Saving Your Life

An Ice Cream Truck and An Invitation

The hum of the air conditioner got farther away as Angel closed the door to her house. She stepped onto the porch and took out her phone, it was 1:32 pm, Ben was supposed to get here at one. Angel sighed and took a seat on her grandma's rocking chair on the front porch. The cool and smooth wood comforted her as the chair squeaked back and forth. Taking her phone out again she pulled up Ben's number and sent him a text, Hey where are you? You're late! She put her phone down and took in her surroundings. Her neighbor's twins were playing in their front yard. One of the twins pushed the other one, she couldn't recall their names for some reason, probably because she never bothered to learn them. One of the twins started crying prompting their mom to call them back inside.

Angel, giving up, got up from the chair and walked towards the sidewalk. Of course, as is her luck, she saw Ben Park, her best friend for who knows how many years, taking his sweet ass time walking towards her house. He noticed her and gave her an awkward smile. Ben's curly black hair bounced up and down as he slowly jogged towards Angel. Ben was short, for a guy his age, he was 16 and barely reached 5'4". He had deep brown skin and matching brown eyes that he had inherited from his Jamaican mom, and sharp thin eyes and a strong defined jaw line he inherited from his Korean dad.

"Hey, what took you so long Ben?" Angel remarked angrily. "You were supposed to get here like 30 minutes ago"

"Sorry, got held up taking care of Hei-Ran. She wouldn't fall asleep." Ben said as they walked towards Angel's front porch.

"Whatever, it's okay. I didn't wait that long." They took a seat on the steps of the porch. Angel leaned her head on Ben's shoulder and sighed. "You know, I didn't think we'd end up being so boring and pathetic. Like just the other day, I was watching Amanda's snapchat story and she actually climbed a mountain! An actual freaking mountain! And here we are, it's the middle of July and we haven't done anything but sulk around my house watching reruns of Doctor Who on BBC America!"

"Oh come on! You know you love it. It's not like we don't have fun just staying cooped up at home." Ben said defensively. Their life mostly consisted of sci-fi tv shows and fantasy books and Ben was the instigator.

"I don't know." Angel said disappointed, "I just expected so much more from my life, like here I am almost 17 years old and I haven't even been on a date."

"Hey, but what about that one time I took you out after the school dance and we went to a fancy restaurant and what not?" He said playing with the seams on Angel's black lace skirt.

"That doesn't count, that was you." Angel whispered.

Ben shoved her off his shoulder and faked a pout. "Hey! Rude!" Ben said feigning offense. Angel and Ben continued to bicker when the approaching song of an ice cream truck distracted them both. "Yesss, ice cream! It's a little too hot out here." Ben said as they get up and look for the truck. The ice cream truck, which suggested by the song getting louder, was getting close. "That's weird. I swear I can hear an ice cream truck." Ben said. The ice cream truck was nowhere in sight.

"Me too..." Angel said confused. The ice cream truck's whining song stopped and with that Angel and Ben decided it was time to go inside. Just as they approached the front door a flyer which seemed to appear out of nowhere and landed in front of Angel.

"What's that?" asked Ben picking it up curiously.

"I don't know. It looks like an invitation to a school or something." Angel said taking the paper from Ben's hands and inspecting it. The small paper had a simple pale peach background and a heading written in intricate calligraphy:

"We invite you to apply to Meriet's School for Naturals."

And that was it, nothing more nothing less. "That's mad weird..." Muttered Ben as he read the invitation.

"Yeah... Let's go inside." Angel said dragging Ben inside the house. The hum of the air conditioner filled the house as the two teens headed up the stairs towards Angel's room. For the rest of the day, Angel chattered away as Ben researched the school on Angel's laptop. After a couple hours of no results Ben gave up and went home.

It wasn't until 6 in the morning of the next day when Angel got a text from Ben. "You won't believe what I found out about the school! It's out of this world! (Do people even say that anymore?) Anyways, it's crazy come to my house as soon as possible. Guess you got your wish for excitement!!" Angel sighed as she read the message, Ben had a tendency to overreact. She picked out a random shirt and shorts from her drawer and headed to the bathroom. Cringing at her reflection in the mirror, Angel picked up her toothbrush and started brushing her teeth. Her short brown hair was in a messy bun looking thing and her dark brown eyes (or like Ben likes to describe them 'beautiful spheres the color of burnt caramel' which is literally just the color brown) are filled with excitement. Angel got dressed and went downstairs. Her mom was in the living room reading a book. "I'm going to Ben's house mom, I'll text you when I get there." Angel told her mom.

"Okay! Don't be long!" Her mom said enthralled in the book instead of her daughter. Angel got on her bike and started heading towards Ben's house. The Park's house wasn't too far from her house, but it was far enough for her to have to drive her bike for about 10 minutes. As she approached her best friend's house, she prepared to get some underwhelming news about the school and the mysterious invitation.

Angel parked her bike in front of the house and walked to the front door. Her heart began to beat a little faster for some unknown reason. She put her sweaty palms into a fist and knocked on the door. Surprisingly, the door opened immediately, it wasn't locked. Angel's heart started beating harder, and it felt good for some crazy reason, as she walked inside the house and called out Ben's name. The house was empty and devoid of baby Hei-Ran's usual crying. "Hey Ben, where are you?" Angel asked the air as she noticed the turned over chair on the ground. Something weird was definitely going on. Reaching into her pocket to take out her phone, Angel's initial excitement was gone. She scrolled through her contacts and dialed Ben's number. A distant buzzing in the living room lured her toward it, the squeaky wooden floor settling to her light steps. There was no one in the living room, the tv was still on. Ben's phone was vibrating on the floor. Angel approached the phone and turned it over in her hand. Small pieces of frost creeped onto the corners. This was the last straw for Angel, she took out her phone and began to dial 911. This was, however, cut short by the floorboards squeaking behind her. Angel turned around quickly just as she felt a hard thud on her head. Her legs gave up under her and she fell to the ground her head throbbing in pain. Her vision darkened just as she sees piercing blue eyes staring back at her.This is the last thing I'm ever going to see and it's not even human, she thought. A coldness creeped onto her body and it all went black.