"Wow! It's such a beautiful day, isn't it, Jou?" I giggled, smiling at the taller teen next to me. The blonde just gave me a strange look.
"Honestly Yug'," he began, "I've never in my life seen someone as happy ta go ta school as ya. Wait," he said, bending down and staring at my jittery body with narrowed amber eyes. They widened as he asked slowly, "Did ya have sugar dis morning?"
I just giggled and started skipping in circles toward the school.
"Maaaybeee, why do you ask?" I sang, humming the song that had played on my alarm clock/radio that had woken me up this morning/ This time it was 'Justice and Mercy' by Flyleaf, the screaming of 'Justice' by Lacey had made me jump about five feet into the air, then I fell off the bed.
Jou sighed, "Ah, shit. Da world's gonna end! He had sugar!" With a pout I replied, "Jounouchi! I didn't have that much…OH MY RA! A SQUIRREL!"
I proceeded to chase the now panicking squirrel around the campus until it ran up a tree, chirping angrily until a different squirrel appeared and did one of those squirrel-handshakes off of those car commercials. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open and my head cocked to the side, then turned around and sprinted back to Jou; I nearly knocked him over with the force of my body, all the while yelling, "THE SQUIRREL IS AN ALIEN! IT'S DOING THE HANDSHAKE OFF OF THE COMMERCIALS!"
Jou looked down at me, petted my spiky amethyst-tipped black hair, and said in a sympathetic tone,
"Were the squirrels makin' fun of ya again, Yug'? Now come on; I'm sure dey were jus' a little scared of ya, that's all. Let's get ta- ow! Hey, what da- ah!" Acorns and twigs were being chunked, they mostly stuck in my hair, but poor Jou- he was getting pummeled by them!
Covering his head with one arm, he dragged me to the school.
Never in the whole time I've known Jou, had I ever seen him run that fast toward school.
Right now, seventh period was part Heaven, and part Hell. Why, you ask? Simple really.
My sugar rush crashed at the end of sixth period, but we were going over Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Mrs. Lenobia had copies of my favorite story laid out on all of our desks, when Jou saw them, he groaned in despair.
"Aw, man! Not dis kid's story! I hate dis one Why not, I dunno, 20,000 Leagues Unda' da Sea? Or somethin' like dat!" He grumbled, sinking in his chair with his arms crossed like a little kid.
"Now now, Jounouchi," Mrs. Lenobia began with an amused smile. "This book is wonderfully written, plus it's quite fun once you think about it! Lewis Carroll was quite ahead of everyone when he wrote it, in 1865 nobody thought about things like that, Jules Verne was also ahead of his time, what with the submarine and the solar panels I mean," she almost preached. Yes, almost, she put enough feeling into it to make it interesting.
I smiled, ecstatic about reading about this curious girl.
'Oh, how I wish I had an adventure like Alice! That would be incredible!' I thought, resting my chin in my hand with a dreamy sigh.
"Now, can anyone tell me the name of the dormouse? Hmm? How about you, Luna?" I immediately raised my hand as the question left her mouth. We all turned to the back where a girl with long black hair tied with a blue ribbon grew pale as our eyes landed on her. Poor girl. Her mouth flopped open and closed like a fish gasping for water…Er, oxygen, whatever they need when they're out of water. She finally shook her head and buried it in her hands, but not before we all saw her grey-blue eyes watering in embarrassment and sheer terror.
"Yugi, can you tell me the dormouse's name?" Not even having to think about it, I answered confidently. "Mallymkin."
Mrs. Lenobia smiled, "Very good Yugi! Now, let's begin; open you books to page on please. Who wants to start us off? How about you, Jem?" With a groan, Jem began reading.
"Thank Ra! Dey really need ta shorten da hours for dat crap!" Jou whined, his arms crossed behind his head as we walked to the park.
Every Friday we go to the park, mostly to hang out, most times I bring food for us when we go to my house after school. Sometimes Grandpa already has it made, he just makes sure I have my cell phone on me, then he sends us off with a smile.
"Jou, remember the last time you tried to shorten school hours? It lead to a massive court case!" I exclaimed, laughing and shaking my head as we walked to where we always sat; past the paths, past the oak and fir trees, basically we went into the forest on the other side, where sakura trees dotted the area, and where the grasses grew long and untamed.
"I'm gonna ignore dat, hey, can I have my burger now Yug'? I'm starvin'!" Jou cried in despair, falling to the ground with his hands on his stomach to dramaticize his hunger. And sure enough, his stomach gurgled loudly when I brought out his burger. I sat down more gracefully than Jou, I leaned back into a sakura tree's soft, yet rough bark as I drew out my own burger and began eating it.
A gentle breeze blew by, causing pinkish-red petals to leap from their dwellings on branches, some carried on the wind while others drifted gently down to alight on the ground, with the exception of a few that landed in my hair.
"Just try not to-" "Thanks man!" He yelled as he began devouring his burger. "…choke." I finished with a sigh and a shake of my head.
As I ate my burger, I kept a careful eye on Jou, making sure he didn't choke. Within two minutes of receiving the burger, he had inhaled it all, not a crumb remained.
Undeterred, Joy reached into the basket and pulled out another burger and began on it. I finished mine soon after, I grabbed one of the thermos' that were in there and opened it. The delicious aroma of milk and honey attacked my senses, causing me to close my eyes and take a deep breath of the delectable drink. I brought out the other thermos that had to hold Jou's coke and set it in front of him. He made a noise in his throat that I'm guessing was a thank you; his mouth was full of .
After he swallowed his last bite of burger, he said gratefully, "Thanks, Yug'! Man, Gramps can make good burgers!" Then he drained his thermos, while I sipped my milk/honey concoction.
"Ahh! Dat his da spot!" Jou said with a grin.
I giggled, then tried to get all of the petals out of my hair. Once finished, I laid on my back and looked around the little area of forest we were in.
Soon we did what we always did: talk about random things. Somehow, we had gotten into an argument about Alice in Wonderland.
"Come on, Yug'! It's so stupid. I mean really? A girl follow a rabbit into a hole dat leads her ta a world where dere's talkin' flowers and animals. Personally, I think dat girl was high!"
"She was not high Jou! In the original she was six! How could she have been high? Plus, it was a dream. She fell asleep!" I laughed, though I could see his point, had someone come up to me ranting about talking plants and animals, I would've immediately thought them insane, or that they were on drugs.
"So!" Jou continued, "Dat dude who wrote it musta' been on some sort of weed, he had ta!"
I gave up and shook my head. Soon I heard some noise coming toward us. I cocked my head to the side, curious, nobody ever came into the forest, at least, not that we knew of.
The closer the noise got, the more curious I got. The voice was….British? It was definitely male, and British, the person was…late for something? Whoever it was, they sounded a bit frantic about it. Just a bit.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no! I'm so very, very late! Bugger, I'm screwed if I don't get back fast!"
As soon as this comment was spoken, the mystery person quite literally fell into my lap. We both yelped.
"Sorry! I'm terribly sorry! I'm so late, it made me clumsy! Please forgive me!" Yep, it was a boy, a peculiar and effeminate one at that. He had snow white hair that fell down to his waist, skin as pale as the moon, and chocolate brown eyes. But the most peculiar things about him were the bunny ears on top of his head, and the matching tail. At first I thought he was dared to wear them, then they twitched.
"I-It's oka-ay, u-u-um…" I trailed off, looking from his ears to his face, trying not to be rude. Jou however, reached out and touched on of the ears, making said ear twitch and the boy jump up with a squeak.
"Ag-gain I ap-pologize, but I must go, a-as you s-see, I'm dreadfully late for a v-very imp-important date!" And with that, he dashed deeper into the forest, leaving us sitting there with umbfounded expressions on our faces. Before I knew it, Jou had pulled me up and started dragging me the way the boy had run.
Surprised, I gasped "J-Jou! What are we d-doing? We c-can't follow him!"
"Of course we can Yug', and dat's exactly what we're doin'!"
"But Jou! That's rude, we don't even know his name!" I tried to reason with him, horrified at how we were apparently following the poor boy. "Well, now we have a god reason! We wanna get ta know him better!"
"But Jou-" "No buts about it Yug'! Now c'mon, he went dis way!" The excited blonde pulled me deeper and deeper into the forest, our surroundings growing wilder and darker with every step we ran. Every once in a while I'd see a flash of white just ahead of us; the words "bugger" and "late" told me it was the same boy. Not that I know that many people with pure white hair and bunny ears and a tail.
"Hey! Hey wait up a sec! We jus' wanna talk ta ya! Jeesh, slow down will ya?" Jou tried yelling at him, but if anything, it made him run faster.
'Gosh, he's fast,' I thought, panting as I tried to keep up with Jou's long legs, for the billionth time I cursed my small stature. Blonde bangs stuck to my sweaty face, my lungs were on fire, I honestly hoped we'd catch the strange rabbit-boy soon.
We ran for a few more minutes, when Jou put on an extra burst of speed and sped forward to try ang grasp the boy's shirt. Right at that moment the boy turned, and Joy had to grab a tree to turn without falling.
I followed after, right on Jou's heels. The white-haired boy ran straight to a tree that looked dead, but as I got closer, it wasn't dead; just pure black.
There was a hole in front of the tree, about tree feet wide and five feet long. To our surprise, the jumped into the hole without hesitation. We stopped just at the edge, trying to catch our breath back. Jou leaned over and called down into the black abyss with concern lacing his voice, "Hey! Are ya alright down dere? Ya not hurt are ya?"
Suddenly there was a crack, and the ground fell out from under us with a groan.
We tumbled down the abyss, screaming our heads off. The last thing I remember thinking was, 'Why do things always happen to us?'