"Aleeeex this isn't going to work"
"It's fine, I got this"
"You can't fix this with duct tape"
"No, no it's all good"
"Alex you can't fix a car with duct tape! It's a black truck, that's silver duct tape"
Alex sighed as she tore off another strip. "Look, it's fine. It looks completely normal"
"No, no it doesn't" Jade complained. She looked back at the school, glancing around nervously. "Jill is going to murder you"
"I got this"
"No, you don't" Jade said. "I can't believe you just tore off a truck door handle."
"Look, it's fine"
"You. Tore off. The door handle. To a truck"
"Keep thinking of the negatives here Jade, thanks for being a downer"
"What are the positives?!"
"Whoa, what the hell is going on here?" Jade looked up to see her other friend, Kevin, running up towards them.
"Alex tore off the door handle to Jill's truck"
"Holy shit," Kevin said, looking at the damage. "How?!"
"I was just opening the door" Alex complained.
"OK, move over" Kevin said. "Your attempt at a repair job is literally painful to watch"
Alex gladly shifted over to the side and stood up, brushing off her dress pants. Alex had only just starting going to the same school as Jade and she was a freshman, but Jill had met her when they had lived in the same neighborhood. Seeing as Jade was a sophomore, Kevin and Jill juniors, and most of their other friends in all different classes, meeting up together was pretty rare. Most of their meetings were during lunch, but Jill drove Jade and Alex home every day.
"Where is Jill anyways?" Kevin asked, tearing off the duct tape unceremoniously.
"She's retaking a test" Alex explained. "Not that she got a bad score the first time"
"How long does it take her to finish a test?" Kevin.
"Hopefully longer than it does to fix her truck door handle" Jade said.
"Oh hell no" Jill said, standing outside of the school's doors. Kevin, Alex, and Jade were all standing around her pick-up, messing around with something on the passenger side.
Oh god what have they done?
She paused and rubbed her eyes under her glasses. The glasses were supposed to help with her dyslexia, but they didn't help much. She mainly wore them so that she could sit in the front and have the option to ignore the rest of the class.
Please tell me they haven't broken anything important. I only just got my license.
She started walking out toward the parking lot. Jade looked up from where she was at and said something to the other two, gesturing back towards the doors. Oh god please let it be something unimportant that they broke.
Kevin suddenly stood up and put an arm "casually" on the hood of the truck. While they didn't all often meet as a group, Kevin was in most of Jill's classes. He probably had been trying to fix whatever it was they broke.
Jill got to the back of the lot; "student parking" the school called it, and called out. "OK, what's broken?"
"Whaaaaat?" Alex said in the fakest nonchalant voice ever. "Pfff. You have no faith in me"
"No, no I don't" Jill said, chuckling slightly. "Mainly because you've broken every car you've touched"
"No, I've broken every car I've driven" Alex corrected. She held up her hands. "Nowhere near the steering wheel"
Jill stepped around Kevin, but nothing appeared damaged. Maybe a scratch or two, but that was probably from the last owner or from the people dinging their car doors on hers whenever she parked anywhere. "Seriously guys, what did you do?"
"Oh hey look, there's my ride" Kevin said, and then he quickly made his escape. Jill sighed.
"Fine, whatever. Get in guys and we can go"
Jade breathed a noticeable sigh of relief. Alex went over to the door and pulled the handle.
It came off in her hands.
"Oh no you didn't…"Jill said, sending daggers at them with her eyes.
"She seriously pulled a car handle off?"
"Yeah" Jade said, shifting the phone to pin it to her shoulder. "It was pretty amazing, up until we realized Jill was going to murder us."
"Well you're alive now aren't you?"
Jade could hear the faintest sounds of piano music coming from her friend's end. Katlin was often playing the piano and was annoyingly good at it too.
"Yeah, turns out Jill's insurance covered it. Alex bought us all McDonalds though, and I doubt she's forgiven" Jade added with a laugh. Katlin laughed too, her music flattering a little.
Jade stirred her dinner; her mom was working late again. Most of the time her mom wouldn't let her have the phone, for some stupid reason or another, so Jade was completely OK with her mom's work schedule.
"So, heard anything from your internet buddy?" Katlin asked.
"Oh yeah! Apparently he does actually go to our school"
"See I told you I've heard it before. I think Kucharski mentioned him before. Something about meeting him somewhere before? I don't know"
"Well I invited him to our lunch table tomorrow" Jade said. "So Katie can see him then"
Katie Kucharski was one of those people Jade rarely knew as a friend. Sure they hung out every day at lunch, but it wasn't like how she was friends with Jill, Alex, or Katlin.
"Oh, damn" Katlin said. "I got to go, Tiffany wants the phone now"
"Ha." Jade said.
"Whatever, you'll never know the pain of three sisters" Katlin said.
"Work on your composition!" Jade called out before Katlin hung up. Jade put the phone back in its cradle before serving herself some food.
Alex was in the middle of pretending to do homework when the phone rang. "Thank god" She said when she answered. "I was bored as hell"
"Well that's productive" Jill's voice commented. "Aren't you supposed to be doing homework? You were complaining about how much Spanish homework you had"
"You know I don't speak Spanish"
"That's what the class is for"
Alex laughed. "So, what's up?"
"Seth"
Alex paused and then sat up in her bed, scratching a couple of French words onto her Spanish homework sheet. "Seth…?"
"Yeah. Seth. Know him?"
"No…"
"Apparently he knows you"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Kucharski messaged me on Facebook" Jill explained. "Saying that she was talking to her friend Seth. When I asked her who the hell that was she said that he's in your class."
Alex stared up at the ceiling. "No…doesn't sound familiar. Then again me and Katie don't have many classes together. Maybe he's in one of hers?"
"Hmm, well ok then." Jill said. "I'll let her know. Apparently Jade invited him to the lunch table, so I guess we'll all meet him"
Sonya looked over at her younger sister Katlin, studying her. While most of the time she avoided her family entirely, Sonya kept a personal watch over Katlin. She knew who Katlin really was.
And that secret annoyed her to hell and back.
Katlin had just hung up her phone call and had handed the phone to Tiffany. Tiffany, one of the two younger siblings Sonya had that were normal. Not to say she was normal in the sense she wasn't annoying, but Sonya found most people annoying.
"I'm going out" Sonya said plainly. Katlin nodded, not bothering to look up from her electric piano.
Sonya stood and then slipped out of the house, braiding her hair tightly as she left.
When they were little, Alex and Jill used to say that they were half-sisters. They certainly had a similar look to them, although Alex was a little taller and proud of that fact. The only major difference was the eyes. Jill's eyes were a sort of serious gray that would go a shade or two darker when she was in deep thought. Alex's eyes were a sort of muddy brown that seemed to grow more burgundy the more and more she got pissed.
Which was often. Both accounts.
But Alex and Jill weren't the only ones to share looks. Jade held some resemblance, only she was a bit bigger and shorter than both of them. She made up for it by having the most insane hair she could. Her hair changed with the seasons; just last summer it was purple and pink. Recently she's dyed it blond and has gotten it shaved on both sides so she had something of a Mohawk, only the hair was long enough to flop to one side or the other. Jade's eyes were something she often said she didn't like, but electric blue eyes weren't something to scoff at.
At least in my mind, Jill thought. Jill looked around her bedroom, wondering what her friends were up to. Most of her time was spent with her nose in one book or another—unless the words start swimming around the page so much that reading just made her have a headache—but every once in a while Jill would just sit back and wonder what her friends were doing. She wasn't quite so used to having so many friends, especially since she was more likely to be on her own than in a crowd.
Well they're a better family than the one I have. Jill thought to herself.
"Jiiiiill"
Jill looked over at the door to her room. At her dad's house she lived in the loft, which meant she got some privacy. A lot more than at her step-mom's house, where the door didn't as much as lock. Meant her half-sister could come calling whenever she wanted.
"Whaaaat?" Jill called back, shifting the sheet off of her and putting her book down.
"The chat thing on the computer dinged. It's from Jade"
Jill groaned slightly.
Dammit I need less annoying friends. Jill thought. Dammit then they'd be less fun.
Jade rubbed her eyes sleepily as she sipped her coffee. Jill and her had, of course, stayed up too late chatting about nothing in particular so she was pretty dead today. She looked over enviously at Jill, who looked sleepy but focused.
"Today, today is a tea day" Alex said. She held up her mug.
Jill chuckled and picked up hers. "Hot chocolate"
Jade held at hers, laughing. "Coffee"
Both Jill and Alex glanced at her. "Gross"
Jill snapped her eyes back to the road, but Jade couldn't see any difference to it. Maybe it was because she only just got her license. Hell, if Jade had been driving her eyes probably wouldn't go an inch away from the road.
"Whoa, crap!" Jill cried out suddenly, stepping on the breaks. At first Jade couldn't see what was wrong, but then something darted across the road in front of them. The truck stopped inches from where it was.
Jade had a hand on the dash board and the truck was dead silent. Jill's knuckles white on the steering wheel.
"What…the hell…was that?" Alex asked.
"I have no idea." Jill said. She put it in park and unbuckled. The side road didn't see a lot of traffic, but Jade flicked on the hazard lights anyways. Jill didn't seem to notice; she just slipped out of the truck and walked around to the front.
"Well whatever it was" Jill called. "It's gone now."
She seemed to look around a little bit more, but then just shrugged and climbed back in. She flicked off the hazard lights, buckled up, and soon they were on their way again.
The rest of the trip was silent.
Most of the time, Seth ate lunch in some hidden corner of the school. He didn't exactly eat normal foods, and he usually weird-ed people out when he ate. Still, he wasn't about to turn down an invite from one of his friends.
He rubbed his nose as he walked. Usually he could trust his nose more than anything. But ever since he started coming to this school, he felt like he was just…bombarded with senses.
But that doesn't make any sense. There's no way each of these smells have a source. This should just be a giant flashing beacon of smells. Maybe something's wrong with my nose?
He shrugged it off.
He stepped into the cafeteria. He could see one of his friends Katie Kucharski waving him over to one of the tables near the middle. He smiled and walked over.
All at once the smells bombed him again.
He narrowed his eyes as he looked the people of the lunch table over.
No…fucking…way.
He sighed.
Today, today is going to be a long ass day.