(Remember me? Remember this story? I bet you don't. Sorry for the long, huge… YEAR gap! OH GOSH. I'M SO SORRY. D8 I LOVE YOU GUYS. Anyway, in every story, there's a chapter or two that's a boring set-up chapter. This is one of them. Sorry!
Also, check out r profile for fanart of my story done by Latset on Da! It's pretty!
Now, go read boring exposition!)
The next morning, I woke up feeling sort of beat out of shape, probably due to be electrocuted the other day. "Meh…" I muttered to myself, thanking God that it was Saturday. I rolled over and stared at the clock which read twenty after nine, and I was about to drift back into thought when something hit me. Halloween was within two weeks and I never thought about a costume! I immediately sprung out of bed and ran to my closet, spewing stuff out all over my room trying to see what kind of clothes I can mutilate and shred to make a costume of some sort. Nothing seemed to be working.
Frustrated, I sat down on my bed and angrily ground my teeth together, trying to think of that everyone I knew was going as and what my options were. At that moment, I heard a knock on my window and I turned to let NiGHTS into the house. He gracefully soared through my window, landed and poked me square in the nose. "You slept like you were dead last night." I sighed, and nodded. "Yesterday was a mess, and I was all wiped out." With that, he leapt clear over my head and flopped onto my bed, making himself at home and all warm and snuggly.
I continued to dig through my closet, muttering some things to myself when I felt NiGHTS bump into me. I straighten up and turned to look at him. "What's up?" He looked like he was trying to figure something out. "What are you ferreting around in your giant clothes room for? You're already dressed."
"Oh, no, I know that." I said carelessly, pulling out what appeared to be a stinky sock.
Ew. How long was that thing in there? … Shit, I think there's something growing on it.
"So, what are you dooooing?" He nagged.
"I am looking for something I can make a costume out of." I answered, tossing what may be a radioactive sock into my hamper.
"For what?"
"Halloween."
"… What?"
Gah! I forgot! He knows nothing! I straightened up, and acted like not knowing what Halloween was, was common among people in the U.S.A.
"Halloween is a time of year where kids and teenagers in denial dress up in costumes, go door to door yelling Trick or Treat! And then receive candy. It's pretty fun." He blinked and sort of smiled. "Candy?" I nodded. "Its sweet things that make you fat, but they're pretty good." He was silent for a moment, and then asked, "What are you going as for Halloween?" I answered, "No idea. I want to go as something bizarre this year, but I'm not sure wha-"I stopped, staring at NiGHTS, who just stared back.
I had an idea. An awesome idea. I had a crazy, awesome, WONDERUFL idea!
"I think I know, but it'll be a secret!" Before he could say anything, I opened up my door, dashed out the beaded curtain and ran down the stairs, jumping the last 5, only to find my mother. "We need to go to Jo-Anne Fabrics sometime soon."
After that day, I started to work on my costume. I drew a picture for my mom who sort of stared at it, shrugged and told me to stand still so she could take measurements. Every night before I went to bed, NiGHTS would constantly nag me, his curiosity getting worse each time I said, "It's a secret. You'll find out."
About a week before Halloween, I noticed that some of my favorite articles of clothing were missing. I thought they were in the laundry but after a few days, I declared them officially lost. However, I had no time to fret about that; my mother was ready to beat me. She sewed the hat I designed totally wrong, the horns on it facing upwards like a bull. "No, no, no! Mom, we gotta flip them!" She looked at me, and growled that mommy growl. Within a few hours, the hat was finished. Another day gone already.
I have had no run ins with maren lately which was really setting me on edge. I was attacked by a bunch out of nowhere, and then nothing. Oh well, that sucks for them. At least I was safe, and didn't get myself any deeper into debt with NiGHTS. I mean, I already owe him one favor for his amazingly right on cue rescue. I pushed the thought of debt out of my mind as I accidently burned and glued my two fingers together with the hot glue gun. "SON OF A FU-" I was cut off from my cursing as a smiling jerk face popped in front of me.
"Is that your costume!" NiGHTS piped, trying to snag it. Furiously, I dove out of his wiggling fingers, my own still burning and in pain.
"GIT! GIT!" I wailed, trying to make it to the sink, his determined, nagging, obnoxious-self following me. "STOPPIT, MY FINGERS ARE BURNING. GIT." I repeated, because, you know, that totally worked the first time. Eventually, he won as I ran cold water over my fingers and slowly and painfully pealed the glue off. He held up what looked like a long, narrow, spiky strip of yellow and purple felt stuck together.
"…" He said nothing, but looked at that, and then me, then back at that. He kept going, and then held it up, aimed at my chest.
Oh no he's not.
"Steph! Is this the chest piece? It almost looks like it would fit! I mean, your chest isn't very large, so like, it would be perfect!"
If my fingers weren't in pain, I would have hit him. LEAVE ME AND MY SMALL TITTIES ALONE.
"It's not for my chest, you twit! It's for-" I stopped myself. If I admitted what it was, he would make the connection and my surprise would have been foiled.
"Oh. Well, it's obviously not for the pants part. It's too small – you wouldn't fit in it."
My fingers slipped, and I ripped the two stuck ones apart. It hurt, but I was totally distracted by the insult. "Excuse me, I don't believe I heard you correctly, Mr. Toothpick. Did you just say I have a big butt?"
"Um, no." He said, obviously sensing he said something wrong. "I'm just saying that you lower section is rather large and wouldn't fit. … What's a butt?"
I whipped the bar of soap at him and clocked him right in the forehead.
It was the day before Halloween and I sat in Miss Hyder's English class, finishing my vocab work. My friend, Brittany, sat next to me. She already finished a few minutes ago and was busily drawing her beautiful characters. I couldn't help but take a peek over. Her characters were based off the style of Inu-Yasha, but she totally went and made them her own. Realizing I was distracted and needed to finish this work, I quickly settled back to my work when there was a knock at the door.
Anthony, the kid closest to the door, got up and opened the door. Miss Hyder got up as well. "Tony! If that was a mass murderer on the other side of that door, you would have let him get in here and I would have been killed! At least peek at who it is first, so he gets first dibs on you." We all laughed – Miss Hyder was the man… technically speaking.
Our principle wandered in, accompanied by a boy. He was dressed in a black hoodie, black jeans, and not surprisingly, black shoes. His hair, however, caught my eye immediately. It was not black like the rest of his attire, but bright orange with different colored streaks running through it. He had no expression on his pale face, and just stared straight ahead at us. His eyes were wide, maybe from fear, and I couldn't help but notice how shockingly blue they were. They were almost a husky blue.
"Those are kickass contacts." I whispered to Brittany, who shook her head in agreement.
"Class, this is a new student we have." Our principle happily boomed. The boy just continued to stare. It was kind of creepin' me out now. "Why don't you tell us your name, son?" He said in his annoying 'I'M LIKE YOUR FATHER LOL' voice that all principles have. The kid was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth. Faintly, we heard a "Jack." escape.
"Jack what?" Miss Hyder asked, ready to add his name into her grade book.
"Jack-" The kid hesitated, as if unsure whether or not to release his last name. "Jack Tarot."
"Tarot? Like the cards that fortune tellers play with?" asked some kid who I knew by sight but not by name.
The new kid nodded. "My ancestors were gypsies, and they picked their own last name." Everyone just kind of went 'Ah. Okay.' and nodded. I blinked. Besides the fact the kid's voice seemed to change tone and get higher pitched and lower pitched with every few words, and crack, what he said confused me.
That's odd. Why would a family of gypsies pick a name? I mean, why would they disregard their ancestors' name? And why pick a name that pretty much screams stereotype?
The principle started talking again, and I was pulled back into reality. "Well, go find yourself a seat, boy, and Miss Hyder will get you set up." So, the Jack kid wandered towards an empty seat near a group of boys. Miss Hyder quickly cut him off. "Why don't you go sit back there, in front of Stephanie? These kids will do nothing but mess you up. They're trouble makers. Steph can get you caught up with work." The kids she was talking about booed and laughed as Jack shrugged and wandered back.
I waved my hand slightly, giving him an obvious hint of who I was. He plopped in the seat in front of me, and swiveled around. "Hi." His voice still seemed weird. Maybe that's just how it was.
"Hi." I said back. "My name is Steph, obviously, and this is my friend Brittany!" I indicated to her. Brittany kept her head down and sort of half-assed a wave at him. "Sorry, she doesn't talk around people she doesn't know a lot." Jack nodded.
"So, where did you come from anyway?" I asked, trying to make polite conversation. His eyes didn't meet mine when he answered, "the country." Poor guy, he's probably nervous as hell.
Miss Hyder jerked us out of conversation as she called Jack for the second time apparently. "Jack, would you mind coming up here and giving us an introduction? You know, now that the principle is gone and you don't have to talk in front of that annoying guy?" We all laughed. Miss Hyder, what a fiery red-head you are!
Within a few seconds, Jack was in front of the class. "Hi. My name is Jack. I'm 16." He stopped as if he was considering very carefully at what he was going to say next. "I like magic, and I'm practicing to become a magician." And with that, he sat back down. Everyone clapped considerately, expect for Ryan who mentioned something about his hair.
"Well Jack, I never would have guessed that magic would have been your thing!" I said brightly as he sat down. "What do you know?"
He seemed eager to speak, finally. "Oh, I'm working on disappearing acts and such, but I'm a beast with card tricks." He indicated to his pocket, where I saw a box of cards poking their way out of his jet jeans.
"Cool!" I said, genuinely interested. "You'll have to show me the tricks sometime!"
"I think I will." He agreed, finally smiling. And what a smile it was. It almost seemed to reach both of his ears. I couldn't help but smile back. He looked kinda stupid.
We chatted for a bit more, and the subject of Halloween rolled around. I told him to come with me and trick-or-treat tomorrow. He seemed very interested, mentioning something about not having friends yet, as he shuffled his cards mindlessly. I gave him my house address and phone number just as the bell rang.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Jack!" I called, as he headed towards the door.
"I look forward to it." He answered, quickly ducking out the door. As I got up to leave, I noticed something on the floor. "Wha-?" It was the Ace of Spades, and in mighty fine condition. It was impossibly straight and unbent. I reached down and picked it up, my fingertips brushing the edges.
"OW!" I cried, dropping the card, and looked at the nice paper cut now across a few of my fingers. "Damnit." I bent down and picked up the card again and ran out into the hall. "Jack! I found-" but I stopped. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Goddamn he walks fast."