Mark, still adamant on shutting off the constant buzzing, reached his hand down to the ground to shut off the buzzer. His fingertips just barely brushed against the top of the clock, but not enough to be able to push down on the loveable snooze button that Mark knew to be his best friend at 5:35 in the morning. When his agitation level reached its fullest, Mark flattened his hand against the wall and felt around for the alarm clocks wire. Upon finding the inch thick black wire, Mark wrapped his fingers around it and pulled roughly. With that, the buzzing died. Smiling to himself, Mark opened his eyes and looked across his room to the clock that was present on his stereo. Blinking gently next to the digital time was a small red dot, indicating that the radio alarm was set. Mark always kept a reserve alarm on in the case of mornings where 5:35 was way to early for him to be waking up. Sighing to himself and rolling onto his back, Mark closed his eyes and groaned, knowing that even the extra hour of sleep he would receive would not refresh him to his fullest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A yawn escaped Mark as he tried to rub away the sleepy look from his eyes. With one eye half open the other closed completely, Mark made his way down the high school math hallway, dragging his feet for he felt too tired to lift them fully. His half open eye moved between both sides of the hallway and took in the site of other students messing around at their lockers, talking with each other, and forcing notebooks out from under the weight of overly heavy textbooks. Before Mark had the satisfaction of reaching his locker to collapse against it, a classmate bumped shoulders with him to grab his attention.

“Wake up sleepyhead and get ready for an exciting day of Economics.” The overly chipper female student hopped alongside Mark.

Mark turned his head towards the ray of sunshine that now walked beside him. Her name was Lacy Goulder and there was never a day where she wasn’t overly excited about life and the events in it. “I can’t believe we’re forced to sit through that drivel.” Mark spoke drearily, though his mind wished to say something different. You… are a crack addict.

“It’s not that bad. Today we’re working on that group assignment; you know, the one where we chose the topic of our choice regarding today’s economy.” Lacy stopped walking and stepped up to her locker. Not wanting to seem rude, Mark leaned up against the locker next to hers.

“It probably wouldn’t be so bad if my group wasn’t full of incompetent dimwits.” Mark cracked his neck, sighing as the feeling of being tired seemed to slowly drift away from him.

“So you’re the one stuck in the group of jackasses.” Lacy smiled, feeling sorry for Mark.

“Oh yeah; does that surprise you? All those fuck-heads flock to me because I’m never willing to refute them.”

“Well, I’ll talk to Mr. Weedil. Maybe I can get you switched into my group. We’ve wanted to get rid of the drug addict since day one.” Lacy closed the door to her locker and turned her head to face Mark.

“Ya mean Peter? He’d fit perfectly.” Mark smiled, pushing himself off of the metallic locker. Yawning again, he turned to start towards his locker once again.

“So, you hang around with Chris a lot, right?” Lacy’s voice went from overly chipper to somewhat shy.

“For the most part; why?” Mark rolled his eyes, knowing what was coming. Yes, he loves you. He wants to marry you and have you bear his children.

“Do you think he’s interested in me?”

Mark stopped in front of his locker and faced Lacy. “If I remember correctly, the last thing he said to me about you was, ‘I’d love to bang her, but she seems to high maintenance’.” A small laugh escaped him as he thought about how Chris had never mentioned anything about her to him.

“You’re joking right?”
“You know better, Lacy. I don’t have a sense of humor.” Mark smiled softly as he pulled a notebook from his locker.

“You’re a bastard, you know that?” Lacy gently punched Mark in the arm.

“Time will tell you what his heart desires, my dear Lacy.” Mark laughed again at himself. “Why don’t you just talk to him? I’m sure he’d be able to give you an answer.”

A sigh escaped the chipper girl as the first school bell rang. Mark grumbled, despising the classes he was forced to attend every day for one hundred and eighty days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark stretched in his seat, rolling his neck and his eyes. Just five seconds prior he had been engrossed in a deep sleep, but when his name was mentioned by the teacher, he snapped out of it, the dreams he dreamt drifting away.

“Did you sleep well, Mr. Laurence?” Ms. Willing tilted her head to once side, a small grin spread across her face.

“There was too much background noise. All I dreamt about was school.” Mark spoke casually to his Government teacher, Ms. Willing. The fact that the teacher had the same sense of humor as the students was the one thing that made Government somewhat enjoyable.

“I know it’s hard, but try to stay awake.” Ms. Willing smiled softly and continued on with her lecture.

Ms. Tonya Willing not once yelled at any student in her class, which gave her students the idea that they could get away with anything, and for the most part, that was true. A normal day in Willing’s class consisted mostly of her teaching and absolutely no class participation. On occasion Mark would feel bad for the young teacher when nobody would answer a question of hers, but never bad enough to raise his own hand and contribute. At 9:15 in the morning, Mark felt lucky if he was able to calculate a simple math problem without the aid of a calculator.

With a slight sigh and an arch of his neck, Mark leaned back and closed his eyes. Before he had the chance to grow the slightest bit comfortable, though, a small piece of paper smacked him in the back of the head. Opening his right eye, Mark searched around the room for the culprit, which wasn’t hard.

Sitting at the far end of the room in the last row of chairs was someone who Mark had always thought was the most beautiful girl he’d laid eyes on. Andria Lee caught Mark’s eye the moment he entered his freshmen year of high school. The moment his eyes fell upon her, he felt as if his heart had overloaded.

Smiling weakly at the girl of his dreams, though he never let anyone know he obsessed over her, Mark turned his attention back to the lecture at hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A swarm of students burst out of the school, rushing unnecessarily to the big yellow buses that would drive them home. Amongst the rushing students, although walking at a much slower pace than the overly excited teenagers, were Mark, Jon, and Chris, talking amongst themselves of the inane traits of school. Mark walked in the middle, between the two, as he normally did. For some reason, Mark felt safe walking with his two best friends by his side.

“I can’t believe they expect us to pull off all this oral report bullshit. I’ve got like… four to do in the next two weeks.” Chris complained, growing rather emotional over the topic.

Jon smiled and shook his head, finding the next best topic to talk about. “So, two weeks to yourself, ‘ey Mark?”

“Don’t get any ideas. No parties, no alcohol…” Mark trailed off; rolling his eyes as he remembered the speech his mother gave him.

“When do they leave?” Chris questioned, suddenly forgetting his complaints.

“Three days. Off to Vegas for a week of no worries.” Mark’s voice kicked up a pitch, mimicking the tone his mother had when she had said the same thing to him.

“Ya gonna invite Andria over?” Chris chuckled to himself, twisting his voice in a seductive way.

“Shut the fuck up.” Mark stopped in his spot, frustration taking over.

Chris and Jon took a few steps before realizing Mark had stopped. They both turned back, the smiles on their faces being wiped away by the look Mark was giving them.

“Dude, I’m sorry. It was just a joke.” Chris slowly stepped up to Mark.

Mark shook his head, his eyes closing slightly. “No… it wasn’t that. I just had a really weird feeling.”

“You feeling alright dude?” Jon patted Mark’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I don’t know what that was about.” Mark shook his head once more and opened his eyes. Almost as if coming out of a trance, Mark smiled instantly. “So where are you two going?”

Jon and Chris looked at each other in confusion. “Umm, I was thinking home.” Chris said slowly.

“I’m gonna have to agree with him there. Home is sounding good.” Jon restated Chris’ words rather matter-of-factly.

“Why don’t you two come on over to my place?” Mark said this as if it were an everyday occurrence, which it was far from. The last time Mark had ever invited anyone to his house was a little over six years ago, in 1997, when he had hoped to get into the pants of his middle school sweetheart, Jane Koon.

“I guess we could join you.” Jon shrugged, looking over to Chris, who nodded his head in agreement.

“Yeah, that is, if you insist. I mean, you’ve never invited anyone over, so this is kind of abrupt.”

Mark smiled once again. “Things change, you know.” As he started to walk once again, the smile faded as did any sign of cheeriness. That feeling… I just don’t want to be alone guys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming up to his house, Mark saw that his mother had arrived home from work earlier than expected. As the bus came to a stop and the door slid open, Mark hopped off, his two friends following behind him.

“Hey, your mother’s home.” Jon pointed out the blatantly obvious.

Chris laughed slightly. “Good call, man.”

Mark walked across the street, disregarding a van that was speeding down the small road. He could hear the voices of his friends telling him to stay back, but he paid no mind to them; but when the sound of screeching tires and a blaring horn struck Mark’s ears, he took a definite notice to the oncoming van and pushed himself backwards. Fumbling over his feet, Mark fell backwards, a few feet out of harms way.

Jon and Chris stood staring, stunned at the life threatening ignorance Mark had just portrayed. They rushed out to help him up and eventually move him out of the way of the bus.

“What the hell was that about?” Jon reached down to grab Mark’s hand, but Mark declined and stood up on himself.

“I… don’t know. I was telling myself to stop, but it was as if something were pushing me to keep walking. Then just before the van came, it felt as if my conscious was fighting with something… trying to get me to stop.” Mark picked up his books and shook off some of the dirt and gravel before starting off towards his house once again.

“What is going on with him?” Jon leaned over to Chris.

“I’ll be fuckin’ damned if I know, man.” Chris threw his hands into the air and shook his head wildly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the garage, Mark could hear his mother singing and shuffling around inside the house, cleaning a mess that most likely wasn’t hers. Not to disturb her, he opened the garage door quietly, which led him into the kitchen, and walked inside the house. Listening intently, he could hear that his mother was in the living room, so he turned to Chris and Jon and held his finger up to his lips. They both smiled and nodded as they slowly crept into the house behind Mark.

Mark reached for the basement door’s knob and when his hand came in contact with it and he started to slowly turn it, a finger slipped off, causing the rest of his hand to roll off of the doorknob. The metallic clang caused by the rolling back of the doorknob brought a halt to the music.

“Honey, is that you?” Mark’s mother called out to her son, a nervous break starting off her speech.

“Yeah Ma’.” Mark called back, moving away from the basement door to meet his mother in the living room.

“Well how was your day?” Mrs. Kelly Laurence asked, placing a hose to the vacuum she used on the couch.

Mark slipped into the living room and smiled to his mother. “Not bad. Is this why you stayed home; to clean?”

“This house is always such a mess. I can’t stand it.” Kelly’s tone took on a serious note for a moment, but rapidly changed when Jon and Chris moved out from behind the wall. “Well hello gentlemen.”

Simultaneously, the two answered cheerily. “Hi Mrs. L!”

“Where’s dad?” Mark asked, his voice lowering a bit.

“Working late as usual.” Kelly rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’m not gonna cook tonight, so you three find something in the freezer.”

“Aye mother.” Mark sighed as well; more disappointed that he wasn’t getting a cooked meal than that his father wasn’t home. “You two all packed?”

“Of course not! We’ve still got eight hours till we wanna get to bed, so we have all night.” Kelly laughed softly.

“Sounds like a plan. We’re gonna head downstairs. If you need me, just stomp.” Mark smiled and walked over to his mother, kissing her cheek. “Don’t work to hard. You don’t wanna be worn out this week.”

Snapping out of their seemingly bored state of mind, Chris and Jon waved to Kelly. “See you later Mrs. L!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark ran down the basement staircase and went immediately to the den, where he flopped down couch almost immediately, Jon and Chris taking seats next to him. “What a fuckin’ day.”

“What a fucking day? What the hell could you have possibly done to make you so dramatically tired?” Chris laughed, smacking Mark’s knee.

“I dealt with some of the dumbest people I’ll ever meet.” Mark grumbled thinking back to his Economics class, where he spent the first twenty minutes explaining to his group mates why he didn’t want to work with them.

“Sounds like…fun.” Jon shook his head and squinted his eyes, unsure of what to say.

“Did you guys see the ass on the substitute teacher we had?” Chris piped up.

“Can we not talk about that bullshit?” Mark snarled unexpectedly, for he would normally join in a conversation such as the one Chris had brought up.

“You alright Mark?” Chris leaned over to his friend, placing his hand on his forehead jokingly.

“Yeah…” Mark’s voice trailed off for a minute before he spoke again. “Why don’t you guys get going? I think I’m gonna hit the hay a little early today.”

“A little early? Dude, its only four.” Chris’ raised an eyebrow.

“I’m tired; really fucking tired.” Mark no longer had any humor in his voice when he spoke.

“Ya think your mother will drive us home?” Jon asked quickly.

“I think so. I’m going upstairs. I’ll see you guys at school.” Mark lifted himself off of the couch and dragged himself up the basement stairs.

Jon looked to Chris, who shrugged his shoulders. “Well that was different.”

12/10/2003 10:18:31 PM

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