So Long and G'night

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“WAKE UP!” Violently shaken, I sit up in a defense-mode position. It turns out that shaking was just a frantic Shane. “Dude, we're going to be late for school!” I glare at the blonde mop and fall back onto the edge of the couch. “Why are you so lazy...” Suddenly, there's a sharp tug on the collar of my hoodie and I am dragged across the floor, now fully awake and gagging.

When we pass a clock, I realize we are REALLY late. My eyes widen in shock as I rush to the bathroom and brush my teeth and put on deodorant, dash quickly upstairs to haul my backpack over my shoulder, and then grab a Pop-Tart for the road. As soon as I'm almost out the door after slipping on my shoes, Shane shouts, “Kenny, you can't leave yet!” He catches up to my quick routine, out of breath from running all over.

I whip around and throw my arms in the air, screaming, “THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU RUSHING ME? I'm leaving whether you're coming or not!” I walk outside to wait for the bus and look down at my feet.

I realize why Shane didn't want me to leave... I'm not wearing pants.

And so I sigh, dashing back into the house and picking up my shorts, fumbling to easily slip them on and eventually tripping to the ground. Luckily, Shane is here to pick me up and steady myself while I slip on my pants. As soon as I do we are out the door, just one minute after 7:40. One SECOND after our bus just leaves his stop. We quickly look at each other and shout in unison, “Operation Tow Truck!”

We both dash to his garage and put on a pair of roller blades, sliding our shoes into our backpacks. And with a lot of losing our balance and windmilling our arms in the air, we are finally on the street and gliding after the bus.

“Dude, this is what I love about still going to school!” Shane shouts at me through the wind. I notice how close we are to the bus and smirk. Time for the grand finale. Shane reaches into his backpack and pulls out a grappling hook. Yes, he DID just pack it for this occasion.

We quickly accelerate so we're about ten feet away from the bus, and he swings the grappling hook to latch on to the bus—which he does not miss. I grab onto the rope along with him as we get pulled by the bus, much faster than what we had been at before, as well as much more relaxing. I take a moment to enjoy the breeze in my face, and decide we should do this often.

After a long journey, we finally reach our massive school. As the bus slows, so do we, and Shane grabs his grappling hook to stuff in his backpack. We quickly roll to a nearby bench and sit, taking off our roller blades and placing normal shoes on our feet. “We really SHOULD become professional rollerbladers!” my crazy friend exclaims. I just shake my head in amusement and start towards the building. “What? We should!”

Entering the building, I remember how we have an assembly today on the abuse of drugs. Whatever; the only benefit of assemblies is missing a bit of class. As I enter homeroom, I walk over to my little colleague of friends, consisting of the names Melvin, Nick, and Adam. Shane might be my best friend since I was young, but these guys are the ones that I sit with at lunch, as well as play video games with every Friday night.

“Hey Kenny!” Melvin shouts, smiling widely. I smile back; a real one, unlike the dreadfully fake smiles I give to some people. He's my favorite out of the group, as well as the purest. Never liked to curse. Never liked to talk to girls much. “Did you know we had a test today? I thought it was Thursday, not Tuesday...” He slows down his sentence and looks at my face. “Dude what happened? Are you okay?” Nick looks up, confused as Melvin, while Adam only lifts his head for a second. “Oh no... I'm so sorry about your dad.”