"Kate, you're going to miss the bus!" Mom was downstairs screaming at me to get my butt out the door. I doubt she knew I was still in bed. I rolled over to glance at my clock. Six thirty. Damn. I scrambled for some clothes. I grabbed blue jeans, a black cami, and a dark, red sweater as I bolted for the bathroom. I quickly slipped out of my pajamas and slid on my clean clothes. I caught a glance of myself in the mirror and stopped dead. I lightly fingered the black and purple bruise on my left cheek.
"Kate!" Mom was yelling again. I threw a glance at the clock. I still had five minutes to get out of the house.
I brushed my teeth and hair as fast as I could. I stared at my reflection. My icy, blue eyes had a tinge of yellow in them today. My brown hair fell flat on my head, with a light curl at the bottom. It was frizzy from my silk pillow case. I really need to change that thing.
"Kate, if you miss the bus I'm not taking you! Some of us have to work and pay bills!" Mom's voice sounded raspy. She forgot her cough medication I suppose. "Don't you have that club thing after school? If you miss the bus you're not going!" Crap. She got me there.
I rushed down the stairs and grabbed my bag from the couch. As I ran out the door I gave Mom a quick hug. As I hurried to the bus stop, I suddenly remembered that I had a French project due today. I guess I know what I'm doing in study hall. The bus pulled up as I got to the corner. Perfect.
Riding a bus is Hell. Ever ridden one? Normal high schools have high school students riding the bus to school. At our stupid school the junior high kids ride with us. At six forty-five, a seventh grader on the wrong person's nerves just earned a trip to the ER. This eighth grader, Angela, went home yesterday with two black eyes, a broken rib, and a totally destroyed nose. Stupid girl deserved it though. She decided to call me a bitch after I told her to shut her mouth. She was running gossip about my friend Coco, short for Cortney. My cousin, Emma, started swinging. Emma's a sophomore like me. Funny thing is, Em got away with it. She punched me and got everyone to say it was Ang. They all claimed it was in my defense.
Getting off the bus, I was clobbered by my best friend, Dani. Dani had short, deep red hair. Her brown roots were showing. She hadn't dyed it in a while. Dani was wearing her typical jeans, tee-shirt, and jacket routine.
"May I help you, Dani?" I laughed a little and pulled away from her.
"Our meeting is today!" Our cosplay group was meeting today.
"Yeah, and I still don't know how we're going to get everyone to agree. I wanted to go as the Organization XIII. There are fourteen of us, so someone could be Xion."
"Sounds cool, but I don't know how well it'll go over."
"No matter what, I call being Zexy!" I smiled and winked at her. I bet she goes as Axel. Emma will want Demyx. Coco would go as Larxene…
"Kate!" Emma called to me before I could plan much more. I spun around and she pushed through the throng of people between us. "I just saw this really hot guy! It was weird because he looked exactly like Demyx!" Emma's pretty blue eyes sparkled. She had her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her bangs hung in her face. She noticed and brushed them aside with her hand.
"Seriously? Like a student?" I was interested. Demyx was pretty hot.
"I don't know, but come on, let's go see if he's still over there!" Emma grabbed my hand and drug me through the crowd and back out to the parking lot.
There he stood. Tall, skinny, gorgeous. Demyx. Or, it looked like Demyx. Emma wasn't lying. It was the best Demyx cosplay I had ever seen. I looked him over, taking in every detail. I couldn't see his shoes, but he wore baggy, dark pants, with a single, silver chain that had a wallet attached. He had a skin-tight tee-shirt. It was black, with a screened-on image of Demyx's sitar. On his arm was a tattoo. The Nobody symbol. Nobody with a capital "N". He was studying a photograph that he held in his hand. His amazing, blue eyes looked focused on whatever the picture was of.
"I dare you to say 'hi'!" Emma tugged my sleeve. "You know you want to!" She gave me "the look". You know, the pouty face that says "please?" all over it? Yeah, that one.
"Okay, okay! I'll do it" I reached in my bag and got out a little necklace with a sitar pendant. I had a lexicon one too. I clasped the necklace around my neck and lightly touched the pendent for good luck.
As I walked towards him, he looked up. He glanced back down to the picture, then looked back up and smiled. I waved a little. He half waved back. I don't really remember much of what happened next, because it's all blurry. Literally. Apparently, I fell. As I realized what was going on, I wanted to faint. "Demyx" had caught me. Emma began lightly jogging over towards us.