Chapter 2: Passing Days and Personal Hangouts
May 12th, 2007
Tranquility, Nevada
Home
8:12 AM PDT
"Argh! Son of a bitch!"
The sudden screaming was all that was needed to knock Josh back into the conscious world and on to the wooden floor of his bedroom. Groaning tiredly, he slowly stood up and began to head for the kitchen on the bottom floor. The cursing and shouts of pain grew louder until he turned the corner to see Michael cooking breakfast, shirtless. He leaned a bit to see what was in the pan, seeing strips of bacon across it, and that satisfied his tired curiosity. He went to go back uPDTairs when he noticed Michelle stuffing a buttered toast in her mouth and opening the door.
He noted that her attire was similar to that of a Goth as the chains were hanging from the arm warmers and her baggy pants. "Where're you going?"
"Where do you think?" she replied back with sarcasm before stating. "I work on weekends, you idiot. That's the price we have to pay for living in this house without some sugar daddy."
"Hell no, I'm not becoming like Ducky," Josh heard Lisa say as she was in the living room, playing Halo 2 on the Xbox 360. As she shot down one of Elites with the sniper rifle, she put it on pause, turned to look at them and said, "Besides, there aren't any good movies out until October for that Saw movie. So we might as well get some money together to watch it along with other things." With that, she returned her attention towards the game as she tossed a plasma grenade on a running Grunt.
Hearing the explosion and high pitched screams from the television, Josh shook his head before realizing something. He then groaned bitterly as he stated, "Damn, I have work today too." He then hesitantly went back uPDTairs to change as he heard Michelle shout, "I got us a ride so you better hurry!"
Lisa just shook her head as she then saved her game, turned off the game system, and went to the center counter of the kitchen. There she saw that, despite the constant shouting and painful screams coming from the shirtless cook, he was able to create a meal that didn't look burnt or deadly. However, she wasn't that hungry as she just took a toast of bread, placed some eggs on it, and ate it in one bite. "I'm leaving," she simply said as she head towards the door, taking her book bag with her.
"Don't talk to strangers," Michelle teased after her, reminding her of her short height and childish appearance.
"Whatever," was her simply reply as she opened the door, adjusting her shoes so that wouldn't fall off. Lisa then grabbed her scooter and made a small running start before riding off.
"Where is she going?"
Michael and Michelle turned to see Josh in his usual attire, walking down the stairs as he hopped a bit to put his shoes on. "She's going to a job interview."
"For what?" Even though he didn't want to sound like it, Josh was extremely confused by this. She mostly spent her off-times playing games, especially testing out any of the DS games that he placed in his R4 to make sure they work. Since Game Stop didn't have an opening anymore, what was she going to do for a job?
Gas Station
11:08 AM PDT
She stood bored behind the counter as she was reading through another magazine about boring celebrities. After reading a paragraph about yet another failed marriage, she heard the door open as she greeted monotone, "Welcome."
Looking up, she saw some blond haired man looking around and staring at the drinks. His eyes were covered by shutter shades, indicating that he could probably be a Kanye West fan. He wore a yellow hood sweater with black lines on the hem of the sleeves and the zipper, and wore a black T-shirt underneath. His black cargo pants had rips on the knees and a pair of black DC shoes. She noticed that large headphones on his ears as loud rap music was playing. Deciding to ignore him until he was ready for his purchase, she placed the magazine she was reading back on the rack and decided to just stare outside of the doors. There she saw that there were a couple of people pumping gas into their cars, most of them looking rather expensive and sleek.
The only car that stood out was a 1976 yellow Camaro with racing stripes. It looked like it has gone into so many battles since its creation year and she was surprised that the car wasn't rusted out already. Realizing her train of thought, she unconsciously banged her head on the table. Damn her brothers and their strange fascination of cars. Why did she live with a weird family like that?
The sound of tapping metal caught her attention as she looked up to see the blond man looking down at her with concern. Quickly standing up straight, she noticed that he was probably 5'10". Looking at what he had placed on the counter, she was what looked like some sort of hood ornament. It was a flat picture of a bumblebee with the word "BEE-OTCH" underneath it. Scanning it, she told him, "Okay, that'll be $3.75."
The man began to look through his pockets and then suddenly pulled out a crumpled wad of bills. Taking it, she nearly dropped it once she saw one too many hundreds in the ball. Wondering if the guy was joking, she asked cautiously, "Um… you do know that I only need like four one-dollar bills, right?" The man just stared at her in confusion before she sighed. She then looked through the bills until she was able to find the correct amount that he needed to purchase. Taking out the quarter for change, she handed it to him and his wad of money before saying, "Thank you."
The man then smiled and held out his hand. Recognizing the gesture, Lisa cautiously took it in her own and the two shook hands before he went off towards the beat-up Camaro. She watched as he got in the vehicle and the windows rolled up, revealing them to be black-tinted ones. The car then drove off out to the busy streets of Tranquility. As she kept looking on, she then shrugged as she then searched through the magazine rack, trying to find something that wasn't going to discuss about the current diets of the Disney stars.
Pizza Parlor
1:39 PM PDT
"Sir, I have a complaint."
The owner let out a tired sigh as this was probably the fifth customer who has returned with their pizza box and a unsatisfied face. Michael leaned back a bit to look through the doors that let out to the main area of the pizza parlor. There, he saw a mother looking quite displeased as she said, "This is an outrage! I cannot believe you would make this kind of pizza in a public place!"
It was quite obvious that the woman didn't like the new creation that Michael had created out of sheer boredom just hours ago. It turned out to be a really great pizza so he thought that he could share it with everyone.
However, it seems not everyone was really willing to try out a pizza that is covered with marijuana and named after a deceased singer who used the drug frequently. As he took another slice from the pizza that was left behind by the previous customer, he saw his boss give back a refund to the person and stalked towards him. "Kid, what the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded.
"Uh… I'm making pizzas," he replied back in a questioning tone. His boss shook his head as he then pulled out the bag of marijuana that was hidden by the apron he was wearing. "Why do you even have this? How did you get this?"
"Dude, chill," Michael spoke casually, though he seemed to be a little out of it.
"How can I chill when you have been carrying something illegally in my shop?" his boss began to shout at him and Michael had to get ready for the inevitable.
Town Center
2:07 PM PDT
Taking another drag of his smoke, he began to walk back home with an obvious frustrated expression. He didn't realize that his short wondering had brought him in front of Hot Topic as he entered, getting the happy smile from one of the female workers. Returning the smile and going back to frowning behind his aviator glasses, he easily found Josh as he was helping some girls get a Lolita dress that was in the upper parts of the store.
His friend was dressed in the attire fitting the theme of the store as his normal attire had more chains added to it. After getting the dress for the girls, they giggled and hurried to the dressing room. Josh let out an irritated sigh before turning to see and recognize Michael. "Oh, what's up?" Josh simply said as he went to go stand at the entrance. Michael joined him as Josh stated, "Smells like you got fired… again."
"Smell?"
Josh pinched his nose as he said, "You smell like smoke and I think you should head home before you get me fired to for association, idiot." Michael gave him a small pout, in which Josh didn't seem to be affected by it. It took a couple of minutes, with small interruptions of welcoming people who entered the store, before he finally caved in and said, "Just don't steal anything, okay? I don't have that much money right now." The boy jumped for joy before running back into the store like a child in a candy shop. Shaking his head at this, he looked forward to see Michelle walking towards them, dressed in the Game Stop uniform. Greeting each other by high fiving, Michelle said, "You on break?"
The minute he shook his head, she just walked away and left him alone.
Home
7:11 PM PDT
Note: No, really… I use the clock that I use as reference for time and it said that time.
The door of their home continuously rung as Lisa shouted out, "I'll get it!" Jumping up from her seat of the couch, she went to the door and immediately opened it without checking. Looking at the one who was interrupting their night of movies, she saw a familiar face as she said his name in question, "Alvaro? What are you doing here?" Her friends were suddenly behind her as Michelle forced the door to fully open.
Standing in the doorway was their freshman high school friend, fifteen year old Alvaro Melchor, with luggage laid against his feet. He had short black hair, brown eyes and tan skin, much like most of the teenagers minus Michelle and Michael. He wore a white buttoned, collared T-shirt with a tie around his neck, blue jeans, and black Converse.
The boy gave out a nervous laugh as he said, "Well, I asked my parents if I could move out with you guys since you are in Nevada and it seems like fun."
Everyone just stared at him, feeling that there was an alternate motive for coming this far from their hometown. However, all the interrogating was easily forgotten as Alvaro simply picked up one of the suitcase and opened it towards them. It was hard to guess the exact amount, but the teenagers just gaped at the stacks of money that were neatly placed in the case. Michelle slowly reached for it and took it in her hands, as if she was handling a newborn baby. Michael looked like he was drooling badly at the sight of money while Lisa and Josh turned their attention back to Alvaro and asked, "Where'd you get all that money?"
"Inheritance," Alvaro answered a little too fast before grabbing the other bags and briefcases to carry into the house. "So, where's my room?"
Tranquility High School
10:47 PM PDT
Josh was watching a Doctor Who episode on the laptop that Alvaro bought for him with his inheritance money. His headphones easily muffled out the rest of the world as he would have to make sure to watch the time. He didn't want to be late to class or have the librarian ban him for loitering. Although he and his friends would have rather stayed together in one place and chat about random things, each of them obviously wanted times to be alone.
Michael was making friends with people in the gym, mostly by inflicting self harm in a comedy way. This made him friends with some of the jocks and that's where he met up with people who also had the same habits as he does.
Lisa would spend her time in the computer lab, typing notes on her fan fictions and surfing the net. He and everyone else wished that she would at least go outside of that room and hang out with one of them, but she insists that she rarely has time to use the computer alone.
Michelle was nearby, looking through the manga section of the library or finding funny facts in the psychology books. He knew that she would like to read manga as much as she can, but he wasn't sure what was hilarious in the psychology books.
Alvaro had decided to make friends here at the school, easily doing so with the band students. It was a big surprise since he was in the band back in their hometown, but what instrument he played, he never figured out.
He saw movement before him as he looked up from his laptop to see Sam heading towards the small group of computers that were placed in the library for searching the locations of books. Seeing that the librarian was gone, Josh whispered still, "Hey, Sam. What are you doing?" The older teenager looked up and saw who was asking him the question. The brown haired sophomore said, "Looking up information on the expedition that my ancestor went on a loud of years ago." Josh stared at him while Sam stared back for a long time before the younger teen went back to watching the Doctor Who episode. He saw Sam lower his head in shame and walk away. It finally hit him that the guy was trying to get him to help him, but he wasn't able to call him back as Sam left the library and into the slightly empty halls of the schools.
"You know what?" he heard Michelle say behind him as she held the third volume of the Hellsing manga in her arms. "That totally made you look like a douche right now." She then went back to her spot in the library before leaving a slightly put-off Josh who just semi-glared at her. He then just stared at the paused scene of the actor Simon Pegg playing as a bad guy.
Qatar
US SOCCENT Air Force Base
8:53 PM AST
"Is my wife on?"
Vince looked up as he was fixing up the many servers they had. He saw Lennox and smiled as he rerouted the webcam chat to the computer in the middle computer, nodding his head and said, "Give me greetings to Sarah, Will." The man nodded as he then looked towards the sturdy laptop before him, tapping the screen before greeting the faces that appeared in the video cam. Seeing the joyful face on the man, Vince smiled softly before going back to fixing the server.
As he continued rerouting a few servers while fixing up some messages, he notices that everything on the computer was starting to glitch. He had lost just about two hours of work, but he didn't have time to shout out in anger when he saw that the problem wasn't only affecting him. Looking up, he saw Will hitting the computer as he called out to his wife, saying that he will contact them soon before he stepped back with a frustrated face. Turning to look at his comrade who was also on the computer, they didn't have time to converse when there was a sudden explosion outside. Following Will, Vince saw the base was being attacked by some rather large machine as it continued to shoot at anything and everything that moved. It suddenly emitted out a shockwave which took nearly everything that was in the airfield that it was at.
He was pulled away with Will as he quickly followed him. He lost sight of the other man, but there was no time as he joined Lennox's team. All of them were suited up with the gear and running. Looking over his shoulder back at the carnage being done to their base, he saw the machine go towards the tech as he ran towards there as fast as he could, ignoring Lennox's desperate calls to come back. He soon reached the bunker with all the computers.
"Cut the hardlines!" shouted Colonel Sharp as another was trying do as ordered. Shouting about it being locked, Vince glanced around until he found an axe. Quickly heading towards the main fuse box, he began hacking the large wires that emitted from it. Sparks began to fly as he continuously hacked on the wires until all power was gone. This angered the machine deeply as he stepped back and seemed ready to fire at the occupants of the bunker. Colonel Sharp grabbed him and tossed out of the bunker before the barrages of bullets were sprayed throughout the building. He was suddenly pulled back and away from the building as he turned to see Robert Epps helping him run away. "What the hell are you doing just standing? We gotta move!"
As he followed the man, Vince looked over his shoulder again and was slightly shocked that the machine was going after them. It nearly stepped on them as they fell back, making both crawl backwards while staring at the machine. Quickly picking up the man, they headed towards the still standing tanks where Lennox and the others were waiting. He then noticed that a young boy was in their ranks, making him remember that the kid would always come by and hang out with Lennox. Someone next to him, Fig, took out a Ramo RT-37 and fired a shot towards the machine, seeing it impact and blinding the monster to give them time to run and get away.
XxXxX
[Z3R0Rid3r has logged in]
Z3R0Rid3r: hey
R1an: Zero! :3
ChuXian: didya see what Bekuta posted last week?
Z3R0Rid3r: no, been busy
R3za: eh? Why is everyone busy these days?
R3za: you guys are no fun ~
CA Ch1b1DR34M91: well, not all of us have no lives like ChuXian
CA Ch1b1DR34M91: I mean, you've been online since you joined
ChuXian: because I'm awesome like that
ChuXian: That and I'm logged in through my cell phone
Z3R0Rid3r: really? Must be using an Iphone
CA Ch1b1DR34M91: lol you mean an Ithingy?
YFr0m1980: can we go back to Bekuta's post?
R1an: someone is really interested in that vid
Tr01k: you would too if you saw what was on that
R1an: no thanks
R1an: gtg
Z3R0Rid3r: kk, laters
[R1an has logged out]
ChuXian: man, she is more busy then Bekuta
[Bekuta has logged in]
ChuXian: speak of the devil
YFr0m1980: wassup admin
…
Bekuta: Im guessing everyone has seen the vid?
Z3R0Rid3r: Imma about to watch it right now
Z3R0Rid3r: slow connection
…
Z3R0Rid3r: what the hell did I just watch?
YFr0m1980: ikr? Totally rocked my socks off
Z3R0Rid3r: it's probably a trailer vid of some movie coming up
R3za: and here we go with the skepticism
Z3R0Rid3r: what? I'm just saying
[Bekuta has logged out]
YFr0m1980: wtf? Why'd he log off?
R3za: probably had something important to do
YFr0m1980: he usually says goodbye or something
R3za: like I said, probably busy
R3za: we all have lives outside of this… well, most of us
ChuXian: god… why is everyone bagging on me on this?
Tr01k: because it's so easy to mess with you
Tr01k: that and you've been online since joining us
R3za: aw, looky there
R3za: Tr01k is being all mushy and togetherly
R3za: gaw! So gay!
R3za: watch out, ChuXian! ((( ゚Д゚)he's gonna stalk you!
Tr01k: weirdo
Z3R0Rid3r: can we get back on to the fake video?
YFr0m1980: IT'S NOT FAKE! WHY DO YOU INSIST THAT?
YFr0m1980: you're worse than my co-sign ʘ ~ ʘ
Z3R0Rid3r: I'm sorry… okay?
ChuXian: seriously guys, you really need to relax
Tr01k: w/e
Z3R0Rid3r: well, I'll try to get a friend of mine to look at the vid
Z3R0Rid3r: see if it's just something they were gonna use for some movie
R3za: I guess that means you're logging off?
Z3R0Rid3r: yep, ttyl
R3za: bb
Tr01k: bye
ChuXian: laters, zero
[Z3R0Rid3r has logged out]
To Be Continued…
