It was a new day, and school had started yet again. The Lunis' had woken up their sleepy guest and driven to school after breakfast. Mr. Lunis had already gone to work, and Newton came home from his extra curriculum studies for advanced minds. Hannah didn't question it, and just knew that Newton would be gone at nights for some really smart person classes.
Hannah walked down the halls, trudging in her favorite combat boots. "Yo, Hannah." A voice from behind her said. She turned around to see one of Eric's old friends.
"Heard Eric dumped you last night… that's a bummer, I'm always open if you wanna give me a call." He said with an overconfident smirk, leaning against a locker.
"Um… sure… I'll see, I'm pretty busy with… um, stuff."
"Right on." The boy flipped his long hair and walked away. Walking towards a group of other kids Hannah recognized, Eric was there and he started talking with the boy who flirted with her just then. They exchanged some sort of fist bump then pointed towards her as she watched them. Just then, a girl wearing a very small short shirt and an even smaller shirt tugged her arms around Eric. Hannah's blood boiled, and she walked away.
. . .
"We can't keep this up much longer; she's going to figure it out." Lance said quietly as they walked down the halls to their second period class.
"I know, we can say Newton left for early college studies. That way, Octus only needs one identity to play." Ilana suggested.
"Yeah… alright, and what do we do if… something happens…" Lance said, referring to the rift gate, which opened when another Mutraddi attack was upon them.
"We can convince her to join after school activities, that will keep her alone and away while we can go and deal with it." Newton advised.
"This… is wrong… we invite her into our home, and she doesn't even know who we are." Ilana said with an empty expression.
"Well, as far as she's concerned, she has a roof, a heated room, food, and a ride to school." Lance kept walking as Ilana stopped.
"No, she needs more than that. She needs family…" The blonde followed.
"Well, we give her that too."
"We're feeding her lies."
"Sometimes lies are easier than the truth. I would've liked to hear lies… instead of the ugly truth." Lance stopped this time, he was told straight forward when he was only nine years old that his father was dead, and it was improbable that he would survive from testing his invention; the rift gate. He was told that even if he did survive, he'd be light years away in space. Lance convinced himself that his father was coming back, and he'd find away. But couldn't shake the fact that he truly believed the men.
"Lies, are false… and we only tell them to cover up our mistakes and for personal, selfish gain."
"And to protect people. She'll find out sooner or later, but let's give her time… she needs to get to know us better before we tell her about Titan. To let her think she knows us, just an adopted family living in Illinois. Okay? Then she'll get our real stories, but we'll still be the people she knows, our personalities won't change and I think that'll be easier on her. Okay?" Lance said, it was amazing how he always seemed to have a battle plan.
. . .
"You don't need her, she left you… her mistake." Shannon, Eric's new girlfriend said seductively, putting his hands on his chest.
"But, I was a total jerk to her… I see that now."
"You were fine, she just overreacted. You're with me, anyways… and I'm much better than her."
"But… she was so loyal, despite all I did."
"She left, I'm here… who's loyal…"
"I guess you're…"
"I know I am…"
. . .
School was over, and the group sat around the fireplace doing their homework, almost quietly. The only noise was Lance's music emitting from his headphones. After a moment, Hannah broke the silence. "What'cha listening too, Lance?"
"Huh?"
"What are you listening too?" She said again in a friendly tone.
"Killer Super Hippos, I heard them play at the concert the other day, they played right before us."
"Unplug the headphones, we can listen to it." Hannah said.
"Uh, alright…" Lance pulled out the jack of his ear buds, then blasts of sound emitted from the speakers. Heavily distorted guitar riffs and deep bass notes filled the air accompanied by vivid drums and a smooth male singer. Hannah rocked her head to the quick tempo music, Ilana returned to her work as Lance awkwardly tapped his foot as the girl was fully moving in her seat while writing her paper.
After a few minutes, Lance started rocking his head with Hannah, who was now laughing at the very conserved teen danced with her in his chair.
Just another day, I'll make another dollar.
Honey if you need me, just give me a holler.
I can be over, quarter after nine.
Best to not be lonely, darling we'll be fine.
Lance started tapping on the table with his pencils. "Right on." Hannah said, humming to the music.
Yet another way, to prove another fault or…
Work another shift and button up my collar.
Tired of these lies, but the truth will show.
You can run, but you can't hide, one day we will know.
Hannah started air guitaring to the solo as soon as it started, Lance managed a grin.
"Having fun?" Ilana asked, with a friendly, but serious tone.
"Just taking a little… educational liberty…" Hannah said sheepishly, getting back to her work. Lance turned down the music, and started working again.
. . .
Lance woke up staring at the ceiling, he wondered if it were Saturday yet. He recalled that it was Thursday yesterday, which sadly meant, it was not. He rolled over and read the clock on his bedside table. 6:14 AM it read.
The young soldier groaned, and escaped from his warm bed, and grabbed the nearest shirt and pair of pants that had been thrown on the floor from previous use. He quickly looked into the mirror, and ruffled his hair over his face just the way he liked it, and headed downstairs. He heard voices in the kitchen, Mr. Lunis' and Hannah's.
"I mean, I don't see why they have to play all of these ads." Hannah said, complaining at the kitchen TV as George cooked breakfast over the stove.
"Yes, it does seem rather ridiculous. If they are to play these advertisements, it would be more beneficial to play entertaining ones." He said in a dim, monotone voice, still attending to cooking.
A new commercial played on the screen. "Have you ever lost your TV remote, I know I have. Well, now with the new Remote Holder, you won't ever lose it again. Just secure your remote to the Remote Holder and attach it to your couch or a nearby table, and you'll never lose it!" A female announcer said informatively.
"Jeez, can you believe these people, Remote Holder? Minas well make a sock collector." Hannah scoffed.
"A sock collector would actually be quite interesting; they always seem to find a way to disappear…"
"Well, you're right there." Hannah laughed and showed off her feet, mismatching blue and green socks. "I've been here for three days, and I've already lost one of each pair… maybe we should invent that…" She joked; Octus seemed to be considering this quite literal. Lance decided to intervene before he took her up on the offer.
"Morning." He walked in and sat down at the table. "You wake up awfully early…"
"Yeah, my dad used to wake up at like five every day for his morning workout routine." Hannah answered.
"I see…"
"You've got quite a routine yourself, right? Ilana was saying you do like a hundred push-ups and stuff a day."
"Yeah, a hundred and fifty, actually." Lance said, he never really got the chance to brag very often.
"Nice."
"Eggs and bacon, anyone?" Octus asked.
"Yes please!" Both teens responded at once.
. . .
"Hey, Lance man… can we talk?" Ian asked Lance as he walked up the steps of Sherman High school.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"We've been talking, and our last gig… there weren't any of these mainstream kids from school, just the crowd who was into the music… and they loved you, man… you've changed. Maybe you'd consider joining the band again…"
"What, really?"
"Yeah… I mean, the music… you got it, man… we've got a gig at the promenade this weekend if you wanna sit in. Same set list, maybe you'd consider. It'd be great to have you back." Ian brushed the hair out of his face and waited for an answer.
"I'll think about it…" Lance said, already knowing his answer, but not wanting to seem desperate. Which was a sign of weakness.
"Alright, man… let us know, you know the number." Ian got up, patted Lance's shoulder and walked away.
. . .
Disenfranchised played their usual warm up routine in Ian's mom's garage, when the garage door suddenly lifted up. "Hey…" Lance said, holding his guitar.
"Sup…" Dunkin greeted
"Yo." Alex said. Ian walked forward.
"Glad you could make it, man. We're just running through the songs, you can plug in your guitar in the amp over there, we got a petal board set up too." Ian directed.
"Got it." Lance unpacked his shiny, red guitar, tuned, and plugged in the jack.
"One… two, one two three four!" Alex counted in, and the bands started playing.
. . .
Lance set down a stack of skinny, white tickets on the dinner table as he walked into the kitchen where Ilana and Hannah were chatting. The girls approached the tickets on the table, Ilana read one aloud. "Disenfranchised at the Boxed Fish, Saturday night 8:30 PM… Lance, that's great!"
"Yeah, so you guys can come if you want… we can get tickets for free, so…" Lance leaned against the counter and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Of course we'll come; we'll be there for sure." Ilana said with excitement.
"Yeah, that'll be totally rad…" Hannah said, examining a ticket.
"I'll see if Jason wants to come if that's alright, he'll love your music, I'm sure." Ilana said.
"Yeah, whatever, that's fine."
"Thanks Lance, I'll go call him." Ilana ran off, as soon as she left the room, Hannah looked at Lance.
"So, big brother? How do you feel about Ilana's boyfriend?" She asked, curiously.
"He's alright…" She gave him another look. "I don't like him."
"Why?"
"He's… not fit, for a person like Ilana… she's strong, and smart and beautiful… and he's a weak, awkward excuse of a man." Lance said. "But he makes her happy."
"That's good, it's okay to be a little unsure about him, every brother is that way with a sister as great as Ilana."
"I'm not unsure. I know to a full extend that I despise him." Lance managed a smile.
"Well, I'm looking forward to you show, Lance." Hannah said, making her way out of the kitchen. "You can expect me to be dancing up front." She smiled and left for her room upstairs.