Extra Ordinary

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My life was extra ordinary. And before you ask, no it wasnt a typo. My life was as ordinary as it could get. It was so ordinary that I call it extra ordinary.

My name is the most bland thing to ever grace the page. Oliver Jones. I mean who even named me??? Because my parents, Phoenix and Gage, sure as hell can't be the ones who came up with that bland name.

My home life is about as average as it can be when your parents own a wildly popular app/store/franchise. Of course that means we live in a really nice New York apartment, and my mom hired a cook, and my dad hired a maid. Honestly we were a regular family, the only difference was that we had money. However I couldn't say the same for Nancy. She was my best friend but her home life was...odd. But before I get into that let me give some backstory.

When I met Nancy she was 14 and I was 15. It was the middle of the school year, meaning it was incredibly cold here in New York City. At that time we both went to the same school so it was easy for two nobodies to become friends. This was long before my parent's shop/app/franchise really took off so I didn't go to the fancy all boys school I go to now. Back then we were in the same classes and under the wrath of the same jack ass.

That's how we met. I was being pelted with acorns by Andrew Smink. Terrible name. But there I was being pelted, and before you ask, no. She did not save me. She distracted Smink in the most innocent way. She walked by and farted. Smink's friends all blamed him because girls don't fart. Whether it really was him who farted or her it doesn't matter. All that mattered was that I was no longer being pelted and Smink was dethroned. Last I heard he was in a military school across the country in Oregon, but I digress.

Either way afterwards I thanked her and she invited me to get smoothies. So we did that and afterwards we got smoothies every afternoon after school. One day she didn't show up. So I walked to her house and that's when I found out about her family. Her mother and father were the heads of a gang. The Black Snakes. That gang had been terrorizing the area for over 15 years. When I knocked on the door a young guy came to the door. I would later learn he was Johnathan, her older brother. I asked about Nancy and he sighed. He called behind himself and she came slowly down the stairs. That day she told me not to come back here unless she is with me. And I never asked why and I never went back alone.

What I love about this story is that I was born to an incredibly boring house and family, but what happened to us was absolutely amazing. Nancy made me feel alive within my tiny world. My parents made my life easier with money. Helga and Joseph, the maid and chef, made my empty life more full. But still I was never bitten by the Interesting Bug.