Hoo. I'm so on a roll here, even if no one reads this shit story. Heh heh.
I guess at this point, you guys must be wondering where the Ephram action is. Well here it is, in this chappie. Just the tip of the iceberg. Lol, sorry, I thought I'd develop the story further first.
"Now, you have to understand that we don't do this all the time," Emily looked at me seriously. "Being part of the gang means a lot of things".
"Like what?" I asked her, an ominous feeling hovering over me.
"You have to do things. Things that maybe you won't feel so comfortable with at first, but you'll get used to it," she shrugged. "We look out for each other though. We're like a big family," she nodded.
Things I won't feel comfortable with?
"Is there some kind of initiation thing I have to go through?" I asked her again, feeling more and more unsure.
Emily laughed. Funny how I'd never noticed how hoarse her laughter was. Throaty and deep. Like a growl? God, I had to stop associating her with a wolf. It was hard not to when she was so like one, though.
"The Initiation's no big deal. Hey, it's alright," she said, seeing the look on my face. "It's not that bad. We'll look out for you".
We'll look out for you. Hana couldn't remember the last time she'd had someone look out for her. She had always been the one doing the looking out for her brother and sister. Her dad was always busy with work. When was the last time he'd ever attended any of his children's school events? Far too long ago to remember.
Maybe it was time that Hana be selfish. Emily was her only friend. She didn't want to lose the only friend she'd ever had in this school.
"So...you still up for it?" Emily asked Hana now, breaking her out of her thoughts. She half-expected her to say no.
Hana smiled uncertainly at first, then with resolve. "Yeah. Yeah I am".
Emily hooted with excitement. "I knew it!!! Let me go tell Jake," she said and ran out of the school gate where he was waiting with his bike.
Fierce? Me? I don't think I'd ever looked fierce in my entire life. Well. Maybe to my younger siblings when I get mad at them. But even they laugh at me sometimes when I get mad.
"Eyeliner, Hana. Eyeliner makes a world of difference," Emily said during lunch. I'd packed a sandwich for her ala dolphin-safe tuna style, and surprisingly enough, she finished the whole thing.
"Niice...love the mayo," she licked her lips. Chops, I couldn't help thinking.
"So you excited about tomorrow night?" she asked me. Excited? My stomach did back flips and somersaults every time I thought about it.
"Yeah," I replied, trying to swallow the chunk of sandwich in my mouth. Wrong hole. I coughed and sputtered as my windpipe choked. Faster than you could say tuna sandwich, Emily was behind me whacking on my back.
"God Hana! Eat slowly!" I heard her say. She continued whacking me even when the chunk of sandwich had dislodged itself.
"Em! Emily! I'm alright now! Stop hitting me!" I managed to yell out. She stopped. Embarrassed, I ignored the stares of students from the other tables as she came back round to sit down in front of me.
"Thanks," I said to her.
"Hey," a familiar voice greeted as a shadow blocked our sun. I turned towards the source.
"You okay? Thought I saw you choking there," Ephram said concernedly as he stood beside our table. He was holding a tray of food in his hands.
I coughed, more out of surprise than anything else. "Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks. H-how are you doing?" I asked him.
"I'm alright too," he replied, smiling his usual lopsided smile, green eyes piercing as ever. He glanced over at Emily. Was it just my imagination or did his smile disappear just then? Emily on the other hand didn't even look at him, busying herself with the scratch-marks she'd made on the table of all things.
"Well...guess I better be getting to my table then. Take care," Ephram said, taking his eyes off her to look at me. He smiled, nodded a goodbye and walked away.
Emily snorted with disdain just as he left. "What a Mr Do-gooder, that guy. Should mind his own business". I was shocked at her words.
"He was just trying to be nice!" I defended him.
"Huh. Well he creeps me out. And I don't think he likes me much either," she drawled nonchalantly.
"You're just imagining things," I insisted even though I'd gotten that same feeling. "He doesn't even know you. How can he not like you?"
"Well whatever," Emily dismissed the topic with a wave of her hand. "We were talking about the Initiation".
In order to become something, one must at least look the part. It was the night of the Initiation. After school, two of Emily's motor biked friends would come and pick Emily and Hana up to the Initiation site.
Was Hana prepared? No. Was Hana nervous? Very. But not much could be done about the state of her stomach, so instead, she'd gone to the toilet straight after class to make a few changes to herself.
Gone were the braids and glasses. She'd let down her dark brown hair so that it fell past her shoulders. Following Emily's advice, she'd also drawn black kohl underneath her eyes. That had been hard to do, but she'd been practising with the pencil at home the night before.
Hana took a deep breath and shook herself off. Well. At least if she didn't feel up for the Initiation, she almost looked like she was.
She packed up her things and walked out of the toilet to wait in front of the school steps. That was where she would meet Emily. But when she got there, there was no sign of her anywhere. Hana tapped her foot impatiently, brimming with nervous anticipation.
"Hana? Is that you?"
She turned around, and who did she see but Ephram Brown, going down the stairs. He stared at her with a mixture of surprise and incredulousness. Hana gulped. She really didn't need the extra bout of nervous energy he peaked in her.
"Yeah," Hana smiled. "What are you still doing in school?"
"Oh, I was just uh...practising on the piano," Ephram laughed sheepishly and rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. Of course. To Hana's own surprise, she realised that she hadn't been there for quite some time now.
She couldn't have forgotten. No, it's just that she'd been so busy lately with Emily that it'd...slipped her mind.
"So what are you doing out here? Waiting for someone?" he asked.
"Oh...well yeah, actually. I'm waiting for Emily," she replied, sticking her hands into her pockets and chewing on her lip.
"Oh..." he trailed off. His expression grew serious. "Hana, I've been meaning to talk to you about her. She--"
"Ephram!!" somebody called out from behind him and cut his sentence short as he turned around. It was Amy.
It took every ounce of strength Hana had in her not to roll her eyes. Then again, rolling her eyes wasn't really Hana's kind of thing.
Amy ran over, breathless, her long blonde hair ruffled. Hana couldn't help noticing how pretty she looked even so. She glanced at Hana uncertainly before turning her attention back to Ephram.
"Ephram, I have to talk to you. About the operation," she chewed on her lip, clearly feeling uncomfortable about talking in Hana's presence. That was okay. Hana wasn't staying around.
"Aye Hana! Ready girl?"
Emily had arrived.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Hana replied and went over to her. Emily whistled her approval with Hana's mini-makeover. Ephram called out a goodbye as they walked out the school gates, but she didn't hear him. She had other matters on her mind at the moment.
"Usually Initiation's a lot tougher than the task we're about to give you. But since," Jake began counting off on his fingers, "you're Emily's friend and she'd kill us if anything happened to you, you're relatively innocent, and you're a girl, we're letting you off easy".
The part about her being innocent or a girl didn't offend Hana one bit. She was feeling too nervous. Instead, she swallowed and nodded. They were parked across the street from the town drugstore.
"What you gotta do is go into that shop there, grab something of value off one of the shelves, and get back here to us all in one piece. The higher the value of the object you bring back to us, the better," Mike, the leader of the gang explained. "In fact, the more objects the better," he laughed, shoulders shaking, and the gang laughed along with him. He kind of intimidated her with his burly size and unshaven face, but then again the entire gang kind of intimidated her. Hana had to keep checking herself in order not to cling onto Emily too much throughout everything. Emily had advised her against that. She didn't want the gang to think she was some kind of babysitter now, did she.
Emily wasn't being very active in her supporting role either. Right now she sat on a bike with her back resting against one of the gang members'. She kept her eyes on Hana as she smoked, relaxed.
Hana gulped.
Shoplifting. Now that's one thing she hadn't tried before, among many others. But all eyes were on her, measuring her up. She could tell what they were all thinking. Could she do it? Some were thinking she looked too weak to.
She would show them.