Ring ring ring.
Said the telephone as I scurried across the house to grab it.
Oh you arbiter of communication. Oh phone, you yardstick of civilization. Oh you… you third thing. I answered the house phone.
“Yes?” I asked. “Is this Jacob?” I heard a familiar female voice.
“Yes, who’s this?” I replied.
“Ms. Carter. Your science teacher.” She explained. I remembered her. I liked her because she shared my interest in science and mathematics. We’d often have long, pointless conversations. I couldn’t fathom why she’d randomly be calling my house phone.
“Why are you calling my house phone?” I asked. I heard her nervous laugh over the phone.
“Sorry, this was the number on your school file. I know this is short notice but do you think you’d be able to compete in the Academic Team championship on Tuesday?” She asked me.
“I guess. They’re still having that?” I asked.
“It’s about an hour away so the commotion hasn’t quite affected them. It’s going to be a really rough one, since Tom was…” She stopped herself. Tom was one of the students killed by Cement Suit, and he was our academic team captain. “Do you still have your shirt?” She changed the subject.
“Yeah, I do. What time do you need me at the school?” I asked. As I spoke the words Danny walked through my front door yelling something at me. I loudly shushed him from the other room.
“Six AM, thank you. See you then.” The phone went click as she hung up.
Danny continued yelling at me from the living room. He stomped loudly against the wood floors. Eventually I saw him walking towards the door leading to my parent’s room. He was wearing his usual black jacket and jeans.
“Have you seen the news?” Danny asked excitedly.
“Nope, I’ve been asleep all day.” I lied.
“A few hours ago that cement guy that attacked our school escaped. He had a massive fight with SWAT and the national guard.” Danny explained, his eyes wide with a twisted form of excitement.
“Did he get away?” I asked.
“That monkey guy beat him, then the police recaptured him. Do you wanna head out to the lab? The girls are down there.” He rambled.
“Sure, I’ve got nothing better to do.” I replied dryly. I made a short trek to my room to grab my backpack. I quickly checked to make sure that the costume was still in there.
Never know when I might need it.
I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed out to meet Danny at the front door.
“What was that phone call about?” He wasted no time starting up a conversation as we walked down the very peaceful neighborhood outside.
“It was about the academic team tournament thing. Didn’t you get the same call?” I asked.
“She put me in a group text thing.” He replied. As we walked past a neighbor of mine, Danny looked over at her and waved. She was a girl a year or two younger than us and she was outside planting flowers with her mom. She blushed in response.
“She called me on my house phone. Hey, can you tell me who else is going?” I waved at my neighbor Dave as we walked past. He was sitting on his porch swaying gently on his swing, his little chihuahua right by his side.
“From what was said in the group chat: you, me, Emily, Amy, and Steve.” Danny said methodically.
I searched through my mind to put faces to names. Steve was in my history class. Sat near me and Emily. Brown hair with lots and lots of freckles all over his face. Quiet kid, but really smart. He didn’t have many friends.
“Me… You, Emily. Amy Bates…” I scratched my head for a second. “Hmm. Fonzie!” I exclaimed. Danny chuckled.
“Why are you still doing the codename thing?” He asked.
“He’s the one that always has that leather jacket.” I explained.
“Yeah, that’s him. He’s supposed to be in therapy but I guess he got released early.” Danny explained.
“Therapy for what?” I asked, confused.
“Don’t you remember? He’s Rose-Elizabeth’s brother.” Danny replied with a grave expression.
“Oh.” I blurted out. Danny’s grave expression didn’t fade.
I looked over at the rocket ship as we passed the park. For a brief moment I saw a glimpse of darkness as we passed. It was just a shadow.
…
This time around it was Danny that left early. He had to go to a birthday party or something, I didn’t press him about it. Mar left second because her parents needed her home early for chores. By eleven it was me and Emily. I was tinkering with a fighting robot that Danny was very excited about making. It was barely even built so I was just mostly scribbling down different designs in my notebook. Emily was on the couch listening to music, bobbing her head, and studying a textbook. I looked at the backpack I’d laid down under the table.
I walked behind her stealthily and yanked her headphones right out of her head. She immediately looked up and gave me a death stare. I shot her a smile and looked down at her textbook. It was a biology textbook. She was studying for a big test, which I doubted we’d even have after what had happened.
“What do you need?” She asked while looking up at me.
“Nothing. Just looking.” I said. I continued looking down at what she was studying while holding her headphones.
“What are you doing this summer?” She asked me as she wrote something down in her notebook.
“Going to visit my cousins out on their farm. You?” I put on her headphones for a second to hear what she was listening to. I quickly took them out and handed them back to her.
“Not much. I might go to a summer camp for a week, but other than that not much.” She replied dryly. “What are your cousins like?” She asked. I threw myself over the back of the couch to sit down next to her. Then I clicked on the tv.
“Well. There’s three of them. Junior, Jessica, and Janie.” I explained. She gives me a funny look.
“Your family must really like the letter J.” She laughed.
I muted the tv but paid close attention to the massive gang war that was being reported on. Apparently the damage to the city’s police force, done by Cement Suit, was an opening for the gangs to set in and try to take land for themselves. A Platinum family was involved in some indirect way. Which sent chills down my spine.
“Well my grandpa decided to name my mom Jane, and my uncle John. I don’t know why. But they made a deal when they were kids that if they ever had kids they’d pick J names. My uncle John named his youngest daughter after my mom, as a sort of tribute to the deal.” I explained.
On tv I watched as gang members shot up the highway out of the city with rifles obviously stolen from soldiers. It cut to a scene of a burning bar.
“Awww. That’s sweet.” Emily said as she flipped through the textbook. Her cheery disposition made for an interesting contrast to the graphic imagery on the news.
“Yeah, I guess. It’s a really cool farm but it’s quite a ways from here.” I said absentmindedly as I watched the carnage on the news.
“So you’re going to be somewhere else all summer?” She asked.
“Only for about a week or two.” I replied.
“I have to go. If I stay any later my parents will kill me.” She said as she snapped her textbook close and stood up.
I tore my attention between what conversation I had just had and what was on the news as she walked away. I went back to tinkering with the battle bot design for a few minutes, before double checking to make sure she had left. Then I pulled out my boa staff I’d been working on.
“This’ll work well enough.” I mumbled to myself as I pulled my suit out of my bag, and mentally prepared myself for the horrifying bonding process I was about to partake in. I looked over at the tv and saw a crowd of people dropping as gang members shot them down.
Back to normal.
