The Goth Club

The Goth Club: Say What Now?

            Lyra woke up the next day with a raging headache, a growling stomach, and a hell of a lot of homework to finish.

            Rolling over, she groaned; her clock read four-thirty a.m.

            Well, there was no time like the present.

            Her mom found her a bit later, sleeping on top of her science textbook.

            “Honey?”

‘           Lyra pried apart her sticky eyelids and peered at the concerned, bathrobe clad figure hovering over her.

            “Morning, Mom,” she said hoarsely, rising from her desk chair.

            “What were you doing? I saw you asleep last night in bed, when did you get up?” The motherly questions almost made Lyra forget last night; her mom was actually pretty great most of the time. It was just those times when she got angry or upset…Lyra usually didn’t bring it up afterwards. Mrs. Piaxz was a ticking time bomb, and Lyra had no wish to light the fuse.

            “I just forgot to finish this one assignment, is all,” Lyra mumbled as she stretched, trying to loosen all of the muscles that were painfully frozen in the sitting position. “I guess I fell asleep again…it was pretty early in the morning when I realized.”

            “Well, now it’s—“ Lyra’s mom checked the narrow watch on her wrist “—about 6, so I’d have had to wake you up in half an hour anyway, so why don’t you come eat breakfast while I make lunch for you and your sister? And you can use the extra time to finish that assignment.”

            “Thanksh” Lyra yawned. She trailed her mother to the very modern kitchen and fixed herself a bowl of cereal as Mrs. Piaxz made two sandwiches; peanut butter and jelly for Lyra’s sister, Amanda, and peanut butter for Lyra. It was a normal morning routine that got followed to a T.

            The next hour was unremarkable; Lyra finished her homework, Mrs. Piaxz took a shower, and Amanda took ages in the bathroom putting in her contacts. Before long, Lyra was boarding her bus with the straps of her overweight backpack digging into her shoulders. Being one of the first stops, Lyra was able to plop down into an empty three-seater near the middle of the bus; not too near the crazy bus driver, but not in the area where all the obnoxious boys would sit.

            By lying down as best she could and turning the volume on her earbuds up high, she could almost pretend she was somewhere slightly more pleasant than the smelly, noisy, dirty public school bus.

            “Hey.” Someone shoved Lyras legs off of half of the seat and set themselves down. Righting herself and pulling out her earbuds, Lyra was surprised to see Teresa next to her, somehow managing to pull off looking amused and glaring at the same time.

            “I didn’t know you were on my bus,” Lyra blurted out.

            Teresa shrugged. “I usually walk, but it was starting to drizzle so I bused it.”

            “Oh.” Lyra replied feebly. What more was there really to say to Teresa? She was just so…intimidating. Mysterious. How do you break the ice with someone who was the very definition of ice?

            Teresa leaned back and closed her eyes. After a moment, gentle snoring emerged from the black-clad girl.

Lyra sighed. It was going to be a long bus ride.

“Lyra! Lyra!” The aforementioned peered through the crowd of students anxious to escape school for the weekend to find the source of the shouting. Jae was flouncing towards her, nimbly avoiding the girls who tried to push her into the walls.

            “Lyra, be at the school auditorium, tomorrow, two o’clock,” Jae giggled. “I just got clearing to have auditions for the play! Everyone interested already knows. All of us members are going to be judges. Plus, you’ll need to lend Jace a copy of the script and start memorizing the audition passage yourself.”

Lyra’s mind whirled in excitement, but something seemed strange.

“Jae?” Lyra asked hesitantly. “Why would Jace and I need to memorize the passage?”

Jae laughed out loud this time. “Well, you’re auditioning for the lead roles, silly!”

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Woo! Ok, short chapter, but I'm working on getting back in the habit of writing regularly. Basically another filler, but there will be the rare achievement of ACTUAL PLOT DEVELOPMENT in the next three chapters, at least, if I can find the time to add in all of the content I want to. So what do you guys think about Lyra and Jace going for lead roles? Lyra certainly didn't expect it. Lol.

Anyway, if you didn't know, any of you guys can email me any time if you'd like at Therealsabertoothtigress@gmail.com. Advice, ideas, just someone to talk to...anything, and I promise to respond within the week.

So yeah. Hope you guys are liking it! I'm working on two new stories as well, and some more of my one-shots. Can't wait to share them with you!