So, this is the fourth chapter of my Update Marathon. I took a couple hours to have a break, slept a little, and ate a piece of bread. Yeah, that's all that I've eaten today, and it's eight p.m. Yep, I'm smart. Now, let's go!
Glow Sticks. Lots and Lots of Glow Sticks
Chris and I left my room, closing the door behind me.
"Alright," I was saying, "so, I was actually looking at local places, and I ended up finding somewhere where I can get your keyboard here, rather than having to order it and hope that it gets here in the next three days."
"Awesome." He said, as we started downstairs. "That means that I actually will be able to help you on Saturday."
"Indeed it does." I replied. "I already asked for the guy to reserve it for me, we just have to go and pick it up."
"Cool." He commented. "Listen, I just want to thank you again, man. I mean, you've taken me in and given me the first place that I enjoy living in years."
"Don't mention it." I said, as we hit the foyer. "I'm just helping out a friend."
"Still." He insisted. "It's the best thing that anyone ever has or ever could do for me."
I just shrugged as we entered the dining room. I looked and saw that the normal crew in the house was already sitting at the table.
"Morning." Adam greeted us as we entered.
"Yo." I returned, as Chris and I went over to the table.
"You're looking a lot better." Ashtynn commented. "Less bags under your eyes."
I shrugged, and said, "I've been sleeping somewhat better. Not that I'm asking for my sleep schedule to revert to its previous state of fucked."
"Yeah, a fucked sleep schedule is fairly ill advised." Adam replied. "Although, it has helped me every now and then."
"How?" I asked.
"Foster homes are atrocious during the day time when there are nine other kids living there." He explained.
"You're not wrong on that one." Chris agreed. "Especially when the oldest one other than yourself is only ten."
"Wow." I commented. "I am fucking glad that I have always lived on the streets." I paused for a second, before saying, "Yeah, never thought that I would say that."
Adam shrugged, and said, "Well, that would have been the better alternative, in all honesty."
"Anyway," I said, "Chris, want me to get you some coffee, as well?"
"Yeah, thanks." The Mightyena replied, sitting down next to my seat.
I left the room, and entered the kitchen. In there, I found Maxwell and Ashley, speaking in hushed whispers.
"What's up?" I asked, as I entered.
They both jumped slightly, before noticing me standing in the doorway.
"Oh, morning, Riku." Maxwell greeted.
"Um, morning." I replied. "So, what was all of the whispering about?"
"Whispering?" Ashley replied frantically. "No one was whispering. You must be hearing things. Have you been sleeping well?"
"Yeah, perfectly fine, actually." I replied curiously. Deciding to drop the subject, I said, "What the hell ever. I'm just gonna grab our coffee and get out."
"Okay, have fun." Maxwell replied.
I just sighed, beginning to get our coffee. What the hell are they hiding so poorly? I quickly made our drinks, before returning to the dining room.
"Thanks." Chris said, as I handed his cup to him.
"Yep." I replied, sitting down in my seat. "So, any plans for today?"
Everyone gave various renditions of 'no', and Kyle asked, "You?"
"Yeah, I need to go and pick up Chris's keyboard." I replied. "He needs to get used to it and learn the parts before Saturday."
"Yeah, that'd be advised." Kyle said.
"Hey, Chris, you wanna come?" I asked him.
He and Kyle exchanged glances, before the Mightyena replied, "No thanks. I've got some stuff that I need to do."
"Um, okay." I said, confused. "Anyone else?"
"Hey, Jess, what about you?" Ashtynn suggested.
"Huh?" The Flareon asked, shooting her head up from her hand. "What?"
"Do you want to go with Riku to pick up Chris's keyboard after breakfast?" Adam asked.
"Oh. Um, sure." She replied. "I mean, I don't really have anything planned."
"Alright then." I replied.
What the hell is with everyone today? Jessica and I seem to be the only normal ones. Or, well, normal by our standards. At this point, Maxwell and Ashley came in, holding plates of food. They sat down, passed out the food, and we all began eating. After the quick breakfast, Jessica and I went upstairs to grab our jackets, before meeting in the foyer.
"Ready?" I asked.
"Yeah." She replied distractedly.
I held the door open for her as we stepped out into the snow fall. As we started down the driveway, I glanced over at Jessica, and noticed that she wasn't paying too much attention to where she was walking, almost bumping into me a few times, and that she appeared to be deep in thought.
"Something bothering you?" I asked.
"What?" She asked, looking up from the ground.
"I asked if something's bothering you." I repeated. "You seem really distracted today."
"It's nothing." She replied, waving it off.
"C'mon," I pressed, "you can tell me."
She sighed, before saying, "I just feel like there's something that I'm forgetting. I just don't know what it is."
"Well, did you forget to do something that's really obvious?" I asked. "Y'know, did you brush your teeth, shower, all of that stuff?"
"Of course." She replied. "Why, do you think that I smell?"
"No, of course not." I quickly answered. "Trust me, you smell beautiful."
At this, we both froze.
"What?" She asked me.
"Um, nothing." I replied. "Don't worry about it." As we started walking again, I said, "Well, you could always just take my tactic for remembering something."
"Which is?" She asked.
"Just don't worry about it." I replied. "Go about your day as usual. If you remember it, then okay. If not, then it probably wasn't important anyway."
She shrugged, and said, "Yeah, you're probably right. So, where are we going?"
"Well, we left to go and pick up Chris's keyboard," I replied, "but, I wouldn't say no to just taking a day off from everything and just hanging out."
"Let's do it." The Flareon said, nodding. "It has been really stressful as of late, as we've had to deal with planning and practicing for the Duel, as well as…"
She trailed off towards the end, and I said, "Go ahead. You were about to bring up my bullshit recently. You're completely right; it has been putting a lot of stress on all of us."
"Well, yeah, kind of." She replied nervously. "But, I mean, we can't really blame you, as you seem to have a serious reason for it happening."
"Still, that's no excuse for what I've put you guys through." I countered. "And I'm grateful to you guys for putting up with all of my bullshit."
"It's perfectly fine." She reassured me. "Even Leo understands, and you almost cracked the wall with his back."
I chuckled lightly, and said, "Yeah, didn't mean to do that. I'm still pissed at myself for allowing my anger to take control of me."
"It's alright." She said, stopping a giving me a reassuring hug, shocking me. "We know that that isn't how you normally are, and we're just thankful that you're more or less back to normal."
"Th-thanks." I replied, hugging her back. We broke apart rather awkwardly, and I said, "Anyway, let's get going."
"Right." She replied, nodding.
We hurried off, heading for the mall. When we got there, we found the place to be fairly unpopulated, despite it being the middle of the day. We just wandered around for a while, just messing around in the mall, before Jessica had a suggestion.
"Why don't we go and see a movie?" She suggested.
"Really?" I asked. "A movie?"
"Yeah, why not." She replied. "Why, do you not like movies?"
"No, I have no issue." I said. "We can go and watch a movie if you want. Is there anything good in theaters right now?"
"I actually don't know, honestly." She said. "But, really, I don't care what we watch."
"Alright then." I replied. "Let's go."
We went to the mall's movie theater, passing a few people on the way. We got there, chose a random movie, got our snacks, and went into the movie. It was some shitty comedy, filled with horrid jokes and poor acting. About sixty minutes in, I felt a light weight on my shoulder. I looked over and saw that Jessica had fallen asleep, her head resting on my shoulder. I was about to wake her up, when I noticed something. She's so cute when she's asleep. I mentally shook myself. No, I shouldn't be thinking that way. She's dating Levi. A burst of rage ran through my head at that thought. Not like the ungrateful bastard deserves her. She's way too amazing and beautiful for that stupid fuck. I unconsciously moved my arm, wrapping it around her. Granted, even if she was single, there's no way that she would date me. I mean, I'm just a mis-colored, mentally fucked up, Lucario with a horrid past. I sighed, hanging my head. And, now I've depressed myself. Why have I always been so good at doing this? I just sat there, barely paying attention to the movie, just absent-mindedly running my hand through Jessica's fur. When the movie finally ended, I gently shook the sleeping Flareon.
"Hey, Jessica," I said, "c'mon, wake up."
She lifted her head up, blinking around sleepily.
"Huh?" She asked tiredly.
"The movies over." I told her. "Let's go and pick up Chris's board, and head home."
"Alright." She said, sitting up.
She yawned cutely, flashing her fangs. We stood up, taking our trash. We left the theater behind everyone, throwing away our trash as we went. We left the theater, heading for the instrument store. I picked up the keyboard, paid for it, and we left. By the time that we had left the mall, the sun was setting behind the trees. As we started back home, Jessica moved closer to me, before resting her head on me. I looked at her, raising an eyebrow curiously, and she just looked up at me, smiling. What is she doing?
"What are you doing?" I vocalized.
"Leaning on you." She replied.
"Okay." I said. "Might I ask why?"
"I just feel like it, really." She answered. "Why, do you want me to stop?"
"I don't necessarily have an issue with it." I replied. "Although, it seems slightly odd to be doing this while you're dating Levi."
"Well, it's not like I'm cheating on him." She pointed out. "I'm just resting my head on your shoulder, Riku."
"Okay then." I replied, sighing lightly.
We continued on home, her head lying on my shoulder. We arrived home just before eight, and we went up to the door. I opened it, immediately noticing the fact that the room was completely dark.
"Hello?" I asked.
"You guys home?" Jessica asked, coming off of my shoulder.
Suddenly, the lights came on, and there was a loud shout of, "Surprise!"
Looking around, I saw that everyone was in the room, a small party hat on their heads.
I just stood there, confused, as Kyle yelled, "Happy birthday, Jessica!"
She froze, and said, "That's what I forgot. I turn sixteen today."
We all deadpanned, and I asked, "How do you forget something like that?
She shrugged, and said, "I don't know. It's been a pretty stressful month."
"Still, this day only happens once a year." I pointed out.
"It doesn't matter." Valerie said. "Let's just celebrate."
"Yeah." Maxwell agreed. "We've made you a cake, we got everyone party hats. Let's just have some fun."
"Agreed." Leo said.
We all sat back in our seats in the living room, sighing.
"That cake was amazing." Chris complimented.
"Thanks." Maxwell replied. "Kyle and I worked hard on it."
"Thanks for all of this, guys." Jessica said.
"Y'know, this celebration made me realize something." Adam started. "Riku, after all of the time that we've known you, you have yet to tell us when your birthday is."
"Yeah." Jessica agreed She nudged me from her spot next to me, and asked, "How come?"
"Oh." I said. "It just hasn't come up, really."
"Well, when is it?" Leo asked me.
I just looked down awkwardly, before mumbling out an answer.
"What?" Kyle asked.
"C'mon man, speak up." Chris urged.
I sighed, before saying, "I actually turned seventeen on October twenty-ninth."
"What?" Ashtynn replied.
"Riku, why didn't you tell us?" Ashley asked me.
"Yeah," Adam added, "I mean, we could have thrown a party for you."
I just shrugged, and said, "It just not that important."
"How can you say that?" Maxwell said, shocked. "You literally just pointed out that these things only come around once a year."
"It's just not that big of a deal." I replied. "And, besides, we've been busy. I mean, you guys were busy practicing for the Halloween party, and then we immediately began planning and practicing for the duel, and it just never came up."
Jessica pulled me into a hug and said, "Riku, you're part of our family. No matter what, we can always make time for you."
"C'mon, man," Kyle said, "do you think that any of our hobbies are more important to us than each other?"
I just shrugged in response, and said, "It doesn't really matter, guys. I mean, I've never really had any celebration or anything before, so it's always just been another day to me."
"All I'm hearing from this is that we need to throw you a giant fucking party." Chris said.
I sighed, and said, "No. I don't want you guys to have to do so much work and put in so much effort for something so minute."
"Riku, we're doing it." Ashley replied. "Sunday night we're throwing you the biggest fucking birthday party that this town's ever seen."
"No." I replied. "I don't want you guys to do anything extravagant for me."
"Then let us do it for us." Alex countered. I looked at him, confused, so he explained, "Well, we all feel bad about missing your birthday, so at least let us throw this party for you so that we don't feel like assholes."
I sighed and, seeing that my resistance was futile, said, "Fine. Go ahead. Just don't go too overboard."
"Alright, we won't." Adam agreed.
"Thank you." I said, standing up. "Now, I think that I'm going to go to bed."
P.O.V Change: Adam
As we heard Riku's footsteps ascend the stairs, Ashtynn turned to me and asked, "So, we're going extremely overboard and extravagant on this, right?"
"Oh, absolutely." I replied.
"Wanna hire a DJ?" Kyle asked.
"I could handle it, if we could get me a deck." I replied. "I have some minor experience with it."
"When the hell did you get experience with making music?" Leo asked me.
I chuckled, and said, "While sneaking away from a military camp isn't easy, it is extremely rewarding to get into the local nightclub."
"Want some strobes?" Jessica asked.
"Of course." I replied.
Maxwell seemed to think for a minute, before saying, "I should be able to get you guys a fog machine."
"I'm pretty sure that after we demolish Nemesis at the Duel, at least a fair amount of people would want to come." Chris said. "Hell, there were a lot of people in the crowd last time talking about wanting to hang out with you."
"What, have we become, like, local celebrities, or something?" I asked.
The Mightyena sighed, and said, "You guys really don't pay attention to other people much, do you?"
"Seeing as they've never been all that nice to us, no." Kyle replied.
"Well, yeah, you guys are local celebrities." Chris replied.
"Cool." Jessica commented.
"Guys, you're losing focus." I said, bringing everyone back together. "So, anything else?"
A large smile crossed Ashley's face, and she said, "Glow sticks. Lots and lots of glow sticks."
"So, a deck, a fog machine, strobes, and glow sticks." I counted off. "Is that all?" Everyone nodded, and a giant grin came across my face, and I said, "Excellent."
Yay! Glow Sticks! Yeah, if you guys haven't caught on yet, all of my chapters are named after a sentence that I really liked in the chapter. And, that one is my favorite. Honestly, it may be my favorite sentence that I've ever typed. So, how're you guys enjoying the development between Riku and Jessica? Anyway, next chapter is some moar music! Which will be followed by raving, mad dubstep, and strobes. So, that's what the next two chapters are. Now, if you kind souls will follow me to the next update within these twenty four hours, Cloud and the gang are going to discover who it was, exactly, that temporarily snatched Skyler's beanie last chapter. So, onward to A New School Means a New Start, Right?! I still hate typing that name, due to it's grammatical horridness. But, horridness isn't even a word, so I don't quite care.