Chapter 7: (SEVEN) See Our Friends

19:21 24 May

After Bailey left, I half-wheeled half-carried my bike over to the garage (rear half and front half respectively). I glanced through the window; cool, Mom’s home. Both my parents had kind of irregular schedules sometimes. I leaned my bike up against the house next to the garage so I could bring it inside, or, more likely, so Dad would see it when he got home after I’d forgotten about it entirely. Then I limped over to the front door and went inside. My shoes were still a little damp, so after I took them off I flipped them over and set them next to the heater vent in the living room.

“I’m home!” I yelled.

“Hey, honey!” Mom called back, starting to come down the stairs. “Did you have-” she gasped, and seconds later she was on her knees next to me. “Jack, what happened to your leg? Are you okay?”

There’s the reaction I was expecting from a parental unit.

“Nono I’m fine! I mean, I kinda wrecked my bike, but it was The Moose’s fault really. It’s just a big scrape, Mrs. Brown said it shouldn’t need stitches. Doesn’t even hurt,” much.

Mom blinked a couple times at that, one hand gingerly resting on my shin.

“Okay, honey, come sit down and go through that all again slowly?”

I complied, and recounted most of the events of the day while she inspected and redressed my bandage. I left out the whole cross-dressing part, both what had happened and what we had tentatively planned; I wasn’t sure how to bring that up and it was probably kind of an awkward conversation to have with your son. Mom was interested in hearing the music I’d picked up, suitably aghast at our chase by The Moose and the injury I’d managed to obtain, and impressed by my description of Kelly’s kitchen.

When I played the first album – I picked one randomly and wound up with Sleater-Kinney – Mom looked surprised for a moment then started smiling. Apparently she’d listened to Sleater-Kinney’s first album with her friends in college in Washington, back when it first came out, which was a whole side of my Mom I’d never known about. Next she’ll tell me she used to smoke weed.

When we were done, it was past nine o’clock, and for some inexplicable, surely-not-related-to-how-much-adrenaline-I-burned reason, I was feeling pretty tired. I yawned.

“I think I’m gonna go to bed early. Um, can I get a ride to Max’s tomorrow?”

Mom nodded. “Sure, honey, we’ll work something out.”

###

11:16 25 May

By the time I woke up both my parents were off at work (I suppose I was sort of a twenty-first-century latchkey kid, really), so I pulled on a pair of jeans and a yellow ninja turtles t-shirt, then went downstairs and had some cereal.

I hadn’t really had male friends growing up, unless you count cousins and they’re sorta obligated; Bailey and I just sort of clicked back before preschool, and the first time I really tried (and, admittedly, largely failed) to fit in with other guys my age was Bryce and co. But Bryce was an asshole so on reflection it wasn’t that surprising that we never exactly gelled. So far Andrew and Max had both been cool so I had high hopes for today.

Since I’d been reduced to the status of ‘pedestrian’ thanks to That Moose, Mom took a break from work around one o’clock to give me a ride. It wasn’t actually that far, about a fifteen minute drive to a house with a long paved driveway sloping slightly down toward the two-story house. The yard looked like they’d recently had it redone, all bare dirt. Max was waving from the front porch as we pulled up, and I jumped out of the car. I took two steps before losing all control of my momentum, flailing wildly as I sped toward the house. I brought my arms in front of my face just in time to slam into the wall next to the garage door and bounce off. When I landed the skateboard I’d apparently stepped on flipped into the air, and it clattered down next to me.

I hope the rest of the week isn’t like this or I’m going to have a lot of interesting bruises.

“Holy shit, dude, you good?”

“Huhhhh think I’m a bit rusty,” I gasped as I got air back into my lungs. Max knelt down next to me as I started flexing things to check for breaks. I focused on his Ratchet & Clank tee until everything stopped moving.

“When was the last time you were on a board?”

“Uh, never, actually.” I paused to catch a breath. “Unless you count playing Pro Skater 4.” One of my cousins on my Dad’s side had that one, I played it a bit in high school. Will play? Will have played? Oh, whatever.

After he helped me up and Mom looked me over (verdict: I’d be okay, but please stop doing things like that before she went gray), I said goodbye to her and we headed inside. The front door opened to the living room; after a brief stop there to say hello to his dad, we took a right down a hallway that ended with the door to his room.

“Welcome, my friend, to my humble abode!” he said, making a sweeping gesture. The effect was diminished a little by the fact that he hadn’t opened the door.

“Gee, it looks swell!” I vamped. He looked sheepish and opened it, then cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Now, welcome to- nah, nevermind, moment’s gone. C’mon in!”

His room was about the size of mine, with brown carpet and lots of dark wood furniture. Against the far wall was a box TV in an entertainment cabinet, with a couple of videogame systems next to it. He had a captain’s bed over on the right wall under a window, and to the left as we walked in were a couple of shelves full of books and manga.

“Now, this is where I should have said it,” he pointed out as he spread his arms wide in the middle of the room. “Figures, first new friend I have over in years and I totally mess up the timing.”

“We all do things we regret,” I said, more flippantly than I felt once my own words registered, and I forced myself to continue nonchalantly. “Like, I launched myself over a fence yesterday.”

“What?”

I shrugged. “I was on a bike, there was a moose chasing me, I hit the curb. I’m fine. The swimming pool broke my fall and I broke Kelly’s.”

He looked at me for a long moment.

“You don’t have very good luck with stuff on wheels, do you.”

“I do not lately, no.”

We dragged a couple of colorful beanbags over in front of the TV and played a few videogames. When he found out I hadn’t played Spyro, he shoved a controller in my hand and basically made me, and found something to read while I played for a bit.

“So, what were you doing yesterday?” Max asked. “Other than experimenting with physics, I mean.”

“Remember Kelly and Bailey and I were talking at the beach?”

“When you were playing guitar? That was good, by the way.”

“Thanks! Yeah, we’re thinking of starting a band, so we got Wendys and then went and bought a bunch of music to figure out what style we might want to play.”

“Cool! What’s the verdict?”

How did she put it… “Uh, ‘post-punk riot grrl grungy new wave vibe’, I think is what Bay said.”

Max just sort of blinked at me. “…I recognized some of those words.”

“Think, uh, vocals, drums, guitar, bass, synthesizer. Bit of guitar distortion.”

“Huh. That sounds pretty cool.”

“Yeah, hope so.” I did not bring up the ‘girl band’ aspect.

After about half an hour of that, we took a break to heat up some tater tots and got a couple glasses of 7-up. I didn’t see his dad; apparently he worked from home so he was probably in his office.

“Y’know, I know we’re both having fun but I feel a little weird playing a game solo at someone else’s house,” I admitted. “You wanna take a turn?”

He shrugged. “Nah, I get that. I’ll play some Sonic. Get it ready, I’m gonna grab a manga you might like.”

When I handed him the controller, he handed me a double-thick manga volume. “After what happened to you yesterday I thought this seemed perfect for you.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, but he just grinned and took the controller. I opened it, and was greeted by a page telling me to read the other direction. Right. Japanese. Right to left.

I flipped the book over.

Ranma ½, huh?

You are reading story Once In A Lifetime at novel35.com

###

15:12 25 May

“Hey. Hey, Jack. Hellooo?”

“Hm, huh?” I looked up from the manga. Max was sorta smirking at me. “Sorry?”

“I asked if you liked it so far, but I think I got my answer.”

“It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever read.” I was exaggerating a little, but I did really like it. Something about it spoke to me. And there was comedy and martial arts fights.

He laughed. “You can borrow that if you want.”

“I want.”

“Heh, message received. Wanna play something two-player when I finish this?”

“Sure!”

“Cool.” He turned back to his videogame.

Seriously, why does Ranma call it a ‘curse’? He can turn into a girl whenever he wants! Who wouldn’t want to be able to do that?

Man, that’d be cool. If I could do that, I wouldn’t be cross-dressing for the band! Just, regular-dressing. And it’s not like hot water’s real common onstage. And I wouldn’t have to worry about my voice breaking!

Aaaand now I was worried about my voice breaking.

It’s too bad this is fictional. That’d be awesome.

I picked the book back up and kept reading.

###

15:25 25 May

Max stretched and set the controller down, then leaned over and pulled a case out of the entertainment cabinet.

“How about this?” He waggled a copy of Tekken 6. Ooh, baby.

“Only if you’re ready to get schooled,” I said, setting the manga aside.

“Ha! Like to see you try, dude!”

For the first match, he picked Heihachi. I went with random, and got Asuka. I tensed, glancing at Max to see if he’d say anything. He did not, and I made myself relax.

I’d always liked Asuka. She was my usual main, actually, until Tony and Bryce started making fun of me for playing a girl character. Now that I think about it I’m pretty sure they were just mad I kept beating them. And anyway, fuck them, I could be a badass martial artist chick if I wanted.

“You ready for this, old man?” I asked him as the countdown started.

In a passable Heihachi voice, he retorted with “oh, you’re going down, little girl.”

There was that warm feeling again. It almost felt good, whatever it was, but he attacked as soon as the match started, so I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I just barely dodged, and retaliated.

Max was pretty good, but I held my own by employing my special technique combining familiarity with the character, consummate skill, and wild button-mashing. I won the first match, he won the second, and I won the tie-breaker.

“Ha!” I crowed. “How’s that for a ‘little girl’, old-timer?”

“You got lucky!” he half-grouched. “Heihachi’s not my best character anyway!”

I smirked. “You gonna prove it or just run your mouth?”

“Oh, you’re on. Prepare to die!”

“As if, lost boy!” I Ranma’d.

###

18:45 25 May

Max and I kept at it for a couple of hours, entirely losing track of who won overall, not that we cared all that much. I was just having fun being able to relax, play a videogame, and have no responsibilities or concerns whatsoever. Max was happy having a friend to game with, Andrew being more of a sporty type.

There was a knock at the door, and Max’s dad cracked it open.

“Hey, kids, Jack’s mom just called. She wants you home for dinner.”

“Aw, man!” Max said. “Fine. Jack, when do you wanna come over again?”

“Uh, soon?” I shrugged. “Dunno past that, I’ll ask the ‘rents. But definitely soon. Today was a lot of fun.”

“I guess I can live with that. Oh, here!” He pulled five more volumes of Ranma off the shelf and handed them to me. “Gotta boost your manga knowledge so we can have civilized discussions,” he said with a grin.

“Whoa, thanks!” I gave him a bow. “I’ll do my best not to spill spaghetti on them.”

After Max and I got in the car, we kept talking about videogames until we got home. There was a car in the driveway I didn’t recognize, a mid-range SUV. Hmm. We don’t have guests that I don’t know about very often. I thanked Max’s dad, waved goodbye to Max, and wandered over to look the car over for clues. In-state license plate. Palm tree air freshener. Avril Lavigne CD case on the passenger seat. Disposable cup in the cupholder. Sunglasses on the dash. I stepped back and put a hand to my chin in thought.

“Trixie Belden I am not,” I eventually deduced, which should have been obvious when I failed to notice the skateboard earlier. “I’ll just go inside.”

I turned away, and then it clicked. Wait a second…

That paper coffee cup had a logo on it, of a place that was about halfway between here and…

And with the Avril Lavigne CD, and the kid-size sunglasses on the dash, and the fact that we only know one person in that city with a kid-

Maybe I am a supersleuth! This is great!

I ran to the front door and yanked it open.

“Aunt Cher! MEL!”

Even better, I was right.