You Make Me Feel Alive Again| A Klance Story

The Living Beauty and the Starstruck Boy

The clatter of plates and children's laughter was heard throughout the McClain's kitchen.

"¿Quién Quiere Unos huevos y Una tostada?" Novia's sweet voice resonated around the table and Ireneo and Neo bounced and giggled.

"Yeah!" They both shouted and agreed, hopping up and down for their eggs and toast. Verita just rolled her eyes as she sat down in her chair, "Would you two be quieter, Mom is sleeping on the couch." the teen snapped with a voice that reminded all the siblings of their snide mother.

 "More like passed out." Lance huffed under his breath, bittersweetness crept into his voice. Novia and Ireneo looked at him with love and sympathy, Neo, his five-year-old brother, carried on giggling and playing with a truck, and Verita, the tart fifteen-year-old, seemed to glare him down like the disgrace his mother called him.

 The lanky boy didn't return it, he just looked at her from his seat with a smile. He loved her, honestly, nothing could change that. She reminded him of himself when Father left, he was her age when it happened too.

 He wolfed the toast, absorbed the eggs, and downed the orange juice, or it seemed like it to him. "Well, I should head off, new school, remember?" He spoke to his family members as he washed the plate. "¡Chau a todos! Que tengas un Buen día, ama." He called in Spanish as he headed for the door, picking up his bag on the way.

 Before he reached his destination, he passed the sofa where his mother was unconscious. Carefully, he picked up a blanket and draped it over her; she was weakly managing to hold onto a bottle of alcohol and her face looked pale.

 He sighed and shut the door, canceling out the noise from inside. His heart seemed to be doing hurdles and his mind felt like it was ricocheting against the inside of his skull. Up ahead of him, a car beeped and the driver angrily cursed at another, they glared each other down before going their separate ways.

 His breathing seemed to stop and he tensed up, he hated cars. He practically despised them, and he forbid himself from stepping foot in a car again. To make his anxiety from school worse, this seemed to be the frosting on the cake. 

He breathed in and out, counted from threes and was able to maintain his pace again. His new school wasn't far away, but with his slightly still bruised body, it would probably take a while. He had broken a couple of ribs, so he had been on a break for a bit longer than a month. Now, his time limit was up and he was forced to be back into the schooling system. 

Luckily, summer had ended about two weeks ago so it wouldn't be weird for him to transition to the school now. 

Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked over to find the source. A short girl, or boy, was standing there looking up at him. "Um, hello?" He greeted them and waved a bit, his heart was thumping like crazy with anxiety.

 A big toothy grin appeared on their face as they offered their hand, he took it and shook. "Hi! I'm Katie Holt, but please, call me Pidge!" She gushed as her hand fell away from his. 

"It's nice to meet you, Pidge. Um, my name is Lance McClain. Just call me Lance?" He mimicked her a bit, and shyly looked down, he hadn't had much social experience in the couple of years after his father had left. 

Lance had always been hard at work studying, doing online classes, and working at his now ex-job. He was fired to put it short.

"Oh! You should meet my other two friends. One of them lives kind of far away so he drives but the other should be coming soon. Would you like to meet them?" She asks with such innocence and kindness that it's hard to ignore, so he accepted, against his brains constant throbbing. "Uh, yeah, that would be cool." He replied hesitantly, still unsure how to speak to this strange girl.