In Which Mabel Tells a Story: Friends

Story time bloggykins! This is about how I became friends with David and Cooper. Sometimes I wonder how I ever stayed friends with them.

David:

I met David through a mutual friend named Andrea. It was freshman year and I didn't have many friends, so I was pretty close with Andrea. Anyways, my cousin was graduating from high school and going off to college that year, so my whole family decided to take a road trip to see him graduate. It was all the way up in New Hampshire, so it was a pretty long drive from Chicago. Why is this road trip important to the story? Well the thing is, I sorta forgot to tell Andrea. And the girl can hold a grudge. So when I cam back, she decides that I needed to be punished with a prank. The prank was this: I would come to lunch, the only time I saw her, and she would be pretending to be crying. David would be there, pretending to console her, and he would explain to me that she was so upset and depressed by my sudden loss that she was in such a horrible mood. I, of course, freaked out and decided to buy her a cookie to cheer her up (this was back when my school still sold cookies and slushies in a snack bar). Anybody who knows me well enough knows that me buying someone food is the highest form of love from me since I'm so cheap and poor.

David, the little asshole, had accompanied me and when I had finally bought the cookies, has burst out laughing, no longer able to believe how fucking gullible I was. And I admit, I kinda was. When he explained the truth, my first reaction was to threaten and lash out at him. So the first thing I said to him was "I'm going to break every bone in your body," which he replied with "Not unless I run you over first." The whole thing was hilarious to me that I burst out laughing and he followed pretty quickly. Since then we found out that we had a class together (architectural drafting) and were both in anime club. It's safe to say that we've been best friends since then.

Cooper:

Cooper is a ... special case of friendship. He sorta just appeared. We actually forgot how he became David and I's friend. That is until a few months ago when we were reminiscing during lunch. It all started in sophomore year, during, surprise surprise, lunch. Our group had coalesced over the year and had solidified into part of what is now considered the Otaku Sages Crew. Anyways, David had a different lunch period than us, but Jacob had managed to slip in with us this year. We already had become a bit known around the anime circles and we all tended to have the same classes. But one day during lunch, a kid just appeared out of nowhere. He pulled a ninja on us, just popping up on us, sitting next to us, and talking. We were all really confused, but no one wanted to say anything, so we let join us. It soon came to the point where everywhere we went, he would pop up, saying something like "Hey guys, I've been looking for you."

But despite being a bit creepy, he really wasn't too bad. I mean, he talked about the coolest video games and he liked anime too, so it wasn't too bad. And he bought us food! Real food! Not the crap the school gave us. And anyone who gets us food is good in our books. Ever since then, he sorta just stuck with us, and he'a been one of my best friends ever. Coops is just one of those people just kinda appears in your life and you don't know how it happened but it's ok because the Coops is pretty cool. 

In Which Mabel's Faith in Humanity is Momentarily Restored

The coolest thing happened just now. So my parents were complaining about shoveling the snow (we got about another 4-6 inches today, that's about almost 1/2 a foot guys), so I told them I would do it since I didn't wanna do homework and shoveling snow is kinda fun. When I get to the gateway of our lot, and was getting the last bit of snow off, I heard someone calling to me, asking if my parents paid me to shovel the snow.

I turn around and it's one of the neighbors who like in the apartment complex in front of us. Now, I live in a coach house. That basically means I live in a small two floor house that is directly behind a main building. Here's a shitty diagram I made up to show you how it looks like from the gateway/sidewalk.

Diagram aside, the neighbor that lives in the apartment building asked if my parents paid me to shovel snow. I told her no, that I volunteered. She asked if I could help her, and I thought, might as well, I'm already out here and I don't wanna work on language homework.

She was shoveling snow to park her car, and apparently she works as an architectural preserver (the people who are hired to help upkeep and preserve architectural landmarks and whatnot) as well as interior design. Now, since you probably don't know, I am a huuuuuuuuuge architect nerd. It's pretty much all I've ever wanted to be since the 5th grade. It's my passion, my life's work, everything I love and more. Architecture is the utter best, hands down. I love it more than anime.

So it's safe to say that our conversation was chalk full of awesome stuff. Anyways, after we've effectively cleared out enough snow, she told me she would pay me. Yeah, I know, insane! I was totally not expecting that, especially since the work wasn't too hard to manage between two people and it wasn't a lot either. I tried to tell her no and give her back the money, but she really insisted. I was like, well ok man, if you're sure.

She gave me $10. I would've expected her to give me like 5, but nope, she gave me ten whole dollars. Hot damn man, that's like 10 fucking McChickens right there. I gave it to my parents for gas money, but my mom didn't wanna take all of it, so she only took half. Long story short, I am now five bucks richer, aww yeah~!

Space Cradle - Chapter One

Chapter One: Preconceptions

It was nighttime. The air was slightly chilly and Jamie Waftsman was sitting on the front porch that had been in xir family for years. Xe had inherited the ranch from xir family when xir parents died, but not because they felt a paternal love to give it to xem, but because xe was the only child they had and had no other close relative to give to instead. Jamie was born a man, but had never felt like one. Or female at that. Jamie was just Jamie, and had lived xir life as neutrally as possible. This, of course, did not fare well with xir parents, who insisted on calling Jamie a him and calling xem James instead of xir preferred more neutral nickname. Still, Jamie loved xirs parents, even though they never fully accepted xem. Besides, they had long passed away, and xe was content to just live the rest of xir life up in the ranch. Here, all xe had to do was tend to a few animals and continue making xir living painting and writing xir next novel.

Space Cradle - Prologue

Prologue:

The skies were black. Voltru could see nothing save the pinpricks of light from stars long dead. The starship was deathly quiet; a lesser Eltroin would've been scared, but Voltru had been in the Black Wars and appreciated the silence in a way only someone who had heard the cacophony of war for too long. Voltru was close. The planet that he had picked was only a few lightclicks away. He flipped a switch and the small ship jumped through a self created wormhole. His visors lit up rapidly; colors blasting his sensory feelers to the point that he was almost blinded. Still he pressed onwards. It would only be a matter of time before the Star Police were after him. High Treason was top priority nowadays.

He piloted the ship outside the wormhole, and across the empty space as he fought for momentary control. Not far below him, a blue and green planet waited. He would need to release the Cargo now. His Directional Coordinates glowed up, the words "The Water Grave" popping up. It was a Class Zor planet, meaning it was protected by the Interstellar Union. The Skefas would not go after the Cargo unless the IU gave them the ok. And the IU would never do that. Not since the last debacle.

Voltru hovered over one of the smaller landmass, and before he pressed the release button, he prayed to the Great Goddess Welva. He prayed for her forgiveness. Then he pushed the button. From the bowels of his ship, a pod was sent barreling down to the planet. Purple and blue fire emission glowed from the rear, leveling the pod as it descended before extinguishing itself quickly. It fell ever faster before colliding violently in the ground. Voltru had left the moment the pod left his ship. He was going to return to his home, drink a bottle of Oflo's finest, and wait for the Star Police to come. There was nothing more he can do.

In Which Mabel Tells a Story: How David Left His Mark

STORY TIME GUYS! I'm gonna tell you how David broke his leg (despite being in a wheelchair) and how there is now a permanent mark at Lane Tech of our existence.

To those of you who don't know, David has SMA (spinal muscle atrophy) and has been in a wheelchair most of his life. He also get's really sleepy in the morning when it's cold. This is a very bad combination. This is what the little fucker of a best friend looks like:

Anyways, it was my freshman year, we weren't as close as we are now. It was dead end winter, and the only thing on my mind at the time (other than listening to Rise Against on full volume on my mp3) was getting inside as fast as possible. As I was about to walk inside the building, I see David parked nearby the little rail guard things by the entrance. Now I'm not paying attention, so from my point of view, it just looks like he's stuck or something, so my first reaction is "Hey David, see you inside." And for the rest of the day I'm wondering where David was because he never showed up.

The reason for this is because he broke his leg. Yup. The kid in the wheelchair broke his leg. What happened was that, because it was a cold early morning, he was super sleepy and thus not in full control of hit motor functions, so he accidentally drove his chair into the railing. The snow made him lose control momentarily, so he couldn't stop and ended up crashing into the post. And consequently broke his leg. So while I thought he was just stuck (with a bunch of people crowding around, in what I presumed, to help him get unstuck), he was actually cursing worse than a sailor and yelling at the top of his lungs because he broke his leg. Yes, that actually happened.

To this day, there is a mark on that rail guard and we see it whenever we enter and exit the school. Somehow David blames me.

That long grey mark is where his chair hit the rail guard. It's been three years and it's still there! I laugh every time I see it.