Title: Jacks
Author: Lewis Spiel
Writing: Multipart story
Word count: 806
1.
“I’d thought you’d be afraid,” Adrian confessed, flattening his palms against the counter. “What made you change your mind?”
The other man stared back at him calmly, unperturbed. “I don’t fear dying. I fear dying and being reborn again to deal with the aftermath of this chaos.”
“That’s a funny way to put it.”
“What else can you call this mess- another ‘technical difficulty?’?”
“You’ve got a point there.” A pause. “Aren’t you still mad about it, though? They’re making you take the fall for it-“
“There’s no one to ‘take the fall for,’ Adrian. They didn’t mean any harm.”
Adrian balled his hands into fists but turned his gaze downward. “Then what- you’re actually okay with it now, as long as you’re not involved?”
2.
The classroom was as dank and empty as Adrian remembered it, but that was probably because he’d been the last person to leave the classroom in the previous school year. In about an hour it would hit daylight and the drapes would need to be raised, the floor swept, and the desks straightened. Such was the duty of the one high school student who actually liked arriving at a time where even the class insomniac wanted to put his head down and close his eyes for a second. Adrian had gotten halfway through aligning each desk parallel to the other when the classroom door slid open with a bang. He cocked an eyebrow at the boy standing in the doorway.
“Morning. What’s gotten you up so early?”
The other boy shrugged, adjusted the shoulder strap of his bag, and scanned the room with disinterested eyes. “The principal wanted to get my records processed before classes started. I’m the only transfer student this year, it seems.”
Adrian shook his head, smiling. “Things move slowly in rural towns like this one, that’s all. Where’re you from?”
“Take a guess.”
“Norm?”
“Got it all in one.”
“Haha. That’s where I’m from, actually.”
“Really? Swell.”
He hesitated before striding forward and offering his hand. “The name’s Adrian. You?”
“Llyr Wakeley.” Llyr gripped it with a slightly clammy hand and shook firmly. “Nice to meet you.”
3.
“What’s shakin’, bacon?” Sam glanced at the computer screen curiously. “It doesn’t look like you’re looking at the news today. Oh. Well.”
“Hush!” Adrian hissed, slamming his laptop shut.
“You have-“Sam broke off in a snort. “I’m going to tell Helena you’re looking at-“
“It’s not funny!”
“Haha, beat by a pop idol of all things? She’s going to love this.”
“I hear my lowly underlings flapping their useless mouths again,” drawled Helena, looming over Adrian’s desk. “What’s this I hear about a pop idol, hmm?”
Adrian averted his eyes and grumbled under his breath lowly.
Helena laughed and draped her arms over his shoulders. “I didn’t hear you, Adrian.”
“I said that she’s the prettiest girl in the world!”
Silence reigned for several seconds before Sam roughly elbowed Helena in the side. “You’re supposed to start weeping.”
“Ow! Hold on, my tear ducts are dry! I can’t just start gushing salt water from my eyes in mere seconds. That was pretty much the last of it after the fifth take.”
Adrian pillowed his head in his arms and slumped against the desk. “I give up.”
“Your script stinks, Sam,” jeered Helena, dropping the playbook onto Adrian’s head.
Sam hastily collected the playbook and clutched it protectively to his chest. “Your face stinks.”
“Your mother stinks.”
“Your hair stinks.”
“Uh. Your car stinks.”
“You did not just go there.”
“I did, too. What are you going to do about it?”
The classroom door slid open with a bang. “Cut it out, children.”
Helena jumped to attention and swept to the front of the classroom, inclining her head respectfully. “Good day, teacher.”
“Well met, Helena. I have the transfer student here; would you do me the favor of watching him for me today? He’d be taking private lessons with me, but I’ve got a meeting to attend.”
“Yes, sir, of course!” Eyes alight, Helena waved him off with a smart salute.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“Are you all right? Your eyes are looking a bit red.”
Helena could hear Sam choking as he fought to stifle his laughter. “Sir. There’s nothing to worry about. You should be on your way now.”
As the door slid shut behind the transfer student, she turned on her friend with an enraged yell. “You and your stupid script! I’m going to-“
“Helena.”
“What is it?” She turned to look at Adrian, whose eyes were just barely peering over the shelter of his arms.
“Don’t you think you should be a better example for the transfer student?”
Helena sighed exasperatedly. “All right.”
“Sucker!” shrieked Sam, rocking backwards in his chair and bicycling his feet through the air wildly.
“That means you, too, Sam.”
“Damn.”
--
Artist's note: I think I have totally forgotten rules for formatting, indenting, and etc. in noveling. Not writing anything like these for a long time does that to you. >.>
Anyway, I asked Silver to give me a story idea, and she came up with “I don’t fear dying. I fear dying and being reborn again to deal with the aftermath of this chaos.” (My first thought was Aaang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the Avatar is always reborn in order to combat evil and stuff.)
I really meant to finish this story in about a thousand words because that's supposed to be a lot (considering how little I've written in the past), but I felt like I couldn't build as much as I should in the story unless it was longer. So I'll be continuing this by releasing the rest of the story in parts.
Lastly, sorry for those of you who got multiple email notifications when I tried editing and reposting. Hopefully with this the problems have been fixed -__-
Thanks for reading!
~Lewis
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