Cora sighed as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. This school day was turning out to be just as boring as every other day and her classmates only made it worse. Of course it's not like being at home was any better. Her parents were oblivious to most things and her older sister took advantage of that fact. By this point in time, Cora had been subjected to many of her sister's 'brilliant' ideas which usually ended very poorly for the younger girl. She was counting down the days until she could move out and for once, be on her own.
When the bell finally rang after what felt like an eternity, Cora jumped out of her seat and threw her books into her bag. Her math teacher was still going on about the assignment that was due for next week but barely anyone was paying any attention. She left the classroom and headed outside, breathing in the fresh air before beginning to walk home. She never took the bus. It was always too crowded with an odd lingering odor.
As per usual, the streets were quiet at this hour of the day, only the rare car passed her by as she walked. Figuring no one was around, Cora turned to cross the street even though she was far from the corner. There was an alleyway she could pass through to get home faster, but before she could process what was happening, she heard screeching tires and turned just in time to see a car barreling towards her.
A hand wrapped around her upper arm and yanked her back on to the sidewalk only a mere second few seconds before the car would have run right into her. Her heart was racing as she stared at the spot where she had been only moments ago. It took her a minute before she realized that the hand was still gripping her arm and she turned to find two boys her age looking down at her with concern written all over their faces.
One of the boys had pastel pink hair, blue eyes, and stood at at least six feet. He looked like a skyscraper, of course that may have been an exaggeration. He wore a pair of torn black skinny jeans, combat boots and the band shirt he wore was just tight enough to show off his large biceps. The other boy was slightly shorter and instead had mint toned hair, with bright green eyes. He wore the same dark skinny jeans and combat boots but in place of a band shirt, he sported a long sleeved burgundy sweater which he was tugging at nervously.
The taller one seemed to realize he was still holding on to her and finally let go of her arm. The other boy shuffled his feet awkwardly and seemed to be waiting for the taller boy to say something. Since neither of them seemed to want to talk, she took it upon herself to stop the awkward silence that had fallen over the three of them.
"Uhm, thanks for, you know.. Saving my life. That was really incredible, I didn't even know anyone was around..." She said before she realized that there hadn't been anyone else around. She'd been walking down the street completely alone and then, as if out of nowhere, they had appeared and grabbed her.
"Hey, no problem. We're just doing our job. It looks like we showed up right on time." The tall one said. "Oh, and my name is Luke. This is Michael." He said pointing the to other boy.
She looked at them as if they were completely mental and raised an eyebrow. "Your job? What is that supposed to mean? And how did you show up so fast, there was no one around." She said, looking quite confused.
Luke sighed and shook his head. "Look, it's complicated and we can't talk about it here but for now, all you need to know is that our job is to look out for you. Okay, can we just skip the rest of this chat and get to your place? We can't just stand around here all day." He said, starting to sound a little annoyed and impatient.
"Luke! Be nice!" Michael scolded with a slight frown. "She isn't going to like us if you act like a jerk."
Cora shook her head a little and took a couple steps away from them. "Look, I really appreciate you saving me and all but I think I'm going to go now... uhm, thanks again." She said quickly and started backing away from them before turning to walk quickly away from them.
She heard their footsteps following after her but she kept going anyway. It probably wasn't the best decision she'd ever made, but she led them right to her house and then tried to find her keys in her bag as fast as humanly possible.
The boys walked right up behind her and at the snap of Luke's fingers her front door swung open. She slowly turned around to face them, a look of disbelief on her face.
"How did you...? What do you want?" She asked softly. At this point, she was actually quite frightened. She didn't know these two and they followed her home and somehow managed to get her front door open... without touching it.
Luke opened his mouth to speak but Michael stepped in front of him. "We don't mean to scare you.. Or at least I don't. Luke is just grumpy today." Michael said and shot a look at Luke. "This was supposed to go a lot smoother so let's just try this again. I'm Michael, this is Luke, and we're your guardian angels!" He said a wide smile on his face while Luke face-palmed and Cora just looked at them as if they were mental.
