Neon Jon

Chapter 5: Aubrey

The next morning was pretty rough,a but not near as rough as the first time I exhausted myself. At least I could walk. I get up and immediately smell breakfast. I couldn't wait so I take a quick shower and run downstairs. My dad and brother are sitting at the table on their signature devices. My dad, his tablet probably playing sudoku. my brother, his iPhone probably texting one of his two girlfriends. Yes they knew each other, no they don't care.

Jordan was the man, everyone knows him from high school. He was the star player of the football and track team, even graduated valedictorian. He had it all smarts, looks, oh and not to mention super human abilities. I envied him. I never had the confidence he had to talk to girls or people in general he had a ton of friends. Thinking about how great he is inspired me to make a change. That's why I decided today was the day I talked to Aubrey.

"How did training go?" My dad says without looking up from his tablet. "He's powerful dad, just how I thought he'd be." Hearing that from Jordan made me smile. "You boys just better be careful out there. There are all kinds of wild animals in Brazil I don't want you hurting any." My mom says setting down my plate in front of me. I decided to try out my new found confidence. "Yea I'm a natural." I said leaning back and putting my hands behind my head.

"Keep that up your heads gonna be as big as your brother's." Said my dad who actually managed to look up. He always tells us to be ourselves. He knows I'm not like my brother and he doesn't want me to force myself to be like him, but that wasn't going to stop me from trying. I finished my breakfast quickly and headed straight to school.

At my school we had what's called block scheduling. Instead of having the same Eight classes in one day we would split them up and have four a day. Today was a B day so I didn't have the same classes I had yesterday which was an A day. I know confusing. Aubrey and I had a class together today, as well as a lunch period. I devised a plan to ask her about homework in our world history class and talk about it at lunch. Foolproof.

I arrived at school on time today, Aaron was waiting for me by my locker. Neither of us ever used them we would just wear our backpacks to class. The lockers were a good and common place to meet up with your friends in the morning. "How are you feeling man? You looked pretty beat up last night." Aaron said with his face buried in his cellphone. "I'm ok now getting up was pretty difficult, did you enjoy the show?" I said thinking back at how awesome I was. He looked up. "I wish I had brought this yesterday." Aaron pulled out a large video camera out of a bag that had the school's mascot on it. "I borrowed this from the AV club. I'm gonna record your next session so you can see how cool you are." That was a good idea I couldn't wait. "See you after school."

My first class went by pretty normally except for my stomach doing flips in anticipation of what I was about to do next class. I was extremely nervous, I didn't want the same thing that happened the last time I talked to her.

(Flashback)

It was maybe two weeks into our freshman year. It was her first day because she just moved here from South Dakota. The first time I saw her My jaw literally dropped, Aaron had to pick it up for me. The first thing I saw was her beautiful curly hair and brown skin, that alone was enough for me decide to make her my girlfriend. The next day I found out we had a class together and she actually sat by me. I talked to her, I found out she was from South Dakota, her parents are from the Dominican Republic, and she hasn't made any friends yet.

I was on a roll, or so I thought.

I had eaten some sushi from some sketchy restaurant one of my friends had taken me to the day before. Little did I know I had food poisoning. As I was talking to her my stomach growled intensely. I stopped talking and put my hand on my stomach. "Are you ok?" She asked. "Yea I'm f....." That was the last thing I said to her. Before I finish my sentence I projectile vomit all over the floor in front of her and on her shoes. I ran out of the class and went straight to the nurse. From what I was told the smell was so unbearable two other people threw up as well and the class evacuated. For the rest of the semester I would come to that class late and sit as far from Aubrey as possible, I had never been more embarrassed.

(End of flashback)

My first class had ended. It was time. During passing period I see Aaron and he gives me a quick thumbs up and I nod. I get to class and she's sitting by herself. "Perfect" I thought. This new confidence thing started to kick in. I go and sit right next to her. "Hey" I said. "Hey Jon, what's up?" She smiled. Was she happy to talk to me? Was this a joke? What was happening? Her enthusiasm made my hands sweat. I don't know what came over me when I said, "sorry I threw up on your shoes freshman year." I wanted to palm my face so hard. "Well it only took you three years, I was wondering when you were gonna talk to me again, I see you staring at me." She laughed. If my skin wasn't brown I would be blushing. I powered through the embarrassment. " Yea sorry about that too, I was embarrassed." I cracked a small smile. "Don't worry it's all good." Seeing her laugh and smile with me was refreshing. We talked the entire class, I didn't even have to do the stupid homework plan. I decided to go for it, "Well since we got all of that out the way maybe I can text you sometime?" I said shyly. "Jonathan Mosley, are you asking me for my phone number?" She said flirtatiously. "So that's a yes?" I pulled out my phone to put her number in. What had I been so afraid of all this time? It was senior year, we probably could've been talking since freshman year or even dating if I wasn't such a pussy. Either way I'm glad I talked to her it was more than worth it.

After class I couldn't wipe the smile I had off of my face. As soon as I saw Aaron he knew exactly what happened. "Nice! You got her number." He said reading my mind. I held up my phone to show him the contact I put in for her. It felt to good to be true. "We still on for your training later?" He said. I could hear the excitement in his voice. "You bet your ass." I was excited as well.
The next few days of training with my brother went great. He mostly had me working on powering up just the right amount without straining myself. I wasn't doing so well, I would power up way too much. Aaron came up with a plan to help me out with my problem. The next day he showed up to my house with a box.

"What's that?" I asked him. He had a smile on his face like he had just gotten laid. "You'll see." He said. My brother walked in the room, "You guys ready?"

"Yes let's do it."

At the training grounds Aaron handed me the box before we got started. "Open this!" He said Finally. I opened it, in the box there were a pair of black fingerless gloves. They were almost as thick as MMA gloves but not as. There was a large metal circle imbedded in the backs of each of them. "Try them on" he said.

"Now what?" I said after they were on. They looked super cool but I wasn't sure how they were supposed to help me.

"Power up, go ahead." He said. I shrugged and started to power up, pressure started building. My fingers and arms started glowing neon blue like usual. All of a sudden the blue starts heading towards the center of my hands. The metal circles on the gloves started to glow the same blue that my skin had turned. Aaron stepped back and turned on his camera. A clay pot appeared in the air, I blasted it. It felt great. Much better than without the gloves, and a lot less sloppy. More and more pots appeared and I blew them up. I started holding my hand like a gun to shoot. It made the blast smaller, more concentrated, and easier to aim. I was getting the hang of all this. Suddenly we hear an explosion in the middle of the jungle. A huge one.