Life is a funny thing, here one day, gone the next. The only thing certain in life is death, whether it be anticipated or sudden. With the end of a life comes the end of a world, an end of a point of view. I'm not a believer in apocalypse theories or any of that rapture nonsense, but the world will end, and it ends with you.
"Dammit!" I threw my PS3 remote in pure fury, blood shot eyes wide.
It was the usual result of my overnight gaming sprees. I would forget I have school the next day and just play until I literally passed out from lack of sleep. I was on hour 24, no way in hell would I give up that far in.
I looked at my TV to see harsh bloody letters materialize. "GAME OVER" Nice to know I was a failure.
My Vulpix whined softly from my bed. I guess my not-so-silent raging woke her up. She opened a brown eye and gave me the death stare.
"Fine,Vi, I'll quit. Reluctantly, I turned it off. This unfortunately was a challenge for another day.
The clock read 5, 5 in the morning more specifically. That would've been all fine and dandy if I didn't have school in 2 hours. But of course with my luck, this damn sure wasn't the case. Note to self to get a calendar in the near future.
I layed down next to my Vulpix and feel asleep before my head even hit the pillow. Playing video games had that affect on me.
I woke up to a blaring alarm clock, a shrill, piercing noise that assaulted my poor ear drums. I did my usual get-ready-in-the-morning stuff, and left for the bustop, careful to avoid the judging eyes of my family.
It was a cold December morning. I'd been in school long enough now that the days were starting to blur together in a incoherent mess, yesterday might as well be 2 weeks or even a month ago at this point.I called this phenomenon the mid-school year crisis, for self explanatory reasons. I had on two sweaters, and was pushing on taking the third out of my bag, it really was that cold outside.
I looked besides me on the bus stop, and saw they were still wearing what I'd call summer clothes. Tank tops, crop tops, those damn fishnet shirts that they try to pass off as normal shirts, and shorts. I suppose being a Hoenn native didn't help me much here. Arceus, I hated the cold. More than I hate my ex, and that was saying something. They looked at me like I had seven heads right back. Damn northerners.
I shuddered as the bus pulled up. A furious breeze hit me in the face and I had to stifle my cry of pain as I waited for Driver Rindeer to open the doors. It always took forever as the door latch thingy was rusted and old from age. He cracked it open a bit, and I forced my way in, the other kids following after. I took my seat alone, in the back. A crappy seat for most people, but a hidden gem for me. I could go back there alone, nobody would say anything to me, nobody would even glance at me. Sure, I got lonely on occasions, but less people, less problems.
The bus lurched forward, and some idiots decided that this was a great time to stand up and yell at each other from across the bus. I could literally see the disdain on the bus drivers face through his mirror. I could never have that job. I sighed heavily and relaxed. No point on letting this ruin my day. I'll just block the noise out, yep, and then pretend the girls around me weren't talking about all the different ways they were going to get laid this weekend.
A few stops later, a guy came over and sat next to me. I flinched. THIS. WAS. MY. SEAT. There was plenty of other empty seats, why the hell did he chose this one?
I put my head down. I didn't even bother looking more than a glance at him. I just knew he was there, and in my damn seat. He would pay. With his blood.
Okay, maybe not his blood, but he WILL regret this.
I took a deep breath, and tried to imagine myself in an assertive stance. Tough for someone as short me. But it would have to do.
I caught him turning towards me from the corner of my eye. He shifted slightly in his seat before saying, "Hey."
This was my chance. I turned over to him, ready to speak my mind. But something silenced me.
More specifically, he silenced me.
Oh Arceus, he was a beautiful guy! Black curly haired, glasses, a goofy little smile. The way he dressed stood him out as a nerd, but I couldn't be sure. I liked him. Love at first sight, I would've said if I believed in it.
"Hey." I managed to stifle. I had to pretend I wasn't completely smitten with the guy. I'd hate to come off like a lovesick teenager loser idiot. My school had enough of those anyways.
"So, what brings you to this seat?" I tried my best to stay calm and collected. Hopefully it was working, because I was secretly losing it on the inside. It wasn't often I felt this way. It was... unnerving to say in the least. I usually paid no mind to guys, but something about him was different. I just couldn't put my finger on it.
"I'm new here. I've been here for a few days, but today is my first day of school." He said with a degree of confidence that took me by surprise, looking me straight in the eyes. His were warm and brown.
"I was the new kid once." I said, perhaps a little too tersely. That wasn't a lie. When my family split, my mom my sister and I moved to Kanto, and my brother stayed with Dad in Hoenn. It was hard, to say in the least.
"My family moves a lot, so I'm kinda used to this."
"Then you shouldn't have any problems fitting in here."
Not entirely true, yet not much of a lie either. The nerds would probably take to him, or maybe even the band clique. I'd gladly take him into mine, but I'd never admit it.
Silence covered us like a blanket. I had to think of something to say, I would be dammed if I just let this guy go.
"What classes do you have?" I broke the silence.
"Umm, hold on a sec." He rummaged through the pockets on his skinny jeans and took out a folded sheet of paper.
He unfolded it and showed it to me. I took it out of his hand.
"Okay, so we have 2nd period together, 3rd, 5th and 8th."
That was a lot of classes, and he was in my lunch class too. I smiled to myself, this left plenty of room for socializing.
"Mind showing me around?"
"Uh, yeah, no problem."
The excitement in me grew, to the point were it was hard to keep myself from blushing or bursting in maniacal laughter. This wasn't like me. Maybe he noticed my weird smile..?
We shut up as the bus started to slow. It swerved off course and almost into the big oak tree in front of the school. It skidded to a sideways halt. Driver Rindeer seriously needed to cut down on his morning cocktails.
"What's your name?" I almost forgot to ask him that.
"Dean Zinmer, and you?"
"I'm Rose Williams."
The bus was quickly emptying.
"We should get going." He said.
"Yeah, good idea."
The bus was a bit early that day, which left enough time to show Dean around. It was a small school, around 600 kids, to go along with a small town. Pallet was the closest thing to the generic small-town-where-everybody-knows-you-and-you-can't-get-away-with-anything. Only thing Pallet was ever good for is being the home town of Red Ketchum, the model Pokemon trainer. Until they changed the minimum age of trainers to 16, then suddenly everyone forgot him, and Hilbert Avery was the new hot thing, but I'm digressing.
We parted ways when the first bell rang, and I was pretty certain I'd get his number by the end of the day, unless he didn't have a cell phone.
Best not think of that.
First period class was Physics. As usual, I sat next to Shelby, who was the kind of person who innocently thought everyone was her friend. I mean, it wasn't like she was ugly or anything, she was just outright annoying. She usually had mop of red untamed hair that cascaded wildly from the base of her head, but today, it was pin straight and slicked back down in a shiny waterfall of hair.
Shelby had a hard life as far as I could tell, anyone as attention seeking as her had to have an interesting backstory. Probably got kidnapped or saw someone die, and this is her weird way of coping. She wasn't very well liked and people made it very clear to her. Not that it seemed to have any effect on her. I only tolerated her because I felt bad.
"Hey, Rosie, whatcha' did this weekend?"
Did I mention she had terrible grammar and lisp from hell?
"Nothing as always."
My lack of an decent answer made her give me a less than pleased look.
"Wells, me an' the gurls hung out this weekend. We wen an' got our hair dun, an' we wen to go..."
I blocked her out after that. The girl could hardly make a coherent sentence, much less than a whole story. The occasional uh huh and yep seemed to suffice with her. The whole period continued just like that, while I took notes. I had a big test coming up that Friday and I wasn't gonna fail this. I had almost forgotten about Dean until the bell rang.
I gathered my books quickly and left Shelby in the dust. She wasn't in my next class anyways. I had to get to class fast, before Dean and get a good seat. I had quickly devised a little plan to see if he liked me or not. Thinking about it now makes me realize how utterly desperate and impossibly foolhardy I was.
I got there as planned, 3rd person there. Dean was nowhere in sight. I picked a seat in the middle, so he'd see that I was there.
The clock ticked slowly. One person after another came in a filled the seats. Tick, not Dean, tock, not Dean. Just when the bell was about ring, Dean stumbled in, visibly confused. He scanned the room for a familiar face, and I instinctively looked disinterested. In the corner of my eye I saw him go over to me, and sat down in the double seat next to me.
SCORE! I could hardly contain myself. Just earlier this morning, I would've ripped someone to shreds if they sat next to me, and now... Once again, this wasn't like me. I felt like some love demon was controlling me, and it wanted Dean and nothing else.
"Hi, again."
"Hi." I gave in to a tiny smile.
He unpacked his bag, taking out a binder with a giant Charizard on the cover. So he liked fire types. I reminded myself to stop watching him like creeper.
"So Dean," I said, musing to myself how easily his name slid off my tongue, "have any pokemon?"
He smiled back.
"Yep, a Growlithe, he's gonna be my starter when I set off on my journey."
This guy was awesome.
"I have a Vulpix, a Sneasel , and a Pigdeotto."
He raised an eyebrow. It was a little unusual to have more than 1 pokemon if you weren't a trainer or a breeder.
"Yeah, a lot I know, but they were gifts from my brother."
"I caught my Growlithe myself back when I was 10. I lived in Cerulean, best place ever."
A nostalgic smile spread across his face before he changed the subject.
"I have a brother too, Mark Zinmer, ever heard of him?"
As a matter of fact I did.
"Last year's Indigo League Champion?"
His smile got wider.
"Yep."
Winning the Indigo League pretty much made you instantly famous. If you happened to be a hot teenage guy, all the girls in Kanto and Johto would flip out at your name and hang poster upon posters of you on their bedroom walls. I wouldn't be lying if I said I had a few of those poster in my own room. If you were a girl, well, let's just say that it probably wouldn't be safe to leave your house without Machamp guarding you. The world had become a pretty dangerous at that time.
"Gonna participate in the Indigo League?"
"Nah, I'm not one for fame and fortune. I'll leave that to my brother."
"Same here, minus the brother part, my bro's a coordinator."
"You're gonna be-"
The teacher entered the room before he could finish. She had a habit of coming in obnoxiously late, as in 5-10 minutes late. Not that I could complain, it was pretty convenient to have an extra few minutes to haste through homework from the night before. Gaming does that to you.
More notes. Yay. I was the semi-studious type. I payed attention in class and did whatever when I got home. Worked for the most part. I was no by means a star student.
Lunch came, and I sat in my usual spot. My friends and I sat in one of those circle tables, and we pulled up chairs around it. I wasn't popular, and hell, now that I think of it, I probably was the lowest of the low, with Shelby Real and Derek Kilman at the very bottom.
One by one my friends came. There was Jenna, she was an exchange student from Unova. She had beautiful ebony skin with black and pink straightened hair that hung a little bit over her face. She was a loner, kinda like me, except she was more into screamo and scary stuff like that. She was average height and a tastefully thin like the typical Nimbasa girls. We didn't really talk much, she had her iPod and her Gothita instead of friends.
Then there was Greg. We had more in common, we both liked computers and we would have long drawn out conversations on computer tech while the rest our table stared at us like we had seven heads. He was a bit fat and had dark ginger curly hair he would let grow into a small kind of afro. We were friends since I moved to Kanto in 7th grade, and I've pretty much stuck by him since.
Then last was another guy, Anthony. He was just there, he never really said much, he would just finish his homework and spent the rest of the period listening to me and Greg talk. He was blonde and had close cut hair, like most of the guys in our school. He also had the distinction of being awkwardly tall and gaunt, with bad acne that just never seemed to clear up. He was the subject of ridicule pretty often.
I spotted Dean looking confused in the corner trying to find where to sit. He caught a glimpse of me and headed toward my table.
SCORE!
He pulled up a chair and sat down next to me.
"Hey guys, this is Dean, he's new here."
Greg flicked his wrist in recognition, while Tony and Jenna kept their heads down, busy with whatever it was they were doing.
Awkward silence once again.
Dean smiled at looked at me.
"Why don't we get lunch?"
"Great idea."
I got up and led him to the lunch line. I couldn't screw this up, I had to act natural.
"Interesting group of friends you've got there."
"Yep."
"Have any other friends?"
I looked down.
"Nope."
"I know how that feels."
I looked at him incredulously.
"Oh really?"
"Yep, like I said, I move around a lot so I never really make friends."
So he was kinda like me. I found it hard to like people. I guess having all your friends up and leave you one day does awful things to your ability to trust people.
"You play games?" I held this question in for too long. I've never in my life had a friend with my passion for video games.
"Yep, everything under the sun." He smiled, he was adorable. I told myself to stop being a creeper once again.
So he played everything under the sun. I was skeptical about that. I thought quickly of game that a noob gamer would never know.
"Do you play Charini Warriors?"
He lit up at that one.
"You've actually heard of that? Do you know how hard it is to find people who like that?" He was pretty much in disbelief. And it was hot.
"Yep I have like half the series, I swear to Arceus it's the best game series I've ever played, next to Final Finale."
"The 7th one is awesome."
"I know."
This was epic, someone who actually liked video games who wasn't a latent rapist or serial killer. It was almost as if it were the best day ever.
I was pulled back into reality by the lunch lady.
"Soup or Sandwich?"
Honestly, they both looked nasty.
"I'll take the sandwich. "
We went back to our table, and I swear I had the best conversation since my best friend left me over 4 years before.
The day was quickly over. Last period bell rang and everybody poured into the hallway like a pack of raging bulls, knocking into everyone, stampeding, the whole mess. You'd think it was summer vacation the way they sped out.
I sat on my usual seat on the bus, and low and behold, my new best friend was there as well. A smile crept onto my face.
SCORE!
"Hey." He said with a bright smile
I smiled back. "Hii!"
The bus made it's lurch forward, knocking me into him. I landed in his arms. In. His. Arms. ARMS! We stayed awkwardly like that for a few moments, avoiding eye contact. When I finally had the courage to look at him, he was blushing like a mad man. I shot up for his lap and quickly maintained my composure.
"Well, that was awkward..." He muttered.
"Yeah..."
Without warning, he bust out in full drawn laughter. He was cute when he laughed. Wait, was I thinking? Me thinking someone was cute? I mused to myself that it was probably the end of the world. That day was just full of surprises.
And it wasn't the last surprise.
As I joined his laughter, I noticed that Rindeer was a bit off. He seemed almost like he was nodding off. Or was I imagining it?
I figured I best not worry myself over it. Things like that just don't happen anymore, right?
Dead wrong.
Rindeer made an unsettling gasping sound, almost as if he were drowning. We all looked at each other in unassured fear. What was going on?
We stopped suddenly at the train tracks. The train tracks. We sat there in a daze for a few moments. No one knew what to do.
Finally, a kid in the front row, my neighbor Daniel Higgs, nudged the bus driver slightly. No response. He checked his pulse.
"Uhhh Uhhhhhhhhh." He stammered,
"Spit it out!" Someone yelled from the back.
"Uh- I mean I only learned how to do this from my dad, but I don't feel a pulse." He murmured.
He messed with the controls of the bus. "Fuck, it's jammed. " That latch was always a pain in the ass.
A few kids gasped in trepidation, and Shelby even fainted. Panic was starting to get a hold of me as well.
"THE TRAIN'S COMING!" Shelby screamed. She must've regained consciousness.
Fuck, she was right. My heart lurched.
Daniel messed with the controls desperately until he opened the door. Everyone rushed out, with me and Dean dead last. My heart raced. His fingers intermingled with mine.
The train was getting closer. The seconds getting slower. The bright lights almost blinding. The sirens blaring. At the last moment, I was able to stumble my way out. Wait, where was Dean?
I watched in frozen horror as the train hit Dean, pinning him to the bus before he literally exploded into a mess of red and yellow. But it wasn't over.
In a split second, the train plowed through the bus, splitting it in two and sending the pieces flying. I heard the bloodcurdling screams before the back end of the bus landed right on me. I didn't even have time to scream.
That was the day my world ended.