Heroes

Chapter Two

I awoke to someone grabbing my shoulder and shaking me roughly. My eyes opened slowly, and I yawned. “Whaaa?”

“Adel! Wake up, girl!” It was Babs who woke me up. She moved away when I opened my eyes and sat up.

“What? What are you doin’ here, Babs?”

“It’s seven-fifteen already, dork. You overslept.”

I groaned, then my eyes opened wide as I understood what she was saying. “Oh! Crap! My bad!”

I got up quickly. “Is Tara already here?”

“Yeah,” said Tara, coming out of my kitchen, a green apple in hand. “Hey.”

“Oh, hi.” I threw up a hand, and yawned loudly. “So, I figured we could watch the show around nine or so, after we eat. Is that okay with you guys?”

“Sure,” they said, almost simultaneously. We laughed…just like always.

“So you guys wanna play Guitar Hero or somethin’?”

“Yeah!” Babs said, while Tara said “Or something” at the same time.

I laughed. Babs was the best out of us at the game, and Tara could barely hit three notes.

“Okay, how about we play Mario Party?”

“OOH!!!” Tara said. “Okay!”

I got up from the couch as they flopped down, tossed them two Wii remotes, and started up the game. We all played for about fifteen minutes before my mom called us into the kitchen for dinner.

“GUYS!!! COME ON!!! LET’S EAT!!!”

We all dropped our remotes and raced to the kitchen. I scooted in first, silently rejoicing in my victory. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hey. Okay, we’re having Boca-meat ‘meatball’ sandwiches. So this is your plate, Babs, Tara, and Adel,” she said, pointing to each of our plates.

“Ooh, yum,” I said.

“Thanks for the veggie meat, Ms. Lancaster,” said Babs. You see, Babs was a vegetarian, so I had to warn my mom a week in advance that she was coming so she could find some veggie meat so Babs could eat here. I honestly wished she did it more often; veggie meat was really good.

We all grabbed our plates and a Coke and headed out to my room, thanking my mom for the meal.

When we got in there, we all plopped on my bed and turned on my TV, deciding to watch My Life as Liz. It was one of my favorite shows, and I was always yelling at Liz, telling her what she should do, much to the annoyance of my friends.

When we finished eating, we all went into the living room and turned on my Bleach DVD. As the beginning credits started, I felt a rush of air against my face, and everything went black.

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“WHAT IN THE WORLD???”

I woke up and rubbed my head, groaning. Who was yelling? Gosh, I was sleeping. Have any freaking courtesy?

I sat up and searched for the origin of the yelling, only to see a boy with strange, flat, 80’s looking hair in a red tee shirt with a Sprite logo on it and jeans. He wasn’t wearing shoes, but his feet were adorned with regular white socks. His jaw was on the floor, and he looked like the happiest guy alive. He started running towards us, a dreamy look on his face.

I suddenly took in a sharp breath, realizing who it was: Keigo Asano, a character from Bleach. The perverted one. I realized what he was doing, and I automatically responded with the classic Bleach response: I punched him in the face, knocking him backwards.

He held his cheek and tears started falling. “What was that for?”

“Dude!” I said, coming towards him. “You just tried to, like, grope my friends!” I pointed towards them. “I mean what the heck, man!”

He blushed. “I was not gonna grope them!” But he looked at his shoes, so I knew he was lying.

“Perv.” I said, and went back to my friends, who were still passed out. I noticed him tilting his head, looking at my butt. I grabbed the closed object to me (a clock) and threw it at him. He barely caught it in time. “What the heck, uh…what did you say your name was again?”

I got up and turned to face him. “I didn’t, but the name’s Adel. And I threw the clock at you because you’re still being a pervert. Now stop and help me see if my friends are still alive.”

He groaned, but sighed and bent down to look at Babs while I looked at Tara. She was breathing, but she had a big bruise on her forehead. I looked at Keigo observing Babs and it looked like similar results.

He put a hand to her forehead. “Yeah,” he said, putting a thoughtful hand to his chin, “she’s out cold.”

“Same here.”

“Well crap. What are we gonna do?”

I looked at him in appreciation. “Thanks, but I think I got it from here. If you could just point me in a place where I can get them some care that would be great.”

“Oh!” he said. “I know just the place. We could go to my friend Ichigo family’s clinic! That’ll be perfect!”

“Oh! Um…okay.” I knew I had to pretend I didn’t already expect for him to suggest that; who knows what could happen. Seriously, you find three strangers in your bedroom and they somehow know all about you…creepy, much? “Thanks. I’ll just be on my way, now….” I started trying to pick up Tara, but it was a fruitless attempt. Keigo just kinda stood there, chuckling to himself.

I glowered at him. “What?”

“You know you can’t do that by yourself. There’s no way you can get them all the way to Kurosaki Clinic; I bet you don’t even know where it is.”

That was right…I had no idea where to go, even if I could get them outside. Crap.

“Okay, then what do you suggest?”

“How about I call a cab and we can drive there?”

I huffed. “Fine.”

We hauled them outside and on a bench and Keigo pulled out his phone and called for a cab. Once he made the call he shut the phone and put it in his pocket again, stretching out his other hand to me. “I’m Keigo, by the way, Keigo Asano.”

I grabbed his hand and shook, my mouth curling into a smile. “Nice to meet you, Keigo.”

He motioned to Babs and Tara. “So you finally wanna explain to me just how exactly you ended up in my room?”

I shrugged, stunned while a bit embarrassed at our sudden intrusion. “Um…to be perfectly honest, I have no idea. All I know is that I’m here in the middle of….”

“Japan,” he interjected, helping me.

“Japan…and I have no idea how to get home, where I can stay, or anything like that. I just know I need to find somewhere that can room three people for zero yen, because I’m totally broke.”

“Hm…well,” said Keigo. “I don’t know what to tell you; I would offer you somewhere at my house, but I don’t have an extra room, sorry.”

I smiled. “It’s okay, I’ll find somewhere. No need to worry.”

Suddenly the cab pulled up. Keigo and I dragged Tara and Babs into the cab, much to the driver’s shock that he was driving two unconscious people. I got in the back with them and Keigo got in the front.

“Kurosaki Clinic,” I said to the cab driver and Keigo handed him 1,251 yen, about 15 dollars.

“As quickly as possible,” he said, and the cab driver started driving, nearly breaking the speed limit. We were there in about ten minutes.

The cab pulled up to Kurosaki Clinic and Keigo got out, asking me to stay here with the cab. He quickly ran inside.

Oh, God, I thought. I’m gonna meet Ichigo Kurosaki. Oh. My. God.

I’m screwed.