When The Sun Goes Out
Chapter 1: "I'm Easily Fooled"
*
Too good to be true.
Truth is, the epigram is so right. But somehow people have such a hard time believing the faults when the false beauties are so apparent. Advice is so easily given.
Now if they could only use it themselves.
Because it always turns out that the people who least expect it are the ones who get it. You have to look into the future to expect anything. It should be easier to look into the future, then, shouldn't it?
Yeah, right. The people who you think you can count on backstab you; the people who you think are your friends are your enemies. There are seldom few who actually tell you the truth. With them,
Promises are promises… even if you end up torn. Even if the light disappears. Even if the sun goes out. . . . . .
*
The door banged open. Val looked up expectantly.
"Dinner's here," Brooke said. "Chinese. Mom had an investment meeting and Dad didn't want to cook."
Val grinned and put down the book she was reading for Literature. It wasn't a very well known book, but it was a "classic representation of true friends and double-crossers", which was probably what appealed to Mrs. Hobbins. The Hobbit adored stories where A double-crossed B and then B was wary but C confessed his/her love for B. None of the students argued with the Hobbit's love of romance since she was highly apt to throw them in detention for two weeks. The book, entitled Torn Promises, involved a girl who was assaulted by her "boyfriend" and then the guy who had a crush on her saved her from him and promised to be her best friend but then he had a crush on her except she wasn't ready to trust him yet and…
Or something like that.
Val exited the room without a second glance at the book lying innocently on her bedspread.
Prophecies are real, read the line the book was opened to. Watch out—the fortune-teller may be right after all.
*
"'You will be rich in your future life'," read Brooke, unfolding the slip of paper. She and Val were sitting on their beds, reading fortune cookies. Val laughed.
"I didn't know you were going to be reincarnated," she teased. "But think about it—you may have a future life in which you're the single mother of six living in a trailer park, how do you feel about that?"
Brooke stuck her tongue out and popped part of the fortune cookie into her mouth. "I like the cookie better than the fortune," she informed her older sister. "Open yours."
Val broke the cookie and extracted the paper.
"'You will be hurt, but don't give in. There's someone out there who cares'? I thought these were supposed to be happy fortunes!" Val exclaimed. Brooke shrugged.
"Probably some guy who had too much beer," Brooke said. "I mean, at least someone out there cares about you."
"Yeah, who do you think that would be?" Val asked. Her sister grinned.
"Tyler and Val, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G—" She was cut off by a pillow launched at her head. "Hey!"
"Tyler and I have no relationship!" insisted Val, ducking the pillow flying through the air. She picked up another pillow.
"Okay, okay, I won't, I won't," Brooke said, holding out her own pillow in protection. "Except you have to admit, you are crushing and he is kind of—"
"Pillow fight!" shrieked Val. Brooke yelped and hid behind her bed, sweeping her pillows down with her. Val copied her, building a makeshift fortress.
The fortune floated listlessly to the floor.
*
"No way, Caitie," Val argued, walking down the hall alongside her best friend. "Raw sprouts carry E. Coli. Hot dogs carry hoof and mouth disease."
"Like that's so much better?"
"No, but—"
"See, I think you should become a vegetarian," Caitie said. "Because then you wouldn't catch hoof and mouth or mad cow disease." She spun the combination lock as she reached her locker. "And just stay away from the sprouts."
Val didn't answer.
"Who is that?" she asked, staring at the locker bank two down from her. Caitie followed her gaze.
"He's new in my Social Studies class," the 5' 2" girl identified. "He makes Mrs. Wilson's lectures a lot more interesting."
"Oh, shut up."
"His name's Danny—Danny Carmichael, I think." Caitie went back to getting her books from her locker. "Ew. Jamie needs to stop storing his junk in here." She held out the offensive item, a chicken sandwich, something she didn't know Jamie brought to school. Val was still looking at the guy, leaning past Caitie in an attempt to get a better glance—
"Ouch." She fell over, landing on the tile floor in the middle of the hallway. Caitie laughed. Danny turned.
"Good position," commented Caitie. Val groaned as the guy started to walk over.
"You all right?" he asked, stretching out a hand. Val nodded.
"Yeah, I'm—um—fine." Oh, great. Now she was getting dizzy. Of course, that was probably because his eyes were an amazing color of amber flecked with gold and his hair was a rich brown and he was incredibly cute and—
Oh. Her feet were on the ground. Good, that meant she was off the floor.
"I'm Danny Carmichael," he said. Caitie was proud of herself—she had remembered his name correctly.
"I'm—well, I'm—I mean—" The words Val Lanier would not come twisting around her lips, no matter how hard she tried. "Val Lanier," she managed.
"Cool. So I guess I'll see you around," he said with a smile. Val nodded.
"Yeah, see you."
He walked down the hall. Val slumped against her locker.
"Okay, Val, you can snap out of it now," said Caitie, tapping on Val's head. Val bent and began to pick up her books.
"He's cute," Val told Caitie. "Really, really, really cute. Cuter than Billy."
"Heck, everyone's cuter than a pit viper," Caitie laughed. "Hey, come on. English time!"
Val stood with the rest of her books. "Oh, yeah. Have you read all of chapter one yet?"
"Yeah, but it took me forever. I mean, the first three chapters are like 90 pages each!" Caitie grimaced and shut her locker. "I was so sick of Allis by the end of the chapter."
"At least she wasn't an idiot who still liked Bruce," Val said. "That would have really been annoying."
"True. And Cole was cool…"
"Yeah."
Val slammed her locker closed and started towards their English class with Caitie.
*
"I got a date! A fantastic date! With a fantastic person!" exclaimed Val happily, walking into the station.
"Huh?" Hank asked, shooting a glance at Tyler, who had sort of turned green at Val's words.
"I mean, I'm going out with Danny Carmichael," clarified Val. "For dinner."
"Is he that new guy?" asked Hank. "He sits two rows back in Social Studies."
"He's a senior. I think somehow his old school didn't have a Social Studies class, so he had to enter it a grade lower here," explained Val, sitting down on the couch and opening her Algebra textbook.
"Or he just failed the class," Tyler whispered to Hank, who hid a laugh with his hand. Val looked up.
"What?" she asked accusingly. "Now what?"
"Nothing," Hank covered, the picture of innocence as he looked back at Death of a Salesman. Hank was lucky enough not to have to read the Hobbit's Torn Promises, being the only squad member not in her class. Well, Jamie was reading Farewell Forever, but he was still in her class. Mrs. Hobbins did all the required books, like Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, and The Great Gatsby, but romance was her preferred genre, and all students in her classes had gotten used to it by now.
"You need help?" Tyler asked Val, looking at her textbook. She nodded, ceasing to talk about Danny to Tyler's joy.
"Inequalities containing absolute value," she said, scowling at the textbook, "were invented by the devil."
"What's the problem?"
"'On a quiz show, a contestant has to guess the price of a new car to win. The contestant must come within a certain amount of the actual price, which is $9826. A, Define a variable for the price the opponent guesses. Write an absolute value expression for the difference between this and the actual price.' Which would be |x – 9826|. I get that. Then B. 'Write an inequality saying that the guess must be within $150 of the actual price. Inclusive. Solve the inequality to find range of guesses for which the contestant will win.' And I tried solving that but it makes no sense."
"You're making it harder on yourself," Tyler informed her, taking her notebook and examining the scribbles. "All you have to really do is plus or minus 150 from 9826."
"That's all?" Val asked disbelievingly. "But that's so… easy."
"You want to do the next problem and see why it's hard for you?" he asked. She nodded and a chill ran up her spine as he leaned over. True, she liked Danny a lot, but she still had a crush on Tyler. Hopefully Danny would solve that, because she didn't like having a crush on someone she couldn't have. It was giving up, sure, but once in a while, a person had to give up. Tyler would probably hate her forever if she said she liked him.
I'll tell her I like her soon, thought Tyler, pointing out the wording to Val in problem number 11. I can't just go on like this. Tomorrow, or maybe the next day. Soon. Before Danny hurts her. He's dangerous… I'm probably just jealous, but he seems dangerous. I heard what happened at his previous school. I don't want him to do that to Val.
A look at Val's face, her eyes thoughtful as she thought about the problem, told him he was right. Sure, she'd hate him forever, but it might save her from Danny.
"Yeah, that's right," Tyler said, smiling. "You got it exactly right. Good job."
"Thanks," Val said. "All right, in number 13, do you add 709 to 83 or 46?…"
Please don't hate me forever. I like you. A lot. Please don't hate me.
Okay, if that doesn't make much sense, sorry. This story might not be great, and I know I'm overestimating Tyler and Val's feelings in, like, all of my stories, but deal. And Val is going to be VERY Out Of Character later. She has to be for the story. Sorry.
And the title is messed up. Ah well. Life. I can't think of a gripping title. The other choices were 'Illusions', 'Promises Are Promises', and 'Torn'. So… I was leaning towards Torn, but I'll just live with this one.
IVY
PS – The math problem is about a seventh or eighth grader's level. Sorry. I just wanted to let you know I am aware it's WAY underage for an eleventh grader.
