Meanwhile...
Before he could go hang out with Katie at the skatepark, Chaz decided to stop by the Boardwalk for a second so that he can say 'hello' before she could go to work; he was already out and about anyway, so he might as well stop by for a minute or two. He was currently standing around the parking-lot that was right next to the pier's main-entrance, leaning against the side of his car as he waited for Summer to arrive; thankfully, he didn't have to wait too long, since his girlfriend's house was just a three-minute walk away from the beach. During his wait, the only thing that Chaz did to occupy his time was just watch and count all the people who pass him by, or count the cars that were passing by the lot in the street adjacent to it, or just listen to the music on the pier's radio above; the song that was currently playing was 'Cooler than Me' by Mike Posner.
After some time passed, Summer eventually arrived at the parking-lot, carrying her sports-bag right behind her; she was wearing the same exact outfit she had on when she had previously met up with her boyfriend and his best friend at the lot yesterday. "Well, this is quite the surprise..." She says happily as she walked up to the biker, giving him a kiss on the cheek once she got close to him. "What are you doing here, babe?"
"To see you, babe; what else?" Chaz cooed as he kissed his girlfriend back. "Also, I was hoping that someone around here would be able to take what I got in the backseat off of my hands."
Summer eyed the back of her boyfriend's car, seeing a few cardboards boxes that were stacked up. "What do you got back there?"
"Oh, nothing too special; just a few of the old man's books, silverware, videotapes, records, a few busted picture-frames, the works." Chaz then opened one of the back-doors, allowing his girlfriend to take a look. "Minutes ago, I was hoping that Renee's school could take some of this stuff off of my hands, specifically some of the movies; but unfortunately, her teacher didn't want to take all of them, only some of them. I was also hoping that her music teacher would take some of the records, including the record-player, off my hands too; but apparently, he already has half of the ones that the dead guy had in his collection."
"So, you thought taking them here to sell is a good idea?" The lifeguard asked with an eyebrow raised at her boyfriend.
"Just in case anyone gets interested; and if not, then I'll take all of this down to the thrift-shop; and if not there, then I'll just...throw it out at the junkyard or something."
"Well, I'm not too sure you'll have much luck trying to sell this stuff around here." Summer stated as she held her arms up in a horizontal way. "The patrons around here probably won't be interested in what you've got, and if Tad figures out that you're now selling stuff out here, especially after what happened with that fire-hoop incident, I don't think he'll be happy with you doing it."
"Hey, dudes." A voice spoke up from behind the couple. "What are you guys talking about over here?"
Chaz was the first one between him and Summer to turn and look at the person standing behind them; the person is a man with extremely messy blonde hair, and was wearing a basic white t-shirt and a pair of blue and green swim-shorts. Looking behind said person, Chaz noticed that the guy's car appeared to be one of those station-wagons that came from the sixties; although, it looked rather new compared to the other ones that he's seen in real life, as if it was recently built or something; needless to say, he was impressed. The only other thing that was worth noting here was that the guy had a surfboard on top of his vehicle, which was probably the only downside to this guy thus far, in Chaz's opinion anyway, since he wasn't a huge fan of surfing in the slightest.
Since he doesn't look like that bad of a guy so far, Chaz didn't see any issue answering his question. "Well, it's a much of antiques that I'm planning to get rid of today." The biker said as he pulled one of the boxes closer to himself. "It wasn't what I originally thought of doing beforehand, but since I'm here to visit my girlfriend, I decided to see if any of the beach-goers around here wants to take some of them off my hands; it wouldn't be the first time I brought something out here and somebody wanted to buy it off me, you know?"
"Do you mind if I take a look for myself then?" The blonde man asked, pointing at the pile of boxes behind the couple. "I wouldn't mind taking something off your hands if you're not gonna use it."
"Sure, go right ahead." Chaz steps aside, allowing the surfer access to the backseat of his car. "Anything in there that you like?"
"Hmm..." The surfer then pulled himself out of the car, shaking his head 'no' to the biker's question. "Sorry, dude; but everything you have in here's either broken, used, or something I already have."
"Eh, thanks anyway."
"By the way, do either of you two know where I can find Summer Baxter?" The surfer then asked the couple. "I was told by Tad last night that she'd be giving me a tour around the shore, and-"
"That would be me." Summer then spoke up, before tilting her head to the side while looking at the surfer. "So, you're the 'Luke' guy that Tad told me about?"
"That's right." The surfer answered while nodding his head. "My name's Luke; Luke Issac."
"Summer Baxter." The lifeguard says as she shook the surfer's hand.
"Chaz McFreely." The biker then said as Luke turned to look at him. "So, you're going to be the one working at the 'Surf-Shop' from here on out; is that right?"
"Totally." Luke answered as he nods his head to the biker's question. "Back before I moved out of California, I used to work at a surf-shop, just like the one you guys have here."
"Well, the cashier they had there quit, like, a week or two ago; so, all yours." Chaz says with a shrug, before pulling out the keys to his car. "Well, since I know Tad's gonna be coming out here to meet up with you in any minute now, I'm just gonna get going now."
"Wait, don't you work here though?" Luke asked with a confused expression on his face. "Since your girlfriend works here, I thought that you'd..."
"I don't." Chaz informed the surfer, now sitting in the driver's seat. "Me and my best friend tend to hang out around the empty lot most of the time, but we don't work here; he and I are actually mechanics DownTown, so...in case your car's busted, you can stop by and we'll try to get it fixed."
"Thanks, man."
"Anyways, I gotta go meet up with Tim now." Chaz told his girlfriend. "I'll call you later tonight, okay?"
"Okay." Summer replied, before the biker pulled out of his parking space. "So, are you ready for me to show you around?" She then asked Luke.
"Totally." The surfer answered as he and Summer began to make their way through the front-entrance.
Meanwhile...
"James, you're not gonna be sitting around the house all day; you're getting off your lazy butt and do what's written on the 'to-do' list that I wrote for you." The emo muttered in a mocking tone as he pulled up to a local convenience store that was a few blocks from his house. "If we're running low on water-bottles, the least she could've done was tell Trevor or Stacy to go pick some up after they get off work, not me." Once he was parked in one of the empty spaces that were around the small parking-lot, James got out of his car and made his way inside the building.
Upon entering the store, James noticed that there were only four that were here today; one was obviously the cashier, one was somebody just quietly looking through the freezer-section in the back, and the other two were just two teenagers who were playing some rounds at the arcade-machine that the store had. He gave the third sight a smile, since he has a lot of great memories surrounding going to places at playing whatever arcade-machine that they had there; this place being no different, since 'Plane vs Eye' was probably one of the ones that he's the best at, aside from 'Asteroids' and 'Space Invaders'. Since he had some time to kill, he didn't see any problem showing off his skills to the two locals that were currently playing over there.
James went over to the arcade-machine, just as the round the two teenagers were currently playing had came to an end. "Oh, goddamn it!" One of them shouts, as the other one laughed victoriously. "I can't believe that you beat me...again."
"Hey, I'm better at this game than you are, man." The other teen said, giving his best friend a light shove. "I don't think anyone can beat me at this game."
"Well, I can." James chimed in with a smirk, causing the two teenagers to turn around and look at him.
"Maybe I worded what I said wrong; I don't think anyone from my school can beat me at this game."
"I know what you mean, kid; but when push comes to shove, I'm the one who has the highest score in this machine right here." James said informed them as he gently pushed them aside so that he can show them the high-scores. "Look at the top and you will see that 'James', me, has the highest score out of everyone; hell, go to any place in this town that has an arcade-machine and you will my name at the very top of all of them."
"Are you sure about that, dude; because I'm pretty sure this one has your name at the second." One of the two stated, causing the emo to become dumbfounded.
"What are you-" James immediately stopped as soon as she saw what was actually said at the top of the score. "What the hell? Who is this 'Rocket' person suppose to be?!"
"Well, I thought my name would've been too obvious." A female voice answered from behind the three boys; one that James hasn't heard in quite some time now, and was more than happy to be hearing again after who knows how long.
"Well, ain't this quite the surprise..." The emo cooed as he slowly turned around, facing the girl who was right behind him; the woman has long black hair with a dark-blue beret, and was wearing a dark gray jacket with a dark-blue shirt underneath that has a rocket printed on the front, a brown skirt, and she was also carrying a laptop case around her shoulder. "Hello there, Jenny."
"Hello to you too, James." Jenny cooed back as she walked up to the emo, giving him a high-five once she got close to him. "It's been too long, man..."
"You got that right." The emo then stared at the girl's beret, giving it a little tap. "You're still wearing that old hat of yours, huh?"
"Eh, I guess you can say it's my lucky hat." Jenny joked, before eyeing the two teenagers that her friend was previously talking to beforehand. "Showing off to others again, huh?"
"I was nearby, so...I might as well..." James then turned to look at the two teens who were just staring at him and Jenny in confusion. "Oh, this girl's my best friend, in case you two are curious."
"We can see that." One of the two boys said, clearly disinterested.
"We're gonna get back to playing now." The other one said as the two geeky adults walked off to another part of the store.
"So, how have you been, Jenny?" James asked as the two went over to the shelf that was carrying the water-bottles on. "Are you still working as the desk-girl for the S.P.A. Agency?"
"Yeah, I still am." Jenny answered as she rolled her eyes. "Nothing's changed, except for the fact that Ian Arneson and his girlfriend got recruited a year or two ago; Walker's still always busy in his office, and Roxie's still the same old germ-hating girl I've been working with for the past few years; however, there is an upside to all of this this."
"What is it?"
"It's the fact that we're starting to make more progress when it comes to trying to free Evelyn Gray from the Nightmare Realm; now that Ian and Amelia's joined the team, we're slowly getting closer to actually achieving that goal." Jenny paused, immediately taking notice of the strange look her best friend was giving her right now. "Look, I already know that everyone in this town thinks that everything that happened revolving around Evelyn Gray, Morcubus, MorcuCorp, and all of that stuff was nothing more but an urban legend, but I can assure you, it's real; even Ian and Amelia, two people we know who'd get skeptical over anything that's considered bizarre, also believes that the stories are true."
"Well, if it truly did happen or not, there's something that you and the other agents are kinda overlooking here." James noticed the confused look on his best friend's face, before proceeding to explain what he's talking about. "So, according to most people around here, Evelyn and Morcubus both disappeared back, I think, 2010; right?"
"That's true, but...what does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, I'm just saying that since it's 2018, eight years later, do you really think that either of them would still be alive to this day?"
"According to Agent Walker, the Nightmare Realm is basically our world, except that it's more darker and is inhabited by different types of monsters; so, I can only imagine that if the land and buildings are the same, then there's the possibility of there being the same types of items in that world too, such as food and water." Jenny explained, watching her best friend lift up one of the packages of water-bottles off the shelf.
"If that's the case, it sounds like paradise to me."
"You call being stuck in a dimension where your worst nightmare is constantly following you in a world full of monsters is 'paradise'?" Jenny asked with an eyebrow raised at her best friend, finding everything that he was saying to be completely nonsensical.
"I'm already living with my worst nightmare, so..."
"Stacy Verily's your stepsister now?" Jenny received a silent nod as her answer as the two began to make their way over to the front-counter. "When the heck did that happen?"
"It's a long story..." James muttered as he placed the package in his hands up onto the check-out counter. "Let's just say that my mom met her dad somewhere, they got married, and then the rest from there is history."
"It must be hell to live with one of the bossiest girls in school, huh?"
"Tell me about it." The emo muttered as he leaned against the counter. "Every chance she gets, Stacy can't help but insult me at every single turn; it is just like having to suffer through drama club all over again with her living at the house."
"Maybe Nancy'll divorce Stacy's father someday; your mother isn't exactly good at keeping a guy for too long."
"As much as I'd like to wish that could happen, I think I'd prefer my mom to stay with Trevor more than divorce him." James insisted as he took the water-bottles off of the counter. "This is probably the longest I've ever seen her with someone...heck, Trevor's probably the first person who's ever actually proposed to her after my dad walked out on her; so, as much as I don't like Stacy, I think it's better this way."
"I guess that's one way to look at this situation." The two then made their way out of the store and over to the emo's car, which was when the geeky girl decided to change the subject. "Say, are you coming to this get-together that Liberty and Travis are having this week?"
"Well, I was wanting to just stay home and play 'Street Fighter' all night that day; but...then I found out that you were invited, so..."
"You're actually coming?" Jenny asked as she watched her best friend place the package of water-bottles into the trunk of his car. "You're not exactly the type of guy who really likes to hang out at parties."
"I know, but...there are a few exceptions, like the one time that we've celebrated Sapphire's birthday at the house."
"If you don't want to go to their party Wednesday, we could just...go out and do something else instead, I mean..."
"N-No, it's just that-"
"Yeah, but-"
The two then immediately stopped talking, before they both accidentally spoke in unison seconds after. "Let's just go anyway." They both said. "Deal."
"So, uh...I guess I'll be seeing you at the party then?" James asked as a blush appeared on his face.
"Yeah, totally." Jenny answered while nodding her head, a blush appeared on her face as she did. "I should, uh...I should probably get going now. I'll see you at the party, James."
"Will do." James agreed as he waved 'goodbye' to his best friend, watching her walk away from him for a few seconds; once he wasn't able to see Jenny in his sights, the emo got into his car and drove back off to his house.
Note: So, another short chapter for today; but this is only because I think this one felt like it was good enough to be presented already, especially James's part of the story here, which I felt was very well-written in my opinion. Also, we are introduced to two new characters, which are Luke and Jenny; both of whom are going to play major roles in both Chaz and James's subplots, for obvious reasons.
Since I don't really have anything else to say, let's take a look at what reviews we have for today are...
lordgemini: It might be a bit before we actually get to the 'Reunion at Travis and Liberty's House' portion of the story; there's still some character development that the characters must go through before we actually reach that point. Also, I kinda wanted to give James's mother a little more depth (including her relationship with her son) since I kinda felt like her in the last incarnation was a bit...vague; so, I kinda added the phone-call between her and Richard in order to expand her as a character.
Anyway, that should be it for now. I will see you guys in the next chapter.