CHAPTER TWO
You have been one of the few
chosen to take part in a glorious celebration
Mr. And Mrs. Spicer cordially
invites you to join us in celebrating
Jonathan Spicer's 16th
Birthday
The party will take place on June
6th at the Djose Temple
From Noon till Midnight
RSVP ASAP
Jack stared down at the very fancy invitations in his hands. His parents had gone all out for the party, making sure everything was perfect. Even his father, who was actually the one responsible for the party had offered to host the party at his place of work. The Djose Temple, one of the few places in the world Jack felt at peace. It was his father's pride and joy, the place where he could work on his machines and no one could bother him. The Temple had stood for centuries and was the only thing that still remained of the ancient village of Djose. The village the had once worshiped a Thunder God. Jack wasn't to sure what had happened to the people, but the rumors and legends say that the Thunder God had destroyed the people of Djose, the road leading to the village (Djose Highroad – was once a place where the worshipers would prove their worth to the God), and the village itself. Leaving only the temple as a testament to his powers.
Glancing back one more at the invitation Jack noticed that his parents hadn't held back their funds even a little bit for him. The writing on the invite was curvy and, Jack was almost entirely positive, pure silver. The paper it was written on was a dark bluish silk and felt as if at any moment it would fall apart. Even the envelopes were fancy. The bright ivory paper was lined with gold and the names written on the front was the same gold ink, written in his Aunt Yuna's very curvy and fancy script. One the back of the envelope was what really surprised Jack. A drawing of the Thunder God, Ixion. Jack knew by the way it was drawn that his Uncle Baralai had drawn it.
Jack's family had all been called in to help with the party, and all of them had come from far and wide to help. His Aunt Yuna and Uncle Tidus were Megan's parents. Yuna was a schoolteacher while Tidus was a soccer coach. They were both outgoing and loud, but still down to Earth and reasonable. Jack loved whenever his Aunt Yuna and Uncle Tidus came to visit. They normally brought with them candies and toys, and once Jack even got an odd shaped ball that Tidus had called a Blitzball. His Aunt Rikku and Uncle Baralai were his father's friends. His Aunt Rikku once told him that his father had slept with both of them. It was a weird thing to hear, but Jack pushes it off. Both of his parents were the only children of their parents. So he didn't have any "real" Aunts and Uncles. He was happy to have the ones he had. Aunt Rikku was a designer of Air Planes, while Uncle Baralai was a Monk at a temple for Yevon. Rikku was loud and outgoing and never seemed to ever cry or be scared and LOVED Jack with all of her being. She even helped create his first robots. Baralai didn't talk to Jack much, but gave Jack advice on anything Jack would ever need. Jack loved them both very much and extremely excited that they were coming. His Aunt Lulu and Uncle Wakka were the parents of his cousin Vidina. Vidina was older than him by only 2 months and was already a great soccer player. Wakka was an ex-soccer player, taken out of the game by a very bad knee, he was also always playfully arguing with Tidus, and was always attempting to get Jack to play some kind of sport. And Lulu was a housewife. Aunt Lulu was strict and quiet. During holidays when Jack was younger he used to love sitting in Lulu's lap. She never gave him much as toys or candy go, just odd-looking plushies that Jack had always loved. Childish or not, he hopped he'd get a new one this year.
Other people Jack had known since he was a child were coming to his party too. One of his father's best friends, Nooj, and his wife Leblanc were coming, and they were of course bringing their daughter Ashley. Nooj always was fascinated with Jack's robots and other weapons that Jack made, the man always found time to call Jack and ask how he was too. Leblanc scared Jack. He always tried his hardest as a child to stir clear of her, but somehow she always managed to find him. She would talk about his bad choices for fashion and had even gone so far as to buy him new clothes. She had even bought him his goggles and jacket saying that when she saw them they reminded her of him. Some of his Aunt Rikku's crew was even coming. Rikku's older brother, Brother, was an interesting guy. He couldn't understand much English and Jack was never really sure what he was saying. He also had a major crush on his Aunt Yuna and would always attempt to flirt with her. Buddy, the head of navigational systems, helped Jack with the bugs in most of his robots. He was always a cool guy and even helped Jack create his first hover car. But Jack's favorite person on Rikku's crew was Shinra. Him and Jack stayed in contact all the time; he was a genius who could hack into any system anywhere in less then 5 minutes. He has promised over and over again to help Jack set up a security system for his own computers. Jack really couldn't wait.
Snapping out of thinking about his family and friends already coming to his party and looking back down towards the name on the first envelope in his hands, Jack knew that he could wait. His mother had been very upset with him when she found out he wasn't going to invite any of his friends. Jack had attempted to tell her that he had no friends, but that was thrown out when Megan had told his mother about the 4 monks he always hung out with. He could have strangled his little cousin for that, and if it had not been for his Father perking up at the mention of monks being Jack's friends he would have.
So that's where he was now. He had in his hands 6 very fancy invitations to his 16th birthday party. He decided that it would be best to get rid of the most dangerous of the invites first. So he was currently standing outside a very large dark and looming castle on top of a very high mountain. Jack's hair was swaying in the wind and blowing into his face, he had chosen to dress a little differently that day, since he family was all arriving. Baggy black shorts with a forest green leather belt (which had rhinestones on the buckle in the shape of a four leaf clover), a tight forest green t-shirt with a picture of a rabbit with it's front paws cut off, normal black combat boots with forest green laces adorned his feet and a pair of black framed forest green lensed sunglasses rested on his nose. His white skin looked like cream and his normal face make up was gone. He had even put in all of his piercing, 6 small silver hoops in each of his upper ears, one silver ball stud in his nose, two silver hoops in his eyebrow in a crisscross, and one silver ball stud in the middle of his lower lip. He even had on his two black fingerless gloves.
As Jack thought about what he was going to say to the two people inside of the castle, the door opened and a lion stepped out of it growling at him. Snapping back to reality Jack backed up until his back hit his hover car, he was shaking slightly at the site of the lion and had to swallow several times before he could talk.
"I just came to give something to Chase and Wuya. I'm not here to fight. I swear!" He held up the invitations to show to the lion and watched as the lion tilted his head to look at them. With another growl the lion turned around to head back inside. Jack followed silently after it but stopped when they had got past the door. Jack was still shaking when the lion wondered off into the castle in search of its master. Jack took the time he had to swallow several times and take deep breaths to get his bearings back. He didn't have long to do so. Nearly ten seconds had passed as Wuya had appeared before Jack, making him jump back with shock and renewed fright.
"Well what do we have here? A scared little mousy." Wuya's voice was full of laughter but it stopped suddenly when she finally took in Jack's appearance. A look a pure shock was shinning on her face. "I wasn't aware that you had anything pierced Jackie, what a thing to keep from such a close friend."
"No one except my Aunt Rikku knows I have anything pierced." Jack's throat was still closed up on him so his voice was cracking and squeaky. Wuya didn't seem to pay any mind and started to circle the him as if he was the prey and she was a lion. Jack closed his eyes as he felt one of his fingernails trail along his face where his eye makeup would have been.
"You look much better without all the makeup Jackie. Now all we have to do is get some color onto that skin of yours." Jack shuttered as she whispered into his ear. He hated being this close to someone that wasn't his family. Wuya didn't seem to notice his shutter but backed off when a throat was cleared behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled sweetly at Chase who was standing just a few feet away with his arms crossed over his chest.
"State the reason you are here Spicer." Jack's eyes snapped open as Chase spoke to him, he wasn't going to chance any kind of hero worship today even if his body wanted to jump the man in front of him. Jack swallowed hard before holding out the invite for Chase. The evil overlord took the fancy envelope with his name on it and raised a brow at Jack. "If this is a love letter Spicer, you are wasting your time and mine." Jack had to blink several times at his hero before he shook his head.
"I… I… I… it's a… um… invitation" Jack felt so stupid for stuttering in front of Chase and he could feel his face heat up to a bright red color that would have probably been better suited to an apple. Chase for his part was a bit shocked to hear what the fancy letter was. Taking his time the evil over lord opened the enveloped and had to blink several times him self at the dark blue silk of the invitation. While his eyes were scanning the silk Jack had shakily handed over another of the envelopes to Wuya. The Heylin witch screeched with delight at the silk and started to rub it in her hands.
"This much had cost you a fortune Jack. I didn't know we were so special to you. It's very touching. Isn't that right Chase?" The witch looked over to Chase who had looked up from the invite to stare at Jack. Jack for his part had turned his head down to stare at the floor at his feet. His face was still beat red and he wished that the Earth would open up and swallow him.
"We will be there Spicer." With those simple 5 words said Chase turned and walked out of the room, his lion following after him. Wuya for her part looked shocked and had finally looked down at the silk invite in her hand. Jack had taken that time to slip back out the door and run towards his hover car. He was getting off of the mountain as soon as possible.
"Jack!" Jack had just hopped into the front seat when Wuya's voice rang out from the entranceway. She had a soft smile on her face that made her look even creepier. "Is it going to be a formal party or should I get some Normal clothing?" Jack had to blink several times and even pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
"Normal clothing would be good, but what you always wear is fine too." He couldn't believe he was saying this and quickly snapped the cover of his hover car down and took off. He still had 4 more invites to deliver and he wasn't looking forward to them in the slightest.
