33 Days To Live (Under Revision)

29

"I can't believe you signed us all up without asking, you better not have named us something stupid." Rodney grumbled for the third time in the past twenty minutes as we roamed around the mall looking for a store that would assist our superhero needs.

"I think it was a fantastic idea! Who cares if he called us something stupid?" Gene chimed in, always on the opposing side of Rodney's complaints.

Everyone else just kind of rolled with it when I told them. Andrew shared my enthusiasm, Leopold just nodded along and Rodney bickered with Gene about it. Lucy on the other hand just lingered near me and Gene. After homeroom the day went like any normal school day, except today Lucy didn't run away from me. She willing came over and sat with us at lunch, much to Rodney's excitement.

He liked her because she thought everything he said was a good idea, while most of us disagreed. She was also enthusiastic about the idea of us preforming at other parties, she said we did well and the performance had been pretty good considering it was unplanned.

When I announced to my humble lunch group we were going to be participating in the run, it had became a madness of excitement, protests and planning. Fortunately by the end of lunch period we had come to a conclusion that the mall would be the best place for us to chose a costume.

"I promise I didn't call us something stupid." I reassured, earning a mixture of responses as we made our way into the costume store the mall had for the theaters and theater kids. It was like Halloween all year around here because they never closed. It was really convenient when you need a last minute costume.

"Alright everyone, I need to be home by eight to do my homework so lets make this quick or I'm abandoning all of you here." Gene warned, only having that power because she was the driver.

Upon that announcement we all divided quickly. Rodney with Andrew, Leopold with Gene and Lucy with me.

"I've never been in here before," Lucy said to me as we began to scan the racks.

"I have. More times then I'm willing to admit to." I chuckled and she smiled a little.

"I don't know anything about superheroes. I never watched any of the movies or anything." At that I gasped and looked at her mortified.

"I think Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster just rolled over in their graves." I gasped. I doubted she had any idea who they were but I'm sure she could tell how horrified I was by my expression.

"My dad always said he'd show them to me but never got around to it." She sighed and I looked at her curiously.

"I didn't know Oscar was into superheroes," I said and she shook her head.

"He's not. I mean my real dad." She then pulled out a purple cape.

"Do you think this is my color?" She asked, holding it to her shoulders and I nodded.

"I think everything here is your color, I've never seen a color you didn't look beautiful in," I said before I could stop myself and Lucy looked at me in surprise.

Suddenly my face had turned bright red as my throat swelled. My nervous reaction to talking to girls, things I haven't done around one in awhile. Accidentally complimenting Lucy though seemed to have triggered my awkwardness around girls that I thought I had put behind me.

"I mean...ummm...you'd look great in that color...if you were purple you'd...no! No, you don't have to be purple..." I tried to choke out the right words, but it was like a little devil was pinching the part of my tongue that made me sound intelligent so all I could do was stammer.

Instead of turning away like they all did, Lucy just laughed and pinched my cheek.

"No need to turn into a tomato and sing veggie tales. I appreciate the compliment Ben," She said and I let out a breath of relief as she pulled her hand from my face. I wish it would've stayed longer, her fingertips on my cheek felt so right.

"No...no problem Lu," I said softly, completely entranced by her for a moment before Rodney crashed into me and brought me back to reality painfully.

"I'm going to be mustache man! With a powerful mustache! I want to cut my mustache into the shape of biceps!" He practically yelled as I pushed him off me.

"Okay, okay Rodney. I'm glad you found something, please let me live long enough to find something of my own." I chuckled and he apologized before showing Lucy his finding. As he did that the others wandered back over, their arms filled with colored tights and capes.

"You two almost done? We're going to try on some of the stuff we found." Gene informed and I shook my head.

"No, still looking," I said.

"Alright, well hurry now. I want to stop at the food court and get dinner before we go home," Leopold said before they broke away from us, leaving Lucy and I with Rodney.

"What kind of superheroes are you two going to be?" He asked.

"I don't know yet." I shrugged, sharing a look with Lucy then looking back at Rodney.

"Maybe something with paper clips," We said in perfect unison and our eyes widened as we looked back at each other excitedly and Rodney stepped away with his hands up.

"Whoa! That was creepy! Don't say things at the same time like that, you look possessed!" He gasped. I didn't see anything creepy about it, I thought it was wonderful.

"Paper clip boy and Paper clip girl out to save the world?" I asked, playfully suggesting the idea. Surprisingly Lucy gave in immediately.

"If we do, we have to match! it'll be weird if we fight the same battles and our colors clash," She said, suddenly more excited to shuffle through the racks.

Quickly I joined her as Rodney rushed off to the dressing room, muttering something about paranormal activity. Soon we both had put together two outfits with capes and we were discussing how to make sling shots of some kind.

I think we would've stayed in the store for hours clinging onto our costumes if Gene hadn't ushered us into line to pay and out to the food court. Lucy and I were to engrossed in our conversation to really pay much attention to the others, not they minded to much because they were in deep conversation as well.

I knew this whole thing was going to be good for us all.

_______________________________________________________________________
Hi guys! I'm sorry this chapter isn't a little longer, I have this weird pain in my elbow so I decided to cut this short today.

Also, really exciting news! My story Frog Lips made it to the judges round of the OnceUponNow writing contest! I was literally freaking out because this means that if the judges like my work then I'm going to win a publishing deal and tbh I'm scared.

Thank you so much for all your support though, you guys mean the world to me!
-Mari.