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ATTENTION:This story is a prequel to my other story, "Chronicles of the Enchiridion," a Regular Show-Adventure Time crossover (picture above). The purpose of this is to explain Jeremy's struggle and motives that I cannot manage to show entirely in my story.
The later parts of this story will be lead-in events of Part 2 of my cross-over but from the perspective of Jeremy. HOWEVER, those parts won't appear until the final chapters. Until then, this can be taken as a stand-alone story.
Enjoy!
Cover picture belongs to Lucythemagicbird on Deviantart.
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"Well that went better than expected," Chad sarcastically exclaimed as he brushed the dirt off his shirt. Their landing wasn't the greatest. It probably wasn't the best idea to waste their jet-pack phones to get out of the park.
Jeremy only replied by giving Chad a stern look of disapproval. He wasn't in the mood for jokes, especially after what just occurred.
"Don't look at me like that! It was those two assholes that got us kicked out! Besides, it's not like we were actually gonna take those jobs, were we? We didn't go to the Institute of-"
Jeremy sourly interrupted, "No, we were expelled from the 'Institute of Technical Technology!'" The last words he said in a mocking tone, disgusted by the very mention of that place.
Chad sighed as look down at the ground, "Yeah... we did..."
"We'd still be there though, if it weren't for you!" Jeremy exclaimed, now turning on his friend.
Chad said defensively, "Come on, don't put this on me! I didn't start that fight, and you jumped in too to get my back!"
"No, no, YOU started that fight! YOU got us expelled! YOU'RE the reason why we're stuck here sifting through garbage searching for shitty jobs!"
That hurt. That hurt a lot. Each word piercing into Chad. What hurt most were not the words themselves but the fact that his own best friend was the culprit.
Jeremy realized what he just said. "Hey, dude, I-, You know I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. It's just-" Jeremy sighed before continuing, "I've been under way, way too much stress."
Chad understood what his friend was going through. He was going through the same thing after all. And it didn't hurt that bad. Besides, worse had been said to him. He said reassuringly, "It's okay, don't worry about it."
Jeremy's eyes began to water as he spoke frustratedly, "I don't know how much more I can take of this, we've been rejected for every job so far, and my dad'll cut us off soon, and-..." Jeremy hid his face from his friend as tears started roll down his cheeks. He didn't want Chad to see him cry, not like this.
Chad put his hand on his friend's arm. He tried to comfort Jeremy saying, "Hey. We've been through worse. Don't worry about it, we always get by." Jeremy turned back to his counterpart. He was greeted by Chad's comforting smile. Jeremy found it in himself to calm down.
He dried his face as he simply replied, "Thanks." There was a lot more in that simple word that Jeremy wanted to say. His friend had always been there for him, always had his back, and always knew what Jeremy needed at that moment. They'd been hanging out together since the beginning of high school. Chad had really been his only real friend. He never said any of this to him, but Jeremy always felt it. He managed to wrap all of this into one simple word.
The sunlight was fading. Overhead, dark clouds began to form. Small drops of water began to fall on the sidewalk around the duo. "Anyway," Jeremy said, "We should probably head back to the apartment."
Their "apartment," if you could call it that, was very very run down. The front door creaked as it only opened an inch or two. It took several rams from Jeremy's shoulder before the door finally swung open.
Their apartment had a simple lay-out. The front door opened into a tiny carpeted area that sufficed as the living room, decorated with an old 80's tv and a butt-ugly couch littered with stains. Just beyond that was a small kitchen. The fridge was old and faded and the stove was too old to even be considered safe. The brown hard-wood floor of the kitchen contrasted horribly with the faded puke-green carpeting of the living room. There were only two other rooms in the flat: a cramped bathroom and a small bedroom. On the far side of the kitchen was a sliding glass door that led to a small outside porch.
Though it sucked, it was all they could afford. The only money they were getting was from Jeremy's rich dad. The man had a philosophy of being able to support yourself. He gave them only enough for the apartment and a weekly budget for food. Other than that, Jeremy and Chad had to buy everything else.
Jeremy exhaustedly fell onto the couch. "Job attempt 26: epic failure due to two assholes who ruined everything for us. Go ahead and save that for the grand log," Jeremy said, making fun of Chad's journal. He let this go unnoticed. Chad had kept a journal since high school. It wasn't your typical diary, he simply had a date and a sentence or two for each day something interesting happened.
Chad walked into the kitchen inspecting the fridge. They were low on food. All he could find was a small container of lunch meat, a few slices of cheese, a generic brand of milk, a small bag of celery, and few slices of left-over frozen pizza. He knew in the pantries there was still half a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, one or two bags of junk food, and a box of store-brand cereal.
Chad called from the kitchen, head still in the fridge, "Alright, we got either left-over pizza or sandwiches for dinner. Pick your poison."
Jeremy groaned at the suggestions. Chad replied to his reaction, "I know its not your mama's cooking, but its all we got."
Jeremy answered, "take what you want, I'm not hungry anyways."
Chad looked dissapointedly towards his friend. He was going to say something but stopped himself. He simply shook his head as he went to make himself a ham sandwich. As he sat at their small, two-seat table, Chad looked at his phone. It was out of battery. He gleamed again at his work. Before they were expelled, Chad had managed to convert their phones into mobile rockets. They weren't exactly jet-packs, more like jet phones. He also looked around their apartment. It wasn't the best, but things could be worse. They could be homeless for a start. It didn't come to that quite yet though.
"We would have had that job..." Jeremy said, breaking the silence. Chad turned to Jeremy, mouth still full of food. "We would have been hired right there! If it wasn't for those fucking jerk-offs!"
Chad swallowed before answering, "Let it go man."
"You were there right? We had that job! But those two had to sabotage it for us! Who even sabotages job interviews anyway?!"
Chad had to admit, he was right. It wasn't their fault that they didn't get hired this time. Usually they'd take one look at "Expelled from ITT" on their resume and reject them right then and there. But this time was different. Chad actually found it in himself to whole-heartedly agree that it was those bastards that ruined it this time. Chad felt something creep inside him. Something he hadn't felt for a while: Spite. Just inward anger towards those at the park.
Chad replied, "We'll get it next time." Though what he said didn't agree with Jeremy, the tone of Chad's voice seemed to resonate clearly with what his friend had said.
"Got any threes?"
"Nope, go fish." Jeremy answered. Chad was forced to pick up another card from the pile.
Jeremy held the cigar up to his mouth as he took a large breath of the smoke. The tobacco helped calm down his stress. "Got any tens?" Jeremy asked as he exhaled the thick smoke.
Chad took out the ten from his hand and passed it over to Jeremy. Chad followed suit as he took a equally large inhale of his own cigar. Jeremy was the one who got Chad started on smoking cigars. They weren't really much fans of cigarettes or even weed. Jeremy's dad always smoked cigars. It was the tool of a businessman. Cigarettes were too dirty and unhealthy and weed was too degrading. But cigars: that was the smoke of class. However, with their measly budget, they could only afford to smoke once or twice a month. But after everything that happened that day, they each needed to light one off.
"Got any Kings?" Jeremy asked again. Chad shook his head, leaving Jeremy to take a card out of the pile.
Chad momentarily paused their game, "Do you remember basketball, senior year?"
Jeremy took a moment to remember before finally laughing himself. "Well we couldn't let the jocks own everything! We had to stand up for the little guys."
"Well I wouldn't say standing up, more like getting knocked down is the appropriate term, at least for you!" Chad joined. They both laughed at this.
"What was that school thinking? I don't know what's worse: making an in-school basketball league or letting us make our own team?" Jeremy said as he took another whiff from his cigar.
"Come on, we weren't taking it seriously! We could've won that anyway!" Chad said.
"We lost every game," Jeremy claimed.
"Because I got fouled out of every game!"
"Because you always tackled whoever was trying to dunk!"
Chad replied in triumph, "And they deserved it too."
"One of those people was me, and we were on the same team!" Jeremy replied. They both almost collapsed to the ground in laughter.
Chad managed to quiet down his laughter before asking, "Who was that one guy on our team? Crazy-... Crazy Matt?"
"No no, it was- uh... Crazy Ed! That's it!" Jeremy answered.
"Oh yeah! Crazy Ed! That guy gave on of the cheerleaders the finger, during game!"
"I remember that! I swear that had to be the greatest game ever!"
They spent time laughing over their past. It was a nice escape. But as the merriment died down, it hit them they were still in their shitty apartment, jobless, playing a stupid game of cards.
"Those were the days, huh?" Chad said, not as joyful as before.
"Yeah... those were the days..." Jeremy said, saddened by the fact those days were behind them. The days of care-free fun, now replaced by dreaded day-to-day misfortunes of the adult world.
Chad asked as he inhaled his cigar, "Anyway, got any Aces...?"
It was around 11 when they finally got around to going to bed.
In the bedroom were two single beds, each on opposite sides of the room. Both were extremely uncomfortable.
They didn't really have the money for spare clothing like pajamas. So the two just slept in their underwear.
Chad climbed under his covers as Jeremy outright collapsed onto his bed. The sheets were scratchy and didn't feel anywhere near pleasant. "G'night." Chad said to his friend.
"'Night" Jeremy replied as he turned off the lamp on the nightstand in the middle of the room.
Jeremy struggled to find a comfortable spot on his mattress. The bed creaked loudly with each turn he made on his lumpy mattress. Eventually, Jeremy's frustration got to him. He sat up and pounded on the bed several times with his fist as he angrily muttered, "God-Fucking-Dammit." Before laying back into bed.
Chad ignored him as he lay on his back, eyes locked on the ceiling fan slowly rotating above him. The mattress wasn't so bad if you were on your back. It was still pretty bad though. He didn't let it get it him. But something did get to Chad. On the inside, he felt angry. Angry for the life they were stuck with, angry at himself for partially getting them in this mess, but surprisingly, he found himself angry at those two in the park: Mordecai and Rigby.
Chad sighed it off as he slowly relaxed. "Tomorrow will be better," he thought to himself, "Tomorrow's got to be better..."
It was the last thing he thought before drifting off to sleep.
Don't forget to leave a review of any predictions, comments, and criticisms.
Don't forget to also read my other story, Chronicles of the Enchiridion, which this story is a prequel of.