picked the lock on the rooftop access door and we were in. The stairs down to the top floor were bare cement, and I discovered once we had gotten to the top story, that the floor was too. No carpeting, whatsoever. The entire building was bare, and there were periodic holes in the wall where steel beams could be seen. Only every other ceiling light was on, leaving the hall dimly lit.
“We should split up. Laureli, you get the hall ahead. Jason, You take the one on the right, I’ll take the left.And remember, the channels on your com-sets are open; everything you say and hear will be heard by the others. If you need help just yell.” With that Catman turned and walked down his hall, Laureli and I followed suit, each of us going down our halls.
Sunlight streamed through the doorways of the offices along the windows; there were no door anywhere in the building to stop it. Finding anyone in a building this size would be nearly impossible if I searched it room by room, so I found an elevator. I stepped inside, and pressed a random floor button. The little circle around the floor lit up and began its ten floor decent.
I stepped out of the elevator on the tenth floor and two new smells met my nose. One was a faint human scent, possibly female, the other one had never run into before. I followed the unfamiliar scent to one of the rough holes in the wall. Two paper wrapped packets sat in the hole attached to the beam.
“Hey, Laureli, what are these thing on the support beams?” I asked into the com-set on my head. There was a brief pause on her end.
‘They look like explosive charges.” She calmly replied.
“What?! Explosive charges?! Should we be in here right now?”
“Relax, they aren’t wired yet, they can’t go off. Did you find anything else?”
“Yeah,” I responded, “I think I smell someone, but why are there two charges on these things?”
“There’s only one up here. But you should check that smell out, I don’t know how you could smell anyone though.”
I guess I hadn’t told her yet… “I’ll explain later.” With that, I left to investigate the other mysterious scent…
Down one hallway, turn onto another, double back down the same hallway, up the emergency stairs, past more of the holes in the wall, up to the next floor, and repeat. This was going nowhere fast.
Suddenly, several gunshots ripped through the silence on the communicators.
“Who was that?!” I yelled.
“It’s not me,” Laureli yelled back, “Catman, where are you?!”
His voice was just as tense as ours. “The 18th floor, I could use some help!”
“We’ll be right there!” Laureli’s steps quickened on her line. I ran as quickly as I could to the elevator. More gunshots echoed in my ear, Catman was in trouble.
“Where are you hiding?” Bruce must not have been able to see the bad guy. “Show your- oh my god! I think I’m going to be-” A gagging sound followed his last words, soon followed by the sound of him tossing his cookies.
“HA!” A cracking noise stopped Catman’s… activities.
“I’ve got your friend,” A crackly woman’s voice said into his microphone, “if you want him back you’ll come to the top floor.” She must have knocked him out cold… This was getting complicated.
“Kitten, you hear that?”
“I’ll meet you there Wolfboy.” I stepped into the elevator and punched the twenty button. Why do the elevators always move slower when you’re in a hurry?
I stepped out of the elevator, once again on the top floor. Laureli stood before me, an intense expression on her face.
“Come on. We have to stay together and search all of the rooms on this floor again.”
We searched every room thoroughly for any place someone could be hiding. We kept searching until we found a room that was a little different.
“Hey, Laureli, there’s still a door on this one.” She walked across from her side of the hallway to examine the out of place object before me.
“I’ll bet that’s where she is. Wolfboy, mind getting the door?” She asked. With pleasure; I love kicking in doors. The cheap door flew open, and Laureli and I poured through.
In the center of the room, lit only by a single overhead fluorescent light, stood our villain. One Gunmetal black semi-automatic pistol pointed at the ground from each hand. A thick rope hung from the ceiling next to the left side of her head.
She greeted us, “I’ve been waiting.” Not much of a welcome…
Suddenly, the door behind us slammed shut, which was strange because I hadn’t seen anything that would make it close. My eyes quickly snapped around the room to look for another exit. The only other door was across the room, and closed, possibly locked. Armed woman, shut doors; this could get ugly.
Once I had assessed the situation the teenager in me noticed something; the villains costume. It was a tight leather… I don’t know what it was, but it was tight, believe me. It covered her entire body, with the exception a very wide slit down the front, barely meeting new FCC standards. It suddenly became clear to me why Bruce had thrown up; I couldn’t blame him. It then also occurred to me why he wasn’t married… What a loser.
“Where is Catman?!” Laureli demanded, completely ignoring the predicament we were now in. A small smile slid across the villains face.
“Now, now, first things first. You can call me Batwoman.”
A note from the author: raise your hand if you didn’t see that coming. End
“Now, we’re all going to play a little game.” She produced a light gray box, which had somehow been hidden in her costume. “This is a detonator switch. I’m sure one of you saw that there was an extra charge in all of the holes the demolition team made; those charges are all linked to this little remote. If it is destroyed and the signal is lost, they all go boom. You only get a eighty second delay.” Okay, let’s see… If a bomb went off next to the bombs that were supposed to make the building implode, then the building would implode anyway... Oh, Crap! If that thing got destroyed we would all die!
“Where is Catman?!,” Laureli once again demanded.
“Oh, the village idiot?” Batwoman coolly asked, “He’s right here.” Her left hand went to the cord, and pulled it down hard. Suddenly a weight fell on top of my shoulders and knocked to the ground, face down. I crawled out from underneath the mysterious weight to see poor, unfortunate, idiotic Bruce lying hog-tied on the floor. I pulled out one of my knives to cut the ropes tying him up, but was stopped before I could.
“In this game,” Batwoman began, “if you get the detonator, you win, If you die, you lose.” She dropped the remote to the ground a few feet in front of her with a clatter, and continued. “Now, dance for me.” The guns were raised from their targets on the ground, and one found it’s way to each of us.
My knife fell out of my hand, and Laureli and I both began running in different directions followed by a hail of bullets. I don’t know how it was Batwoman was aiming at both of us at once, but she was doing a good job. I ran alongside the wall until I wasout of room to run. I walked up the perpendicular wall and flipped over the trail of bullets behind me, just as both guns fell silent.
The magazines dropped to the ground at her feet. The guns were empty, and she was wide open. If things kept up the way they were, I wouldn’t get out of here alive. I had to take the risk and go for my prize.
Laureli
The gunfire stopped. It was a good thing it had; I could feel the heat of my breath bouncing off of the wall in front of me. Jason’s cry suddenly erupted from the other side of the room, “you’re empty!”
My world slowed as Jason sprinted towards the tiny remote that that could save or end our lives. Then, for the first time, Christian spoke his thoughts out loud. “Idiot.”
One final shot issued from each of each of Batwoman’s guns, and Jason dropped to the floor, his outstretched hand just inches away from his target.
“Still one left in the chamber, pup.” The evil woman sneered.
“Oh, my god, Jason!” I gasped.
Jason was bleeding heavily on the ground bleeding from his left thigh, a truly disturbing site to me, but what was more disturbing was the broken piece of electronics equipment on the ground in front of his hand. The detonator had a hole in hit, presumably from a missed shell, more importantly we had eighty seconds to get out of this building alive.
Jason morphed into his wolf form quickly; he would be able to run easier on three legs than one. Catman dashed past us towards the door on the other end of the room that led to the rooftop access hallway; somehow he must have cut himself free. Jason limped quickly behind him, and I brought up the rear, close behind him. The run to the roof must have taken forty seconds. Bruce attached the spent engine of his cable rocket to the line and wordlessly slid back across the street, I couldn’t blame him; I wouldn’t want to talk either if I thought I was about to die. I popped open my rocket, clipped it on the line, and got ready to slide across. A low whimper from Jason stopped me; he couldn’t walk across this way.
“Hold still.” I wrapped my right arm around his chest and, with one only one hand gripping the smooth tube that was the main body of my invention, slid down the cable.
At the other end I tried my best to sling Jason over the railing on my own, and couldn’t.
“Give him to me!” Bruce’s hands projected over the railing.
“HURRY!” I yelled, my sweaty palms were beginning to lose their grip on the tube. Catman lifted Jason’s weight out of my hand just as my fingertips slid off my lifeline. I plummeted away from the building, nothing to grab on to, and twenty stories of open air below me. I really need to put handles on those things…
A note from the author: To make up for my short (or non-existent) updates I’d like to give you these links, and now that I know a little HTML the links will actually have names!End.
My body curled itself into a ball, but I wasn’t moving, for some reason Christian had done it. For a little longer, what seemed like an eternity but couldn’t have been more than two seconds, I fell down the building.
An ear shattering, bone-rattling roar covered the sound of the wind rushing past my ears; the charges had just gone off. The force from the blast hit my back, and I found the windows of the building rapidly growing larger in my vision. I rocketed through the glass, slid under a simple wooden office desk and found myself amidst a sea of broken glass.
“-ten! Kitten!” Bruce’s voice screeched out of my com unit, barely audible over the ceaseless ringing in my ears.
I sat up, multiple glass shards still embedded in my back.
“Yeah,” I responded, “I’m okay. I’ve got a few scrapes, but I’ll be okay. I’ll be on the roof in a minute.”
“Glad to hear it.” Catman’s response came back. “But make sure you get here fast , he’s bleeding pretty badly.”
I didn’t even bother with a response; instead I opened the door to see a roomful of office workers with their heads over their cubicles like so many gophers, looking to see what happened.
“which way is the elevator?” the only response I got were several fingers pointing to my left.
I found the elevator and thought a little on the long ride
“Christian…” I finally decided to say, “Thanks for doing that. I… could’ve been hurt a lot worse.”
“Don’t thank me,” His voice silently sneeredback, “ I need you alive…. For now.” I suppose I shouldn’t have expected a “you’re welcome” from him.
I was not ready for the scene that awaited me on the roof. Jason’s Wolf form lay in a pool of bright red blood; the bullet must have hit an artery. Bruce had tied a piece of cloth from his costume tightly over Jason’s left thigh, crude treatment, but still treatment.
“What are we going to do?” Brice asked, “If we take him to a hospital with a gunshot wound people would get suspicious, we could blow our cover.”
“Am I actually hearing this, Bruce? Are you really telling me that your cover is more important than Jason’s life?” How could he say something like that?!
“Whoa, I’m not saying anything like that, I’m just looking for al-” His head was shaking rapidly. A thought suddenly hit me.
“The vet!” If Jason was supposedly a wolf… “We can just say someone shot our dog! No one would look into that! Would that work, John?!” I whipped my head down to stare at him. “Uh… one bark for no, two for yes.”
He gave two weak whines as his reply. Bruce and I made a plan. We would go home as fast as we could, change, and then beat it to the vet’s ASAP.
At the Mansion
I hurriedly pulled a set of clean clothes out of my closet, barely bothering to match them. I took off my costume, flung it to the ground, but immediately picked it back up. The back looked like a photo negative of the night sky; white with black spots all over it. I rubbed a finger over my back; it came back with a thin layer of partially coagulated black blood smeared over it.
“What-” The word involuntary slid out of my mouth.
“Demon blood is black, deal with it.” Christian was in his usual mood, but at least he said something helpful.
The vet’s office
I sprinted through the automatic double door of the vet clinic with Jason in my arms, Bruce hot on my heels. A nurse rushed my “dog” off to surgery while a receptionist took payment and personal information.
I sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes, hoping everything would be all right. A nurse came out of the OR bearing good news; sort of.
“Your pet is going to be okay, but are you aware that it’s illegal to own a wolf as a pet in this state? Normally we would have to put him down, but since you seem to care for him we’ve decided just to neuter him.”
“WHAT?!” I involuntarily yelled, “NO! Stop the doctors, he’s not a wolf!”
“Well then what kind of dog is he?”
“He’s a Canadian… Shepard! Brand new breed, it hasn’t even been AKC certified yet! Yeah, Canadians jsue them, to heard their mooses, or meese, whatever!” With that she rushed off to the back and I could finally relax.
“You know,” Bruce began, “You seemed pretty adamantabout Jason not being neutered…”
“Well,” How do I say this? “He hadn’t had a litter yet, and I assume he would want to, besides the fact that I think he would want to keep those…”
“A litter with whom, Laureli?” Now he was messing with me.
“I don’t know,” Now, how do I say THIS? “I’m sure he’ll find a nice bitch, then settle down and start a family.”
A note from the author: He’s a dog, get it? End.
Jason, the next day
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … Actually, never mind. Have you ever had one of those days when you wake up and you have no idea where you are? I was having one. It wasn’t until I moved the covers past my nose that I realized I was back in my room, curled up under the covers. Sunlight streamed through the windows. A dull pain while I stretched myself out brought my attention to a shaven spot on my left leg I had almost forgotten about… Yesterday, was it?
“Oh, you’re awake.” Laureli’s head protruded from my doorframe. “How do you feel?”
I switched back to my human form. My tail shrunk back into the vestigial tail bone, fur traded places with clothes (which were still in the same condition as they were when I first switched) Joints reversed themselves, bones lengthened and changed shape. The entire process took about three seconds, but it was three seconds that itched like crazy.
“Eh, I’m okay.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed.
“Just lay down, Jason.” I stood up anyway.
“I feel fine, my leg doesn’t even hurt that bad.”
“SIT BOY!” The ground rushed up at my face. “You’re not going to heal if you walk around the house all day!”
“Mm mm umm hmm mm mm mm mmr?”
She sighed, “Roll over Jason.”
“I said can I at least take a shower? My clothes are all bloody.” She seemed to consider it.
“I guess, just get back in bed when you’re done.”
A hot shower is always the perfect way to start the morning. Hot water, a bathroom full of steam… And stitches that burn when you get soap on them.
After my shower I got back in bed (according to doctor’s orders) And flipped on the tube to watch the news. I was curious to see what they would have to say about my performance. I was just in time to catch the beginning of the newscast.
“I’m Michael Ren.” The tall black haired anchor next to him continued, “and you’re watching channel eight Sexy-Action News.”
A note from the author: What network is on channel eight? Exactly. See, this story isn’t all fiction. End.
Greg got the first story. “Another awesome performance by Carson City’s own crime fighting duo, plus one idiot. Somehow they managed to implode a building while trying to save several hostages. As it turns out, there weren’t any hostages; it was just a bluff to attract our heroes’ attention. The cops had this to say prior to the incident.” The camera cut to an officer standing in front of the building before its untimely death.
“Well, we can’t meet the terrorist’s demands, so we’re just hoping that eventually they’ll get bored and uh, go away.” The camera cut back to the newsroom, and Michael spoke.
“Brilliant. Anyway, in business news Wal-mart has gone out of business and died. The corporation is survived by its older brother K-mart and K-mart’s pimp Martha Stewart.” He rearranged a pile of papers in front of him while trying to keep a straight face; it didn’t last long. “HA HA! Wal-mart out of business, Martha Stewart, god I’m good!” He took a minute to calm himself down. “But seriously, the Dow-Jones is up by five points, NASDAQ up by three. Anyway, back to our last story, have you seen the pair on The kitten?! I wouldn’t mind petting her kitty!”
“You know she’s probably underage,” Greg butted in.
“Hey, I’m okay with-”
A technical difficulties sign cut in on the news cast. There were no technical difficulties, they were being censored. “I did not believe they would be permitted to say such things on television.” John was right. Things like that couldn’t even hapeen on Channel Eight Sexy-Action News… Oh, well.
Time to find something else to watch. Oprah, no, golf, not a chance, history channel, that was funny, anime, nope… Wait, go back.
“I will destroy you with my magical Ryo-ayon powers!”
“No, Iwill destroy you!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“YAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Aw, it was a re-run. Now I was really bored.
“Lunch time!” Laureli once again appeared in my doorway and uttered my favorite words. Boredom gone.
She carried two plates. On each one a sandwich and a pile of chips sat plainly. Not the elaborate dishes I had come to expect, but it was still food. Laureli plopped into place by my knees and handed me a plate.
I took a hearty bite into main course before me , but something was wrong with it. A look under the top slice quickly revealed the problem.
“Laureli,you forgot to take the wrapper off of this cheese.”
“Oh,” she said, leaning to get a better look, “I guess I did. Well, at least we’re even now.”
It was strange, she was positively beaming the entire time she said that, as if nothing was wrong and she was proud of herself. That wasn’t the kind of thing I expected from Laureli- me, maybe, but not her. It was is if she was becoming the blonde she was, but that couldn’t be, could it?
“What do you mean,‘even?’” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.
“Well, she responded, yesterday I stopped you from getting neutered, and today I screwed up your sandwich, so we’re even now.”
“WHAT!?” I dove below the covers as fast as I possibly could. Everything checked out okay, and I came back up to find Laureli in a fit of laughter.
“Hey, that’s not funny!” I yelled. “You can’t joke about things like that! Especially to a guy…”
“I wasn’t joking.” Somehow she managed to get the words out over her dying laughter. “It was your reaction that was funny. You should just be glad the nurse was too stupid to realize Canadians don’t herd moose; if she had you would be less of a man right now.” Awkward silence followed.
“Hey John,” I muttered in my head, “does Laureli seem a little…”
“Out of character?”
“I was going to say freaky, but I like yours better. Do you know what’s up?”
Mire silence from John.
“Perhaps it is… That time of the month?”There was a hole in that theory.
“She seems… perkier today; if that was true shouldn’t she be biting my head off right now?” Even more silence.
“Well,” John theorized, “I do have another explanation. The alignment of your auraand your energy strength are determined by your physical strength and your emotions. The more time you spend feeling anger, hate, and sadness, the darker your aura alignment becomes and the stronger the dark portion of your energy becomes. At the same time the more time you spend feeling love, happy, and cheerful, the lighter the alignment of your aura becomes and the stronger the light portion of your energy becomes. That is why your light energy is so powerful, Jason. I believe Christian may somehow be manipulating her emotions to strengthen her energy.”
Great, more to think about. Luckily enough Laureli didn’t make me talk to her anymore, she just finished her lunch and left. I sat in silence for several minutes before another question came to mind. “Hey, John, What does physical strength do?”
“Physical strength,” began my companion, “Makes both of your energies more powerful. It also lets you use energy more efficiently so you need less for attacks. Also, because it gives energy to both types of energy equally it will not affect your aura alignment. Do you understand?” Uh… no. Actually, I could kind of go for a nap right now…
The next day
“So, Jason, did you have anything that you wanted to do before returning to school?” John queried.
“Uh… I guess not.”
“Well then, why do we not prac-” He was cut off by an enormous boom, and the entire house shook. Laureli was up to her old tricks again.
As usual I flew down to her lab to check on her. I found the usual scene when I arrived, broken glass, a puddle of water that got larger every time I came down here, the usual. One thing had changed though; Laureli. Instead of sitting semi conscious against a wall as was the usual, she was awake. And violent. Lab equipment flew across the room from the circular table in the center of the room.
“Why won’t this thing work?!” A beaker nearly smacked me in the face.
“Uh…” I ventured, “Are you okay Laurel-”
“GET OUT!” I thought my eardrums would explode, and I cowered out of the room.
“Sheesh, what was that all about,” I wondered aloud leaning outside the door to the lab.
“Now I believe he is strengthening her dark energy. You may have to adjust to her emotions as they are now.” I hoped not, it was bad enough that one time when she was mad at me for good reason, I don’t know what I’d do if she was pissed for no reason.
A note from the author: I know what you’re thinking, but do not fear! This will not turn into drama, but action! Hurrah! End.
“Now, as I was saying Jason,” John spoke aloud, “Why do we not practice your fighting skills today, I would like to see more of your technique.”
The workout room was as spotless as ever.
“So,” I sighed, “was there anything ya wanted to see? I can shadow box, get down the bag, or-”
“Actually I have something far better.”
I suddenly found myself staring at a mirror image of… of… Me!
“Before you say anything, let me explain.” Another wonderful lecture from Jo
John. “What you see before you is just a reflection of yourself, an image I have created. There is no one else in this room. If you lower the sand bag as well this image should provide an adequate target.”
I showed John everything I had. The reflection thingy was a good target; even though my attacks went straight through his hands I could still feel every block. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought it was real. I even threw in a few imaginary ninja stars. It was awesome!
The next morning
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. The drone of my alarm clock dragged me away from the beautiful land of sleep. As was my usual I rolled out of bed and shuffled half asleep to my bathroom. Another beautiful Monday.
After performing my usual morning rituals and getting dressed I dragged my bag to the door.
“Jason, wait!” Bruce’s voice boomed from above me on the staircase. He walked out of sight for a while then came back to the railing with something in his hand. He threw whatever it was towards me.
“Catch!”
I stared at the black hair band that that clattered to the floor several feet in front of me. What a bad throw.
“What is this?” I queried while picking it up.
“It’s a hairband.” Obviously… “I borrowed it from Laureli. You’ll have to wear it every time you go out from now on. Don’t ask, you’ll see when you get to school.”
I could ask anyway, but I wasn’t going to wear it anyway; who would?
At school
I returned to the all too familiar school campus. Yup, another boring Monday. “Jason, look!” John exclaimed out loud. Look at what? Everything was the same as- HOLY CRAP!
Almost every girl on campus was wearing a pair of ears on their heads. Not just any ears, either, they were mine! “Jason quickly, don that item Bruce gave to you!” John had a sense of urgency in his voice. “Uh… The headband doesn’t have a name…” “PUT IT ON!” It fit like a glove. How was it everyone had those ears? Were there a bunch of new immortals or something? This was definitely weird.
My walk on campus continued. I slowed as I passed a group of girls that were all wearing the ears, maybe they knew what was going on. “…is sooo CUTE!” one said, ‘And when I was found out they were selling these ears I just like, HAD to have a pair!” “I know,” Another agreed, “And that… What did they call him? Like the Lone Wolf or something? Had apair totally made me want them even more!” “Yeah, I’m like SOOO jealous of that kitten girl, she is soooo lucky. I wish I had a guy like that.” A third stated.
Well, the media screwed up my name, and that explained the headband, and why all the girls had those ears, but something far more important came to my mind. “I KNEW IT! GIRLS DO THINK I’M CUTE!!!!!!” I was floating on air, nothing could bring me down, or so I thought. Carla’s squeaky voice killed my buzz. “JAASOOOON!” Oh dear god please kill me now!
Her weight slammed into my back, and I stumbled forward, then almost fell back. Her weight, along with my backpack, made it almost impossible to stand, and even harder to shake her. Somehow I managed to get her legs off of my waist by pulling my arms up at the shoulder, and my now free hands pulled hers off of my neck.
I spun to face her and discovered I was the only one missing out of my usual group; talk about lost in thought. Carla stood in front of me, deep inside the boundaries of my personal space bubble, Eddy was on my left, while Jim and Laureli stood on my right- both with huge smiles on their faces. At least Laureli was in a happy mood; that was a good sign.
Carla leaned in way too close to my face and said, “Hey, baby, did you miss me?” My response was a big step back. “Uh… no. Hey, what’s that smell?” “I don’t smell anything.” Eddy said after a few sniffs. “Neither do I,” Laureli added.
No one knew what I was talking about, but the smell was still there. It was kind of nice, like a cross between a perfume and a musk. It was almost intoxicating. “Maybe it’s my new perfume,” Carla mused “The lady who sold it to me said it was full of something that made guys attracted to it… I think she called them pherlimines…” “Oh, you mean pheromones,” Laureli happily corrected, “I’ve read about those. It’s how bees communicate some messages, and other animals use it to communicate desire, but there’s no solid proof that it works on humans.” Carla continued as if she hadn’t heard a word Laureli just said. “So, where are your ears, Laureli?”
Come to think of it, Carla did look better today. Especially what was -barely- in her shirt. Actually, I take that back, she looked flat out HOT! I could almost just reach up and- NO! This was Carla, there was no telling where her… Those had been! What was wrong with me?! I would just have to keep my eyes above neck level, no problem. “Right Jason?” I glanced up to find everyone staring at me. “Uh…” I blurted. What had Eddy just asked “ yeah, who wouldn’t?” Okay, now, piece of cake, focus on the conversation and everything will be alright.
Eddy
That’s weird, I thought Jason hated Carla, but he just said he liked her… So much for my chances… Carla leapt at Jason like a bleached blonde blur and threw her arms around him. “Oh, I knew it, I knew it, I knew you liked me!”
Jason stood stock still for a minute, wrapped in Carla’s arms, and then it happened. It was almost like watching it in slow motion, but Jason’s hands slowly drifted up from his side to the two ripe mounds of flesh just below Carla’s back, and he squeezed. Yes, you read it right, he grabbed her ass. I was so proud
The sound of Laureli’s feet sliding across the ground made me look at her. She was pissed… sort of. Her feet were far apart, and clenched fists hung at her side. Every muscle in her body was tense- with the exception of her face, which still sported a delightfully amused smile, with one slowly twitching eyebrow. It was obvious someone was going to get their butt handed to them, but would it be Jason, or Carla?
My friend leaned in towards his heavily blushing prey, even more slowly than before. His face grew closer and closer until their lips finally touched. I think he might have even given her the tongue. Lucky bastard
Laureli Finally snapped. “YOU PERVERT!!!!!!!!” She roared. A right jab caught Jason square in the jaw, sending him sideways. Without even looking back at her Jason dropped to the ground and curled into a ball with his hands over his head and his knees under his chest like he had done several times before. I saw that same position on the discovery channel once- apparently it worked for bear attacks too. They used their backpacks to cover their backs just like Jason did.
Almost before he hit the ground Laureli was on top of him, sending several kicks into his exposed side. Then after several more kicks she began angrily stomping his book bag flat. Even with protection that looked like it hurt. Suddenly, without warning she reached down, grabbed the handle of his backpack and pulled him to his feet. He stumbled behind her to keep his balance, only to have her elbow smash into his face. Laureli spun, and kneed him in the groin. Twice. Before poor Jason even had a chance to sink to his knees Laureli hit him with an uppercut- this time Jason did fall backwards.
With his backpack, and on his back Jason had a snowball’s chance in the fiery pits of hell of defending himself- not that he would if he had the chance anyway. Who could hit a sweet thing like Laureli?
Again Laureli was on top of Jason- literally stomping across his chest. She jumped over when she got to his shoulders, then spun around to face him again, and pulled her leg back like behind her hips like she was going to kick a soccer ball. Not good. She let the kick fly, and after it hit Jason’s skull I could almost see the stars floating around his head. Laureli let another kick loose into his shoulder. He was knocked into a sitting position, then his head crashed back down to the cold asphalt. I don’t think he even felt it.
Now sure that Jason was completely out of it, Laureli’s head slowly moved towards Carla. Blood was going to flow; and not the blood that every woman loses once a month either- this blood was going to be beaten out. Now, there was something I had to do, it was my duty as a man to do this. “CAT FIGHT!” I yelled; man it felt good to get that off of my chest.
Laureli rushed Carla, but something was wrong.Laureli went in without her usual attack style; her fist wasn’t back, and she was running too fast to do a kick. No, this attack was… a tackle? Yup, She slammed into Carla with all her weight, and both girls fell to the ground in heap. Where’s a bucket of water when you need it?
Again, instead of throwing punches like she normally would, Laureli grabbed at Carla’s hair and pulled. Hard. “OW!” Carla screeched, and slapped Laureli with her right hand, then grabbed the left side of her shirt and ripped it.
A note from author-sama: Ok, I’m going to skip this part of the fight because, well, I don’t feel like writing it. It was either this, or not update for another three weeks or so, I decided this would be best. The next part of the story you’ll read is immediately after Nurse Claymore pulled Laureli off of Carla; please just keep in mind that Laureli was not fighting the way she normally does. End.
The fun finally over I rushed to my buddy’s side and bent over him. He was still out of it. “Who is the president?” Jim tested, also leaning over Jason. He seemed to struggle for an answer. “Superman?” “Um, is that close enough?” Jim asked, looking up at me. “Don’t think so dude. You grab his legs, I’ll take his shoulders, let’s get him to the nurse.”
Jason- in the nurses office
“Ow…” That was the first word I managed to speak. I didn’t mean to say it, it just sort of came out. “Oh, welcome, Mr. Barrows. Good to have you back.” It was Nurse Claymore. I found myself laying on one of the beds in the nurse’s office, with ice packs under my back, on my left shoulder, and with a bandage across my head. “You were pretty dazed for a while there.” She continued. “Do you remember what happened?” “Yeah…” I responded. “I think so… Remind me never to piss off Laureli again.” “You should have known better than to cheat on your girlfriend; especially one that skilled in the martial arts- although she did seem a little off today.” “Did she- HEY!!!! I thought I said she wasn’t my girlfriend!” “Yeah, She can’t be, Jason is mine!” Carla’s squeaky voice supported. I whipped my head to the left to see Carla sitting on the bed next to me; she had a shiner on her right eye, too. Oh, and ow. Fast movement equals bad. “Honestly, Jason,” The nurse sighed. “You belong to her. It couldn’t be any more obvious unless she peed on you. I’m going to get more ice, don’t you two do anything while I’m gone.” She swiftly walked out of the room.
Without missing a beat, Carla jumped from her bed to mine, and straddled me. “Now, where were we, Jason?” She asked, once again leaning in towards my face. “Get the hell off of me!” I tried to shove her off with both arms, all I did was remind myself that my left arm hurt. Badly. “What’s the matter, baby?” Carla whined, “You were all over me earlier… What happened? Don’t you like me anymore? Or maybe you just like being on top?” WHAT?! “NO, I DON’T LIKE BEING ON TOP, I NEVER LIKED YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND DON’T CALL ME BABY!” “But-” she argued
Nurse Claymore suddenly appeared behind Carla. I barely even saw her hand move to the back of Carla’s head and pull her hair. Her head snapped up to look up at the furious nurse hovering over her. “The next time I tell you to stay off of someone while I’m gone,” The nurse hissed, “You do it. Understand?” “I was trying to.” The slut tossed back. The nurse pulled harder “Do you understand?” “Uh-huh,” the almost pitiable girl whined. “Good,” Claymore released her hair. “Now, get off of my patient, get back on your bed and behave yourself.”
Finally put in her place, Carla scampered back to her bed and sat on the side, rubbing the back of her head. Nurse Claymore picked up her still empty ice bucket and once again left the room, this time mumbling to herself. “Honestly, loud enough to wake the dead.”
“While we’re on the subject,” I casually stated, starting a silent conversation with John, “Why didn’t you help me back there?! Laureli nearly killed me!” John sighed. “Calm yourself, Jason. I could not assist you because I was just as enamored as you were. I believe that girl’s perfume may have been why we behaved that way. I see no other logical explanation as to why we would both behave in such a manner.” I guess thatmade sense… “damn perfume…” I mumbled. “Oh Yeah, maybe that’s why you stopped liking me! The perfume must have worn off!” Carla chirped. Guess I said that last part out loud… She began almost frantically searching her backpack.
It bothered me that Carla needed a perfume to make someone like her; but what really bothered me was that she had no problems with doing it. I continued my conversation while watching her. “Hey, she’s right, why did I manage to stop her just now? I couldn’t control myself awhile ago.” Weird. “Have you not noticed?” John asked. “You smell nothing at the moment. Laureli may have given you a concussion when she kicked you in the head.” “Aw… it’s not here.” Carla had everything in her backpack thrown around on the bed around her and held it upside down. “I guess I’ll have to steal dad’s credit card and buy more. You’ll wait for me, won’t you Jason?” Hell no.
What a relief. Well, that situation was over for now, but I was still going to get it once I got home. Laureli would undoubtedly still be royally pissed, and I’d have to sell my soul to make her stop being mad at me. Again. I really couldn’t wait for this day to be over.
Later…
My key was in the lock I stared at the with my hand on the handle, planning my next move. I should probably apologize to her… Yeah, that was the best thing to do.
“You are going to attempt to make amends with her once again, are you not?” John Questioned. “Yeah, why? Don’t you want me to?” A long sigh could be heard in my head. “No, I do not. You have no reason to apologize for what you have done, although it is not as though any words I may speak will change your mind.” He was right, apologizing was definitely the best thing to do. I took a deep breath and opened the door to meet my fate.
The house was completely silent. The noise from my shoes as I walked up the staircase sounded like the footsteps of an elephant as I headed towards Laureli’s bedroom.
Laureli’s closed door loomed before me like an impassible barrier placed to stop me from achieving my goals. I couldn’t open it. It wasn’t locked, but I must have used all of my courage just walking up here. Screw it, I couldn’t do this. I turned to the heavenly portal that was my door began pulling me in, but a muted click stopped me in my tracks.
Laureli was glaring at me, I could tell- the back of my neck burned. I became a statue, hoping she would pass; she did- kind of. She stopped after a few steps, about ten feet in front of me. “You know…” she began, “you could at least apologize” I spun to face her. “Apologize? Apologize?!” Had she actually just said that?! “I don’t have to apologize to you! I-” “You don’t have to apologize?” She was as pissed as I was. “Dammit, Jason, you kissed another girl! An apology would be the least you could do!” Her argument made no sense!
“Yeah, I did, and she liked it! You are NOT my girlfriend, and you had no reason to do ANYTHING! Hell, on top of that you don’t even know WHY I did it! You think I wanted to kiss that?! Hell no! You of all people should know me better than that! If you can’t even trust me THAT much you have no right to call your a friend!”
I had had enough of this crap. Wordlessly I turned and stepped forward. “Jason, wait!” She called to my back. “You’re right.” My eyes met hers again. “I know I’m right I- wait… What?” Had she admitted defeat?
Something else was wrong too; she was crying. A salt river ran from each eye all the way down to the ground. I couldn’t tell if they were tears of anger or sadness, but her expression was still angry. Her fists were clenched, and her arms shook, but her shoulders drooped. It was hard to tell what she was thinking.
“You’re right, Jason. But you don’t know… What I’m going through either!” A sleeve wiped her tears away. “Lately, I’ve kind of… Moody. I’m angry one minute, sad the next, then happy… That’s why I stopped you.” That would explain her mood lately, but why was it happening?
“I understand.” I said, and I did. “But does this have something to do with Christian?” It had to be him. “I’m so sorry, Laureli. I just can’t say it enough. I never should have let him possesyou.”
Her mouth twitched. It looked almost like a smile for just a moment, but then it was gone again. When she spoke again her voice had the soft tone it had the last time we argued. “No, don’t be sorry. I’ve been trying to understand-” Christian cut in, his masculine voice coming out of Laureli. “Would you two cut the lovey-dovey crap? I’m bored out of my fuckin’ mind! One of ya throw a punch or somethin’” Now John’s voice came out of my mouth. “Jason and Laureli do not exist merely for your amusement. You should be grateful they have allowed you to live. Now, be silent or I will take action next time you speak. Please continue, Laureli.” “I’ve been trying to understand how it was you could let me- your friend- be possessed by a demon when you knew you could stop it. I didn’t understand the first time you apologized, but I forgave you because I saw how much you were beating yourself up, and I knew you were sorry. But now, I understand, and I can’t blame you.” “Come on!” Christian broke in again, “If you’re not going to make some action would you at least shut up?!”
My left hand made a peace sign, and I rushed forward to catch Laureli’s- or should I call it Christians- body, which was about to collapse from the pain. She fell into me, and my hands instantly went to her hips to hold her weight. The fingers of my left hand came back under my control, and I held here more firmly. She regained her balance, but I didn’t move my hands just in case. I would have to thank John later. I continued on, ignoring what had just happened.
“Laureli…” Now, how to say this? “You have every reason to hate me. Don’t stop because I don’t seem happy about it. If it makes you happy, please- hate me. I would hate myself just if it would make you smile… Even once.” Now she did smile. Her hand moved to my left cheek, and she smiled.
“Jason, if I knew you hated yourself because of me… I wouldn’t smile, I would hate MYself, and then you would hate yourself even more. But I do want you to promise me one thing. If you ever have the chance to stop someone from being possessed… DO IT! Her free hand slammed into my gut, almost knocking the wind out of me.
“Promise” I wheezed. Then, she wrapped both arms around me, and… We hugged.
After I don’t know how long, she stepped away from me, and looked up into my eyes like she was trying to view my soul.
“What?” I asked. She chuckled quietly.
“Nothing.”
Ah, so once again peace was returned to the Wayne Household. As I stared at the high vaulted ceiling from my bed I had to wonder, though; what had just happened? One minute I had been driven to apologize, then the next I was mad because she had asked me too.
In less than a minute my view on the situation had changed. Why? I hadn’t thought about why I should be sorry. It was like I had opened my mouth and the wrong words came out.Why were there so many weird things happening all of the sudden? Oh, well, I was just glad things were back to normal- or as normal as they got around here.
At school- the next day
Too hot! My usual group leaned against one of the school building’s brick walls- the nearest shade we could find.
“Ah…” Eddy Groaned, “It’s too hot… Why is the stupid sun so bright?”
“Shouldn’t it be cooling down now?” Jim wondered.
“I don’t know, but the news said it was supposed to get up to 110,” Stated Laureli, “It must be at least 90 now.” Carla grabbed my arm. “Yeah, it’s hot now, and Jason and I are going to make it even hotter tonight, right baby?”
I was too hot to bother fighting her off- so was Laureli apparently-. It was also too hot for anything like that. Actually, it had never been cool enough for anyone to do that with her. Then, the bell rang, sending us all trudging off to our first period classes.
Skip to sixth period- gym class. My class, one of three in the room, sat in our corner of the gym. Mrs. Rosh Stood in front of the room, wooden clipboard in hand.
“Alright,” She began, “today we were going to run our mile-” the entire class groaned “but today, since it’s so hot, I’ve decided to make it two.” One of the students spoke.
“But it’s like a hundred degrees outside, you can’t make us run! Everyone else is playing dodge ball inside!”
“I can make you run, I will make you run,” the teacher shot back,“and if you don’t stop complaining I can make it three miles. Besides, the harder you push yourselves now, the easier it’ll be for you when fitness testing comes around. Now, get to the track.” Mrs. Rosh’s super teacher routine got old really fast. It’s not like state testing was that important anyway.
“Testing isn’t for months…” The same student mumbled under his breath. Unfortunately Mrs. Rosh had the hearing of a bat.
“Okay, everyone, thanks to your little friend here, you’re going to RUN sixteen laps I in hundred degree weather! Feel free to beat him up after class. If you can still stand, that is.”
Okay, let’s see… A quarter mile track, times sixteen laps was 64… No, that wasn’t right… Sixteen DIVIDED by four equaled… Uh… Four miles. Wait, FOUR?! She said we would get three miles for complaining, not four! Was she trying to kill us?!
Two miles in. My mouth was full of sand, and my feet felt like lead. People were starting to drop like flies- we had already lost five out of thirty-two people to heatstroke. Nurse Claymore would be having a field day. I was about to drop too… It was too hot to run like this. Almost out of nowhere- but actually from behind me- Carla’s voice whined.
“Jason… Carry me!” Completely forgetting how tired, thirsty, sweaty, and sore I was, I took off down the track. There was no way I was gonna carry Carla too.
As it turned out, running was one of the best ideas of my life. Not only was “Candy” too tired to mess with me after trailing me for two miles, but I was one of only two people to finish the run.
The bell rang again; last period of the day. Thank god.Halfway to the science lab an unfamiliar voice stopped me.
“Yo, Jason, wait up!” I looked over my shoulder to see Chad Arroyo coming up be hind me.
Chad was a junior. He was the school football hero, and the ladies loved him for it. He was also a jackass. It was WAY out of the norm for him to talk to me.
He slung an arm over my shoulder like we were friends, and pulled me in the same direction I had been walking in a few seconds before.
“Listen, Jason, old buddy, ‘Cause it’s so hot now, and the ladies are even hotter, I’m havin’ a party at my house this Friday. My parents are out of town, the pool is nice and clean…” He trailed off.
“So,” What was up? “You’re inviting… Me?” He pulled me a little closer to him.
“No. Actually, I just might be willing to, you know, not kick you out if you were to show up uninvited. If you can get your hot little friend Laureli to come I might be willing to just COMPLETELY ignore you- but only if she comes.” Did I mention he was a jackass?
“Really?!” I pretended to be surprised. “YOU would be willing to ignore ME at one of YOUR parties?! No Way!”
“Hey, hey,” he almost sounded hurt, “don’t be like that- you’ll hurt my feelings.” Let the sarcasm fly… He continued “But ya know SHE’LL be there.” I stopped dead in my tracks- for real this time.
“You mean HER?!” Really, Really?!
“Ha! Got you now! Yup, she’ll be there. In a bikini too, but if Laureli isn’t there you won’t be at a party. Wouldn’t that be a shame?” He took his arm away, and crossed behind me. “Think about it.”
Well, If I did get Laureli to go, I wouldn’t be hurting her… And SHE would be there (in all her bikini-wearing glory)… Maybe this could be good for Chad and me.
At home- after school
Now, how could I get Laureli to go? There was force, but that wouldn’t work because I could never find it in me to lay a finger in her… There was blackmail, but I didn’t have anything on her… There was hypnosis, but I didn’t know how to do anything like that, so I would need a hypnotist, and I was broke… I could always get on my knees and beg, but that would ruin my pride. Then, it hit me like a load of bricks: I had no pride! I had to jump on this right away!
“Laureli, there’s gonna be this party Friday and I can’t go unless you do! Ya gotta go please, please pl-” Laureli looked up from her Spanish book.
“Ah… Cayette Porfavor, Jason. Quiero ir a la fiesta con tu.”
“What do you mean kayake? You- Wait, what?”
“I said,” she sighed, “I’ll go.”
“Uh…” Good, but I was curious, “why?” She seemed to consider the question
“I suppose I feel guilty for what I did to you yesterday, but I haven’t done anything for a while, so it might be enjoyable.” Score! Hey, I would get to see Laureli in her bathing suita gain too. Wait, bad Jason! Just friends!
“Great, well, it’s this Friday at Chad’s house, and it’s a pool party, so you should bring your bathing suit.”
“Which one should I wear…” She asked the ceiling, “ The white one, or,” she returned her attention to me, “the little black one?” Was it just me, or did it suddenly just get REALLY hot in here?
“Uh…” Don’t stutter. Do not stutter! “I guess the choice is yours… but you might want to go for the white one this time. Save the other one for me.” No, don’t say that! Idiot!
I got out as fast as I could after that. Man I felt like a perv. This whole “just friends” thing might be a bit harder than I thought, but at least I was going.
The next day
“All right, today’s the beginning of our unit on viruses and bacteria. I thought I’d start off with a lab. We’re going to see how an std could be spread through a college. For this scenario we’ll pretend you are all at a party ‘exchanging bodily fluids’ and one person there had an STD. At the end of the exercise we’ll test you fluids to see if you caught the STD, or the other mystery virus floating around. You’ve got five minutes to swap. Oh, and try not to blow up my lab this time, Mr. Barrows.” Oh yeah, almost forgot about that.
So, we began.Not long after we started a stink broke out on the opposite side of the room. I jumped over a desk, and almost knocked over two people to see what had happened.
I found Eddy hunched over, one hand on his crotch, the other one tightly holding his test tube.
“Uh…” I said, “what happened?”
“That bastard just raped me!” Laureli indignantly half shouted
“What?!” I turned to watch Eddy slowly, probably painfully, stand back up straight.
“Yeah, he groaned, “I dropped some of my ‘bodily fluid’ in her tube when she wasn’t looking.”
She had kicked him in his happy place just for that? She must be having another day when she was pissed for no reason. Oh, well, it wasn’t that big a deal; I’d just have to watch out for her.
At the end of the lab all of the students lined up in front of the teacher’s desk to have our “fluids” tested. If the water- or whatever it was- turned pink, we would know we were positive for the STD, and the “mystery virus” would show up in another way. Eddy was first in line. The first drop almost instantly turned his entire tube a dark, deep purple.
“Geez,” my evil brother sneered from behind me, “is that a positive or Cranberry juice?” It wasn’t really weird that Eddy would have the STD. A second drop of another chemical into his beaker made thick foam erupt over the top of the beaker, and spill onto the floor.
The same thing happened to everyone else in the class. Literally. Using the post lab papers the teacher passed out we found out that Eddy had been the person infected with the STD and “mystery virus” almost everyone had swapped with one of his first partners, Laureli, and it went from there. This was why I love science class. And I did all this without blowing anything up. Although, the results told me today might not be a great day…
At home
Time to check the weather report for Friday. The party wasn’t for a few more days, but I was still excited. The jingle for the news program played out over the tv.
“Good evening, Carson City, I’m Gregory Shono, and you’re watching channel eight Sexy-Action News.” The blond lead anchor announced
“And I’m Michael Ren.” The brunette next to him added.
“In today’s news, over fifty volunteers and a small fishing boat helped rescued a beached Blue Whale. After being freed the whale brief swam around the bay, and then stranded itself again. The volunteers persevered in rescuing it, only to have it beach itself again. Two cost guard ships have been called in to free the whale a third time.”
“Geez,” The camera cut back to Mike. “If ANYTHING ever proved it wanted to die, that whale did it. Why don’t those damn hippies just put a twelve gauge to its head and LET IT DIE!” The frame panned out to include both anchors.
“Dude…” Greg uttered, staring at his coworker, “girlfriend issues again?”
Mike silently nodded, glaring at the camera.
“Anyway…” Greg continued, on to a slightly lighter note, Michael Jackson has been accused of having sex with another little kid. Believe it or not this time it was actually a girl.” Both of them paused, and looked straight into the camera.
This could only mean one thing. 5,4,3,2,1… A wave of laughter blew out of the TV speakers. Greg was pounding his fists on the desk, with his eyes shut, and it looked kinda like he couldn’t breathe. Even Mike was laughing- not as hard, but still laughing.
“you should’ve” more laughing. “You should’ve seen the teleprompter! In big freakin’ bold letters it said ‘don’t laugh, don’t laugh, don’t laugh,’ and you have to laugh because it’s telling you NOT to laugh!” He cleared his breath to calm down. “Anyway now let’s go to Andrea the news cow with the week’s weather.”
A woman in front of a weather map took over the screen. It was obvious why they had called her the weather cow. She was big. The leather pants didn’t help either.
“Damn it Gregory! You make one more fat joke and I’m reporting you for sexual harassment!” She roared off screen.
“Shut up and bring me my weather biatch!”
“Yes, daddy!” she screeched back in fear. “I mean, whatever, Greg,” Nice try lady. “any way, after the heat wave earlier this week, the weather is finally starting to cool down. It should be down to a high of 85 degrees Friday. For Saturday morning-”
“And no one cares anymore.” Greg broke in. “Anyway, on to business news-”
“Wait,” Mike butted in, “did she just say ‘yes, daddy?’”
“Yup! Actually, I could train your girlfriend to do that too… Or better yet, you could dump her!” They both laughed a little.
“No way dude, se, she’s got this little red-” Another technical difficulties sign interrupted Michael mid sentence. That was the end of today’s news. Anyway, the weather for Friday was going to be perfect!
Friday- at school
“So, you goin’ to Chad’s party?” Eddy asked me out on the blacktop.
“Yeah, but how’d you get invited?” Eddy wasn’t really on most guest lists.
“Well, I jacked Chad’s cell phone, wrote down his parent’s phone number, and threatened to tell his parents if he didn’t invite me. But how the hell did YOU get invited?”
“Uh…” why did he have to ask? “I’m… bringing Laureli…”
“Nice dude! Using your hot girlfriend to get into a party to look at more hot chicks! In bikinis!”
“She’s not my freakin’ girlfriend!” Not that it mattered what Eddy, or anyone else said, nothing could go wrong today.
Later- Chad’s house
Sweet mother! I was right! The weather was warm, but not hot, the pool was clean, and the girls… let’s just say Chad may have been an ass but he had good taste. The tile along side the pool felt pretty good on my feet, too.
“So, you enjoyin’ the view too?” I spun around.
“Holy crap!!!When did you sneak up behind me Eddy?!”
“I’ve been here for five minutes, whistling at every girl that walked by. What’s wrong with you?”
‘Nothing, I guess,” How did I not notice that? Bad ninja! “Just… looking around. Taking a look at what’s here.”
“Great… You do that.” Eddy trailed off. “Hey, while you’re doin’ that, I’m gonna get a head start.” He brushed past me , and ALMOST Accidentally pushed me backwards into the pool. Good thing I had already changed into my swimming trunks. I surfaced to loud rock music blaring out of a series of speakers a t the shallow end of the pool. The party had officially started. Fun time.
All of the finest were here, but, where was the finest of them all? To my right? No. Behind me? No. To my left… Yes! There she was- Jaylee Joperro- Everyone’s dream girl, playing a game of volleyball in the pool.
“ JJ, over here!” Someone on the opposite side of the floating net yelled. She jumped halfway up, out of the water, and spiked the ball. Beautiful and competitive; Perfect.
“That’s game!” Someone on Jaylee’s team cheered. Jaylee waded over to the pool wall on my left.
Well, the opportunity was there, I had to use it. I was going to make a conversation- or at least try. She’d probably shoot the annoying little sophomore down. At least that way I could say I tried.
“So,” I muttered, still looking straight ahead, “uh, nice game.”
“Thanks!” She replied, “You should play the next game.” I turned to my right; there was no one she could be talking to that way. I turned towards her- she was staring straight at me.
“Me?” I asked, pointing to myself. She nodded.
“Yeah, you look like you’d be totally great at Volleyball.”
“Really?” No freakin’ way she could be talking to me! “Why?”
“I don’t know,” She thought about it, “You just, like, have that look, ya know?”
Okay Jason, say something witty… Go!
“I guess that could be possible,” Add punchline… Now! “After all, I am a man of many faces!” Damn, not smooth, not smooth at all.
“Oh my gosh,” She giggled, funny AND cute!”
HUH?! I couldn’t help but stutter. “C-c-cute?”
Have you ever walked through a stream, found a piece of gold bigger than your head, then started a mine, and dug up tons of gold a day? Neither have I, but I imagine this is how it would feel. I was on cloud nine. Once again, a noise brought me back to reality, this time a splash. A group ofpeople were grouped up in the shallow end of the pool, a girls was sitting on some guy’s shoulders, both of them were cheering. At the same time two more people popped up from under water. They were having a chicken fight.
“That looks like fun! Come on Jason, let’s go! We’ll show ‘em how it’s done!”
Ever open up a gold mine and find out it’s also full of diamonds?
“Jaasooooon!!!” Carla; probably hurtling right towards me.
“SON OF A-”
Again, the bleached blonde blur flew at me from out of nowhere, and Carla and I both went underwater as my hand separated from Jaylee’s. If this was a movie they would have zoomed in on our hands and slowed the action down so people could watch our hands slowly pull apart, maybe some sad violin music would play in the background, too. The guys in the audience would feel my pain.
I jumped back up to the surface as fast as I could to try and get Carla off of me, but it was no use; Carla was wrapped tight around me from behind. Her legs pinned mine together, and her arms trapped mine at my sides. It occurred to me that she was a lot like a snake.
“Oh, I missed you so much Jason!” She screeched, “Why didn’t you come find me?”
“Because I knew this would happen!” I snorted back. “Get off!”
No! I had lost sight of my goal! Where had Jaylee gone?! Well, I was surrounded by water, so getting Carla off of me would be pretty easy. I took a deep breath and dropped under water. I sat on the bottom, and hoped Carla would run out of air before I did. I wasn’t technically drowning her, she was doing it to herself. Gradually, her vice grip loosened, then she finally gave up and rushed to the surface- and a breath.Like a fish I jumped off of the bottom towards the far wall. I popped up and peered over the wall. Apparently I couldn’t recognize Jaylee by looking at her feet.
“Jason, what the hell are you doing to my party?” By following a pair of feet Chad’s face revealed itself to me.
“Huh?” I asked, “I’m not doing anything.”
Chad sighed. “Then explain that,” He demanded, pointing his finger at Carla, who was coughing like she was going to hack up a lung. Almost as suddenly as I had noticed her, she stopped, and dropped into the pool like she was in a bad episode of Baywatch.
“I wouldn’t worry about that. She’s just desperately searching for attention ‘cause I shot her down again. She’ll find someone to make out with, and she’ll be fine again.” How did I know that?
I turned to lift myself out of the pool.
“Somebody help, she’s drowning!” A male voice yelled, followed by the sound of someone doing a belly flop into the pool. A few seconds after that, someone came out of the water.
“She’s not breathing! I’m going to give her mouth to mouth!” A few seconds after that…
“Oh my god! Was that your tongue?! I need Listerine! No, Alcohol- And some Penicillin!” a set of feet hurriedly dashed past my face. That guy moved fast.
“They’re both under the bathroom sink.”
“Wait,” Carla yelled over the across the pool, “We weren’t done yet!”
“Why are you even here, sophomore?” Another one the school’s senior jocks- probably Chad’s friend- glared at me as I left the pool.
“He’s here because of that.” I stepped back from the edge of the pool and followed Chad’s arrogant finger to Laureli; Or I thought it was Laureli- it was hard for me to see through all the guys bunched around her.
“Well, Well, I Think I would have invited him too. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a babe who needs my attention.” He walked past me, dangerously close to the edge. I couldn’t resist.
“I think she’s a little young for you.” Then, with a little help from my foot, Chad’s friend went tumbling into the pool.
“You have three seconds to get out of my sight!” Chad snarled under his breath.
Didn’t have to tell me twice. Ok, now to get focused… A quick look around showed her on the opposite side of the pool, on the far corner. It took all of my might not to sprint around the pool, instead an extremely fast walk had to do. If I DID run, knowing me I’d probably slip and land on my face, ruining the slight chance I had to begin with.
A few feet separated me from the girl of m dreams now. 6.5.4. “Hey, Jay-”
“Jason,” Eddy popped out of a group of people talking poolside. “dude, you gotta see the food this guy’s got!” Before I even had a chance to react an iron vice was wrapped around my wrist. 321. -1, -2, -3. And there go those crappy violins again.
“See, What’d I tell ya?” Eddy asked when we finally reached the “food”
“Well,” I growled, “I see half a pizza, practically dripping with pool water, a bag of potato chips floating in pool water like some kind of demented cereal, and a bottle of Sprit with a strange yellow color. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO TELL ME?!”
“Aw, come on,” He begged, “It’s a Pizza Shack pizza!” it was hard not to kill him, but I managed to pull it off.
A note from Author-sama: No, I didn’t spell Sprite wrong, I’m just trying to think ahead to when I try to get this thing published and have to fix all these copyright issues I have. Don’t wanna get sued. End.
Now where had she gone off to? Jaylee must be even more popular than I thought to be moved around that much. I couldn’t see her anywhere outside, maybe she had gone inside.
I had barely noticed the house at the north end of the pool. It was huge, although just a bit frou-frou. On the outside. The inside would have made you think you were in a time capsule back to the seventies. Every piece of exposed wood was stained almost completely black, tacky flower wall paper covered every inch of the wall, it even went all the way upstairs. Thick dark brown shag carpet masked the floor. It had gotten soggy from so many wet feet walking on it, and the moisture had caused it to curl over on itself, turning the floor into a giant pile of wet cotton balls; not fun to walk on. Someone somewhere in the house was smoking something, and the rancid stench of the smoke clung to the air itself. I had to fight to resist plugging my nose.
Finding Jaylee fast would be in my best interest- I didn’t really like this place. I wandered down the hall from the sliding glass door to the pool, past the small, although still large compared to most, family room, and into the living room. Half of the party must have been taking place in here. I gently nudged through the crowd of people, searching for my target.
“That’s not true!” Carla’s voice rose above the rest.
“Oh, yes it is,” a snotty, arrogant, incredibly preppy voice responded, “you are fake!”
A note from author-sama: Sorry, couldn’t come up with a cleaner joke. There’s another thing to work on. End.
It looked like Carla had somehow managed to get into a fight with Ruby… uh, whatever her last name was. She was pretty high up on the popularity polls, and she was fighting with Carla. They shouldn’t have been anywhere near each other. Weird. And how they got to that topic, I didn’t know, and I didn’t think I really wanted to. With Carla, there really was no telling how this had happened.
“I’m completely real!”
I strode over. Why was it I suddenly had this urge to help Carla?
“You’re just jealous,” I began, “because you’re so small if they shrunk anymore you wouldn’t need a bra!”
“And what would you know about Bras?!” She viciously countered, “you can’t even get a girlfriend!” Ouch.
“Neither can you!” How was I going to make that work? I pinned myself in a corner! Wait, an idea had hit me! “you’re so flat chested you look like a dude, so you may as well go out with guys!”
I was probably killing my chances at popularity, or at the very least toleration right now. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad going back to those days last year when the sophomores threw things at me. It would help if I knew what the heck I was doing.
“You know, Carla’s really a dirty skank, but she’s the best you’ll ever get, so take her so she’ll leave the rest of us alone!”
Time to bust out the big guns and end this…
“If I wanted someone skanky, I’d just go out with yo’ momma!”
The Yo’ momma joke; the ultimate insult, and the final nail in my coffin. Any chance I had at not being hated at that school were finished. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t know why I was over here in the first place. It was like the idea had popped into my head and I had to do it. Why did things like this always happen to me ( aside from the things I bring on myself ?)
Her face wrinkled in disgust. I don’t know if it was voluntary or not, but it would cause wrinkles later.
“Let’s go!” Ruby stomped past me. Every girl watching the fight ( I guess all of them had been or her side) followed Ruby past me with the same expression on their faces, with the occasional “Uh!” or “whatever!” Yup, if the preppy girls said “whatever” while looking in your general direction, it was all over. Each of them probably had the power to turn a sports team against me, and everything would snowball from there. Great.
I sighed, and looked over at the person I had done this for. Carla had tears welling up in her eyes, and she slowly stepped towards me.
“Jason!” she gasped, “Tha- thank you!” I knew what was coming, and it really wasn’t what I wanted to deal with right now.
“Ah!” I stuck my hand out. “if you want to thank me, do it by not touching me. Please.”
She nodded. “Okay… but just this once!”
Good, I thought I would have to make a cross out of my fingers and slowly back away hissing. This made way less of a scene. Hey, why was I suddenly so concerned with my social life?
Question still unanswered, I wandered around the house. Eddy was against a wall trying to flirt with a couple of seniors- probably unsuccessfully. Maybe he would know Where Jaylee had gone?
“So, anyway, then I was all-”
“Hey, Eddy, do you know where Jaylee is?”
“Uh, no,” He responded as if he didn’t want to be seen, “haven’t seen her.”
As I walked away to keep looking the conversation continued.
“Do you like, know him?” One of the girls asked.
“Me? Naw… Anyway, then I was all-”
Back outside. This was starting to get just a little annoying, but for a girl like Jaylee, it was totally worth it. Now, if she was out here, where would she be… There were a bunch of people- mostly dudes- huddled around the sliding door I nudged through the group and craned my neck to see who was in the center. It was Jaylee! …With her arms around some other guy… with their lips… TOUCHING?!
Have you ever walked through a stream, found a piece of gold bigger than your head, started a mine, dug up tons of gold a day, found out it was full of diamonds, then have some random guy come out of nowhere, kick you out of the mine and land a kick straight into your crotch? That’s how I felt right now. I had to stop this, NOW! Before my chances got even slimmer!
Before I could move an inch, a hand grabbed mine and pulled me back out the way I had come in.
“Jason, I need to borrow you for a second…”
It was Laureli.
“No, not now, get somebody else! Let go!” I yelled as she dragged me to a quieter corner.
“The tie on my bikini top is loose, you’re the only one that can fix it!”
“Get Eddy to do it then!”
She turned and looked at me quizzically. “Are you serious?”
“No, that even sounded stupid coming out,” I sighed, “turn around.”
“Look, I’m ready to go now, so whenever you’re ready… Done.”
She adjusted the top a bit without facing me.
“I think I want to stay a little-”
“Hey! We found the key’s to Chad’s parent’s booze stash! They’ve got tons of hooch!” Someone yelled from the door, cutting off Laureli.
“Time to go?” I asked.
“Most definitely. Let me just say goodbye to everyone.”
I went upstairs To grab our clothes and whatever bags Laureli had brought (why did she have bags?). I had decided that this whole Jaylee thing wasn’t really worth it anyway. There would be other chances, and although she was smokin’ hot and definitely wanted to go out with me until that other dude came around, there were plenty of other fish in the sea. Letting one prime opportunity slip between my hands wouldn’t make any difference. Although, for some reason I felt like crying…
After ten minutes of searching through the upstairs bedroom where everyone had literally dumped everything they brought to the party, I found our clothes and Laureli’s bag. Back downstairs the tables had turned; there weren’t that many people inside, but by looking through the door it was obvious how many were outside. I made my way through the zoo to hunt down Laureli.
The “food” table had been turned into a makeshift bar, and whoever wasn’t still inside was huddled around it. The pool party suddenly turned into a frat party as a spirited chant began.
“Drink, Drink, Drink, Drink!” Well, actually, I guess the we were missing a ceremonial wooden paddle, and the sorority girls, but the idea was still there. Now, where was Laureli?
Carla’s Screeching voice rose above the rest “You go girl! Who says good girls can’t be bad!”Huh?
“Yeah, Laureli, didn’t know you had it in you, ya naughty girl!” Someone else called. Crap.
“Christian!” John exclaimed within me. That was the only possible explanation; this was Laureli we were talking about.
I dashed into the group like I was in an action movie. People went flying. If this was Christian, then if I put my fingers together and curled them a little… Between two peoples shoulders I watched Laureli/Christian fall to the ground off of a bar stool and twitch in pain. I dropped to one knee next to her/him.
“Guess she had a little too much.” Some jerk-off laughed.
“Laureli!”
“Oh… Hey, Jason,” She slurred, “you should try some of this stuff…” This was probably Laureli I was talking to, but she was hammered. Time to go.
Since Chad’s and Bruce’s house were both in the same ritzy neighborhood, and the weather was nice Laureli had decided we should walk to the party. This meant I now had to walk back too, but this time one of us was so lit she could barely walk straight. I had to keep her arm over my shoulder to make sure she wouldn’t fall over.
At that moment the street lights stuttered on. The cold orange glow cut through the warm summer evening air and illuminated the darkening sky. It was getting late.
The entire thing had the feeling of an old black and white movie. There would be a guy and a pretty girl, they would be standing alone on a deserted street under a dim light. Then the woman would say something like “I love you!” Then the man would say something like “I know, I love you too.” Then they would kiss, etc., etc. and the plot would move on.
“Jason, let me go for a second, I don’t feel very well.” Oh boy.I held her hair back and looked away as she bent over the gutter and made those obvious, “I’m throwing up noises. That feeling was gone now.
I dragged her up when she was finished and we continued on. We were getting close to home, which was good because she was getting less stable.
“Geez, Christian, why’d you have to go and do that. This is a huge pain in the ass!”
“Hey, Christian Slurred,” apparently also loaded, “You gotta relax, have a little fun… Try it sometime!”
“Sorry, Jason. I couldn’t stop him. I guess this is my fault too…”
I sighed, “no, it’s not that big a -”
Somehow she must have tripped, and fell forward. I caught her, but overcompensated. Obviously, she was in no shape to fix my mistake, and we both fell backwards. Somehow she managed to spin on the way down and we landed so that we face each other.
“Deal. Ow… She pushed herself into a sit up position so she was looking down at me.
“You okay, Jason?”
“yeah, it’s just a little scrape,”I gently groaned, “but you can get off of me now.”
“You know, she considered, “you look pretty cute in this light.” Well, we were right under a street light.
“What?! Geez, come on, you’ve got no idea what you’re saying right now! Just-”
She giggled. I know exactly what I’m saying, I just haven’t had the courage to say it until now. I know you want to, too.”
As hard as it was to admit, the offer was pretty tempting. It probably would have been more tempting if her breath didn’t smell like alcohol and vomit. With her in this state, though, it would seem like taking advantage of her. It was wrong. How did I get out of it, though? She was on top of me, and I had no where to go.
“come on.” She leaned in closer, closer… Oh, crap. Still closer, then she collapsed on top of me, probably passed out. Thanks, captain, you just saved my tail.
Laureli- the next day
A beam of light hit me square in the face, worsening my already splitting headache.Groaned and rolled over in my bed.
“Hey, sleeping beauty, you’re awake!”Jason sang.
“Ah! Not now, Jason! And turn out that damn light!”
“Uh, I can’t turn it off, it’s the sun.”
“Then shut the freakin’ blinds… It’s too early.”
“Actually, it’s two, and you can’t stay in bed all day.”
I slowly sat up. It was like someone had strategically taken a sledge hammer to every single muscle group in my body and gone to town. It almost hurt to breathe. Two o’ clock? Had I even slept? God, I was never touching another drop of that again!
“Hey,” Jason asked, “do you uh… remember anything… about last night?”
“Um… No. I can recall up to about around half an hour before we left, and then I don’t remember a thing. Why? Did something happen?”
He grinned sheepishly. “Uh… no, not really, it was nothing much. I mean, I know you were pretty out of it, and you probably didn’t mean anything you said, right!” Probably…
“Jason, if it was something important, you would tell me right?”
“Like I said,” He said, inching towards the door, “it was no big deal and you couldn’t be held responsible for what you said. Bye!”
“He’s pretty suspicious today.” Christian sneered to me. “ I’ll bet he feels guilty about what you two did last night. Who knew you could be such a passionate lover? I never would have thought you’d put out after a couple drinks. So noisy, too, ‘Oh, Jason, Oh, Jason’ he moaned, imitating my voice perfectly, ‘Please har-’”
“Bull!” I shouted back inside my own head. “I trust Jason, he would never do anything like that! Do you even remember what happened?!”
“Well, I could tell you, but it’d cost you your body.”
“Yeah, right. You were as drunk as I was, there’s no way you could remember. Besides, my body is mine; be glad you get to be in it.”
“Heh. Fine, It’ll be mine soon enough anyway.”
Jason- the next day
“Dude!” Eddy exclaimed, “why’d you two leave? You missed the best part!”
“Yeah,” I retorted, “but I prefer my women shaken, not drunk, so it seemed like a good time to go.”
“Yeah,” Laureli began, suddenly incredibly interested in her feet, “that was pretty embarrassing… Hey Jason… Um, never mind.”
“Yeah, Laureli, that was pretty good!” Carla squeaked, “If you had stayed you might have out drank me!”
“Can we please stop talking about this?” Laureli was turning redder with every comment.
Okay, something to change the subject… “So, did you see-”
If my life was a cartoon there would have been a whistle as an open milk carton fell out of nowhere and landed, perfectly balanced on my head. Upside down.
Laureli
Milk gushed out of the open carton, spilling onto everything anywhere near Jason, including me. Someone was going to pay for that!Who had thrown it?! Some bastard football jocks in letterman’s jackets were hiding in the corner trying to look innocent, that must be them!
“heh, heh,” Jason laughed, “I guess I had that coming… I’m going to go clean this off.” He stalked off, presumably to the bathroom. “God what did I do?” he mumbled as he walked past me and I plucked the carton off of his head
Just as I turned to go distribute my wrath Ruby’s voice stopped me.
“Hey, Laureli, now that the idiot’s gone, time to pay up!”
MY wrath was instantly redirected. “Was that YOUR fault?!” a muted crunch told me I had just crushed the carton.
“Huh? No!” She stepped back. “It must have been one of the girls with me, I didn’t do it, I swear!”
“Oh. How much was it? 60?”
“80.” She responded with an outstretched hand.
“Well, I only have a hundred in my purse… Just take that.”
“Thanks! I can’t believe you’d pay this much just to keep that idiot busy, I didn’t even have to try to start that fight! It was too easy! Now I can go buy that new hand bag daddy wouldn’t get me, and I didn’t have to work for it!”
“Watch it…” I cautioned.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.” She stopped as she turned to leave. “But am I really that flat chested?”
“Well,” Eddy piped up, “as Jason’s teacher, I would have been disappointed if he hadn’t made that joke. It could have set his training back by years.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised there two black holes in your shirt.”
“hmph!” Now, where was I? oh yeah, fiery wrath.
“Wait a second…” Eddy incredulously said, “did you just give her money… for keeping Jason away from Jaylee?! How come I didn’t get paid?!”
“Because I knew you would have done it for free just to mess with him.” I sighed, “And you did. Anyway, I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t forget, Laureli, we may have helped each other last night, but we’re enemies for love again today!”
Funny, she had no chance whatsoever. Now, let’s see… oh yes, I had a jock to kill. This was going to be fu- um, vengeful.
Eddy
I barely even noticed Laureli leave. “I can’t believe that! How come she didn’t tell me she was droppin’ c-notes?!”
“Probably because that wouldn’t make any sense, Eddy.” Carla replied
“Come here!” Laureli’s voice called on the distance.
“Oh crap, she saw us! It was him, he did it! Have mercy!”
“On your knees! The more you run the harder I’m going to beat you!”
“Well, how many ambulances do you think we’ll need?” Jim asked.
“Eat it! Eat it bitch! Swallow!”
“You know,” I considered, “If she wasn’t a chic, that would sound pretty dirty…”
“Is that all you ever think about, Eddy?” Jim asked
“Hey, how come everyone’s on me today? Just because I’m smart is no reason to gang up on me, that is NOT cool!”
“Why don’t you just shut up?” Carla and Jim asked in unison.
“So not cool…”
“What’s not cool? Did I miss something?”
“Jason! You’re back! No, you didn’t miss anything, we were just talking about that thing… At that place…”
“Uh, ok… Hey, where’s Laureli?”
“Here I am! Sorry, I just had to go take care of something.” She chirped.
“Hey,” I asked, “ What happened to that milk carton?”
“Oh, that?” She said smiling, “I shoved it down that bastard’s throat to make him pay.” Holy crap! That was even scarier with a smile!
“So…” I said, inching away from her onto Jason’s other side. “Read any good books lately?” If said one wrong thing right now there would be another trip to the emergency room in my future, and I still had make up work from the last few.
“Well, actually, there was one called-”
A note from Author-sama: since it occurs to me that I still haven’t given Laureli a last name (or if I did, I forgot it) here it comes! End.
“Lancaster!” The one voice that could save me from my own eventual screw up!
Nurse Claymore blew past me, her left fist cocked and headed straight for Laureli.
“Hello!” Their fists meat with a crunch you normally only hear from car accidents.
“What Have I told you about harming my students?” Claymore snarled without moving her fist away from Laureli’s
“I think I forgot.” Laureli smiled. “Care to remind me, whench?”
“Are you trying to pick a fight?!”
“Of course!” She seemed to get the reaction she was looking for.
“You-! Hm… I did get a lot of complaints about all the blood you left last time… Let’s settle this after school, say in the park?”
“I’ll see you there then! But don’t you havea patient to take care of right now? If you don’t hurry it may not come out…”
“Fine! But this time I won’t let anyone interrupt until I’m through! And it’ll be you who needs the medical attention!” She left before anyone could anything. Not good.
As the bell rang and everyone dragged themselves to class I had to wonder how today would end, but then, I probably already knew… There would be more blood today, too.
Math class
“Okay class, I’m handing back your chapter tests now. As usual, some of you have reason to be proud, while others, as usual, should be ashamed of yourselves.” The teacher began the process of passing back our tests, up and down the rows he went. This was one grade I was looking forward to seeing today, I had studied for hours, had every equation memorized, and I was completely ready for it.
Finally, the teacher walked past my desk and slid a paper towards me face down. The score?
“NEGATIVE FIFTEEN?!” WHAT?!
“nice one, Jason!” Eddy yelled across the room.
“Shut up! What’d you get?!”
“Eighty percent, moron!” WHAT?! Eddy’s brain was in his pants, how could he get a higher grade than me?!
“Laureli, what’d you get?!” I was getting desperate, if Laureli didn’t get a good grade, it must be just some kind of accident, or maybe a nightmare.
“I got full points, one hundred percent.” Son of a… “What about you, Mason?” she asked, looking behind me.
“One fifteen.”
I twisted around. “What? How is that even possible?! You can only have a hundred percent; even my math isn’t that bad!”
“Well,” The teacher explained, “If I didn’t give your missing points to someone, it would have thrown off the grading curve. On the same note,” he continued, back in front of the class, “quarter finals are coming up, so you should all study. Enjoy your grades, I’ll let you study your tests until the bell rings.”
“But,” I groaned to myself, “ I studied so hard… Jeweler’s theorem, Pisculio’s triangle, I spent hours memorizing them… so much missed TV…” This had to be one of those things that made a grown man want to cry.
“Well, for one, I think you meant Euler’s theorem, and Pascal’s triangle, that might be part of why you did so badly. Why don’t I help you correct it this weekend?” Laureli volunteered.
“Yeah… thanks…” I would need the help. Finally, like an angel of mercy the bell rang, freeing me from my own feeling of stupidity.
John
We walked down the cement walkway of the open air quad on our way to Jason’s next class. The two love birds chatted about more of their useless garbage on the way.
“Negative fifteen… that was kind of cruel, even for a math teacher.”
“Look, can we not talk about that now? The grade is bad enough without talking about it…”
“Do you have any better things to discuss?”
“Well… uh… Oh! Are you sure you want to do this thing with Nurse Claymore later?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve been training for this event, and I have a plan this time.”
“But still, last time she really- Sorry!” The last part followed him bumping into another student. Was walking and talking without running into someone that difficult of a task to pull off?
“Last time she really had you beat, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“I said I can win.”
“She’s still a teacher, sort of.”
We were getting close to the room now. Mason casually leaned his back against the wall next to the door in his normal pompous fashion.
“I’m going to do it, end of discussion.”
“But Laureli, after what happened last time- Ah!”
This time the idiot stumbled over his own foot, and while he struggled to keep his balance, ran into Laureli, who fell towards the door, and straight into Mason. I let Jason keep his own balance as I watched the events unfold.
Laureli, completely off balance, fell into Mason. Like anyone would have, he reached out to catch her, and she fell into his arms. One of his hands landed on the bare skin of her arm, then things got interesting.
For just a split second his eyes widened, his face contorted into an expression that could only be fear or disturbed surprise. Probably without him noticing, his left foot whispered away from the wall so that he was more balanced; it was almost a fighting stance. Then, everything was gone every expression undone, like nothing had happened at all. He knew, but he didn’t want to show it. Interesting.
Jason- after school
Laureli had us go home before her duel with the nurse, claiming it was part of her plan.
“ready,” she said, walking towards my post at the door
“That’s your plan?”
“It should bring the two of us into a level competitive arena.”
“But… I-It’s a bat!”
A really big bat, too. It came halfway up her chest when she rested it on the ground. If it had been made out of aluminum instead of wood I would have really been worried, for Nurse Claymore and for me- it was the same one she smacked me with when I snuck up on her in wolf form.
“So?”
“So, you’re going to fight a lady with a cane using a bat/”
“She gets her cane, I get this bat. It’s weapon versus weapon.”
“But that’s like using a tank to take out some guy with a hand gun!”
“And? At least then you’re assured of victory. And if you think about it, this is more like using an assault rifle against a hand gun, it’s not that much more powerful. Besides, I’m not losing to her again. Do you plan on stopping me?”
“No,” she had me there, “you’re you… and you’ve got a bat…”
“then come on!”
This wouldn’t end well, I could feel it.
A few minutes later
Half of the school must have been at the park or lounging against the tiny little saplings that lined the perimeter. Some day they would be big, tall oak making shade at the ends of the curving cement paths. For now, though, the trees were just tiny sticks held up by two other tiny sticks. With this many people you would think someone could have made a killing if they sold tickets, or chips and soda like Eddy was apparently doing. Good idea. No one was going to miss this rematch, and anyone who had heard about the first fight would want to see them go at each other.
The two fighters found each other, and immediately a ring was made by the spectators.
“This is gonna be so sweet! Hey, wanna buy some chips?” Eddy asked.
“I almost thought you weren’t going to show up.” Nurse Claymore sneered at Laureli, “you must know you have a beating coming, so I wouldn’t have blamed you.”
“Ha! You’re not beating anyone, witch. I came prepared for you this time!” Laureli proudly proclaimed, holding the bat straight up in the air.
“Oh?”
A wicked smile poured across the nurse’s face, and she held her cane against the left side of her body. She gave the curved end half a twist with her right hand until it clicked, then she snapped her right arm across her body until it stuck straight out from her shoulder. A gleaming sword extended from the curved handle of Nurse Claymore’s so called “cane.” Almost all of the bat that (hey, it rhymes!) now seemed so pathetic clunked to the ground; Everything above Laureli’s hand had been sliced cleanly away. Talk about an ace up your sleeve.
“I don’t think you were prepared enough, little girl.”
“A-a s-sword?” Laureli stammered, for once actually surprised.
“The blade is an old family heirloom. The original hilt was destroyed centuries ago, so the blade was placed in this cane and hidden. It really is convenient if you want to surprise someone.”
“Why, you!”The sword easily slid back into the sheath that was the body of the cane, and was secured with another half turn.
“now, shall we begin?”
Without giving Laureli a chance to respond Nurse Claymore charged.
Her first move was a horizontal slash at Laureli’s hips, which Laureli evaded by jumping over the cane, then countered with a kick to the nurse’s chest. Since the blow was completely unexpected the nurse staggered back several steps before she used her momentum to spin into her next attack; a spinning right hook. Claymore threw her fist at Laureli as she came in, but it missed because Laureli had ducked under it, and she used the opportunity to land a jab right under Nurse Claymore’s ribs. She really must have been practicing. Again of balance the nurse staggered back. Laureli swung her back leg towards the nurse’s head with everything she had, only to be blocked by her cane, and then get smacked in the head before her foot could touch the ground, and went down.
The nurse tried to drop kick Laureli, but she was deflected by Laureli’s inside leg, and then Laureli’s outside foot went through her guard, hit her in the gut knocked her on her back, and at the same time sent the cane clattering away. This had just become a ground game.
Still kind of dazed, Laureli slowly sat up, rubbing her head where the cane had struck. Then, like some kind of tiger The nurse rolled over, pounced on Laureli and pummeled her face like there was no tomorrow, with one of her attacks landing straight onto Laureli’s nose. Instead of blocking any of the attacks Laureli reached up and slammed the inside of her fist into her opponent’s temple, then rolled the dazed nurse off of her and sprung to her feet.
Wait… the dazed nurse? Why would an attack like that do that much damage? A look at Laureli’s fist gave away the answer; A piece of wood peeked out from each side. Of Course! When Nurse Claymore destroyed the bat she cut above Laureli’s hand, meaning part of the grip was still left, and Laureli had never dropped it! Even a small piece of wood could help after all.
As Laureli stood up she jabbed the nurse in the nose with her foot, causing a stream of blood to gush out.
“Now we’re even,” Laureli sneered, wiping the pitch black blood oozing out of her own nose.
This was bad. A lot of people were watching this fight, and blood that color definitely wasn’t natural. If I didn’t stop this, somehow, someone might find out about her, or at least notice what was coming out of her nose.
“Laureli!” I yelled, “It’s time to stop this!”
“No!” She shouted back, turning away from her adversary to glare at me. “This isn’t over until one of us goes down!” Looked like I would have to play referee again.
Just as I shifted forward, someone’s arms snaked up under my armits, then wrapped around back behind my head to lock together. That was a full nelson, and also a pain in the ass to get out of.
“Just one good fight,” Eddy’s voice pleaded.
“You bastard!”
“Don’t look away!” Nurse Claymore cried. Somehow, during our conversation, Nurse Claymore had managed to find her cane, and ready an attack right under Laureli’s guard.
As Laureli turned her head to the side and down, the nurse brought her cane up horizontally from the ground and struck Laureli in the chin, like an uppercut. As Laureli stumbled back, surprised and off balance, the nurse went in for the kill. While coming in with the butt of her cane in from the right, Nurse Claymore also came in from the left with a hook, knocking Laureli’s head even harder into the cane, and rattling her brain between the two simultaneous attacks. That would be a concussion and, an unconscious Laureli, and the end of the match. At least all of this was over now, although I wasn’t happy with the outcome.
Laureli slowly gave in to gravity , and crumpled backwards. Almost. Her body stopped just before it was parallel with the ground, her knees almost at a 90 degree angle, then, like watching the fall in reverse, she slowly rose up. It was kind of creepy.
“ Didn’t I- You were just- How did you do that?” Nurse Claymore stammered, with her jaw nearly on the ground. Her only answer was a small smile.
Laureli catapulted herself up, onto the nurse’s shoulders, then another jump took her behind. As the nurse turned around, Laureli swung a kick into the nurse’s head before she could finish turning, then with the same foot- without landing- hit her in the chest, then the foot left on the ground went to The nurse’s back- again, before Laureli landed. Now Laureli slid behind The nurse, and hit her in the back of the head with another kick on the way.
I found myself almost paralyzed watching her move this way- it was graceful and deadly at the same time.
“Jason!” John silently barked. “Why are you not moving? We must stop this!”
Now that I had been brought back to reality I found myself almost paralyzed by Eddy, who still had me pinned. There was no way I could convince him to let me go with words, so I would have to force my way out.
As I planned my escape the fight continued. Laureli- no, probably Christian now- grabbed the nurse by her collar, and flung her to the ground. As if paying her back tenfold for what had happened earlier, Christian landed on top of Nurse Claymore, squeezed his legs into her side, and started blasting every exposed portion of her body. He was strangling her with his legs, and attacking with his fists, I had never seen that before.
I had my plan now. With my right foot, I went behind Eddy’s knees and bent them slightly forwards, and then hurled as much of my weight as I could backwards into Eddy’s chest, making us both fall into a heap. His arms loosened just a little as he fell back, but it was enough to let me wiggle free.
As quickly as I could I untangled myself from Eddy, and dashed over to the fight. Sometime during my maneuver the fight had stopped- almost. Christian was still perched on top of the now unconscious nurse with his left fist poised above her face, shaking constantly, and he had a psychotic smile that devoured his entire face.
I called out to Laureli as I stumbled forwards, hoping it would somehow reach her.
“Laureli! Stop! Stop him now, whatever he’s doing!” His/her fist rocketed forward. I leaped as far as I could and nudged their elbow slightly farther left. The fist grazed the nurse’s ear and buried itself into the ground- literally. They looked up at me as I brought myself from laying flat onto my stomach into a kneeling position. It was Laureli.
“Sorry…” She weakly muttered, “that I couldn’t stop him.”
“It’s okay.”
With that she slumped forward, and joined her rival in unconsciousness. It was over for real this time. Thank god. I hurriedly collected Laureli and walked into the dispersing crowd before anyone saw too much.
“That was freakin’ awesome, right Jason?!” Eddy asked as I carried Laureli home. Again. I smiled, stopped, and turned towards him. “Eddy,” I beamed, “YOU’RE A FUCKING ASSHOLE!” Even though I was holding a teenage girl in my arms I still managed to get my knee deep into Eddy’s crotch. It felt good.
About an hour later
Hm… let’s see… a little more garlic powder? Yeah, I hadn’t used very much. Another dash or two added to the meat sizzling in the skillet would make it even better. Now, the vegetables…
“Hey, Jason.”
“Oh! Laureli! How… are… you…”
From the looks of it not great. Although she had cleaned up a little she was still a mess. Her left hand was wrapped in bandages to halfway up her forearm, her right eye was definitely on its way to a bruise, her jaw had swollen up and eaten her chin, and she couldn’t seem to stand up straight; I really didn’t think the nurse was in any better shape.
“I guess I’m well enough.” She sighed as she walked to thefreezer and made two icepacks. “I would feel better if I had at least won.”
“What, are you kidding? You had her on the ground out cold! There couldn’t have been anyone there who would say you lost!”
“I lost- ahhhh…” she sighed as she sat down with her ice, “when I let you distract me. She got way too far into my guard and I was unconscious. It was Christian that finished her.”
I turned back to the food and spoke over my shoulder. “Oh, so…. How did that saying go? The beginning didn’t justify the end?”
“The end didn’t justify the means, exactly. That was a battle of my pride, and if someone else fought it, I can’t claim any glory. It almost would have been better for me if I hadn’t challenged her.”
“Told ya so.”
“Shut up.” After a quick moment of silence, “Look, Jason, I do kind of feel like I owe you, though. I mean, after that whole fiasco at the party, then you held me back in the fight, then carried me back home…”
“It is a good thing that he did divert the blow,” John interrupted, “Any blow that requires thatmuch time to gather sufficient energy would most likely have killed her.”
“Christian was using energy? In that fight? ” I asked
“Yes. Did you not notice how much damage each strike caused? Or that his fist was shaking when he was holding it above Nurse Claymore’s head? That is a sure sign that he was charging his energy, although it also shows that he is not very experienced at using it.”
“Ya wanna see how experienced I am ya stuck up little prick?!” Christian suddenly burst out in his deep voice, slamming his left hand on the table where he sat with every word, “I’ll kill you, damn it!”
“I believe we have already proven that you can not kill me. Now, quiet yourself.”Hearing Christian’s voice coming out of Laureli still gave me the creeps.
“OW! WHY’D YOU HAVE TO HIT THE TABLE WITH THAT HAND?! GEEZ!” She took another moment to shake her wounded hand and calm down. “Anyway, like I was saying , I feel like I should do something to show my appreciation, you know, like a show of fidelity. I thought maybe we could have a picnic at ‘that’ park. Have a nice lunch, then when we come back I can help you with that math test.”
“Fidelity? Wait, you’ll help me with my math test?! Promise?!”
“Yeah, I promise. How about this Saturday, are you free?”
Luckily today had turned out to be another nice day. It was almost enough to make me forget about all the bad experiences we had with parks lately. There was this one, where Laureli had picked up Christian, and I met John, and the one closer to school where Laureli got her butt served to her the other day. Aside from that , the food, which I had to cook- even though she was trying to show “fidelity” or whatever to ME, was good, and I had no worries.
“That was great,” she sighed as we both leaned against a shady tree after eating every single thing I had packed in the basket. Somehow She had once again managed to out eat me. I still couldn’t figure that one out.
“Yeah, well it would have been even better if I hadn’t had to make it myself.”
“You know I can’t cook, and there’s no store out there that could come close to the delicacies you make. You don’t mind, do you?”
“I guess not…”
“Hm… Jason, do you know why I really wanted us to come here?”
“So you can show me your undying respect and admiration for me?”
“Well, almost. I’ve been trying to get the words to come out for a little while now, but I can’t seem to make them in public…”She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “What I want to say is that I… I… I still can’t do it.”
“Whatever it is, you can tell me, Laureli, I won’t hold it against you or anything.”
“It’s not that…” Another deep breath, “It’s just that I haven’t said anything like this before, and I’m incredibly nervous.”
“Whenever you’re ready…”
Awkward silence was the only answer she had to give. Well, whatever it was, if she wasn’t ready to tell me. All I needed to worry about was leaning back, relaxing, closing my eyes and enjoying the day…
“Mmph!”
“What?” I asked, “did you remember some- Laureli!”
She wasn’t next to me anymore. And we weren’t alone either.Laureli was being held by someone in ninja robes, just like the ones I usually wore, but white. He had her in a headlock with a cloth over her mouth at the edge of the shade of the tree and way out of reach. How had he gotten that far when I had only closed my eyes for a second?! Laureli had gone completely limp, and on top of that I didn’t have anything I could use as a weapon to get her back. This was not good.
“Crap! Who are you, and what do you want?!” Maybe I could bargain, but he seemed to be pretty god at this…
“Who we are…” a strangely familiar voice hissed from behind me, “is not important. What we want… is not important. All that you need to know, Jason Barrows, is that I challenge you.”
A note from Author-sama: In case you can’t tell, this is going to be my second fight scene in two pages… So the next update might take a while because I have to continue improving my fights, make them longer, better, more realistic, make them follow the laws of physics, etc. And, since everything before this has really just been me introducing characters, I need to plan everything from here more carefully. Please look forwards to TDK’s real beginning. End.
“Challenge me? To what?” an I hoped he wouldn’t say what I think he would…
“I challenge you to a Katawariseki no Haran-wa shoujo challenge.I’m sure you know the rules. I’ll give you five minutes to prepare before I leave.”
I took a brief moment to glare at the person who had issued the threat. He was wearing the same clothing as whoever was holding Laureli’s unconscious body- no he WAS the same person who was holding Laureli. He must be using a clone jutsu, not that I could tell who either of them was by looking because all I could see were their eyes. Things just started looking worse for me.
Back at home
At this point things had gone from good, to bad, to worse, and now I was pretty much at an apocalyptic level of screwed. Not only had my future opponent:
A)Taken something I couldn’t just abandon (Laureli).
B)Already proven he was at a higher level than me (I didn’t know a single jutsu, he knew one of the best).
C)Given me five minutes to get here and then back to the park before he I forfeited and he left (it took me four just to get here at a full sprint).
But on top of all that:
D)My equipment sucked
E)I sucked
This challenge was a weapons fight. He would definitely have a sword, and what did I have? Throwing knives; Not shuriken, not kunai, throwing knives, collapsible throwing knives. He knew jutsu. What did I know? How to make a fist, that was about it.
I was even bad for my age group. I had started training a year ago, and there were ten year olds at the island where I trained that kick my butt with one hand literally tied behind their backs. I was to new for anything like this! Why would anyone force me into a challenge of fighting skill when I had none? It was like taking candy from a large teenage baby!
There was no way I could win this, but sitting here rolling in self pity wouldn’t save Laureli.
“John, I’ll need your help.” I didn’t even bother keeping my voice just between us.
“You have it.”
Back at the park
Four minutes to get home, three to suit up and grab what little weaponry I had, three more to sprint back to the park at an inhuman pace. Total: ten minutes. I had been given five; I had forfeited the match.
“You’re late.” The White Ninja lectured. “That means we get the prize. Later Barrows.” He and his copy turned, with Laureli in his arms, to leave
“Wait! I know I had to be back in five minutes but… but…”
“But?”
“But you can’t leave! Give me another chance! If I don’t fight you and win… It means I let her down!” Even though I was yelling I could barely hear myself over the sound of my own panting. “I have to win!”
“Hm…” He seemed to consider something. His wrist flicked forward at his side, and a metallic blur flew towards my face. Whatever it was, I didn’t have enough time to figure out what it was, let alone dodge it before it had sliced my cheek and flown away. It must’ve been a shuriken, but more importantly he missed.
“If your aim’s that bad maybe you shouldn’t have challenged me in the first place!” Maybe if I damaged his pride he would accept the fight to regain it.
“I see. Well, alright then. I’ll reopen the challenge, with one condition: I will use real weapons. You have to put your life on the line.”
But then, if he didn’t kill me, once Laureli eventually escaped she would, and it would probably be slower and more painful. Wait! None of that mattered, though! I had John on my side! With the two of us fighting together, we could actually win!
“Can you handle him, John?” I silently asked my partner.
“Most likely not. You do not have a sword, and he does. I am not accustomed to an unarmed fight, or to fighting against a sword unarmed.”Now that he mentioned it, Whitey-chan did have a sword on his back now, along with the unknown numbers of shiny, pointy shuriken hidden somewhere on his body.
A note from Author-sama: -chan is a Japanese name suffix denoting cuteness or familiarity. It is not one you would normally use for someone who could kill you if you looked at them the wrong way, but in this case our loveable protagonist is making a reference to the anime Bleach currently playing on Cartoon Network. End.
Another note from Author-sama: That last comment marked the 100 page mark of this story! What a perfect place to enter the main storyline! End
“Fine!” I was gonna die.
The (apparently) original white ninja handed my still unconscious friend to his counterpart, who retreated a safe distance. Maybe if I could make a distraction…
“Don’t get any ideas Jason. Oh, and following your target with your eyes is a clear sign of your intentions. Now, take note of your battle field- and your death grounds.”
It was simple enough. We were in the middle of a park during the day, there was nothing near where we were but grass and the giant oak I had been relaxing under a few minutes before, and the only change in elevation was around where the tree’s roots first went into the ground. Simple; or maybe there was a reason he had told to look? He’d had at least ten minutes while I was gone to set traps wherever he wanted. If he could get me to step on those, he could kill me without dealing a single blow.
No! I couldn’t think about things like that! If I was going to win I have to focus on winning, and my only chance of winning would be to hit fast and hard, to end the fight before it was over!
“I’m ready!”
“Fine, I’ll start. Ninjutsu! Dragon Style!” He shouted as he slid forward into his fighting stance.
“Uh… Ninjutsu!”
This was the traditional way to start a formal fight like this one. Each competitor shouts their martial art. In Ninjutsu there are also several fighting styles under the umbrella of the same martial art, he also added that in. It would be a good piece of information to know if I had any idea what dragon style was; not that I had time to worry about it.
Now, the fight had begun. Both of us stood completely still sizing each other up. I would have to win fast and from far away as possible, which meant I would have to throw one of knives before he had a chance to dodge or attack me. As fast as I possibly could I pulled out one of my knives without opening the blade, and threw it into thin air; or so it seemed. Just as the knife left my hand he disappeared; literally. Just a flicker and he was gone, kind of like what you see on TV sometimes.
Where did he go? Left? Right? No. Behind me? No. A shuriken lodged itself in the ground at my feet. Where had it come from?!
“Up here, boy!” My opponent whistled, like I was a dog. He was in the tree, where the branches could deflect my knives. Crap. My only option was to go up there and take him hand to hand, tipping the battle even farther in his favor. John seemed to realize just how bad this already was.
“Jason, You should concede now before you are injured. This challenge is supposed to be non-lethal, almost like a joust- or at least it was until you arrived late- so that would also mean that whatever he does to Laureli will not seriously wound her as well, correct?”
I didn’t really want to think about what would happen if I didn’t win- not what would happen to me, but what would inevitably happen to her.
“John, if he wins, he will wound her, worse than anything you can do with a knife or a gun or any other weapon.”
“I do not understand, How could he wound her worse than-”
“If you don’t understand it’s fine, just shut up and back me up.”
“As I have already mentioned, I cannot.”
“Then just shut up. I need to concentrate.”
I climbed into the tree like a drunken monkey and tried to get my balance on the thickest branch I could find. Even though the tree was old and the limbs strong they still had a lot of bounce to them, even the slightest shift in my weight was magnified to the point of me almost losing my balance. He was still a few feet above me, where the branches were even thinner.
“You look a little of balance, pup,” he called down.
“And your aim still sucks, Whitey-chan!”
As I pulled myself from branch to branch I got a little more used to the moving branches, I would need to adjust, and fast, to win.
At the level where the white ninja stood there were three branches close together at around the same height. He stood in the middle of the three, and I on the left. I jumped over onto his branch and threw a punch, again into absolutely nothing.
“behind you!” He taunted.
I spun, jumped back to where I had been, and punched again, once again missing.
“Come on, I said I was behind you!”
I turned to face him again. He was on the far branch, so I would have to jump twice to get to him, leaving plenty of time for him to prepare a counter attack, and the sword on his back made me nervous. One jump might just be fast enough to reach him, and hopefully moving like that would catch him off guard; if I could jump that far.
There was no real choice, though, so I grabbed another knife with the blade collapsed, coiled my legs and leapt. It was still too much time. Just before I was close enough to connect with my fake attack and “kill” my opponent, he jumped straight up, and effortlessly shoved his foot into my chest and knocked me backwards. Gravity took care of the rest. I fell straight down, hitting every branchon the freakin’ tree before I landed hard on my back thirty feet from where I had started.
I slowly sat up, imagining the colorful bruise(s?) I would have tomorrow.
“Give up yet, pup? If you give now, I might not hurt you too bad!”
“Screw you!”
“Oh?” four more shuriken flew down from his perch, two sliced my calves, and two landed in the middle of both of my thighs, biting deep into the muscle, almost into the bone. I involuntarily screamed, apparently bringing my opponents great pleasure.
“How about now, Jason? Can you handle the pain? It’ll be hard enough to walk, let alone fight like that.”
“I thought I said…” I paused for a quick second to fight another scream as I plucked out the shuriken and tossed them away. “Screw you! Now come down here and try fighting like a man, you ugly idiot!” To my surprise, he actually did, and delicately landed right in front of me as I stood up.
“Ok, I’m way down on your level now. Let’s make this fast though; I’ve got other things to do.”
As quickly as I could I threw a left hook at his temple, only to be hit by him before I got close to landing it. With his left hand, he launched a jab to my face, one to my chest, one to my body, one more to my chest, then hit me once more in the head, followed immediately by a right hook. While my eyes were still skyward he jumped forward and propelled his knee into my gut, making me double over, and then clubbed me at the base of my skull with both fists. I went down hard and fast. Just as I hit the ground he flipped me over with a kick to my side, stepped on my chest, drew his sword, and placed the business end of a well sharpened katana at my throat.
“Bow to your sensei, Barrows; You lose.”
With that he sheathed his sword, and coolly walked towards his clone who was collecting Laureli as I watched.
“Let’s go…” he sighed to his henchman, “What do you want to do with her first? We could probably make a decent profit if we sold her, or we could just keep her for ourselves.”
“Wait!” I yelled at his back, staggering to my wobbly feet, “We’re not done yet! I want a rematch, no tree this time!”
He glared at me over his shoulder, then disappeared, and reappeared so close to me that I could feel his breath.
“Next time, when I win, I’ll kill you. Then I’ll do what I want to her and kill her when I’m done. Sound fair, pup?”
“Only if I get to kill you when I’m done beating you.”
He chuckled slightly, and stepped back.
“Very well. You pass.” He snapped, and as suddenly as they appeared, both he and himself disappeared into nowhere, dropping Laureli on the ground like a sack of moldy potatoes.
I dashed- well, more accurately hobbled with a limp in both legs- to where Laureli had been dropped. She was awake, but not entirely aware of herself. She was staring vacantly in my direction, but it felt more like she was staring through me than at me, her eyes were glazed over like she had just woken up from a deep sleep and still hadn’t finished waking up. I let my legs give out underneath me, sat next to her and let her recover from whatever was on the rag next to her that had done this.
After a few minutes she sat up and rubbed her temples, groaning a little.
“What… just happened?” she asked.
“Uh, nothing really.”
“Jason.”
“What?”
“Explain?”
“Well, a couple of ninja came out of nowhere, drugged you, and challenged me.”
“Explain, Jason.”
“Explain what? The ninja, the drugging, the me?
“The challenge part! I’m not in the mood for games Jason.” She was still groggy, I guess that was understandable.
“Well, it’s called a Katawariseki no Haran-wa shoujo challenge. A long time ago in Japan there was this incredibly skilled ninja named named Haran from the Katawariseki ninja school. He had a beautiful wife that everyone adored. One day, a rival ninja from another school challenged Haran to prove that his school was better than Katawariseki. To draw Haran into a meaningless fight the other ninja stole something extremely precious to Haran- his wife- to be used as a prize for the fight. The rules were simple, without killing him, or drawing blood, defeat your opponent. The winner would get Haran’s wife. The white ninja who was here challenged me to the same thing.”
“Okay… So, this Haran person, did he win?”
“Uh… No.”
“So what happened to his wife?”
“Whose wife?”
“Jason!”
“Er… Well, uh, there are three different stories from there. One says she was forced to marry the other ninja and bear his children, the other says she committed suicide so she wouldn’t have to marry him.”
“That’s awful! What about the last story?”
“Last story? I thought there were only two.”
“If you do that one more time I’ll smack you.”
“Alright, alright! Well, the last story says that Haran’s wife was…”
“Finish, Jason.”
“She was sold… into…”
“FINISH!” She yelled, followed by a weak slap to the back of my head.
“Well, how do I put this… You know how sometimes people get really lonely, and no one will give them any attention, so they have to pay someone for it?”
“She was sold into prostitution?!”
“I guess you could put it like that…”
“Wow… I can’t believe anyone would do something so terrible to another human being. At least you won, though.”
“Heh heh, yeah…”
“You did win, didn’t you?”
“Uh…”
“Didn’t you?!”
“Not exactly.” That one woke her up.
“Does that mean I’ve- Is someone going to- My first- Some strange person- No!”
“Whoa, whoa, relax, Laureli, nothing’s going to happen to you.”
“But you lost! Any second now, a bunch of guys with guns are going to jump out of a van and-”
“No, he said I passed some test, then he dropped you and left. Everything’s fine. It’s probably a good thing you didn’t see that fight either. It wasn’t pretty.”
“Actually, I did see parts of it. There must not have been very much chloroform on that rag, because I was awake before you cam back- I just had no idea what was going on.”
Ah, Chloroform, so that’s what it was. “Well, anyway, I think the picnic’s over. Let’s go home.” Before I stood I grabbed the chloroform rag that was behind Laureli. It had that bastard’s scent all over it, and I would it to find him. I WAS going to find him.
Laureli picked up all of the things that we had brought with us and put them back in the basket. Her eyebrows were caught in a disappointed half frown that may have been a giant “do not disturb” sign hanging from her forehead. I couldn’t blame her for being in a bad mood after being drugged and coming so close to something like that.
“Jason, you’re bleeding… And that’s a pretty deep laceration… What happened? I thought you weren’t supposed to draw blood!” She asked after bending over to pick up a fork by my feet.
“Well, Whitey-chan gave me five minutes to get home, change and come back, so since I obviously couldn’t make it both ways in time, I had to let him use real weapons instead of thewooden ones he would have used. It was either that or forfeit, and let him do those things. It’s no big deal really.”
“He nearly died,” John added.
“I said it was no big deal!” I yelled back, out loud.
“Jason…” Laureli cooed, “You risked your life to protect me?”
“Like I said, just forget about it. I’m sure you would have done the same for me. Besides, it wasn’t really “protecting” so much as substituting. If you weren’t out cold you could have taken care of yourself.”
“Jason I wish more people could be like you. You’re strong, caring, gentle, and… and good looking. This seems so much easier to say now- Jason, I think… I think I love you!”
“Did he drop you on your head?”
“Did he- Ah! I don’t believe you!” She stormed off towards the road home, kicking the picnic basket on her way, sending a shower of leftovers and silverware all over the ground. If anything had been in her way she would have walked over it, or under it, or
through it.
“Great, she’s mad again. Was that the wrong thing to say?” I wondered aloud.
“Are you serious?” John asked out loud. There was no one around, so no reason to be quiet.
“I didn’t think there was anything wrong with what I said.”
“You truly have no understanding of that girl’s feelings.”
Chapter 11: A patch for Human Stupidity: Build 3.0 (Dumb Ass Edition!) OR A Change of Heart
Back at home
The first thing I had to do was clean my cuts. There was a first aid kit in my bathroom, it should have been enough to clean what I had. When I got to the bathroom I was surprised to see everything laid out on the counter, like it was smiling at me. A note was taped to the bottle of alcohol, it read, “I hope this hurts.” Nothing else was out of place, every pad was in its wrapper, untouched, just placed on the counter for easy access Had she really gone through all the trouble of laying out everything so well just so she could leave a slightly nasty note on the alcohol bottle? Well, anyway it was going to hurt…
After nearly killing myself with the liquid pain called “Rubbing Alcohol” I sat down and stared at the super F on my math paper. Where to begin?
Laureli’s hand snatched the paper off of my desk; she brought it to her face and examined it.
“Laureli, what are you-” She was being really weird right now.
“I promised I would help you correct this, that’s the only reason I’m here. Just don’t say anything, okay?”
“I guess I don’t have much choice…”
“First,” She began, “you screwed up Pascal’s triangle. You’re supposed to add the numbers, not multiply.”
“Oh…” That made sense. “I was wondering why every row had nothing but ones in it.”
“You also screwed up every single one of your factors… Work on that for a few hours and you MIGHT pass the finals.” She threw the red streaked paper back on my desk and walked half way to the door before I stopped her.
“Wait, that’s it? That’s all you’re going to do? No help with factoring, no example triangle?” “I said I would help, and I did. End of story. Figure the rest out yourself. Jerk. Watch it, Bruce!” she yelled as she apparently ran into him in the hallway.
“What happened to you two?” He asked, “Lovers quarrel?”
“Hmph! Hardly,” Laureli snorted.
“So, what did you do this time?” Bruce questioned, peeking in through my door.
Completely ignoring him, I looked for help somewhere else.
“John, you can help me with this, right?”
“Algebra is also not one of my skills.” He silently responded.
“You’re completely useless.”
Later that night
Now that all the little stuff, quarter grades, deep wounds, etc. were over with I had something really big to deal with. Laureli. I tossed myself down on the grass by the moonlit pool with my arms and legs spread wide, and listened to the songs of the crickets hidden in the lawn around me. I had been trying to avoid this all along by trying to just stay friends, but now, I had been forced to say no… This was bad.
“You do realize, that it may not have been the rejection that angered her as much as the method you used to reject her,” John stated.
Had I said that? “Yeah, I guess, but what do I do about it? I mean, I don’t want to say ‘I’m sorry, I do like you!’ because, well, that relationship could go sour and ruin our friendship. But then, it’s kind of ruined right now. This is really sticky. She’s smart pretty, fun to be around most of the time, but still, I don’t like her that way, or at least I don’t want to.”
“You could simply return her affection, it would make both of you very happy, after all, you are ‘head over heels’ for her, are you not?”
Of course! He was absolutely right! How could I not have seen that before?! Was I afraid to admit it to myself that maybe I liked Laureli as something more than just a friend? It was hard to admit, but true. I had to find her now, but first, “Hey… Thanks John.”
“Not a problem.”
Upstairs I found Laureli’s Door closed as usual. I was tempted to twist the knob and walk in uninvited as usual, but something stopped my hand before I could. Instead, I politely knocked and waited for Laureli’s answer.
“Go away!”
So much for not coming in uninvited.
I pushed the door open and protected my face from the inevitable shoe that would come flying towards it, but there was none. A little confused I looked around the room. It wasn’t as neat as I had remembered it. There was stuffing from something all over the floor, and some of the Inuyasha figures had their heads torn off and tossed to opposite corners of the room; not a good sign.
Laureli was laying face down on her bed, face down in a pillow, still and silent. How could I say what I wanted to say without hurting her again?
“Hey, Laureli,” I began, sitting on the bed facing away from her, this would be easier if I didn’t have to look at her.
“About earlier… I’m sorry about what I said… I couldn’t admit… not even to myself that I really do care for you. It was just that we’ve been friends for so long and-”
“Just shut up and go.” She growled.
“What? But I’m saying-”
“I know exactly what you’re saying, and I know why you’re saying it, because I know YOU.” Her voice was hard and cold, like ice trickling into my ear. “You’d say whatever you needed to in order to cheer me up; you’d say whatever you need to… Do whatever you needed to do so you could cheer anyone up. Probably…” Her voice finally began to give into the emotions she had bottled up inside, it was shakier, less distanced than before. “Because you care so much… But I don’t want your pity! Save it for someone who does! I should have just stayed quiet and made things easier on both of us.”
I risked a quick glance over my shoulder, but her head was buried in the pillow again, even deeper than before.
“Even I wouldn’t do something for someone else if it hurt me,” Right? “I’m saying this because I mean it! Because you know me, you should know how I get with words sometimes… And it can take a while before I know what I really want, but I know I want you!” Hey… that came out a little wrong. For a moment neither one of us spoke. The silence crept through the room, like it was before I came in. So I sat, and I waited. Before too long she wrapped her arms around me from behind. Something hot soaked into the back of my shirt, and she murmured,
“I knew you’d come around eventually, after all, who could resist me?”
“Yeah, who could? Just don’t ask Eddy.”
A note from Author-sama: I really hope that was more fun to read than it was to write. T_T Any way, feedback on what’s happened in the story so far would be great. End
So everyone was happy again, back to the normal school day. Almost.
“Hey, Laureli, what was going on with the blood from your nose last week?”
“Well, that was-” Laureli wasn’t ready to answer that, which was okay this time, because at that moment Carla came screeching.
“Jason!” Crap!
As usual she had snuck up on me from behind, and jumped on my back. This time I didn’t have to shake her off myself, right after she landed, before I could really get balanced again, Laureli was on top of her, pulling her off of my back.
“Get off! “ Laureli yelled as she yanked Carla off my back and straight on to hers.
“Why are you so-” Carla bolted up, “You didn’t! You got to him before I could!” She turned to pout at me, “But you were supposed to be mine Jason! Why’d you let her get to you before meeeee?”
“Uh… Before you?” I asked, “Is there something I missed here?”
“No, nothing at all! Things are just as you see them,” Laureliblurted out. Ok then…
“So, what about the blood,” Jim persisted.
“Laureli, can I speak to you for a moment?” Nurse Claymore had again popped up out of nowhere, this time to talk instead of pick a fight.
Laureli
“Laureli, can I speak to you for a moment?” The nurse firmly grabbed my bad wrist and pulled before I had a chance to protest. It hurt.
“What was that?!” She began again once she had dragged me into the security of the nurse’s office and locking the door.
“What was what?” I rubbed my wrist as I spoke. A cold compress flew across the room and landed at my feet.
“What was that blood coming out of your nose? I’ve had a few people ask already, I made up a story about a blood disorder that causes darkening of the blood plasma. I called it Melanemia, but what is it really?”
“So is this Melanemia … Is it contagious?”
She glared at me. “No, it’s genetic… The blood itself isn’t actually black, but there’s an excess of hemoglobin in the plasma making it look black. It’s pretty rare, so even most physicians don’t know about it. I found out because I took a peek at your records. Now, what is it really?”
Wow, she had gotten really in depth for a simple cover story. At least now we could tell the same story when people asked about what they saw. “Well, it’s something like what you described, but it doesn’t have a name yet.” “I see,” she sighed, “If you won’t tell me I’ll find out on my own. Something else is bothering too; I thought I had you when you fell backwards, but then you got up and…How?” “That would be the blood condition again; it’s not really a bad thing.” “Why won’t you tell me anything?” “I’m not giving my rival any of my secrets.” I strode out of the Nurse’s office and back to where I had previously been standing. “Hey… what’s with the ice pack? You still beat up from the fight?” Eddy asked. “Yeah…” I definitely was, “It still hurts when I breathe too deeply.”
Jason “So… you can’t run well, right?” Eddy continued. “Well, I haven’t tried, but I imagine it would be, why?” His hand snapped up from his side and placed itself firmly on her chest. The bastard even managed to get a few squeezes in before Laureli got over the shock of realizing what he had done. As usual he ran away before Laureli had a chance to get to him. There was the normal crashing, yelling, everything. Everything except Eddy’s screams of pain, I was kind of looking forward to hearing them.
Eddy came back to the circle little winded, completely untouched, and Laughing. “Ha! That’s the first time I’ve gotten away with that! She’s gotten a little bigger since I checked up on her last time too! You guys should try it sometime!” Without saying a word I reached up and punched him square in the nose. The nurse would show up in a minute or two and finish him off her self. “You really shouldn’t touch other people’s girlfriends.” “Oh… I forgot about that… But hey, since she’s YOUR girlfriend, you can do that now, can’t you?” “Uh, are we still talking about Laureli?” Jim asked, puzzled. Eddy conceded , “Good point, but you will later, won’t you?” “I uh…” how to get around this one now…
Once again, the nurse had great timing! Before I even began to think of anything to say the nurse popped up out of nowhere. “Edward,” she sighed, clamping her hand onto his ear, “I hear you’ve been a bad boy again. Do you know what I do to bad little boys?” she asked. “Give them candy and let them go?” The pervert hoped. “No,” she replied, viciously dragging him behind a group of empty buildings as she spoke, “I punish them.”
They slipped behind the building and the chaos began. First, the wail of ambulance sirens began in the distance and got louder. Had she called the ambulance BEFORE she started? Not a good sign for Eddy. “Hey, you don’t need any weapons,” Eddy whimpered, “right, Nurse Claymore, ma’am? I mean sir- I mean- be gentle!” Not likely.
I think there was more said, but I couldn’t make out any of it over the sound of Eddy’s screaming. This continued for around three or four minutes. At the last thirty seconds or so the ambulance crew appeared from the parking lot with a stretcher prepared, and stood waiting at the corner of the building; it was the good people of unit 28. When the noise had died down, except for Eddy’s constant groaning, the ventured behind the buildings with the stretcher in tow. Immediately after they went in, Laureli appeared from nowhere, rounded the corner limping as quickly as she could and pulled them out backwards.
“Aw, c’mon,” Eddy whined, “not again!” Laureli ignored him. “So, you think because I’m injured you can get away with whatever you feel like?!”
More loud screaming. During this, Nurse Claymore came out, wiped something dark red off of her sword, and started talking to the two men at the stretcher. Between their low voices and the constant noise of Eddy’s tortured screams it was impossible to hear what they were saying, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves; the nurse even laughed once or twice. She pulled out a folding card holder and handed what I thought was a business card to the man on the left after writing on the back, in return he dug out a scrap of paper, wrote something on it, and gave it to her.
Now Laureli, apparently satisfied with herself, came out where we could see her, and signaled for the medics to go help Eddy. Now that the action was over it was safe for us to go over and take a look at what had happened, so we all did.Laureli walked past us on the short walk over. “I have to go clean up,” She said, as we passed.
As we reached the building where everything had happened. Carla tried to peek around the corner, but she was blocked by the nurse. “You don’t want to go back there,” nurse Claymore said, “besides, it’s a little slippery right now, and the paramedics need to do their job.” “Slippery,” Carla asked, “from what? Did it rain while I wasn’t looking?”
Incredibly casually, the EMTs came out with the stretcher behind them and sluggishly pulled it back out to the parking lot. Jim stared in wide-eyed amazement as the stretcher rolled past with Eddy’s white sheet covered body on top. Well, the sheets weren’t “white” any more, they were soaked closer to this “crimson red” I’ve been hearing about. “Is he dead?!” Jim half asked, half gasping. “No,” The nurse said waving him off, “The sheet is just there so you don’t have to look at him, he’s pretty gory right now. And as for the blood on the sheets, well, it’s blood. He’s pretty close to dead, but Laureli and I decided not to kill him this time, we can always do that later.” “Call me,” The ‘one on the left’ shouted back to the nurse when they were half way to their destination. “I will!” She called back. Wait a minute…
At the same time- on the roof
This was beginning to be troubling; not the beating of the pervert, what had happened before that. She had defended Jason from the harlot, which meant something deeper was probably going on. This made the situation even stickier.
I hopped down from my perch, silently as always. I transformed out of my owl form, back into my more useful human form, crawled further back onto the roof where I couldn’t be seen, and pulled out my cell phone. I punched in the number I knew by heart- well, more specifically, I punched in my commander’s number- I knew every phone number by heart; my memory was the definition of perfect. Send. A busy tone immediately began as soon as the call had connected, “that happens when you call yourself, stupid” I thought as I switched out the SIM card in the phone and dialed the same number again.
This time, it went through. One ring, two, three rings. He answered the phone on the third ring- our signal- but his voice wasn’t the first thing I heard. “The phone again?” A feminine voice whined, “you never pay any attention to us!” “There aren’t other girls, are there?” “Whatever, just go get me a latte or something! First one back gets to touch my hair.” Boss growled; curse this beautiful face of ours. There was immediate silence. “What happened,” he sighed, this time talking to me now that he was alone. “It’s worse than we thought.” “Boyfriend?” he hit it right on the head. “Yeah. That’ll make it really hard to clean up. We have two options right now: either do it ourselves without being found out, or we can call “her”.” It wasn’t necessary to use names; for one thing he always knew exactly what I was thinking, now matter how vague my terms were- I could have grunted once and he would know- and second we were on an unsecured line. “We’ve already encountered him once,” He said. Again, there was no reason for names, and we both knew he was talking about Barrows. “And he probably sniffed us out- at least that might be one of his immortal powers- so if we run into him too many times…” He might find out just how close we were to him. There was one thing left for me to confirm, “Should I make the call?” “Do it. She’s the only one who won’t be doing anything… Productive, but it’ll still take her a while to respond. Stay on top of them until then.” “Understood.” He hung up.
The entire conversation we just had could easily have been completed in two words: “Dating.” “Call.” But, it was nice to actually talk to someone, even if the words were entirely redundant.
I sighed, I had another call to make, and it wouldn’t be as smooth as the last one; undoubtedly there would be something said about me not valuing the work she was doing because she was a woman and a bunch of other garbage like that. Oh joy.
Laureli, at home later that day The computer booted up with its usual low whine- that was the real sound of fine engineering, forgot sports cars. Within seconds the monitor glowed with my Inuyasha wallpaper and I hit the internet, searching for the perfect website that would help me with a report.
The door creaked. In an instant I yanked my shoe off of my foot, spun in the computer chair, and hurled it across the room, hitting Jason right between the eyes. Right on target. “just because you’re my boyfriend doesn’t mean you can come in without asking!” He kept doing that! “Sorry, I forgot. But I wanted to let you know I’m leaving.” “Leaving? Where?” “I’m going to go train more. It bothers me how easily that guy beat me. And if there had been a van full of guys with guns after you, I couldn’t have done anything about it.So, I’m going to go fix it. The flight’s already booked, and I’ll be gone before you wake up, so I thought I would say bye now.” “Wait, didn’t you just come back from that place? You’re going to miss a lot of school, and quarter finals are coming up, you can’t go now.” “Don’t worry about it,” he shrugged, “I won’t miss a single thing.” “But how-” “You’ll see in a few hours. Now, I’ve gotta go get ready.”
He went into his room and shut the door. That was weird.
After getting a good start on my report I headed downstairs for food. Jason should have been done with dinner by now, but instead of finding him diligently cooking in the kitchen, I found him lounging on the couch in front of the TV. He was watching something on TV, but someone was in the kitchen making noise, too; it was also Jason, but that was impossible. Maybe his brother had come over while I was upstairs. I checked the person on the couch, he had ears so it must be Jason. I walked into the kitchen to ask mason why he was in our kitchen, but then his ears caught my attention, so that couldn’t be Mason either.
“Jason,” I asked the Jason in the kitchen, “What’s… going on?” “Sherpa?” Kitchen Jason asked over his shoulder. “Oh,” Couch Jason yawned from the couch, “I guess you met my double. I don’t know what to call him, though.” “Double?” “Yeah,” Couch Jason replied, “I completely forgot Master Kraven showed me the Clone Jutsu before I left last time so I could go back like this.” “Clone? Jutsu? Again, what’s going on?” Couch Jason sighed. “A jutsu is a ninja technique that uses your energy to do something. Clone jutsu makes a copy of you, splits your energy in half, and gives half to each version, the original, and the copy. I’m not very good at that one yet, so my copy isn’t all that great.” “So…” I was still confused. “These jutsu things… make copies of you?” “No,” Couch Jason replied, “they can do a bunch of different things. Some of them create illusions, some make you move faster. Some of them have elemental attrib… attrib something, that make them more powerful and more difficult to use. I don’t really know much about them either right now.” I was beginning to get the idea, I thought. “So… what’s wrong with your clone jutsu thing?” He called to his double. “Hey, you- or me- whatever, come here!” Kitchen Jason obediently walked into the living room. “What’s ten plus ten?” “Sherpa” Kitchen Jason replied “What’s the capital of Thailand?” “Sherpa” “If a rooster lays an egg on the top of a barn, which way will it roll?” “Sherpa sher pa pa.” “See,” Jason asked me, “he can’t talk. All he can say is ‘Sherpa.’ I’m testing him now to see if he can cook or not.” “That… could be a problem…”
This must be why Jason said he wouldn’t miss any school, but how could he replace Jason if he couldn’t talk? It would be better if he was just gone completely.
“Only right now,” Couch Jason sighed, leaning farther back into the couch padding. “He can learn, but you’ll have to teach him. I took out a few writing samples in my room, so he knows how I talk, but you’ll have to help him with the rest. Sorry to just drop this on you, but like I said, I forgot. Oh, and me, you may not want to leave that pot by itself.” Kitchen Jason scurried back to his post.
“So this nameless being without the ability to speak is supposed to replace you?” “Yeah… about the name, what do you think? I was thinking something like Sosuke, but it doesn’t really fit… Maybe Jason II?”
A note from Author-sama:Ok, to make this easier for those of you who are not Black Belt Otaku [anime nerds], I’m going to leave a few notes in the story whenever I make an anime reference, or use some obscure term, so I don’t need to make another note from author-sama. They will look something like this: “‘I was thinking something like Sosuke’ [Full Metal Panic- not to be confused with Full Metal Alchemist]”. After the first mention I’ll leave an abbreviation in the brackets (i.e. “[FMP]”) End.
Jason II wasn’t any better. “How about ‘Sherpa’?” It made since.
“No!” Jason exploded, “I hate it when they do that! I mean come on, just because that’s all he can say doesn’t mean that should be his name! Think about it!
‘Gee, Professor Oak, we found this yellow mouse that can only say ‘Pikachu!’ What should we call it?!’
‘I know, how about ‘Pikachu!? Yes, that’s perfect!’ [Pokemon- seriously, hasn’t everyone seen that anime?]
Doesn’t that annoy you too, Laureli?”
“Well… Do you have any better ideas? I mean aside from Sosuke and Jason II?”
“No.” He admitted.
“Then Sherpa it is!” It won by default.
“Fine,” Jason sighed. “Hey, me!”
Kitchen Jason- now Sherpa- poked his head out of the kitchen. “Pa?” He asked.
“Your name is Sherpa now.”
“PAA?! Sher pa! Sher sherpa sher pa pa pa pa, sherpa sher-”
“Look, I know, you hate that too, but do you have any better ideas?”
Sherpa looked defeated. “Pa Pa sherpapa sherpa, sherpa pa?”
“Yeah, it was her idea, but it’s not so bad, right?” Sherpa wordlessly slid back into the kitchen. “Anyway, I’d better go finish packing. See ya… Some time before Christmas…”
He pulled himself off of the couch.
“Just don’t go and get yourself hurt.”
“I won’t. Believe it or not the island isn’t that dangerous.” Hey went up the stairs.
“Hey, Jason, one more thing… I’ll miss you…” He smiled, wide.
“Don’t waste anytime missing me… Besides, I’ll still be right here with you. Tell me how the food tasted when I get back!”
And that was that. The last time I would see him for months… In a way.
“Sherp pa Sherpa,” Sherpa announced from the kitchen. Dinner is ready? Great, I was starving. Wait, had I just understood what he said? Sherpa stared blankly at me around the door frame.
“Pa… sherpasher?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed, “I do understand you! All you’re saying is ‘sherpa,’ and I can understand you! This is incredible! I mean, it must be because I know Jason so well, or something!” And if you counted the syllables they were the same as what he actually wanted to say, that helped a lot as well.
“Paaa, pa pa sher sher pa pa? Pa sher pa sherpasher pa sherpasher, sher.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about overcooking the vegetables too much if I were you. If your cooking is anything like the original’s it would turn out great no matter what you did with them.”
And he was as good as the original. Every bite was flavorful, tender where it needed to be, and crisp where it wasn’t tender. Perfect. It looked like the only problem was with speech, although that wasn’t really a small problem.
The next day
Morning came, and I went through my normal routine. As I walked to the door Sherpa fell into step behind me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“School.”
“School? Not sherpa? How did you learn to say that?”
He reached into his backpack, and pulled out a wrinkled sheet with Jason’s scrawl covering it. “Paper,” He replied.
“You can read? Well, anyway, you can’t come to school yet, you don’t speak well enough to go, you’d destroy any point of your being here in the first place.”
“Please?”
“Sorry.”
A week later
“Hey, Laureli!” Sherpa called to me from our group’s usual spot on campus. It was his first day at school as Jason. It had taken a little bit of work to make him shape up to the point where he might be able to pass himself off as Jason. First I made him read the essays and short stories Jason had left behind in his room, then after he had those almost completely memorized I coached him on a few responses Jason would have in common situations. It wasn’t hard because Jason’s usual speech wasn’t very florid.
It had astounded me just how quickly Sherpa picked up what I was teaching him. Although he could already read I assumed I would be working with a blank slate, like an infant. That impression wasn’t completely wrong, but it would normally take more time to start writing, but with Sherpa, the chalk almost moved itself. I would say something, once, maybe twice and it stuck. The gap between nothing and almost everything took one week to fill, and he finally got to come.
“Hi, Jason!” I would need to be careful to call him that from now on, a slip could be dangerous. “Did you do the math homework?” He asked
“You just failed a test and you didn’t bother doing the homework?” That would definitely be something Jason would do.
“Actually… can I get the homework, too.” Eddy asked, putting on his best pathetic look.
“Me three!” Carla chirped in.
“I don’t suppose you need to copy too, do you Jim?” I sighed.
In response he smiled brightly back at me. “Can you tell?”
“Ok. Jason, yes, Eddy, you owe me, Carla, no, Jim, yes, I can tell.”
“But what about me?” Carla whined in her usual annoying manor, “Why can’t I copy?”
“Well, there’s no way to put this politely, so let me just say it. I DON’T LIKE YOU.”
“Jason! She’s being mean!” She bounded over to him, and was half way into wrapping her arms around him for a forced sympathy hug when she stopped, looked at me, then slowly backed away from Jason. She had just proved that she was slightly smarter than Eddy.
“Just take it, Jason.”
“Thanks!”
History
“And so he continued climbing Mt. Everest.” The teacher’s lecture droned on seemingly forever.
“Jason!” He had noticed him peacefully dozing with his head in his arms. “Jason!” The teacher yelled again. Since Sherpa was still out cold, the teacher threw a whiteboard marker across the room, and it smacked him right on top of the head, it was just enough to rouse him.
“Were you sleeping in my class, Jason?” He demanded.
“Uh, no, Mr. Georsky, I was just… Resting my eyes.”
“I see. So then tell me, did Mr. Hillary climb Everest unassisted?”
“Uh, no?” Sherpa guessed.
“Who helped him?” Mr. Georsky persisted. Sherpa froze. You could almost see his brain working for some word that might be correct.
“Well?” the teacher asked impatiently
“Sherpa?” What he had meant to say was snowshoes, but what he actually said was the right answer.
I kept watching him throughout all of our classes together. As expected he proved to be almost completely similar to his creator in most ways, except for a few minor differences. When asked a question he wasn’t prepared to answer, where Jason would have answered, “22,” Sherpa would answer, “15.” It was a tincture of a difference no one would care about. Another thing that surprised me was that Sherpa actually paid attention in English and Spanish class; he even took NOTES. That was way out of the ordinary.
Later that day
Sherpa let out a long sigh as he unlocked the door to the house and walked in.
“Well, mission accomplished, but school still sucks.”
“If you think that was bad,” I chuckled, “then try to imagine all the things Jason could be going through right now.”
“Yeah, I wonder.”
Jason- uncharted training island off the coast of Japan
“What did you say, little moron?!” Master Kraven demanded in Japanese.
“You heard me, old man!” I yelled back, doing my best imitation of the accent.
He stepped in closer, trying to intimidate me the scythe he was holding helped too. “You wanna go bitch, huh? You wanna go?”
“All you do is talk! Do something you shriveled-”
“Shriveled?! That’s it! I’m taking you to funky town, right now!” He gently, but forcefully placed his razor sharp tool of death on the ground behind him, and I sprang several feet back and sank into my fighting stance. I crossed my body with my right arm and gripped my sparkling, newly forged katana.
I should probably been afraid to take on my master, but after all, I had taken on that white ninja guy and lived. Kraven probably wasn’t as strong as the White Ninja, either, although for someone in his sixties eh still had pretty good muscle tone. Between age and a few too many years in the sun his shoulder length hair had gone ghostly white, way past gray. Instead of the all black nearly skin tight black… whatever they were called he made us wear, he had decided to wear loose, dark gray robes more suited to the warm temperatures this time of the year. When he had his scythe in his hand, and he always did, he looked like he belonged in a video game.
I was ready to draw as soon as he came into range. When the sword came out of it’s sheath, I could either do a horizontal or vertical slice, or I could go diagonally. I was ready for him. He attacked, but instead of charging, he twisted so his right side was facing me, and snapped his right hand up so his hand and entire arm was even with his shoulder. At the same time he pointed his heels so that they were perpendicular, then slid his feet out and bent his knees until they were at right angles. The middle and ring fingers of his right hand were tucked under his thumb, while the other two stuck straight out, and I could tell from the placement of his left elbow that that hand was tucked into his side as a fist. The pose was cool, but pretty weird.
He stood there, waiting for me. If that was how he wanted it, fine. I inched forward with my leading foot, nudged the guard of my katana forward, and shifted my weight to the front. Still no movement from him; I charged and drew my blade. Before it was even half way out of the sheath he flipped his hand over, and I went with it. Something had grabbed both of my legs, and yanked them over my head, but there was nothing there. I flew around the room upside down, crashing into a few walls, and every object imaginable. For about a minute I flew around the room screaming and crashing into things, probably attracting a lot of attention, but no one was stupid enough to come in. Eventually the room stopped flying past me, and I fell, face first, at Master Kraven’s feet.
He smiled devilishly. “Bow to your sensei!”
A note from Author-sama: This is the first time you’ve seen the phrase, “bow to your sensei,” before if you’ve been following this story update by update, but I’ve changed one of the lines from Jason’s most recent to defeat by the white ninja from, “You lose, Barrows.” To, “Bow to your sensei, Barrows; You lose.” Why? Because I felt like adding to Kraven-sensei’s list of catch phrases, and as you no doubt noticed it implies a bit of a connection ;)>. End.
“How did you do that?!” I gaped looking up from his feet.
The same smile stayed plastered across his face. “Using the sheer power of my awesomeness. Now get up and go make me some tea, ya stupid.”
I stuck my katana back into the sheath, and rolled to my feet.
“Alright, alright.” I had just been put in my place.
Sherpa- back at home
Like school, homework also sucked. But unlike Jason I intended to do it. On time.
Spanish wasn’t so bad, though. Actually, if you paid any attention in class you would realize the teacher was moving pretty slowly. My pencil was nearly a blur as it flew over the paper, answering the trivial questions I had been given as homework. Maybe the avatar was better than the original?
At any rate, I was hungry, and since Laureli couldn’t cook, and Bruce was gone I had to cook. Again. Luckily the fridge was always well stocked so finding food wasn’t an issue.
A note from Author-sama: I am not by any means guaranteeing the following translations. End
In the refrigerator was: Cheese, Queso, kanchiku. Rice: Arroz, kome, although that had no business in the refrigerator I took it out because I could use it. There was also bacon: tocino.
Wait, bacon? That suddenly sounded really good for no apparent reason! One strip straight from the fridge would taste soooo good. What the heck, I could take a piece, no one would care…
“Sherpa, what’s for- What are you doing?! That’s still raw!” she exclaimed just as I put the delicious meat in my mouth. She stepped quickly towards me. She was going to take it! But it was mine! I slowly stepped away from the refrigerator towards a more open escape route.
“Spit it out, Sherpa.” I bolted for the stairs, at top speed; no one was taking my bacon!
I made it to the stairs and about half way up them before she miraculously caught and tackled me. In an instant I had been flipped over, my bacon confiscated and thrown somewhere.
“What are you doing?!” MY captor roared inches away from my face. “That’ll make you really sick if you eat it like that!”I involuntarily shrunk back into the stairs, away from her fiery, almost instantaneous rage.
I stuttered, “S-s-sorry! I didn’t know it was that big of a deal! I didn’t mean to make you mad!”
She blinked rapidly, then in a calmer voice said, “Mad? I’m not mad,” She had seemed pretty mad to me. “Just worried. That could make you sick if you eat it without cooking it.”
“Sorry, I just wanted to… It was kind of weird. I guess it must be the wolf instincts, after all what canine doesn’t love bacon? And would you mind getting off of me now?” She quickly did, blushing just a little bit.
“But I thought it was Jason that had those.” She seemed confused.
“Well, our minds are pretty much the same so it isn’t a surprise that I would do things like that too. What I’m worried about is you. You haven’t been doing it very often, but once in a while you’ll tweak out and go nuts. You’ll be happy one minute, then sobbing the next; are you okay?”
“Oh that, it’s nothing,” she quickly said, smiling nervously, “It’s just well, I’m a girl. We do things like that sometimes. You probably wouldn’t understand. But I’m really glad you care about me!” She began sobbing at the end of the last sentence, and let her head fall into my shoulder. Hot tears soaked the cloth.
I had an idea about why this was happening, but it would only explain her acting like that during a certain time of the month, not randomly like she was doing it.
John spoke silently, “He’s up to something.” Probably, but there was nothing I could do about it.
After ten minutes of Laureli on my shoulder I managed to make dinner. It was surprisingly quiet while we ate, although Laureli had a grin on her face the entire time for no apparent reason. Something was going on there, but what?
When I had finally cleaned up the dishes from dinner I plopped down on my bed, grabbed the remote and surfed the channels. I could have easily opened the guide and looked through the titles that were on, but that never really tells you what the show is about or if it’s good or not, so I like to surf the old fashioned way.
First channel: “Pikachu! Quiero Tú!” No way.
Second channel:
Fourth channel: “Nee-san wa… daisuki! Iie, boku Onee-chan wa suki!” [translation: Sister… I really like you! No, I love you!] I wasn’t going to watch that, and I really hoped no one else was either.
Four hundred ninety eighth channel: “Hello, I’m Greg Shono, and this is channel eight, sexy action news.” And there’s the winner. “Mike is out with a bad case of the Vodka flu. Apparently no other real anchor wants to be on this show for some reason, so we pulled one of our interns out of the back room, put him in a suit, and told him to smile. The camera panned over to a zit covered redhead who appeared to be a college student, or at least that age.
He stuttered, “Uh, h-hi, I’m-”
“Token,” Greg cut in, “from now on your name is Token. There have to be two people behind this desk, and you’re filling in the gap, understand?”
“Wait which camera do I look at? I mean, uh, y-yes sir.”
“Good,” Greg beamed into the camera, “now, why don’t you tell everyone how you got here?”
“Well, uh, about maybe er… one this morning… Mr. Ren called in, and said he had a hangover-”
“you mean he called in sick,” Greg, added.
“Um, no, he had a hangover, and you just said he was out with-”
“Do you enjoy being here, little token? If you do, I suggest you listen to me, before I get angry.”
After slouching down in his chair, and gluing his eyes to the desk, Token continued, “He called in sick, and they needed another anchor. So… None of the other substitute anchors in the area wanted to be on the program. They decided one of the interns had to fill in but there are- uh, were four of us, so the producers didn’t know who to use. I guess you could say they chose me.”
“No, Token, tell them what really happened,” Greg insisted.
“Can I do that on television, sir?”
“Are you doubting me?” There was more than a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“No! So, anyway, a few minutes after Mr. Ren called, and the staff locked us in the break room. The producers said that the last person standing could go on air.”
Greg took over from there, “Now, here’s the funny part, we thought we had taken all of the weapons out of the break room, but apparently, we were wrong. This little son of a bitch breaks off a table leg, bashes one guy’s head in with it, hit the other dude in the crotch so hard he couldn’t stand, and then when he looks at Shawna, she passes out. I had my money on the first guy, but after he went down, I was rootin’ for ya Token, old boy.”
“Wait a second, am I going to get arrested for this?” Token seemed pretty panicked.
“What are you, stupid?” Greg snorted, “Of course you’re gonna get arrested. I mean, Luke is in a coma, and Scott isn’t going to have kids, not that it was likely before this. Oh, and you practically confessed on air. That and we have the entire fight on tape. And I called them.”
“What?!” Token screamed, his eyes as wide as dinner plates, “why would you do that?!”
“Just to see the look on your face. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the last few minutes of your freedom.” His attention shifted back to the cameras. “On a more serious note, Health experts have found that eating fast food for five or more meals a week is incredibly bad for you. Other experts say, ‘Duh.’” He paused Briefly, then said, “Token, you’re up.”
“Huh?” Our zit faced college boy must have been in shock. “Oh, uh a recent poll finds that 45% of women surveyed believe that Oprah Winfrey would make a good president. However, upon compiling the results, the m-makers of the s-s-survey found that those women could not spell the word ‘president.’ I don’t wanna go to jail, Greg!”
“You’ll be fine, just don’t drop the soap, and if you do, pick it up really quickly, or squat like a girl. Back to the news once again, Angelina Jolie has adopted another baby, bringing her total to half of Asia and one third of Africa. We believe that she is planning to create an army of adopted babies so that she can take over the world, and rule it with buns of steel.”
“You can’t say that on TV! God, if I’m going to get thrown in prison for the rest of my life at least have the decency to make it good! What the hell is wrong with you people?!” And, intern goes boom.
Greg snickered to himself. “Calm down, retard, I was kidding about the cops. Do I look like a snitch to you? I only wanted to watch you freak out.”
“What the fuck, Greg? Who would do that to someone for any reason-”
“Aw, quit bein’ such a beezy, Token, it was just a joke.”
“The only bitch around here is your mom, ass hole.”
“My mom? MY MOM?!” Greg bolted up out of his chair, picked it up by the back, and swung it at his intern. Just before it hit, the all too familiar technical difficulties screen came up. Today’s broadcast: truncated.
Jason- Still on the island the next day
“Have you forgotten everything I’ve taught you?!” Master Kraven roared, over the clang of our swords, “you couldn’t cut cards at the angle your blade is now! And what did I tell you about your shoulders? I thought you were going to be my star student, but it looks more like you’re a fire cracker.” Have you ever tried to understand what an angry speaking Japanese really quickly is trying to say? I have. It’s next to impossible.
“Huh?”
“You suck. Let’s take a break, for a few minutes,” he sighed in English. “So, what’s your clone like?”
“Uh, me?”
“No, idiot, what’s wrong with it? Every ninja’s clone has at least one thing wrong with it when they first summon it; what was wrong with yours?”
“oh,” this was going to be embarrassing, “The only word it can say is ‘sherpa.’ How about yours?” I made sure the second to last sentence came out faster than the rest.
“Sherpa pa pa sher?”
“Shut up! You’re not even saying anything!”
“Relax, it’s not that uncommon. One of my students had the exact same problem with theirs, only all it could say was ‘vagina;’ we had some fun with that kid. Let’s see… what was wrong with mine? Oh, it had three different colored eyes.”
“Three?” That made Sherpa seem like a joke, although he kind of was.
“Yeah, there was an extra one on his neck.” Kraven gazed of into space, reliving the past for a brief second, then stood up and spoke in Japanese again, “let’s start.”
“But that was barely a whole minute!”
“Quit being a bitch.” He slowly began. “First, your form sucks. Any good strike starts with your feet and ends at the top of your head. You can’t just swing your arms like you’re doing now; remember what I’ve taught you. And your defense…” He took a slow swing at my side with his sword, which I blocked.
“This time I’m actually going to hit you, so be ready.”
Another faster strike came at me on the same side, in the same place; I blocked it again. Master Kraven sighed.
“Your blade angle is off, and you’re holding the sword wrong. If I was actually trying to hurt you, I could’ve gone right around your defense. Another thing: the entire thing we’ve been practicing this, you haven’t dodged any of my blows, not once YOU AREN’T A SAMURAI! Evade, jump, do a back flip or SOMETHING!” He was getting a little pissed off now. He swung several more sloppy blows. Slash, block, chop, block, chopchopchop, blockblockblock, stab! Crap! I spun sideways to let his sword go past me, then finished the spin, and brought my arms around for a slice to his neck. His sword was waiting for me before I even got close. My sword bounced off of his, and then he was gone; literally, he disappeared from where he had been standing. Cold steel slowly slid across the back of my neck; it was Master Kraven’s sword.
“And you’re dead. While you’re thinking about how you managed to live so long, I want you to do 50 push ups, and 50 sit ups.”
“Both?!” That must have been the fifth set today!
“Both.”
Kraven
How was he doing this? 250 push ups in less than three hours, and he was more angry than tired. I was getting tired just watching him. He was too strong, too fast, too… Talented. With the amount of time he had actually spent training here, he should still be learning how to make a fist, but he was using swords, and he was using them well for someone at his level. I was pushing him because I wanted to see how far he could go, how much he could do. I was already fighting him half as hard as I normally would, I shouldn’t be trying at all, but this kid was good. Maybe he could be the island’s next master?
“Ok, done.” Jason hopped off of the ground, and brushed the dirt off of his back. 250 sit ups, and still hoping around? I would have to fix that. Without a word I sheathed my sword, took it off and picked up my scythe. Had it gotten heavier since I put it down?
Jason stared at the weapon in my hand with his mouth hanging open.
“No…”
A grin nearly devoured my face. “Yes.”
Sherpa
A cold shiver ran down my spine as I bathed in the sunlight from a nearby window in wolf form. I rolled over on my back to a spot where the carpet was still warm. Much better.
Chapter 13: Hooters (pt. II) OR nii-san wa ninja desu ka
Laureli- Sunday, several weeks later
I ran the simulation on my computer again. Energy output rose, the casing was energized, the energy was the transferred into the internal circuitry of the device, particles excited, blah blah blah; it should work. Maybe the type of energy I was using in the simulation, and the type available in real life weren’t the same. I could probably adjust it to work off of AC power, common household current, but what would that do for the scientific community or the world as a whole? I was getting nowhere fast with this. Whenever I tried it, it just wouldn’t work. Maybe I needed a different guinea pig, but if it wouldn’t work for me, your average run of the mill teenager, then how could it be popularly used? I wasn’t even going to bother with the water project right now, no matter how many times I ran that everything blew up, and I was getting tired of cleaning up the lab. I had hit a wall. I wonder if this was how writer’s block feels?
A note from Author-sama: Yes, it is End.
Just then sherpa stuck his head of the door to his room.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Do you smell that?” He was so intent on the scent he didn’t even move his eyes to look at me.
“You know I can’t,” I sighed, “what does it smell like?”
He hesitated. “It smells like… Me. Which means… JASON’S BACK!” Sherpa darted down the stairs like a humming bird with a sugar rush. I jogged out of my room and down the stairs to see. Sherpa was pacing in front of the door long before it opened. The deadbolt turned, and the door was slowly pushed open. Jason- the real one- was silhouetted against the bright sunlight outside.
Sherpa called out, “Ohaeyo, Senpai!” just before transforming into wolf form and running sloppy circles around his creator. I couldn’t help but run the rest of the way down the stairs and jump into his arms. He smiled back at me.
“Long time no see!” A peck on the cheek and a smile was my response. Wait...a peck on the cheek? Had I just done that?
“Whoa, getting a little- HEY!” He moved one of his arms from my waist and swatted behind him. “GET YOUR NOSE OUT OF MY BUTT!” Wow… that dog sure knew how to spoil a moment. I stepped back, blushing heavily, no doubt. “So, um, welcome home,” I muttered.
“Thanks, it’s nice to be back, but, what’s that smell?”
I didn’t smell anything. “What smell?”
“How do you not notice that? It’s like something died in here. Sherpa has been cleaning up after himself, right?” The wolf growled.
Jason dropped his bag by the foot of the stairs, then strode around the first floor opening every window, and plopped down on the couch, where Sherpa immediately hopped up to continue his sniffing and licking.
“so,” I began, “would you like me to fill you in?”
“Nope. Sherpa, paw.” The tongue happy wolf obediently stopped just long enough to touch the pad of his front foot to Jason’s hand. “Wow. I missed a lot. Oh,” he said seeing my quizzical stare, “When you make a copy of yourself like this, you share memories by touching palms. Right now he knows everything that happened to me while I was gone, and I know everything that happened to him. I should let him study for me from now on. Anyway, I’m going to go unpack, and take a shower; I haven’t seen hot water for months.”
“Oh… Ok.” I couldn’t blame him for that.
After he had gone upstairs with clone in tow, Christian sneered in my head.
“Let’s see, how long has been… Over three months, right? That long, he sees you for the first time, you make it pretty obvious that you’re happy to see him- that was oretty bold for you, by the way-, and he barely says hello. That must burn.”
I blinked harder. I wanted to stop it, but I couldn’t. The hot tears silently rolled down my face. I wiped them away as quickly as they came out. “Stop it,” I whispered under my breath.
“Heh. I’m not doing a damn thing. Everything you’re feeling right now is all you. But really, a kiss on the cheek, I never would have expected that from you. But he just ignored it. It must have taken courage; that wasn’t really an accident was it?”
I wiped my face again. “Sherpa distracted him, he noticed, he even said-”
“Bullshit. He’s a guy; no goddamn dog with its nose up your ass is going to distract you from a beautiful girl in your arms kissing you on the cheek. Hell, if it was me the little bastard could have been humping my leg to pieces, and I still wouldn’t have stopped until I at least got some tongue!”
He was… wrong; he had to be. “What do you know?” It was all I could say.
“I know… more than you’ll ever know. Or at least more than you’ll admit.”
Jason, back upstairs
I reluctantly picked through all the crap that fell out of my bag. I would have to replace all of the uniforms I had brought, there must have been mud and dust stuck to every fiber that even the washing machine couldn’t get out; I tossed them in the garbage. Next in the pile were my throwing knives. They were completely dull, and master kraven almost laughed me off of the island for using the, instead of real ninja stars. I would put those with my other spares, and sharpen them later since it took so long to sharpen the edge just right.
After that was a little white cloth. It was the one that the white ninja had used to knock Laureli out a few months ago. His scent was still strong, not that I needed to smell it anymore. I had spent every spare moment on that island with my nose buried deep in it. I knew that smell like the back of my hand, better then I knew my own scent. If I ever ran into the bastard it belonged to I would know right away, and he would have some problems.
Really, the guy must have been nuts to have a fight like that in the middle of a public park in broad daylight. Not to mention the fact that I could have died either falling out of the tree, if his hand had slipped, or if his aim was off with that sword. He also managed to get his hands on chloroform, which was illegal, and almost impossible to find. In short, the guy was a cocky, cold hearted bastard with connections. Typical Hollywood bad guy. I was so gonna… Something. As soon as I found him!
Later, downstairs
Food really tasted better when you didn’t have to fix it yourself. The meat fell off of the bone, the vegetables were steamed to perfection. I would have to have Sherpa cook all the time!
“So…” Laureli began, breaking a long silence over the table, “What was it like on that island?”
“Well,” where to begin… “There’s a crazy old man with a scythe chasing me around, no hot water, co-ed everything, no bathrooms, and no electricity. You mess with the wrong people at the wrong time, and they could kill you without touching you. Twice. Before you knew you were dead. Let’s then there’s also the constant training other people are doing. You walk into the wrong spot at the wrong time, you’re dead. The entire place is really a giant floating den of death.”
“What?! You’ve been SLEEPING there?! You can’t stay somewhere just walking around could get you killed!”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. I just realized I could have just send Sherpa there for me. It’d save me so much freakin’ trouble. And he speaks better Japanese than I do, so he can actually understand what that moron Kraven is saying.”
“Pa? Pa Sher Sher pa pa!”
“Not gonna work buddy. You’re going so I don’t have to. You were MADE to be my bitch. Deal with it.” That was a nice try though, maybe if he hadn’t actually been saying something I would have been confused.
Laureli was confused. “Wait, if he goes for you… won’t that defeat the purpose of the training if you aren’t there?”
“No. remember that hand touch thing Sherpa and I did when I first go back? We can exchange memories that way. So basically, if he goes to the island for a few months, then comes back, and we touch hands, it’s like I was there. Any of the physical training he did doesn’t transfer onto me, but I can handle that at home. Every new technique he learnw I’ll know too.”
“Okay,” Laureli sighed, “but how does all that work? Is it like some kind of magic or something else weird?”
The only answer she got was a blank stare. “You expect me to know how my own technique works?”
She frowned. “Geez, even if you said yes I’d have to believe it. Anything is plausible at this point. I mean, I’m possessed by a demon, you’ve got an immortal… Hey, how is it you made Sherpa to begin with?” Another blank stare. “Oh, right.”
At school the next day
After Sending Sherpa back to the island to do dirty work, packing my backpack for the first time in months, and grabbing breakfast I went to school. It would be nice to see my friends again. Well, some of them anyway. Definitely not Carla, or Eddy, and Jim I didn’t really care about. Never mind, I wasn’t missing anything.
With a heavy sigh, I stepped back onto campus. Something about the school was different, though; it just wasn’t quite right. Then it hit me; the smell! It was all over the place! It was his smell; the smell of the white ninja. I had found him, although from the way his scent was everywhere he must have been coming here everyday for a while. How could I miss someone that close to me?
The smell was so widespread I couldn’t tell where the bastard was just by sniffing the ground like I normally would, I would have to sniff people individually. I didn’t know how much time there was until the morning bell rang, but I was going to start now. Every male on campus was a suspect, and it would take a while to get through every one.
Every male on campus… I guess that would include teachers, too, but I couldn’t imagine any of my teachers trying to kill me; although I had to wonder if they were, especially with all the homework they were assigning. I would skip the teachers anyway, none of them had the right body type.
I shuffled past groups of people as quickly as I could, seeing if I could pick out his scent among them. Even after I had hit every group of boys standing around doing nothing, I still couldn’t find his scent. Fine then, if I ran around randomly sniffing, I might be able to pick his trail if he had just been there a few minutes before. Nothing by the bathrooms, in the cafeteria, or anywhere in the science wing. The math department was next. Nothing, nothing, nothing, THERE! I had a trail, now which way to go? Who cared, all I really had to do was pick a direction; I chose left.
It was getting stronger as I went, this was the right way. I followed the trail farther, it led towards the gym. At its end, away from everyone else, next to the wall of the gym, there was a small group of girls. The trail was clearly leading there, but there wasn’t a guy anywhere in the area, but the scent couldn’t lie. I followed it until I was right behind the outer circle; the smell was incredibly strong. Well, here went nothing…
I pushed my way into the middle; I was close enough to touch him. Was one of these girls in drag? Great, I had almost been killed by a cross dresser, that’d kill my pride. It seemed like that last thought was true, until I had pushed my way to the wall. There, in the center of the half circle, was my brother, reading a book. I sniffed. Closer and closer to his face, until my nose was literally in my hair.
Crap! It was him! Of all the people at this school, why did have to be this bastard?! Maybe I should have been hoping for a cross dresser. Oh well, maybe I could cut my losses and get him to wear a dress or something.
Without looking up from his book, Mason grabbed my head and shoved it back.
“Can I help you? Or is my hair just that appealing to you?” He asked, without letting go of my head. It was kind of hard to hear him over the annoying giggling and constant talking of the girls around us.
“Do you like my new skirt? It’s the smallest one in the store!” One said.
“Why haven’t you called me yet? I sent you my number weeks ago.” Another one whined
“If we got married, what do you think our kids would look like?” Yet another one wondered.
“Why don’t you have a myspace? You’re always so hard to talk to outside of school!”
“You know if you put a little gel in your hair you would be even cuter!”
“Pay some attention to me, dammit!” Another one snapped.
“It’s you. You’re the white-!” His hand instantly let go of my forehead, and clamped onto my mouth so I couldn’t talk. Still without looking up from his book, he sighed,
“You know ladies, I haven’t had breakfast today. Why don’t you run down to the coffee shop, get me a double latte, half caff., with a stick of chocolate, a little cinnamon on top… let’s see… in a ceramic mug that says… “World’s best dad,” in German. First one back gets a hug.” Then, suddenly, at a full sprint, the entire group took off.
“Alright. We don’t have much time to talk,” my annoying brother began, “with an order like that we should have about five minutes, which won’t be long enough for me to explain so-”
“Wait,” I interrupted, “that coffee shop is at least five minutes away. To get back in five minutes they would have to run five- no, ten miles a minute, that’s impossible! Besides, where are they going to find a mug that that “World’s best dad,” in German on this side of the Pacific?! And wait, wouldn’t it take at least five minutes for them to make your latte?”
“Ugh, One, it’s this side of the ATLANTIC, two, I think they made some kind of tunnel to the coffee shop since I send them so often,” He snapped his book shut, scowling, “and three, YOU’RE OFF TOPIC! What I was going to say was-”
“Ok, even if they dug a tunnel in a straight line, it’s still probably two miles, so then they would need to run at least two point something miles a minute, and that still doesn’t explain the mug or how the latte is ready so fast.”
“Well,” he began, “actually, I never said they ‘dug’ a tunnel. I think it’s more like a tunnel through space time; don’t ask me how. As for the coffee, all they would have to do is call the order in ahead of them, and the mug- GAH! You’re off topic again! Focus, dumb ass! You have the attention span of a drunken monkey and now you’re rubbing off on me!” A drunk monkey?!
“Oh yeah, we were talking about something important, right?” I had completely forgotten. He slowly ran his free hand down his face, before talking again.
“I was telling you,” he hissed, “That I was going to explain the ‘white ninja’ thing, then you got sidetracked by a freakin’ latte! Look, just meet me at my- well, our house, I guess, after school. I’ll explain everything then.”
“Uh… ok.” I guess if I wanted to find out I had no choice.
“Good, glad you understand monkey boy. Crap, they’re coming back. Look, just don’t forget, ok.” With that he jogged around the corner out of sight, just before his fangirls raced back onto campus. All of them had mugs that looked like they said “bester Vati der Welt.” I didn’t know what it said, but t definitely wasn’t English.
A note from Author-sama: All non Spanish/Japanese translations performed by Babel Fish. It’s not my fault if they suck. End
And that event gave me something unusual to daydream about during lectures. What was he going to tell me? When he attacked me he was being blackmailed by a secret organization, who had given him extensive ninja training? Maybe it was actually a look alike from the future sent back in time to kill me, changing history? Or, maybe he had just watched a bunch of action movies and anime, and didn’t like me because of my sexy good looks?
After School
Man, it had been a while since I had been back here. I stood staring at the familiar door of my old home, with my finger frozen in front of the doorbell. What if there was a booby trap, and as soon as I rang the bell a trap door would open, and I would fall onto a bunch of sharpened steel spikes, and slowly bleed to death while he laughed from the door? Nah, if he wanted to kill me, he could’ve done it at the park that day. Unless he wanted to kill me quietly. Maybe I would just go home and give him a call. He couldn’t kill me over the phone, right? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. I would just go home, pick up the phone-
The door swung open “Why the hell are you just standing there?” Mason’s questioning face stared at me through the threshold.
“Me?” I asked, “Oh, I just got here, I was about to ring the doorbell when you opened the door.”
“No.” he glanced at this wrist, “you’ve been here for three minutes and forty seven seconds. Just come in.”
“Uh…” maybe the trap door was activated by weight?
“Oh, for the love of god.” Before I could stop him, he pushed the doorbell. The bell rang, but nothing else happened. No trap door, no arrows shooting out of the walls, no rolling boulders.
“Do you really think I would put traps in my own house?” He asked.
“Seriously, yes. That sounds like exactly the kind of thing you would do. And the traps would be powered by dead kittens and starving puppies.”
He thought for asecond, then said “Yeah well, there aren’t any, so come inside. Actually, I’ve been meaning to show you my new office, anyway.” Where did he find room for an office? Had he finally kicked dad out of his own bedroom? On the way to my brother’s new “office” he stopped by the kitchen, and grabbed a soda.
“you want one,” he asked over the open fridge door.
“Sure… I guess it won’t kill me, right?”
“maybe not.” Not the answer I was looking for.
Eventually, we made it down the hall to the door of my room. Mason opened it, smiling.
“Welcome to my office.” WHAT THE HELL?!
“This is my room! You can’t just take it and turn into an office!”
“Why not? You’re not using it. Besides, YOUR room is across the hall from the prettiest girl on campus. I wouldn’t complain.”
We both stepped inside of the room,with me still grumbling. Mason took a folding plastic chair for me to sit on, while he pulled out a rolling computer chair from in front of the desk, and cracked open his soda.
“Now,” he continued, “ You seem kind of uncomfortable, and I really want you out of here as soon as possible anyway, so we’ll cut the crap, and get straight to the point. I’m not your brother.”
“Huh?”
His eyes closed and he nodded once. “You heard me. I-am-not-your-brother. Ore wa kimi no nii-sama janaii yo. Soy no tu hermano. Ich bin nicht Ihr Bruder. Je ne suis pas votre frère.”
“Huh?”
A note from Author-sama: A really long update, and now a really long note from yours truly; a perfect combination, no? Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed my latest cliff hanger. I’m sorry it took so long to put up, but I’ve had lots of time to analyze my characters and get the plot lined up again.
Looking back there are two things that stuck out about this story. The first: there are a massive number of typos and formatting. This is a rough draft, of course, so these things happen, but still. My fingers, the keyboard, and what I actually want to type always get into fights, and my fingers and the keyboard normally win (but only because they tag team). I try, so bear with me. Xanga seems to really suck at pasting stuff from the clipboard, which is a problem, since I write this in word and then paste it onto here, so, all of the double spacing you see: not me. The editor just crashed on me (again) so I had to paste like half of the story back in, illustrating what I mean. I need a new website...
Then two: my characters seem really unstable. Sometimes they’ll act the way I want them to, other times they won’t. For example, the Jason in this update is the one I want to keep. Somehow he, in particular seems to drift from being uber random, with the attention span of a goldfish on speed (which is actually what I want) to being too serious. You’d think I’d have controls over my own characters, right?
On a closing note, I’ll be going back to add chapters to the story. Look for those. And feel free to leave a comment or some form of constructive criticism, please. End
“Wait,” I continued after I recovered from the shock and the ten different languages he had just spoken, “What do you mean you’re not my brother? I grew up with you.”
MY twin sipped his soda, then, “Do you know how your mother died?”
“Uh… No. Dad never really talked about that much. He gets all sensitive, and cries like a little girl.”
“Right.” Another sip of soda. I opened mine, only to get sprayed in the face. THE BASTARD HAD SHAKEN THE CAN! “Well, when you were younger, around three, you and your brother were playing with a ball in the yard in front of the house you lived in before you moved here. The ball bounced out into the street and Mason ran after it, like any child would, but he didn’t look both ways before going into the road like mommy always taught him to. He didn’t see the car coming, but your mom did. She ran into the street to push him out of the way. Her body absorbed most of the initial impact, but at some point when he was thrown back, Mason hit his head.
Your mother was dead by the time the paramedics arrived, but He was still alive, in a sense. When I found him he was in the hospital, brain dead; there was no soul in his body whatsoever.” Something wasn’t lining up here. There was a huge piece of information missing from the conversation.
“Wait,” it took me a second to come up with the rest of the words, “If my brother is… dead… then who are you, and what are you doing in his body?”
Mason nodded. “Good. I was hopping you would catch that. It’ll be more believable if I just show you.”
He slowly stood up from his chair,sighed, and took off his shirt.
“Whoa,” I said, “look, if it involves you taking off your clothes, then I’d really rather not know.”
“Just shut up. This is serious.” Still, how much more did he have to take off? He silently crossed his arms, and crossed his arms. Then, almost in slow motion, like something from a movie, two large brown wings slid out from behind his back. In almost every way it seemed like I was seeing an angel, except that this angel was pure evil, and had dark brown wings. I think maybe torn bat wings would have been more fitting.
“Holy crap…” I was completely in awe. “Those wings must mean that you’re… an immortal?”
“Yes.” He folded his wings, put his shirt on, and sat down again.
“But wait, I’ve never seen those before! We’ve been swimming together before, and I never saw those before! I think I would remember something like that!”
“Unlike you, I know how to hide my mark. Anyway, as I was saying, I sensed quite a bit of power in this body, even though it was quite small. I took it. There was no reason not to, there was no soul, just an empty shell laying in a hospital bed. All I had to do was have the medical and police records removed, and it would be like nothing ever happened. You were to young to understand what was happening, and your father was so deep in shock he would readily believe that a miracle had happened and he hadn’t lost his son after all.” His eyes burned into for almost a minute before he spoke again. “well?”
“Well?”
He continued staring at me. “Well, you’re taking this to well. No crying, no screaming, ‘you bastard, give me back my brother,’ no rage, nothing. You’re taking this too well; don’t you even have anything to say?”
“I…” I didn’t. maybe it was all just hitting me now, or maybe I was finally starting to believe it, I didn’t know, but I was speechless. John was not.
“Very well then,” John said out loud, “since Jason has nothing to say, I have several questions. Most importantly, how do you hide your mark, which animal are you, what’s your power, and if I may ask, how did you become an immortal?”
“Well, you are quite curious, aren’t you? I’ll answer all of your questions in order. Even if I told you how to hide your mark, you wouldn’t understand, or be able to since it’s so complicated, my animal is the great horned owl [thus the chapter title], my power is perfect memory, and no, you may not ask how I became an immortal. Now, my turn. I believe you are the other wolf, meaning you power is a wolf-like sense of smell, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Now, how did you end up sharing a body with Jason, and if I may ask, how did you become an immortal?”
John explained what happened in the library that day, and how Laureli had essentially saved my life, without mentioning her possession, to my relief. “…and no, you may not ask how I became an immortal.”
“Now, that’s not fair, you ask the same question to me, and yet you won’t answer when I return it to you?”
“You did not answer yourself.” There was a long pause as both of them calmly gazed at each other, Mason’s eyebrow slightly cocked. I took the opportunity to ask a few more questions.
“Hey, John what does he mean the ‘other’ wolf? And how do you become an immortal?”
“By the ‘other’ wolf, he meant the female. There are two immortals for every animal, one male, and the other female. I assume that he has met the female already. And as for becoming an immortal… that is more complicated.” He spoke out loud to Mason, “would like to explain how one becomes an immortal?”
Mason responded without missing a beat, “That varies from person to person. Basically, to become an immortal, you have to do something really terrible, and I don’t mean terrible like killing a person or two, or falsely accusing someone of a crime to have them locked up forever, I mean like slaughtering a whole army. Then you have to realize that what you’ve done is an abomination, and do something really good to repent. From my research I’ve found that it doesn’t matter if you do this awful thing because you were ordered to or forced to, you have to choose to do it on your own. Because you have to perform such terrible actions to become one, it’s actually pretty rude to ask an immortal how they became an immortal.” There was another pause, then he spoke again. “So, have you recovered, Jason.”
“Yes,” I said out loud, “I know what I want to say now. I’m not screaming, or crying… because family isn’t just blood. Family is kind of like… like a connection, you know? I grew up with YOU picking on me, making my life hell, but still helping me when I was down. Mason- the original one- is my brother by blood too, but you’re my brother in spirit.”
“How sweet.” Mason joked, “well, now that the Q and A session is over-”
“It’s not,” I cut in. “There’s still more I want to know. Like, if you aren’t, my original brother, what’s your real name? And why the hell did you pick a fight with me that day at the park?”
He let out a long sigh. “Fine. Just call me Mason, my real name doesn’t matter, nor would I be likely to respond to it after all these years. As for the park… That was just a test. I knew you were a ninja, I just wanted to see how strong you were. That and I had to see if you were as big a pansy as I thought you were. Luckily for you, you aren’t. Now, is there ANYTHING else you want to ask?”
“I guess not…”
“Good, then I’ll walk you to the door.”
We walked to the door in total silence, he opened the door and I stepped out, before one last question came to me. “So, then if I lost that day, you had no intention of actually kidnapping Laureli and, and marrying her, making her kill herself, or selling her into prostitution, right?”
“Of course not!” What a relief. “I was going to sell her to one of my associates, and THEY would marry her or sell her into prostitution.”
“Wait, what the hell?! Are you seriously telling me-”
“Buh-bye now, little bro!” He slammed the door in my face before I could finish. Bastard.
Mason So, that was taken care of. I took a moment to lean against the door and reflect on my actions. Inviting him home to answer his questions was probably the best thing to do. Since I had done that, he would be so busy thinking about everything he had learned that he wouldn’t stop to think about any connections that could possibly occur between “her” and I. normally the opposite would be true, but Jason had a one track mind, and it was a narrow track to begin with. Answering his questions could also build up trust between us, which might come in handy later.
The one thing bothering me was his immortal. He spoke strangely, and something about him didn’t feel right. I didn’t know what it was I was picking up on, but my instincts were rarely wrong. At any rate, whatever he was up to, neither he, nor Jason was a threat to me, or “her;” if John tried anything he would be easy to take down. They wouldn’t be able to protect Laureli, either.
However, I did have to wonder what Jason was up to while he was being replaced by his double for those few months. That was certainly not Jason my clone and I had been observing during that time. I wasn’t sure where the real Jason was, but after the humiliating ass kicking I had given him, I could guess. At any rate, even if he was training during that time he couldn’t have learned enough to become dangerous. He would have to be watched, though. Just like this one, his body had the potential to become incredibly powerful.
He wouldn’t be a problem, but his little girlfriend was a problem. There was no way I could let a demon walk around under my nose without doing anything about it, but I couldn’t. I liked the life I was living now; I was comfortable, and I was enjoying myself. I life in the mortal world was… fun. Staying down in the library of souls, studying the history and knowledge of all mankind was my true calling, but everyone needs a study break.
Jason- back at home
The sun was already setting by the time I hit the door. Who would have thought that getting a few questions answered would take so long. I was tired, too. These life changing experiences really took it out of you… But then, this wasn’t really a life changing experiences. All it had done was once again confirm that my brother was still a bastard coated bastard with a bastard filling and bastard sprinkles, but I already knewthat. Sure, the bastard wasn’t ACTUALLY my brother, but what difference did it really make?
On the way home, even more questions had come to me. So, my brother was an Immortal, but what exactly was an “Immortal?” What was a demon for that matter? John could answer those, but I hadn’t asked him on the walk back, because walking, conversation, and I, didn’t get along well.
“Oh, Hi Jason. You’re home,” Laureli’s voice came from the living room, “What kept you?” I trudged into the living room to talk to her face to face. She looked up from the TV with a slice of pizza. I must have really been distracted to miss the smell of the rest of the box. Maybe I was more shaken up than I thought.
“I just had a very… interesting talk with my brother.” I gave her the shortest version of the story I could while still giving her most of the information. I left out the part about what Mason actually planned on doing to her, but I was still hoping that he was joking… although I had to wonder.
Laureli was nearly speechless. “Wow… That’s… I don’t know what I’d do if I found out something like that. Are you alright? You seem too calm.”
“I don’t know anymore. I guess I’m ok. Anyway, I’m going to bed, see you tomorrow.”
“Well, ‘night then. If you need to talk to anyone, I’m always here.”
“Thanks.”
Without even thinking about eating any of the pizza I knew was sitting on a table, I silently walked upstairs, and without turning on my light, plopped down on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. I was tired, but I couldn’t fall asleep. More questions.
“John, what’s an immortal?” I wondered out loud.
“What is an immortal?” He repeated the question the same way he probably would have if small child had walked up to him on the street and asked him where babies come from, or what happened to the goldfish AFTER you flushed it down the toilet. His tone had the same feeling to it; he knew, but telling me would be uncomfortable for some reason.
“Are you certain I have not told you this before,” he asked.
“Pretty sure.”
“I know for certain-”
“Maybe it was Laureli. Look, it’s not that big, just tell me. You’re already super-glued to my body, so it’s not like even if I learn something horrible I can do anything about it.”
There was a long hesitation before he spoke again.
“Immortals are essentially spirits that don’t die in the traditional sense.”
“And?” John had just told me the little fishy went to heaven. There was still more.
“And?” John parroted again.”
“And,” I continued, “Why do you exist, what do you mean ‘don’t die in the TRADITIONAL sense,’ and WHY do you have to do something so terrible to become an immortal; were you a psycho axe murderer or something?”
“I was certainly not a crazed axe murderer.” Another pause. “What I meant when I said that immortals do not die in the normal sense was that when the bodies we are... let’s say, inhabiting, is killed, we go to the library of souls to be filed into books like all other souls, however, once it is our turn to be filed, we are simply released back onto earth. The two death rule does not apply to us.”
“What rule is that?” This answer came more quickly.
“When a person dies for the first time, their soul is simply filed away in either a black, or white book, depending on what they have done in life, and their soul sits within that book, on that shelf for all of eternity. However, if somehow that soul is released back onto Earth, and then dies again, instead of being re-filed, it is destroyed permanently. You might say, ‘two strikes, you’re out.’ Are you satisfied now?”
“No. I kind of got what you were saying, but you still haven’t told me why immortals exist.”
“We exist, because God created us.” Translation: “When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much, the stork brings them a baby.” Not gonna work.
“So why did God create you?”
“I do not know. Nor do I know why it is that you must sin, and then repent in order to become an immortal. No one does.”
“So then, what did you do?”
“I prefer not to speak of it.”
That was all, then. Things made a little more sense, but I didn’t have time to think about what I had learned; as soon as John stopped talking, I fell asleep. Actually, fell wasn’t a good description for it; something more like crashed, belly flopped, or nose dived. I could have used passed out instead of ‘fell asleep,’ too.
John
How had I let someone as stupid as Jason push me into answering those questions?! If he knew too much it would be harder to make him trust me. I should have made him fall asleep sooner. I was going to have to be more careful about crap like this in the future.
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">
Chapter 14 :Is it really the best Time of the year?
Jason- at school the next day
The usual spot my friends stood in had gotten too cold in the late December morning. Instead we had found shelter from the wind next to one of the buildings; the conversations still hadn’t changed. “Hey guys, what’d you put on your Christmas lists?” Eddy asked.
Carla answered first. “I want a new purse..”
Laureli was next. “I don’t really care what I get. It would be nice if I could get at least one of my experiments to work, though.”
Then came Jim. “What’d you ask for, Eddy?”
He smiled. “I asked Santa for the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the girls on the naughty list, if ya know what I mean.” Figured. He elbowed me in the ribs gently, and asked, “So, what’d you get for your cute little girl friend, Jason?” Oh shit!
“Oh… uh… I can’t tell you now, but she’s gonna love it.”
That was a huge lie. Not only had I forgotten why I came home in the first place, but I hadn’t even thought about Christmas or what Laureli was going to want. And I was broke. I really didn’t want to die on Christmas.
After this week, there was a two week break. Christmas was on Wednesday of the first week, and New Years was the beginning of the second. Today was Tuesday. I Had eight days to get money, pick out, and buy the perfect present. The anniversary of the birth of baby Jesus was going to be the anniversary of my early death.
The rest of the day seemed not to exist, because I was thinking so hard about what I was going to do. I could make something. Well, I could if I was eight. If I sold a kidney, that might get me enough cash, but then I would have to recover too long to go buy a present.
At home that Saturday
Three whole days passed, and Dooms Day slowly came closer. I barely rolled out of bed, then spent most of the day hiding around the house in wolf form so I wouldn’t run into Laureli, and when you saw it in black and white the Christmas tree in the living room wasn’t as threatening. Around three I decided I should take a walk just to get out of the house. I snuck back into my room, changed back into human form, then tossed my shoes on. There was something in them.
I took my left shoe off, flipped it upside down and shook it. A folded piece of paper dropped to the floor. I hadn’t put that there. Scooping up the tiny packet, I broke the tape holding it shut, and opened it. Inside was a hand written note,
“A friend of mine told me about your predicament. Use this to buy whatever you want, then give it back when you’re done.
-Bruce
P.S. Don’t forget about me! J” At the bottom of the note was a credit card with four numbers- the PIN number- written underneath it. I was saved!! Now all I had to do was go shopping, and-”
“Jason?” Laureli had spotted me over her copy of “French for Dummies,” as I slipped out of my room. Why was her door open? “I meant to ask you if you what you were going to wear to my parent’s Christmas party Wednesday.”
“Christmas party?”
“I told you Thursday; didn’t you hear me?” Nope, to busy worrying about my own doom.
“What am I supposed to wear?” There was no telling what HER parents would want. A golden three piece suit might not be fancy enough.
“It’s a formal dinner, so you’ll need a suit and tie.”
“I don’t have either.”
“Well, then…” She smiled devilishly.
“No.”
“Yes.”
The Mall, a little later
Two hours after we left, we still hadn’t made it to the store that had the suits. Laureli got sucked into shopping for herself, and of course, I had to carry the bags. I really hated going to the mall. It was especially bad when I had to go with someone else. After what had happened the last time though, I kind of had to rethink that. That black bikini was really nice…
“What are you so happy about,” Laureli asked out of the blue.
“Huh?”
“Your ears.” I ran a hand over the top of my head. Both ears were facing forward stuck straight up. Kind of like in a cartoon when the dog catches the scent of Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. I would have to be more careful.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” Actually, it almost was nothing.
Finally the men’s store was in sight. So close, and yet so far away. There must have been at least six shops between where we were, and the entrance of the store, and Laureli would stop in every one; another hour gone. Only she didn’t. It was strange, she walked straight there. What force of nature had made this day so wonderful?!
Getting to the store was easier than I expected, but once we were inside, it was more of the same; “This is cute, but this looks good on you, too. Wait, what about that one over there! Now, two buttons, or three… Hey, this one’s on sale!” You know, bouncing around for half an hour just to buy the first thing we saw when we walked in. Well, that’s exactly what happened. In the end, we- actually, SHE- settled on a simple black 2 button suit with gray slacks and a white shirt. My tie was navy blue. I insisted on paying for everything, instead of relying on her like I usually did. Bruce did say I could buy anything, right?
Back outside the shop, I put down all of the bags to take a quick break. Women’s clothing was unbelievably heavy.
“Almost ready to go, then?” Laureli asked, from her seat next to me.
“Actually, there were a few more things I need before I go. I’ll meet you out at the limo when I’m done.”
“Let me guess, you forgot to get my present, and you had to go beg Bruce for money to get me one right?” Oh, crap.
“No, I just had to find the perfect gift before-”
“First you forget about me on the most important day of the year,” She sobbed, tears now streaming down her cheeks. Where had those come from? She stood up, to face me, still sobbing like her dog had died, her favorite band had been dismembered, and her ice cream cone had just fallen on the ground. Everyone was staring at us.
“And now you’re lying to me?!” I slid out of the bench and stood up, so she wasn’t towering over me.
“Hey, it’s nothing like-”
“You ass!” She said through clenched teeth, with balled fists. “I’m going to kill you!”
“Now would be an excellent time to run,” John suggested. I had to agree.
A note from Author-sama: Ya'll'll hafta 'scuse me fo' th' sho' upda'e, I'ma in da midda o' Huck Finn, an' I hasta finish i' fo' schoo'. Sorray ya'll. End.
All those action movies with a character running through a busy mall I had ever seen were wrong. For one it was a lot harder to jump over benches, and dive through potted plants when you can’t see them until you’ve already run into them because of all the people, and the people themselves aren’t all that easy to avoid either. I didn’t want to know how many doors I had run into, either. Second, at this point I was beginning to think that a pissed-off girlfriend possessed by a demon is more dangerous than any secret group that may be chasing you.
However wrong movies were about running through a busy mall, they were right in one way, at least. It made it really easy to lose whoever was chasing you. Within two minutes, Laureli was nowhere in sight. I ducked into one of the less busy stores to catch my breath. Relaxing was nice, I still needed an idea for a gift. Any kind of clothes were out; Laureli probably had everything any of these stores had to sell. In three different colors. So, I had gotten money, made it down to the mall, and escaped near death, just to run into another dead end. That was great, just freakin’ great.
There was no real choice but to wander through the mall until I found something she would like, while at the same time avoiding her. Back out on the walkway I looked around me. I had just come out of Hot Topic- of course the emo store would be nearly deserted this close to Christmas- and everything in sight sold nothing but clothes. Further down there were more clothes, some food, and video games, nothing worth stopping to even glance at. Finally, I walked past a jewelry store, and decided to stop and have a look; after all, I had nowhere better to shop.
Everything in the store looked the same. On every wall was the same marble and glass display case, with the same bright lighting inside, with the same black velvet pads,with the same shiny gold, diamonds, and other expensive stuff. I had to wonder if Laureli already had all of the things in here, too, but everything looked the same to me, so I couldn’t tell.
I aimlessly wandered along the case, attracting the attention of every sales clerk in sight. It wouldn’t have surprised me if people from other stores started popping up trying to sell me jewelry. I really had no idea what her tastes were, so I couldn’t tell them what I was looking to buy. There was no point in me even being in a jewelry store. With one more option down the drain, I slowly dragged my feet towards the door. On the way out, though, something shining caught my eye. I don’t know how anything shiny got my attention in that place; every thing was shiny- from the floor to the ceiling, to the teeth of the sales clerks itching to earn their commissions- but somehow this thing did. It was really simple, and yet it was, I guess the right word would be elegant.
The thing that had miraculously stood out from all the other shiny lumps of whatever around was a letter. The capital cursive letter L necklace, crusted with diamond and sapphire. Then I realized what it was that I had seen: The dark, deep-ocean blue of the edges, along with the extra sparkle the diamond. Even the chain was different from the ones round it, it was braided so it looked almost like a rope made of gold. I wondered how big the smile on my face had gotten.
“I’ll take this,” I said to no one in particular. I was immediately surrounded by people eager to help me make my purchase.
Now with the largest hurdle paid for, wrapped, and bagged, all I had to do was shop for Bruce. I’d probably just get him a tie or something. I was too tired of shopping to even try getting a good gift.
“So, you need something for Bruce now?” A familiar voice asked.
“Yeah, but I’m too worn out to think. I just wanna go home.”
“There’s a pretty good store to try over there.” I turned to face the person talking to me.
“Oh, th-” Laureli’s face smiled at me. “Oh, Laureli! W-when did you get there?”
“Relax, Jason,” she smiled, “I’m not going to hurt you.” I wasn’t so sure about that. “Come on, let’s go.”
We ended up buying Bruce a Segway. You know, one of those cool scooter things with two wheels that you drive by leaning. I wanted one too, but Laureli said we should only get one. This whole bottomless credit card thing was really nice. I’d have to get myself one someday.
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">
Chapter 15: The Perfect “Tool”
Laureli- The next day
Everything was working the way I intentioned; no circuit broken, stable power, and yet it didn’t function. I involuntarily sighed, looking at the scattered array of pieces tossed around my lab desk in the basement. Maybe I should check everything and try again? The design and my calculations should be correct; I used the best materials, too. Maybe there was a wire loose somewhere? I really didn’t want to check all of the connections again.
“What’s that?” I nearly jumped through the ceiling.
“Would you tell me when you’re coming in?!” I yelled at Jason’s sheepish smile.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. So, what’s that?”
I turned back to the pile of scraps on the table and glared.
“This is nothing, just another impracticable piece of trash I’ve been working on. I should probably just throw it out and start over again. Unless…”
My hands flew across the table, snapping, screwing, and bolting pieces back into place with practiced precision. After less than thirty seconds the entire unit was assembled again, with a few extra parts lined up at the edge of the table.
The end result was an eight inch long, two inch wide, sand brown tube. Even after I had been holding it while assembling it, the entire thing was still cold to the touch. The top part of the tube was open and folded over onto itself like the rim of an old glass soda bottle; the entire assembly was covered in opposite engraved cross-hatched lines for better grip. It didn’t look like much, but if/when it worked it would be revolutionary.
“Catch,” I sighed, “and don’t point it at anything.” I chucked the piece I had spent so much time developing at Jason’s chest; he caught it like I had thrown a football.
He looked down at the object in his crossed arms, then up ate me, then back down, then up again.
“Hold it in your hands,” I commanded, “keep the open end pointed away from you.” He complied. Nothing.
Out of sheer exasperation I collapsed back onto my work table.
“What exactly was this device intended to do?” John asked. I couldn’t stand looking at my failure anymore; I redirected my gaze to my feet, sighed, and spoke.
“It was just the first in a series of experiments I had planned to see if a human power source could be used to provide electricity for-”
“Whoa!” Jason exclaimed. I didn’t even dare hope…
“what?”
Jason stared incredulously at the assembly before saying a word. “Something just shot out of here.” Now I dared!
“Really?! What did you do?”
“Well, you said it was human powered, so I just… sent a little energy into my hands and it… shot, I guess.”
“It wasn’t designed to shoot, but do it again!”
“and this time,” John added, “don’t use a jolt, keep the flow steady.”
Jason nodded. “I’ll try.”
I gazed intently at the sword, silently compelling it to work. My hard work paid off. A dazzling lighting-blue beam slowly, gracefully, slid out of the handle. YES!
“You uh… made a Light Saber?” Jason asked.
“No!” I was almost offended. “Light Sabers were uninspired pieces of garbage! This is far superior! Look at it; it has an obvious edge! On top of that, if I’m right this should cut, not burn. Drop the blade for a moment.” He let go of the entire unit and it clattered to the ground.
“No, I sighed, “not the entire sword, just the blade. The shiny part.”
“Sorry.” He grinned as he picked the sword back up.
I walked over to the cabinets on the wall, pulled out a wooden board I had been saving for this day, and a pair of sawhorses that had been waiting even longer.
“see if you can cut this.” If I was any more nervous as he stepped up to the board I would have been able to taste it. He raised the blade, lifted the sword over his head, and chopped. Nothing.
Not only wasn’t the board cut, nothing had happened to it at all. No burn marks, no lacerations, no cracks; the blade had gone straight through without doing a single thing.
“Well,” he said, poking at the board, “so much for it being better than a Light Saber.” No! I was too close for failure now!
“Hold on!” I spoke before a plan had even begun to formulate itself, I paused and bit my lip while I thought. “I wasn’t sure what voltage to use… There’s another alternator, the power adapter, that can supply a higher voltage. Let’s… at least try that before I call this quits.”
It was hard to keep my spirits from sinking through the floor as I trudged back to the work table to pick up my last hope. I was about halfway to my destination before a blood curdling cry of agony stopped me cold in my tracks.
I spun; Jason was lying on his stomach with his arms tucked underneath him, writhing in pain, the boards and sawhorses had been knocked over, and the sword had slid somewhere out of sight. Without wasting a second I ran over and knelt beside him.
“Christ, what did you do?!”
He groaned. “I cut my wrist!”
“With what?”
“The goddamn sword, what do you think?! Call an ambulance!” Now was not the time to freak out, I needed to resist the nearly overpowering urge to run out of the room screaming, and instead stay calm, and focus.
“Let me see.” I would need to do something about his bleeding until the ambulance arrived anyway. Jason flopped over and showed me his left wrist.
“What the hell?” Jason gaped at his completely unharmed hand and sat up. “It really hurts! I-I can’t feel my fingers.” He wasn’t bleeding, so the immediate danger was gone, now I was curious.
“you just thought it would be a good idea to try a sword out on your hand?” Honestly…
“It didn’t cut anything!”
“didn’t I say NOT to point it at anything?”
“But it didn’t cut the board!” Great logic. I stood up and offered him my hand.
“Come on,” I sighed, “we had better get you checked out, at the very least.” He pulled himself up with his left hand, and pushed off of the ground with his right. That shouldn’t happen.
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t move your fingers?” He twiddled them.
“I guess I can kind of move them, but I still don’t feel them. It’s like that feeling you get after digging through an ice chest for a soda.” And now I was ridiculously curious.
I pulled him over to my work table, put his wrist on the table palm up, and looked at it through a magnifying glass already on the table. His wrist didn’t feel any different, nor was there any indication of a cut or anything else that could conceivably give a medical explanation of what was going on. I didn’t have the equipment to examine this any further, but there was one more thing I had to try; stabbing my boyfriend with a screw driver. A flat head would work well.
“Ow!” What was that for?!” I Thought so.
“It was just a test. You jumped meaning you have the feeling back in your hand, meaning the effect of the sword was only temporary. It makes sense.” I pulled up a stool for Jason to sit on, and I took a place on the other one. “The sword is visible because it excites electrons in the air around it, exciting the electrons in the air molecules and making them jump an energy level or two and creating light. So, by causing these electrons to move in the right way, it’s possible to create a sword with an edge only one electron wide. Although when you think about it, when you go into forces that small, you aren’t really cutting anything, but rather using the charges of those electrons to force the surrounding atoms apart, thus “cutting” the object composed of them.” There was that blank stare again; I should have expected it. “The sword is supposed to be really sharp.” That seemed to click with him. “So then why is my hand still attached to my arm?” He asked. It was a good question.
“Well,” I pondered, “the blade didn’t have enough power to separate the atoms in your arm… but maybe it messed with the electrical signals in your nerves. If they were disrupted then maybe that could have given you the sensation of pain, made it go numb, and stopped you from moving your fingers. It’s just a hypothesis, but don’t try it again.”
“Uh… ‘kay.”
“So, since your hand is back to normal now, let’s try this again with the new part.” I popped open the cover at the bottom, pulled out the old alternator, drew a black stripe down the side so it was marked, then put in the new piece.
“The last one was my first attempt at making those, “ I explained, “It wasn’t very efficient at stabilizing the current, so it might not have been able to supply the power necessary to cut. The new one is far more efficient.”
I tossed the unit back to him and he took his stance. His arms came over his head,, then chopped straight back down. The blade had gone past it, but the board remained intact.
A blood curdling howl poised itself in my throat, hot tears of rage and frustration welled up behind my eyelids. Just as everything was about to come crashing out in the breakdown of the century, there was a sound. The sound of the spark before the flame, the sound of the bang before the bullet left the barrel, the sound of the board hitting the hard concrete below its resting place. The sound of success.
The fact that the wood had taken so long to fall meant that the cut was clean, so clean it hadn’t disturbed the board at all. I was where it had fallen even before the sound stopped. “Hey… it worked!” Jason was surprised, I was elated.
It had finally worked! What was more, the cut was clean, really clean. The sliced edge actually reflected light. It was shinier than it would have been if someone had cut through it with a circular saw, sanded it, and then applied a heavy coat of polish. I picked up one piece to examine it further, but I made the mistake of testing the edge. A thin stream of pitch black blood ran from my finger to my palm; I smiled. Wood so sharp it could cut.
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">
Chapter 16: is It Really the Best Time of the Year? Cont’d
Jason- Christmas morning
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. The phone was the last thing I wanted to hear in the morning during winter break, but it rang anyway. Once, twice, three times it rang. One more time and I would go crazy. I reluctantly rolled over , picked up the handset and grumbled into the receiver. “What?”
“Merry Christmas, Brother.” Just fucking great.
“What the hell do you want?” There was no way he would have called unless he needed something.
“I just wanted to let you know,” he began in his best movie announcer voice, “that I’m watching you. Right now.”
“That’s great,” I sighed, “Bye.”
“Okay, wait. Seriously, I wanted to let you know that you should be leaving me milk and cookies. You know that credit card your little benefactor gave you? That was my doing. And no, I’m not kidding.” He sounded serious, but I still couldn’t help but be a little suspicious
“So you just talked him into giving me free money?”
I’ve got connections. Besides, it’s not like any amount you could’ve spent would matter to him.” Still not joking.
“So… uh… Thank you?” That was a weird feeling.
“Think nothing of it. Oh, and you owe me your life.” There was a loud click on the other end of the line. So that was what he wanted.
Anyway, there was no way I was getting back to sleep, so I rolled out of bed and dragged myself across the hall.
“Hey, you awake?” I called through Laureli’s door.
“Hm? Yeah… Who was that?”
“Scrooge. You wanna open up the presents now? My morning is ruined.”
“Sure, just give me a second to clean up. I’ll meet you down stairs” Clean up? I had just gotten out of bed, and still had sleep in my eyes, but I was going straight down. Maybe it was a girl thing?
The living room had been totally overdone. For whatever reason, Bruce had decided to have professional decorators decorate the room. Tinsel hung from every spot imaginable, decorations hung from every possible point on the wall, and in the center was a designer tree with designer lights, and ornaments, and designer flock. Exactly where do you grow a designer tree, anyway? I took a moment just to back up and look at everything; I felt like I was in a Christmas card.
“Ready!” Laureli bounced down the last few stairs, and gracefully landed on both feet. She was also over done. Somehow she had managed to do her hair, put on make up, and freshen her pink pajamas in the five minutes I had been downstairs. No doubt she had also brushed her teeth, flossed, gargled and the like. To imagine, where I came from you were lucky if everyone was wearing pants Christmas morning.
“What’s the occasion?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Why don’t we separate our gifts into pile so it’ll be easier to sort through them later?”
Both of us had fairly small piles, four things for me, two for Laureli, and an uncounted number still under the tree for Bruce. Those would probably be there for a while; Bruce had been called out for business some time last night.
I normally liked to start with the smallest presents and then work up to the larger ones, I had discovered long ago that the best things come in the largest packages, not the smallest. Before I could get to the smallest box I had, Laureli pulled it away.
“Why don’t you save this one for last?” She smiled awkwardly.
“Okay then…” I needed to say something to break the awkward silence. “You wanna start first?” Bruce’s box was the closest to her. Inside was what looked like a wrap-around vest.
“Oh! I know what this is!” She spun it around several times. “This is sparring gear made out of that new material that hardens when something hits it! Here, try it, Jason. Throw your hardest punch into it!” She held it out in front of her. I was a little afraid to actually hit it, the thing was so squishy any force I put into it would go straight through, but I gave a small one anyway.
“Ow!” My fist bounced straight off of the vest, it was pretty freakin’ hard, alright.
“Isn’t it cool?! Okay, you next!”
I went for the second smallest thing out of the three left that I could open for now. I t was from Bruce, a beta of a game that wouldn’t be released until the beginning of the next year.
“Holy Crap! I had this pre-ordered months ago! My friends are going to flip when they hear I have this!” I was overjoyed.
Picking up on my enthusiasm, Laureli quickly went for her next gift; it was mine. It was almost painful to watch her take off the wrapping paper; every seam was carefully pulled apart, and then the entire piece was folded before she opened the jewelry box. Her eyes lit up when she saw what was inside. “Oh my God,” She gasped,” Jason, it’s… it’s beautiful!” Her smile shone brighter than all of the lights in the room. “It even matches my dress!”
“Well, I’m glad you like it.” I didn’t want to take too much credit since I hadn’t paid for it myself, but…
“Here!” Laureli plopped my biggest box into my lap. In my typical fashion, I shredded through the paper, leaving a torn mess to clean up later. Under the paper was a jewelry box, a big one. It was wider than my hand, and about twice as long. In side, surrounded by black crushed velvet, was a sword, or should I say THE sword, and both alternators. It was like she had just given me a gun as a gift. THIS WAS THE BEST FREAKIN’ CHRISTMAS EVER!!!11!! “Laureli, this is incredible! I mean, it’s better than any sword I can buy! It’s one of a kind, even if you make more this will still be the first! But, are you sure it’s okay for me to have this? I mean, don’t you need to run more tests on it or something?” A small shake of her head.
“No, there’s not much more I can do to it here, so I’m going to make another and send it off to be tested.”
I turned it over in my hands, actually looking at it this time. I marveled at how small it was; A whole sword could come out of this thing! Then I noticed that the pommel had been replaced. What had been a round, not worthy of mention piece of whatever this thing was made of, was now an intricately carved wolf’s head. Every fur, every curve of made itself known to my thumb. Except for a small scar running the bottom of the chin, it was perfect. “Laureli, this is…”
“Oh, sorry about the nick, the person carving it wasn’t used to the material. Oh!” She handed the smallest box back to me. “I almost forgot the best one!”
“Can you top the sword?” A mischievous smile took hold of her face.
“You tell me.”
Once again, I shredded through the well placed bow and wrapping paper. Inside the box was a green… What was it? Laureli answered my questioning look.
“It’s plastic Mistletoe [spl?]”
“Sooo… What do I do with it.”
“You know, people hang it over their doors around Christmas, couples love it…” Her cheeks were turning kind of red, was she sick?
“Ya lost me.” The name sounded familiar, but nothing came to mind.
“Honestly, must you make this more difficult for me? Fine, first hold in your hand like this…” She put the ‘Mistletoe’ in my hand, then wrapped her hand around mine to close it. “Then you hold it over your head, like this, and close your eyes…”
I didn’t like where this was going… Because of the couch and the awkward position us her holding our hands put us in, we were extremely close. We were alone, on a couch, my personal space bubble was being penetrated deeply –in no small part because of her chest- and my eyes were closed. In the movies, this would probably be the hot make out scene every male audience member had been waiting for. It would basically be a few minutes of the male and female lead sliding over each other , ending with a cut to both of them lying next to each other in bed. Naked. What ever happened in between, anyway? Not like it really mattered, though. Nothing in the movies could ever possibly happen to me.
Two wet pillows touched my lips. My eyes fluttered open, and it wasn’t until another second after that that I realized what those pillows were. Being kissed didn’t feel quite the way I- JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! WAS THAT HER TONGUE?!
This wasn’t right! I mean, it felt good- it felt great- but I didn’t want it, not with her. I wanted to push her off of me, I wanted to get away and ask myself how the hell I had ended up in this position (pun not intended) to begin with. Then something snapped. I liked it.
I found myself kissing back. Hard. Both of us melted into it, her hand falling to rest in a more comfortable spot next to me, and mine ended up on her hip; I wasn’t letting it go any farther. She leaned forward, she was on top of me now, and I was flat on my back. When were we going to stop to breathe? Oh, right, my nose.
Being on the bottom was starting to bother me. With one arm I nudged Laureli farther into the couch while slid under her on the outside. Unfortunately- or maybe it was for the best- we were on a couch, not a bed. Luckily, my fall was short, unluckily, my head was the first thing to hit the ground.
“Ow…” Both of my feet were still in the foot stool. Talk about an awkward position.
“Are you okay?” I stood up and rubbed my head.
“Yeah… I’m fine.”
“Let me make you better.” She reached for my arm again; I needed to leave. Badly.
“Um, thanks for everything,” I said, giving my best forced smile and gathering my gifts, “I think I’m going to go try this game out now.”
“Oh, ok…” She also offered an empty smile as her hand dropped.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Yeah… Merry Christmas.”
I made it back to my room without any trouble, and shut the door. I dropped everything on my bed and popped the game into my CD-drive. The installer started itself, but I wasn’t paying any attention to it. What the hell had just happened? I had enjoyed physically, that was for sure, but I still hadn’t wanted to do it.
No, that wasn’t true, part me of me wanted to. Sometimes I did think with my other brain, but it didn’t feel like that last time was only puberty talking. This wasn’t the first time I had gone against what I really wanted to do. My words echoed through my head. There was that incident after Carla and the perfume, when I wanted to kneel and beg for mercy… “Yeah, I did, and she liked it! You are NOT my girlfriend, and you had no reason to do ANYTHING! Hell, on top of that you don’t even know WHY I did it!” Then there was that time when I had told her my feelings…“I couldn’t admit… not even to myself that I really do care for you.” There must have been more, too. Come to think of it, all of those times had been related to Laureli. Maybe it was just the testosterone talking?
Still when it happened it felt almost the same as when John moved part of my body; I was kind of watching it move, but knowing that it was happening felt normal, like watching a movie in 3d. Hm… I wonder…
The game finished installing. I clicked the start button, and suddenly I was intensely focused. It was like reverse ADD; I couldn’t focus on anything BUT the game. The thoughts were all getting shoved out of my head, what was this? AH! Shoot faster, dang it!
Laureli- Downstairs
Despite the decorations and festive lighting the room felt desolate, cold. I was alone.
“So, looks like you failed again,” Christian sneered inside my head.
“No,” I answered equally as silently, picking up the discarded mistletoe off of the ground “All I wanted was the kiss… I got that much.:
“Oh? And that was as far as he was going to get?”
“Well…” My cheeks were feeling warm again. “I guess… maybe… second base?”
“Ha! More like a home run! But I’d put my money on your friend having a tiny bat. I mean there must be something wrong with it, how many times has he fallen off the horse and not gotten back on?”
“I’m not a horse!”
“No, you’re not, but you were just begging for a good ride.”
“Well, this is Jason we’re talking about… maybe… he panicked?”
“You could try the same thing on your knees next time, it’d be a lot harder for him to run with his pants around his ankles and your mouth around his-”
“Just shut up!”
He was really starting to get to me, I needed something to distract myself. It was when he got like this that I really wished I could just run way, but I couldn’t; he was a part of me now.These pajamas were loose enough I could just go into the gym and kick the bag a little, that normally made me feel better. I could see how my new gear felt, too.
“Hey,” he continued anyway, “I’m just saying that if you’re going to be a whore you may as well do it all the way. You could even buy a pair of those booty shorts with ‘juicy’ written on the back! No, better yet, cherries! It would be the biggest lie since Watergate!”
“Go to hell!”
“Only if you come with me~”
I decided to start with a few simple kick combos to warm up before I leapt into the really tricky stuff. Low round kick, high round kick, Low round kick, high round kick. Low fast kick, high fast kick, the same again on the other side…
“You know what’s really surprising?” Christian asked aloud, “That you keep coming back to him. It’s obvious what you are to him,”round kick, back kick, the same again on the other side… “but you come back time and time again, looking for his love. Each time you hurt yourself a little more, and each time you need him a little more.” Fast kick, double repeat. Then again on both sides. I was doing my best to ignore him; nothing he was saying was true. It definitely was not true.
“You could choose any boy- and a few of the girls- at your school, and yet you keep crawling back to that retarded piece of s-”
“Jason’s different from all of them! He cares about me!” Round , back, double.
“He cares? He sends you on more emotional trips than I do!” A wave of emotions rushed over me. I was happy, sad, I wanted to kill the world, I needed a hug, I felt like strolling through the park on a sunny after noon, I felt like curling up in my room and listening to the rain, I felt my heart racing like it had after that kiss, I wanted to go to a party and talk to everyone, I wanted to be alone forever, I wanted to dress in black and sit in a corner, I wanted to take a bath with a toaster, and all the while tears streamed down my face.
“Stop it! Fucking stop it!” I cried out as loudly as I could, I didn’t care who heard, I just wanted to feel normal again!
“Say please.”
“Please! Please stop!”
“Do you really mean it?”
“Yes, I mean it! Please stop! Please God, just stop! I’m begging you, Christian!”
“See, was being nice so hard?”
Finally the storm stopped. Had it ever been that ad before? More importantly, when had I curled up like this? I was in the fetal position, arms over my ears, arms soaked with tears. I should stand up, I NEEDED to stand up, for my pride if for nothing else, but I couldn’t. I just sat there, in my little ball at the bottom of the bag, sobbing.
“You’re just a friend to him. He’s never going to love you. He wouldn’t give a damn about you if he hadn’t known you for so long.”
“He said,” my voice trembled, I had to keep it steady. “He said he loved me.” I sobbed harder. Why? Shouldn’t that have comforted me?
“Yeah,” he sneered, “I’m sure no one’s fed you that old ass line before. Difference is that for some reason this dumbass ISN’T trying to fuck you. He did say it, though. I wonder what could’ve possessed him to say- Oh, maybe I do know.” I found the strength to stand up, God knew where it came from, but I didn’t. Just act normal, I couldn’t let him know how upset I was. Round kick, back kick-
“So are you just going to throw yourself at him until he responds?” Round kick, round kick,roundroundROUNDROUNDROUND. The bag took all of my rage, but barely; it swung like the flopping body of a fish on a hook.
“Why not just make yourself someone else’s play toy? I’m sure they’ll treat you nicer.” When?! When was he going to shut up?!
“Hey, you’re not ignoring me, are you? That’s not nice.”
Screw kicking, now I was hitting the bag with every ounce of strength in my body! I wished it could be him! I wanted it to be him so badly!
“you’re no really much better than that Carla slut, throwing yourself where you aren’t wanted.”
“SHUT THE HELL UP!” one last punch, as hard as I could.
“Whoa, pretty fired up now, are we? Fine, don’t want you to pop a blood vessel or anything, that’d be bad for both of us. I just hope you enjoy your tiny bat.”
Finally, quiet. Breathe, I had to breathe. Relax. Forget this even happened. Christian was a lying bag of shit, nothing he said mattered.
Back upstairs, I washed my face. The crying and sweat had done horrible things to my make up. My eyes were still puffy. I just wanted quiet, to be alone, but when I made it to my room, I turned, walked across the hall and opened Jason’s door. Strange, he never closed it. Wordlessly, I crossed the room and sat on his bed. I didn’t want to talk, just to feel… close to someone. Of course, Jason took his eyes off of the game and glanced over his shoulder anyway.
“Oh, hey Laureli.”
“Don’t say anything.”
“Um, ‘kay.” An explosion brought his attention back to where it had been previously.
“You know, if anything’s wrong you can talk to me.” I would have been more reassuring if he had taken the time to glance away from the monitor, but the words themselves were a sign that he cared. He cared. Still, his voice rang hollow in my ears. “He wouldn’t give a damn about you if he hadn’t known you for so long.”
Why did I have to think about this now?! It wasn’t true! True or not, the burgeoning heat grew once again within my eyes. I couldn’t cry now, it would be way too awkward, I was going to, though, and he would be worried, I didn’t need that now. Stop thinking about it! Then, I was happy. Incredibly happy.
“No, really, it’s nothing. But it’s about time we got ready for my parent’s party now, isn’t it?”
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">
“Oh yeah, that’s right…”
The dress was a soft powder blue. There was a modest plunge in the front, but it was backless. It had taken hours to pick out, but at least it looked good on me, or so I thought; a certain someone hadn’t seen it yet.
I took one last look in the mirror- I had to look my best.
“Oh, no! my hair’s a mess!”
“God,” Christian sighed, “Why do women spend so much time worrying about their hair? It’s not like anyone is looking at it. Your ass, on the other hand, looks great.” Something was wrong here.
“That was ALMOST a compliment. Not even once before have you said anything good about me. What are you up to?”
“What? A guy can’t make a comment on your ass without you getting suspicious? You’re never getting married.” That was more like it.
Jason-still in his room
Who the heck had put a button INSIDE these dress pants? And there were hooks on the outside? AND I needed a belt?! Then there was still the maroon tie lying on my bed, taunting me, teasing me. Piece of crap!
“Laureli…” I whined after trudging out of my room and knocking on her closed bathroom door.
“Yes?” She peeked through a crack in the door.
“I don’t know what to do with this tie…” The door swung open, behind it stood Laureli, wrapped in a dazzling baby blue dress. It followed her contours perfectly; someone had tailored it well.
“Say something,” John commanded inside my head.
“About what?” I whispered back.
“Her dress! She’ll be expecting you to say something.”
“Oh, uh…” Crap, what should I say?! “Uh… your dress looks good on you?”
A faint smile.
“Thanks. Come here.” That smile didn’t disappear the entire time she was tying my tie. But still, she didn’t seem very cheerful right now.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You still seem a little down.”
She shook her head slowly.
“Honestly, I feel great. Oh! I forgot to tell you! If I tell any lies, just go with them. My parents think I’ve been at a French boarding school for the past year or so, so a few… mistruths might be necessary.”
“WHAT?! You never said anything about a boarding school!”
She shrugged it off. “I’ve studied and done some research, so I should be okay with any stories that need to be made. As for you, just follow my lead.” Or, better yet, keep my mouth shut.
“But don’t you think-”
“détendez. tout est pris en compte (relax. Everything is taken care of)” well, maybe it could work.
Later
Marble. A quarter mile of marble! Why would anyone need a driveway that long? During the day it would probably blind and driving on it. Luckily the incline wasn’t steep; something told me Laureli’s shoes weren’t made for walking in, which made me wonder why we weren’t dropped off at the door.
The house was worse; it was three stories tall, and only three people lived there now. There were lights shining on every wall of the house, like some kind of monument. The lights bounced off of the house- which was also marble- and illuminated the perfectly manicured lawn and shrubs. The size of the place wasn’t even describable.
It was beautiful, really, but the entire place had an almost intangible aura of evil surrounding it. It was almost as if the entire house would swallow up anyone who dared step inside. Or maybe the money oozing out of the place just made me uneasy.
“Good evening, Mistress Laureli, Mr. Barrows.” One of the butlers met us with a bow at the door before we even knocked. I had learned from experience not to bow back.
Also waiting in the entry way was Laureli’s charming mother, who strode oh so elegantly to greet her.
“Laureli, my dear, how are you?! How was France?”
“La France était aussi intéressante que vous êtes dans une conversation intellectuelle, la plupart des citoyens sentis mieux que vous, et la fumée de cigarrette était plus épaisse que votre maquillage. Le fromage était bon, cependant.” (France was as interesting as you are in an intellectual conversation, most of the citizens smelled better than you, and the cigarrette smoke was thicker than your makeup. The cheese was nice, though.)
“Oh, my that’s wonderful! Tell me more later!” Then she noticed me. “Oh. I see you brought that ruffian street urchin along with you again…” Something told me I would be insulted if I had any idea what the hell she just said.
“It’s nice to see you again too, Mrs. Lancaster.”
There was a brief scraping noise coming from somewhere nearby. As the noise got closer it turned into more of “clack clack clack clack,” nails on stone. An orange blur rounded the corner into the entryway, flying full speed straight at me. It was Charlie, the Lancaster’s “cute” little Pomeranian. The two of us had never been on good terms, but today he was especially feisty. Constant high pitched yapping assaulted my ears, and a tiny mouth nipped at my feet.
Before I even knew what was happening, a low growl grew in my throat, followed by a sharp bark. The dog’s hasty retreat almost tripped one of the party guests. The end result was nice, but what had happened was a bit unusual. Both my growl and the bark had been distinctly canine; people didn’t normally make sounds like that. It would be hard to shrug off.
“Aha ha, gets ‘em every time.” I tried to turn into a joke, maybe make her think that was a trick I had learned to scare off pesky dogs; instead she gawked at the top of my head.
“What?” I asked, “is there something in my hair?”
“Ah, no, it’s nothing.” She quickly looked back to Laureli.
Laureli’s dad was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary; he was probably hiding somewhere to avoid dealing with all of the snobs here. I would find him later. What was missing, was Laureli’s little sister. Juliet always had a violent greeting for her sister, coming here just didn’t seem right without it.
Suddenly, the scuffle of small feet on expensive stone flooring announced the attack. What would it be this time? Once Juliet had almost landed a jumping round kick.
Down the hall she came, faster, faster, faster. She couldn’t stop. As she jumped up, her rear foot cam forward, and she turned her hips over; it was a flying side kick.
Effortlessly, even in the high heeled shoes she was wearing, Laureli stepped to her left, swept the attacking foot away with her right hand, and palmed her sister in the forehead with her left. Juliet’s momentum carried her past her sister several feet, where she landed on her back and spun like a turtle. Then she stopped moving.
“Honestly!” Mrs. Lancaster exclaimed. “Must you two do this every time you see each other?!”
Laureli replied with a voice so sweet sugar wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “But mother, she attacked me. I merely defended myself. Hopefully one day my sister will realize she was born six years to late to ever challenge me. And her legs are too short.”
It was true. Al Mrs. Lancaster could do was sigh.
“Higgins, would you mind Juliet for me?”
“Certainly, madam” As he responded, he pulled out an already prepared first aid kit and went to work on Juliet with the steady movements of someone who had done this many, many times.
“Come, Laureli, there are so many people I’d like to introduce you to!” Then as if I were second thought Mrs. Lancaster added, “YOU may do whatever you please.” Did it just get colder in here?
Being myself, I headed over to the food table. The selection did not please me. On the linen covered table was a row of silver platters with signs sticking out of the middle of their respective loads. “poo-poo platter,” “Blood soup,” “Es Cargo…” Wait, was that snail?! People actually ate this stuff?! Couldn’t they just have had a normal Christmas ham?!
After walking all the way down the end of the table, past food from countries unknown, past wines I couldn’t even begin to pronounce, was a single, solitary bowl of punch. Well, if I was going to starve for the night I may as well have something to drink. I poured myself a crystal glass full of fruit punch and went to find somewhere to sit down.
From the looks of things, everyone was supposed to be in the mansion’s massive ball room and living room. Normally, the forty foot tall flocked, designer lit Christmas tree would have caught my attention, but not today. Instead I saw white carpet, white chairs and expensive suits. I took in all of this as I stood at the doorway with a glass of dark red punch in my hand.
“Awwwwww, son of a-”
Laureli
Maybe it was strange; how many people enjoyed being toted around like a show pony? Being reduced to a sum of their accomplishments, to “my daughter,” and “Just got back from France?” Was it wrong to enjoy talking to strangers who would only pretend to remember your face later?
“Oh, Mr. Blank! I’d like to introduce you to my other darling daughter. This is Laureli. She’s coming back to visit us from a French boarding school.”
I gave him my best practiced-in-the-mirror smile, and held out my hand.
“How do you do, Mr. Blank?”
He did the same and shook my hand heartily.
“I’m doing quite well! Actually, I’m right in the middle of a large business merger. I bought the majority holding in a rather large Chinese manufacturing plant. I hope it will compliment my other ventures as well.” This guy hated to brag about himself.
“What was that called again,” my mother asked, “a hostile takeover?” She was playing stupid; she had been behind one or two takeovers herself.
Mr. Blank took a moment to respond. “Well, I suppose you could say that, but I like to think the entire company will make much more profit, and that will be better for everyone, wouldn’t it?”
The conversation continued without any farther involvement on my part. Either this was actually interesting to mom, and I doubted that, or she felt Mr. Blank was someone she should suck up to. It was undoubtedly the latter. At any rate, I excused myself to find another conversation to join; there were still lots of people here.
Jason
I managed to find a spot on an almost suspiciously deserted loveseat. Even walking over had been a challenge; the glass had too much punch in it, and every step threatened to send my drink dribbling onto the dazzling egg shell white carpet below.
How should I attack this thing? Would it be better to sip at the top until it was low enough to drink normally, or should I just tilt it back and down the whole thing in one-
“Jason, my boy!” A strong hand clamped down on my left shoulder, finally giving my drink the push it needed to spill.
The punch sloshed over the side of the glass, and almost in slow motion, my right hand moved to catch the falling liquid. Most of it landed in my cupped hand, and the rest spilled onto my dark pants. No damage done, thank goodness.
“Hey, pal, what the hell are you- Gatsby?!” I had no idea who had given him that nickname, but there was the guy I had been wondering about earlier James Lancaster; Laureli’s dad.
“How are you, my boy?” He asked as he sat down-heavily- next to me.
“I- I’m fine.” Crap, now I had to talk and deal with this punch at the same time…
“It’s been while since I’ve seen you, how is life?”
“Well, actually, I’m a little busy right now, so-” Please stop talking…
“That’s right, my boy, everyone is busy these days. Yes, I’ll bet you had quite a time at the mall the other day. Everyone else was in quite a rush, too. You, however seemed to be in a particular hurry. Why was Laureli chasing you?”
Laureli’s cover may have been blown, but I didn’t know, so I had to play cool.
“Well, Laureli wanted to go do a little Christmas shopping ,so-”
“Quite fine, but just why was she here before her plane arrived, my boy?” Crap.
“Uh… I don’t know, maybe she, er, swapped tickets to get in earlier?” Yeah, that made sense, I should go with it. “It has been a while since we’ve seen each other.”
“Yes, quite right, I suppose. Was she also on a break when you two had that picnic date in the park?” SHIT!
“Hey, it’s no problem,” James continued, dropping his sophisticated façade, “I like you, and besides, it’s not like I could blame you. I was your age once, after all”
I needed to think. I couldn’t just say ‘it wasn’t like that’ and explain it away, and there was still the issue of why the hell Laureli was even in the states at that time. I took a nice, careful sip of my punch so I could buy time without seeming like I was trying to think up a good lie. Fortunately- or so I thought- James still wasn’t done talking just yet.
“Why, if I were in your position, I would totally hit that.”
I had probably chosen the wrong time to swallow, or rather the wrong person to swallow around. Everything that HAD been going smoothly down my throat and into my stomach where it belonged had now changed course, and headed straight for my lungs. But I couldn’t cough, not with a cup of blood red fruit punch in my hand while I was sitting on an eggshell white carpet in an eggshell white room. Of course, biology has a tendency to overrule thought. Just before the spasms racked through my body I pulled the drink in close to my body, hoping for another spill on my suit, and not the couch.
My pants took another hit, but the couch was still perfect. I, however was in a different condition.
“What the hell?!” I managed to exclaim between coughs, “She’s your-” more coughing
“-daughter! You can’t say-” and another fit of chest racking coughs.
“Calm down and breathe! I’m just saying this one man to another! It’s socially acceptable for a father to appraise his daughter like that; we have to so we know how much we need to worry about them. If she were ugly I would barely even think about her when she was around boys, but as she is I have to worry constantly about what one of those horny adolescent zit bags would try to do with my daughter!”
Well, what he was saying did make sense; I seemed to be the only guy I knew of who didn’t want to “hit that,” “tear that up,” “get freaky,” or perform any other acts that could result in the creation of a baby or a “happy ending” for at least one party. Still, one thing was still bothering me…
“What about Juliet?” I asked
“She may not be as big of a problem.” I thought so. I liked the guy, but “appraising” someone who hadn’t hit puberty yet was a bit much. On the positive side, the conversation had been completely turned away from its previous direction.
“Well,” I assured him, “she’s in good hands… but how exactly did you know about that? You aren’t following her or anything, are you?”
“No, no,” he assured ME while simultaneously putting his very sophisticated, and very fake, façade back on, “I just have a few acquaintances who happened to see, that’s all, my boy. And I trust you, you’re probably the only one I wouldn’t mind, in fact.” Hey, he was good at that, maybe he should try an English accent next time, for that extra touch. “Yes, I remember the passion of love. She was a young thing back then. I met her in a bar in south Florida. She was covered just enough to avoid being fined for public indecency, just a little drunk, and she had a smile to light up a room.” His voice trailed off, and his eyes glowed like he was back in the moment all over again.
“So,” I said after a moment, getting uncomfortable with the silence, “how long did it take you two to get married?”
“Married?” he seemed confused. “Oh, no, I’m not talking about Laureli’s mother, this was a different pretty young thing I met earlier.” How could I have forgotten?
Theirs had been a marriage of convenience. Rebecca Lancaster had married James Scottsdale (yeah, HE had to take HER name) so she would be able to fit in amongst her peers. James Scottsdale (it was apparent who wore the pants in the family), almost 15 years her junior, had married Rebecca Lancaster for the money; to live the easy life. James, “Gatsby” as he was called for whatever reason, was in a word, a boy-toy.
“Yes, getting married to Rebecca was probably one of the smartest things I’ve ever done.” Smartest, not best. “It may not be what people usually do these days, but perhaps I’m a bit old-fashioned.” Bull. “The best part was, that I didn’t even have to pay dowry!” He laughed as if he had just made a joke. Had he? What was ‘dowry,’ anyway? Well, I had missed the joke, but I wouldn’t miss my opportunity
Between the sips I had taken, and the spillage on me pants, the cup was low enough to down in one gulp- about ¾ full. The conversation seemed to be on a subject that would not entail bear hugs, shoulder pats, or sexing up Laureli, so it was probably a safe time. I could down it all in one big gulp. Bottoms up!
“Say, my boy, do you two have any marriage plans?”
Have you ever watched an old silent film, where the actor’s voices couldn’t be recorded, so they had to exaggerate EVERYTHING to get a joke across?Maybe it was a slapstick comedy, with pie throwing, eye gouging and the like? Maybe there had been a nice cold bottle of seltzer thrown in for added effect. Well, I became that bottle of seltzer. Too bad no one else got the joke.
A man had been walking past us just as Gatsby had said that last remark, and he was still right in front of me when I erupted. Did I mention he was wearing an Armani suit? My new Friend Armani stared at me with a mixture of surprise, shock, and disgust. The carpet had gotten a decent shot too, but it wasn’t glaring at me at the moment, so I almost forgot about it.
“What-” Armani began.
“Oh, no!” one of the house’s maids had sprung from nowhere with a towel and a bottle of club soda. Had she been hiding somewhere waiting for this?
“I’m really sorry!” I stood up to see if there was anything I could do.
“what’s all of this commotion?” Mrs. Lancaster materialized as if from nowhere, far too quickly to have just been in the area. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” she apologized as soon as she saw the rather expensive looking suit. “And you!” She turned to bear down upon me, but was that a frown or a smirk on her face?
“I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msosorry” the words streamed out of my mouth.
“I KNEW you would do something like that! Get out of my sight!” Despite the wolf’s ears on top of my head, I scampered out of sight like a wet rat.
“I’ll see you later, my boy!” Gatsby called after me. Yeah, way to help me out.
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">
I found my way upstairs to Laureli’s room, hoping to sit there alone for the rest of the party, but I was not to be alone.
“Oh, Laureli, what are you doing there?”
“Oh, I was just getting something to show our guests downstairs. The real question is, exactly what are you doing up here?”
“Um, actually, I was going to say mean person, but yours has bigger words.”
“Well, it might just be a better idea for you to avoid her. She has something against you and I haven't the foggiest what that could be.”
“Great, can I count on your expert testimony against her when she’s on trial for my murder?”
“Found it! But then, that person didn’t seem all that interested, anyways.”
I gave up on the party and plopped down on Laureli’s bed just as the sound of classical music seeped through the floorboards and chewed its way into our ears. The tempo was a bit fast, yet at the same time, it was relaxing. Whoever was at the piano must have been good. Too good.
“What do you say to a dance?” DAMN IT! I knew she was going to say that!
“But your mom-”
“Don’t worry,” Laureli interjected, “she won’t say anything if I’m with you.” She took my hand and pulled towards her door.
Laureli
Jason didn’t offer any physical resistance, but it was clear he didn’t want to be with me. At all.
“But I don’t know how to dance to-” was his next excuse
“I’ll lead.” I managed to smile, and keep a cheerful tone in my voice, but I didn’t feel chipper at all. Why wouldn’t he agree to one dance with his girlfriend? The answer made itself apparently clear in my mind: ‘What girlfriend?’
We got to the ballroom just as the first song ended, leaving just enough time to find a spot on the floor . Jason wasn’t kidding about not being able to dance, all of his steps were incredibly clumsy, yet there wasstill a certain grace to them. He might have been good if he knew where he was going ahead of time.
But then, the dance itself wasn’t all that important. We were close, my hands were in his, I was close enough to smell his scent. It was… Nice.
“Jason,” I murmured as I stepped in just a bit closer, “ I-” ‘Love you,’ was what I wanted to say, was what I felt, what I had felt for a while, but it was too soon. He would run away if I said that now. Instead, “I think you dance better than you thought.”
“Oh, thanks.” He flashed me that brilliant smile that told me everything would be alright. It was brief, but that was all it took to send heat flowing to my cheeks.
Jason
One dance quickly turned into three, but it wasn’t like we were dancing on lava or anything. The dance itself was bearable, but I could’ve sworn I felt Mrs. Lancaster’s eyes boring into the back of my head like lasers the entire time. Wait. What if she DID have lasers in her eyes, and no one knew about it? It probably wouldn’t surprise me.
The night wound down, and it was finally time to go. There had been some strange scent in the house all night, but as we approached the door, it grew stronger.
“What is it?” Laureli asked. I caught myself as I was about to put my nose to the ground and sniff.
“I don’t know…” It was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it; this sense of smell was still new to me.
“It’s not dangerous, is it?” she asked, mild alarm in her voice.
I thought about it for a moment “I don’t think so… I just don’t like it.”
I reached for the door as quickly as I could; I wanted out. Of course, just leaving would have been far too convenient.
“Oh, Laureli, we have something for you!” Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster stopped us at the door. Gatsby held a large red and green box in his arms.
“We’re not sure if they’ll allow this in your ‘dorms,’” Gatsby began, delivering a sly wink with “dorms,” “but… Oh, just open it princess!”
The wrapping was off in less than ten seconds, yet still somehow in one neat little peace. Laureli truly was an expert. She opened the untapped top flaps, and out popped a little black and white head attached to a black bodyand white paws. They had gotten her a cat.
“Oh, a kitten! It’s so cute!” She snuggled it against her cheek while it purred, and I struggled not to growl. I hadn’t been much of a cat person before, but now I could hardly look at the thing. It was like a furry demon from hell. Okay, maybe not a demon, that would be unfair to Christian.
“What?” I had caught laureli’s mom staring at my head again.
“N-nothing.” She shook her head and turned to her daughter. “What are you going to name it, dear?” Laureli examined the cat for a moment, then smiled.
“Arthur sounds nice. Say hi, Jason.” Well, trying to be nice couldn’t kill me. After all, there was a decent chance this cat’s aura of evil was all in my head. I put out my hand to pet him, he sniffed my finger, then bit it. That was the start of a beautiful relationship.
Mason- the next morning
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. I was already pretty much convinced that the telephone was the worst invention mankind had ever fathomed, and my next call confirmed it.
“What?” I tried my best not to sound groggy, but there was no way I was greeting the bastard that called me at 6:30 with a pleasant ‘hello!’
“I’m looking for a man named Jack?” Oh, goddamn it!
“I’m afraid you have the correct number, Daniels.” That exchange confirmed the identities of both parties on the line; unfortunately I didn’t want to deal with the other party right now. Or ever, for that matter. “What do you want?”
“Why didn’t you tell me that there was a two week break in December?! Do you think my time isn’t valuable just because-”
“The QUESTION here is why you didn’t do your research. School starts in a few days, you can do whatever observations you want then. Seriously, I don’t know why you don’t just do it.”
She snorted. “I’m trying to make sure YOU didn’t make a mistake. Besides, I haven’t been a school girl in a while.” I tossed the phone back into the cradle without saying goodbye.
Okay, she was going to waste a few weeks at school before getting the job done; it wasn’t that much different from what I was doing. It wasn’t like with both of us watching anything horrible could happen. Potential disaster would be averted, and I could continue my lazy, comfortable life until I got tired of it. That would be good for everyone. Except for Laureli, of course.
Jason- later the same morning
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. There was something I had to get off my chest; namely a certain cat. I tugged at the comforter to make him move, and he did move as far as the comforter did, only to move back into position directly on top my chest as soon as the movement was over. After pulling the fabric past my knees I finally pulled my hands out of the warm pocket under the sheet, and tried to slap the damn cat off the bed. But of course, I was attacking a cat; all I caught was a palm full of claw.
As I leapt out of bed before it became soaked in my blood, I had to wonder how long it would take me to die from “cat scratch fever.” I also had to wonder why it looked like Arthur was laughing at me. I faced off with my mortal enemy in the bathroom. I stared at the bottle of alcohol, it stared back with a cold, sterile gaze. I definitely had to disinfect that cut, but I didn’t wanna. So much pain contained in that little bottle.
But I had to be a man about this. It was just a little bottle; if I tipped it enough just a little alcohol would come out. I could handle this, right? I took the bottle into my right hand and prepared to pour it onto the cut in my left palm. Just a little tip… almost there… Ok, maybe not. One more try! I could do this, just a few more degrees… It’s almost out… NO! Alright, forget the alcohol, there was no way I could-
“GAH!”John had finally gotten fed up with my cowardice, dumped half the bottle of alcohol onto the cut on my right palm.
“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!” I yelled furiously inside my head while blowing on my BURNING hand with an equal ferocity.
“It was necessary.” He replied so coolly, maybe because it wasn’t HIS hand. “Simply looking at the bottle will accomplish nothing.”
And now I had fumes in my eyes. DAMN IT!
“Sure, easy for you to say, John, it’s not your hand! It burns!”
The ordeal over, I wrapped up my hand, and went back to bed. But I couldn’t go back to bed. There was a small lump just under the covers. A quick pat confirmed my fears; Arthur had taken residence in the middle of my bed. I had already disinfected one cut today, maybe it would just be better to leave him alone this time.
Warmth, Sweet, all encompassing warmth… Peace and quiet … why couldn’t life always be like this? It was unfortunate though; my moment of peace was about to be interrupted. Curled up in my favorite sunbeam, I napped curled in a ball with my tail under my nose. Of course, all peace in my life had by this time been taken away.
Softpadded footsteps slightly roused me. I thought nothing of it; Laureli would probably have been up this time of the morning. Instead of concerning myself with it, I adjusted my position and settled back in; she could walk around. Funny, the steps were awfully light, there was no way that could be Laureli… Who could it be? Well, no matter.
As if it were a punishment from god, a searing pain suddenly tore through my face from no where. No longer asleep, I bolted to my feet, and searched the room for the source of the attack. Not more the three feet away stood little Arthur.
THAT GOD DAMN CAT!!! The rage built, every muscle in my body tensed; The cat coiled into every cat’s characteristic pre-bolt pose. Then the action began.
With mewls, barks, and the sounds of nails clicking down the hallway, we up the stairs, and towards Laureli’s room. Checking to see what was causing the commotion, Laureli cracked her door open to peer down the hallway. Tiny little Arthur slipped into the crack she opened, and I instinctively followed him, realizing far too late that there was no way I could fit through that opening.
I hit the door, bounced, and landed flat on my back. The world was spinning, my stars were seeing stars, and my nose was bleeding. I reverted back to human form, and tried to solve at least one of those problems.
“What were you two doing?” Laureli was incredulous, and either hadn’t notice or didn’t care that I was hurt. Well, at least a bloody nose didn’t need to be disinfected
“Your cat just attacked me in my sleep for no reason. For the second time this morning.”
“Aww,’ She cooed as she picked up her little spawn of Satan, “Arthur would never do anything like that. Maybe you rolled over on him your sleep or something?” You’ve only had him for one night, how do you know anything about his character?
“I was awake, and I didn’t touch him!”
“You just said you were asleep.”
Well, technically, both of my statements were true… “I was TRYING to sleep after he kicked me out of my bed earlier this morning. I was just curled up in my sun beam slee- that’s it! He wanted my sun beam this time!”
“Jason-”
“No, I know that’s what he was after! That cat is pure evil!”
“Fine. I’ll keep Arthur in here with me, and you can sleep or whatever you choose to do for the rest of the morning, Ok?” I think all I managed was a grumble before I stalked off.
“Wolves and cats,” John Chuckled, “Cats and Dogs.” Couldn’t we at least have a normal cat?
And so ended another exhausting break. Well, at least this time I had only gotten into a fight with a cat that wanted to claw my face off and Laureli’s mom, but I repeat myself. Christmas was nice and all, but I was more than ready to return to my normal school life; too bad nothing was normal anymore
Chapter 17: Crouching Tiger…
For the first time in two full weeks I strode back onto campus and took a deep breath of that (fresh? Clean?) campus air. It wasn’t a bad smell at all, as long as I stayed away from the bathrooms. Despite the cold, my usual group surrounded the usual spot. The routine had become a comfort. Comfort was good, right? It was something everyone deserved, right?
Aside from standing in the usual spot at the usual time with the usual people, there was another tradition that many people in many different places followed:
“So,” Eddy started upon sighting me, “what’d you get for Christmas?” Screw greetings, forget hugs, we got straight to the point: what did Santa leave? I was in a bit of a bind; I had gotten a kiss, which they were not going to hear about, a sword that fired lasers-not even I was stupid enough to mention that, let alone what Laureli would have to say about the lasers bit- and a new video game. Well, I could mention one, at least.
“Oh nothing much,” I let a smirk devour my lips, “just a copy of Duke Nuke’em Forever II!”
“Oh, yeah right.” Eddy was not impressed. “They just finished the last one and they haven’t even made trailers for number two, and you expect us to believe you have the second?. You’re a crappy liar.”
“W-well, it’s just a demo, so-” That reply even sounded weak to me.
“Just say youdidn’t get anything good, and get it over with.” Cocky son of a-
“Fine, then, Eddy, what’d you get? Don’t suppose Santa ACTUALLY gave you all of the girls on his naughty list, did he?”
He replied with a smirk even greater than mine before I was shut down. “No, but he did give me this.” He pulled a phone out of his pocket. Well, that description wasn’t quite accurate; he pulled THE phone out of his pocket.
The body was brushed stainless steel, and it had a zoom lens. That was the phone made by a camera company renowned for its quality shots in any condition. Truthfully it was obviously more camera than phone, but that wasn’t the point; it was the phone to have.
His smirk doubled in size to replace the one that had disappeared from my face. “and on top of the phone, I’ve got the data plan to go with it! I can upload video to the web AS I TAKE IT with streaming upload, or snap some high res photos and upload those as well. The browser sucks, though.” I wanted to rub something in his face so badly, but I couldn’t. Would it be believable if were to tell him I had gotten a gun for Christmas?
Before I got a chance to retort the sequence continued. Jim had gotten a PSP, and Laureli was more than happy to show of the necklace I got her; personally I was stunned she had brought it with her.
The first bell rang, and I trudged to class rank and file with the rest of the student body. It was math class. The smells had remained much the same: books, cheap perfume, sweat, dry erase marker, and the sandwich someone left in a corner of the room over break- that last one was REALLY pleasant. But there’s was something off; the usual “people scent” as I liked to call it- the vague mix of bodily odors that could be found in any place- was a bit off today. Maybe it was easier to tell because the smells had dulled over break?
Another day, another roll call, more of the norm, but there was another name on the list today. “Laureli Lancaster?”
“Here.”
“Evangeline Layton?”
“yeah?”
“Oh, that’s right.” The teacher put down the roll sheet to look through the class. “In case you haven’t already noticed we have a new student today. Say hi, Evangeline.”
A redhead I had somehow failed to notice stood up on my left. “Hello, everyone, I’m Evangeline. My family moved here from England about a week ago. I hope we’ll get along well. Oh, and just call me Eva.”
Come to think of it, she did have a rather thick accent. The accent was all that felt authentic about her though; she was wearing a jean jacket, a black tank top and skinny jeans despite the cold, a rather American way to dress. On top of that she was slouching slightly in her chair. Well, the real world couldn’t be like the movies, I guess.
“I don’t like her.” The words echoed though my head.
“Come on, you only even heard her say a few sentences; You can’t tell anything about a person just like that. Besides, what’s not to like? She’s even cute.”
“Should you be able to that? You do have a girlfriend.”
Oh, right. “Well, there is something odd about her. She feels…”
“Jason!” Hey, the math lesson had started. “What is the answer to this problem?” The teacher demanded. On the board was a word problem with more variable than I could handle, way too many decimals, and what appeared to be an exclamation mark. Needless to say I had no idea how to solve the problem- time for the default answer.
“Uh… 22…X?”
“No, the answer comes out to 37X.” Well, he had finally gotten me.
“Actually,” Laureli piped in, “I think you dropped the sign on one of those variables. The answer does come out to 22X.”Well, whaddya know?
I somehow managed to pay attention through the rest of the lesson, with the exception of a few minutes in the middle , and managed to pick up most of the material. More surprisingly, I was awake and functional for our in-class homework time. This was practically unheard of.Well, I had made it that far, there was no point in stopping now. I somehow had an idea of what I was doing, but Evangeline wasn’t doing so well; if I didn’t stop her, her pencil would sue for assault.
“Did we skip ahead of where you were in your last school?” My concern was genuine.
“Huh? Oh, yes… I’m not familiar with this material; do you have any notes I can borrow?”
I smiled in that typical “yeah, sorry about that” sort of way. “I tend to fall asleep during the notes.”
Her well-worn pencil drooped. “Then how are you-”
“Would you like to use my notes?” Eddy, seemingly out of nowhere asked, leaning over my desk with a binder in his hand.
“Please, thank you very much.” Eddy didn’t move.
“So,” He asked, “you like my notes?”
“So far… Yes.” Eva was beginning to sound puzzled.
“Do you know how to handle notes?”
Eva put the binder down and locked eyes with Eddy- in the most polite possible way, of course. “I’m sorry, is there a joke I don’t understand here?”
“Yes,” Laureli sighed, you have to think like a teenage boy.”
I answered, anticipating the inevitable question. “Notes sounds vaguely like an innuendo. Notes is close to nuts, and nuts are a common substitute for testicles. ‘do you like my nuts,’ ‘do you know how to handle nu-’”
The wind from Evangeline’s bunch made my eyes water. Eddy simply stood up straight to dodge the attack, which also explained why he chose to lean over my desk instead of handing the binder straight to her.
“Haha,” Eddy Gloated, “missed me-” He was cut short by a well aimed binder to the face; that girl had a decent arm.
A note from the author: Happy Birthday, AW! It's not twenty pages, but it was all I had and then some.END
