Chapter 1
Just making it downstairs I notice I have less than eight minutes to get everything done. Popping a few pieces of toast into the toaster, I dash quickly upstairs to do a quick check on myself. Looking in the dirty bathroom mirror, I notice my hairs tilted to one side a little. After fixing the black mess of a fauxhawk, and studying my tan chest showing through the open-collar shirt I'm wearing. Soon, the faint sound of the magical bread crisper whispers through the house, and I rush back downstairs like a hyper hamster.
After slipping on my shoes and shoveling the two pieces of nourishment into my mouth, I race out of the door just in time to see the sign of another horrible day come wheeling around the corner. The bright yellow paint shined brilliantly in the morning sun, the noisy engine piercing the still air as the massive machine came to a jostling halt in front of my house. I wait patiently for the driver to open the two doors leading to another nightmare, and as I step on I feel immediately noticed.
Spotting an empty seat, I make my way towards it and sit down. Plugging in my Itouch I begin to jam out to new Korean music that was once again illegally downloaded last night. And on that note, I stare out the window to watch the blurs of trees and other cars go racing by as I head towards school.
"So as I was saying, this guy totally cut me off today as we drove here, and what did we do? Gave him the finger! He was so pissed I thought he was gonna follow us and beat the shit out of our little bodies", said Kyle as he, Carly, and I all walked down the hallway. I knew Kyle since we were probably six, his pugnacious and determined attitude never changing.
The boy, who only was five foot six, would always pick fights with the people one would never even glance at. By now, probably every ghetto black kid wanted to kick this kid's ass, or already accomplished it. His blond hair which came down to his eyebrow level in that casual surfer boy hairstyle, hid another bruise, where two days ago another boy tried to punch Kyle, but missed his face and instead landed a connection with Kyle's forehead. He was a lean muscular kid, conditioned and toned from years of track at our middle and now high school.
"God Kyle one of these days I swear you're going to get us all killed", I replied.
"Oh that won't happen", he flexed one of his arms, "I'll protect you!"
Just then, our friend Carly interjected, "Yea but then who will protect you!"
"I will," I immediately said, "That guy got lucky Tuesday, Kyle you know I got your back!"
"Yea I know Josh I know."
At that moment, the bell rang, signaling the start of a new day in this hellhole. Waving to Kyle as he headed for gym, Carly and I began our ascent up the stairs to French. Walking next to her, I noticed she had a new piercing in her left ear, which for the past few minutes was covered by her shoulder length brown hair. The piercing was a zipper earring, bright red and awesome.
"Since when have you had that earring, the zipper one", I questioned her.
"Oh you noticed! I got it done last night" she told me as her bright blue eyes tried to look at her ear, "my mom and I went shopping and I asked, and just like that, we were both getting new peircings. Do you like it?"
"Pssh, I love it!"
"Sweet! Hey, I got to stop at my locker quick, you want to come with me we have like, five minutes", she told me.
"Sure what do you need?"
"My French book", she laughed a bit "Monsieur Dubois yelled at me last time because I forgot it four class periods straight."
Stopping at her locker, I use her little magnetic mirror to do another quick glance over myself. My brown eyes seemed a little darker today, almost black. My shirt got a little off centered so I fix that before she slammed the door shut, startling me.
"Hahaha gotcha!"
"You know, I could've gone into a panic attack and then go into shock and then have cardiac arrest, then you would've got me for good", I say sarcastically.
"Oh quit that bullshit Josh, come on lets go."
Just as we turned around, I notice a boy walking in our direction. He was a little taller than I was, and since I'm five foot five like Kyle, this kid must've been five foot eight or something. He also had black hair but wore it a little longer than Kyle, it flipping out at the ends. As he came closer, I noticed he had blue eyes, almost like a husky, bright and dazzling. Carly and I kept walking and he walked right past us, but something wasn't right. I kept getting this feeling, like how you can tell a ghost or some other paranormal thing is nearby. Something wasn't right about the boy. But what could that thing be?