Counterfeit Reality: Schizophrenic
Chapter 02: Bonfire
Thanks to: ariotatio: Here it is. Twerp: I loved it too. It was really great to write. Coors: You should feel sympathy. Brooklyn is the best! ChibiKai02: How they meet is trés interesting. I'm not sure on it yet though. Zadien: Brooklyn doesn't have a sorry-assed attitude! Damn it. Anyways, he's the best. It was a good intention. He wanted to soak her.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It means a lot to me. Here is chappie two. I'm sooo sloow. I changed the title a little becasue I can and I wanted to. So there. :P Review please, and make me happy so I'll write some more and you can review some more.
After everyone had left Oliver's they had gone home. Today, it was Friday, that meant only the weekend and two days to go before school started again. This year it was Arista's eleventh year at Bakuten Secondary School. She was dreading it already. Thinking about all the teachers, and the mountainous homework that she got every year. She didn't even do all of it, but still it took long to finish. She was so happy when summer vacation started.
She had gone out every day except for the weekends. On Saturday she would just watch cartoons, then go to her job at the church. It was her job to sweep the floors, and clean the windows. At first she didn't want to, but after her mom lectured her she decided she would do it on the weekends so that she didn't have to hear any more of it. She also decided she would keep the job even when school started. The only thing she argued against her job was that she wanted to watch all the Saturday morning cartoons.
Which she got to do since the Reverend, Reverend Campbell, let her. But in exchange for it, he made her sweep and clean the Confessions rooms. She disliked those rooms, but her love for cartoons was greater than any hate for the tiny little rooms. And once in a while she would even spook the people that came there to confess their sins.
Since a painted black window separated the sinner and the priest, there was no way to tell whom you were confessing to. When she was sweeping the rooms, she just decided to whistle, and make ghastly noises. That usually scared the person on the other side. And the Confessions room earned the glory of being haunted.
The whole church was actually really pretty, and it was huge. It towered high, and was a rose white colour. The inside was really nice as well. There were rows upon rows of benches covered in plush leather where everyone sat. And there was a wooden dais, raised for effect. The sermons and such all took place there. At first, the only reason that Arista would ever go to a church was because of a wedding or something like that. But now, she went for her job.
And it was nice pay. Besides, her mom didn't give her any money to buy video games. So she used the money she got paid to buy a PS2 and games for it. And whatever was left over to buy pixie sticks. God, she was addicted to those things. She had a whole stash of them under her bed mattress. Only herself and Miyami knew about them.
Her mouth watered at the thought of pixie sticks. She shrugged off her comforter, and got up from her bed standing beside it. She lifted the mattress enough for her arm to slide through, and poked around for the bag of candy. Her face held glee when she found it. She pulled it out and opened the knot that she had made the day before. She smiled, and looked around for a blue or pink pixie stick. When she found one, she took it out and put it carefully on the floor next to her. Then she zipped up the bag, and pushed it back under her bed mattress. She made her way across her room, the candy tick in her hand.
Her room was littered with clothes on the floors, and other various things. She didn't give much thought to the scattered things. She figured it was easier than having to clean her room. Seeing as it would only get messy again. Really, there was no point in cleaning it at all.
She left the room, and closed the door behind her. She walked down the stairs of her house, and into the kitchen. She wasn't surprised to see Tyson and Miyami there, eating cereal from china bowls. They were eating Froot Loops or some other multi-coloured cereal. They usually came to her house in the morning to eat breakfast. She walked past them, and opened a drawer looking for scissors or something sharp to cut open the pixie stick.
She found a knife, and made a slit at the top of the stick. She grinned and immediately popped it into her mouth. It was her source of coffee. After Arista put the knife away, she joined Miyami and Tyson.
"'Sup?" She asked them.
"Eating." Tyson answered before he put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth. Miyami nodded, then chewed and swallowed what was in her mouth.
"So what are we doing today?"
"Surfing at Carson Beach or something. Amber and Tala planned it a long time ago. Said they want to have a bonfire and a beach party." Arista filled her mouth with sour sugar after answering Miyami's question. The red eyes Russian nodded. Tyson finished his breakfast then walked to the sink to put his dishes away.
"So where did you say we're going?"
"We're going to Mars, Ty. To Mars." Arista said sarcastically.
Then following his actions Miyami put her empty bowl in the sink as well. Arista finished the last of the pixie stick and threw it into the garbage. All three washed their hands.
Arista opened the fridge and pulled put three cans of Cherry Coke. She passed one to Tyson, and one to Miyami. She took the last one to herself and began opening it. When she opened it, the soda exploded everywhere around her. Getting her wet, and pretty much everything else around her wet as well. Luckily for them, Tyson and Miyami had seen what was coming, and ducked into the living room.
Arista rolled her eyes. "Should have passed that one to Tyson."
"Hey! I resent that." He shouted from the next room.
She laughed, and then began cleaning the floor around her with paper towel she grabbed off the counter. In the other room the television sounded, and then arguing over which channel it should be on. She grinned, and to think this would all be ruined when school started again. At least she still had a couple of days before that. After she cleaned off the kitchen, she sprinted up the stairs.
"I'm taking a shower, be back in a few." She shouted down, waited for an answer.
"Yeah, sure." Came the reply.
She ran into her room, and looked around for her towel. She fished around in her closet for her beige towel. After she found it, she put it on her unmade bed, and then groped around in the clothes piled around the floor for something to wear. She found black capris and a Celtics jersey that Johnny had gotten her sometime before. She looked around for a t-shirt and found a green one near the door.
She grabbed the clothes and made her way once more out of her room, and into the washroom down the hall. She striped off her clothes and walked into the shower after turning it on. In the morning she would only take a cold shower, no matter the season. It wasn't like it was freezing in winter. It would snow, the trees would lose their leaves, and the beaches would freeze, but it was still relatively warm.
That was the great part about California. She put her head under the falling water, and washed her head. The cool water made her hair limp and wet. She rubbed her hair, washing out the coke. After she was convinced it was soda free she pulled her head back, and let the water run down her skin.
After she was done, she dried herself off with her towel, and got dressed. Her hair was still wet, but she chose not to blow dry it. When she blow-dried her hair, it made her light headed. And she usually ended up doing something stupid afterwards. Like this one time, when she was eleven she had ended up eating worms that Tyson had said were spaghetti. After that she didn't blow-dry her hair. She only did that when she had no time to let it dry on its own.
Arista got out of the washroom, and walked to the staircase. Whenever she took a bath or shower, she always felt tired after. She sat on the banister for a minute. Then decided that she would slide down. She grinned drunkenly, and slid down the wooden railing.
She jumped off at the end, and into the living room. She laughed giddily, and plopped down in between her cousins Tyson and Miyami. She was related to Miyami through her mom and Arista's mom being sisters. And Tyson was related to her through Miyami. He was like a second cousin, but felt like a first cousin. At first she didn't like him, he was annoying and tricked her a lot. But then she and Miyami had started getting him back. That was when they had come to a mutual agreement that they wouldn't get each other, but prank other people.
Miami and Arista had always been close. They lived beside each other in Russia. Then Miyami had moved to California. Arista and her mom had moved there after her mom and dad divorced. It wasn't like a hate divorce. It was more like an understanding.
They had only divorced because Arista's dad had felt smothered. He was younger than Aleksi by two or three years and felt pressured by her being older than he was. Aleksi had understood that, and wanted to give him his space. They were planning to get married again after Arista finished High School.
She hadn't understood why they got divorced. But as she got older she agreed it was the right thing to do. She could be really misunderstanding of others and often got her foot in her mouth. And if there was room, she got her other foot in there too. Most of the time she had thrown tantrums like a little child, and had at one point ran away from home. She'd spent a night in an old abandoned house. In the morning the police found her, and had brought her home. Her parents were as she guessed, worried sick with fear.
Arista explained to them why she did it, and they understood. But that didn't stop them from punishing her. In the end she had understood why the wanted to separate, but she only accepted it when they said they were going to remarry later on.
She really loved her memories of Russia. And she loved San Francisco as well. She visited her dad on the Christmas holidays and spring break, and called him every weekend. She loved both her parents, and respected them a lot.
She knew they still loved each other. But there was always some small part of her that thought what if they didn't get remarried. She frowned at herself. No, they would always love each other she assured herself.
"What wrong?" Tyson asked her. His voice snapped her back into reality, away from her thoughts.
Miyami looked over in Arista's direction. "Yeah, you look pretty zoned out." She said adding in her two cents.
"Huh? Oh, I was just thinking."
"Better not think too hard, you don't wanna get a headache." Miyami said jokingly, Tyson laughed. Arista nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, then grabbed the remote from Miyami and started flicking through channels.
It was only three o'clock, but the sun was shining high in the sky. Like a bright fire raging inside of an orb. Arista sat on her beach towel waiting for her friends. She rubbed sunscreen lotion on herself while she waited. She scanned the ocean to see if the waves had risen any. When she noted they hadn't, she frowned. It was a perfect day to go surfing; save for the fact there was no surf.
She frowned, and sighed. Everything was so close to perfect. Arista lay down on her beach towel, and stared at the clear blue sky. It was a cloudy sort of dreamy colour. She smiled lazily, and closed her 'lotion bottle. Her rented surfboard lay next to her. It was highlighter green and striped with silver. She practically owned it since it was the one she always she used when she came to the beach. She had even signed her name on the bottom.
"Sup Ris?" She turned her head to her left and glanced at Kane and Aspin.
"The sky." She replied to him.
"Oh, and here I thought it was falling." He replied with sarcasm.
"Shut it Kane." Aspin pinched his arm. He groaned, and sighed. Then left the two girls to go join Tala and Kai.
They were playing beach volleyball against some other guys she didn't know. Robert, Bryan, and Lee were on Tala and Kai's team too. The guys they were facing were all tall and muscley. Not that they weren't. They were, but they weren't bulging. The guys that they were facing had huge bulging muscles. Arista thought that was weird and wondered if they had taken up steroids as a hobby. She scrunched up her nose in disgust, and looked away.
"You don't like it either, huh?" Aspin said finding what Arista was staring at.
"How'd ya guess?" She laughed. "No. They probably can't turn their heads without showing off all their muscle."
"Yeah. Muscle is great and all, but not if its bigger than you."
"Uh-huh. And what about ego's?" Arista motioned towards Kane, and watched Aspin blush.
"Uh. He's... well. He's Kane, so he'd have and ego. And besides all guys have and ego. They wouldn't be guys without them."
Aspin blushed a little. She was still getting used to the fact that she and Kane were together. It was weird, but it was growing on her.
"Hey! I'm not a girl." Kenny shouted. He was wearing dark purple swim trunks, and his glasses covered his eyes. The fringe of his brown hair mopped his forehead, and stuck out in spikes crowning his head. He was small, short and skinny.
"I never meant it that way, Kenny. Honest." Aspin said reassuringly.
"Yeah. You'll always be a guy. Hey, can you see under there?"
Arista poked his head, and looked around for any sign of eyes. She pulled his glasses off, and lifted his hair.
Chocolate brown mixed with amber eyes looked back into her navy ones. She was mesmerized by the colour of his, and stared into them like they were a fragile piece of glass.
"You have the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. You should really get a hair cut." She said slowly.
Kenny blushed a little. He never had girls look at him like that. He had to admit that he was a little embarrassed, and he was planning to get a haircut. But he was afraid of what other people would think about it. He was always afraid of other people's opinions. He didn't know why, he just always was. And he felt that if people couldn't see his eyes that they wouldn't see inside him. The saying always went that your eyes are the windows to your soul.
He didn't want people to understand him because he was afraid of rejection. So he hid behind an illusion. He still got picked last in gym class, and other kids still picked on him. But he had friends, and that was all that mattered. That was all that he had ever wanted.
Kenny removed Arista's hand from his head, and let his hair fall back; the fringe of it fell back in place shielding his eyes. He could see perfectly fine, well without his glasses he couldn't really see though. He groped around for them in the sand, and put them on. He got up and wiped sand from himself.
"I uh I got to uh... go. Uh bye." He practically ran to Tyson who was walking alongside Max and Rei. Tyson was carrying a large soda, and two hot dogs.
"Hiya Kenny." She heard him say.
Arista looked back at Aspin, and shrugged her shoulders. Aspin shrugged her shoulders as well.
"He's weird but cute."
Arista nodded in agreement. "Hey the tides are rising. Let's go surfing now, I've been waiting since forever. Come on."
She grabbed the violet haired girls' hand, and her surfboard. She ran to the ocean shore, but Aspin struggled against the Russians' grip.
"I don't have a board." She said.
"Get Kane's" Arista suggested after she stopped running.
"Nah. Besides I don't like to surf anyways. I'm going to watch them play. You go on."
Aspin started walking back to where he towel was.
"You just wanna watch Kane the Pain sweat!" Arista yelled back to her. Aspin chose to ignore her, and turned away.
"Her loss."
Arista ran to the edge of the water, where the sand and shore met. She could hear music playing. It was muffled, and staticky. She looked around the beach. There were people everywhere. Food wrappers were scattered around, the seagulls dominated wherever there was garbage. They were also on the pier. The part that remained anyway. Two years ago, half of it had burned down.
There use to be a Ferris wheel too. But that had burned down. It was a bonfire that started it. Most people were drunk, and a fight erupted. There were two boys fighting. They were close to the fire, maybe too close because one boy pushed the other one back. He had pushed the boy too hard, and he fell into the fire.
No one knew how the fire spread. From the sand to the pier, to the big multi-coloured Ferris wheel. The only thing to have stayed in tact was the large house. It was supposedly haunted. The boy that had died, was haunting it, at least that was what she had heard. She had never been to it, partly because it was labelled off as a danger zone. Still, she wondered if there really was a ghost haunting the house.
Getting back to the present she continued looking around the beach. There were hardly any adults, only kids and teenagers. Everyone looked like they were having fun. She turned around and waded into the water. It was cool against her skin. She walked in until she couldn't touch the floor. The she got on her surfboard, and started swimming out to shore.
She could see Michael on his board. He was good surfer; she had to give him that.
"Too bad I'm not as good. Let's see how long he can stay up..." Arista swam towards the red headed boy with hopes of knocking him off his board.
The fire cackled and snapped, making whip like sounds. It raged yellow, orange, and red as it roared into the evening. The colours blended giving it a liquid like effect that had most people 'oohing' and 'aahing'. There were occupied logs circling all around the fire.
Tala was drunk and was dancing like and idiot while Amber watched. Kai sat off to the side a bit, and watched amusedly while his best friend made a fool of himself. Kane was telling stories to a bunch of little kids while Aspin leaned on his shoulder sleeping quietly. Bryan sat beside Amber talking about something or other, Spencer joined them as well. Miyami sat beside Kai and Johnny who got up after putting his beer bottle down and started dancing too. Miyami laughed as he danced telling Tala that was the way to do it. His friends laughed at him. Shahero was filling a beer bottle with sand; no doubt would later hand it to Ian just to see if he was drunk enough to drink it.
Tyson and Arista were drinking vodka from glass cups, and sitting on the floor talking in slurs with Rei and Emily who looked quite sober. Robert was sitting chatting animatedly to Michael, and Oliver. Everyone else seemed to be having a good time too.
Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye
"Hey, I love this song turn it up, 'Toshi." Tyson slurred the words together and listened to the tunes of Vindicated getting louder when his brother turned up the volume on the radio.
That only provoked Tala and Johnny to dance, and this time they sang along. Arista got up and joined them, dragging Rei with her.
And roped me in so
So mesmerizing, so hypnotizing
I am captivated, I am...
Most everyone was dancing, and singing along.
Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
I swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself
Ian glowered at Shahero. She had given him a drink, and he'd drank it. She said it was beer, but beer didn't taste like that. He should know, he was Russian. It tasted weird, and for a second he thought she'd poisoned him. Scratch that, he could try and get her in for attempted murder. He watched her with his eyes; she was dancing and singing in tune with the song. Johnny was sawing drunkenly on the spot while trying to stay upright. She supported him, and they started doing the can-can. They were both drunken maniacs, he decided.
So clear
Like the diamond in your ring
Cut to mirror your intention
Oversized and overwhelmed
The shine of which has caught my eye
And rendered me
So isolated, so motivated
I am certain now that I am
Amber laughed happily and jumped and sang along with Tala. He was completely drunk. It was funny to watch him this way since he was always cool, calm, and collected. Kai was watching everyone and talking to Robert, he never lost his cool. Even when he was drunk, she scowled. It wasn't fair; he was so perfect in a sense. Always having control, she hated that. But she hated him anyway so why did it matter? She smiled again as Tala sang an off-key note.
Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
I swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself
The chorus repeated itself, while everyone more or less danced. Arista swayed on the spot, Rei gripped her arms and helped support her. Across them Shahero and Emily were standing with Johnny one arm around both their shoulders. Thank god none of them had a drinking problem, otherwise this is what they would have to deal with all the time. Overactive depressed teenage hormones raging wildly. Rei shuddered at the thought, and managed to get Arista standing upright.
So turn up
The corners of your lips
Part them and feel my finger tips
Trace the moment, fall forever
Mariah laughed and watched her friends dancing drunkenly. They had started dancing when Vindicated had started playing. She wasn't much for rock music. She would rather listen to Jessica Simpson or Brittany Spears any day. But for the sake of her friends she listened to what they called music. And she had to admit it was sort of growing on her. She laughed when Johnny finally fell; he had tripped over his own feet, and knocked down Joseph and Salima along with him. They were all heaped into a pile of tangled bodies in the sand.
Defence is paper thin
Just one touch and I'd be in
Too deep now to ever swim against the current
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
Kai and Robert were trying to hold a decent conversation but that was close to impossible because of the drunkenness surrounding the environment and because it was so loud. Hitoshi was dancing alongside Shahero now that Johnny had fallen. She didn't seem to mind at all. Probably because she's drunk, he told himself. He cleared his thoughts and danced along with her.
So Let me slip against the current
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
Enrique and Oliver helped Johnny get up, while a disgruntled Joseph got up after having been sat on by the Scottish redhead. Salima got up too, then dusted the sand off herself. She smiled serenely, and didn't look the least bit annoyed unlike the blunette. Contrary to him, she looked amused.
Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
I swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself
The chorus repeated itself again. The song was coming to a close, yet no one showed any sign to stop dancing. Kai had given up trying to converse with Robert. They were just sitting on the logs surrounding the fire, and drinking god knew what. They didn't even know, but were drunk enough not to care anyway. Kai glanced around the crowd, and his eyes landed on an ochre-eyed female. She was holding Tala upright and dancing slower as the music was fading. He watched her for a few more seconds and wondered just what it was about her that attracted people to her. She was like a light bulb that flies were drawn too.
My hope
dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption...