Lion and Mouse
MOUSE
(present)
I looked past my teacher and through the board , and on into another world my mind had concocted. One with beautiful princesses and handsome princes. Where no good deed would go unrewarded, where no rose had thorns, princes who loved other princes were not killed, and most of all everyone found love? Why, why couldn't this world be like that? One filled with bliss and romance, one without worries and cares a place where young girls could go trick-or-treating without worrying parents.
"Haruna!" My bug eyed teacher yelled
I blinked my eyes into focus. "Yes?" A few kids snickered.
"I have asked you twelve times to answer this question." She said then pushed up her thick rimed glasses.
"Oh..." I looked at the board and only saw numbers, I couldn't find for the life or death of me one sensible thing to say. So I didn't, "Umm pie..." What why did I just say pie. Pie is a math thingy isn't it? "Pie." I said a little more convinced this time.
She blinked again then squinted at me, the way she did when she knew something was awry, "This is the thirteenth time you have dozed off in my class, off to the office with you." She pointed a bony finger at the door.
"But Mrs. Lane I promise I won't-"
"Go! Now! Before I make it worse on you!" She yelled.
I gathered my books, what is my problem honestly? I just can't seem to stay conscious during her class. I hobbled out of the class then around a corner.
"Before I make it worse on you." I repeated to myself.
LION
(1 year ago)
"Boy you watch yourself!"
I grinned at my old man, while I dogged the empty beer can flying towards my head. "Missed!" I taunted.
"You sure are a mouthy son-of-a-bitch aren't you!" The bastard got out of his lazy-boy, which suited him quite well.
"Who you calling a bitch!" I yelled slamming the door in his red face. "Damn he's gonna be pissed now." I shrugged then went to our apartment stairs and jumped around the railing then on to the next flight, grabbed the railing then slid the rest of the way down. A dog barked nearby, I barked back and laughed.
At the bottom of the stair's I was met with Tony, "Hey Jackhammer!"
"Sup Toe-jam!" I whistled the nickname at him.
"Oh just the usual." His once white wife-beater, looks like he'd been, well beating his wife.
"That would be?" I sat at the bottom of the stairs and took out a pack of cigarettes.
He grabbed one out of the pack and then lit it.
From the look of his face I knew what it was, "Business?"
He shook his head while taking a drag.
"Ah." I shook my head and took out my green BIC(a cheap brand) lighter, then took a drag as well. The word business was the universal word for gang activities. It could be drug deals, kills or robberies.
"So how's your ma?"
"Still hanging in there."
"That's some screwed up shit there." He rolled his cigarette between his fingers
"Yeah tell me about it. I can't believe she's still with the bastard. He can knock the shit out of me, but my mom..." I looked at my tattered sneakers littered with cigarette ashes.
"I'm telling ya man, take one swing at him and he'll be gone before she even knows what happened."
"But you know my mom she'd take his side."
"Yeah, yeah, he is higher up in the business."
"I hate this shit man!" I dug my finished bud into the cement.
"Dude tell me about it. But we were just born in the wrong world. Hell we were enlisted before we were out!" He laughed, his laugh is huge it could fill the saddest room with happiness.
"Ya, screwed from the beginning. You going to school today?"
"I don't think so, I'm thinking about dropping it."
"That's what they want!" I stood up.
"Yeah I know, but man," He looked me in the eye, "I don't think I can fight it."
"Don't give in dude. I mean I really don't want to end up like him." I pointed towards the place that housed the enemy.
"Yeah, I guess, but man dreams are for kids." He looked down at his newly stolen chucks.
"We still are kids."
He looked at me that same drained expression, "if you say so."
"Come on let's get out of here."
He dropped his cigarette then smiled.
*BAM*
Then he dropped faster than his dying cigarette bud did.
I grabbed his limp body then pulled both of us behind the stairs. "TONY?" I shook his shoulders.
"Ouch." He said weakly through a smoke stained smile.
"Shit, Tony?"
He smiled wider, "Yoh you are my main man you know that right?"
"Yeah man, but listen, you're going to be alright! I'm gonna get you out of this!" I glanced around trying to find a way out.
"Dude you're not, we both know this." He smiled, "You think they let guys like me in heaven?"
My eyes felt wet, "I know they do."
"Good because I know a few people up there, It'd be nice to be with my ma." He blinked his eyes a few times. Looking like he was trying to stay awake. "Love ya man, stay strong..." All light in his eyes left them only to be replaced with a blankness. His body went limp with the absence of soul.
"Shit." I said while a single tear rolled down my check and bullets rained down around me.
Mouse
(present)
"That meanie, sending me off again." I mumbled again while walking around the corner, only to be greeted by a strange boy sitting against the green lockers taking a drag off his cigarette. He looked at me and I forgot what I was doing before now. He was beautiful, in a guy way.
Lion
(with mouse)
"That meanie, sending me off again." Said the idiotic girl who just turned the corner. I turned to face her only to be pierced by those eyes, full of something that, I couldn't place. Something that I had been missing for a long time.
Lion and mouse
Not what you expected? Well life isn't what you expected either, now is it? Please comment.
