They laughed briskly before falling into another uncomfortable silence. Alex followed them as they made their way out of the parking lot and into the street.
FIVE
Alex followed them down a wooden boardwalk at the very edge of the water. It was littered with fisherman shops and separate decks that jutted out into the water like little peninsulas. Small boats and yachts were tied to cleats along the sides of the dock. Farther down the docks were much bigger boats; freighters, large fishing boats, and cargo ships. A few stores down they came across a small wooden shack with the words, The Ice Cream Shack written across the top in white letters outlined with red. A triple scoop of pink, white, and brown ice cream was melting on the C of Cream. A small family was departing as they walked up to the window.
After they paid for their ice cream they walked over to a strip of the port that was farther from the freighters and bigger boats and separate from all the canoes and smaller boats. No one used it because the waves were too rough and the freighters were on the other side of the port. The only reason the dock was still there was because no one thought it was worth their time to knock it down, according to Nicole.
“Here, let’s sit on the edge.” Nicole pointed toward the end of the dock.
Once they finished their ice cream, they placed their garbage on the wooden planks, sitting and staring off in the distance in silence.
“Thanks for bringing me here,” said Alex.
“No problem. But there’s still one more thing we need to do,” said Mark as he stood up and began walking toward Alex. A mischievous smile slowly crawled across his face.
“Oh yeah?” Alex asked, cocking an eyebrow and standing up to meet Mark. He was slightly worried by his friend’s comment and expression but hid his concerns. “What’s that?”
“This!” Mark shouted as he lunged at Alex. Alex’s eyes widened as his mind went over endless scenarios. Mark grabbed Alex by the arms and threw the both of them off the dock into the ocean. The others followed after them, jumping off the dock and laughing. Alex floated there in the water’s depths for a while, looking above at the water’s surface and at the kicking feet of his friends and the bubbles forming around them. The evening light shone through the surface and lit up the bubbles their constant movement created. Alex burst up to the surface to join them.
“Alex! You scared us! We thought you drowned! Don’t do that!” Brooke slapped her hand against Alex’s shoulder angrily.
“Why were you scared? I was just down there for a few minutes!” Alex protested, rubbing the spot on his shoulder where Brooke had slapped him. She was much stronger than she looked.
“Because we’re your friends! We’re supposed to be scared when you suddenly disappear beneath the water!” said Mark.
“We? Are… friends?” Alex asked slowly, as if processing the information. He really wanted them to be his friends, but he wasn’t sure if they felt the same way.
“We are, aren’t we?” David asked.
“Yeah,” Alex replied quietly. “I guess we are.”
They splashed around in the water for hours until the sun began to lower. They all walked home soaking from head to toe, leaving the pavement dark and damp in their wake. The house was asleep by the time Alex arrived home late that night. He quickly and quietly dashed up the steps and into his room, changing out of his drenched clothes into dry ones. He immediately got to work on his chores, not wanting to wake up to his father’s screaming voice the next morning.
When Alex finished his chores, he took his jacket into the bathroom to dry. He rubbed a towel on the fabric, but he was unable to remove all of the water. He grabbed his sister’s hair dryer, which worked to some degree. By the time he finished drying the jacket and towel, and taken a shower, he only had five minutes before he had to get up for school. Where had all the time gone? He was walking down the hallway with his jacket in hand, when he was startled.
“Alex! What are you doing home so late?”
His dad was awake. How could he have been so careless? He should’ve known better than to make so much noise. His father stepped out of the doorway of his bedroom into the hallway where Alex was standing.
“I’m sorry, Father, I was out with friends and it got late—.”
“Friends? Friends!” Alex’s father cut him off. “You don’t have time for friends!”
“Look. I’m sorry, but I got my chores done and it’s been a long day. Can I just go to bed?” Alex pleaded. “For the five minutes I have left?” Alex mumbled the last part.
“Don’t you dare talk back to me!” Mr. Shaffer raised his arm above his head and paused in mid-air before dropping it at full speed, directly in line with its target.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The alarm in Alex’s bedroom interrupted him before he could slap Alex. They both looked from one another to the suspended hand and the alarm clock. Alex’s father dropped his hand to his side and sighed. Saved by the bell, Alex thought.
“Tsk. Go turn that blasted alarm off. We are not done here!” Mr. Shaffer growled as he walked back to his room and slammed the door.
Alex returned to the bathroom once he was dressed again and splashed his face with water. He was so tired. The bags that were usually under his eyes from exhaustion were darker. Alex had to turn his music up all the way to keep himself from collapsing onto the sidewalk from lack of sleep. Alex arrived with only ten minutes to spare. He dragged himself across the parking lot and plopped himself down beneath a tree, closing his eyes. Maybe he could catch a little sleep before school started.
After Alex sat down, he felt a hand slowly creep onto his shoulder. His shoulders tensed as he jumped up and spun around to find his friends standing behind the tree, staring at him with startled expressions.
“Oh, hey. It’s just you,” Alex sighed and allowed his shoulders to slump.
“Yeah, just us. Why is your music so loud? I could hear your music at the other end of the parking lot!” Mark said sarcastically.
“Seriously, though, you’re going to go deaf one of these days and you won’t be able to listen to music at all anymore,” Brooke warned.
“If I was going to go deaf that would have happened a long time ago,” Alex replied. “Come on, the other kids will be here soon.”
“What do we have for ninth period today?” David asked no one in particular.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked.
“Since you have ninth period with us every day we’ll have a different class for ninth period. On Mondays we have art. Today we’ll have home ec. with Mrs. Finch,” Nicole explained.
“You’ll have to take me with you because I have no idea where that is,” Alex replied.
“We kinda figured,” Mark smirked.
The rest of the school day went by fast though Alex was struggling to keep himself awake. He was doing fine up until last period because all the teacher did was talk about diseases and what can and can’t kill you. Since she didn’t give the class anything to do and did nothing but talk, Alex fell fast asleep. Next thing he knew he woke up to a loud snapping sound of a ruler against a table and the teacher glaring daggers at him.
“Do you think what I’m teaching is boring Mr. Shaffer? Do you think you are too good for my class, Mr. Shaffer? If so, the door is over there,” yelled Mrs. Finch as she pointed toward the door with the end of her ruler.
“No, ma’am, I do not, and I’d rather stay in this class if you don’t mind, ma’am,” Alex replied, sitting up as straight in his seat as he could, resulting in a few giggles from the kids around him.
“Thank you. Now please pay attention. I don’t want to have to talk to you again!” Mrs. Finch snapped as she walked back to the front of the classroom.
“Hey, Mark,” David whispered into Mark’s ear after the teacher continued the lesson, never taking his eyes off their barely conscious friend. “What do you think
is wrong with Alex? He seems out of it today!”
“I don’t know,” Mark whispered back. “He fell asleep in some of our morning classes too! Maybe we kept him up too late last night.”
After the bell rang, Alex forgot to wait for the others and made his way outside without them. His foot barely hit the last step before his head began to spin.
“Are you all right Alex? You look tired,” said a voice behind him. Alex turned around lazily to find Nicole and the others standing at the top step.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I didn’t get the chance to go to bed last night, and I went to bed really late the other night,” Alex replied.
“Do you want to just go home? We don’t have to go out today,” David suggested.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m really tired,” Alex sighed.
“See you tomorrow then?” Mark asked.
“See you tomorrow,” Alex mumbled before pulling his headphones over his ears.
“It’s too bad. I really wanted to take him to that place today,” David grumbled.
“It’s strange though, isn’t it? We left the port right at sundown. What was he doing for the rest of the night that kept him from sleep?” asked Brooke.
“I think he does it a lot. Whatever it is. He always has circles under his eyes,” David pointed out. “Video games maybe?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem the type to play video games. But then again it’s not really any of our business,” replied Nicole.
“Let’s just head home for the day. I’ve got to make more lunches for the family this week,” Mark said before they all went their separate directions for home.
SIX
Being tired and not sleeping well for the last two days was not the only reason Alex was so weak for the past day. He was usually able to go a long time without sleep, but he also hadn’t eaten in four days so that added to the sleepless nights, unless one counted an ice cream cone as a meal.
Alex walked into his house to find it empty. He wandered into the kitchen and found a note on the refrigerator.
It read, “Alex, we have gone on a camping trip with your sister and will be back in two weeks, Monday night. Do your chores. From, Mother.”
Alex tossed the note into the garbage and began scouring the cupboards for food. After he ate, he found some food for his lunch the next day and tossed it into a paper bag. Once that was finished, Alex slowly trudged up the stairs and flopped onto his bed, not moving for the rest of the night.
When Alex got to school the next morning, he found the others waiting for him by the entrance. They all let out a breath of relief after seeing the circles under their friend’s eyes completely disappeared and his complexion much less pale.
“Good morning, Alex. Are you feeling better?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, I feel great. And refreshed after going to bed so early,” Alex said.
“So we can go out today?” asked Brooke.
“Yeah. Where do you wanna go?” Alex asked.
“We. Are. Going to…DUN, DUN, DUN! The boardwalk! There’s this awesome miniature amusement park over there on the end of it that is so much fun!” David answered quickly before taking another bite of a breakfast bar.
“But we might be there for a while. Usually when we go it lasts late into the night if that’s okay with you,” added Mark.
“That’s good,” Alex said. “My family went camping and won’t be back until next Monday.”
“Wait, why’d your family go on a camping trip without you?” asked Mark.
“Not a fan of camping,” Alex lied, waving off the question. He actually had never gone camping so he had no idea if he liked it or not.
Later that day, during lunch Alex went up on the usual hill and ate his meal, waiting for the others to come join him.
“Wow! You really are hungry!” Brooke laughed from behind Alex.
“Can you guys stop sneaking up on me?” Alex asked, biting the last bit of his sandwich.
“What would be the fun in that?” Mark asked as he sat down in front of Alex along with the others.
“What’s over there?” Alex changed the subject, nodding questioningly toward a big patch of trees so thick that it went past the school’s boundaries and throughout town.
“That’s just the woods,” said Nicole. “We aren’t allowed in there. There are a lot of wild animals and since it’s so thick you can barely see more than a few feet ahead of you.”
When Alex went outside after school that day while waiting for his friends, his gaze drifted over to the woods, wondering what made the woods so thick and imagining what other things could be in there besides wild animals.
As Alex gazed, his friends came out of the doors deep in conversation. Mark stopped contributing to the conversation when he caught Alex staring at the woods in a daze, oblivious to the world around him. In a panic, Mark jogged down the steps and waved his hands wildly in a cutting motion in front of him. Once the others realized what was going on, they rushed behind him.
“Nope! Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! NO! N-O!” Mark shouted as he walked toward Alex from behind. “I know what you’re thinking and N-O.”
“No, what?” Alex asked after he recovered from the shock of Mark’s suddenly loud voice interrupting his thoughts.
“Don’t even think about it!” Mark shouted.
“Think about what?” Alex asked.
“You know what I know that you know!” Mark yelled.
“Know what? For God’s sake, out with it!” Alex shouted back, more than irritated at Mark’s strange behavior.
“Don’t go in there, you got it?” Brooke demanded.
“Okay, okay! I got it! I won’t go in there. I wasn’t planning on it,” Alex replied, throwing his hands up in the air in defense. “Can we just go already?” Alex rolled his eyes and started walking ahead of them but stopped. “I think you should go first.”
“Good idea! I don’t think you know where you’re going,” David said as he patted Alex’s back roughly.
The sun was already going down by the time the five of them got there. When they finally got to the boardwalk, Alex stopped in his tracks. He had never seen a place so full of people before. Buildings that lined the street towered over them. On the left side of the street was the beach where multiple sculptures and playgrounds stood. On the right side was a never-ending row of stores and shops and restaurants lit up with brilliant colors. In the far-off distance they could see the top half of a ferris wheel poking above the buildings along with a few rollercoaster tops. Thousands of people littered the street, going in and out of the buildings and running along the beach.
“Wow,” Alex gasped.
“Yeah and we haven’t even gotten to the amusement park yet!” David smiled excitedly.
The world seemed to be filled with a strange but joyous aura. A warm light coated everything it touched and warmed the hearts of anyone it touched, inviting them to come and stay there for as long as they wanted. Alex found it slightly frightening and overwhelming.
“Come on! There are a bunch of stores and other awesome places on the way that you need to see!” Nicole waved them onward as she rushed in the crowd. Although he was still unsure, Alex followed his friends deeper into the cluster of people.
“This place is so crowded that we could lose each other in an instant! If we ever get lost, meet up at the ferris wheel, got it?” Mark shouted over the roar of the crowd.
“Got it!” The teens shouted in unison.
“Come on! I have the perfect place where we can start!” Mark shouted.
They followed Mark until he slowed to a stop in front of a comics shop. He opened the door and Alex went inside to find the store filled with boxes and shelves filled with comics. Along the shelves, lights on strings were strung that lit up the shelf in yellow light and more of the same string was draped across the ceilin
g. Above the shelves were signs taped to the wall with superheroes and their names on the wall. Below them were sections of that superhero.
“Alex, come here!” David called from the other end of the store.
Alex looked over to see David standing by a shelf that said ‘Captain America.’
“Check these out. Jim Lee did Captain America for a while. He’s an amazing artist.”
David showed Alex a comic that said ‘Captain America Lives Again’ but Alex didn’t have enough time to look through it before Mark called him over to check out a Batman comic. Mark ended up getting a bag full of comics, and David left with a few Captain America.
After they left the store, it was David’s turn to choose the next place they were going to go.
They ended up at an arcade and played tons of games including laser tag and Pac-man. Afterwards, it was Brooke’s turn to choose.
Brooke led them to a little shop where she picked an image of some sort and the artists would spray-paint it onto a hat or shirt or some other type of clothing. Brooke picked a purple hat with her name sprayed on it like graffiti.
When it was time for Nicole to choose they went to a sports shop and she purchased a soccer ball, saying that they’d find out what it was for when the time came.
Finally, it was Alex’s turn to choose. Mark and the others were all making suggestions but, none of them sounded interesting. Alex was about to ask them to choose for him but then he saw it.
“Over here!” Alex called as he took off into another store.
“Yo! You have to wait for us! Alex!” David called as they chased after him.
He broke out in a sprint and dashed out of the middle of the crowd and to a bookstore called Boardwalk Books. Alex walked in to find the store filled with books from top to bottom with so many books that you could barely get around the store without running into a bookshelf or knocking a stack of books down.
The Abnormals: Book One Page 3
