The Eternal Sleep

Spray Painting and Old Vans

“Jasper, what are you doing home?” Sean had a confused look on his face, Alysa standing to the side, the pair unconsciously blocking the door. Jasper began to stammer, waving his hands around uselessly. If there was one thing Jasper definitely couldn’t do, it was lie to his father.

“Jas here… is uh, helping me with my exams.” Luca nudged his sharply in the ribs, a strained smile on his face. They couldn’t let the pair know that Jasper was in trouble, much less, going to extract revenge. Sean would either try to talk them out of it or march up to the school and demand an audience, causing a bigger scene.

“Yea, I am.” Jasper swung and arm around Luca’s shoulders.

“You called Jasper from school?” His mother frowned.        

“No, not exactly, Luca and I were talking on the phone and he mentioned that he needed some help with… history.” Luca tried not to facepalm, he didn’t take history and his mother was quite aware after the fuss he’d kicked up when he was choosing subjects.

“You’re taking history?” Luca could feel Jasper’s hand twitch as he realized his mistake.

“Totally, now can we go?” Luca moved forward, trying to shoulder his way past Sean, keeping his head low.       

“Yea, sure kid.” Sean frowned, “Where are you going exactly?”

“The café.” As Luca dragged Jasper out into the hallway, a thought occurred to him, “Jasper, can you drive?”

“Yea, why?”

“Hey Sean?” Sean turned his attention fully to him, “Since you’re back, can I borrow the car?”

“Well you did fix it, only fair that I let you borrow it.” He grinned as he caught the keys, enjoying Jasper’s look of surprise.

“Thanks, see you later.

“I still can’t believe Dad let you get the keys.” Jasper sulked in the driver’s seat. After a run in at the small craft store and buying a couple cans of paint, the evil pair were on their way to Jasper’s school to put their revenge plan into motion. “I’ve been asking him since I got my license and he wouldn’t even let me hold the keys.”

“Probably has to do with the fact that you crashed the original car.” Luca sorted as he pulled a pen and a pad of sticky notes out from the glove compartment. He needed to sketch his idea for the painting on Rick’s car, he didn’t want to go there without a plan.

“Ugh, I can’t believe he told you about that.” Jasper rolled his eyes, “What did he mean by you fixing the car though?”

“Nothing much, he just had problems with the engine, and I helped him out.”

“Pretty sure your version of ‘helped him out’ is you changing the entire engine.”

“Something like that.” Luca grinned, “So, how are we getting in the school?”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” Jasper’s ‘plan’ involved calling Matizy and his friend, Tony. Together, they managed to sneak Jasper and Luca in the lamest way possible.

“I still can’t believe that worked.” Luca grumbled, pulling Matizy’s jacket closer, it was a simple grey piece with black strips on the shoulders. They switched jackets at the gate, Jasper was slightly too big for his girlfriend’s jacket, so he switched with Tony instead, the guards didn’t even give them a second glance.

“Yea well, they’re actually accustomed to us doing the weirdest things, so they’re not as bothered when they see me.” Matizy laughed softly, her now short page-boy hair giving her a tomboyish look. “You’re Luca, right?”

“Yep, and it’s Ma-tizy?”

“Matilda, but don’t call be that unless you want to have a couple missing teeth.”

“Yea, she hates that name, that’s why I started calling her Ma-tizy.” Jasper nudged him. They were currently walking to the parking lot at the back of the school, hoping that Rick’s car was still there. “So, you’re certain you can pull off the spray painting?”

“Yep, a friend taught me everything I know.” Luca thought about Rene, her enthusiasm that made learning spray painting with the others much more fun. “That the car?”

“Yep.” It was an old trailer van, probably didn’t even have much of a life span left. Around it were a couple of people milling about and chatting, Tony nodded his head in the direction of the van. “There they are.”

In the trailer of the van sat two people, cans in their hands and a look of spite on their faces. The man had a buzz cut hair style, an acne scared face and clothes that were a size too small to be comfortable. The woman sitting next to him had long hair, a face full of makeup and clothes that definitely far too short to be used for anything other than wiping the dirt off counters.

“Is that…beer?” Luca squinted, “Are you guys even allowed to drink beer?”

“Have the age, yes, allowed to drink it on campus…no”

“So how are we going to get them away from the van, I can’t stay here whole night.”

“Don’t worry love, I have a plan alright.” Matizy had a malicious look on her face, reminding Luca of Olivia when she had a bad idea.

“I vote we follow the crazy lady.” Luca yelped as Matizy ruffled his hair, he really needed a haircut.

Turns out, Matizy’s plan was an epic masterpiece, she’d grabbed Tony and marched right up the van, viciously yelling at the woman for damaging her hair. Jasper jumped to go after her, but Luca pulled him back roughly, it would do them no good to mess with their only shot. It was hardly a few minutes before a couple teachers showed up and called the entire crew into the office.

“Wow, I can see why you like her.”

“Ta-da?”

Luca rolled his eyes as moved towards the van, keeping an eye out for people that might try to stop them. “If this guy and his goons are so scary, wouldn’t someone try to get at us for damaging his van?”

“Nope, everyone hates the guy, they would do this themselves, but most people don’t have a death wish.” Jasper tossed him a face mask and pulled his hoodie over his head.

“Good to know, let’s see if we can get this done in ten minutes.”

With the paint much thicker than they anticipated, it takes them almost half an hour. Luca was very uncomfortable, the afternoon heat combined with Matizy’s thick jacket and the constant movement, he was feeling very stifled. Jasper was in a state of panic, keeping a constant eye out in case a teacher passed by or Rick and his group of psychopaths came back.

Luca had to admit, however, that he was quite pleased with how the painting was coming about, it covered nearly the entire van, fully equipped with insults and rude gestures to the owner. Jasper had successfully learned how to get the least amount of paint on himself, but several times Luca wondered if it would have been a good idea to get gloves.

“Hey, get them!” Luca jumped in panic at the yell, the bag of spray paint cans scattering loudly on the ground. He looked around frantically, at the end of the parking lot, a couple of guys were running at them, Rick at the lead.

“Let’s go!” Jasper yelled, tossing the tins in his hand at the goons, with luck, he was able to hit one on the head, pumping his fist as they stumbled to the ground. Luca grabbed the hand offered to jump down from the trailer, running behind Jasper back to the car.

Jasper was laughing like a maniac the entire time, Luca puffed in his struggle to keep up. He needed to remember that Jasper was an athletic student sometimes, there was no way he’d be able to keep up with him. His foot caught on a protruding rock and he was sent flying roughly to the ground.

Luca cursed his luck; he’d gotten so accustomed to the game that he’d forgotten just how painful a busted knee could feel. Blood was running down his foot and hear the sounds of Rick’s goon squad were getting closer, he needed to get up now. For the hundredth time that hour, he wondered if this was a good idea.

“Luca, you okay?” he yelped in surprise as Jasper grabbed one of his arms and pulled it around his neck, getting him to his feet in one swift movement.

“Yea, for now, we need to go!”

“I have Matizy getting the car for us, she’ll meet up half-way to the exit.” Like a well-oiled machine, Jasper was able to lug Luca along as though he weighed nothing, getting him into the back seat of the car and sitting next to him. Matizy pulled out of the school campus and cruised through the mostly empty streets.

“Man, that was crazy!” Tony cheered from his seat in the front, giving a fist bump to Jasper.

“Heck yea, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rick so mad.” Jasper howled in laugher. They’d tossed their masks aside and listened to Tony and Matizy recount what happened in the office. Apart from a damaged car, Rick and his crew would be suffering much more evenings of extra work to build up their credit score. “Definitely couldn’t have done it without Luca though.”

“Darn right.” Luca chuckled, pressing a couple napkins that he’d stolen from the glove compartment to his knee.

“That knee gonna be good kid?” Matizy glanced back at him, eyebrow raised.

“Wouldn’t be my first time, not athletic in any way.” Luca snorted, “I’m more of a books and video games guy.”

“Well dude, your books and video games just took out one of the most annoying people in my school.” Jasper ruffled his hair enthusiastically, “Remind me to call you when I have a plan to get into motion.”

Luca might have suffered a damaged knee and probably lost a couple years off his life from the scare that was Rick, but as he relaxed into the conversation flowing around him, he’d felt closer to Jasper that ever. Things seemed to be looking up a little.