Heaven Gilded Zarcroft Hybrid

One

"Jack!" a strong voice said.

The world snapped back. Warm air hugged my face and baked the green grass under me. Distant chatter and shouting slowly raised in my ears. Another "Jack!" and my sight cleared up. School. I forgot. And sitting under a giant, old tree. My bookbag laid wide open for any bugs to crawl inside.

I rubbed my forehead, trying to massage the weight out.

A pair of bulky combat boots stuck out from the side of the trunk. I leaned forward to see who it was.

Korey slouched against the bark, hands stuffed in his aviator jacket. Leaves collected in his cropped tangerine hair. He turned to me.

"Finally, you're awake," he said. "Maybe you should've sat this day out."

"I dunno," I said. "I can't afford to miss any more days."

"But falling asleep in this weather? We're baking out here."

My dream gleamed in and out of my mind. The silhouette of a boy with golden eyes. Clouds of blue dust gathered at his knees. It looked so familiar...

Korey hauled his camo bookbag between us and dug inside. Seashells, two weird looking phones, a golf ball, dice, blah blah. It looked like a thrift store in there. You don't just have those things. Of course, I keep a drawer of crap I don't use, but it's funnier and more mysterious when it's someone else and not me. And he's probably done more in a week than I could do in five months.

"Doing anything this summer?" he grunted, scavenging for something.

"No," I said. "Nothing that cool."

"Oh... Well, it might get even less cool."

"Hmm?"

He pulled out a snow globe—still intact somehow—with a mini, snowy evergreen forest inside. Words were engraved on the black base, though I couldn't make them out.

"Uh, this is for you," he chuckled. His grip tightened around the bottom before he handed it to me. I kept my hold gentle, and off the warm glass. Korey stuffed his hands in his deep pockets, slouching deeper in the grass. He glanced at the sky, then at his tapping feet together, yawning.

"I'm gonna be gone the whole summer," he sighed.

I sprung up. "Are you moving? Please don't."

He elbowed my arm. "What? No. I'm just seeing my cousin again. My mom got mad at me."

"This is the fourth time!"

"It's for the best, I guess."

I caressed the glass dome.

"Is it fun up there?" I asked. "In New York?"

Korey smirked. He played with his fingers and shook his head. "Mostly yeah, but be happy you're stuck here."

Thunder growled in the sky, catching everyone's stare, while the shadows of storm clouds darkened the grass. Korey's eyes widened, like he suddenly remembered something.

One minute, it was sunny and bright. Now, you would've never known there was a sun. Water began soaking the grass and dripping from the leaves above us. Everyone, even the aggressive soccer players, stopped to gaze at the sky, groaning.

"I thought it was supposed to be sunny today," I said, confused.

"It's finally two o'clock." Korey glanced at his phone. "God, today's really lagging."

"You're lucky," I muttered. "You live so close to the school. It's gonna take me years to get back in the rain."

I could still smell the last storm in my stupid jacket.