As Luck Would Have It 「 Jiper 」

C H A P T E R I I

IT WAS A LOVELY DAY IN THE CITY. The weather was fair, the sun was shining, the noon breeze carried falling leaves with such grace, and the trees where giving off the coolest shade. Kids were running around the playground playing tag, making friends and gaining enemies. Elders were found admiring the view of the first day of summer. Teenagers swarmed the park, eating ice cream, chatting with their friends and walking their pets. Everyone was enjoying their sunny day—all but one person.

Piper was going to kill Raymond. She stomped through the park in anger, hair dripping with ketchup and clothes stained with mustard. She ignored the eyes that followed her, examining her appearance. Some reacted in awe while some looked bored as if expecting something like this were to happen.

It was the school's last day before summer, after all—which meant pranks. Everywhere.

The enraged Mclean tore through the playground, breathing heavily with each passing moment. Kids screamed—or at least she thought that they had screamed, their faces where contorted in fear and their mouths were wide open as they ran away from the girl covered in hotdog condiments.

And after minutes of searching, she finally found the culprit.

Raymond was sitting on a bench, chatting (or signing) happily with someone—a boy their age with caramel skin and dark curly hair, with elfish ears and a devilish grin to match. In short, he looked like Santa's Latino elf. A cute Latino elf.

She was about to charge in and disrupt their conversation when a body collided with hers, sending some of the ketchup and mustard to stain on the person's white shirt.

Jason Grace wasn't having a good day. Not only did their teachers gave them homework that could take all summer for them to finish, he got dumped (again) by his off and on girlfriend—or rather, ex-girlfriend. And this time, he knew it was for good.

He and Drew Tanaka got together since the beginning of freshman year. She was fine, and pretty, no doubt, but she never was really his type. She used him to increase her popularity, and he used her for his reputation. Drew was popular at her school, and Jason was popular at his, it made sense for them to get together.

But all that ended today, of course, when Drew decided to go for someone better—Perrie Johnson, or whatever that dude's was. It didn't really matter to Jason, in fact, he was relieved (very relieved) but it did leave a mark on his ego.

And now, another girl decided to ruin his already ruined day by staining the only white shirt that he had owned. He groaned and looked up to the sky, cursing whatever that was up there that controlled his day.

"Holy Christ," he told the girl, "are you blind?"

Jason examined the girl, who was drenched in ketchup and mustard. What was weird about her was that she kept staring at his lips.

"No," she said, emitting a strange accent, and pointed to her ear, "I'm deaf."

Oh, that makes sense. Jason thought.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry." he scratched the back of his head. "I didn't know."

"It's fine." the girl said with a slight bit difficulty.

"Yo, Jason!" a familiar voice called out.

Leo Valdez, his best friend, was sitting on a bench with a boy with glasses and a mini-afro. Jason, who was still mourning for his shirt, left the girl and walked up to the two. The boy whose name Jason obviously didn't know, suddenly changed his expression into fear. Jason would have assumed that it was because of himself, if the boy wasn't staring at something behind him.