Issue 6: My Agony

Prologue

Finally lunch! I sit with Abby, Jacob, Carlos, and Trang and we talk. A cool gentle breeze brushes the palm fronds. Voices all mix over each other. A cool gentle breeze brushes the palm fronds. Voices all mix over each other.

Jacob swallows his water then looks at me. "Don't tell your sister but me and mom watched them record Izzy's show. It's so awful hearing the same lines like 30 times. And it's literally all day!"

Abby adds. "Forget her though." Her eyes shift back and forth and she smiles. "Someone on my soccer team's dad took him to a diner but and I kid you not it was a movie set!"

Carlos looks worried. "What if there's another teacher's strike?"

Abby forks avocado out of her salad and says, "Ugh, right? I love days off but yeah my team needs me. Though my grades aren't looking too great."

We leave the lunch pavilion and walk past a pine because we could really use the walk. I swear like half the school is in the quad right now.

I tell Trang, "Dad's still doing Overwatch stuff. Like why can't we ever just live normal lives?"

He shrugs, "We got magic."

Right, we got magic.

He scrolls through a playlist, "This song has a really good baseline, I so wanna practice it."

Abby looks over to us, "Does anyone else hate exams? I feel like I'm gonna fail I swear."

As we walk past a palm walking around a couple of guys looking at their phones I tell her, "Isn't it hard balancing school with our Overwatch training?"

Ashley's voice rises sounding annoyed, "Ugh, tell me about it! And we always end up with Miss Gilet whenever we have science. Why can't we have Mr. Foreman this often?" I agree sis I don't like Gilet either. I have a feeling she's in Talon.

Trang then says as we're walking up the stairs to our lockers then back inside, "I'd like it too. He just seems to get us. Gilet just seems to hate us, especially Ashley."

My sister then rolls her eyes. "Ugh don't remind me! I hate her back times a million."

Jacob then says, "Mr. Foreman says Miss Gilet was against the teacher strikes because teachers don't deserve better pay and laughed when she said so."

School finally ends and I walk with Ashley, Abby, and Jacob to 7-Eleven and I order a Slurpee and buy an Xbox card for V-Bucks.

Ugh it's one of Ryan's dumb bully friends. What drama is he gonna cause for us now?

"Hey Angel gimme that!"

Hey stop trying to grab my Slurpee. A bit of it spilled on me. What did I ever do to deserve this? I wonder if Ryan put him up to this or if he's being a jerk on his own?

Ryan's friend says, "Gimme that come on why are you being that way!"

But I move it back but not so hard it goes everywhere.

The cashier glares at him pointing at the exit in a normal tone of voice that still sounds annoyed and angry, "You get out of my store!"

I kinda feel bad. I apologize to the cashier and he says, "No problem. You'd be surprised how often people try stealing right in front of me like that. This job gets crazy."

***

Shauna's brother is so cool! Those lit railslides, grinds, 360s, and other tricks, and he makes it all look so easy. We're skating with the older kids this is so incredible.

Ahh! Oh, it's just Abby's hand on my shoulder. "Earth to Angel! Are we skating or not?"

"Sure."