Where the hell is Jasmine?
Shall we get you caught up? Basically, It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday-shut up. Sometimes you just need to shut down your inner HSM.
(High School Musical for you people who are clueless and deserve a smack in the face since you didn't watch it. Watch it so that you can develop high and false expectations of high school!)
In this case, I must shut down my inner Rebecca Black. Don't judge me! Y'all were singing that nasally song too when you read that. If you can't admit to that, you are all sitting on a throne of lies.
Anyways, I walked on the pitiful coals of flaming torture while enduring the pain of mental suffering on this very day-which happens to be Friday. It was horrid, really. I encountered strange beings with no sense of normality or common sense. I fought off countless objects being targeted at my body. I barely survived.
Translation from Lara Language to Normal English: Yeah, so I went to school.
I check my watch, 3:00. The bus comes at 3:05 and Jasmine still isn't here yet! She's going to miss the bus. Right now, I'm waiting at our beloved bus stop, the one that Jas and I always take together to the mall when we meet the others. I pull out my phone to text her.
Me: Jas, where are you??? The bus is coming!!!
Jasmine: Oh it's okay. I'll just meet you at the theatre.
Me: What? You're not coming with me?
Jasmine: Lol. Don't freak. I'll meet you there. Bye.
Me: See ya.
Well then. I don't believe there has been a time where Jasmine has ditched me last minute. She's always been the one about schedules and organization and stuff. She's basically our agenda person in the friend group and the opposite of me.
I remember in elementary school, I'd never remember the homework nor would I write it down. I'd just go straight home and call her house to ask her what the work was. In the eighth grade, she told me to be "independent" because we might not get classes together in high school. I thought that would be impossible. But guess who knew nobody in any of her classes that first semester?
Me. I was alone. Worst of all, I had to learn to be responsible.
While I am messy and dizzy with garbage in my room, she's a neat freak who gets super pissed when something is out of place or off schedule. So yes, it is quite surprising of her to break our freaking schedule!
I am contemplating about this pathetic game called life as the bus stops right in front of me and the doors open. I swipe my Presto card and walk into the bus. Almost immediately as I got on, the bus speeds away, causing me to fall onto a seat.
Luckily it was empty.
After a few minutes, we're in the heart of downtown Toronto. Everyone is crowding everywhere. There are so many people walking along the streets, getting ready for an amazing Friday night. The bus stops and I thank the driver as I get off.
Most people are wearing their Blue Jays jerseys, and lining up in front of the box office at The Rogers Center. It's been such a great season. I look at the people and low-key wish that I had tickets to the game. I'd much rather see the game than go shopping. Not that I hate shopping though.
I walk towards the mall and enter. It's a socially awkward person's worst nightmare.
Teenagers.
And hundreds of them too.
Fine, I see people everyday at school and stuff. But the mall? Oh gosh, this is where you awkwardly run into people you don't like while looking like you just got ran over by a Fed-Ex truck. This is the reason why I only go to the mall once a month if I can.
Luckily, I am an expert at pretending that I'm a sociable person. Most people think that I'm this confident, extroverted, person when in reality, I'm just a hot mess. Wait...I'm not hot.
I text my friends as I make my way to the giant Indigo store. Indigo is basically my soul mate, my life. It's a pretty big store actually. So much room to browse for books. It's 2 storeys with an escalator. It's literally book heaven.
My friends text me back saying that they're on their way to me. We have about an hour or so to kill before the movie starts at 4:30. They might as well aid me in my unavoidable book haul. Let's review the reasons Lara can't save money!
1. Books. If you take me to any book store, I might as well throw out my life savings. You have those teens who waste money on clothes and makeup and ish, but I waste money on binds of paper with words. It's not a waste though.
2. Food. When I go out (which is rarely considering my lucky combination of anti-socialness, addiction to Wattpad and Youtube, and strict asian parents) I usually buy-I mean, raid the food court.
3. School. I always end up buying random things and look it over while saying, "Why did I buy this again?". I don't really know. There's always some sort of charity fundraising event at my school. At least it's for a good cause!
I head towards the Young Adults section to look for some new reads. I just don't have the patience to wait for the library to purchase the new arrivals. There's a small table with some books with interesting covers.
Carve the Mark, Illuminae, The Problem with Forever, The Outliers...
I pick up a copy of the first two and head to the cash register to pay for my books. The line is so long since everyone is on a shopping spree on Fridays. Finally, I get to the front of the line and I hand some bills to the cashier. She kindly puts them in a plastic bag and I thank her as I take my purchases. I start looking over my receipt, checking my plum points-
"Lara!" yells a familiar voice. My head snaps in that direction. It's Jasmine.
I turn around, watching as she, Carol and Kiera approach me. Carol is waving excitedly and Kiera is tapping away at her phone, not looking up. Trust me, one day that girl is seriously going to run into a pole.
"Ugh. Can we please go to another store? There's literally nothing to buy here!" Kiera complains, finally tucking her cellphone in her pastel pink purse.
I roll my eyes. "Drop the act," I say, laughing. "You know that you've been dying to finish re-reading Naruto."
Kiera's probably the last person you'd expect to be into anime. She's been re-reading the Naruto mangas as well as binge watching the anime. She decided to buy all the books so she doesn't have to borrow them from her cousin anymore. She's always been into animes like Fairytail, Attack on Titan, One Piece...things like that. Though, I get sort of confused when she starts rambling about her shows.
She shifts her eyes then harshly whispers, "Shut up. If the anyone hears, the anime guys are going to force me to join the anime club!"
Carol snickers but Jasmine is long distracted by a thick book.
"So? You'd love it there. Finally you'd have a fandom to relate to!" I tell her.
"I would, but I'm way too preoccupied with cheer, and gymnastics after school." she explains. I nod.
Kiera's the most flexible girl there is. She's been at gymnastics since she was four I think. Now, she's the head cheerleader. But I mean, she's the best! She deserves to be the captain. Plus, she's not a snob, so her team is quite lucky that they're not stuck with some annoying brat.
"O-kay. Whatever you say." Carol says.
Kiera rolls her eyes. "I still have the online fandom. Carol! Go and get me the next 5 books! And do it subtly!"
"What? Why me?" Carol asks, dramatically pointing at her own chest. "Why must I be the chosen one?"
"Just do it," Kiera orders, "I'll pay for your movie snacks."
My eyes widen. Bad decision Kiera, bad decision. Carol has no limits when it comes to eating at the movies. She usually buys popcorn, frozen yogurt, chicken wings, nachos...and that's when she's not hungry. But she shares so that's okay.
Carol smiles. "Hmm...that sounds divine. Let me find those books."
She heads off on her mission.
"The other way!" Kiera yells to her, and she turns around.
"I knew that." Carol states as she passes by us. Sure she did, sure.
I turn to Kiera, "So we're seeing The Fate of the Furious right?"
She grimaces a bit. "Well, I thought that we could see something else...like maybe a horror movie?"
What? Qu'est-ce qui ce passe? We never see horror movies for the reason of the "Great paranoia of the 9th grade"! What in her right mind is Kiera thinking?
Let me tell you this. I am a very imaginative and paranoid person. I do not watch horror movies. I can't even watch trailers without freaking out. I'm more scared of the supernatural than a poisonous animal or whatever.
Considering the above, what did the LKJC choose to watch in the 9th grade? Is it:
a) A Disney movie
b) A rom-com
c) An action film with the rock
d) A super-freaking-spine-tingling-scare-the-crabapples-out-of-Lara-horror-movie-that-she-disapproved-of but-was-forced-because-of-a-dare.
If you answered b) then you are...an idiot that needs to get an education. Obviously I never turn from a dare. Books have taught me that dares can lead to one finding a soul mate/love of their life.
You know what I got? I got 2 weeks of sleeplessness, sleeping on my parents' bedroom floor for those two weeks, and shampoo burning my eyeballs because I was too scared that a demon would possess me if I closed my eyes while I was taking a shower!
There are two main lessons to be learned from my experience:
First of all, do not take truth or dare so seriously because you are not going to encounter your future husband because of a crazy dare, contrary to everything I have ever read and believed in.
Second of all, do not watch horror movies if you are weak like me. We can just watch WALL-E or Finding Nemo together.
I blink. I blink 3 times to be exact. Then my facial expression turns 360° as I start screaming, "What are you thinking woman! Don't you remember the trauma I went through!"
She holds her hands out to restrain me as if I were a wild chimpanzee. "Okay, okay, okay, okay."
I refrain from attacking again and she starts to talk, "Please, can we watch a horror movie?" She pops her bottom lip out and pouts.
I make that face that we all love from the memes. The one where the nostrils are flared and the double (or triple...quadruple) chin is present. "What in the messed-up-orange-American-President-world has entered your mind?"
"We haven't seen anything scary in forever and we just thought it would be fun to watch with, uh, popcorn." she stammers.
"We?" I question. It seems to me that Kiera is the only one who wants me to have a heart attack and die.
"Well Jas and Carol agreed that they wanted to watch something scary." she replies.
"Huh, okay." I answer back.
"So we can watch Patient Zero?" her eyes light up with excitement.
"Uh...sure." I tell her. Yeah...I'm really going to regret this decision later. Trust, I'm going to get zero sleep for the next two weeks...again.
"Awesome!" she almost screams as she hugs me.
I squirm in her arms. "Stop...human...contact."
She rolls her eyes and lets me go.
Jasmine and Carol return with bags full of books. Huh, I didn't even notice that Jasmine left.
For the next half an hour or so, we walk around the mall, window shopping because we're broke. Well, I'm broke for buying two hardcover books. Hardcover books. The struggle is real guys. Kiera is nowhere near broke. When it comes to clothes, that girl is basically unstoppable. By the end, she's carrying bags from Forever21, Sephora, and BrandyMelville.
After that haul, we make our way to Cineplex which is a minute walk from the mall. We enter the building and buy each of our tickets for Patient Zero.
We go to the snack bar and buy some overpriced theatre snacks. I buy a large popcorn and Carol buys...well the whole snack bar.
"The movie's almost starting. I'm going to the washroom first." I tell the others, as I pass my popcorn to Jasmine to hold and guard with her life.
Carol says, "Okay." I leave to go to the bathroom. Luckily, there's nobody there. I quickly go on with my business then return to my friends. The only thing is, I find them talking to some other people...
"Hey Lara!" Daniel greets.
Daniel. Logan. Mark.
I turn back around and hope that it is all an illusion, that maybe I'm imagining this horrific situation. Gugh. Do they have to be here too?
Why am I even surprised? Wait...I'm not. I knew something this would happen sooner or later yet I still came.
Why, you may ask?
I don't know. Maybe because of my recent loss of brain cells.
"I shall name him squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my squishy."
-If you don't know where this is from don't bother talking to me.
Hey guys!
How did you find this chapter? I know nothing about horror movies nor do I even watch trailers, so the one I named was from my Google search for 2017 horror movies. I saw a bunch of them with super creepy pictures and I was breathing heavily through it all. Oh the things I do for this book! Sorry to my Jara fam because James is not in this one! Don't worry though because I have something that you guys will definitely swoon over-
Damn it I already said too much!
Anyways, your votes and comments really help! I get so motivated when I hear-erm read your opinions and see your votes! Don't be a silent reader! Lol. If you guys can, nominate this book for the Fiction Awards in the Best of the Undiscovered category! It would be super awesome! Love y'all! Until next week...
-Summer
*Cries internally*