City Lights

Chapter 2: Near Death Fun Times

"Am I late again?" I asked, biting my lip as I entered the class.

"Yes, you are." Uncle Charliesaid, quite angrily. "You locked the car?"

"Yup," I replied, throwing the keys at him. I was almost certain I locked it, anyway. The keys dropped to the floor. "And you call yourself the Coach, man you sure suck. I hope the soccer team is better than your catch-"

"Sit down Shay," he barked, and I obeyed, smiling sweetly at him. "Back to Karanaski; are you gonna answer my question?"

"Uh, sorry, coach, what was it?" a boy with a brown mess of a hair stuttered. I guess his name is Karanaski. Or maybe it's his last name. Probably the latter, as I know my uncle.

"It was `Karanaski, are you paying attention back there?`"

God, I love my uncle.

"Oh. Well, I am now."

God, I love this kid.

"Karanaski, stop reminding why I drink... Every night."

I frowned. He drank soda every night-- he didn't have a drink for over two years.

I hoped.

Coach turned back to the board, "and Shay, put Flash back in your bag." I push the comic off the desk.

"What? What Flash? Pfft," he turned to give me a look, and as he turned back to the board I picked the book up, dusting it off.

"Back to the subject, anybody wants to answer the question on board?" I tried understanding what was written on the board, but miserably failed, so I went back to staring into space and thinking about the day a lightning would strike me and I'd be as cool as Flash, but in Marvel's universe.

By the end of the class, I already named Clint's children with me, and had my relationship with Josh Elixir and Bruce Banner Hulk completely figured out.

All of us were over it, we were in a good place. But then the bell rung.

"There goes another great fantasy to waste," I sighed, standing up.

::

I waved at Zach, Blink- 182 playing in the background as I walk. He waved back, smiling at me.

Nice fella, that guy is. Maybe I should be his friend.... But then again, maybe not. Takes too much effort. I sighed.

If I kept up the whole lazy vibe, I might actually die friendless.

 Ten seconds later, Dana and Eli sat down next to him, closely followed by the Karanaski guy and some other guy. I think he was the one I ran into the other day, and only now I realized something about him.

His jawline was uneven.

I was staring at his jawline, completely fascinated, and found myself reading his lips.

"Okay, so what happens to a person that has a near- death experience and comes out of it seeing things?"

A crazy dude, I mused to myself. His jawline was so strange, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't look away. His head dropped, and I pouted to myself. When he looked up, he looked at me for a moment.

"The new girl is staring at me."

When did I learn to read lips, anyway?

All five of them turned to me. s**t.

I waved innocently at them, and Karanaski's face-palm is heard through my earphones, and I can't help but to let out a small laughter.

Some tiny dyed blonde girl marched to their table. That might be interesting...

Not as much as uneven jawline dude's uneven jawline. But fairly interesting.

I tried reading her lips, but her hair blocked my vision.

"Oh man," I swear, sighing in annoyance. Uneven jaw-line dude's eyes snapped to me, and I looked away out of embarrassment. I started whistling innocently, trying to get back to my normal life with normal people- who don't talk about people who almost die and then have some hallucination.

When I felt safe enough to look over there again, the girl cheerfully stated;  "Like demons."

I pressed my lips together, trying to stop a laugh. Who the hell smiles when talking about demons?

Ten seconds later she smiled again while saying; "death. You die."

"Hella positive," I blurted out. They turned to me again. "Hi. How are you guys?"

"Who are you?" Karanaski asked, raising his hands in confusion. I scratched near my eyebrow, thinking hard. A joke or a true introduction?

"I'm Shay," I smiled as I took out my earphones at last.

"She's the coach's niece." Dana said, a weird look on her face. Like she was really done with the whole situation, or just me. Not sure.

"Holy s**t!" Karanaski exclaimed. I laughed.

"I'm Adam," Uneven Jaw-Line Dude introduced himself. "Call him Kar," he pointed at Karanaski, "and that's Hinata," he pointed at Stillinski, then at the blonde that smiles at weird times. Up close I could see she was at least partially Asian. And obviously she was named after Naruto's future-wife.  "I guess you already know them," he gestured to the trio that took Art with me. I nodded simply.

The school's bell rung. "There's Art now?" I asked Zach, who nodded in reply.

"Hold on, we'll walk together." Eli smiled, I nodded. Dana looked like she was the world's most exasperated person, as Eli turned to Adam. "So we're going to the Vet's later, yeah?"

"Yeah." They all nodded, except for me and Hinata.

"You know that you married a guy with a fox demon in its tummy?" I asked her, referring to Naruto. She looked at me like I was a weirdo. "I mean, you're named after her."

"Holy s**t. Coach's niece watched Naruto?" Kar walked closer to me, as though he was examining an animal at the zoo. "Do you like Star Wars?"

"I f*****g love it," I replied.

"Adam, do me a favour and learn from her." Kar pointed at me, staring at Adam.

"Of course I will," Adam nodded, putting his hands on his shoulders and pushing Kar away, "right away."

"Art?" Eli asked, smiling and showing a pair of cute dimples. She was stunning.

"Come on." Dana said, walking first, Eli and Zach right behind while I trailed awkwardly behind them.

Social awkwardness at its finest, ladies and gentlemen, I can't help but to think, glancing around me. I could've sworn I felt someone's eyes on me--and not just that one creepy kid Charlie warned me about, Russo.

When we arrived to Art class, the teacher is not there. But from what I gathered, she always comes late and she lets the class draw whatever they'd like.

I sat next to Zach again, and started sketching.

"Are you drawing Adam?" Zach asked, flabberghasted, after almost fifteen minutes.

"Have you seen his jaw- line? It's fascinating." he simply laughed.

"What is so fascinating about his jaw-line?"

"It's completely uneven!" I exclaimed.

"And that's why you were staring?" he rolled his eyes.

"Yes!" I said, making him laugh again. "Well, excuse me for being un-usually intrested in a man's jawline."

"This isn't normal," Zach laughed.

I scowled, tearing away the canvas with Zach's drawing and instead started sketching the beach.

When the teacher finally entered, she introduced herself to me and told us to do draw whatever we'd like.

*

"MIDDLE FINGERS UP IF YOU DON'T GIVE A f**k!" my phone starts playing.

"f**k!" I swear, fiddling my bag in an attempt to find it. "Damn it, damn it, damn it," I chanted under my breath as I couldn't find it.

"Why aren't you picking up your phone?" Charlie asked, scaring the crap out of me. I turned around, looking at my uncle in fright as I still looked for my phone inside of my bag.

"You scared the crap out me," I whined.

"Well, if you'd pick up your phone I wouldn't have."

"My phone scared me as well," I told him.

"Change the ringtone," he adviced, "where's the car?" he asked me, looking around the parking lot.

"Right the-" I pointed at where I left it, "okay, it isn't there."

"Shay." Charlie said in a warning tone.

I pursed my lips together.

"I may have forgotten to lock your car. And someone may have stolen it."

"You mean, again."

"Yes, again."

"I hate you." he said simply. "Ronald owes me another car. Inform your father please."

"C'mon, Charlie!" I tried. "Want some gummy bears?" he kept walking away. "No? No, okay, more for me."