The moon looks upon many night flowers; the night flowers see but one moon.

— Jean Ingelow

solaris

"Blackout! Blackout!" Somebody continuously yelled. I didn't know who the somebody was, but they sounded a heck of obnoxious.

"We're going to get shot!"

"Is this a prank?"

"Like, what the fuck is this all about?"

Everybody around me was acting irrational. I didn't think there was a need-to though, because it was still broad daylight; nobody had been consumed by the darkness.

I hurriedly walked to my locker to get my bag and notebooks out.

Fuck the text books and crumpled up papers that lie at the bottom of my locker, at this point I didn't care about any of that—definitely when there wasn't any electricity.

Even though, at any point, the electricity could come back on. That didn't necessarily mean I wanted to stay in school, where it was starting to heat up, pretty fast.

"Everyone!" I heard a teacher shout over all the pandemonium, "CaIm down! You aren't allowed to leave school!"

"But there isn't any fuckin' running water!" A guy shot back.

"Watch your mouth!" The teacher scolded.

"Yeah, whatever. I can fucking say whatever I want to say."

Then there was laughter.

I laughed a little too because of the guy's audacity to talk that way to Mrs. York. She wasn't too mean as a person, or teacher. She was nice enough to pass me in Financial Lit. last year, regardless of me never turning any homework in.

Maybe she knew of my issues at home.

)

When I went out to the quad, there was a lot of people crowding that area as well. I wasn't surprised, but perhaps a little exasperated. I mean, everybody acted like animals inside Warner High, and I wasn't really sure how everybody was going to act outside.

I sat on a bench, and took out my not-so-trendy touch phone, and looked at the time. It was only 1:10 pm.

"Want a cigarette?"

I looked at the person who offered me a cigarette. It was no one other than Kai Woods.

He wasn't someone I talked to normally, but we were acquaintances. He moved to Andersville a couple years ago. His first day at Warner was a bad one. The football team practically jumped him outside the gym, and somebody had poured milk all over him at lunch. Oh, and Principal Benjamin had thought to suspend him for some reason I wasn't really sure of.

Anyway, it just so happened that everybody had been out to get him since he started going to school here.

I felt bad for him.

"Nah," I replied, rejecting his offer of a cig. "I'm waiting for Principal Benjamin to give it the okay for us students to go."

Kai lit up the cigarette in his hand. "Yeah, he gave the okay. We can skedaddle."

I looked at him quizzically. "Are you sure?"

He smirked. "Yeah. Besides, it's the last day of school. So...I figured."

I picked up my bag and stood up. The crowd in the quad was starting to disperse.

No one had acted that crazy like I'd expected them to.

Kai and I started walking to his car. But just like any person who was after Kai. He was stopped by these two guys, I think I took English with.

One of the guys, who had all these piercings in his face, had bumped into Kai pretty hard. And just like guys normally acted. Someone just had to take it the wrong way.

Kai and I were just going to walk by as if nothing happened. But the guy with the piercings wasn't going to let it go. "Hey Kai!" He fumed. "Get your ass back here!"

Kai didn't react. He simply said to me, "Don't stop. Or do anything. Just act normal."

Okay.

I nodded in confirmation. Besides, I just needed him to give me a ride home.

But then the guys started running towards us. And we started running once we realized it.

I wasn't entirely sure if it was either of our intentions to split up. But that's what we did.

Maybe, they'd been too focused on Kai to ever notice me, cuz eventually I looked back, and both the guys and Kai were gone.

Gosh, I needed to work out more. I sat down on the ground and took a breather.

)

"Are you okay?"

I opened my eyes and saw that it was him. We took Chem together.

He looked at me, I guessed, with moderate concern, and held out his hand.

I didn't want to take it, because I was lying on the ground like some hobo. And it looked pretty pathetic how I couldn't take the heat all too well. After running from Kai's bullies, I guess it wasn't only a breather I needed to take.

I needed to take a nap, too.

Eventually, I took his hand, as I tried to stand up. "Uh, thanks," I managed to get out from my sheer embarrassment.

He smiled. "Um, do you want to go get some water, or, do you want to go and see the nurse?"

I shook my head. "It's okay. I was just a little tired I guess."

"Oh, okay."

I started to walk away from him. Bade. I think his name was Bade. Yeah, I forgot he had a cool ass name. But he stopped me when he asked, "Do you need a ride? You know school has let out. Principal Benjamin finally let school out early."

I wondered how long I'd been out. The last time I'd checked the time, it was 1:10.

"Hey, Bade. What time is it?"

He looked a little surprised. I did't know why he looked surprised. Maybe I said his name wrong. "Your name is Bade, right?"

"Yeah, it's Bade." He looked at his phone. "It's 2:00."

Wow. So, I guess nobody thought to help a girl who was passed out on the ground. I could just see people walking around me. Thinking that I probably had fallen asleep, or that I just wasn't worth to wake up politely and help up. Maybe it would take-up too much of anybody's time to help me off the ground.

"Oh, thanks. But anyway, I don't need a ride. I usually walk home. Thanks anyway," I murmured without meeting his eye.

)

I didn't realize how much power was off until I attempted to call my mom. For some reason, none of the damn cell towers weren't much help, and I had walked into a nearby convenient store. One of the clerks told me there wasn't any cold sodas or beverages, nor was anything fresh in the deli.

There weren't any lights on in the convenient store either.

"What do you think's happening?" this old guy asked the clerk at the check out. "My brother told me the world's ending."

The clerk chuckled, as she attempted to scan the bag of sunflower seeds, but failed. "Nah, Greg. If that was the case. I'd owe my conspiracy theorist brother my car."

I laughed at the thought of the world ending today--right now. I'm pretty sure there would be much more things happening, besides the electricity failing.

I picked up a bottle of water and handed it to the clerk, once Greg, the old man, walked out the convenient store with his bag of sunflower seeds.

"So, did you high school students get let out of school early today?" The clerk asked me.

"Yeah. Um, it was the last day of school, and with the electricity. I'm sure the principal thought, 'why not?'"

She smiled. "Yeah, that's pretty awesome. You a senior?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to be a senior next school year."

"Oh, okay. Well, that water and pack of starburst all cost.. Fuck it. It's free.'

"Seriously?"

She put her hand on her hip, and gave me a look like I wasn't being smart. "Yeah, besides, the scanner doesn't work. And I'm sure we're going to be closing soon."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

I exited the convenient store and tried to think of where I was going to next. I didn't want to go home for many reasons. For one, my step dad and I got into this big argument this morning, and since my mom took his side. It was a yelling match between me and my parents, and I really didn't want to come home to awkwardness.

"Hey."

I turned around. It was him again. I didn't look at him, but I still managed to say, "Hi."

"You sure you still don't need a ride?" He asked once more. "I have a car, and I could take you home."

"I don't want to go home." There was a hint of venom in my voice. Fuck, I didn't mean to get like that. I just really didn't wanna go home.

He stepped back. "Sorry, I was just trying to be nice."

I slumped my shoulders, and made eye contact with him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like that. It's just that--"

He smiled again, and held up his hand.  "It's alright. I don't want to go home either."

)

Author's Note: Thanks to all who voted and added this story to their library. I appreciate you all for doing so.

Also, shevvie thank you very much for voting for and adding my story to your library. And the reason why I dedicated the first chapter to you is because you give me and my co-author inspiration. We really like your concept, and your writing style.And you seem like a really cool person. :D

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