I
Safe to say I hated being a teenager. If only I knew how much I'd miss it.
The day my life changed forever was like every other day, waking up to my mom hammering on my bedroom door, telling me it's time for school. And of course, when I didn't respond right away, she came in and shook me in my bed.
"Up, Russ!" she said loudly. "C'mon, get up! It's time to get ready."
"Five more minutes," I mumbled into my pillow.
"Oh no!" she responded instantly. "Not this time. UP!"
She yanked the covers off me and just stood there until I finally hauled myself up into a sitting position. I grumbled some more and she just smiled, tossed my covers back on the bed and made for the door. Just before she left, she looked back at me and gave me that look that I knew all too well. I groaned when I planted my feet on the ground, but not from tiredness. It was the weirdest thing: I made to stand up and a painful ache surged up my legs and then just disappeared. I'd had morning aches before – hell, everyone has, but that felt different. I couldn't explain why, not even to myself, but in my dazed state of mind at the time, I just shrugged it off and tried to stand again. All good.
I slugged around my room like a robot, knowing where to go and what to do, and I was changed and ready without even realizing it. Didn't take more than 5 minutes. And of course, when I went out into the hallway, completely ready with my bag hanging off my shoulder, I found my mom and my little sister, Lorelei, in the bathroom, applying their makeup. Mom was still in her bathrobe, but Lorelei at least had gotten her clothes on beforehand. Even after all this time, mom still felt the need to wake me up at the same time as her and Lorelei. I can tell you all right now the main reason why we just barely manage to get to school on time every day. Or the main two reasons I should say.
I make my way into the living room and collapse on the couch. I grab the remote from the coffee table and turn on the TV, and find the morning news segment playing. I let it run for a little while as the anchorman gives a report on recent xenohuman sightings.
"-well you'd be right on that account Janet. Only yesterday, in the city of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, another xeno was indeed spotted. Now-now, before you all go and dismiss this as a simple Manipulator sighting, let me be the first reassure you. Yesterday, at around noon, along Neshotah Beach, two cars collided with each other. One of them was flipped upside down, and few saw what happened because of the considerable smoke. A lone jogger, on the other hand, who asked to remain anonymous, rushed to the scene immediately. When he arrived at the overturned convertible, it was to find a masked woman flipping the car back onto its wheels, and as if that wasn't incredible enough, she ripped the doors off and pulled the small family to safety. Our jogger, who had decided to check on the occupant of the other car, looked back in time to see the masked hero run off before anyone could question her-"
I changed the channel and cut him off. A few years ago, this would've interested me, but now, after almost four years hearing about xenohumans, it's really all the same to me. So far no xenohumans had emerged from Havendale, at least none that we knew of. Either way, it didn't seem important to us.
How very wrong I was.
Mom and Lorelei finished in record time: 25 minutes!
Last Friday it took them almost a whole hour because one of them (who will remained nameless) couldn't find the top they wanted to where. Honestly, my mom and my sister had tomboy personalities, but they still preferred to doll themselves up every day. I never understood the way a woman's mind works, and I don't think I ever will. I turned the TV off and we went out into the cool morning air; the sun hadn't risen yet so the sky was still dark, though I could see a pinkish tinge on the horizon. We got in mom's truck, with Lorelei in the back and me in shotgun, and we pulled out. The traffic was heavy with cars and school buses alike, but mom took the back road towards Lorelei's friend Delilah's house. We picked her up almost every day, and took her home afterwards. She lived in a gated community barely a mile away from our house, so it didn't take long to get there. We pulled up to her house, the light in the kitchen was on and I could see her sitting at the island. Lorelei pulled out her phone to text her but Delilah saw the headlights of the truck and hopped off her stool. She came out the front door a moment later, and walked up to the truck in her usual strut.
"Morning honey," said mom when Delilah climbed in next to Lorelei.
"Mornin'," said Del tiredly.
"You sound how I feel," said Lorelei grumpily.
"I sound how I feel," replied Del.
"Why does school have to start so early?" said Lorelei as she leaned over and put her head in Del's lap.
"Adults are evil. Simple as that," said Del, giving Lorelei's head a tap.
"Excuse me?" said mom surprised.
"Except you, of course!" said Del at once.
Mom just shook her head and smiled as she pulled out of the drive way. On the way to school, Lorelei and Del talked continuously about something that I couldn't put together. Not that I could've figured it out if even if I tried; the workings of the mind of girls was always a mystery to me, especially when they were teenagers. Maybe I'm breaking some serious guy code saying this, but boys are relatively simple to figure out, at least in general. So I just dosed off, leaned my head against the window and looked down and watched the glass fog up as I breathed slowly. It seemed like no time at all when mom shook me awake.
"Time to wake up honey," she said. I looked out the window and saw many cars and busses passing us by on the street. She had pulled off to a drop off spot next to the sidewalk. I grumbled and pulled my bag up from the floor and opened the door. "Have a good day!" she said as we all got out.
"You too," I said, my voice was still slurred with sleep. The girls clambered out after me, and Del nearly tripped over the curb like always.
"Are you ever not gonna do that?" said Lorelei as she caught her.
"Who cares? I've got you to catch me," said Del with a shrug.
I started walking as fast as possible to the front gate to avoid the pointless conversation that I knew was coming. I joined the river of students that funneled through the gate, and I looked up just before going through to look at the large letters on the archway above.
Havendale Senior High School
Home of the Blue Devils
I can't say I ever understood their choice in mascot.
I took a left after I managed to break free from the sea of students and made for the library. It was my regular hangout before school; simplest reason was that hardly anyone ever went to the library unless they had to. The library was above the main office building, and there was a large concrete staircase at the rear of the building that led to it. Up top, I saw a small group of students waiting outside the door, waiting for it to open, which wouldn't be much longer. I managed to make out my friends in the small group, leaning against the railing and talking. Theo, a short black guy, but with more muscle on him that what is normal for a high school senior; Ricky, a skinny guy and pale as snow; and Edwin, a tall Hispanic boy with shoulders broader than Theo's or mine. These three outcasts were my best friends. Theo noticed me as I climbed the stairs, and called out to me.
"Russ! Hey man!"
Ricky and Edwin turned to see me as I reached the patio, breathing heavily. Back then I was overweight and I got pretty winded from stairs, even just one flight. By that point I'd lost some weight so I wasn't exactly borderline obese anymore, but I still had a few extra pounds on me.
"Mornin' guys," I said as I gave them fist-bumps and high-fives.
"You look like shit, man," said Ricky in his nasally tone.
"I feel like it too," I said.
"Welcome to the club," said Edwin, slapping me on the back.
When I first met Edwin, I could barely understand his accent, but after three years of knowing him I could understand him pretty well. People made fun of him for his accent all the time behind his back, but it didn't really bother him. Theo, Ricky and I always wanted to do something about it, but Edwin always pulled us back. It was the same thing whenever someone made fun of Theo and me for our weight, or Ricky for his pencil-thin appearance; in the end, none of us really care what people said about us. The one exception for me was Vivian Donner, but that was a whole different situation.
"Bro, I invented the club," I said.
"Actually, I believe that was me," said Ricky.
"Nope, I'm pretty sure it was me," offered Theo.
We spent the next few minutes bantering about who invented what until the library doors were finally unlocked and we all filed in together. I always loved the smell of books, maybe you'd call me weird and you wouldn't be too far off. Regardless, it was a comfort for me and I didn't have many of those. The classic Halloween decorations – cotton cobwebs and plastic spiders – along with a few others were up and obvious. I wasn't hating on Halloween or anything I just wasn't a big fan of it. Now though I find it kind of ironic that I didn't like a holiday where people wore masks. I'm not going to explain that now, you'll see soon enough.
As we approached our normal table, it happened again: a pulse of pain that flowed up my legs and then back down again. This one was a little more persistent than the last one though, and stuck around for a few more trips up and down my legs. I stumbled and almost bashed my head on the edge of the table, but Theo caught me just in the nick of time.
"Woah, man!" he said, suddenly worried. "You all right?"
"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine," I said, and it was kinda true. The pain subsided and dissolved, and I was able to stand perfectly again. Though I won't deny, this was when I started to feel a flicker of worry. I started to think that maybe it was more than simple morning cramps. For anyone else it would've been a passing thought, one that went as quickly as it came, but for me it wasn't that simple. It lingered in the back of my mind and I was already starting to think about what it could mean. I just did my best to ignore these thoughts, though, rather than try and get rid of them. The guys and I sat at our usual table and the three of them started talking about the most random stuff that made absolutely no sense to anyone but us. Predictable as ever. And of course I joined in. We rambled on for a little while until I saw someone new enter the library out of the corner of my eye. When I saw who it was I excused myself from the guys and approached her.
"Sammy! Hey," I said.
She turned when I said her name and a smile spread across her face.
"Russ! Good morning!" she said happily.
This was Sammy Rodriguez, one of the first real girl friends I'd had up to that point. She was one of the kindest people I had ever met, and the craziest part to me was that it was genuine. She wasn't nice to me out of pity or charity, but because she actually liked me. And I'll tell you this: at that time in my life, this was completely unheard of. I wasn't known for my looks or my skills with people. Now that I think about it, I'm still not.
I looked into Sammy's eyes, a nice shade of brown that went well with her fair complexion, and her hair was down and was frizzy like it had been blown about. Her most distinctive feature, however, was a white mark along her right eyebrow that turned even the hair white. I hadn't asked her what that was yet, but I just assumed it was a birthmark.
"How'd you sleep?" I said.
"Same as usual," she said with a wave of her hand. "Zilch! But I'm used to it by now."
"I feel that," I said glumly.
Oh the wonders of depression! It could keep you up for days without any energy whatsoever! I know right? So innovative!
"You ready for today?" said Sammy.
"I was ready to go home before I even got out of bed," I said, making her laugh. "So…nope, not at all."
"Oh the struggle," she said with a sigh.
Looks like it was going well, right? Yeah, well don't get any impressions from this. I was absolutely terrible when it came to talking to girls – still am, come to think of it. Sammy was just a rare exception: it was hard not to feel relaxed around her. Plus I had known her for a while at this point so that double the advantage for me. The bell rang then and we said our goodbyes, and I joined the boys as we walked out. By this point the sky had become a dark blue with grey splotches – the clouds – everywhere. I looked down at the ground below to see the groups of people rushing to 1st period.
Or – no! 2nd period. At the time Havendale High had a rotating schedule. You went to the odd number classes one day, and then the even number classes the next, and so on. So yeah, it was an even day.
Time for college-grade English. Fun…
