Challenged Ace
My alarm beeps as loud as it possibly can forcing me out of my unconscious state. I sit up and rub the sleep away from my eyes and proceed to get off my bed. As I place my feet on the floor a mild headache hits me, causing me to groan. When I finally get up I feel heavy, my body still a bit sore from yesterday's football training. Cup Final is next week so coach had us train extra hard for it.
I look at the time on my alarm clock. It's 6:30. Great, I've only got an hour before school starts and something tells me Mr. Robert is definitely not gonna applaud me for showing up late to his class.
I quickly head towards the bathroom, remove my PJ shorts, and turn on the shower. The pleasure I get from the cold water running down my stressed build is delightful. Kinda made me wish that I could just go back to bed and crash.
"Too bad today's a Tuesday" I mumble to myself as I turn off the shower and grab a towel to dry myself.
After I'm done washing up, I head towards my room to dress up. Once I'm done, I start stuffing my books and anything else I'm gonna need for the day into my bag. It only takes me 7min to pack what I need so I haul my bag off my bed and onto my back, and then I head downstairs to grab a bite.
I decide to grab a can of Crosscut coffee and an apple. I would prefer to take something else buh there's just this teeny problem I have. I'm highly addicted to coffee. I just can't do without drinking it at least 4 times a week. There's just something about the scent and taste that makes my body come alive.
I gulp down the whole can and take a bite out of my apple as I head out of my home towards the garage. I quickly get into my Chevrolet corvette, start the engine, and zoom off to the one place I dread the most.
School.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
I get to school at 7:25 as the drive from home to school's only just 10 minutes. I pull up in the car park and exit my car. After I grab my bag, I dash straight for the main building.
I was sure I was gonna make it for the first period, well that was until I bumped into something.
I thought it was something until I heard the thing and some books hit the ground. Then I knew I had bumped into someone. A female.
"I'm so sorry, I was kinda rushing and I wasn't looking..." I start to apologize when she cuts me off.
"Nah, it's okay." She replies as she gets up from the floor and then starts to pick up her books.
"Let me help you with that," I say to her, immediately bending down to help her gather her scattered books.
A minute later we're done. She thanks me and I apologize again. Then she scurries away, head down saying she has a class to get to.
"Good luck with getting to your class early," I say jokingly as she walks past me.
She laughs and then a minute later she's gone.
"She was kinda cute tho. Too bad I couldn't get a perfect picture of her face." I think to myself while standing in the same exact spot she left me.
"Wait, don't I have somewhere to be?" I think to myself, trying to remember the reason I was here in the first place.
It is then the universe decides to tease me by flashing an image of Mr.Robert through my mind.
"Oh fuck, Class" finally remembering my purpose of rushing myself this morning, I run all the way to the chemistry lab.
Once I get there, I'm greeted by pairs of eyes looking in my direction. I check the time on the clock. "7:33."
"Well, I'm screwed," I think to myself as I walk with my head down into the lab.
It's then I hear a familiar voice which I've grown to hate over the past few months
"Mr. Caster, so glad you could join us" Mr.Robert declares with an evil smirk on his face.
"Please do kindly make sure you join me for detention after school," he says this time readjusting his glasses.
I head towards my station trying to know who I offended in my past life to deserve this evil of a man.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Hey mate," Zack calls for me knocking me out of my zoned-out state.
"What is it?" I ask, still feeling mundane toward whatever it is they are discussing. It was lunchtime, and as usual, I always spend it with Zack and Ace, or rather, I always get dragged towards a table by them every time I set foot into the cafeteria.
Do you have annoying, pesky, frustrating best friends you just can't get rid of? Well if you do then you know exactly how it feels to be me.
Ace, just like me is 6'4" in height. His hair's blond. His combination of being funny and having emerald-colored eyes make girls swoon for him almost every time he tries to flirt with them. Almost. He's what you'd refer to as a Playboy.
Zack on the other hand is more of a rascal. He's 6'3" which he loathes cause Ace always teases him all the time about him being shorter than he is. His hair's dirty brown, his eyes black. His trademark in our group of three is the fact that he always manages to get us into trouble at least twice a week, and I'm sure now isn't gonna be any different.
"I was thinking we should go into the woods Friday night, a test of courage to be specific," he says to me as he gobbles up his burger.
I'm about to say something but Ace cuts me off ."You know the woods are off limits Zack."
"Oh please, they only found dead bodies in there," he replies without a trace of seriousness in his tone.
I'm not shocked at his reply, the reason being that he's the last person I'd expect to ever take anything seriously. Even if it includes dead bodies being found in the same exact place he wants us to go to.
"Yeah which is enough reason for us to stay away from it," I say, trying my possible best to talk reason to my psychotic bestie.
"Yeah and so?" Zack asks me, raising his brow at me.
"It makes it more fun, thrilling, exciting, whatever word Ace would use to describe the sex he had with Zoey last week," he says as he smirks at Ace, making Ace spit out whatever drink he was having.
"Hey, we agreed not to talk about that." and like that they are back to their usual bickering.
I was kinda disappointed in myself for thinking that Zack was gonna listen to reason, heck his thinking itself is beyond reasoning. I sigh as I grab my phone to reply to some text I received while listening to his crazy antics.
"Okay on a more serious note, I really wanna do this, but, I can't do it alone" Zack pouts, trying to make those puppy eyes that never work on us.
"No Zack, it's like you're asking us to get ourselves killed," I reply almost immediately, hoping that'd be enough to knock some sense into that crazy head of his.
"Besides it's really creepy at night." Ace says as he resumes his drink.
When he says this I look at Zack hoping this would be enough to put him down. It does for a second, then his eyes widen as he realizes something. A second later, I catch on to the same reason he's gotten hope.
"Oh no," I say silently to myself, wishing Ace hadn't said that last sentence.
"Oh yes," Zack replies instinctively, smiling hard at his newfound victory.
He then pulls out the card.
Before I go on I should probably tell you what "the card" is. You see Ace wasn't always a Playboy, heck he was scared of talking to girls even. Anytime he got the chance to talk to one, he'd either mumble random words or just turn into a motor mouth.
So in other to boost his confidence and to be honest, mostly for our amusement, we'd always dare him to talk to the top beauties, the finest our school had to offer, and the way we'd do that was by calling him names.
Somehow he got through and gained his confidence, but the method we used on him left a nasty side effect. Anytime anyone dares Ace to do something and he sees it's within his capability, he always says yes. I repeat, Always. Including now. Damn you, Zack!
"So Ace, you think the woods creepy ay?" Zack asks Ace with a stupid smirk on his face, his head on his palm as he looks in Ace's direction.
"Of course, it is, hello, people were murdered there." Ace replies to him, completely oblivious to the fact that Zack's trying to bait him.
At this point, I just give up and slump my head onto the lunch table knowing that there's nothing I can do anymore. Damn you, Zack, Damn you.
"What are you? Chicken?"
Yup, there it is. I lift my head and tilt it to the side so that I can watch Mcfly explode. He doesn't disappoint me.
"What'd you call me?" Ace looks up and asks Zack with a shocked look on his face. Well not exactly shocked, more like a challenged look actually.
"C-h-i-c-k-e-n" Zack replies slowly making sure he stressed out every letter.
The son of a bitch.
"Nobody, calls me, a chicken."
"Make sure you're ready Friday night boys, If you want a test of courage you've got one " Ace replies sounding pissed off that he's just been challenged and of course, I'm going down with him.
I look over to Zack and look daggers at him. He raises his hand over
his head and gives me the I-didn't-do-anything look. I sigh and put my face in my palms. We're definitely gonna die.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The rest of my day was okay. Well except for the fact that I had detention, courtesy of Mr. Robert. I got home late tho, as I had to go grocery shopping. I live on my own so I have to do everything myself.
It's already dark as I park my car in the garage. I open my door and proceed to take my goods from the passenger seat.
As I'm about to open the passenger's seat door, I get the feeling that I'm being watched.
This creeps me out the more cause the only place my stalker could see me from was through the garage door, as it's the only open space.
I look in that direction and see nothing. I decide to shrug it off. Maybe it's the frustration of school that's getting to me.
I proceed to lock my door and walk towards the pavement with my groceries in one hand and my school bag in the other. I don't know why but I decide to look up and that's when I see them between some trees.
Beautiful ocean blue eyes looking straight into mine. I blink again just to make sure I'm not seeing things but when I open my eyes, they are gone. What the heck?
"Ha, I definitely need a doctor," I say to myself, sarcasm filling my voice as I exit the open space into the comfort of my home.