A Taste of Everyday -- Chapter 8

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Zane, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Rena/X5-120, etc.).

“High school! We’re here,” Nancy squealed as we walked into the high school.

“Yeah, ready to be humiliated by the seniors,” Lee Anne said.

I grinned. “Don’t be so down, Lee Anne.”

“It’s easy for you to say that,” Lee Anne said. “I’m the one who a: hasn’t grown up and b: hasn’t grown out yet. All of you have.”

I was quiet for a moment. If that didn’t sound like Elle complaining about her relative lack of height back at Manticore before we left, then I didn’t know what did. I wondered if she’d grown more or if she was still short. Who knows?

“Janie?” Vanessa asked.

“Yeah, sorry,” I said. “What did you say?”

“I was wondering what we were going to do after school today,” Vanessa said.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t thought about it.”

“Wow,” a guy spoke up. We looked up and saw two seniors grinning down at us. “I always did have a thing for redheads.”

“Thanks, I have a thing for cute guys,” I said. I silently thanked the Blue Lady that my most recent heat had finished two days ago. “I’m Janie.”

“I’m Greg,” the guy who’d spoken said. “This is Jimmy.”

“That’s Vanessa, Nancy, Gillian, and Lee Anne,” I told him, pointing to my friends.

“Nice to meet you,” Jimmy said. “You girls are all freshman, right?”

“We are,” Gillian answered nervously. We watched Greg and Jimmy step back a few steps and whisper to each other, but I could hear them perfectly.

“Do you really think that we should invite them?” Jimmy whispered.

Greg shrugged. “Why not? I think that they can keep it to themselves. Besides, have you noticed just how hot Janie is? I don’t care if she is a freshman, she is a babe-and-a-half and then some!”

“You ain’t kidding,” Jimmy agreed. “Damn. All right, we’ll ask them.” They walked back to us. “Are you girls interested in going to a party?”

“I am,” I said. The others nodded in agreement.

“Awesome,” Greg said. “There’s going to be a party tomorrow night at my house. My parents are going to be away all week. It’s going to be about fifteen or so of us so far. It’s mostly seniors and a few juniors, but I think you girls will enjoy yourselves.” He put down his backpack and opened it and took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote something down and handed it to me. “There’s my address. It starts at eleven-thirty. I’ll see y’all around.” He and Jimmy walked away.

“Holy shit!” Nancy exclaimed. “We haven’t even gotten to our homerooms yet and we’ve already been invited to a party with seniors!”

“Dude, do you know what it’s like at these parties?” Gillian said. “Mike went to a bunch before he graduated from high school two years ago. They drink at these parties. Sometimes the cops even have to come to break them up.”

“I think that sounds like a blast,” I remarked, grinning. If Zack knew about this, he would absolutely have a heart attack. Max would laugh and join me and so would Jondy. I could practically see the pissed off look on Zack’s face and that made me want to laugh out loud. As for the alcohol, I didn’t feel too worried. We were built to be better than ordinary humans and I would have to assume that would include our tolerance to alcohol. If we would have to get information from a target while on a mission, the target would drink and talk like a moron and we’d be perfectly sober, or at least sober enough. And I figured that one on my own, Lydecker!

Vanessa laughed. “I think it sounds like fun, too. Janie, did you notice how both Greg and Jimmy were checking you out?”

“They were?” I asked, playing dumb.

“They absolutely were!” Lee Anne said. “Dude, you haven’t even turned fourteen yet and you’re already being checked out by seniors! You are so jailbait.”

“Oh, come on.” I shook my head. “You don’t know if they’re eighteen or not. They most likely aren’t.”

“Janie is jailbait! Janie is jailbait!” Lee Anne chanted wickedly.

“I swear, I will kill you all if you start to call me Jailbait Janie,” I threatened.

“The thought never crossed our minds,” Nancy said.

“Liar,” I teased. “I could practically see the thought enter your mind the spilt second that Lee Anne started to say the first syllable of the word ‘jailbait.’”

“I see that we can now add psychic to the list of things that Janie’s good at,” Vanessa remarked.

“Yeah, it goes right up there with sarcasm,” I agreed. “It even sounds good together, doesn’t it? Janie the Sarcastic Psychic. Palm readings and crystal ball and tarot cards and insults, dirt cheap. Just get on line and let the fun begin.”

A bell rang and all five of us rolled our eyes. “Yep, three minutes before we absolutely have to be in homeroom,” Gillian said. “So are we doing anything after school today or no?”

“We’re going to the party tomorrow night, so maybe we should hold off for tonight,” I suggested. “Now that I think about it, I should stay home anyway just in case Vincent and Brianne need me to babysit Marissa.”

“Yeah, I might have to babysit the demon spawn tonight as well,” Nancy said.

“I guess I’ll see all of you guys at lunch,” I said. We waved to each other and went to split up to go to our homerooms. I followed Vanessa and Nancy and smiled. Yeah, I guess Nancy’s optimism about high school is right. We got invited to a party by older guys and they both liked me! They weren’t too bad themselves. I went inside my new homeroom and sat between Vanessa and Nancy. I think high school is going to turn out okay after all.

TBC