Crystal Chaos (Reed & Regal)

Chapter 2 - Murmuring Energy

The Jungle Crystal was enjoying the experience of movement. It was an entirely new experience for the crystal and it was entranced by the opportunities of exploration. This was furthered by the fact that Reed seemed to visit the crystal an awful lot and the crystal was curious if it would be able to meet it's protector at long last. Although, The Crystal wasn't able to talk so the meeting of the 2 of them would be particularly quiet. But, The Crystal couldn't complain; The Jungle Crystal was used to quiet.

Aboveground, 150m above The Jungle Crystal a large thunderstorm was brewing. The Jungle Crystal loved the sound of rain and didn't mind the thunder interrupting it every now and then. The Jungle Crystal by this point had completely forgotten that it had also experienced thunder here yesterday, the day before that, and the day before even that. The Jungle Crystal was much too focused on continuing it's movement so that it may one day escape the cage.

Reed, Regal and Frank pulled up to the house of a teenage girl with long black hair who was wearing her latest blue backpack. Her name was Jumper and she was notorious not only in her household but around the entire city, for having the worst luck. She had managed to lose her previous 3 backpacks from mysterious circumstances. The first time it was simple enough, merely leaving it behind in the pool change room and somebody ended up taking her backpack by accident. Although, soon after somebody took the backpack of the person who took Jumper's backpack. The cycle repeated to the point that the lost and found was filled with so many backpacks that Jumper had no chance to find her backpack; and as somebody with bad luck to begin with she simply gave up. The second time was at a skate park where somebody veered of course from the road and managed to drive a tire through her backpack without noticing.

The third time, is where Jumper got simultaneously famous and infamous for her disastrous luck. Not only did Jumper leave her backpack in her homeroom classroom but the door locked behind her shortly after. Her overalls then promptly caught on the next door out (although most relatives usually cut that part out). Then when she finally left the school she got home and had a wonderful dinner (her life isn't always awful). But; and this is where people usually start to squint their eyes at her relatives, the homeroom classroom that had been used all year was suddenly transformed into the school's latest boiler room. This was due to an email form between different sectors of the school board about changes that needed to occur at Middleglacier High. The email was an attempt to inform the faculty that a section of the school would be transformed into a parking lot, including of course gas pumps. At first these were called gas pumps at least, slowly the emails changed the name to oilers and at last, by mistake boilers. The principal of Middleglacier misunderstood and installed a new boiler room after only seeing the final response.

The final response reads as follows:

"I feel ecstatic about the installation of these new boilers to the school. Can't wait to see the faces on the parents' faces when they arrive at school and see them."

This decision was quickly followed by the faces on parents and teachers alike to become a mash of unhappiness, worry and laughter. Arriving at school the next day and looking into the windows of a boiler room waiting for your teacher to arrive is not only an anxious experience for regular students but even worse for Jumper and the other 3 students who left assignments inside.

So, thusly Jumper was feeling tense about entering a strangers car for this trip, not only for her sake but also theirs.

"What's your name kid?" Reed asked Jumper. Reed was still feeling groggy and muddled, after all Frank's car had provided incredible naps. Reed stretched out, yawned and eventually created space in the back of the car for Jumper to sit down in. Jumper's mom waved goodbye to her and her Dad gave her a calm wink. The wink was meant to signify 'good luck', but she took it as anything but.

"My name's Jumper,"

"Is that like a nickname, are you good at high jump or something?"

"..."

Jumper quickly realized that this would be one of the longest car rides of her life. Meanwhile, Frank was having the time of his life thinking about all the lesson plans he had concocted in his head already.