High School Mercenary

[Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep]

I turned over and slammed my alarm clock's snooze button as I would any other day. However, I quickly noticed that I did not experience the sensation caused by the impact of my hand on smooth plastic, I had only one thing on my mind at the moment.

Pain.

So much pain, I let out a cry and shot up while looking around to discover the source of my suffering. To my dismay I saw a dragon figurine sitting there staring at me in the darkness, I had bought it at the mall the other night while shopping for some games that had just recently come out. I looked at it examining all of its thorns adorning its body, the fearsome look it had on its face, and those damned horns. It was quite cool when I bought it but now, I regret it, I'm lucky to not have those incredibly long and sharp horns sticking out of my hand. Who would even make something that painful?

Still dwelling on it I angrily looked away only to notice the still beeping alarm clock that I had moved to the opposite side of the bedside table in order to make way for the damned dragon sculpture. *click* *creak* I hear the sound of my door opening and my alarm clock continues wailing.

I turn my head to see the face of my mother looking into my dark room. She opens the door and strides across the room towards the curtains. She throws open the curtains with a *swish* and a blinding, early morning light fills the room. I let out a groan and begin trying to adjust my eyes to the light.

"Joshua, turn that damn thing off will you" a somewhat annoyed voice calls out to me.

I rub my eyes and reach over to turn off the alarm. My eyes drift back over to the face of my mother. She has long brown hair, a youthful face, and blue eyes. "Stop staring and get your butt out of bed, you're going to miss the bus." I look over at my alarm clock and notice the time, I jump out of bed and hastily begin getting dressed. "Sorry," I say to my mother as she leaves the room.

This has become a common occurrence for me. If you ask anyone close to me, they would say its due to staying up all night playing video games. If you ask me that's completely right, there are far too many FPS games to play and not enough time. I finish putting on my clothes and run into the bathroom, I look into the mirror just to find an average brown-haired boy with golden-brown eyes staring back at me. With no time to waste, I brush my teeth and rush out of the bathroom.

I grab my lunch and run out the door. The nippy autumn air greets me as I begin running down the sidewalk towards my bus stop, if I wasn't so late, I would enjoy this walk after all autumn is the best season in my book, you wouldn't rather have scalding hot heat or bone-chilling temperatures affecting how comfortable your commute is would you?

Ahead I see my bus loading the last few passengers just as I near it and barely make it once again. "Josh, over here, I saved you a seat." My good friend Nathan calls out to me and I make my way down the aisle to sit next to him.

"Up all-night playing games once again? Tsk Tsk." - Nathan

"You would know, you were there idiot" - Josh

As we both start laughing, we see a head perk up in the seat in front of us, she turns around and begins to scold us.

"Come on you guys again? You two never change, you do realize what day it is right."

"Oh, come on Liz, you know we have to keep playing so we don't lose our positions on the leaderboard. And no, we don't know what day it is" I explain.

"Yeah what Josh said" Nathan agrees.

Nathan and I both retorted. The petite black-haired green-eyed girl in front of us proceeds to roll her eyes and giggles betraying the annoyed tone she took before.

"It's Friday. I can't believe you guys forgot about finals. Whatever will I do with you two?" - Eliza

Eliza responds with a sigh.

"It's fine Liz we got it covered, of course, we wouldn't let ourselves fail. Right, Josh?"

Nathan responds and looks at me for agreement. I look to my chubby dark brown-haired friend and with a smile and a thumbs up I respond.

"I sure hope, otherwise my mom is going to kill me"

Both of my friends share a laugh and the bus ride continues normally. At lunchtime, my two friends and I meet up at a lunch table with our food, after quickly finishing our food we whip out our phones and I begin to set up a game.

"I want to have a rematch with Josh" Eliza quickly blurts out.

"Fine I'll let you have this one but don't play all lunch like you did last time you got destroyed by him, sore loser" Nathan responds curtly.

*humph* Eliza quickly focuses back on her phone slightly embarrassed. I laugh and tap the notification that pops up on my phone, "CuddlyB3aR36 would like to challenge you to a 1v1 [Accept] [Deny]"

I hit accept and start the never-ending chain of rematches I have with my friends.

"So, none of you beat me today either, guess I'm just too skilled for my own good" I smugly reply.

"No fair Josh, you play more than me" Eliza complains.

"My skills are hampered on mobile" Nathan responds with his signature excuse.

"Yet he still 25-0's you on a computer," Eliza says under her breath.

Nathan hears this and pouts. I burst out into laughter and my friends quickly begin to chuckle as well. "You guys are something else I'll tell you that," I say and we all begin to talk about whatever is on our mind.

-----------------------------------------

Finally, school ends, and I wave goodbye to my friends. Eliza seemingly remembers something and shouts to Nathan and I. "I have some time again today so join my Xbox Live party when you two get home," I respond with a smile and nod my head in affirmation before turning around and walking home.

I don't take the bus home since I like to stop by the local game store to check out the games they have in stock. Today there wasn't anything that caught my eye so I just continued down the road. A breeze passes by blowing the golden yellow leaf off of a tree and I smile while I turn my head to look up at the clouds.