Author's note: So this is the second chapter of Explore the Heart. Can't guarantee too much about this chapter. Just expect to find a whole bunch of trials and romance among leading characters. Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Changes
Lance stared at the clock mounted on the wall. Time seemed to be slowed down today, the second hand taking its sweet time to circle the clock face. He let out a muffled groan and lay his head down on his desk. This class had been going on forever. Lance had seen boring teachers before, but this Slowking took the cake. He had been drawling on for what seemed like hours in his low gravelly voice, almost impossible to hear. Now he sat hunched over his desk at the front of the class discussing what he would be teaching this year. No one was listening. Lance lifted his head back up to look at the clock. Half a minute had passed.
"Oh God," he muttered, banging his head on the desk again. He turned his head to see Serena sitting at the desk next to him, idly doodling on her desk. She sighed and slumped lower in her desk. Lance looked to the other side to see Luke next to him. He was reading a folded up piece of paper, probably a note from someone else. He let out a muted laugh and scribbled something onto the paper. Then he looked up at the teacher and flicked the folded up paper to the desk behind him. Lance turned his head to see who he had given it to, and smiled when he saw that it was Shannon, the Lopunny. She had struck up a conversation with him at the beginning of the class after the teacher had introduced him to everyone. Luke had had a crush on her since middle school, and now it looked like he was finally going to get her, judging by the way Lance had seen her laugh and look at him. He turned back forward and looked at the clock again. Five minutes to go. He banged his head again.
"Oh ho, what's this?" Lance laughed grabbing the envelope taped to Serena's locker.
"I don't know, but whatever it is it's mine!" she snapped, snatching it back from him. Class had finally ended and they were at a locker break now. Lance had gotten a locker across the hall from Serena's, so he had walked with her to it. When they had gotten to it, they had been greeted by a pink envelope taped to the front of the locker emblazoned with a large heart. 'Serena' had been written- no, typed, Serena saw- across the middle of the heart. "Oh boy," she muttered. She flipped it over and slit the tape holding it closed with one of her fingers. She pulled out two pieces of paper, one was pink and flower printed stationary, the other a picture. There was writing on the stationary, and she read aloud: 'Serena, I'm not the best at this kind of stuff. I've been watching you for a long time, and think you are beautiful. Your form is lovely, and I can't help blushing at the sight of you. I would be honored if you would meet me for dinner at that restaurant down the street. Your admirer, Rick.'
"Hah! Well look at that, you've got yourself a regular old stalker." Lance laughed, while Serena grimaced down at the letter. She took a look at the picture and let out a gasp of embarrassment. Depicted in the picture was a Hitmonlee, standing in a half-hearted Karate Kid pose. At the sight of this, Lance erupted into laughter, holding his sides and gasping for breath between peals of laughter. Serena stared down at the picture in disbelief, eyes wide.
"Oh my God, he is stalking me." She said. She looked around to see a Hitmonlee staring at her by his locker. He noticed her looking at him and jerked the locker door in front of his face, hiding.
"Wow, what are you going to do?" Lance gasped after he was through laughing.
"I'm certainly not going to accept," Serena said, stuffing the letter and picture back into the envelope and thrusting it into her locker. "How am I going to tell him no without hurting him?" she said.
"I don't know, I would just pretend I didn't get the letter." Lance said.
"I can't do that, he saw me reading it!" Serena exclaimed.
"Well the bell's about to ring, so think about it later." Lance advised.
"Ah, whatever. Let's go." Serena sighed, slamming her locker closed.
"Guys, I have to talk to you." Luke said, sitting down at the table and putting down his tray. It was Lunch, surprisingly late in the day. Lance and Serena looked up as Luke sat down.
"Yeah?" Lance asked. Luke let out a deep breath.
"I have a date with Shannon tonight." He said smiling broadly. Lance raised his eyebrows in admiration and Serena gasped.
"Tonight? Nice job Luke! Where are you guys going?" she asked.
"We're going to see a movie." He exclaimed. He laughed and sagged back in his chair, smiling at the ceiling.
"Wow, you just got back from Kanto, and you're already gettin' busy." Lance joked, nudging him with his elbow.
"Don't I know it." Luke sighed, sitting back up. "But I need you guy's advice for what to do." This was Serena's home grounds. She leaned forward to place her arms on the table.
"Well here's what you need to do," she began. Lance laughed and lounged back in his chair, putting an elbow on the back.
Lance smiled, and took a deep breath of fresh air as he stepped out of the school. The day was finally over. He let out a laugh of exhilaration and jumped down the short flight of stairs at the front of the school. He spun around to see Serena following him, smiling too. Coming a little later, amidst the crowd of students, came Luke, chatting with Shannon, his new girlfriend.
"Hey guys, we're headed on to our date," Luke said when he got down to them. "See you later!" He said, waving as they continued walking down the street together. Serena walked up beside Lance, watching them go.
"They seem happy together, I hope they last." She said to Lance. He nodded, then turned to look at the carpool lane.
"Hey, isn't that your mom?" he asked, pointing at a car.
"Oh, it is," Serena said, looking surprised. "I guess since it's the first day she decided to pick me up. Bye, I guess," she said, waving to Lance as she walked down to her car. As she walked, Lance couldn't help watching her dress trailing over the ground. He raised his head, surveying the rest of her body. He shook his head briskly. Why was he staring at her? He shrugged and hefted his backpack into a better position on his shoulder. He walked home from school, but why not take his time; it didn't matter when he got home. He turned toward the school's football field and began walking toward it. He walked slowly across the grass, looking up at all the stands. What was it like to be a football player, to be admired by everyone in the school? Maybe he would try out for the team this year. He ducked underneath the back of one of the stands to take a shortcut back to the front of the school. He froze when he saw he wasn't the only one under here. A group of Smeargles was lounging on the ground. Empty expressions occupied most of their faces, and one turned to look at Lance. Lance's eyes widened in alarm at the sight of a joint held in the Smeargle's hand, looking around he could see every single one held a joint, and a haze of smoke hung above their heads. One was painting the image of a 'Magic Mushroom' on the ground with his tail. The one that was looking at Lance slowly raised a hand and nudged the Smeargle next to him.
"Hey, we got comp'ny." He said sluggishly. The other one turned his head to look at Lance too. He broke out into a stoned smile and said,
"Hey, you come down here to buy some weed?" he held out his own joint and shook it slightly.
"No. I don't do that kind of stuff." Lance said coldly. He turned to leave but stopped as the same one called out.
"Awww, come on! You know you want to!" Lance spun around angrily to see the Smeargle still smiling stupidly and holding out his joint. Lance started to shout something when another Smeargle spoke.
"Hey, hey! Lay off, bro. If the dude don't wanna, he don't haveta." He said, staring blankly at Lance. He got unsteadily to his feet and stumbled over to Lance. "But just in case you ever feel down," he slurred, rummaging in his pocket and pulling out another joint, "and you need a… a… pick-me-up," He said, waving the joint aimlessly around in circles, "take this, free of charge." He finished, swaying side to side and holding out the joint to Lance. Lance simply glared at him, not moving. The Smeargle smile wider and leaned forward to gently push the pot into Lance's pants pocket. He tapped it down into the depths of the pocket, then took a pull on his own joint and laid back down. Lance glared at the bulge in his pocket, then at the Smeargles. He shook his head in pity, then turned and walked away.
"Hey man, was that a smart thing to do? Giving away one of your private stash and not even charging him?" the first Smeargle struggled to say through his high.
"Relax dude. He'll be back." The Smeargle replied, talking another pull on his joint.
Lance lay on his bed, thinking about all that had happened today. He had forgotten about his confrontation with the addict Smeargles under the stands shortly after arriving back home. He ran through all that happened throughout the day, stopping when he got to Serena receiving the love-letter. He laughed in spite off himself. He still can't believe that Serena had a Hitmonlee stalking her. She deserved someone who would give her what she wanted. She deserved a real boyfriend. And he deserved a real girlfriend. They had known each other since they were kids, what if it was something more than friendship…
"No! She is just my friend. I am not going to ruin our relationship by doing something stupid like asking her out." He said out loud, hating himself for thinking those thoughts. He drove her out of his head and continued going through the day's events. He came to Luke and Shannon, and he smiled. They were good together, and looked happy.
I hope they last. He thought to himself. I bet Serena and I could last forever-
"No! Stop thinking about her!" Lance hissed to himself through gritted teeth.
I bet she's a good kisser. And man is she hot.
"Shut up!" Lance yelled.
Come on. You know you want her.
Lance sat up and stuck his head between his knees.
"Damn it!" he yelled in frustration. He continued to deny his thoughts, but eventually he broke down and agreed with them. Tears began leaking from beneath his eyelids at that realization. "Damn damn damn," he sobbed, rocking back and forth. He needed to forget about her. He needed to forget the way he felt when he looked at her. He needed to forget about it all. He stopped rocking back and forth and stared straight ahead in shock. He slowly reached into his pocket and brought out the joint the Smeargle had given him. It was slightly crumpled, but otherwise unharmed. He placed a hand over his mouth and stared at it, thoughts racing. He shuddered, and then placed it on the bed. He got up and shakily walked over to his chest of drawers. He opened up one of the drawers and began rummaging through the contents. Where was it, he knew it was here. He kept all of the black out supplies here- he stopped as he saw the book of matches laying at the bottom of the drawer. He slowly picked it up and tentatively flipped it open. It was till completely full. He broke off a match and stared at it, then walked back over to his bed and sat down. He picked up the joint in his other hand and looked at it, not believing he was doing this. He shuddered again and placed the end in the corner of his mouth. He struck the match on the head of his bed and stared at the flame.
Ring!
The phone began ringing at that exact moment.
"Shit," Lance swore. Let someone else pick it up. He began bringing the flame closer to the joint.
Ring!
The flame was approaching.
Ring!
Was he really doing this?
Ring!
"Lance?"
The paper surrounding the pot inside began to become singed.
"Lance, I'm busy, pick up the phone."
Lance swore again at the sound of his mother's voice. He was so close. He spat out the joint onto his bed and picked up the phone in his room.
"Yeah?" he barked into the phone. He was in no mood for some stupid sales call.
"Lance, put down the match." The voice on the other end said.
"What?" He said. He looked down to see that he was still holding the lit match in his hand. "What the…" he muttered. "How did you know I was holding a--." He said back into the phone.
"Fine. If you won't do it, we will. This is the wrong choice, Lance." The voice rebuked him like an angry parent to a disobedient child. Suddenly, a sharp, cold gust of wind erupted in his room.
"Whoa!" Lance cried out in alarm. He wrapped his arms around his head to protect it from the objects whirling around the room in the wind. Just as quickly as it started, the wind ceased to exist. Lance cautiously lowered his arms to see his room completely destroyed, objects blown all over the place. His eyes landed on the match still in his hand. Not only had the fire been put out, but the match was snapped in half. He cautiously raised the phone back to his ear, still staring at the match. "How did you do--." He started.
"We have are ways, Lance. We couldn't allow you to smoke that drug. You're too valuable to us. Allow me to explain. We are a group of free lance explorers, taking on jobs police can't handle or criminals too dangerous. And we want you."
Ending note: wow, only one day to write this one. I think it came out pretty good. Especially Lance's crisis scene. Anyway, you know the drill. Read, review, and spread the news. I can't do this without you guys. The next chapter of Explore the Heart is coming soon. This one only took one day, but I'm still settling for a two week deadline. Stay Tuned!
