Chapter 55: Empty stomach

Jeffrey was back in the park. The early morning helped clear his mind.

For whatever reason the sleeplessness started to return. Reading a few psychology textbooks, it was something about fearing death and the youthful urge to do something important.

The last movie Jeffrey watched with his family had the famous quote, "Adventure is out there."

The world of dreams couldn't stop this sudden burst of energy from Jeffrey. For the moment Jeffrey felt a sense of ambition.

Jeffrey got out of his warm bed and prepared some winter clothes. Grabbing a pair of thick pants, a beanie, a pair of gloves and shoes, Jeffrey quietly headed the down the stairs and opened the front door.

Quietly closing the door behind him, Jeffrey stepped out into the cold air. It was still as dark as night. The early morning had a stillness to it.

The silhouette of the trees was illuminated by a lonely street lamp.

Jeffrey started walking along the street, the grass fields and neighbors houses were all dark and quiet. His hands were clenched as he punched in the air, an indescribable urge of needing to do something possessed him.

With an ipod in his pocket, he started to play some music as he began running.

As he ran, his stomach began to wake up. Eating always made him sleepy so Jeffrey did his best to indulge in this rare sense of energy.

"School is going to be rough", thought Jeffrey.

He still had a social studies test to do today. Thankfully it was early in the day and he studied all week. Although the lack of sleep was definitely going to be hard.

There was also still the P.E class, but seeing as he was probably going to be tired he was glad it was just a few fitness tests.

In band they'd probably watch a movie, either August Rush, Kung Fu Panda, or Elf. There was something about watching movies in school that just made the day seem more exciting. Instead of learning material and going through textbooks, they got to watch a film.

Jeffrey still remembered the summer camp he attended with Preston at the Golden Dragon Martial Arts academy. They watched the same movie Pokemon: Rise of Darkrai every single day at lunch. Every single time all the kids would shout the same things as they watched. They knew what was going to happen, however it was just fun to vent some frustration and find a group of people to watch anime with.

"School is going to be awesome", Jeffrey thought as he sprinted down the street. The cranberry bog had a few forest visitors as he had spooked some deer feeding on a few tufts of grass. The cold air entered his lungs as he switched to walking.

Jeffrey's mind turned to his science project.

"We're going to make more slime, we're going to promote our project to more people, we're going to win an award", Jeffrey thought.

Jeffrey was so happy that he had friends that were also working on it. Usually at lunch, almost like work colleagues they'd share stories of the people they went up to and some of the fun and inexplicable moments when introducing their project.

Samantha told them a story about selling it to the Mr. Edgerly son. Mr. Edgerly was a writing teacher and she shared social studies with him.

The guys name was Sejet, but everyone called him Lucas.

"Lucas was looking for his eraser and I knew it was a good time to strike", Samantha explained with an eraser in hand.

"I grabbed one of the jars I always carry and opened it. The smell of lavender soap emerged. I grabbed a small piece of it and handed it to him", Samantha paused seeing Preston and Jeffrey listening carefully.

"Lucas asked me, 'what's this for?' ", Samantha described the moment.

"I said, 'put it on your paper it'll erase what you need it to' ", Samantha repeated what she said to him.

"He immediately went to test it out and as soon as he saw what it could do, I knew he was interested. He started playing with it in his fingers and it smelled nice", Samantha described Lucas actions.

"Obviously he was uncomfortable to ask, maybe it's because I'm a girl and he felt embarrassed. Also I picked a purple color, but I told him kids like Preston and Harrison bought one all the time", Samantha waved her hands as she talked.

"He knew that we made these, but he still asked how much is it?", Samantha said.

"I replied, it's $20 and that was the first jar I ever sold", Samantha said.

Preston complimented her, "That's amazing! I remember my first time talking about it was difficult."

Preston offered up his story.