The Dragon's Weakness.

Finally, the bell rang.

Today has seemed like an eternity of the suffering and sorrow that accompanies the public school system. I mean really… it wouldn’t kill the administration to serve us something other than dog food for lunch… it’s beginning to mess with my appetite. Of course, I haven’t been able to relax all day after that little encounter I had with my arch nemesis ‘Lurch’ as I call him.

I never seem to get his name, I always leave him dumbstruck in some way and get out before he can come up with some comeback… verbal or physical. Personally, I wouldn’t care to stick around to find out this guys method of “retaliation.” The guy is huge, I mean seriously massive. He’s at least six foot five, and probably weighs around two twenty five-ish. You know, the typical football player slash wrestler slash baseball jock.

“Hey! Ryuu! Wait up man!”

Whew, it’s just Takeshi, maybe I can relax today…

I haven’t been able to relax in a long time. School has been shafting me sideways, and of course my parents seem to be getting on my nerves more and more often.

“How’re you doin’ Takeshi?” Takeshi is my best friend, I’ve known him for as long as I can remember, kindergarten according to my parents. He and I are like brothers, we see eye to eye and always help each other out in life and school… Other people, I don’t really know anyone else, I don’t really care for anyone else at this damned school. I mean, there are a few cool people, but I’m content with Takeshi, at least… I’m pretty sure I am.

“I’m alright, we had this crazy test in Pre-Cal today, Mr. Morrow calls it a ‘pop-test’ I’ve heard of pop quizzes before, but pop-tests? C’mon, that has to be inhumane or something, do you think there might be a law against it?”

Ah, good old Mr. Morrow, the school’s resident old person. The man is seriously ancient. He’s got wrinkles and folds that could hide a combat knife, and probably enough fat to live off of for years without food. He is the essence, the epitome, of fat and old… it’s mercilessly gross.

“No, but I know that there’s a law against defacing a public restroom with human feces…”

That whole ordeal was gross, I mean really why would someone do that?! That stuff goes in the toilet… I mean, I’ve heard of missing, but you would have to be at least twenty feet off the ground to miss like THAT.

“Do I even want to know?” Takeshi asked.

“Probably not, other than that bathroom escapade, my day was the usual…”

“Soooo, you sat in a corner and looked like you wanted to bite everyone’s head off?”

“Yeah, pretty much… Some big dude tried to threaten me today, I didn’t catch his name, he was too busy gaping after I threatened to eat his babies, cut off his hands, and feed them to my dog,” I responded.

“He didn’t do any—Whoa! Watch out!”

At just that moment, a car ran a beer bottle over that was lying in the middle of the street, the bottle exploded and sent its contents flying out in every imaginable direction and unfortunately for me, most of the liquor and glass seemed to be heading in my general direction and hit me square in the thigh…

Just my luck…. Wonderful, now I have to explain to my parents why it is that my pants are covered in beer and a small amount of blood…

“Holy crap! Are you alright Ryuu!?”

Overcome sorrow with comedy right? Let’s give it a shot…

“Uhh… Yeah, I think so… Wouldn’t it be crazy if I got buzzed off of this?”

“Sometimes Ryuu, I wonder how it is you made it this far through high school; oh I was wondering… do you think it would be alright if I hung at your house for a little while? Dad isn’t home and—“

Poor guy, at least we got each other, I might not be around without this guy helping me out every once in a while… sometimes I just can’t stand living at home.

“Yeah bud, just be sure that you are out of there at ‘round… 2100-ish… my parents want to talk to me about something tonight… Alone…”

Ooooh boy, I can’t wait for what they’ve cooked up for me this time…

“Alright then, that shouldn’t be a problem, my dad wants me home around 2030 anyways, so it’s all good—Ryuu? Are you okay?”

I wonder, how late am I going to be up tonight, with the parental talk, homework, and—

“Wait… What?”

“I was asking if you were alright, you seemed to be a bit, dazed…”

“Huh? No, I’m fine, just thinkin’.”

“Hmm, okay… whatever.”

Ah, home at last… I don’t live too far from the school, we live in a smallish house, but it isn’t too bad I suppose. I mean, I’m an only child, and there are three bedrooms, but one serves as a guest/entertainment room. We’ve got a decent backyard, it has a hot tub, and a trampoline, which is always fun to set a sprinkler under and try to stand up on it. Mom hates it when Takeshi and I do that, but I mean… as dangerous as it is, it’s so much fun. Oh yeah, and the house is like a winter wonderland… mom likes to keep the house at a brisk 60 degrees in the winter and 74 degrees in the summer. Normally, I would be fine coming into cold when it’s hot outside, and I like cold… but when it comes to being in a comfort zone, I do like to be able to wear shorts… not sweats.

“Whoa, what’s your mom got cookin’ today Ryuu?” asked Takeshi.

“Smells like chicken perogies to me…”

“What the heck is a perogies?”

“Kind of like ravioli, but instead of spinach or cheese, think chicken… and dipped in oil and butter.”

“Wow, sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen…”

“Haha, totally…”

At least I’d die happy… heh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Five hours later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“See you tomorrow Takeshi!”

“No, you won’t, I have to leave for Idaho tomorrow remember? I’ll be back in a week, see ya then!”

Crap! I forgot about that! Oh man… Why’d he have to leave on a Friday!? Of all days, Friday! That means I spend this weekend alone… Damn…

“Oh yeah… I forgot, yeh… See you then Takeshi…”

“Bye Ryuu!”

“Alright Ryuu, meet your Father and I in the family room in five minutes.” My mother commanded…

As you wish my liege…

Ugh, my parents seem to be beating this whole ‘me being different’ thing like a dead horse… I wish they would just drop it. I’ve told them countless times that I don’t want to talk about it and then I blame it on lack of sleep… I don’t really see anything too different really.

“Alright mom, be right there.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Five Minutes Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I walk into the room, I see that my mother and father are sitting next to each other on the couch, the recliner has some blankets piled on it, and there’s nowhere else to sit. Basically, our family room is composed of a sofa, a lazy boy, television, radio, coffee table, and there’s a little midget table next to the sofa.

Hn… Nowhere to sit, typical… Well, how about I move these over to the coffee table—

“DON’T TOUCH THOSE RYUU!” I hear my mother yell, it was rather strange, and all I was trying to do was move the blankets, I would like to sit down…

“Uhh, okay? Why? I need a place to sit… Where else do you want me to sit? The floor?”

“Oh right, sorry honey… it’s just that you usually throw stuff hap-hazardly around the house and I just folded those…”

“Mom, I was going to set them on the table nice and neat, I throw MY stuff around remember?”

“Don’t you talk to your mother like that Ryuu!”

Oh great, dad’s chimed into this…

“Yes sir… My apologies mom… won’t happen again.”

“Apology accepted, as a matter of fact, that’s just what your Father and I wanted to talk to you about, you seem more—“

“Disrespectful, arrogant, and all around rude to us lately son, and we don’t like it… I don’t like it,” chimed my father…

“What your father is trying to say honey,” my mother said with a sideways scorn to dad, “is that you seem different, and we just wanted to know what the matter was, is something bothering you honey?”

Nothing is bothering me! For the last damn time! I’m fine! I just don’t want to talk about it! Leave me BE! Time for the catchall phrase… hope it works, yet again….

“No mom, nothing is bothering me, I’m fine… Really, I’m just tired… haven’t gotten much rest.”

“Okay then… Well, get to bed early tonight okay? You are a growing boy, and you do need your rest.”

Wow, like 10 is early? Had you talked to me about this tomorrow, when I could go to bed late and sleep in Saturday morning, you might not have kept me up later than eleven at night on a night that I have to get up at five in the morning…

“Okay mom, g’night, sleep well dad… I’m off to bed.”

If I can get to sleep before one AM that is…