“Hey, Zoey!” Sophomore girl Karina Osou greeted her friend.
Zoey Kana Mizaki turned
to face the former and greeted back, “Hey, Kari!”
Zoey closed her locker
and gave Karina a quick side hug.
“Are the others on
their way?” Zoey asked.
“Yeah,” Karina said. “Mari just has to check in with the
badminton coach.”
“Already? Badminton doesn’t start until March, right?”
“Yeah, but the team wants to start preparing early I
guess.”
Zoey and Karina walked together from Zoey’s locker, heading
for the closest exit from Sophomore Hall. They ignored Rachel, Thia and the
other girls sneering at them as they passed, as it was just Rachel’s group just
trying to stir up trouble.
“Hey, did you hear that emergency announcement on the
P.A?” Karina asks.
“Yeah, what happened in San Leandro just earlier today.”
“Why did Zor… Zor…?” Karina couldn’t remember how to say
the name.
“Zorb, I think.”
“Right, Zorb, need to steal food?”
“He probably ran out or something,” Zoey theorized.
News of the Safeway Robbery committed by the alien
invader known as Zorb reached Alameda via the Bay Area News Network, as well as
those related to students and staff who relayed the info. Encinal High was
buzzing and humming from the end of lunch to the end of the day, and it was
about all the hero known as The Spektrum was completely absent and unable to
thwart Zorb and his mixed bag of miscreants this time.
Karina adjusted
her blue sequin bow as the two friends walked towards the front entrance.
“Why wasn’t that Spektrum guy there to stop that?” she
asked Zoey.
“I remember that the news report from the other night
said he was only a high school student,” Zoey says. “He was probably busy in
class or something, like any of us.”
Again, Zoey was theorizing, but at least the theory was
based on logical facts, not just the rumors.
“And again,” Zoey added, “this was the first time Zorb
did anything anywhere other than San Leandro High’s campus. How could The
Spektrum have known this would happen?”
“Why is Zorb even attacking a high school?” Karina asks
with furrowed eyebrows.
“Rumor has it, he mistook it for a government operated
facility or something,” Zoey said with a chuckle.
“Really?” Karina said as she joined her friend in
laughing. “So he is an alien.”
“Or just dumb.”
The two girls continued laughing at the mistaken alien
criminal as they made it to their usual meeting place, the Encinal High jet
statue. Their other friends, Marina Pham and Chloe Callaghan, arrived shortly
after and all four greeted each other with hugs. From there, they continued
southeast towards Zoey’s house. Alicia, Karina’s older sister, was carefully pulling
out of the front parking lot. After all, this was the brand new car Mr. and
Mrs. Osou got Alicia for her 18th birthday.
“Remember, Karina Osou, be back home by dinner time,”
Alicia reminded her sister.
“I know, Onee-chan,” Karina responded to her sister, using
an affectionate form of the Japanese honorific phrase, “Older/Big Sister”.
“That means 6 o’ clock, 6:10 at the latest,” Alicia
added. “Not 7 or whenever you like.”
“Okay, okay, just stop being our mom.”
Karina waved bye as her sister pulled away and turned left
at the first intersection. Then the group of four continued on together from
here.
“I like how Alicia’s hair was today,” commented Marina.
“She had that rose pink crystal clip in it.”
“Yeah, the one she never shares. I love and respect
Onee-chan, but she never let’s me use her things.”
“That’s because those are her things, Karina,”
Zoey pointed out. “Besides, rose pink doesn’t suit you. You’re always cuter in
blues.”
“Aw, thanks, Zo-chan,” Karina responded while giving Zoey
a sideways hug.
“Hey, how cute do you think The Spektrum is?” Chloe asked
the group.
The group giggled, as Chloe was always the first one to
bring up something like that.
“I hear he isn’t all that big or muscular, despite being
so strong and tough,” Marina noted.
“Good, I’m not into guys who are meat-head walls of flesh,”
Karina said as she furrowed her brow in resolve.
“That’s because they’d squish you,” Marina joked with her
friend about her small stature.
“I agree,” Zoey began. “Not about Karina getting
squashed, though. About guys and muscles. Having muscles is good…”
Her friends agreed with
slight nods.
“But it’s not the only
thing,” Zoey continued. “The Spektrum is a real hero because he was brave
enough to use those powers to save his school, and bravery can’t be taught
through lifting weights and throwing footballs.”
Again, the other girls agreed.
“Hey, girls, wait up!” shouted a male voice from a few
yards back.
Zoey turned around to see who it was, then gasped with
glee at who she saw.
“Shaun!” Zoey squealed as her boyfriend came strolling up
the sidewalk.
Zoey’s boyfriend of just over two years, Shaun Matsuhara,
hugged her nice and tight, and him lifting her slightly off the ground. Zoey
and her friends “get” why Shaun holds hugs a little longer than Zoey would like,
but he always goes on defense when they try to talk with him about it.
Anyway, the hug did
stop, and then Zoey no longer felt happy to see Shaun, because Shaun brought
his friends along.
“Hey, ladies, wazzup?” asked Shaun’s most obnoxious
friend, Xavier “X” Saito.
Both Shaun and Zoey had a circle of friends mostly of
various Asian ethnicities. Except Zoey’s
friend Chloe, who was blonde and Caucasian, but she had been Zoey’s friend
since kindergarten. It wasn’t that anyone was against it, it was just something
that at the very least stuck out in Zoey’s mind.
“X” put an arm around Karina‘s shoulders, and she
practically thrashed her way out from under it.
“Hey, what’s with the hostility?” Xavier asked
laughing.
“C’mon, X, you know Karina isn’t into idiots,” Shaun
answered for the girls.
The slam joke on X made the other guys laugh.
“So, Zoey, where were we?” asked Karina, completely
ignoring Xavier’s presence.
“How The Spektrum isn’t a big meat-head, yet still has
the power and guts to take on anyone,” Zoey said with a matter-of-fact tone.
“Oh yeah, that Spektrum guy in San Leandro,” Shaun’s
other friend Derek Liu. “Can’t believe
he took on five alien guys at once.”
“Yeah, then beat them separately one day at a time all
this past week,” added Johnny Lâm. “Especially that big yellow guy and that guy
with the football gear.”
“And how dare that guy try and blackmail him!” Marina growled,
referring to the now infamous Craig Foster.
This sentiment was seconded
by everyone, and Karina even went so far as to call the student a “stupid
jerk-off,” which made Zoey and her friends laugh. At the same time, Zoey did
scold Karina for going that far, and Karina refused to take it back.
At the intersection of Central Avenue, 3rd
Street and Taylor Avenue, the same intersection Karina’s sister Alicia turned
left on to Taylor, towards the Osou home, the girls planned on continuing down
Central until they got to the corner of Central Avenue and 5th
Street.
Zoey was grateful that she didn’t live that far away from
Encinal High or at least that she lived on the same main street, so that it was
just a straight walk. Though, she didn’t live as close as Karina and her
family, which lived on 4th Street. But even so, being within
reasonable walking distance made it a little too easy for others to visit, or
at least pass by. At least once a week, Shaun and his friends wanted to come
over.
“No, you guys can’t hang out at my house,” Zoey said
firmly. “Dad barely lets Shaun visit, so I know he won’t let you three bozos,
either.
“Besides,” Zoey continued after her friends laughed at
Shaun’s friends, “we’re just going to do homework and study and watch our
shows. Nothing you ‘men’ would even survive.”
Seeing that the streets were clear, Zoey and her friends
crossed from the school side of Central to Zoey’s side, feeling rather good
about themselves, while “X” and the rest of Shaun’s friends shrugged it off and
went the other direction.
A grand feast of Earth food was set in front of Zorb and
his men. The team of seven criminals devoured the food before them and enjoyed every
morsel. They never knew Earth food could be so enjoyable! The big slabs of meat
known as “ste-aks” slathered with the “A1” sauce made just for said steaks, along
with delicious pieces of “buh-read,” and a “pii-eh” made with the tart tasting
fruits known as “app-les,” which was the type of “jui-see” with which they
filled their drinking glasses nearly to the brim with. Apparently “J-U-I-C-E”
was the Earth word for liquid that comes from fruits.
Zita marveled at the golden liquid shining in the light
of their ship’s dining hall. The liquid captivated her so, she almost didn’t
want to drink it. Almost, for she enjoyed its tartness. She loved the drink for
it was as gold as her love’s eyes. She could see herself reflected by it the
way she could in Zorb’s loving gaze. She-
“Zita?” Zorb interrupted her train of thought.
She looked at him, a little startled.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Oh, yes, just admiring the jui-see.”
She swirled it in her glass, watching it catch the light.
Zorb scooted his seat closer, and brought up his glass.
“Are you worried we won’t beat The Spektrum?”
He took a sip of the tart, golden liquid, and licked his
lips to savor its flavor.
“No, because you will beat him. You will.”
“Quite right.”
Zorb turned to his men, still gorging themselves.
“Men, tomorrow, we will intensify our training efforts to
become stronger than The Spektrum.”
Mouths and hands full of food, all five of Zorb’s active
henchmen cheered in agreement, much to the disgust of their leader and his
lover.
Simon sat in his room, staring at his copy of Macbeth,
which he had to read a few chapters of, lying on his desk still closed. He
wondered if the nay-sayers were right, that he should’ve been able to stop Zorb
from robbing Safeway, but he knew that it was too far from the school, Zorb
would’ve gotten away before he arrived. Plus, how would he have found out in
time? His powers didn’t have a sensory ability that told him about what Zorb
was up to; the tingling sensation that went through his body only did that when
he had Unlocked something, and he hadn’t felt like that all day.
As he opened to the act and scene designated by Mr.
Wever, Simon actually hoped that Zorb would attack San Leandro High rather than
anywhere else.
“So, Zo,” Chloe asked as she turned to her long-time
friend, brushing her blonde hair out of the way, “do you think you, Alameda’s
own Catgirl, could take San Leandro’s Spektrum?”
Karina and Marina turned to look at Zoey, too.
“Well, why would we have to fight?” Zoey questioned back.
“We’re both good guys, aren’t we?”
Zoey stretched out on her bed, cat ears appearing with a
springy pop, cat tail growing fast, sprouting from underneath the top of her
shorts.
“Besides, it’s like Johnny said: he took on that big guy
with the sports gear, who busted through their school’s walls like a tank. All
I did was stop those thugs from fighting each other. The Spektrum is a lot
tougher than me.”
Zoey’s tail swished back and forth, and she groomed
herself in a playful, cat like manner: licking her “paw”—her balled up hand—and
smoothing it over her face. The cat clock on her wall swished its tail with
every tick and tock, and Zoey became distracted by it so closely, that soon her
tail began doing the same metronome-like movement.
“Zoey,” Karina said blandly to get the catgirl’s
attention.
Zoey’s ears perked and
she took her eyes off the clock to look at her petite friend, who was sitting
in Zoey’s pink bean bag chair.
“We’ve still got a few
more questions to answer. Marina.”
Marina opened a textbook and looked at the page.
“Why does Shaun hang out with such repugnant guys?”
Zoey was taken aback at this blindsiding question. She immediately leapt off her bed.
“That book does not say that! And Shaun’s friends aren’t
‘repugnant.’”
“Xavier is,” insisted Karina. “Ugh, he’s always trying to
put his arm around me like I’m his girlfriend, or worse, just his, like
he owns me, and I don’t even like being near him! Gross!” Karina shuddered at
the thought of “X”.
“Okay, so Xavier is a jerk, but Shaun’s other friends are
nice.”
“So?” Chloe countered. “Yes, Johnny and Derek aren’t
jerks, but Xavier is such an irritating slime that he’s equal to three people.”
“And none of Shaun’s friends stop him from being a
slime,” added Marina, who closed the book and put it back in her backpack.
“And neither does Shaun!” Karina added further.
“Well…” Zoey felt rather ashamed that she had no answer
to these truths. “It’s not like I can
force Shaun to get rid of his friends. Xavier is conceited and overbearing, and
yes, Karina, I know Shaun has told him time and again to leave you alone, but
Xavier does it because he likes you.”
“Then he needs to show that he respects me first!”
Karina said as she crossed her arms, her outfit and expression combining to
make a rather comical appearance, like she was a pouty little poodle.
“Alright, back to what we were talking about earlier,”
Chloe said to change the subject, “The Spektrum.”
Zoey slid back onto her bed, and Karina joined her,
plopping herself down next to her friend.
“How do his powers work?” Marina wondered, still on the
floor, but now at the foot of Zoey‘s bed. “He has five different forms, and all
five fight differently.”
“I like the blue
one,” Karina commented. “He sounds like the toughest of them, slamming those
two half-animal guys.”
“I’d take the whole bunch,” Zoey said, rolling over onto
her back.
She twiddled her
striped, thigh high knee sock clad toes.
“Strong, confident,
clever, tough, and aggressive, all in one guy. Eye witness accounts don’t say
much about his looks, but I’m sure he’s more than a five out of ten. You know,
that kind of ‘boy next door’ charm? He sounds almost perfect.”
Zoey’s friends all looked at each other, then at their
part-feline friend.
“So what does that make Shaun?”
Zoey panicked, realizing the standard she had just set. She
sat up fast, stammering.
“Sha-Shaun is- He’s great, and I love him, ‘cause-”
Her friends giggled at Zoey’s frenetic fervor to make up
for what she said.
“Zoey, it’s okay,” Chloe reassured her feverish friend.
“So you have a crush on a ‘celebrity.’”
Chloe patted the
catgirl on her head. “It’s the same thing with Karina’s crush on that manga
character, um…”
“Aoi Watanabe,” Karina reminded. “He’s so cool, with his
steely blue eyes and matching flight suit.”
“Which is exactly the same way we all feel about…”
“Youshiki…!” all the girls said dreamily as they said the
name of their favorite male character from their favorite anime/manga series, Shinsei
Youshiki, or True Style.
Of course, the title
can also be translated as Genuine Pattern or Divine Form, but it was
essentially the same, for the series was about Youshiki, a fashion designer who
was also a hero with the power to control fabric, light, and color. He was
stylish, clever, heroic, and best of all, incredibly handsome with his golden
blonde hair and ocean blue eyes. The four girls let out a giant sigh as they
pictured him in their minds.
“See?” Chloe said as the feeling of infatuation passed.
“We all would like to have a guy like Youshiki, but that doesn’t mean you love
Shaun less.”
Chloe smiled and gave a
comforting hug to her best friend.
“Thanks, Chloe,” Zoey responded with her own smile and
hug.
“Alright, enough mushy-mushy,” Karina said, interrupting
the great bonding moment. “Let’s get back to talking about The Spektrum!”
“Yeah,” Marina agreed, “Like, why does he spell his name
with a ‘K’? Isn’t the word S-P-E-C-T-R-U-M?”
“Well, maybe he wants to be ‘cool’ or ‘unique’,” Zoey
theorized, using a bit of sarcasm at the words “cool” and “unique”. “People
spell phrases like ‘what’s up’ and ‘boys’ with Z’s instead or S’s.”
“Yeah, like Xavier,” Karina noted with another shudder.
“I’m pretty sure The Spektrum isn’t an ‘Xavier,’” Zoey
assured her friend.
“Better not be,” Karina grumbled as she lay down, again
reminding Zoey of a pouting poodle.
“Oh, Kari-chan, you’re always so cute when you pout.”
Zoey gave Karina a pat on the head, careful not to mess
up her hair or bow.
“Well, seeing as how The Spektrum isn’t parading around
his school, trying to get publicity or sponsors or whatever, that means he’s
humble, doesn’t it?” Chloe looked at her friends for answers.
“Yeah, that’s true.” Zoey thought for a moment. “Plus,
most fictional superheroes are nice guys who are quiet and don’t go around
bullying people. I bet no one at his school hates him, either as The Spektrum
or as himself.”
All of Zoey’s friends
nodded in agreement.
“I hate that Spektrum son of a--!” Craig Foster yelled as
he kicked a soda can, sending it soaring off the ground. “First he crushes my
cell phone, and now he makes me the most despised guy at school!”
“Dude, didn’t you do that when you went on T.V.
and--”
Craig’s glare cut his
friend’s correction short.
“I’ll get back at him, I’ll show everyone he isn’t cool,
just some loser sophomore who dresses up like a rainbow!”
“But how?” another of Craig’s friends asked. “He’s a superhuman!”
No comments:
Post a Comment