Rimnerel: Now that I have the prologue out the way, I can get down to business. Chapter 1 for all of you happy individuals that make my life so wonderful.
Tala: You realized that no one has reviewed yet.
Rimnerel (glares): Shut up! Go get into place.
Tala (walking off): Whatever, still know that I'm right about this.
Rimnerel (throws a shoe): Shut up! (hits him in the back of the head) ^ ^ Okay everyone here you go. I would like to dedicate this story to my sister Nakoruru1 whose always been beside me through these fics and B. Tiamat Atardecer for all the wonderful ideas for this one.
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The sun gleamed down on the blue sedan as it continued its way down the dirt road, which headed into the little country town where the individuals in the car headed on their summer get away from city life. Away from all the noise and commotion which filled their lives with clutter. Within the sedan was a small family of three. In the front side passenger seat was a slightly middle aged woman with dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She chatted with the middle aged man driving the sedan. Once or twice she said something to cause the male to laugh.
The radio was on low, the sounds of Tschaikowsky pulsing slightly in the background from the CD in the car's player. The air conditioner blasted cold air out, yet the individuals didn't bother turning it down, knowing it was a fevered battle with the heat outside to keep them cool. In the back seat, a young teen of about fourteen or fifteen sat, his fingers curved over the keys of his laptop. His eyes never flickered away from the screen as nature went completely unnoticed to the teenage boy. He wasn't interested in the "greater" outdoors. He would rather be inside under central air, away from the insects, weeds, and massive heat.
But his mother and father had insisted he come along with them this year to visit his realitives, rather than another year of computer camp. Realitives he hadn't seen since he was maybe about four or five. This trip was supposed to be "new" and "exciting" for him, but so far he found it all trivial. It was first a five hour plane ride which he discovered he was air sick, spending most of his time spewing up anything he had ever eatten in his lifetime. Now another five hour drive to get to the actual town.
He was finding refuge the only place he could. Playing spider soltaire on the computer to pass the many hours that they were driving. This was not "new" and "exciting." To him, new and exciting was getting new programs to install in his laptop. Or analyzing data from a beybattle, one of the new games sweeping the nation. At first when he had heard of it, he thought spinning tops, but then he discovered through his best friend Rei Kon that the game was more than what it seemed, and he had been keeping stats and helping his friends to build more custom blades.
Let's face it, he was a geek. The two friends he had, Rei who he has known since second grade, and Kain Culbert who didn't start talking with the brunette until sixth grade, always had to pull him away from the computer sometimes to be more sociable. A couple of kids teased him about never finding a girl, unless she was digital. The young man didn't care much about the social world around him, excluding Rei and Kain. Too much of a hassle with an individual's ever changing mood.
"Kenny, aren't you going to look up once in a while? There's so much passing you by with your face in the screen like that," his mother said turning to look at him.
"Oh, leave him alone, Atsuko. He's like me when I was his age. I had my head stuck in books though. The world was foreign to me too," the young man's father replied.
"But the reason I wanted him to come along was to expand himself," his mother frowned. "He's always in his computer. I understand he's smart but..."
"He has a hobby, nothing wrong with that. He still gets good grades. Nothing to worry about, he'll venture outside when he gets ready," the teen's father stated.
"I suppose so. I just want him to make some more friends, that's all," his mother sighed, turning her eyes to the teen who was mostly oblivious to the conversation.
After all, he's heard it a million times before. Once even his mother had asked him what he saw in computers that human beings couldn't fill. Honestly, he knew he shouldn't have answered, but he did. Telling her about reliability in the world and escape from the stress and pressure of figuring it all out. His mother hadn't cried like he had expected her to, in fact she smiled, telling him that one day he would change his mind. He seriously had his doubts about it, but maybe she would turn out to be right. Stranger things did happen.
As Kenny was about to play spider soltaire once more, the battery he hadn't noticed in the corner of the screen flashed once more, before the entire system shut itself down. "No!" he shouted, the first sound in hours he had made. The noise startled his parents, causing them to turn and look at him.
"Kenny, what's the matter?" his mother inquired anxiously. His father kept shifting his attention from him to the road.
"My backup battery died," the teen moaned, closing his laptop mournfully.
"That's all? You nearly gave us a heart attack," his father chuckled, focusing on the road again.
"What do you mean that's all? I didn't bring another battery with me. And I'll have to wait until we get into town to recharge it. If they even have running electricity. What am I going to do until then?" Kenny said in a slight whine.
"It's not that bad. They do have running electricity, and you know, the scenery isn't so bad to look at," his mother pointed out. "It won't hurt to check some of it out."
Kenny slumped against the side of the car door, looking idly out the window at the trees. Fascinating, yeah whatever. He sighed, bored out of his mind already. What was so fascinating about nature anyway? Trees, which allowed him to breathe oxygen, but other than that useless to him. He was a ctiy kid, born and raised, not a country kid as Rei and Kain had once been. Nature was just space, wide meaningless space he did not care about at all.
Kenny yawned, feeling himself slowly being pulled into sleep, but suddenly a loud noise like a shotgun disturbed the melody of Tschaikowsky. The car swirved to the side, until Kenny's father pulled the car to the shoulder, cutting it off. Kenny sat up, looking around, expecting to see red neck hicks coming out the woods with shotguns and pigs. (A/N: No offense to anyone who lives in the country, I'm a country type person myself and I just thought it would be a funny thing to add in.)
"What happened?" Kenny's mother asked.
"Nothing to worry about. Probably just a flat tire," Kenny's father said as he unfastened his seat belt and opened the car door getting out. "Kenny, come help me."
"Why do I have to get out?" Kenny protested. "I don't know anything about fixing cars!"
"Go help your father," his mother said. "It will be a good learning experience."
*Then why don't you get out and help him. I don't want to have a learning experience.* Kenny thought as he slid out of his seat belt, opening the car door and getting out. What was he going to do anyway, stand there for encouragement? Shutting the door, he grumpily walked to the rear of the car where his father had out the spare.
"Kenny, you take the wheel, I'll get the jack," his father said, handing over the tire. The young man said nothing as he grabbed the tire. "Take it to the other side where the flat is."
The teen did as told, rolling the wheel until he was on the other side, but all the while muttering about the heat and why the hell he was doing this. A moment later his father appeared with the jack Kenny was about to step back and get in the car when his father handed him a piece of metal. The teen looked at the object in his hand, then his father with an inquistive stare.
"What's this?" the teen questioned.
"Tire iron. Someone will have to take out the lugs when I jack up the wheel," his father explained.
"And why can't you do it?" Kenny remarked. "I don't know the first thing about cars. Especially how to change a tire!"
"Calm down. I'll coach you through it," his father smiled.
Worried? Kenny wasn't worried about messing up. He didn't want to be coached through it. He didn't give a damn about changing the tire. And he would be damned if he wanted to ever learn. Why didn't his parents just let him stay in the city with his grandparents and go to computer camp like he has been doing for the past four summers.
"You folks having a problem with your tire?" Came a soft, but deep voice.
Kenny turned his eyes up to where the voice came from. Sitting up in a tree was a red haired young man whose hair was styled like wings. His cool azure eyes watched observantly at the scene. For a brief flicker of a second Kenny was intrigued by the individual. Every perception of what country people looked like was shattered. He was beautiful and quite leisurely sitting in a tree without a care to him. Was it really possible to be that sexy and sit in a tree at the same time? (A/N: I say yes to that question, I'm not sure if anyone else can agree with it. ^ ^)
When Kenny realized what he was thinking, he berated himself for it. He wan't gay, sure he didn't like girls, but he didn't like guys either. He had never thought about hitting on Rei or Kain and as long as he's known them. Rei was as beautiful as this male, so he heard from the trickle of conversations he's picked up from girls about how Rei's eyes sparkled or how cute he smiled and such. Maybe it was just the heat getting to him. There could be no possible way he could be gay, his parents would go into meltdown they even considered him thinking about another male in that way.
"Our tire blew," Kenny's father said.
"Let me help." Sliding from the tree with the grace of a cat, the young man with red hair walked over to the car in long, laid back strides. He was much taller than Kenny was, maybe five foot eight or nine. Kenny standing at five foot three currently. When the male stopped beside Kenny, the young man felt a slight unfamiliar warmth strike his cheeks as he tilted his head up to look at the red head.
*Kenny, what are you doing? You're blushing, stop it! He's a guy! If you're going to blush, let it be some hot chick. Hell, probably wouldn't know a hot chick if I saw one. But that's not the point! He probably only likes girls.* Kenny told himself.
"Hey," the male said to him.
"Huh?" Kenny remarked with another slight flush he hoped looked like it was caused by the weather.
"Mind handing over the spare," the male smirked.
"Oh, sorry." Lookig down he handed over the tire and stood back. He watched with amazement at the ease the other teen changed the tire. Why did he make it look so easy when Kenny knew how much harder it really was.
"There, I'm finished," the male said as he lowered the car back to the ground. Stepping back he gave Kenny's father a short smile which looked as if he had practiced it not too long ago. Kenny noticed how it did not reach the young man's eyes, yet Kenny's father did not notice.
"Thank you very much for your help," Kenny's father said.
"It was no problem," the teen said. "It would have been a walk to town for help. And the weather's a tad too hot to be making the trip in the sun like this. Well, I should be going now that your tire's fixed."
"Do you need a ride anywhere?" Kenny's mother asked through the window. "You shouldn't be walking in this heat either."
"Oh no ma'am. I was out here relaxing. About time I want to return anywhere it'll be close to dark," the teen said, giving another one of his practiced smiles, as he headed back to his tree.
Kenny didn't understand what anyone would want to do out here surrounded by trees and heat. Getting back in the car, he turned to look out the back window, watching the young man climb back up in his tree, with as much grace and ease as he had climbed down. Something about the red head lounging so lazily in that tree sparked another moment of pure intrigue into Kenny. Something told him this was not their last meeting for that summer.
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Rimnerel: Hey everyone, wouldn't it have been funny if Tala had slipped out the tree after Kenny and his parents rolled off?
Tala (_): That would not have been funny, twit.
Rimnerel (smacks with a harisen): What did you say to me? Never mind. Okay, I hope everyone likes the chapter and will review, I put a lot of work into this story.
Kain: Yay! I made it into the story and Zeo didn't!
Rimnerel (points): Leader of Team Pyschic from V-Force everyone, but Kain, who said that Zeo didn't make it into the story, only time will tell. If the reviewers want him or anyone else, then in he goes! Okay, the next chapter I will have out for everyone by Saturday, more than likely Friday. So until then! Bye bye!
Tala: You realized that no one has reviewed yet.
Rimnerel (glares): Shut up! Go get into place.
Tala (walking off): Whatever, still know that I'm right about this.
Rimnerel (throws a shoe): Shut up! (hits him in the back of the head) ^ ^ Okay everyone here you go. I would like to dedicate this story to my sister Nakoruru1 whose always been beside me through these fics and B. Tiamat Atardecer for all the wonderful ideas for this one.
*************************
The sun gleamed down on the blue sedan as it continued its way down the dirt road, which headed into the little country town where the individuals in the car headed on their summer get away from city life. Away from all the noise and commotion which filled their lives with clutter. Within the sedan was a small family of three. In the front side passenger seat was a slightly middle aged woman with dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She chatted with the middle aged man driving the sedan. Once or twice she said something to cause the male to laugh.
The radio was on low, the sounds of Tschaikowsky pulsing slightly in the background from the CD in the car's player. The air conditioner blasted cold air out, yet the individuals didn't bother turning it down, knowing it was a fevered battle with the heat outside to keep them cool. In the back seat, a young teen of about fourteen or fifteen sat, his fingers curved over the keys of his laptop. His eyes never flickered away from the screen as nature went completely unnoticed to the teenage boy. He wasn't interested in the "greater" outdoors. He would rather be inside under central air, away from the insects, weeds, and massive heat.
But his mother and father had insisted he come along with them this year to visit his realitives, rather than another year of computer camp. Realitives he hadn't seen since he was maybe about four or five. This trip was supposed to be "new" and "exciting" for him, but so far he found it all trivial. It was first a five hour plane ride which he discovered he was air sick, spending most of his time spewing up anything he had ever eatten in his lifetime. Now another five hour drive to get to the actual town.
He was finding refuge the only place he could. Playing spider soltaire on the computer to pass the many hours that they were driving. This was not "new" and "exciting." To him, new and exciting was getting new programs to install in his laptop. Or analyzing data from a beybattle, one of the new games sweeping the nation. At first when he had heard of it, he thought spinning tops, but then he discovered through his best friend Rei Kon that the game was more than what it seemed, and he had been keeping stats and helping his friends to build more custom blades.
Let's face it, he was a geek. The two friends he had, Rei who he has known since second grade, and Kain Culbert who didn't start talking with the brunette until sixth grade, always had to pull him away from the computer sometimes to be more sociable. A couple of kids teased him about never finding a girl, unless she was digital. The young man didn't care much about the social world around him, excluding Rei and Kain. Too much of a hassle with an individual's ever changing mood.
"Kenny, aren't you going to look up once in a while? There's so much passing you by with your face in the screen like that," his mother said turning to look at him.
"Oh, leave him alone, Atsuko. He's like me when I was his age. I had my head stuck in books though. The world was foreign to me too," the young man's father replied.
"But the reason I wanted him to come along was to expand himself," his mother frowned. "He's always in his computer. I understand he's smart but..."
"He has a hobby, nothing wrong with that. He still gets good grades. Nothing to worry about, he'll venture outside when he gets ready," the teen's father stated.
"I suppose so. I just want him to make some more friends, that's all," his mother sighed, turning her eyes to the teen who was mostly oblivious to the conversation.
After all, he's heard it a million times before. Once even his mother had asked him what he saw in computers that human beings couldn't fill. Honestly, he knew he shouldn't have answered, but he did. Telling her about reliability in the world and escape from the stress and pressure of figuring it all out. His mother hadn't cried like he had expected her to, in fact she smiled, telling him that one day he would change his mind. He seriously had his doubts about it, but maybe she would turn out to be right. Stranger things did happen.
As Kenny was about to play spider soltaire once more, the battery he hadn't noticed in the corner of the screen flashed once more, before the entire system shut itself down. "No!" he shouted, the first sound in hours he had made. The noise startled his parents, causing them to turn and look at him.
"Kenny, what's the matter?" his mother inquired anxiously. His father kept shifting his attention from him to the road.
"My backup battery died," the teen moaned, closing his laptop mournfully.
"That's all? You nearly gave us a heart attack," his father chuckled, focusing on the road again.
"What do you mean that's all? I didn't bring another battery with me. And I'll have to wait until we get into town to recharge it. If they even have running electricity. What am I going to do until then?" Kenny said in a slight whine.
"It's not that bad. They do have running electricity, and you know, the scenery isn't so bad to look at," his mother pointed out. "It won't hurt to check some of it out."
Kenny slumped against the side of the car door, looking idly out the window at the trees. Fascinating, yeah whatever. He sighed, bored out of his mind already. What was so fascinating about nature anyway? Trees, which allowed him to breathe oxygen, but other than that useless to him. He was a ctiy kid, born and raised, not a country kid as Rei and Kain had once been. Nature was just space, wide meaningless space he did not care about at all.
Kenny yawned, feeling himself slowly being pulled into sleep, but suddenly a loud noise like a shotgun disturbed the melody of Tschaikowsky. The car swirved to the side, until Kenny's father pulled the car to the shoulder, cutting it off. Kenny sat up, looking around, expecting to see red neck hicks coming out the woods with shotguns and pigs. (A/N: No offense to anyone who lives in the country, I'm a country type person myself and I just thought it would be a funny thing to add in.)
"What happened?" Kenny's mother asked.
"Nothing to worry about. Probably just a flat tire," Kenny's father said as he unfastened his seat belt and opened the car door getting out. "Kenny, come help me."
"Why do I have to get out?" Kenny protested. "I don't know anything about fixing cars!"
"Go help your father," his mother said. "It will be a good learning experience."
*Then why don't you get out and help him. I don't want to have a learning experience.* Kenny thought as he slid out of his seat belt, opening the car door and getting out. What was he going to do anyway, stand there for encouragement? Shutting the door, he grumpily walked to the rear of the car where his father had out the spare.
"Kenny, you take the wheel, I'll get the jack," his father said, handing over the tire. The young man said nothing as he grabbed the tire. "Take it to the other side where the flat is."
The teen did as told, rolling the wheel until he was on the other side, but all the while muttering about the heat and why the hell he was doing this. A moment later his father appeared with the jack Kenny was about to step back and get in the car when his father handed him a piece of metal. The teen looked at the object in his hand, then his father with an inquistive stare.
"What's this?" the teen questioned.
"Tire iron. Someone will have to take out the lugs when I jack up the wheel," his father explained.
"And why can't you do it?" Kenny remarked. "I don't know the first thing about cars. Especially how to change a tire!"
"Calm down. I'll coach you through it," his father smiled.
Worried? Kenny wasn't worried about messing up. He didn't want to be coached through it. He didn't give a damn about changing the tire. And he would be damned if he wanted to ever learn. Why didn't his parents just let him stay in the city with his grandparents and go to computer camp like he has been doing for the past four summers.
"You folks having a problem with your tire?" Came a soft, but deep voice.
Kenny turned his eyes up to where the voice came from. Sitting up in a tree was a red haired young man whose hair was styled like wings. His cool azure eyes watched observantly at the scene. For a brief flicker of a second Kenny was intrigued by the individual. Every perception of what country people looked like was shattered. He was beautiful and quite leisurely sitting in a tree without a care to him. Was it really possible to be that sexy and sit in a tree at the same time? (A/N: I say yes to that question, I'm not sure if anyone else can agree with it. ^ ^)
When Kenny realized what he was thinking, he berated himself for it. He wan't gay, sure he didn't like girls, but he didn't like guys either. He had never thought about hitting on Rei or Kain and as long as he's known them. Rei was as beautiful as this male, so he heard from the trickle of conversations he's picked up from girls about how Rei's eyes sparkled or how cute he smiled and such. Maybe it was just the heat getting to him. There could be no possible way he could be gay, his parents would go into meltdown they even considered him thinking about another male in that way.
"Our tire blew," Kenny's father said.
"Let me help." Sliding from the tree with the grace of a cat, the young man with red hair walked over to the car in long, laid back strides. He was much taller than Kenny was, maybe five foot eight or nine. Kenny standing at five foot three currently. When the male stopped beside Kenny, the young man felt a slight unfamiliar warmth strike his cheeks as he tilted his head up to look at the red head.
*Kenny, what are you doing? You're blushing, stop it! He's a guy! If you're going to blush, let it be some hot chick. Hell, probably wouldn't know a hot chick if I saw one. But that's not the point! He probably only likes girls.* Kenny told himself.
"Hey," the male said to him.
"Huh?" Kenny remarked with another slight flush he hoped looked like it was caused by the weather.
"Mind handing over the spare," the male smirked.
"Oh, sorry." Lookig down he handed over the tire and stood back. He watched with amazement at the ease the other teen changed the tire. Why did he make it look so easy when Kenny knew how much harder it really was.
"There, I'm finished," the male said as he lowered the car back to the ground. Stepping back he gave Kenny's father a short smile which looked as if he had practiced it not too long ago. Kenny noticed how it did not reach the young man's eyes, yet Kenny's father did not notice.
"Thank you very much for your help," Kenny's father said.
"It was no problem," the teen said. "It would have been a walk to town for help. And the weather's a tad too hot to be making the trip in the sun like this. Well, I should be going now that your tire's fixed."
"Do you need a ride anywhere?" Kenny's mother asked through the window. "You shouldn't be walking in this heat either."
"Oh no ma'am. I was out here relaxing. About time I want to return anywhere it'll be close to dark," the teen said, giving another one of his practiced smiles, as he headed back to his tree.
Kenny didn't understand what anyone would want to do out here surrounded by trees and heat. Getting back in the car, he turned to look out the back window, watching the young man climb back up in his tree, with as much grace and ease as he had climbed down. Something about the red head lounging so lazily in that tree sparked another moment of pure intrigue into Kenny. Something told him this was not their last meeting for that summer.
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Rimnerel: Hey everyone, wouldn't it have been funny if Tala had slipped out the tree after Kenny and his parents rolled off?
Tala (_): That would not have been funny, twit.
Rimnerel (smacks with a harisen): What did you say to me? Never mind. Okay, I hope everyone likes the chapter and will review, I put a lot of work into this story.
Kain: Yay! I made it into the story and Zeo didn't!
Rimnerel (points): Leader of Team Pyschic from V-Force everyone, but Kain, who said that Zeo didn't make it into the story, only time will tell. If the reviewers want him or anyone else, then in he goes! Okay, the next chapter I will have out for everyone by Saturday, more than likely Friday. So until then! Bye bye!