#the pizza was regular pizza. the fast food was mid if not straight up bad. hot pockets suck ass?? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nightglider124 · 6 years

Note

5.000 Prompt #4 & #120 - Jinx X Kid Flash, please!

Nice. Er… the first one is probs a little shite; I really struggled with the prompt and idk why.

Second one had me smiling whilst I wrote it tho.

And I know Wally in TTA has blue eyes but I really prefer him having green eyes like in YJ. Oh well, sue me.

These are a fair bit shorter than any of my robstar ones but hey, there are 2 in this reply so.

Hope ya like them.

“You are going to have to eat something if you want to run from cops all day.”

It was warm, thesunlight drenching everything in its path. An interesting thing considering itwas getting on towards the middle of Fall. The orange and brown leaves had mostlyalready fallen to the ground, crunching beneath people’s feet.

Good things were ontheir way like Halloween and Thanksgiving and the nights were getting coolerand crisper; perfect weather for snuggling up to loved ones with hot cocoa.

Wally smiled as hisgreen eyes scanned the windows of the shops they were passing. He had so manyideas for Christmas presents but he was still about 2 months early so he was restraininghimself all he could.

He rolled hisshoulders beneath his red and yellow coat, flexing his fingers that wereintertwined with his girlfriend’s. He looked over at the pink haired beauty inquestion who had her eyes on the sidewalk they were walking upon.

It was nice thatthey could go out together without bothering with disguises or holorings. Thetown they’d chosen to call home together was quiet and whilst they savedinnocents when necessary, the public nor police tended to make connections orreally take an interest; a vast difference to Jump or even Steel city.

She must haverealised he was staring at her because she turned her head toward him,smirking, “What’re you looking at?” She asked, with a mock attitude.

“Just some hottie.”He replied, flashing his teeth as he grinned,

“Loser.” Shelaughed, rolling her eyes.

Jinx suddenlysniffed the air, the delicious aroma of food filling her nostrils, “Wal, do yousmell that?”

He inhaled thesmell of greasy fast food and smiled, “Oooh… hot dogs…”

As they turned thecorner of the street, they located the source. There was a silver trailer withan open front, a sign on the top and a crowd nearby. They could hear the radiobeing played whilst the cook did his job and the sizzling of fries and burgerson the grill were unmistakable.

Wally sped up,dragging Jinx with him. She smiled and rolled her eyes; she often wondered ifthere was ever a time that he wasn’t thinking about food.

He halted in frontof the fast food trailer, his eyes roaming over the menu whilst licking hislips. After what felt like forever, he finally nodded to himself and smiled,

“What do you want,babe?” Wally asked, eyeing Jinx.

“Just a hot dog,thanks.” She murmured, leaning into him a little,

Wally grinned atthe man inside, “Can I get 3 regular hot dogs please?” He asked, gaining anaffirmative nod from the vendor and forked over the cash,

Jinx’s bright eyeswidened and she pulled away to stare at him incredulously, “Seriously? You’regonna eat 2 hot dogs?”

He snorted, “Why doyou sound surprised?”

“I’m not. You’rejust ridiculous.”

“You’re justjealous because my metabolism is waaay faster than yours.”

“Uh-huh, that’s it.You got me.” She muttered, shaking her head,

After a fewminutes, the chef handed one hot dog to Jinx and the other two to the redheadedboy himself. Wally thanked him and the two continued to walk down the streettogether.

Before they’d evenmade 3 blocks, Wally had finished his first hot dog and was onto his second.Jinx, who was halfway through her sole hot dog, raised her eyebrows,

“Where do you evenput it?”

Wally chuckled,taking a huge bite of his secondary hot dog, “I told ya. It burns off before iteven digests meaning I never lose my abs.”

Jinx narrowed hereyes at his stomach, “Abs? Where? I don’t see them.”

He scowled at her, “Ha-Ha.You’re funny.”

She smiled and tookanother bite of her food, “I know.”

As they wandered, acomfortable silence befell them for a short time as the two simply ate theirfood. They reached the end of the street which led to an open park and stopped,Jinx swallowing her last bite of hot dog, scrunching up the napkin and throwingit in the trashcan outside the gates of the park.

“Y’know, it’sprobably a good thing you’ve eaten a lot anyway…” Jinx mentioned, slyly,

Wally paused beforehe could take his last bite. His eyes swiveled to her, unnerved, “Why?” Heasked, skeptical,

She smirked as shestared ahead at the park, “Oh no reason…” She paused, “you are going to have to eat something if you want to run from cops allday.”

By this point hehad finished off his hot dog but passed mid chew to stare at her wide eyed, “What?Why would we be running from police?”

Jinx shrugged, coyand tilted her head from side to side, “Do you remember that diamond bracelet Iwas looking at in the jewelry store?”

Wally slowly nodded,dabbing his face with the napkin cautiously, completely thrown by the thingsshe was saying,

She smirked, thatsignature mischievous glint in her eyes, “Well,it was so expensive but I reallywanted it so…” She scuffed her toe against the concrete briefly,

Whilst Jinx hadreformed and mainly did good things, working as a hero rather than a criminals,she was a bit of a loose cannon and occasionally relapsed on her promises ofnot stealing ever again.

His eyes widened tothe size of dinner plates and he felt his heart drop and a case of nerves buildin his chest instead, “Jinxy, you didn’t-”

“No!”

Momentarily reliefsurged through him, “Oh-”

“You did.”

He almost fell onhis ass, he was so surprised, “What!?”

She gave him aslow, naughty little grin, “Check your pocket.”

Gulping, Wally slida hand down into his coat pocket. He closed his eyes and cringed as hisfingertips brushed over the smoothness of the diamond bracelet. He shook hishead, struggling to form words to reprimand her,

“Jinx! You know wedon’t steal-”

She rolled hereyes, “Being good is okay and all but sometimes, I miss the rush of being acriminal, that’s all.”

Wally flinched ather flippant behaviour, “That’s all!?”

“Will you shut upand start walking already?”

“Why?”

She smirked, “Don’tyou hear the police sirens? We gotta get going if we don’t wanna be caught.”

He merely blinkedat her, his mouth hanging agape as disbelief consumed him. She giggled and spunaround on her heel, sprinting through the gates of the park.

Now that shementioned it, those sirens were getting awfully close. His heart startingbeating rapidly and he gulped, shaking his head and chasing after hisgirlfriend,

“Jinxy! Get backhere!” He called after her, frantically looking back to keep an eye on thosepolice cars closing in,

He really lovedJinx but boy, did she like to throw one hell of a curve ball sometimes.

“I’m not trying to threaten you.” “Well I do feel pretty fucking threatened!”

Licking his barefingers free of pizza grease, Wally smiled lazily to himself, momentarilysatisfied by the entire pepperoni pizza he had just stuffed down his throat. Hewiped his hands on the sofa before sighing and leaned back against the pizza.

He heard asimilar sigh but it was more like a sad or unhappy one.

Wally looked overat Jinx who was sitting more or less like he was, her feet up on the edge ofthe coffee table and her hands resting on her slightly bloated tummy, full fromtheir pizza pig out. The boxes lay on the table, empty with nothing but crumbsleft inside.

“You okay, Jinxy?”He asked, speaking through his food coma haze,

She sighed andshook her head,

“What’s wrong?”He asked, suddenly concerned,

“Wally… you maynot like it but… we need to start eating better.”

He blinked beforehe suddenly found himself in a bit of a cold sweat, nerves rocking through him,“Excuse me?”

Jinx rolled hereyes and sat up straight, crossing her legs and turning her entire body towardshim, “Wally-”

He was confused.

“No, seriously.What?”

“The bad foodhabits aren’t good for us. If we keep it up, we’ll never be useful heroes toanyone.” She told him, tilting her head towards him,

He sat upsuddenly, his brows furrowed and he opened and closed his mouth several timeslike a fish out of water, “You must be joking, Jinx. Tell me you’re joking!” Heshrilled,

She cringed and rolledher eyes at him, “I just mean not as much junk, Wally.”

He shook his headminutely, “Look, if this is your way of trying to get me to participate more indaily training, then ya got me. I’ll do it. You don’t have to threaten me!”

Jinx raised aneyebrow at her boyfriend, “What? I’m nottrying to threaten you-”

“Well I do feel pretty fucking threatened!”Wally yelped, looking like someone had snatched his most favourite toy in theworld from him,

Jinx’s face wasblank and she folded her arms over her chest, “You’re overreacting.”

Wally threw hishands up in the air, “Hey, you’re the one trying to take all the joy outta mylife!”

The pink hairedgirl sighed, “Look, I-” She suddenly stopped and frowned, “Wait, junk food isthe only joy in your life, huh?”

His eyes widenedas he realised what he’d just said, “Wait-”

Jinx got to herfeet, her fists on her hips, “That’s it! I’m replacing everything in the fridgewith salad and fruit! How about that!?”

He slapped hishand to his chest, staggering back against the couch, “Jinxy! NO!” He gaspeddramatically, “Don’t… do… it!”

With that, hecollapsed back on the sofa, his arm and leg falling over the back of the seat.He panted harshly, acting like she was effectively killing him.

“Dear lord, don’tlet her do it.”

Jinx’s expressionwas deadpan and she dropped her shoulders as she stared at her boyfriend incomplete disbelief. She shook her head and rolled her eyes,

“Sometimes, I can’tbelieve I’m actually dating you by choice.” She sighed, collecting the pizzaboxes off the table whilst he continued to fake a heart attack over hersuggestion.

#requests #asks #teen titans #flinx #kid flash #jinx #wally west #1000 follower prompts #fanfiction #oneshot #cute pairing #love em #nightglider124

33 notes · View notes

gartdavis-blog · 7 years

Text

Visit to Aguadilla

Friends,

I recently traveled back to the house I grew up in on M street in Ramey. I have followed the state of the island since Maria hit almost 8 weeks ago, and had lots of questions going down, so I thought I’d share my notes…

Travel by air: I was not able to book in or out of BQN airport… Jetblue flights that run overnight from the states were all cancelled. So I booked AA through San Juan. Prices were reasonable on AA, but Jetblue is still the best if you can get a flight. Easy to find flights down to the island… harder to find them back. SJU airport was full, but operating normally. AC was on, and I had no trouble transiting and picking up my rental car. BQN currently only has had a regular service from Spirit Airlines from FLL. In theory, service from Jetblue and United will return to BQN before the holidays, but we’ll only know for sure once its happened. One new feature of BQN - the old ready area where the bombers used to park has been taken over by the US military, and is now a small city of lights with lots of army trucks exiting and entering near the golf course. Now that the Army’s mission is complete, this may return to its normal empty state.

Connectivity: much better than expected. I have a Verizon contract and was connected to Claro the moment I powered up at SJU and it remained so all over the North side of the island. Near Ramey, the connection is actually LTE, which means its been good enough to use my phone as a hotspot for email, research, e-commerce. I believe that this is partially a result of more than 40 high efficiency solar powered cell stations that were brought to the island by Vanu inc. (Vanu Bose, the founder of Vanu and the driver of this humanitarian contribution, was the son of Amar Bose of the eponymous corporation. He passed away last week.) People on AT&T were also on Claro. I had coverage from San Juan to Mayaguez continuously on Route 2 without interruption. I wouldn’t count on this to watch netflix, but it was strong and reliable for phone, text, and email. All of Ramey had coverage. At this point there is no value in pursuing satellite, but there are various expensive Satellite systems, like this one from Garmin, that keep you in basic communication when you're off the cell grid, but they don't actually replace Internet connection. There's a great review in there that goes on for pages - its a complicated device.

Travel around the island - Driving from San Juan to Ramey was almost completely normal except for the visuals. You notice right away that all the outdoor advertising and large signage is gone, and pretty much anything involving wood, corrugated roofing, or poles for any use. Traditional construction of concrete with metal ventanas is pretty much untouched. The impact is notable in San Juan, but becomes much more dramatic from Arecibo on. A kinda weird visual - you could tell the worst sections because the buildings looked sandblasted. Many businesses along #2 were open with generators, or occasionally, a section that had power. I took the same route to Ramey as I have done, without detours. Some traffic lights are out, but none of the really important ones where big routes cross. If you have to turn left at a busted light on rt. 2, just don’t…. turn right and figure it out later.

Water… is flowing in Ramey and many places around the island, and did not drop out when I was there. There’s still a boiling order, and when you take a shower you come out smelling like you exited a heavily chlorinated pool. But regardless, having water is great. I brought two different filtration systems, one that is gravity based (Lifestraw) and one that you pump. I bought 4 coleman solar showers, which are basically 5 gallon black plastic bags with nozzles. Down the road, I’ll try to purchase some water storage, a big cisterns for flushing, and something else for long term storage of potable water, but right now this was not as urgent.

Fuel: I had no problems getting gas, there were no lines and most gas stations were open.

Groceries: The Econo is open, and even takes credit cards. As always, its a social center, so budget 3 minutes for talking for every minute of shopping. The coolers were full and prices are about as I remember them. I bought a fresh salad that was good!

Restaurants: many are open, though some with a smaller menu or shorter hours.

Open out gate 5:

Levain (daily coffee here was sent from heaven)

Debut

Cofos Pizza

Martin’s BBQ

Cinco

Country Pizza

110 thai

Palmas

Open down the Hill:

eclipse (dinner only, no breakfast or lunch)

The frituras place at the S on the way down to Jobos

Ocean Front and lots of places near Jobos

Julios and lots of the other frituras places on the beach near Isabella

Open out Gate 1:

El Meson

Sasones

Desecheo

Lots of fast food out near #2

Closed:

Umas

Ramey Bakery

Airport cafe

Marriott (they have a small thing set up just for guests)

Beaches: After seeing pics of crashboat online I was concerned that all the beaches were just as hollowed out… not so:

Crash boat: every bit as dramatic as the pics. Right side is now tiny and not terribly safe, lots of exposed rock under the surf near the jetty. It seems that a lot of the missing beach was thrown onto the space that was the parking lot… which is now 3-4 feet deep with sand. I hold out hope that this sand can be pushed back out to re-create some of the old the beach. The left side you can still park and swim; its smaller but not that different from how it was.

Malecon Aguadilla: The brand new oceanfront walk seems to have come through entirely unharmed and looks great.

Borinquen beach: Much as beautiful as it always has been. Only new feature: a military unit desalinating water in the parking lot… impressive operation.

Survival / Martinica / Bajuras / Shacks: the Sand road down the cliff is still intact, though the left turn to go to Survival is completely blocked. You can go straight across, although its still rainy season and with all the recent dumping its turned into a bit more of a cesspool of garbage and shit than I remember. It appears that despite the violence of the storm, the waves did not break through the dunes and flood the old sand excavation area - a concern I’d long held. Once across, you can walk the strand to either survival or Shacks without impediment. I saw many hoof prints as well, so it looks like people are riding this stretch. The lawns next to the Eclipse took a beating, but the restaurant was hardly touched… hopefully people will be able to breakfast and lunch their soon.

Jobos: is in mid-construction down near the beach access, so I didn’t see that much, but did not seem too undermined. None of the oceanfront places fell in, and many were open and totally full on a Friday night.

Surfers: the road down has a couple trees propped across the roadway, but not so low you can’t pass. The parking lot structure is a bit undermined, but it was before. Waves are the same.

Spot/Middles/Isabela: I was down that way at Julios in lower Isabela on Sunday and the place was as full as I can remember, complete with the parade of Jeeps and music. The beach roads are intact and the north shore seems largely as it was.

Money / ATMs, Banks, Credit Cards: this is not quite back to normal, cash is still the only currency in a lot of smaller businesses, but I didn’t have trouble getting cash out of ATMs, and used credit cards for large purchases at Home Depot and Econo.

Electricity - This is really the biggest story that remains. The grid is a string and tinkertoy tangle that will be an enormous labor to sort out. Just to restore 30 houses on our street is a project that will require clearing/cutting dozens of fallen trees to create backyard access, and then every pole, wire and transformer is down (and will have been for months), and most connections to the individual houses are impaired as well. And the whole island is like that. Right now, the focus is on the easiest and most critical places. The most recent estimate that I think is credible is 70% of meters connected by the end of February. This leaves the 30% that pay the smallest bills and are the hardest to reach, and I could see it being another year before its 95%. While I was there, none of the housing areas in Ramey had power, but there were a few areas outside Gate 1 and Gate 5 that had been restored. Lots of people run generators - our neighborhood sounds like lawn mowers going 24 hours a day. The Solar folks, particularly Maximo Solar near us, are crazy busy. He’s signed contracts for more than 1,000 off-grid systems… only about a million more to go!

Until power is restored - There is a lot that can be done to improve quality of life even if you do not have grid power. Its hard to know how much to spend because you don’t know when you might be lucky enough to get your power back on. My view - think of your spending as one part now, one part preparation for the next Irma/Maria. But with the money thing in mind, I’ll go in order from cheapest to most expensive. I brought two checked bags of 50 lbs each, so my experience was limited to what I could brink and what i could buy on the island.

— My very favorite thing is the OPolar USB fan. This 9 inch fan doesn’t replace a ceiling fan, but it runs all night, blows enough to keep me cool and keep the bugs at bay, and uses just a part of my laptop battery, and it was cheap. We still had our mosquito nets, but the mosquitoes were actually not bad in Ramey, so I did not re-hang them. This fan actually had a review from someone in PR who used it after Maria using her laptop battery. I also found these little fans that are used to cool electronics and blow 50 CFMs each and are powered by USB ports out of the batteries. I bought two sets of two... These worked and drew very little, but the Opolar was a much better solution for cooling down and sleeping.

— I bought 4 LED solar lights that you leave outside during the day and stay on all night... they have motion detectors and you can leave them in three modes: full on, night light, or motion detecting that goes from night light to full. My next favorite thing. charge up during the day, take them inside and light your evening hours no problem. Then leave them in night-light mode so you don’t stub your toe on the way to the bathroom.

— a Two burner grill and a propane cylinder. I bought these on the island for $89 and $49 at the Home Depot in Hatillo, and now I can boil water and cook stuff.

— portable fold up solar panels (36 watts) - this is perfect for charging cell phones and kindles, but not for laptop or fan. I’d skip this, and instead, the next two are useful individually, but if you’re willing to drop the dough, they are perfect together:

—185 watt-hour battery that output USB and, with separate inverters, 110 volt AC which runs laptops, charges phones, anything up to 100 watts draw, including the USB fans (see above), but also the smaller of the standard 120 volt rotating fans.

— 80 watt fold up panel to charge the battery. These connect to each other via a 5.5 outside diameter * 2.5mm inside diameter DC cable that is female on both ends, but is fairly short, so I bought 3 12 foot male to female extenders. This combo worked great, but you really do need 8 hours of sun to recharge the battery if you’ve drawn it all the way down. It weighs 4 lbs, folds to the size of a fat laptop, and if you have a reasonably sunny day, will power up the battery I listed above. While I don’t recommend it, I did leave this unit out in some pretty heavy rain several times, and it continued working.

— One of the things that I hungered for as I tried to mete out my meager trickle of electricity was the ability to know how many watts a thing used… what would burn down my battery faster, this fan or that fan? This watt meter would have been super useful, so I’ve bought three and they’ll go back down with me in December.

— A 1000 watt honda generator. This is 26 lbs and can be brought in checked luggage as long as you never open the box. It is the quietest, lightest, smallest generator on the planet, and runs longer on less fuel than anything out there. Two trade-offs: you can only power 900 watts of stuff with it, and its pricier than many bigger, noisier, heavier generators. This will let you run things like a (modern) fridge, almost any household item that doesn’t have a heating element including all your fans to keep you cool, and you can charge your batteries in the rain. Generators could not be had at any store I visited on the island, nor could you buy a jerry can, and I looked. If you bring a generator to the island, bring a jerry can or you’ll not get much use of it.

— Cool trick: turn off every single breaker in the house. Turn everything off. Cut off the female end of an extension cord, and splice on a male end. Plug one end into your generator, and the other into a wall socket. Now all the things that are on that circuit are powered by the generator. In my case, that enabled things like ceiling fans and the lights attached to them. Warning: do not back-power the grid, make sure that the circuit you plug into is -not- open. If this sounds confusing, just think of it like water. If your neighbor has well water and your city water is out, they can run a hose to your outdoor spigot and turn both ends on, and you’ve got water in your house… now you just need to make sure that your neighbors well isn’t running through your house back out into the city water system full of broken pipes or whatever.

— Refrigeration -- Our house fridge ran brilliantly on the Honda genset… it cooled right down, and stayed pretty cool when the generator wasn’t running. Alternatively, there are some really fantastic new compressors in a 40 quart fridge/freezer (about 1.33 cubic ft) that draw just 30 watts (about 10% of the power of a normal fridge) and can run for a week on the charge in a 12 volt car battery. I'm not going to jump on this, but it may be the best way forward for folks that are trying to run a minimalist electrical footprint on portable solar panels.

— Cleanup & Tools -- Chainsaws could not be had at any store on the island. Dewalt has a new 'flexvolt' battery system with 60 volt tools. For example this chainsaw or this fan. If you buy 4 batteries, you can power an inverter power station that with the power stored in all 4 batteries is a little like the jobsite version of the Tesla Powerwall, which can power a house fridge or other normal things that need house current. I didn’t purchase / test this.

Laundry -- This becomes a top issue once you’re in week 4 and you have water and generators. The motors in older washers draw 1,000 to 2,000 watts, so you need a bigger generator than the one I brought. Modern energy star washers draw more like 500 watts. Dryers - Just no… I’ll put up a clothes line for the back porch.

Bigger Batteries, Inverters, bigger portable solar — We have had folks from RAM staying in the house, and they were kind enough to put another portable solar solution on the house. It was a pair of Centech 750 watt inverters, a Solar charge controller model cm-30a, two Uni-Solar PVL-136 roll-out solar panels, and a 935 CCA 12 volt lead acid truck battery that I bought at the local auto parts place. This system worked, but was not able to run stuff that drew more than 100-200 watts. I think part of this was just my ignorance of how to optimize the utilization of this rig.

Bigger Generators - Generators are everywhere, so the whole island is like Saturday morning with lawn mowers running. The inexpensive gas generators work great but they are -very- noisy. After waking up to the sound of a generator for the Xth time, quiet is important and merciful. With that in mind, the Honda 2,000 watt generators can be put in tandem, they have an ‘eco’ mode that throttles up and down as energy is drawn, they are efficient, and as quiet as its possible to make a generator that makes this much power. 4 kilowatts peak service will allow most houses to do most things, with thoughtfulness about what gets turned on. A dual rig with parallel cables, security attachments and extended run fuel system can be had for under $2,500.

Permanent Solar - This is the long term solution. I’ve gone ahead and committed to 21 240 volt panels and a Tesla powerwall, to be installed by Maximo Solar. This, combined with a moderation of electrical consumption, will permanently address electrical power. Two neighbors had rooftop solar arrays that survived the winds of the storm completely intact. Another neighbor out on the cliff was a bit more exposed, and their array tangled with a solar water heater tank, and was a total loss.

A couple concluding topics:

Law & Order: My experience was really very much like life on the island at any other time. Across more than 4 decades there’s been lots of petty larceny, and perhaps I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve experienced just one face to face larceny (in high school on the track bus) and zero violent crimes. While there are stories (as ever) and people should take proper precautions, I found the island as peaceful (and chaotic) as ever it has been. The mood and tone were warm, and I felt at every moment surrounded by commiseration and a willingness to help. I felt totally secure at gas stations, banks, supermarkets and airports.

The big work: I saw electrical crews out at all hours of day and night, in all weathers. Debris removal crews had started to come through our neighborhood. Its an extraordinary undertaking, with no drive-in assistance, but I think the agree with others that amidst the huge challenges and overwhelming scale of work, the key words are resilience, optimism, and heartwarming positive vibes.

How to help?

The first way to help is simply to think about this as you read the news, and as you advocate and you vote. The future of the island is absolutely in the hands of our federal government, everything from the amount of assistance supplied to the diaspora of Boricuas that are arriving in the 10s of thousands, to the way that PREPA will pay the billions required to rebuild 50 years of electrical power infrastructure. This stands on top of the basic questions that predate Maria: a decade of economic and population shrinkage, and a death spiral of debt burden.

There are many charities doing extraordinary work on the island. Global Disaster Immediate Recovery Team worked with the Vanu team to restore cell communications on the island. There is still a lot of work especially up in the mountains, so you can volunteer through the coordination site Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters. If you’re on the island and unemployed, FEMA is hiring.

At a more personal level, I’ve followed through on gofundme campaigns of friends and colleagues, and tried to work the connections I know and contribute what I can to the upward spiral. I’ve diverted resources from stateside projects to cleaning and rebuilding on the island, and tried to support others as they’ve done so as well.

0 notes

welcome-to-my-normal-life-blog · 7 years

Text

Three Point

*AN: This is a really shitty quality short story I created in my English class back in like, December. Official update will be here soon on my life*

I should have listened to my father. If I had, I wouldn’t be bleeding under my pickup truck with the frosty November air nipping at my skin. Of course, the crash wasn’t really my fault. I hadn’t been the one to drive drunk down a mountain road, but if I hadn’t followed James’ advice and snuck out, I wouldn’t have paid for someone else’s mistake. Please let this be a dream, please let me be at home with the boys watching basketball. Please let it all be a dream. I thought, but this was no dream. It was a living nightmare.

“You should consider yourself lucky, Mr. McKinnon! I’ve seen much worse in rollovers like this,” the doctor babbled, trying to cheer me up.

“Oh yeah, I’m so lucky that my leg is broken!” I snarled. My left leg had been broken in three different places, and the glass of the shattered windshield had created a large, mangled gash of flesh on my right arm.

“Aaron!” my dad scolded.

“What? Did you expect me to be ecstatic that I’m out for the rest of the season? What am I supposed to do without basketball?”

“The team will be fine, and so will you,” my dad reminded me.

Just as I opened my mouth to argue, an old, gray-haired nurse came bustling in, turning to the doctor. “Sir, we have a Mr. Hammon and a Mr. Anderson requesting to visit him,” she stated, nodding towards me as if I was an object instead of a person. I couldn’t blame her, I had almost bitten her after an attempted forcefeeding of vile hospital food.

“Let them in!” I piped up before the doctor could respond, “They’re my friends.”

The doctor nodded and the nurse hurried out, returning minutes later followed by by Matt and Austin.

“How are you?” Austin asked.

“I feel saint-like.”

“What?”

“I’m ‘holey’, get it?” I pointed to the hole in my arm. My friends laughed, but my dad just rolled his eyes.

“You need to get a bit of rest, so not too long,” he warned, leaving the room along with Dr. Michaels.

“Where’s James?” the four of us had been best friends since kindergarten and it was rare to see us separated.

“He said he needs to practice since you’re out,” Austin informed me, hesitating slightly before continuing. “I think he’s almost happy to be in the spotlight, even if it is because you’re injured.”

“He’s always loved the spotlight, it doesn’t mean anything,” there was no way James was actually happy to see me hurt.

Two weeks after the accident, I was finally allowed to go home. After all the hospital food, I surprised myself by actually looking forward to the standard home cooked pizza served every Friday night by my dad.

Two days after arriving home, I was sent back to school. It felt like I was a pariah in the crowded halls. Most of the previous group I was seen with only acknowledged me with a small nod or a quiet greeting from the corners of their mouths.

As the weeks passed into December, I fell even farther from my previous status. My previous group ignored my existence, always being seen surrounding James, who had lead the team to a third straight win. Coach still insisted that the team would be even better if I was playing, but it didn’t do much to help.

The school paper printed copy after copy praising the team on the win last night. It had a big title:

TEAM CAPTAIN SHOWS SKILL AS HE LEADS TEAM TO 72-15 WIN

Of course, everybody found it even more entertaining since they had played our rivals, the Cougars. Below the title was a picture of James during the game, girls could be seen fawning over him.

As I looked the papers on the stand, I was suddenly knocked off my feet in the nearly empty hallway.

“Watch it,” the low, rough male warned. It was James. He hadn’t said a word to me for a month and this is the first contact he wants?

“Knock it off, James!” A softer voice called. I looked up to see Laura coming our way. She was James’ ex-girlfriend from ninth grade.

“Whatever,” he spat back, moving off.

I used my crutches to pull all the books that had been scattered back to me.

“I’ll get them,” Laura said, bending down to collect the books.

“Thanks, Laura,” I responded, slowly getting up. It was more difficult than I first thought, with the oversized cast proving to be absolutely no help.

“It’s not a big deal,” she said, “how are you doing?”

“My leg is broken.”

She rolled her eyes playfully. “No way, I’m shocked.”

“There we go, Mr. McKinnon! Good as new!” Dr. Michaels cheered after the removal of my cast. The last months of school had passed quickly, especially with all the exams and lunch times spent studying with my friends. Since that day in the hallway, it was a regular occurrence for Matt, Austin and I to be seen with Laura and her friends, Presleigh and Jordyn.

“Now, don’t put much weight on it for two weeks-”

“I just had a cast on for nine months and I still can’t use my leg?” I questioned, throwing my rather shaggy black hair out of my eyes. Dad had been delaying haircuts due to the expensive medical bills. He was working three jobs and took extra shifts whenever possible, but even that was not enough to cover the expenses needed for my recovery. Luckily, the gash on my arm had healed, leaving only a scar where the raw skin used to show.

“Well, yes. You’ll need the boot for about a month, and even after that you still might not be able to play basketball,” Dr. Michaels explained to me.

“What?” I yelled.

“A three point break is serious business; If you don’t let it finish healing properly, it could break again or leave you with a permanent limp.”

Still wishing to join the team again in the school year, I followed the doctor’s advice and only used my leg for minor movements around the house.

In mid-August, I was walking with Laura, using a cane to help me hobble down the concrete path of the park.

“You’re telling me that you have not walked at all without that cane, even though you were cleared last week and told that basketball was fine?” she asked, staring at me in disbelief.

I smiled at her sheepishly. “Yeah, that might be what happened.”

She stopped abruptly. “Give me the cane.”

“What?”

“Give me the cane,” she repeated. I hesitantly handed the cane over. She walked over about ten metres away from me. “Alright, walk over here.”

I looked at her skeptically, but slowly began moving forward. I had imagined a million different ways this moment could go wrong: From my leg snapping completely in half to falling flat on my face, I had thought of everything. Surprisingly, nothing happened other than my foot feeling very stiff.

Finally, I reached Laura who was smirking at me. “Now was that so hard?” she backed up even more. “Try jogging!”

“If I die, it’s on you!”

The game started out in favour of our team, but it had been tied up by the last two minutes. I had barely been able to convince Coach to allow me to sit for the game, since it was my first time back. He had wanted to play me once he saw that I was back to normal.

James was in possession of the ball once again as time continued slipping away. He still had yet to speak to me outside of basketball, where he was forced to. It was not a secret that he was jealous of me taking his captaincy, even after a year off and him leading the team to be the fourth best team in Alberta.

James tried passing the ball to Nathan, right through the key. Bad move. Sure enough, the other team intercepted the pass and was able to score another basket, giving them the lead.

“Where were you for that pass?” James roared in Nathan’s face. This made me angry; not only was Nathan a rookie, but he was my little brother and James wasn’t even captain anymore.

“Next line!” Coach barked. “McKinnon Senior! You’re taking James off. Don’t argue, McKinnon! You’re six foot four and you know this game better than anyone else on this team, now get your butt with the rest of the line!”

I walked over to the other four players, receiving a fist bump from Austin and a clap on the back by Matt, who were also going on.

The ball was knocked out of bounds and the substitutes were welcomed on. “Everybody off; that includes you, James!” Coach commanded.

“We have green ball, gentleman!” The referee called out. The green player tossed the ball to another man, who began searching for pass.

Ten seconds.

“Let’s go boys!” Presleigh shouted from somewhere in the crowded and noisy gym.

Another green pass was made, but no shot was attempted.

Six seconds.

A shot was made, but bounced off the rim and disappeared into the sea of players jumping for the rebound.

Three seconds.

“Aaron!” Austin yelled, holding the ball above his head for a pass. I received the ball and immediately took the shot, the ball just leaving my hands before the buzzer sounded.

The gap between me and the net seemed like forever, but relief flooded my body when the basket was sunk.

“That is what I am talking about, McKinnon!” Coach praised as the court was flooded by celebrating players and the crowd.

“You did it!” Matt yelled, pulling one of his signature hugs on me. One where he almost breaks your neck from behind.

“And you were scared about walking four months ago!” Laura teased, pushing her way through the crowd. I smiled, wrapping my arms around her small figure. “You’re sweaty and smell like bear!” she complained, but still returned the hug.

“Hey, number thirteen!” a member of the Cougars called to me. “Good to see you playing again.”

“Aaron!” James called, as if we were best friends again. “We’re all going out as a celebration, want to join?”

“I’m fine, we’re getting pizza,” I said, gesturing to my friends. “Nathan, come on.”

My brother perked up when I invited him and trotted over to us. He liked to deny it, but he enjoyed when the older players invited him places.

“Winning shot pays!” Jordyn begged.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Good, because I am starving!” Laura exclaimed interlocking our hands together, pulling me out of the gym. It was good to hear my friends laughing as they followed Laura’s fast pace.

#original #story #original story #short story #basketball #horrible quality writing

0 notes