City Lights

Chapter 1: First Days at Gravity Hills

"Shay," Charlie tried, tightening his jacket around his body. "You're gonna be late. Get out of the car."

"Hold on," I begged, "I just gotta finish reading this-"

"Get out now or I'll throw away all of your comic books." My eyes snapped to my uncle. I stared, wide-eyed, at the dark haired man. His wide blue eyes weren't even on me as he looked at the students loitering around in the parking lot.

"You wouldn't. I collected those for years."

"You really wanna check whether I would or wouldn't?" He threatened, looking at me with a sharp look.

"Fine," I grumbled, leaving the car, clutching in my hand the X-Men issue.

I kept reading as I walked through the halls of Gravity Hills High, every once in a while checking the number of class in front of me until getting to the class I was supposed to be in. It was after the second bell, but I took my chances.

"Please tell me I'm not late."

"You're not late," the man replied, he was tall and his dark hair was slicked back, brown eyes twinkling with the smile.

"Seriously?" I smiled.

"No, you're late. Sit down."

"Yes sir," I replied, going to sit at the back. On the way there I read another page of X-Men, and stumbled over a backpack, though no one seemed to notice (except for the boy who gave me the evil eye for stumblong over his backpack).

I sat down, getting out my books and reading a bit more of X-Men, only half listening to Mr. Yukimura, as I found out.

As I finished reading before class finished, I was bored and started re-reading for the fourth time, and when the bell rung I jumped to my feet, accidentally crashing into someone's chest.

"s**t, sorry," I apologized, diving after the comic book. The boy stood there in shock. "Oh thank God it's clean." I breathed out in relief. I glanced at the boy, grinning at him. He was tanned and tall, and his hair was a mope of curls. "See ya."

I then walked off to Charlie's class.

I dodged a random freshman who just left the room, looking terrified for some reason, as I entered the class, "Hey Shay. You need anything?"

"More Comics," I announced, walking to where I knew he kept some.

"I only have Dark Horse's and DC's here," he told me.

"I don't mind reading some Flash." I announced, fixing my gray beanie. I pulled at the sleeve of my maroon jacket.  "You don't have Flash here. Okay," I sniffed, "what should I read then?"

"How about your school books?"

"Nah. Oh, Teen Titans!"

"Take it and go to your class, please." Charlie begged. I tutt in reply as I spot a sight for sore eye.

"You said you only have DC and Dark Horse," I stated, showing him The Hulk. "Since when Hulk is no longer Marvel's?"

"Shay," he stood up, "this is the very first issue of the original Hulk. This thing is... Put it down and walk away."

"I have your class today. I'll make sure to give it back in perfect condition." With that, I take the two comic books and run out of class.

"SHAY!"

*

"Wow, that class is empty," I blurted out as I entered the Art class. There were three kids there, excluding myself.

"It's exclusive," a boy said, smiling. His blonde hair was perfectly curly, and his bright eyes twinkled. He seemed like a happy puppy, waiting to be praised.

"Is there a teacher?" I wondered, as I was once again late, yet no adult was there.

"You could say that," he replied. "But then again, you can also say there isn't."

"Legit it sounds," I smiled, sitting down few seats away from him, and very gently taking out the very amazing comic book my uncle tried to hide from me.

I mean, I am clumsy, but when it comes to Comics I would sacrifice myself before letting anything happen to it.

"I'm Zacahria, you can call me Zach though," he grinned at me, "those two over there are Dana and Eli."

"Hi," the brunette waved, though she seemed rather distracted. "I'm Eli."

"So you're Dana," I nodded at the ginger.

"And you're a random girl," she replied, giving me a flat look. She had bright hazel eyes and her makeup was very subtle, except for her plump lips- she had dark red lipstick over them.

"I'm Shay Greenstock, nice to meet you." Or at least, I hope it'll be nice.

"Greenstock? As in Coach Greenstock?" Zach asked, scoffing. I raced my mind to see if maybe I should prank them and make them think I'm his daughter out of marriage but I was too lazy to think of a lie, so I settled for a simple answer.

"The very one. He's my uncle."

"Creepy."

"At times," I breathed out, opening the comic book, starting to scan the pages.

"Is that The Hulk?"

"Yup. Very first issue, from Char--err, Coach Greenstock's collection."

"May I touch it?" Zach asked, gaping at it. His eyes twinkled

"He will legitimately murder me if anything happens to it- I practically stole it... But I guess you could."

"Creepy comics addicts," I heard Dana whispering to Eli.

I grinned.

That's all I could hope someone think of me.

**

After Art, Zach and I both had Eco, with none other than Uncle dear.

"Here you go, safe and sound," I handed him his precious comic back, and he tucked it in to the very back of the shelf.

"This," he pointed at where The Hulk was, "is not leaving for another thirty years."

"One day you'll die," I told him, "and seeing as I'm the closest you'll ever have to a daughter, I'm gonna inherit this comics."

"We both know you will probably die before I do." He said casually, before realizing the weight of his words.

"True."