Chapter 2
The Awakening
"Wake up Larry", shouted a lady.
"Huh what's going on?" said the boy. "Are we under attack?"
"No, don't be silly boy you know what we are doing today." the boy sat with a blank look on his face.
"We are going to the mall to get your school supplies." the lady sighed.
"Oh yeah, so are we going now?" asked the boy
"Yes now, hurry and get dressed so we can leave." answered the lady.
The boy put on his clothes and grabbed his wallet getting ready to go. Just as he was about to walk out of his room he saw something strange out in the distance from his window he'd never noticed before. He pulled out a little notebook and wrote down what he saw:
August 1st, 2007
Dear Journal,
I just noticed something strange outside my window
But have no idea what it is, however it looked a lot like a -.
"Honey, get down here we got to get going." the lady yelled up the stairs.
The boy was rather small probably around five-foot-one which was about the norm for a thirteen year old, he had dark brown hair which came to his shoulders and he wore a red t-shirt with blue jeans. His eyes were green, the boy pulled on his shoes. "Coming Mom." he said. Taking one last look at the window he went downstairs.
Unlike the boy, the mother was rather tall around six-foot-two, blue eyes and long, blonde hair that was flowing in the wind as she was standing at the door. She wore a white tank top along with a pair of black jeans. "Let's go, jump in the car." the mother demanded.
They jumped in a beautiful red 2005 Mustang GT. "Seat Belt!" said the mother. You could see their beautiful house from outside the window, it was rather large with a nice shade of yellow, and it had concrete steps leading to the front door. The house was made out of brick.
"I know, I know." replied the boy.
"Just making sure I don't want to lose you." the mother responded.
They rode off down the asphalt road. "So you ready for your first day of high school son?" she asked, the boy said nothing back. "Son, did you hear me?"
"What? Oh yeah, no sorry I was looking out the window." the boy answered.
She sighed. "Son, I swear sometimes you just don't listen to me. So, are you ready for high school?"
"In a way." the boy said back.
"What do you mean?" asked the lady.
"I'm kind of scared. I've heard rumors of the seniors taking the first day of the year to pick on all the freshman, especially us dorks." the boy sighed.
"You are not a dork son?" she said as she was trying to make him feel better, but it wasn't working.
"That's just what you think you haven't seen me at school if you did you would understand what I'm saying." the boy replied.
"I seriously doubt that sweetie and sometimes these so-called dorks are better than they seem don't you remember the story of John Pickett? He was a dork in school and grew up to be a famous astronaut?" the lady asked.
"Yeah, but there's nothing special about me," the boy spoke back. "I mean look at me I don't have the skills to be an astronaut or anything like that, I'm pathetic."
"No you're not son remember the verse in the bible that said the world will hate you, not exactly word for word cause I know there are still people in the world who care about you, so if you trust in God it doesn't matter what you grow up to be you can become a hobo on the side of the streets as long as you believe and we'd still care about you, just remember you are not weak remember Matthew 6:21 says : where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, if you store up your treasures for God he will be happy and in the end you will be happy as well." the mother replied.
"You have a good point Mom, thanks." the boy responded.
She wasn't one-hundred percent sure she got through to him, but decided to drop the subject. "So you want to put on some music?"
"Yeah, how about some Creed mom?" asked the boy.
"Okay," the lady pulled out a CD in the case above her head and stuck it in the CD player in the car "Ah, here we go."
They went down the road listening to the music the boy sang My Sacrifice along with the band.
....
They arrived at the mall. It was rather large in size, so large in fact that one could get lost in there they were standing in a section with four paths to choose from. One side was really short, but much larger than the others in width as it just contained the food court, one side had all your entertainment needs, it had places like FYE, and GameStop. The third of the paths was where all the clothes could be found, they had places such as Hot Topic, Hollister, Pac sun, and other various stores. The last path had all the miscellaneous items featuring stores such as Spencers, K-Mart, and other stores with mixed material. "We're here son; let's go get your stuff." said the mother.
"Yeah, let's get going." the boy spoke back.
They walked in; the mall was abnormally busy that day due to last minute school shoppers. "So where do you want to go first?" the lady asked.
"Hmm I want to stop by Spencers first, they have the backpack that I want." the boy answered.
"Alright then, to Spencers." agreed the mother.
They walked into the store and looked at the backpacks. The store was really neat looking, it was pretty dark and it had neon lights in it and a bunch of interesting items, Ms. Pragmer made sure Larry didn't go to the mature section. "So let's see. Ooh, this one looks nice."
"Yeah but it's not the one I'm looking for." Larry searched through the backpacks trying to find the one he wanted.
"Why don't you tell me what it looks like? Maybe I can help you find it, hun." Ms. Pragmer asked.
"There it is." Larry pulled out a really nice camouflage backpack. "Yes, they still have the Linkin Park backpack I've been wanting; I was beginning to think they had sold out."
"Well it looks like you the one you want so let's pay for it." They walked up to the counter and stuck the backpack on the counter. "How much is it anyway?" the mother asked looking at the boy.
The guy behind the counter then spoke, "Forty-two dollars and twenty-seven cents." He had a strange appearance nothing unusual for this particular store though he had a black Mohawk with what looked like thirty piercings and he wore all black with a black trench coat, chains extended down his pants.
"Excuse me," Ms. Pragmer replied, "Forty-two dollars and twenty-seven cents?"
"Yes." the cashier answered.
"Oh I almost forgot Mom here you go." Larry said as he handed the man three cards. "They should get us thirty percent off, ten percent for each."
"And your total comes out to Twenty-nine dollars and fifty-nine cents." the cashier responded.
"That's better." Ms. Pragmer responded as she paid the money and they left to continue their shopping.
They walked around the store getting the remainder of his supplies. They went to K-Mart and got three Pirates of the Caribbean folders and two Harry Potter notebooks. Larry got all his school clothes all from Hot Topic. The K-Mart was well lit, and it was rather big for this particular store it had various odds and ends lying on the shelves. The Hot Topic however was not lit as well, it was a fairly small store but had some really cool items like the Tripp pants Larry loved to wear, and it was playing some nice grunge rock music over the radio.
Larry and his mom walked out of Hot Topic, "Well is that everything?" Ms. Pragmer asked.
"Yes it is." As they we're walking Larry saw someone he knew. "Is that? Yes it is, Mom can I go say hi to Eric first?" he asked.
"Okay," Ms. Pragmer replied, "but hurry up we need to get back home."
"It'll only be a minute." Larry insisted as he walked away, "Eric, hey Eric." Larry shouted at the boy.
"Oh, hey Larry what are you up to? School shopping as we are?" Eric had a rather muscular look for a fourteen year old he was about five-foot-four but you could tell he worked out he had brown eyes and a blue tee-shirt with blue jeans.
"Yeah, pretty much just some last minute school shopping as usual got some cool stuff this year and I agreed that backpack is tight." Larry replied.
"Yeah it's pretty sweet huh? So what have you been up to this summer?" Eric asked.
"Yeah ... nothing really you know same old, same old. Computer, video games, etcetera, etcetera." answered Larry.
"Ah, so pretty good then? Not so much for me, except well... my Dad died last week." Eric sighed.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that I always liked your Dad, what happened?" Larry asked.
"We believe it was a heart attack or something we came home one day and he was passed out on the floor bleeding." Eric said back.
"Wow that's horrible." Larry replied.
"Yeah but it happens," Eric decided to quickly change the subject "So got yourself a girlfriend yet?" You could tell by Eric's eyes and the smile on his face he had made one over the summer.
"No not yet." Larry answered.
"Oh well hold on ... Shyann." Eric shouted. A tall about five-foot-six brunette girl came around the corner. She had green eyes and she was wearing a pretty pink shirt with black pants. Eric introduced her, "This is Shyann Wilcox she just moved here from Florida she's looking to make friends I know you won't mind helping her out."
"Of course not, my name is Larry Pragmer nice to meet you." Larry said as they shook hands.
Shyann spoke back, "Nice to meet you too." A voice came around the corner. "Well I got to go that would be my Mom nice to finally meet you Larry." Shyann said before walking away.
"She's beautiful Eric, and seems nice you've done well." Larry said.
"Yeah thanks just wait until you get to know her better. Oh by the way did you look out your window this morning? I saw some kind of black light off in the distance couldn't tell what it was though." Eric said back.
"Yeah it had a distinct shape to it to though I couldn't tell what it looked like, I wrote about it in my journal." Larry answered.
"Larry, let's go we got to get home," Ms. Pragmer said as she came around the corner, "Hey Eric."
"Hello Miss Pragmer well Larry you'd better get going best not to keep your mother waiting if you know what I mean." Eric suggested.
"Yeah I know what you mean well I'll see you at school then, goodbye Eric." Larry replied.
"See Yah Larry." Eric said as Larry walked away.
Ms. Pragmer and Larry walked out to the parking lot. "So what did you guys talk about?" she asked her son curiously.
"Nothing really, just catching up, he has a girlfriend now, her name is Shyann." Larry answered.
"Oh that's nice I knew he'd find someone eventually, nice boy," Ms. Pragmer replied. "Well you ready to go?"
"Yeah, I sure am." Larry responded.