The Americans

The day was like any other day. It was ninety degrees outside and a blistering 100 degrees inside the house. Logan and I were at our friends Nick's house playing Xbox along with Nick and Nate. Nate moved into Nick's house shortly before summer vacation started. It was another ordinary day in the great state of Illinois with Nick's step mom Ms. Brenda playing computer games in the next room. This is how everyday goes at the Langston household with the weekly trip down to the Kwik Mart for cigarettes.

It was the summer going into our sophomore year of high school. We were having a good time playing Call of Duty 4. It was in the afternoon so we are all just waiting for Nick's dad to get home from work so that we could eat the dinner that Ms. Brenda currently had cooking; Ms. Brenda's food was always the best, and tonight it was my favorite Surf and Turf. It was shrimp crab and few other seafood choices. We were looking forward to eating but we knew that when dad got home from work we would have to stop playing our game and switch to Black Ops 2 so that he could "pop some heads", which to us means play zombies.

Than out of nowhere I hear Logan call out at me "Hey Gene, wanna go outside for a square real quick?"

"Um sure thing bro I could go for a smokey" I respond.

"Alright niggas were coming with you just let us pause the game" Nick tells us as we are getting off the couch.

"Well hurry up then bro" we say back to him.

As soon as we get outside Nate jumps on the railing on the deck. "Ah shit Nate you might want to get off before Dad gets home." Nick tells him. "You know how he feels about people sitting on there."

"Oh relax he's not going to see me." Nate says to Nick with a smile on his face.

"Just saying dude he's not going to be happy anyways since you skipped summer school today. You know he calls your teacher to see if you actually went."

And that is when we hear the garage door open telling us that Dad was home from the courthouse where he worked. As soon as he heard the door start to open Nate jumps of the railing so fast you would have sworn that someone put out a cigarette on his behind. We all start laughing at him knowing that Dad probably seen Nate up there. That's when the door leading form the garage to the the back yard open up and Nick's dad screaming "Yeah see this what he does. He skips school and then decides that it would be a good idea to sit on my railings. Yeah real smart there Nate it's a wonder that you even have to take summer school. And don't even try telling me that you went today because I called your teacher and found out that you weren't there."

At this we all start laughing so hard that tears are almost coming out of our eyes, except for Nate who is trying to think of something to say to get him out of the dog house. "Um sorry Ed" Nate mumbles to Nick's dad as he is walking up the porch.

"Yeah sorry is right smart one."

"Well let us go and enjoy a nice game of zombies than shall we Daddy" Nick asks his dad to hopefully save Nate from further verbal abuse.

"Oh yeah Daddy is going to get his laser tonight" Ed says referencing the ray gun.

"Sure Dad just don't start chanting it at the box cause that's when we bear'd" Nick tells his dad laughing.

And with that we all head inside the house till the next smoke break. Dinner as always was fantastic. We were all laughing at Ed as he was describing every detail of his game of zombies with Nick with the same excitement that you see in a young child's eye on Christmas day. This was just a normal day. Everyone laughing as Logan and I told another thrilling story about our freshman year of high school at NewTech. Nick and Nate loved to hear about NewTech because they opted to go to the main campus instead.

This tale in particular was quite hilarious. We had math first thing in the morning and every morning without fail we showed how good of friends we actually were. We would walk into class in sync with each other, and proceed to sit in our chairs in sync followed by resting our heads on the desks and going to sleep at the same time. Then our teacher would start class the same way she did every morning by telling us to wake up. We would answer every morning by lifting our heads up at the same time and saying in unison one simple word. "No."

We ran that school and we are glad that we decided to be the guinea pigs for the new school. Our class was the only one in the school last year no sophomores no juniors, and no seniors just the freshman. We would be the upperclassman for our entire high school careers which was sure to be a very unique and interesting experience. Part of us enjoyed the year so much that we were excited for the next year to start, but neither of us were ever going to admit that out loud.

But little did we know that our normal summer vacation was not going to last long. Soon we would be thrown into a world that we did not understand. A world without our parents and families who have always remained our constants, good thing we had each other. We were closer than real brothers. As long as we had the other three to fall back on everything would as we say "come out in the wash." This was our last day as muggles.