Metamorph [Book Two]

[chapter 1]

THE USUAL SOUNDS serenaded me on my walk home: cars honking, children laughing, the occasional profanity shouted as road rage took over some random driver, and, of course, the bickering of my group of friends.

"Fine! If you hate it so much, come up with your own!" Brian was saying, lips pulled into a pout as he shot daggers at Eden, who just laughed. Brian turned to Dean, his eyes pleading. "Come on, bro, back me up here: it's cool."

Dean shrugged in that apathetic, Dean-ish way of his. "I dunno, man, 'Bazil' doesn't sound like much of a stage name to me."

"Yeah," Aly snorted, "What would your band name be? 'The Garden Herbs'?"

His eyes lit up, and she quickly backtracked. "You know I was being sarcastic, right? That's a terrible band name."

"No, no, it's great! So unique!" he exclaimed, looking like someone had just announced the schools had canceled exams permanently.

"You think everything is 'unique' lately," I interjected, pausing with my hands spread on either side of me to stop them from walking into traffic. Brian bumped into my arms, but he was too busy talking energetically about how he'd order custom instruments in the shape of different leaves to notice when I grabbed his t-shirt and pushed him in front of the stop sign and out of the way.

This was why I walked in front--they were always too distracted with one thing or another to pay any attention to their surroundings, so I usually ended up being the one to lead the way and stop them from getting hit by cars.

Not that you've been particularly focused lately, a snide voice pointed out. I shushed it and went back to watching for a break in traffic.

"You know, I think they should build us one of those fancy sky walks, like the ones on fifth street. It'd make getting home a lot easier," Aly said, sliding up and looping an arm through mine easily. Evidently, she'd gotten bored, but the argument was still raging behind us.

"Yeah, it'd be nice," I mused, "But those things are expensive."

"They weren't, thirty years ago."

I watched her scowl deepen, amused. "Yeah, well, thirty years ago, they didn't have to build them high enough and out of materials strong enough that HoverCars wouldn't crash or hurt anyone."

She let out a harumph of displeasure, and I giggled just as the light turned red. As one, we all moved forwards--no one needed to interrupt the conversation. We'd been walking together for seven years now. We knew the drill.

"You know, I've been thinking about stoplights lately," Alyson said, the crinkle forming between her brows that meant she was deep in thought. Coming from anyone else, I would've thought they were insane, but... it was Alyson.

"Oh? How come?" I asked. I unwound our arms momentarily to loosen my uniform tie, relying on muscle memory to guide me as I listened to one of my best friends ramble.

"Yeah. You know how I've been super into Cyrillus Liu lately?" She didn't wait for an answer before launching into an explanation. "Well, he's that guy with the exhibit open in the Hive, across from Afterdeath, the one with those really cool found-things sculptures. Anyways, he got me thinking about that old junkyard at Poncho and Fourth Street, and I think I remember seeing a wrecked stoplight, like one that got hit by a HoverCar when they were still in testing. I was thinking about heading out there with Natasha... You in?"

It was a simple question, but asked in that best friend way that actually meant: Please come with me, because if you come it's an adventure, but if I go on my own then I'm the friendless, loser artist who goes to junkyards because she doesn't want to be at home.

I smiled and nodded, saying, "Sure, why not?" It translated roughly to: Of course I'll come, because we're best friends. We're best friends that are so close that I will ignore the fact that you named your camera 'Natasha' and you will ignore the fact that I sometimes double over and can't breathe, and we will sit and salt melting ice cream with our tears together on rainy days.

"I'll come too, if you don't mind," Dean said. I moved to the side, leaving room for him to walk next to us at the same time that Aly smiled widely, her eyes dancing in the afternoon sun as she said, "The more the merrier."

"Any particular reason you want to join?" I asked, trying to keep my tone both light and serious at the same time. It was a hard skill the master, and one I had been trying to perfect for a long time.

"Not really," he said, his shoes scuffing the sidewalk as he ambled along. "Mom and Dad will be out this weekend for work stuff, and our window is still broken."

I nodded, not pushing. Dean had his own language, a different dialect from me and Aly's, but with the same basis. His meant: My parents are gone yet again for top-secret government stuff and have left me in the hands of Rosa the housekeeper, and she's still cleaning up the mess from the last time someone attacked our apartment, so I'd rather not be around to blame for any more damage.

"What did I just hear about the more the merrier?" Brian asked, clearly done arguing about stage names for now.

"We're going to head over to a junkyard this weekend so Aly can snap some shots. You guys in?" I asked, glancing back at him and Eden.

"Yeah, sure. Not like we've got anything better to do," Brian said with a shrug.

"First of all, don't answer for me, and second of all, you have three exams to study for this weekend," Eden pointed out, shaking his head in exasperation at Brian. "But yes, I'm in."

"Yay! Group outing!" I said, trying to sound energetic and cheerful.

"Yeah," Brian said, grinning. We paused at the base of a huge skyscraper, knowing this was where we split ways. "So, see you guys tomorrow?"

Variations of 'yeah, see you then' were exchanged, and then finally, they were gone.

I let myself go into full teenage girl mode,my heart beating erratically as I spun on my heel and made a beeline for the Wall that towered far above me a couple blocks ahead. I was already in its shadow by the time that I realized my hair was probably a mess and that I had almost certainly sweated off all my makeup from the morning, but for a few glorious seconds, I didn't care.

I arrived one minute and twenty-two seconds early, but it didn't matter--he was early too, like always. It was one of the things I lo--liked about him: he never kept me waiting, terrified something had gone wrong.

He peeled off the wall like a leaf peels off a tree, and my heart skipped a beat as I realized he was wearing my favorite of him smiles--the lazily optimistic one, the one that said everything would be great, simply because he willed it to be so, and the universe had better go along with that or else.

Not that he would ever be so egotistical--not that he would even notice if the universe bowed to his every command--but still, I saw it in every confident move he made. His mood made days like these my favorites.

"I beat you here, again," Zak said as he stepped into the light.