Part 1: http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/zone-specter/apocalypse-part-1
"Well that went spectacularly," Ray said sarcastically as we got off the bus.
"Hold on Ray, you got something in your fro," Tito said reaching over and pulling out several pencils.
"You say you like metal music and suddenly you're the most despised kid in the whole high school circuit," Ray mutters.
"You're not hated," Tito says…he never really did understand.
"'Hey you loner listening to that crap metal, turn it off, nobody likes that shit just like they don't like you!'" Ray shouts, reenacting the incident from lunch with us and a few football jocks.
"The JV are pin-heads," Tito sighs, "They don't know that you're my brother."
"What about the others that do know?" Danny mumbles, "Doesn't seem to make a difference to them when they try to dunk our heads in the toilets."
"Who the hell still does that?" Tito nearly shouts.
"The lacrosse teams, JV basketball but the varsity are starting to, and then there's the handful of varsity football players," Lynzie says ticking them off on her fingers.
"Good lord that is the tackiest thing I've ever heard of," Tito says as he starts to walk for home.
"See ya guys later?" Ray says as he follows Tito.
"Yeah, just gotta get the others," I say as he and Danny walk off.
"Bet you ten bucks Danny's gonna go see my dad instead of go home," Lynzie whispers as they walk off.
"Uh-uh I ain't making a bet I know I'll lose," I grin.
"And that is a clear sign that you will not get a gambling problem," Lynzie smiles.
"Not quite, five dollars says Frank has a black eye, Emily a few spit balls in her hair and Mikey probably has a cut lip from trying to pick a fight with the idiot that picked on Em," I say nodding towards the bus that's coming up.
"You're really making bets on how damaged our friends are?" Lynzie asked quizzically.
"No, it's a bad prediction as to what I'll have to cover up this time for him," I mutter as the bus stops in front of us.
"Well you're almost right," Lynzie sighs as Mikey, Emily, and Frank step off the bus.
And I sadly am. Frank does have a black eye, and Em the spit balls, and Mikey has the cut lip, but it's also swollen and his glasses are broken in his hands.
"Oh, what happened?" Lynzie says sincerely as she goes over to Emily to pick the spit balls out of her hair while she's making sure Mikey's alright.
"Seriously Mikey, you didn't have to do that," Emily says frantically as she dabs a napkin she probably got from their cafeteria on his lip.
"They were hurting you," Mikey says darkly, wincing as she lightly cleans his lip.
"I can take a few spitballs," Emily says with a slight edge to her voice.
Mikey pushes her arm away, "They were calling you a b-"
Emily cuts him off then, "I know what they were calling me Mikey!" she shouts. "No need to remind me," she mutters before stalking off.
"Emily," Mikey calls out.
"Leave me alone," Emily says in a shaky voice.
She breaks out in a run before he can catch up to her, halfway down her street before he can really do anything. He sighs and turns towards our road, looking as down as I've ever seen him. I make a mental note to have a talk with him later.
"I'll be home," he mumbles.
We watch as he trudges away for home…I seriously need to come up with a plan here.
"Alright, I may not be the brightest bulb at times," says Frank suddenly. "But I can tell when a guy's got it bad for a chic," he says looking after Mikey.
"Way to put it in romantic terms Frankie," I say.
"What?" he says shrugging his shoulders.
"By the way, how'd you get the shiner?" I say making small circle motions around my eye with my finger.
"Some prick was talking about how his little brother made the emo kids' sisters cry," Frank says icily, "Doesn't take a genius to figure out he meant Iri and Michi."
"Well you couldn't have been sure," Lynzie said as she looked at his eye.
"He also looked me right in the face and smiled when he said that," Frank said ducking away from Lynzie.
"Here they come," I say.
"I fell and hit my eye on my locker lock!" Frank said hurriedly as the bus started pulling up.
"Isn't that how you got that swollen lip last week?" Lynzie asked, crossing her arms.
"A door knob then!" Frank hissed as the doors opened up.
"Frankie!" Michi squealed as she and Iris hopped off the bus.
"Hey Michi," Frank smiled holding open his arms to give her a hug after her long day.
"What happened?" she asked gently fingering his black eye.
"Hit it on a door knob when I tripped," Frank said nonchalantly.
He never did like telling Michi how he really got all his cuts and bruises.
"Oh," she said, "I promise not to hurt you too bad when we practice today," she smiles.
"Thanks," he says patting her on the back.
"Hi Iris," Lynzie smiled as her sister gave her a hug.
"I missed you today," Iris said.
"I missed you too," Lynzie smiled.
"Hey Gee!" Iris said running over to me.
"Hey Iri," I said smiling.
"You said you played Peter Pan in that play right?" she asked eagerly.
I laugh at the small memory, "Yep, they actually had a boy play Peter Pan that year," I say scratching the back of my head.
"Well I get to play Wendy!" she said happily.
"Really? That's great Iri," I smile as a tousle her hair a bit.
"I get to play Tiger Lily!" Michi said as we started walking home.
"Suiting," Frank says.
"And Peter Pan?" I ask.
"He's gonna be played another girl," Iris said plainly.
"Usually is," I laugh.
"Well it would've been Collin if he hadn't dropped out, he said it was stupid," Iris grumbled.
"Well do you like it?" I ask.
"Yes," Iris says quietly.
"Then Collin is stupid and wrong," I say.
That gets Iris to smile, and Lynzie to smile at me too for making her feel better. We walk home and split off when we reach Frank and Michi's house.
"See ya in a few man," I say as they head through their gate.
"Ray's?" he asks.
"Yep," I say.
"Alright, see ya guys then," he calls running up after Michi.
"Is Danny gonna be helping daddy again?" Iris asks looking over at their house.
"He usually is Iri," Lynzie laughs.
"He's as smart as daddy almost," Iris giggled.
"And just as crazy," Lynzie grins.
"Daddy's just full of ideas no one else has," Iris smiles before we start walking across the street.
"Like the time machine?" Lynzie grinned.
"Did he get that idea from Doc Brown in that movie?" I laugh.
"More like Doc got it from him for the movie," Lynzie said as we crossed the street.
"So I'll see ya at Ray's in a few?" I asked.
"Duh," she laughed.
"Yeah, duh Gee," Iris laughed as they walked inside.
I smile as I walk in through my gate and up to the door. When I walk in I catch the sight of mom down the hall, standing at Mikey's door. I walk over to her and see that she's anxious and a little nervous.
"Mikey baby, please come out," she asks soothingly.
"I'm alright mom, I just wanna work on my homework in here," Mikey called from the other side of the door.
"Then why did you look so upset?" mom asked.
"A lot of homework, won't have time to play my bass this weekend," Mikey said quickly.
Mom sighed, sounding pretty tired.
"I'll talk to him," I said, gently moving mom out of the way.
"His door's locked," she said sadly.
"I'll be fine," I said. "Don't worry, he's just a little upset about Emily," I said with a small smile.
"Oh what happened," she asked worriedly.
"He may or may not have blown up on her by accident," I said.
"Oh dear," she sighed.
"Don't worry mom, I've got a plan," I smile.
"Just don't be doing anything that'll get you in trouble," she said as she walked away to the kitchen.
"That I cannot promise," I said to myself quietly.
I knock lightly on Mikey's door, "Mikey let me in."
"Just leave me alone Gee," Mikey's muffled mumbles reply.
"C'mon Mikes let me in," I say calmly.
I hear some shuffling from inside and the click of the lock turning. It opens and I see Mikey, head bowed and looking like there's nothing left in the world.
"C'mon, we're going for a pick-me-up," I said grabbing his arm.
"No, Gee not now," Mikey mumbles as a drag him through the hall.
"We're going to Ray's mom, be back before dinner!" I call out as we head for the front door.
"No Gee! Seriously I don't wanna go!" Mikey whined, pulling on my arm to get me to let go.
"No brother of mine is going to mope around like this," I say as I pull him out the door.
"I do not mope," Mikey said icily.
"Then why are you so upset about what happened with Emily?" I said stopping at Ray's gate.
"I shouldn't have snapped at her," Mikey mumbled, "It was a bad day and I made it worse by hurting my friend's feelings, not exactly the greatest end to the day."
"C'mon, I got an idea," I said bringing him inside.
"Hey you guys made it," Lou smiled as he opened the front door.
"Hey Joe college," I laugh.
"Is that what you're gonna call me and Tito from now on?" Lou said as he opened the door wider for me and Mikey.
"Well you actually are in college," I grin.
"Hey why so down Mikes?" Lou asks as he leads us to the den.
"Nothing," Mikey mumbles heading down the stairs.
"What's eating him?" Lou asks me before I head down.
"He's mad because he yelled at Em," I sigh.
"You should take him to apologize, make things better, make him feel like he at least tried to make it up to her," Lou said.
"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind," I say as I start walking down the stairs.
"Lynzie's here already," Lou grins.
"Danny?" I ask, not looking back so that he won't see me blush.
"Nah, she said he stayed to help Steve out," Lou calls down.
"When is he not there?" I laugh.
"Said he'd be here later," Lou said before disappearing for his room most likely.
I walk the rest of the way down the stairs, and smile when I see Lynzie sitting in a beanbag to the left of the TV. But I frown when I see Mikey hiding away in a corner at the small table, resting his head in his arms. I walk over to him and sit in front of him, trying to look as worried as I feel.
"You could go apologize," I say to him quietly.
"Her dad would never let me past the front gate," he says.
"I'll admit, for you to go over there and try would be pretty gutsy considering we're talking about Mr. Prado here," I grin.
"The man's a beast!" Mikey hisses, "He'd kill me if he knew I hurt Emily like that-probably never let me go near her again," he grumbles.
"So you do care about her?" I say.
"She's my friend," Mikey mumbled, "She knows how to make you feel like you're worth something," he said dreamily.
"Well if you're not gonna go and apologize, at least try and make conversation or play a game, ya might beat Ray," I laugh as I turn to look at Ray and Frank staring intently at the screen.
"He's been doing it his whole life, I don't stand a chance," Mikey grins.
"Least you can do is try," I say.
He looks over to the Ray and Frank, then grins, "What the heck."
He gets up and makes Frank scoot over on the foot stool so he can get in on their racing game. Ray hands him a controller without taking his eyes off the screen, and soon they're all sucked up in the game. I grin and feel a little at ease that Mikey's not moping around anymore. I sit at the table a few more minutes, just swirling patterns on the surface with my fingers.
"What'cha doing?" Lynzie asked as she took Mikey's old spot.
"Doodling," I say simply.
"Wouldn't it be better if you had paper?" Lynzie asked.
"Just wasting time I guess," I smile.
"Yep, a good two hours," Lynzie giggles.
"Are joshing me?" I say, "Two hours?"
"Yeah man you been sitting her tracing that whole time," she says.
"Well I guess it's a good thing it's Friday night," I say.
"Why?" she asks.
"I should've had my homework done by now," I say with a grin…knowing very well I usually put of homework til almost last minute.
"Ah, well, it's only 5, the night is young, why don't you and I relieve Ray and Frank, eh?" she said with a smile.
"You're on," I say point a finger at her and jumping out of my seat to take Ray's controller. "Alright Fro Boy, my turn," I say snatching Ray's controller and pausing it so Lynzie could get Frank's.
"Fine, scoot over Toaster Boy," Frank says.
"You stick a fork in a toaster one time," Mikey mutters.
"And it sticks forever," Frank laughs.
We play a few rounds with Mikey before Danny shows up an hour later. Then Mikey surrenders his controller to him so he can play while he talks to us.
"So how was working with my mad-genius father?" Lynzie asks as she tries to race past Danny's car.
"He's getting pretty far with that time machine," Danny says, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"Did you at least clean off some of the grease from your hands before you came here?" Ray asked.
"No," Danny laughed slightly.
"Aw man, you got it all over the controller didn't you?" Ray said, sounding annoyed but still sounding like he's in on the fun when Danny laughs a bit.
Part 5: http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/zone-specter/apocalypse-part-5
