"Get up, get up!" came a rather scratchy voice from a tall figure looming
over a girl in bed. The girl's face was in her pillow and long black untidy
curls were so entangled it resembled a weed patch. Quickly the light went
on in the room and the poor teenager's eyes were welcomed quite blindly.
"Why am I so tired.?" came a groggy voice as the girl forced herself to endure a blood rush in the head. Her mother pushed open the closet door across the room and pulled out an old suitcase.
"Get yourself dressed and ready to leave the house. Bring at least 5 day's worth of clothes, good ones you like too," announced the mother sternly before leaving the room. "Mom, what's going on?" asked the bewildered daughter as she tried to read the blurry digital clock. 4:13 AM! "Sweet Jesus, someone is an early bird!" she shrieked as she bounded out of bed and into the hallway.
The sight of a lamp tipped over, blood splattered against the wall, broken beer bottles and anything else resembling destruction scared her. Running towards the other end of the mobile home she ran headfirst into her stupid brother, Aaron. He cussed a storm and let himself be heard with his loud voice, "The hell is your problem?" His sister shook her head in a dazzled confusion of bright lights and lack of meaning to the events. "C'mon, Morgan, get yourself ready!"
Morgan, which was the girl's name, stood up to the best of her ability and stood her ground. "First, tell me what the bloody hell is going on!" As you can see, they both used the word 'hell' many times. Aaron laughed his usual 'cool dude' way before replying, "Aren't you REGISTERING anything?? It's dad's fucking drunkenness again, mom can't handle it anymore. We are moving."
This shot like electricity to the teenager and she shrieked, "MOVING? WHERE?" By this time their mother had noticed the slight interruption in packing and stammered towards the scene at her bedroom door.
"For Christ's sake, can't anyone follow a simple order in this house? GET A MOVE ON," she commanded. Aaron simply pushed his sister out of his way and made towards the hallway which branched both their rooms and the tiny bathroom.
Morgan retreated from the evil look her mom shot her and ran towards the bedrooms. "Aaron, please just let me know where we are headed!" Aaron quickly opened his cheap manufactured white door and whispered, "Reno, Nevada." Morgan wanted to laugh a fit of complete idiocy at the fact that they were moving to the last state she expected.
Never did she think of her last visit there except to try and figure out the jumbled memories as they were so confusing. Having only been a simple 7 year old with an 8 year old brother she couldn't really recollect the thoughts from a decade ago. All she could remember was the Silver Legacy casino, a memorial on the side of the road, and eating at a restaurant inside Silver Legacy. Also a brief drive at night through the city at sight of the Circus clown but that was it.
Without further ado she tried to muffle her excitement, fear, confusion, anger, annoyance and of course the tiring feeling of only 6 hours of sleep. Morgan pulled out familiar outfits she usually wore daily to school with pride and stuffed them into her suitcase. Never did she wear anything 'plain' or 'common' to the average American. Most of her stuff was bought in Hot Topic and she recommended the subculture 'Punk' as identification to her attire.
From pinned up ties to Converse All Star Hi-tops, she was a sight to behold. Packing Dickies, a pant brand, she grabbed her black, red, dark blue, and tan colored skirts, pants, and khakis which made themselves settled at the bottom of her suitcase. Along with that was her black colored thongs, socks, and sport bras (her embarrassment of the big boobs she possessed) also went in.
She grabbed all her make-up, hair gel, shirts, pajamas, boxers, shorts, and simpler things as arm-warmers and studded bracelets before zipping up. One problem the girl had was never brushing her teeth and she recognized the habit with no consideration. Packing shampoo, deodorant, conditioner and soap she felt complete. After all, wouldn't the rest of her crap get moved in one of those orange trucks?
Feeling a bit under the weather she forced herself to wear all black clothing which matched her black hair and pale face. It was a bit funny since she decided to wear a black cape to go with it with a hood over.
None of her family objected to the different clothing style she wore as Morgan was labeled 'expressive' and was interested in an acting career anyways. She claims, as her mother calls it, it helps her develop different character tastes.
All three of them packed the luggage into the small trunk of their four seat silver colored car and squished into the low seats. Morgan hated the car since it was a year 2000 and getting a bit dirty from lack of car washes.
As most families seated children, Morgan being the baby of the family was forced to sit in a backseat behind her mom. While her brother comfortably rested his feet on the dashboard and leaned the backrest a few inches. Morgan shot him a look of envy but slowly put her seatbelt on and let their mom give a lecture.
"You are a pair of fucking adults that, in my book, would understand what happened last night. Rick actually decided to come over with himself completely intoxicated of alcohol and harass me. As you know, both of us are divorced and doing anything personal is pretty rude. The damn brute decided to bribe me into some sex as he was feeling hard in the reproductive area and I rejected. As you ALSO know, he has an anger problem and decided to see if he could kill me I guess. I ended up being lucky since his aim was pretty shitty with the beer in his veins so I ended up pushing him out of the door with a bit of thought. Damn fucker will be back I suppose but I'd rather be gone then have to let you two see the fight."
Aaron snickered as he always did when the family did something that was ranked 'cool' in an anarchist's mind. "That's something to tell my buds at- "Morgan interrupted, "I'm sorry you put up with this, mom. I just don't understand why I didn't hear any crashing." Their mother sighed longingly as she pulled out of the driveway and stopped at the mailbox.
"Well, shit, I got quite a few bills. Oh, Morgan you got your edition of Guitar World for this month and some letter from Poetry.com." she mumbled as she threw the magazine and letter into the backseat. Aaron grumbled, "Where's my porn?" This always insulted their mom so deeply because their father had been addicted once in his life. "Don't EVER joke about such a dirty habit, Aaron!"
Morgan added, "Yeah, I don't want to admit I'm related to you when that happens." Aaron shrugged his shoulders, rolled down the window, and pulled out some Camel cigarettes. It pleased his sister to see that he only had 2 left in the pack as this always angered him.
"Can we stop by that gas station near the factory, mom?" he begged his mother who was very focused on the road. "If you have money, cigarettes are not 40 cents anymore." Morgan replied with her own sarcasm, "I just love the smell of pollution at 5:00 in the morning!" Aaron turned around and sneered at his sister, "Fuck you and Greenpeace." Luckily Morgan's mom was a vegan and a retired hippy, "Don't you care about anything but your own pleasures, son?" Aaron gleefully shook his head and waved out the window at his gothic friends.
"Let me guess, about half of those freaks can claim they are vampires and wolverines," scoffed Morgan as she glared at the 8 kids walking by a cornfield. Aaron shot them a metal sign as they turned at the stoplight, "Dude, open your mind up. Let me guess, God never created half-breeds?"
Unfortunately, Morgan's mom always seemed to laugh at his sarcastic bull crap and gave him credit. Without further ado, Morgan was pissed and leaned over the empty seat to roll the window down. Immediately her head was greeted by an uglier girl of the gang, "Oh look, it's the Good Charlotte fan!"
Aaron yelled back, "I love you, Crystal!" Evidently, the girl shot back her version of the metal sign and glared once more at Morgan. "Least I don't resemble thrown out garbage," his sister called back.
Their mom rolled her eyes but didn't say anything; as a matter of fact she enjoyed it. But to everyone in the car's surprise, the gang actually walked over the right most lane and stood in front of the car doors. "What was that again?" the short pudgy figure of Crystal replied, she was almost drowned in a large black Cradle of Filth hoodie.
Morgan flipped all eight of the kids off and listened annoyed as Aaron made short conversation. "We are moving to Nevada." The darkest looking of all of them shook his head pissed, "All of us are going to miss you. Are you still going to play some Everquest?" Morgan always hated his addiction to such a weird computer game.
Aaron shrugged and looked with a puppy dog face toward his mom who was ignoring him rather well. "I don't know, Sirius that depends." Morgan snorted a laugh and said, "Sirius? Don't tell me you are a Harry Potter fan!" Most of the gang glared at her and nodded. Morgan herself was a fan but she didn't think that anyone would give themselves character nicknames.
"Shut up, hag. It's a lot more gothic then Fred," he snapped. Aaron blushed at the fact that the road was blocked and people were honking. "Well, see you guys, I'll call once we get into Silver Legacy, okay?" Most of them nodded as their mother finally sped away.
"SILVER LEGACY? That casino we stayed at?" blurted Morgan. Her mom nodded slowly, "Of course dear, I can afford the prices there. Plus there's plenty of circus acts for you guys to drool over and I can get some good gambling done."
Aaron had his own friends in Reno since he drove there once every month or two. Even claimed he had a slut of a girlfriend who was a famous porn star. Yeah right, Morgan thought.
"Open your fucking letters," announced her brother as he broke the 25 minute silence. Morgan flinched and looked down at them, "I only have one for your information."
"Can I look at the Guitar World? I'd like to drool over a few hot babes," he replied. Morgan rolled her eyes, "Dude, that's the stupid magazine that sells guitars. I'm reading the INTERESTING issues!"
"Just read your magazine and Aaron keep to yourself," interrupted their mom. Morgan looked out the window at the highway; at least they were almost to Boise.
Then it dawned on her. "Um, mom, doesn't Aaron usually go through Marsing?" Aaron laughed, "I love the dumb confusion you always have." "It's called an airport, honey. I'm not driving 7 hours. Not to run away from a ex- husband," calmly came the rough voice of her mother.
"I haven't been there for 10 years, people! I don't have five billion friends like my freak of a brother," Morgan barked. Aaron snickered again as usual, "That's six billion, get it right!"
Morgan with boredom opened her magazine with interest as it had Metallica in shiny silver writing on the front. The other letter was a copied advertisement she had already received and she let it drop to the car floor.
Sooner or later they pulled into the airport parking lot and, with luggage, pulled themselves down the elevator and into the building. Morgan wondered where her poor mom got the money and guessed she was to use their dad's bank account.
Whatever worked? Aaron however, was having the time of his life as he made himself comfortable with a stewardess. Typical blonde haired, blue eyed, big boobs, slim and tanned with uniform attracted him. Morgan herself examined boys that stood in line for ticket purchase and walked out of the airport. None were punk enough, dark enough, tall enough, or even cute looking.
Sitting on her suitcase she made herself comfortable with a brief read of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Morgan's color had always been blue and she loved examining the cover as it was dark and neat looking. Aaron never read and she felt sympathy for the lack of imagination he even owned.
7 minute later, their mom, Carol, had a big smile on her face as she walked from the counter with 3 tickets and purse in hand. "C'mon kids, we got a flight at 7:45, I suggest getting yourselves amused." Morgan sighed once again and with her blue book in hand she dragged the suitcase towards their destination.
C10 was their take off point and Morgan seated herself by the window, she loved looking at the planes. Carol made conversation with a black man at the desk and Aaron was flirting with a gothic girl reading Anne of Green Gables.
Without interest for either Harry Potter or Guitar World she stuffed them into her suitcase and sat in the bench. A boy with brown curly hair had made himself comfortable about two seats from Morgan. When he saw her with nothing to do he edged closer to her and greeted, "Hey, babe, what's with you hanging out here all by yourself?"
Morgan could already sense him trying moves and pointed absently to the pair about 20 feet from where she sat. This didn't cut him off though, "I see, do you live in Boise?" "No, I live in Reno, Nevada," came a quiet voice.
"Reno? Wow, you aren't one of those Idaho hicks then are you?" he asked trying to kiss her ass. Morgan finally looked at him square in the face, "That isn't your business, sir." Standing up she made herself comfortable on a long blue bench in the middle of traffic outside their waiting room.
Aaron caught notice that his sister had left and let himself get a bit more flirty with his new acquaintance. Their mom, on the other hand, had herself shouting insults towards George Bush and the war.
20 minutes later and there were 7 others standing around the check out desk and also adding their worthless tidbits about the topic. Morgan was deep in sleep and even the fact that her brother was sex driven left her mind.
Finally their plane arrived and Morgan let herself return to the window and look at it. It was smaller but still looked comfortable, she wondered if they were to sit in the cabin or 1st class. Morgan never sat in the 1st class even with a record of 50 airplanes under her belt.
After the crew aboard the plane prepared the compartments for the airport's customers, the 1st class was attended to. As usual, Thermopolis was not listed in the category but she was still treated with a more front row seat, E2.
Aaron quickly went on board with his gothic girl and Morgan found it rather dumb that they both were given neighboring seats. Even the window seat was not handled to her and she watched as her mother took a seat further back. Morgan seated herself absently into the grey colored seat and gazed into the morning light.
Watching men clad in orange tow the luggage cart towards the airplane she didn't notice someone standing quite close to her. A simple matter of the person stuffing luggage into the compartments above her made Morgan notice anything. She expected some fat old business man; aged around 60, wearing a vest and khakis was going to stand there.
Instead it was a rather interesting person. very unexpected indeed. If you were to put a character label on him you might mention Professor Snape from Harry Potter. He was rather tall, maybe 6 feet, with shoulder length jet black hair. One striking feature was his crooked nose; even the white colored skin gave her shock. This boy had hollow cheeks, thin tightly pressed lips, a pointy chin, black colored eyes, and small eyebrows.
It wasn't really his face that shocked her, it was his attire. Instead of a usual shirt and pants this boy wore black flowing robes. It looked formal- like, even the wizard style long sleeves were present.
Morgan couldn't help but gawk at his presence before he made a comment, "Excuse me." Then reality fell upon her head like an anvil, "Sorry!" she announced and scrunched her legs to one side. She could feel only the brush of rather thick robes on her knees as he squeezed himself by the window.
A couple that looked as if they just returned from Australia was looking at the stranger with great curiosity. Morgan smiled slowly just to cover the nervousness before putting on the cheap seatbelt.
Soon an Asian stewardess with pretty hair appeared and announced the usual seatbelt code, air rules, and they had to fasten themselves up. Also the pilot announced his thanks for flying Boise Airlines and was 'honored' to fly them to Reno that day.
After a yucky attempt at killing the pressure inside her ears and a return of flat flying after their take off, she made conversation. The stranger was reading calmly in an magazine about Lord of the Rings swords and Elven jewelry. "Don't tell me you are a victim to the fantasy genre too." Morgan said with air.
She wondered if this interruption offended him as he closed the magazine rather quickly and stuffed it into the pocket of the seat. Morgan was then offended herself when he simply turned his head and looked out the small window. "Light is not my idea of comfort," he said, his deep voice aroused her.
Simply pulling the shade down over the window he looked at the back of a bald guy's head in front. Morgan was filled with questions about his attire and why he acted in such a manner. Even Aaron would of felt odd hanging out with this gothic wizard.
"Where are you from?" Morgan asked him, even if it was the most common question to ask onboard a flight. The boy breathed in loudly before stating, "They call it Reno, Nevada." Scratching her head she shot him a confused look even if he was staring at the seat.
"I gave you an answer," he said again with his wonderful voice. Morgan wanted to do a back flip or scream with delight. "Seriously, why are you dressed like that?" He let his gaze wonder to the once open window but now it was closed by a dirty grey plastic cover, "I choose to dress this way. I don't get why you would choose to dress the way you are right now."
Morgan was always thrown comments about her great big personality in clothing, "I'll try and help you understand. I'm a very expressive person and feel like this is just some pathetic way to promote that feeling." Finally after some difficult silent treatment, he looked up at her, "You need to understand that I'm a weirdo. been ever since the days I was first introduced to wizard fantasy. Their clothing fascinated me so I took the habit of dressing like them."
Morgan actually smiled at him, it was hard since his dark eyes practically swallowed her whole, "That's so cool. I'm in the same boat I suppose. my interests in life are situated with my clothing. What is your name because I don't want to be calling you Professor Snape or anything." The man chuckled, "You actually know who he is?" Nodding rather aggressively she let herself overflow with excitement, "He's only the most amazing character in the world! I've never seen such a great mixture of personality, looks, background, attitude, and history! I love the actor who plays him too. names Alan Rickman. Probably my favorite actor. makes Snape such a sexy guy."
She could see his embarrassment at the word 'sexy' but he listened anyways. "I thought you wanted to know my name." Morgan shrugged her shoulders, "That isn't too important if you'll keep me in conversations that I don't need to know your name." He kept his black eyes on her, searching for an explanation to such a giddy and unique individual, "My name is Seth. Yours?"
At the mention of his name was a strong hit on her chest, she could never from that moment on figure out why. It was also hard to find the sound in her vocal cords to admit her own identification, "Morgan-Thermopolis." Seth was looking at her now with a face of interest, "Thermopolis? Can you explain to me where you got such a surname?"
Morgan was confused, no one had ever really cared about her rather powerful name, "That has something to do with anything?" Seth answered, "Of course it does, I'm just curious as to what the name means." About ready to pull her hair out in complete confusion she admitted, "I'm sorry, I, myself, am not really sure. I guess it's a European name?"
Seth didn't seem to comprehend, "European? Is that some sort of city?" Then it hit Morgan, was this guy some sort of idiot? "That actually is a continent, sir. Are you considered clinically insane?" Seth shook his head slowly. Was she finally getting somewhere on his little joke?
"Hey you two. what do you want to drink and munch on?" came a snappy voice to the pair. Morgan broke her stare from Seth's eyes and laid them on the newcomer who just turned out to be a rather grumpy steward, "I guess some Sprite and those weird cracker things you guys have handed out before."
Immediately the man went to getting a short plastic cup filled with ice and handed her the Sprite can along with a blue colored bag of snacks. Morgan pulled out the tray latched unto the seat in front of her, being another boring color of grey, and set the accessories in order. Seth looked completely clueless and speechless as the man looked at him with impatience. "Sir, is there a problem with trying to order a simple meal?"
Morgan wanted to laugh at the silence that began to rule over the situation but Seth just copied his neighbor's order. This didn't seem to bug the steward but she spotted him glance a few times towards Seth and his outfit. After Morgan helped with unlocking the tray and setting out the meal comfortably for her acquaintance, the man stopped himself from moving down the aisle.
Looking with suspicion upon the robe wearing boy he asked slowly, "Is there a reason you are dressed so funny?" Seth was boring a stare so menacing into the steward for the next 7 seconds that Morgan wanted to freeze in nervousness, "Oh funny huh? Mind your own business!" That was the first time Morgan or any of the plane heard the weird man speak over the normal tone. It didn't scare the steward away unfortunately as he shot his own glares then headed towards the pilot deck. "Oh shit, now you've done it. Probably think you are another Bin Laden or something."
Seth was unable to recognize her remark as anything close to anything he knew and kept his mouth shut. Morgan popped open the bag of snacks which ended up being pretzel pieces, cheese crackers, yucky breakfast cereal and barbeque chips.
"What in Ariana's name is this???" came a frustrated voice beside her. Morgan looked and saw a grossed out expression as he tried to munch on his own snack. "Ariana? Who the hell?" Seth coughed as if he was choking on the food! The bald guy in front of them startled and turned around, almost squishing the backrest against Seth's pole-like body.
"Beg your pardon, do you need help?" the man asked, his voice low and gruff. Morgan was barely able to breathe right with her heart beat going up, "No shit, Sherlock. Can't you see the poor guy's choking on airline food?"
"God, Morgan, who the fuck you sitting by?" shouted a voice almost right in her ear. This one wasn't unfamiliar though, it was the sarcastic voice of her brother. Morgan did want to scream and rip the limbs of everyone who was giving her such stupid attention but this was immediate.
Morgan unbuckled herself, ignoring with best efforts her brother and his gothic girl and opened up a pop can. Pouring Sprite into the cup was not easy as she shook of fear and the attention drove her nuts. Seth was still coughing rather aggressively with great sound, making himself clench hard into the armrests.
"Get your lard ass off him!" she screamed over the mumbling of spectators. The bald man was shocked but he let himself return to a normal sitting position. The gothic girl was busily cowering by Aaron with both her fishnet arms around his neck. At least it held her brother back from trying to interfere with the scene.
"Drink this, please! It fizzes a bit but it helps because it's liquid!" called Morgan even if her language sounded somewhat jumbled. Seth's eyes were open and he looked so worried and . angry. Morgan didn't take too much time to ponder over his expression that he wore as she chugged the pop down his small mouth.
Luckily he expected it and started to drink slowly, in between coughs which brought lots of water out of his mouth. Morgan pushed herself back and with both arms out, "Give him breathing room, I'm sure he needs some."
Then all of a sudden, when less needed, the pilot and the steward both showed up. "I've been reported about questionable behavior onboard my flight, I'd like a word with this man if you don't mind." Why was Morgan so angry at everyone's bluntness, "I'm sorry, PILOT, but we have a problem to deal with at the moment."
The steward was chuckling at the scene and had to give a smart ass remark about it too, "They tell me a terrorist never really was able to eat like a normal human being, I can understand since their job makes them dogs anyways."
The gothic girl landed her large combat boot onto the leather shoe the steward wore which ended in a screech and a pilot waving his arms frantically around.
"Gosh this flight is a JOY ride," called out somebody among the crowd. Morgan quit standing among the staring faces and sat calmly near the overwhelmed boy. Seth was still digging his sharp nails into the chair arms in stress and anger. Without further ado, and anyone could call human instinct, she placed her own hand onto the back of his own.
It was the weirdest feeling on earth she says. A buzz of electricity swarmed through Morgan's veins as if she was overtaken by some sort of force. Feeling refreshed, jumpstarted, and very uplifting she couldn't help but smile.
"Holy shit, Morgan is drugged. What did they do to my sister?" Aaron called in sarcasm. No one else was moving, they noticed a blue outline coming over Morgan's figure which was stunning in itself. Morgan wasn't moving either, her eyes were open in a happy sense of day dream, staring into nothing. The rest of her body was sitting as if turned to stone but her hand caressed Seth's in hope of calming him.
Seth looked even more tense as he let his face scrunch up into . anger? Everyone had their eyes focused on his face because of the curious expressions. Morgan was even wondering if the whole effort of her care was working to calm him down.
Aaron pushed the pilot and steward away and let himself near his sister, laying a large guitar worn figure on Morgan's shoulder. Feeling a static shock he retreated back, "He's done something to her! Help!" Everyone was now being revealed the true behavior of insecurity that Aaron was well able to hide.
"SOMEONE! PLEASE! Help me, my sister. she's the only one I've got. I'm sure he's sucking energy out of her or taking over her body--."
"Pipe down, will ya?" came the pilot's commanding voice, "I want everyone- ."
All of a sudden Seth released the arm chair and let his hand fall into Morgan's own. This was a brief scene as all of a sudden thunder sounded in the distance and both disappeared.
Even the seatbelt on the window seat was still buckled. "MORGAN!" Aaron screamed, dropping to his knees and crying with much drama. The gothic girl, now known as Ariel was big eyed, "I knew that he'd do something so stupid as that!"
Everyone who heard her remark stared in the voice's direction, "You know what he did?" Ariel was red in the cheeks now and backed away, pulling Aaron up with her even if it was with some difficulty. "DON'T YOU CARE THAT MY SISTER IS GONE???" he cried.
This even brought the rest of the plane stewards and Morgan's mother. "The hell is going on?..." The pilot lifted his hands in the air, "EVERYONE return to your seats! I'm going to have to land this plane and question witnesses, including you," he barked at Ariel.
Aaron finally let himself be dragged with the girl enough to just let everyone feel sympathetic for him. No one really did.
"Why am I so tired.?" came a groggy voice as the girl forced herself to endure a blood rush in the head. Her mother pushed open the closet door across the room and pulled out an old suitcase.
"Get yourself dressed and ready to leave the house. Bring at least 5 day's worth of clothes, good ones you like too," announced the mother sternly before leaving the room. "Mom, what's going on?" asked the bewildered daughter as she tried to read the blurry digital clock. 4:13 AM! "Sweet Jesus, someone is an early bird!" she shrieked as she bounded out of bed and into the hallway.
The sight of a lamp tipped over, blood splattered against the wall, broken beer bottles and anything else resembling destruction scared her. Running towards the other end of the mobile home she ran headfirst into her stupid brother, Aaron. He cussed a storm and let himself be heard with his loud voice, "The hell is your problem?" His sister shook her head in a dazzled confusion of bright lights and lack of meaning to the events. "C'mon, Morgan, get yourself ready!"
Morgan, which was the girl's name, stood up to the best of her ability and stood her ground. "First, tell me what the bloody hell is going on!" As you can see, they both used the word 'hell' many times. Aaron laughed his usual 'cool dude' way before replying, "Aren't you REGISTERING anything?? It's dad's fucking drunkenness again, mom can't handle it anymore. We are moving."
This shot like electricity to the teenager and she shrieked, "MOVING? WHERE?" By this time their mother had noticed the slight interruption in packing and stammered towards the scene at her bedroom door.
"For Christ's sake, can't anyone follow a simple order in this house? GET A MOVE ON," she commanded. Aaron simply pushed his sister out of his way and made towards the hallway which branched both their rooms and the tiny bathroom.
Morgan retreated from the evil look her mom shot her and ran towards the bedrooms. "Aaron, please just let me know where we are headed!" Aaron quickly opened his cheap manufactured white door and whispered, "Reno, Nevada." Morgan wanted to laugh a fit of complete idiocy at the fact that they were moving to the last state she expected.
Never did she think of her last visit there except to try and figure out the jumbled memories as they were so confusing. Having only been a simple 7 year old with an 8 year old brother she couldn't really recollect the thoughts from a decade ago. All she could remember was the Silver Legacy casino, a memorial on the side of the road, and eating at a restaurant inside Silver Legacy. Also a brief drive at night through the city at sight of the Circus clown but that was it.
Without further ado she tried to muffle her excitement, fear, confusion, anger, annoyance and of course the tiring feeling of only 6 hours of sleep. Morgan pulled out familiar outfits she usually wore daily to school with pride and stuffed them into her suitcase. Never did she wear anything 'plain' or 'common' to the average American. Most of her stuff was bought in Hot Topic and she recommended the subculture 'Punk' as identification to her attire.
From pinned up ties to Converse All Star Hi-tops, she was a sight to behold. Packing Dickies, a pant brand, she grabbed her black, red, dark blue, and tan colored skirts, pants, and khakis which made themselves settled at the bottom of her suitcase. Along with that was her black colored thongs, socks, and sport bras (her embarrassment of the big boobs she possessed) also went in.
She grabbed all her make-up, hair gel, shirts, pajamas, boxers, shorts, and simpler things as arm-warmers and studded bracelets before zipping up. One problem the girl had was never brushing her teeth and she recognized the habit with no consideration. Packing shampoo, deodorant, conditioner and soap she felt complete. After all, wouldn't the rest of her crap get moved in one of those orange trucks?
Feeling a bit under the weather she forced herself to wear all black clothing which matched her black hair and pale face. It was a bit funny since she decided to wear a black cape to go with it with a hood over.
None of her family objected to the different clothing style she wore as Morgan was labeled 'expressive' and was interested in an acting career anyways. She claims, as her mother calls it, it helps her develop different character tastes.
All three of them packed the luggage into the small trunk of their four seat silver colored car and squished into the low seats. Morgan hated the car since it was a year 2000 and getting a bit dirty from lack of car washes.
As most families seated children, Morgan being the baby of the family was forced to sit in a backseat behind her mom. While her brother comfortably rested his feet on the dashboard and leaned the backrest a few inches. Morgan shot him a look of envy but slowly put her seatbelt on and let their mom give a lecture.
"You are a pair of fucking adults that, in my book, would understand what happened last night. Rick actually decided to come over with himself completely intoxicated of alcohol and harass me. As you know, both of us are divorced and doing anything personal is pretty rude. The damn brute decided to bribe me into some sex as he was feeling hard in the reproductive area and I rejected. As you ALSO know, he has an anger problem and decided to see if he could kill me I guess. I ended up being lucky since his aim was pretty shitty with the beer in his veins so I ended up pushing him out of the door with a bit of thought. Damn fucker will be back I suppose but I'd rather be gone then have to let you two see the fight."
Aaron snickered as he always did when the family did something that was ranked 'cool' in an anarchist's mind. "That's something to tell my buds at- "Morgan interrupted, "I'm sorry you put up with this, mom. I just don't understand why I didn't hear any crashing." Their mother sighed longingly as she pulled out of the driveway and stopped at the mailbox.
"Well, shit, I got quite a few bills. Oh, Morgan you got your edition of Guitar World for this month and some letter from Poetry.com." she mumbled as she threw the magazine and letter into the backseat. Aaron grumbled, "Where's my porn?" This always insulted their mom so deeply because their father had been addicted once in his life. "Don't EVER joke about such a dirty habit, Aaron!"
Morgan added, "Yeah, I don't want to admit I'm related to you when that happens." Aaron shrugged his shoulders, rolled down the window, and pulled out some Camel cigarettes. It pleased his sister to see that he only had 2 left in the pack as this always angered him.
"Can we stop by that gas station near the factory, mom?" he begged his mother who was very focused on the road. "If you have money, cigarettes are not 40 cents anymore." Morgan replied with her own sarcasm, "I just love the smell of pollution at 5:00 in the morning!" Aaron turned around and sneered at his sister, "Fuck you and Greenpeace." Luckily Morgan's mom was a vegan and a retired hippy, "Don't you care about anything but your own pleasures, son?" Aaron gleefully shook his head and waved out the window at his gothic friends.
"Let me guess, about half of those freaks can claim they are vampires and wolverines," scoffed Morgan as she glared at the 8 kids walking by a cornfield. Aaron shot them a metal sign as they turned at the stoplight, "Dude, open your mind up. Let me guess, God never created half-breeds?"
Unfortunately, Morgan's mom always seemed to laugh at his sarcastic bull crap and gave him credit. Without further ado, Morgan was pissed and leaned over the empty seat to roll the window down. Immediately her head was greeted by an uglier girl of the gang, "Oh look, it's the Good Charlotte fan!"
Aaron yelled back, "I love you, Crystal!" Evidently, the girl shot back her version of the metal sign and glared once more at Morgan. "Least I don't resemble thrown out garbage," his sister called back.
Their mom rolled her eyes but didn't say anything; as a matter of fact she enjoyed it. But to everyone in the car's surprise, the gang actually walked over the right most lane and stood in front of the car doors. "What was that again?" the short pudgy figure of Crystal replied, she was almost drowned in a large black Cradle of Filth hoodie.
Morgan flipped all eight of the kids off and listened annoyed as Aaron made short conversation. "We are moving to Nevada." The darkest looking of all of them shook his head pissed, "All of us are going to miss you. Are you still going to play some Everquest?" Morgan always hated his addiction to such a weird computer game.
Aaron shrugged and looked with a puppy dog face toward his mom who was ignoring him rather well. "I don't know, Sirius that depends." Morgan snorted a laugh and said, "Sirius? Don't tell me you are a Harry Potter fan!" Most of the gang glared at her and nodded. Morgan herself was a fan but she didn't think that anyone would give themselves character nicknames.
"Shut up, hag. It's a lot more gothic then Fred," he snapped. Aaron blushed at the fact that the road was blocked and people were honking. "Well, see you guys, I'll call once we get into Silver Legacy, okay?" Most of them nodded as their mother finally sped away.
"SILVER LEGACY? That casino we stayed at?" blurted Morgan. Her mom nodded slowly, "Of course dear, I can afford the prices there. Plus there's plenty of circus acts for you guys to drool over and I can get some good gambling done."
Aaron had his own friends in Reno since he drove there once every month or two. Even claimed he had a slut of a girlfriend who was a famous porn star. Yeah right, Morgan thought.
"Open your fucking letters," announced her brother as he broke the 25 minute silence. Morgan flinched and looked down at them, "I only have one for your information."
"Can I look at the Guitar World? I'd like to drool over a few hot babes," he replied. Morgan rolled her eyes, "Dude, that's the stupid magazine that sells guitars. I'm reading the INTERESTING issues!"
"Just read your magazine and Aaron keep to yourself," interrupted their mom. Morgan looked out the window at the highway; at least they were almost to Boise.
Then it dawned on her. "Um, mom, doesn't Aaron usually go through Marsing?" Aaron laughed, "I love the dumb confusion you always have." "It's called an airport, honey. I'm not driving 7 hours. Not to run away from a ex- husband," calmly came the rough voice of her mother.
"I haven't been there for 10 years, people! I don't have five billion friends like my freak of a brother," Morgan barked. Aaron snickered again as usual, "That's six billion, get it right!"
Morgan with boredom opened her magazine with interest as it had Metallica in shiny silver writing on the front. The other letter was a copied advertisement she had already received and she let it drop to the car floor.
Sooner or later they pulled into the airport parking lot and, with luggage, pulled themselves down the elevator and into the building. Morgan wondered where her poor mom got the money and guessed she was to use their dad's bank account.
Whatever worked? Aaron however, was having the time of his life as he made himself comfortable with a stewardess. Typical blonde haired, blue eyed, big boobs, slim and tanned with uniform attracted him. Morgan herself examined boys that stood in line for ticket purchase and walked out of the airport. None were punk enough, dark enough, tall enough, or even cute looking.
Sitting on her suitcase she made herself comfortable with a brief read of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Morgan's color had always been blue and she loved examining the cover as it was dark and neat looking. Aaron never read and she felt sympathy for the lack of imagination he even owned.
7 minute later, their mom, Carol, had a big smile on her face as she walked from the counter with 3 tickets and purse in hand. "C'mon kids, we got a flight at 7:45, I suggest getting yourselves amused." Morgan sighed once again and with her blue book in hand she dragged the suitcase towards their destination.
C10 was their take off point and Morgan seated herself by the window, she loved looking at the planes. Carol made conversation with a black man at the desk and Aaron was flirting with a gothic girl reading Anne of Green Gables.
Without interest for either Harry Potter or Guitar World she stuffed them into her suitcase and sat in the bench. A boy with brown curly hair had made himself comfortable about two seats from Morgan. When he saw her with nothing to do he edged closer to her and greeted, "Hey, babe, what's with you hanging out here all by yourself?"
Morgan could already sense him trying moves and pointed absently to the pair about 20 feet from where she sat. This didn't cut him off though, "I see, do you live in Boise?" "No, I live in Reno, Nevada," came a quiet voice.
"Reno? Wow, you aren't one of those Idaho hicks then are you?" he asked trying to kiss her ass. Morgan finally looked at him square in the face, "That isn't your business, sir." Standing up she made herself comfortable on a long blue bench in the middle of traffic outside their waiting room.
Aaron caught notice that his sister had left and let himself get a bit more flirty with his new acquaintance. Their mom, on the other hand, had herself shouting insults towards George Bush and the war.
20 minutes later and there were 7 others standing around the check out desk and also adding their worthless tidbits about the topic. Morgan was deep in sleep and even the fact that her brother was sex driven left her mind.
Finally their plane arrived and Morgan let herself return to the window and look at it. It was smaller but still looked comfortable, she wondered if they were to sit in the cabin or 1st class. Morgan never sat in the 1st class even with a record of 50 airplanes under her belt.
After the crew aboard the plane prepared the compartments for the airport's customers, the 1st class was attended to. As usual, Thermopolis was not listed in the category but she was still treated with a more front row seat, E2.
Aaron quickly went on board with his gothic girl and Morgan found it rather dumb that they both were given neighboring seats. Even the window seat was not handled to her and she watched as her mother took a seat further back. Morgan seated herself absently into the grey colored seat and gazed into the morning light.
Watching men clad in orange tow the luggage cart towards the airplane she didn't notice someone standing quite close to her. A simple matter of the person stuffing luggage into the compartments above her made Morgan notice anything. She expected some fat old business man; aged around 60, wearing a vest and khakis was going to stand there.
Instead it was a rather interesting person. very unexpected indeed. If you were to put a character label on him you might mention Professor Snape from Harry Potter. He was rather tall, maybe 6 feet, with shoulder length jet black hair. One striking feature was his crooked nose; even the white colored skin gave her shock. This boy had hollow cheeks, thin tightly pressed lips, a pointy chin, black colored eyes, and small eyebrows.
It wasn't really his face that shocked her, it was his attire. Instead of a usual shirt and pants this boy wore black flowing robes. It looked formal- like, even the wizard style long sleeves were present.
Morgan couldn't help but gawk at his presence before he made a comment, "Excuse me." Then reality fell upon her head like an anvil, "Sorry!" she announced and scrunched her legs to one side. She could feel only the brush of rather thick robes on her knees as he squeezed himself by the window.
A couple that looked as if they just returned from Australia was looking at the stranger with great curiosity. Morgan smiled slowly just to cover the nervousness before putting on the cheap seatbelt.
Soon an Asian stewardess with pretty hair appeared and announced the usual seatbelt code, air rules, and they had to fasten themselves up. Also the pilot announced his thanks for flying Boise Airlines and was 'honored' to fly them to Reno that day.
After a yucky attempt at killing the pressure inside her ears and a return of flat flying after their take off, she made conversation. The stranger was reading calmly in an magazine about Lord of the Rings swords and Elven jewelry. "Don't tell me you are a victim to the fantasy genre too." Morgan said with air.
She wondered if this interruption offended him as he closed the magazine rather quickly and stuffed it into the pocket of the seat. Morgan was then offended herself when he simply turned his head and looked out the small window. "Light is not my idea of comfort," he said, his deep voice aroused her.
Simply pulling the shade down over the window he looked at the back of a bald guy's head in front. Morgan was filled with questions about his attire and why he acted in such a manner. Even Aaron would of felt odd hanging out with this gothic wizard.
"Where are you from?" Morgan asked him, even if it was the most common question to ask onboard a flight. The boy breathed in loudly before stating, "They call it Reno, Nevada." Scratching her head she shot him a confused look even if he was staring at the seat.
"I gave you an answer," he said again with his wonderful voice. Morgan wanted to do a back flip or scream with delight. "Seriously, why are you dressed like that?" He let his gaze wonder to the once open window but now it was closed by a dirty grey plastic cover, "I choose to dress this way. I don't get why you would choose to dress the way you are right now."
Morgan was always thrown comments about her great big personality in clothing, "I'll try and help you understand. I'm a very expressive person and feel like this is just some pathetic way to promote that feeling." Finally after some difficult silent treatment, he looked up at her, "You need to understand that I'm a weirdo. been ever since the days I was first introduced to wizard fantasy. Their clothing fascinated me so I took the habit of dressing like them."
Morgan actually smiled at him, it was hard since his dark eyes practically swallowed her whole, "That's so cool. I'm in the same boat I suppose. my interests in life are situated with my clothing. What is your name because I don't want to be calling you Professor Snape or anything." The man chuckled, "You actually know who he is?" Nodding rather aggressively she let herself overflow with excitement, "He's only the most amazing character in the world! I've never seen such a great mixture of personality, looks, background, attitude, and history! I love the actor who plays him too. names Alan Rickman. Probably my favorite actor. makes Snape such a sexy guy."
She could see his embarrassment at the word 'sexy' but he listened anyways. "I thought you wanted to know my name." Morgan shrugged her shoulders, "That isn't too important if you'll keep me in conversations that I don't need to know your name." He kept his black eyes on her, searching for an explanation to such a giddy and unique individual, "My name is Seth. Yours?"
At the mention of his name was a strong hit on her chest, she could never from that moment on figure out why. It was also hard to find the sound in her vocal cords to admit her own identification, "Morgan-Thermopolis." Seth was looking at her now with a face of interest, "Thermopolis? Can you explain to me where you got such a surname?"
Morgan was confused, no one had ever really cared about her rather powerful name, "That has something to do with anything?" Seth answered, "Of course it does, I'm just curious as to what the name means." About ready to pull her hair out in complete confusion she admitted, "I'm sorry, I, myself, am not really sure. I guess it's a European name?"
Seth didn't seem to comprehend, "European? Is that some sort of city?" Then it hit Morgan, was this guy some sort of idiot? "That actually is a continent, sir. Are you considered clinically insane?" Seth shook his head slowly. Was she finally getting somewhere on his little joke?
"Hey you two. what do you want to drink and munch on?" came a snappy voice to the pair. Morgan broke her stare from Seth's eyes and laid them on the newcomer who just turned out to be a rather grumpy steward, "I guess some Sprite and those weird cracker things you guys have handed out before."
Immediately the man went to getting a short plastic cup filled with ice and handed her the Sprite can along with a blue colored bag of snacks. Morgan pulled out the tray latched unto the seat in front of her, being another boring color of grey, and set the accessories in order. Seth looked completely clueless and speechless as the man looked at him with impatience. "Sir, is there a problem with trying to order a simple meal?"
Morgan wanted to laugh at the silence that began to rule over the situation but Seth just copied his neighbor's order. This didn't seem to bug the steward but she spotted him glance a few times towards Seth and his outfit. After Morgan helped with unlocking the tray and setting out the meal comfortably for her acquaintance, the man stopped himself from moving down the aisle.
Looking with suspicion upon the robe wearing boy he asked slowly, "Is there a reason you are dressed so funny?" Seth was boring a stare so menacing into the steward for the next 7 seconds that Morgan wanted to freeze in nervousness, "Oh funny huh? Mind your own business!" That was the first time Morgan or any of the plane heard the weird man speak over the normal tone. It didn't scare the steward away unfortunately as he shot his own glares then headed towards the pilot deck. "Oh shit, now you've done it. Probably think you are another Bin Laden or something."
Seth was unable to recognize her remark as anything close to anything he knew and kept his mouth shut. Morgan popped open the bag of snacks which ended up being pretzel pieces, cheese crackers, yucky breakfast cereal and barbeque chips.
"What in Ariana's name is this???" came a frustrated voice beside her. Morgan looked and saw a grossed out expression as he tried to munch on his own snack. "Ariana? Who the hell?" Seth coughed as if he was choking on the food! The bald guy in front of them startled and turned around, almost squishing the backrest against Seth's pole-like body.
"Beg your pardon, do you need help?" the man asked, his voice low and gruff. Morgan was barely able to breathe right with her heart beat going up, "No shit, Sherlock. Can't you see the poor guy's choking on airline food?"
"God, Morgan, who the fuck you sitting by?" shouted a voice almost right in her ear. This one wasn't unfamiliar though, it was the sarcastic voice of her brother. Morgan did want to scream and rip the limbs of everyone who was giving her such stupid attention but this was immediate.
Morgan unbuckled herself, ignoring with best efforts her brother and his gothic girl and opened up a pop can. Pouring Sprite into the cup was not easy as she shook of fear and the attention drove her nuts. Seth was still coughing rather aggressively with great sound, making himself clench hard into the armrests.
"Get your lard ass off him!" she screamed over the mumbling of spectators. The bald man was shocked but he let himself return to a normal sitting position. The gothic girl was busily cowering by Aaron with both her fishnet arms around his neck. At least it held her brother back from trying to interfere with the scene.
"Drink this, please! It fizzes a bit but it helps because it's liquid!" called Morgan even if her language sounded somewhat jumbled. Seth's eyes were open and he looked so worried and . angry. Morgan didn't take too much time to ponder over his expression that he wore as she chugged the pop down his small mouth.
Luckily he expected it and started to drink slowly, in between coughs which brought lots of water out of his mouth. Morgan pushed herself back and with both arms out, "Give him breathing room, I'm sure he needs some."
Then all of a sudden, when less needed, the pilot and the steward both showed up. "I've been reported about questionable behavior onboard my flight, I'd like a word with this man if you don't mind." Why was Morgan so angry at everyone's bluntness, "I'm sorry, PILOT, but we have a problem to deal with at the moment."
The steward was chuckling at the scene and had to give a smart ass remark about it too, "They tell me a terrorist never really was able to eat like a normal human being, I can understand since their job makes them dogs anyways."
The gothic girl landed her large combat boot onto the leather shoe the steward wore which ended in a screech and a pilot waving his arms frantically around.
"Gosh this flight is a JOY ride," called out somebody among the crowd. Morgan quit standing among the staring faces and sat calmly near the overwhelmed boy. Seth was still digging his sharp nails into the chair arms in stress and anger. Without further ado, and anyone could call human instinct, she placed her own hand onto the back of his own.
It was the weirdest feeling on earth she says. A buzz of electricity swarmed through Morgan's veins as if she was overtaken by some sort of force. Feeling refreshed, jumpstarted, and very uplifting she couldn't help but smile.
"Holy shit, Morgan is drugged. What did they do to my sister?" Aaron called in sarcasm. No one else was moving, they noticed a blue outline coming over Morgan's figure which was stunning in itself. Morgan wasn't moving either, her eyes were open in a happy sense of day dream, staring into nothing. The rest of her body was sitting as if turned to stone but her hand caressed Seth's in hope of calming him.
Seth looked even more tense as he let his face scrunch up into . anger? Everyone had their eyes focused on his face because of the curious expressions. Morgan was even wondering if the whole effort of her care was working to calm him down.
Aaron pushed the pilot and steward away and let himself near his sister, laying a large guitar worn figure on Morgan's shoulder. Feeling a static shock he retreated back, "He's done something to her! Help!" Everyone was now being revealed the true behavior of insecurity that Aaron was well able to hide.
"SOMEONE! PLEASE! Help me, my sister. she's the only one I've got. I'm sure he's sucking energy out of her or taking over her body--."
"Pipe down, will ya?" came the pilot's commanding voice, "I want everyone- ."
All of a sudden Seth released the arm chair and let his hand fall into Morgan's own. This was a brief scene as all of a sudden thunder sounded in the distance and both disappeared.
Even the seatbelt on the window seat was still buckled. "MORGAN!" Aaron screamed, dropping to his knees and crying with much drama. The gothic girl, now known as Ariel was big eyed, "I knew that he'd do something so stupid as that!"
Everyone who heard her remark stared in the voice's direction, "You know what he did?" Ariel was red in the cheeks now and backed away, pulling Aaron up with her even if it was with some difficulty. "DON'T YOU CARE THAT MY SISTER IS GONE???" he cried.
This even brought the rest of the plane stewards and Morgan's mother. "The hell is going on?..." The pilot lifted his hands in the air, "EVERYONE return to your seats! I'm going to have to land this plane and question witnesses, including you," he barked at Ariel.
Aaron finally let himself be dragged with the girl enough to just let everyone feel sympathetic for him. No one really did.