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Chapter #23: Return to Normalcy

 

Greeley Colorado

August 23rd, 2027-CE

 

With school in session, things seemed to be returning to normal. As normal as things can be for a first year in high school and with a second cousin in the building. Jena and Spiritis got to experience what it was like having siblings in the building, although it was not the first rodeo for Jena. Curtis would expect the same thing in a couple of years, he would be the older sibling instead of the younger one.

Spiritis felt bad that she only coordinated her class schedule with Jena and Curtis as they had done since middle school. That meant that she only ended up having one class with Ray during the day. Somehow, despite not communicating with Ashara at all, she managed to have four of six classes with her and her troupe. She didn’t have any classes with her oldest sister, she chalked that up to her sister being a senior and having a different set of classes than Spiritis.

That didn’t help Spiritis’s mood. She had been seeing less and less of her sister over the past month. Angela had cleaned everything she needed to out of her grandmother’s house and moved in during that time. Spiritis felt like she had become an only child again. She was looking forward to the weekend where she could have Jena and Ashara over for a sleepover and feel a little more like a regular life again.

After school Spiritis, Jena, and Curtis headed for the bus area to get onto the bus. Spiritis heard a familiar voice call out to her, “Spiritis, wait!” Ashara called out, “Where are you going?”

“I have to take the bus home now,” Spiritis replied, “The school bus this time. Well, if I don’t then I have to catch the city bus.”

“Your family gives you some strange names! Why can’t they give you some normal names!” Razzed one of the boys that Spiritis had yet to meet.

Spiritis gave an exasperated sigh. It didn’t matter which name she used, be it Se’ana or Spiritis, she was made fun of it. Shawna would have been a better. Spiritis’s newfound power that fed her secrets gave her the answer to her strange given name, it was the combination of two names put together. It didn’t give her the why, however. Spiritis just wondered why she didn’t have two middle names or a dash in her first name instead of the weird slamming together of names. She asked her mother about it a week ago, but she dodged the question entirely.

Lines formed in front of the busses and Ashara gathered around the three, “You take the same bus?” Ashara questioned with a confused look on her face.

“You never took the bus before,” Jena nodded, “Yeah. They have routes. For the most part, we are on the same route. I get off before then because my apartment is before their stop. Spiritis and Curtis get off at the same stop as her apartment is before Curtis’s house, but his house is a short distance away.”

“I wish I could ride with you,” Ashara replied, “But my father has to pick me up.”

“Yeah, you live outside of the bus area for all the schools,” Spiritis nodded, “If you were going to my house, I would talk you onto the bus with me.”

“I can call my dad and see if that would work,” Ashara smirked.

Spiritis shook her head, “Don’t try that, we will be on the bus before I could call and clear it with my mom and get you on the bus. Just let me call her and see if it would be okay to have you over tonight. I can let you know after that.”

“How about I ask her,” Ashara offered, “And I can have my dad drive me there.”

“Suit yourself,” Spiritis shrugged, “You should know that the bus takes forever to get me home. You will be waiting for a while.”

Ashara nodded and started to walk off. She stopped suddenly and glanced around, “Where is Angela? Where is Gavin for that matter?”

“They have cars,” Spiritis replied.

“Well, Gavin could give his sister a ride home,” Ashara placed her hands on her hips, “And for that matter, Angela could give you a ride home too.”

Spiritis’s chipper mood evaporated at that moment, “About that. If you make it over tonight, we can talk about that. A lot has changed since you were last over at the beginning of the summer. We will just leave it at that.”

“As far as my brother is concerned,” Jena crossed her arms with an angry look in her emerald green eyes, “If I don’t catch him right as the bell rings, he vanishes like a fart in a fan factory! I might as well take the bus anyway. I hang out with my friends when I do.”

“Fair enough, you will have to tell me what happened between you and Angela, Spiritis. Tata for now,” Ashara waved and ran off.

Curtis glanced to Spiritis and asked, “I haven’t seen a lot of her at your house when we hang out this summer and played video games and watched movies. What has been going on between the two of you?”

“Nothing,” Spiritis replied, “Her grandmother died. She has been moving everything to her grandmother’s house as she isn’t going to sell it. She also had to take over the family shop. She doesn’t have a lot of free time anymore.”

“I bet that eats into her conquest time a lot too,” Curtis nodded as they entered the bus.

Jena shook her head, “Is that all you can think about? I bet if you devoted half of your time thinking about conquests to your studies, you would graduate high school two years before the rest of us. You have a lot of brain power locked up there, you just need to send a lot more blood north of the border, if you catch my drift.”

“Terms of endearment,” Spiritis chuckled as they squished into a bench seat, “I have been thinking that we should take the city bus instead of the school bus. The seats are better.”

“Nothing beats not having to buy a bus pass or pay for rides,” Jena replied.

“I have to have a bus pass anyway. Any other takers?” Spiritis requested.

“I have rides or walking for most of my other places,” Curtis shook his head.

“During school I mostly hang out with you and you don’t really go anywhere much anyway,” Jena replied.

“You shouldn’t be paying for bus passes, your student ID gets you free bus rides now,” Said a random student.

“Oh, cool,” Curtis replied, “Maybe we should take the city bus…”

“How does that work for the summer?” Spiritis called out?”

“It doesn’t,” Said the same deep feminine voice, “You still need a bus pass for then.”

“Dang it!” Spiritis replied, “Still need a pass for then.”

“Well, better than nothing,” Curtis shrugged, “At least we have the student ID thing going for us.”

“True. We might have to take it up some time,” Spiritis replied, “I will just have to look up the bus schedule and see if we can swing it. I just don’t want to wait around all day for a bus.”

“That’s the catch,” Jena replied, “Having to wait. I guess this is better than that.”

“Hang on,” Curtis called out hoping the same girl would answer, “How do you know about the bus system ID discount?”

“Detention,” The girl replied.

“Settles that question,” Jena replied, “considering your track record in school, Curtis, I think you will be making use of that discount soon.”

“Hey, I was thinking of turning over a new leaf this semester.”

“Great thinking, using the fall to get used to the routes and freezing your butt off in the bitter cold waiting for the bus. You should really think about doing your shenanigans now and not waiting for the city bus in the winter,” Spiritis prodded playfully.

“I thought we were compadres?” Curtis gave her a fake pout, “what happened to honor among thieves?”

“We aren’t thieves,” Spiritis laughed, “There is no honor among pranksters.”

“I thought there was no honor among hucksters,” Jena mentioned, “There could still be honor among pranksters.”

“Eh, point taken,” Spiritis nodded.

“Speaking of no honor, which bus does Ray and Robin take?” Curtis glowered.

“Hey! Don’t insult the big guy!” Spiritis spat.

“You are still on about that?” Jena replied, “That was over a month ago. Let it go already, Curtis!”

“They were gate crashers at a private party!” Curtis stammered.

“Who was it trying to schmooze Robin once Ray left to chase Spiritis?” Jena chuckled.

Spiritis laughed, “Hey Pot, the kettle has some words to discuss with you!”

“A particular color, perhaps?” Jena smirked.

“I think that Curtis secretly wants to be part of the family. We could be siblings in law,” Spiritis laughed.

“That’s not what was going on!” Curtis squeaked as his cheeks flushed a deep crimson.

“One big happy family,” Jena snickered, “If I could weasel in, it would make family Christmas an interesting time!”

“Heavy on the drinks!” Spiritis laughed, “At least when we are older and talking about everything that went wrong after this.”

“Even if it doesn’t end up like this, I am betting we will still have Christmas together, drinking about what went wrong,” Jena joined in the jovial laughter.

The bus stopped. The woman, Jena and a few other students rose. Jena sighed, “Well, stay safe and I will call later. Have fun.”

They exited the bus leaving Spiritis and Curtis alone on the bench surrounded by the other students. Spiritis sighed and stretched out on the bench, “Well, how about them Yankees?”

“That’s all you can say?” Curtis questioned as the bus started to move again.

“I assume you didn’t want to talk about Robin anymore,” Spiritis replied, “Unless you wanted some pointed on how to win her over to your side.”

He blushed again, “That isn’t what I was trying to do! I swear!”

“Why are you so defensive? It isn’t like she has the plague.” Spiritis defended.

“She’s not the one I have a crush on,” Curtis replied.

Spiritis arched an eyebrow, “Oh? Have your eye on one of the new freshmen we started the year with? That blonde girl that looks like she might be carrying a torch for you, perhaps?”

“Stop teasing me!” Curtis huffed.

“Well, you let me in on your secret then, compadre,” Spiritis goaded.

“Jena,” Curtis stated quietly.

“What!” Spiritis exclaimed.

“Be quiet, you twit!” Curtis hushed.

Spiritis shook her head in shock, “Sorry, compadre…” her voice trailed off. She chuckled in shock. She shook her head again and fixed her friend with a curious stare, “Really? Jena? Our Jena? Jena Beckhart? The Jena I have known since I was born? That Jena?”

“Is there another Jena that I don’t know?” Curtis glared at Spiritis.

“Well, there are a bunch of new faces here. You could be talking about someone else, maybe a Sophomore or a Junior that I don’t know about,” Spiritis replied, “Someone just as much out of your league if they were older than you.”

“Excuse me?” He growled.

Spiritis chortled, “I’m sorry, compadre, but we have known you since we were in kindergarten! The odds of her dating you are just about as high as you seeing a pig drive this bus! She sees you as family, dude.”

“Any way I can get past that barrier?” Curtis pleaded after a moment.

“Not unless you have a time machine I don’t know about,” Spiritis shook her head.

“You are about as helpful as an extra hole in the head,” Curtis replied.

“You can ask her out,” Spiritis replied, “Just be prepared to get shot down. You can either continue to be her friend or make things as awkward as hell. Maybe just try to play video games and watch movies with just her for a while. Look, Ashara is in town to stay for a while. I can make the excuse I will have my hands full with her now, not to mention Ray.” Curtis started to glare at Spiritis, “Don’t look at me in that tone of voice! If you are going to pursue Jena, you can’t be all high and mighty about who I date! You might be able to slide in if you take your time with Jena. But don’t try to make ‘dates’ with her. Set times to ‘hang out’ with her.”

“That sounds like such a drag,” Curtis groaned.

“Do you want to date her or be friends with her?” Spiritis questioned in response.

“You are making it sound like I will just be friends with her,” Curtis moaned in agony.

“You are going to be spending quality time with her. If it works, you will be in the date zone with her before long,” Spiritis gave him the thumbs up, “But you have to take it slow with her. She isn’t a fast-paced girl.”

“Ugh,” Curtis grumbled.

“If you don’t want to go through with what I say, then turn your attention elsewhere,” Spiritis replied, “Like that blonde I was talking about. I am sure she would say yes in a heartbeat.”

“If you were only a guy, you would understand,” Curtis replied.

“I doubt it,” Spiritis laughed, “I don’t think you and I would mesh that well if we were the same sex.”

“We would be best buds,” Curtis replied, “I can feel it.”

“I will take your word for it, compadre,” Spiritis nodded.