Multidecadal Variability In My Sanity

[Enrique]

[Article 1.01]

"Gee, thanks, Windows..." It was beneficial that Enrique made those backup disks the day before; otherwise, four hundred twenty four years of reconstructed data, countless papers and presentations, and his complete sanity would have been lost. This day, Windows 98 didn't seem to want to work. The computer didn't want to function the way it normally has; although, lately, it has been acting up on Enrique; he needed a new one anyway because of the massive amount of data that he had; obviously, the old Pentium II couldn't handle it anymore. Not even the recovery disks could resurrect the old pile of computer parts.

The climatology-obsessed light blue Yoshi couldn't afford to lose all of this data; two years of frantic work would all go down the toilet. He was normally a calm individual who didn't exercise anger extensively, but today was different; somehow, his dinosaur computer knew that he had placed an order to the local computer store for a new, faster, more efficient machine, and decided to go ballistic on him. However, Enrique felt relieved that he could finally rid his life of this useless piece of machinery. Promptly, he laced up his green shoes and placed his black-and-white hat on his head. Placing his pen in the pocket of his white shirt, he punched the power button on the dinosaur computer; this old "piece of crap," as he referred it to, was not even worthy of recycling; the computer store that he ordered his new computer from confirmed it so.

He promptly relieved the computer from its access to electricity and drop-kicked it out the door. As soon as the pile of parts was in the yard, he fled to the garage to retrieve his sledgehammer. So far, this hammer had no purpose but to smash computers with; he had destroyed three older, Windows 3.0-"infested," machines with it after they blew out their floppy drives, corrupted their hard disks, and short-circuited their motherboards.

It was now the moment of truth for the "piece of crap." Enrique knew that he would have a new computer tomorrow, and his research could wait; it was such a beautiful day with temperatures in the seventies and no precipitation; not even a cloud existed in the sky; he could spend the day enjoying the beautiful weather. Without hesitation, by the time he had left the house and entered the yard, he let his anger out on the dysfunctional computer. The first blow was to the monitor; the screen shattered and the chips inside flew within a ten foot radius of him. Next, the keyboard, mouse, and printer went; they practically dissolved into nothing. Finally went the tower; Enrique enjoyed this the most. With every jab of the tower he took with the sledgehammer, motherboard parts and chips - even the power supply unit, hard disk, and floppy drive - flew in all directions. Finally, there was nothing left of the beast that was the computer.

However, Enrique had another problem; he had hundreds of pieces around him. "The neighbors must think I'm a wacko..." he thought. However, he didn't care at this point. He returned the sledgehammer to the garage and headed back in the house to get a trash bag to collect all the little pieces. For forty long minutes, he retrieved every bit of the remains of the computer, one by one. He seemed exhausted by the time that he was finished. He entered back into the house after he left the garbage bag by the curb of the road. He flopped on the couch in the living room and closed his eyes, trying to relax. "It's going to be one of those days, isn't it...?" He couldn't blame anyone but himself, but he definitely felt better about himself after his episode with the computer.

[Leoshi]

Wow, you must really of hated that old thing. Darn, it must have been one heck of a bad camp to have to come down to that. Heh, nice Enrique.

[Enrique]

[Article 1.02]

As the day progressed, Enrique calmed down a bit from the frustration he had experienced from the episode with his computer. He did get his adrenaline going by watching a hockey game on television; he enjoyed this although it was a complete blowout; his favorite team won the match. However, as soon as that was finished, he was bored again; with no computer at his disposal, he did not know what to do until the next day when his new one would arrive.

He stumbled off of the couch in the living room; his boredom almost caused him to fall asleep. As he entered the kitchen - where the thermometer for the outdoor environment was located - he noticed that the temperature read seventy four degrees Fahrenheit. He looked out the window next to the thermometer; nothing but a clear sky was visible; not even a cloud floated in the blue background. The grass was as green as it ever was at this point in the season. "Wow... what a beautiful day it is..." Enrique continued to stare out the window, gazing in awe of the weather.

After about ten minutes of staring, Enrique promptly left the house again; this time was to enjoy the atmosphere of the near-perfect vernal day. After he stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind him, he closed his eyes and inhaled a large breath of air, followed by an equal amount exhaled. Without much of a care to his mind, he started making his way downtown along the sidewalk, only anticipating a calm stroll through the small city.

For a normal weekday, it was fairly calm in the city of Sonacabe this afternoon. "Must be everyone is working today..." This today was a Thursday, four days before the Monday that ended spring break at his school; it would be back to boring lectures from the teachers and notebooks full of notes in no time at all. However, for the time being, it was still vacation; many of his classmates were off to another area for the ten days, most predictably to a popular beach town several hundred miles away. To his surprise, though, there were a few people who stayed around for the break, and he found some of his classmates out wandering the area as he was; one of them that he noticed was his friend Antonio.

Antonio was a dark blue Yoshi who was a good six or seven inches taller than Enrique or so; it seemed to Enrique that everyone of his age was taller than him; Enrique only stood at a stature of five feet seven inches. Antonio was constantly hyper, and has been known to act immature in very inconvenient circumstances; one memorable episode of this was during the frog dissection investigation in biology class when, instead of attempting to answer the questions that complemented the investigation as expected, he would mindlessly poke the frog and brag that his frog was bigger than everyone else's frogs. His foolishness gave Enrique entertainment on a consistent basis.

"So, Enrique, how's your vacation gone so far?" Antonio interrogated.

"Rather boring so far," Enrique replied. "Except for earlier today when I beat the crap out of my computer for being an idiot. Windows 98 refused to function, and it seemed as if the motherboard was about to fry out. And you, how have you spent your spring break?"

Antonio faked a sense of shock, as he knew that Enrique wasn't one that would beat anybody up, although Enrique has had the urge to want to punch Antonio in the head for doing stupid things in school at times. "No... Not you, Enrique. Why would somebody like you want to beat the crap out of a dysfunctional computer?"

Enrique laughed in response. "I knew you were going to say that." He couldn't help but laugh at Antonio's ignorance. "Antonio, I beat the crap out of three computers before. And I have told you about each and every one of them. Are you stupid or something?"

Antonio, thinking that Enrique was serious about his question, responded as idiotic-sounding as he normally did. "Yes, Enrique, I'm a retard."

Enrique laughed again. "I figured so." The conversation continued on with the weather, homework, and Antonio acting like an idiot in school before the April intermission. At the conclusion of the conversation - at this point, the topic concerned Antonio getting bored to the point where he would sit in the yard and count blades of grass - Antonio requested Enrique to "kill him because he was a retard." Enrique didn't exactly follow those orders; however, he couldn't resist the temptation to slap Antonio in the head. Antonio let out a short cry of discomfort, but Enrique laughed at him. "Hey, you asked for it."

[Lord of the Dance]

Hahaha, Enrique's beating up a poor, defenseless computer. =< *takes the sledgehammer* XD
Nice story so far, Enrique. ^^

[Enrique]

[Article 1.03]

The day after his incident with the old computer and his chat with Antonio, Enrique was happy to hear that the local computer store had finally completed his request for a new computer. The chief troubleshooter even delivered the computer to Enrique's house and installed it free of charge. This excited Enrique to a point that he hadn't been in months. After the troubleshooter installed the computer and showed Enrique the zillions of tools that he had installed on the new machine for diagnostics, Enrique promptly paid the expert and loaded his climatology data onto the new computer.

After three hours of exploring the features of the operating system, it was time to do other things so that he didn't fry his consciousness in the massive session of learning the new functions of the newer version of Windows; he did this by going outside to enjoy another gorgeous day. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the atmosphere was rather warm, warmer than the day before. He sat on the soft grass in the yard, approximately ten yards or so from the road. He leaned back until his back was flat against the ground. Staring at the sky, he wondered what could possibly happen the next two and a half days leading to the resumption to classes in school. "There can't be a whole lot going on. Not in this town." He was right for the most part; there hasn't been a front page crime story in Sonacabe in about two and a half years.

Immaculately, he felt something stab him in the shoulder; he briefly screeched and jumped in pain. Behind him was a familiar voice laughing. This voice belonged to another one of his friends at school; this one being Kristof. Kristof was a tall red Yoshi who constantly acted sarcastic to anyone who he talked with. He was rather intelligent; yet, he would commonly open his end of a conversation with something sarcastic. However, it would be humorous enough that his sarcasm would not annoy anybody.

Enrique responded to Kristof in an unusually reactive manner. "You know, that nine iron that I have in the house would look really good bashing your head in right now."

Kristof laughed in response to Enrique's comment. "Dude, I just poked you in the shoulder with a paper clip." Kristof held the bent paper clip used to poke Enrique with up to his face.

"Yeah, well, that paper clip could have punctured a blood vessel and I could have died due to lack of oxygen in my brain," Enrique sarcastically replied.

Kristof continued to laugh. "Sure, Enrique..." Kristof then fled to the sidewalk and headed back toward downtown. Enrique couldn't respond in time after brushing himself off before Kristof put the ear buds to his mp3 player back in his ears so that he could easily ignore any response that Enrique could have had. After realizing that Kristof was in a position to ignore anything that Enrique could say, Enrique re-entered his house, going back to work on configuring his new computer.

[contention]

You know Enrique, you've done a great job upon this from what you have said and gone over. There is this style you have in your writing that seems to be influenced by the usage of your words. They are all highly intelligent in their vocabulary, and such helps establish the set that you were looking for in these parts. What brings it out more is it has a personal feel to it, instead of going off edge, you make it original and keep it right between. It's rare you find originality in a piece anymore, but you've seemed to have kept it with all three parts so far. It's awesome to see you've gotten the time to write up some things and each of them have come out better than the one before it. You seem to improve each time you lean upon a new chapter and open up another page, as if you take what was before and mix it with the new.

That's one thing thats great about you, you have this skill of understanding none can get to. These show how far you are willing to go to get out your feelings. Besides, you've always had quite a skill in the way you write. These do nothing but show off that grace in which you behold, as well as swirl into the mindset that you definetly do hold. Keep up your work in this field, you definetly have what it takes to get through it. With your logic and intellectual commentary upon words, you can go more than just far with what you have created here. Remember to always keep that heart high, and keep these pieces on the move. It's anticipation to see what you'll give out in the next area.

[Enrique]

[Article 1.04]

The rest of that Friday in which Enrique received his new computer dragged on; with the exception of configuring his new computer and transferring important files - notably ones that dealt with his climatology research - to the new three-thousand-dollar-calculator, there was nothing else that was exciting about the remainder of the day. That evening was concluded with a hockey game on television; of course Enrique would watch the one in which his favorite team was involved in. Following two and a half hours of his full attention - along with a crucial victory of the team he was cheering for - he promptly stumbled into his bedroom and fell into a quick slumber.

The next two days consisted the weekend finalizing the final vacation period until the summer. Awakening at eight-thirty Saturday morning, Enrique reflected on the past eight days of his freedom - including the Friday the week before for Good Friday - and pondered. "Wow... Saturday already... Where has the time gone? It seems as if it was just yesterday that I was celebrating the start of this April's intermission. And now... It seems as if it was just an ordinary weekend. All these days of freedom... What have I done...?"

For the time that Enrique thought about his spring break, it felt like a half hour for what was actually ten minutes, very contradictory to the topic that he was silently discussing. Following his episode his own conscience, he stared out the bedside window; the trees were swaying in the soft breeze of yet another beautiful vernal day. The sun was shining as it ever had; the clouds - the little in the sky that existed - were brief and wispy. Without haste, Enrique left his bedroom for the kitchen to observe the thermometer reading; it read in the middle of the fifties, warm at this time of day at this time of year.

For the majority of the day, he spent his time outside, lying down on the lawn, watching the clouds drift across the sky and letting the cool breeze rub against his cheeks. For hours, he was left untouched to forget about the rest of the world; all that held his interest was the drifting sky. Later in the morning, he even closed his eyes and napped for a half hour or so. When he awakened from his brief nap, reality struck back in his head; he suddenly realized that he was sitting around the yard doing nothing, letting the day go by. "Whoa... How long have I been sleeping...? How long have I been out here?" He did not bother to bring his watch with him when he ventured outside this morning; thus, he would have to return to the house to observe the time of day.

He was rather surprised when he read the clock on the wall in the living room; it read twelve-thirty-five. "Holy cow, I've been out that long?!" He suddenly regained full consciousness when he realized that half the day has gone by and he barely knew it. For the remainder of the day, he played a few games on his computer and watched a few miscellaneous programs on television. The day turned out to be rather uneventful; even his dinner didn't consist of much more than a bowl of soup. Before he realized it, it was eleven o'clock already, and he had been tired for about twenty five minutes. With the exact same amount of haste that he had when the day opened - not very much - Enrique climbed back into his bed, and promptly fell asleep again.

The Sunday that followed was similar; he woke up to thoughts of school tomorrow and the tasks that he would face in his classes. The day was similar weather-wise as well; however, there were far more rain clouds present, and from late in the morning until early in the evening, it rained. For the early part of the day, Enrique gathered his materials that he would need for Monday's classes and napped again on the couch. His afternoon and evening was similar as the day before as well. The only anomaly about this day was that he concluded his day at ten o'clock at night instead of one hour later; there was nothing that was worth the extra hour of consciousness for and he needed his rest for the Monday that followed. Like the night before, he slowly approached his bedroom and quickly fell asleep as soon as his reached his bed.

[Enrique]

[Article 1.05]

Enrique awoke at six o'clock Monday morning, quickly going about his business of breakfast and finalizing his need materials for the day, including his golf bag for his meet after school. By the time he finished all of his necessary functions of a typical morning, the clock read six-fifty seven, which was about fifteen minutes or so later than usual; then again, he had to accustom himself again to his daily routine after ten days of relaxation.

He had to hurry to get to school on time; he had to attend jazz band rehearsal for the morning, and it started in thirty minutes; since his parents were out of town for another few days, he couldn't drive to school since he only had a permit and needed a person with a valid license to drive. He couldn't catch the bus; the rehearsal would be over by the time that he would reach the building. This left him with only one other choice: to walk one and a half miles over town with a bookbag full of binders from the homework over the break and a heavy bag of golf clubs.

He carried the golf bag along his back like a bookbag and carried the bookbag in this hands; this eventually got heavy after a while. However, he had to jog quickly; it would take too long to walk. He managed to complete one mile in twelve minutes, almost half the time that it would normally take him; however, he was getting tired quickly from jogging with about thirty five pounds of material. When he hit downtown, he had to stop for three minutes to catch his breath; then he realized that he had only fifteen minutes left to report to school. Promptly, he once again picked up his belongings and started advancing toward the school again; this time, though, he was walking.

Seven minutes before the class started, Enrique finally reached the school grounds. He quickly jogged toward the band room entrance, stopping to breathe hard again when he reached the door. Slowly, he opened the door and entered the band room. His teacher, Mr. Hordin, greeted him and noticed his hard panting. "What happened, did you run here or something?"

"Exactly, Mr. Hordin." Enrique panted again while his teacher gave a quick chuckle. Enrique set his golf bag in the band teacher's office, as Mr. Hordin didn't mind that he would leave them there everyday, especially since he trusted Enrique to lead the band when marching season came. After depositing his golf clubs, Enrique pulled his sheet music for the jazz session and participated in his usual position at vibraphone until eight o'clock when the jazz students were dismissed.

After dismissal from the week's jazz rehearsal, Enrique quickly reported to his locker to deposit the binders that he didn't need for the first class of the day, those that wasn't involved in biology. He knew that it was going to be a long fifty eight minutes in biology, expecting nothing but taking notes on the respiratory system.

After collecting his materials for biology, he met Antonio outside Antonio's locker. Antonio's locker was a hazard zone; there was no organization to it whatsoever; papers and binders were randomly stacked on top of one another. Enrique laughed at Antonio in response to the sight of Antonio's disorganization. "You don't plan on cleaning that out before June, do you?"

Antonio replied to Enrique's laughter. "No, I don't. I don't care that I have crap piled up to the ceiling in here. It's my life long dream, you know."

Enrique shook his head at the humorous reply. "You are a scary individual; have I ever told you that already?"

Antonio, thinking that Enrique was serious about this question, replied with a valid answer to Enrique's rhetorical question. "Yes, like zillions of times before." Enrique did nothing but continue to bust in laughter as the two walked to their first class of the day; they were in the same biology periods as each other.

[Enrique]

(Any comments that you, the reader, would be willing to share with me on this story would be gladly appreciated, as I continue to try to make this story better. Thank you.)

[Article 1.06]

The first period of the day, biology, was the most boring of the day for Enrique. All that the class did was listen to a lecture and take notes; most biology periods were like this. Throughout the sections of intermission for the biology to stop and relax for thirty seconds, Enrique would ponder about the rest of the day ahead, particularly about global history class, which was always entertaining.

Nonetheless, the day went on; after biology, Enrique would have Spanish. Spanish, curriculum wise, was even more boring than biology; however, he didn't mind the teacher; since the teacher didn't check to actually see if the students did their homework - he just asks and hopes that the students are honest - Enrique would consistently lie, saying that he did have his homework when he didn't even bother to take the textbook home, and the teacher would believe him.

At the closing of the period, Enrique conversed with Antonio and Kristof, who were also in Enrique's Spanish. Enrique started a discussion of the Spanish teacher's gullibility on Enrique's homework. He talked quietly, hoping that the teacher wouldn't hear him; it was loud enough in the classroom anyway, and the teacher was busy helping someone else. "I still can't believe he lets me lie because, in all honesty, I never do my homework in this class."

Kristof was the first to respond. "Well, you got to remember; he's a sixty two year old retired tree hugger. You get hundreds in this class anyway; why should you care about that?"

Enrique laughed in response. "I have no clue. And then, you have Mr. Disorganization here..." He motioned toward Antonio.

Antonio tried to plead his case, even though it was a pathetic case to plead in the first place. "Well, it's not my fault that locker is a biological hazard zone!"

Enrique shook his head. "Do you, like, let Lenny massacre your locker every time he storms out of English crying?" Kristof continue to laugh.

"No. I massacre my locker myself," the self-proclaimed "retarded" blue Yoshi replied.

Kristof was amused by the recent things that Antonio said. "Dude, that doesn't even make sense; you say that it's not your fault that your locked is trashed, yet you say that you trash it yourself..."

Antonio replied. "I know, I know. I'm a retard."

About that time, the bell for second period dismissal rang. Speaking of the mention of Lenny, Enrique had English this coming period; he wondered how his emotionally unstable classmate would act today. Walking into the English classroom, he noticed that Lenny, who sat across his table from him, was not present; this was unusual since Lenny would always be on time for this class on this day; however, he was consistently late for English any other day. Two minutes after the bell opening the period rang, Lenny, a light blue-violet Yoshi who was approximately the same height as Enrique and wore glasses, finally strolled in.

The teacher, Mrs. Malrune, a green Yoshi only two inches taller than both Enrique and Lenny, was furious. "Lenny! This is the third time in two weeks..." - not including the April vacation the week before the current one - "...that you were late to my class. I hope that you are up for a detention after school today."

Lenny stumbled his way through his excuse. "But... but I can't today. I already have one scheduled for Mr. Corter today..."

The English teacher continued her fury on the student. "That is pathetic! No wonder you're on the restriction list for eight different classes! Including mine!" Being on the restriction list for a class meant that you were failing that class.

Lenny started crying as the rest of the students in the class stared at him. After about twenty seconds of standing around, he turned around and left the classroom, shutting the door hard behind him. The English teacher promptly followed him out of the room, and didn't return for twenty eight minutes; by the time that she resumed the class, the period was already half over.

During the intermission in which the teacher was not present in the room, the students chatted quietly amongst themselves. Enrique conversed with Camden, an orange Yoshi who was athletic and played percussion instruments in concert band with Enrique. Enrique opened the conversation. "That kid needs some Zoloft or something."

Camden agreed. "Well, since he just left the room like the last four times that we had this class, I wouldn't think that it would be a bad idea."

The period stumbled on, and everyone, including Mrs. Malrune, was relieved when it was finally over. It was inevitable that the teacher was extremely stressed because of the episode with the emotionally variant student. Enrique "crossed off" that expected episode on the mental checklist of things to witness on this day. He expected one more episode to go down in global history class, but the student involved was more emotionally stable, but lazier, than Lenny.

[Lord of the Dance]

Haha. Nice precision on minutes, Enrique.
It lacks something, but I can't put my finger on it. Bah, you're probably fine. Great job!

[Teo]

This is an interesting story. Nothing involving the super natural, just a good old story of a yoshi who goes to school. I just read the story, and as far as it goes so far, I have been enjoying this. All that you've written so far seems to me like the prologue and first chapter, the very beggining of a story with promises that lie ahead. Maybe you could change those [1.--] chapter titles to a name? This is just a thought.

I can't wait till we find a plot, maybe a bully , but again, it's your story and I have no say, you write it, you're in control buddy.

[contention]

Once again Enrique with all of these chapters you trully stun with how you take the wheel and draw out the scenes to be enough as it is. You have this sense in you that constructs an image of reality. It's enough to make what the world is appear inside your works; thats what the spirit of this is. Which others should see, you're going for the natural set of things. This is a movement inside of what we see all the time around here. You're going into a new border by really bringing out the truth to what makes us who we are. You don't need the fancy battles to make this a masterpiece. It already is Enrique. Especially with the way you find your words and make them stick out. You have this nice speciality with that. You always know what word to place in a spot and how to make it fit. This brings out an intellectual form to the piece. With each chapter you improve by style and by grace, enough that you trully challange the figure of the mind.

What should be seen is how well you really take this into consideration. You haven't missed anything that seems to have been grabbed for. It's a wake into your soul and the life that you lead, don't give up on this and keep it going, no matter what.

[Enrique]

[Article 1.07]

Despite the episode that occurred in English during the third period of the day, the rest of the day went normal for Enrique. The next class that he had to take was a business course known as Career and Financial Management, or "CFM" for short. However, because the section of students that took CFM at the same time that Enrique had the class was very well behaved and completed the work needed for the class in the promptest fashion compared to the other sections that took the course, CFM was actually more or less a study hall in which he and six other students in the class played Monopoly.

After fifty five minutes of intense drama from the trading, money collecting, and hotel establishing - not to mention that one of the other participants landed in Jail four times in ten minutes - the period was quickly over; one of the participants of the Monopoly game stated that "the period went way too fast." The last minute of the period before lunch was a scramble to record all of the spaces in which they last landed on and hide their "belongings," since they were the only seven people who played Monopoly in CFM, and they didn't want the others to steal them.

Enrique spent lunch alone, in an area where a select group of students - Enrique included - filled with donated armchairs and tables. He promptly consumed his lunch, and started working on homework for global history class; this class was common nicknamed "Global" by students. Seven minutes remained until the start of the fifth, and penultimate, period. Outside the window near the area, the sky was starting to grey. THe wind progressed from a slight breeze to swaying the branches on the trees. Enrique wondered if it was going to rain; if so, the golf meet for this afternoon might be cancelled.

Nonetheless, the bell dismissing fourth period - as well as third lunch - rang, and off Enrique went toward the classroom in which his global history class was held. He knew that this was going to be a fun class, since he knew that Drew would not have his homework done; Drew was too lazy to complete his; this was always entertaining since the global history teacher, Mrs. Boslether, hated Drew because he never did his homework for her; in fact, earlier in the year, Mrs. Boslether called Drew's mother, in the middle of class, using Drew's cell phone, to say that Drew didn't complete his assignment.

Like Enrique expected, Drew, another red Yoshi who was only about an inch or two taller than Enrique, not only didn't have the assignment done, but also didn't bring the paper to class. Mrs. Boslether, a pink Yoshi, was furious when she heard to news. She screamed, causing the rest of the class to laugh. "Drew! Do I need to call your mother again?!"

The guilty party, trying to look stunned at the teacher going ballistic on him, replied. "No... I'll bring it in tomorrow..."

The teacher responded to Drew trying to look innocent, and yelled again at him. "You better!" She was even angrier at the red Yoshi after he didn't write any material in his notebook that she had written on the chalkboard for the class to copy. Furious, she grabbed her cell phone and promptly called Drew's mother; it was practically on speed-dial since she had to make such a call very often.

Near the end of the period, the principal announced over the PA system that all after-school activities were cancelled; this meant that Enrique had to go home after school instead of reporting to a designated area to go to the golf match for the day. This was only a hassle since he had to carry his golf clubs on the bus ride home, which was inconvenient, but outside of walking, was the only way to get home. Enrique looked outside; the skies had opened up; rain fell toward the earth quickly, and clashes of thunder could be heard. The wind blew the leaves on the trees very briskly.

The last period of the day was band class. Unfortunately, on the way to class, the power went out across the school. Via the flashlights that the teachers used, the students found their way to their last class of the day. Because the teachers had to light the hallways themselves, the students took a longer time to report to class than usual. The band teacher told all his students to take a rest for the day; they were not playing any music because no one could see their music. Enrique took his golf clubs out of the teacher's office, where he left them for the day, and waited for the power to return. The power didn't return until Enrique's watch read two-forty; at this time, only fifteen minutes remained in the last period of the day. The biggest hassle left was to get home on the bus with golf clubs while the bus was packed for the night. Fortunately, Enrique was one of the first to exit the bus on this bus's route.

After the period closed, Enrique rushed as much as he could to retrieve his bookbag from his locker, and was one of the first to reach his bus. All the while, the wind raged on, thunder continued to clash, and the rain beat everyone's faces with the wind. As Enrique was the first to reach his bus, he sat in one of the front seats, his golf clubs in between his legs. For the next eight minutes, floods of other students filled the bus, waiting to go home as well. After another fourteen minutes of calming all the students, and starting to unload them, the bus finally reached Enrique's house.

Enrique was relieved that he arrived home safely. He promptly left the bus and entered the house. As soon as he entered the house, he placed his golf bag and his bookbag on the floor and flopped on the couch. He was glad to be home; however, the power had not yet returned to his house; he couldn't use any of the electrical appliances until it did. He took a nap on the couch, waiting for the power to return, since he bored because he couldn't use his computer or watch anything on television.

[Lord of the Dance]

Awesome. Reminds me of what happened at school today XD

[Enrique]

(I can't believe I'm half-neglecting my fanfic. =< I apologize for this.)

[Article 1.08]

After Enrique had awaken from his nap - approximately twenty minutes after he started falling asleep on the couch - he paced around the house for about two hours, waiting for the power to return. All the while, the thunder raged on, the rain fell with power, and the wind blew half hurricane strength. Yet, Enrique still pondered when the power would return to the city. He looked at his watch, for it was the only clock that was functional in the house; it read five o'clock at the moment. The night went one, slowly progressing. Only eating a granola bar for his dinner, he went to bed out of boredom around nine o'clock.

The next morning, the storm had calmed down a bit; however, it still rained. The power had returned to Enrique's house, but he realized that he had to reset all of the clocks in the house. He woke up at five-thirty - a half hour earlier than normal - out of instinct. He quickly performed his normal daily routine, setting all the alarm clocks by the time on his watch along the way. Since it was raining, he figured that there would not be golf practice that day.

Finally, it turned six-forty five, an hour and ten minutes before the day at school was officially starting. At this time, Enrique found himself as bored as he has ever been. Staring at a nearby wall, he couldn't stand doing nothing. Even though it was raining, he decided to quickly throw on this windbreaker jacket and a hat and started walking to school. Grabbing his bookbag and pacing out the front door, he started his one and a half mile journey toward his high school. Along the way, he started thinking about his day; it started with English, mathematics, and health classes in the morning, and ended with study hall, biology, and history classes. It was a regular Tuesday, outside of the fact that precipitation fell in a steady downpour. "I don't feel that today's going to be a normal Tuesday... I mean... I'm walking to school... in the rain... instead of waiting forty-five minutes to catch the bus..." However, he was starting to lose his ambition to take the crowded morning bus to school.

The time on his watch read seven-twenty five when Enrique finally reached school; forty minutes was an awfully long time to travel one and a half miles; however, he knew that the morning bus wouldn't be outside his house for another five minutes. He knew that he would have to sit around for another thirty minutes until students commonly left the school lobby to retrieve their materials for the first class of the day fro their lockers. For lack of anything better to do, he reported to the library, and started reading the sections of the newspaper that the librarian had finished reading. When the seven-fifty five bell rang, he returned the newspaper to the librarian, and headed toward his locker. By the time he reported to his locker, he collected his materials for English class.

He was the first to report to Mrs. Malrune's first period class; the next didn't come until another six minutes later. The bell signifying the introduction of the period rang at eight-ten like normal; however, Lenny, the kid who left the class abruptly the day before never presented himself to the class; he should have; Enrique had a sight of him in the hallway where his locker was located. However, Enrique didn't pay much heed to the absence of his emotionally insecure classmate. The class went henceforth with the continuation of reading To Kill A Mockingbird from the day before.

Almost immaculately, at eight-forty three, the sound of an explosion came from the other side of the building. The whole building started to shake as everyone in the classroom that Enrique was in started to panic. In all sixteen and a half years that Enrique had lived - all in the small city of Sonacabe - there has never been an earthquake...

[Lord of the Dance]

Yay for suspence! ^^

[Teo]

Grah, I'm behind in reading this, and I have to go to bed! I'll catch up to this, I promise!

[Enrique]

[Article 1.09]

Enrique knew that something had to be wrong; he had never experienced an earthquake before; however, he knew that there was not supposed to be the sound of an explosion prior to such an event. The earthquake-like movements only occurred for approximately forty seconds; however, the lights flickered on and off throughout the ordeal, and about fifteen seconds before the even ended, all the electricity in the room and in the hall had ceased to continue - as it turned out, the entire school experienced this phenomenon as well - leaving the building left to only sunlight and emergency flashlights as sources of light.

Following the shaking, everyone in Mrs. Malrune's first period English class, including the teacher herself, started displaying their panic and concern for others about the event. They soon were expecting a message over the public address system about the matter; however, the voice of the principal did not present itself. Within a few minutes, the smell of smoke filled the air. Mrs. Malrune responded with a prompt command. "Everyone! Out the windows!" Within nanoseconds, the class rushed toward the windows of the room - luckily, the classroom was on the first floor - and one by one, the students shuffled out of the room through the windows; after the students left, Mrs. Malrune quickly followed.

As Enrique exited the trashing building, he noticed that other classes were evacuating in the same fashion. The only thing that was bad about the evacuation was that the rain continued to fall hard on the evacuees. Everyone around Enrique complained of the rain and panicked of the unknown episode. He could see smoke leaving from the other side of the building after the curiosity of the burning smell caused him to look over the building for a fire.

Those who were associated with the school had been waiting outside for about ten minutes when fire trucks pulled into the parking lot of the school; they headed to the other side of the school from where Enrique was located. Curiosity and concern persuaded the students who were outside to attempt to investigate, but the teachers instructed them to stay in the area that they were currently located.

About two hours later, some of the firefighters involved escorted the students back into the building. The electricity was restored, but another concern was far greater than that. Enrique eventually returned to his seat for English; all students were instructed to report back to their first period class. By eleven o'clock, the principal's voice came onto the public address system. The following was what he said:

"Could I have your attention please... There has been a bomb by Mrs. Boslether's classroom that exploded without any threat... A brief investigation showed that only the water fountain and some wall structures have been damaged. No property in any of the lockers near the area has been damaged. There was a brief fire that occurred in the area; however, it was quickly put out. Thus, we will allow everyone to retrieve your property from your lockers to take home. We will call by grade level to report to your lockers, and then you are to report back to your first period classroom. After this process has occurred, we will dismiss everyone to their buses to go home. Thank you." A brief ten-second pause occurred, then the prinicipal came back on the public address system to dismiss the students to their lockers, beginning with the seniors and concluding with the freshmen.

It was only thirty minutes before the sophomore class was called after the senior class, but it felt like forever for Enrique. All he wanted to do was to go home were he would be safe. Nervousness, anxiety, and concern filled Enrique's head while he waited to be called. "Who would do such a thing...?" Finally, the sophomore class was called; he hastily walked out of the classroom to his locker. All of his binders and notebooks he could fit in his bookbag, and some of his textbooks; however, he would have to carry a few textbooks by hand; he did not mind this at all, as long as he could be home soon. Returning to the classroom he had come from, he waited until twelve-fifteen, when the principal dismissed everyone to the buses.

Enrique was one of the first to report to his bus; he sat in the front seat nearest to the common door of the vehicle. The bus quickly filled up with worried people like him; before too long, the bus left the school parking lot. Within five minutes, the bus pulled up in from of Enrique's house. Enrique quickly rushed off the bus and into his house, shutting and locking the front door behind him. Within seconds of entering his house, he sighed of sudden relief.

[Lord of the Dance]

Muahaha, someone's evil. EVIL, I SAY! XD

[Enrique]

[Article 1.10]

After returning home, Enrique quickly made soup for lunch and turned on the radio in the living room, pacing about the house, listening for any further information that anyone may have discovered in the case of the bomb in the school. The issue wasn't even acknowledged on the show until about one o'clock, when anything other than discussion of the event was not even considered for airing. However, there was no information that was not already known to him, other than the district already canceling classes and after-school activities for the next day; this meant that Enrique was alone with nothing to do the next day as well.

He obviously had no homework to do since he had not any classes this day to receive work from. So instead, he paced around the house for the majority of the remainder of the day, nervous about the future of the school, and if anyone may have gotten hurt in the act. His mind never stopped to think of anything else for even one second; this was until he realized that his parents would return home on Friday, and he wondered what their reactions would be when they heard that there was a bomb that exploded in the school.

At three-thirty, more breaking news filled the hallways of the house from the radio; another, more thorough investigation found a dead body hidden away in a box that had traveled in via the explosion. The investigators guessed that the box was located somewhere near the bomb when it exploded; the outer cardboard of the box was scorched - the investigators thought that this was the source of the brief fire that occurred - the body inside was covered in a layer of blood.

Enrique's jaw dropped when he heard the news; he was in severe disbelief. This made him turn off the radio; he couldn't stand the thought of someone trapped in a box next to a bomb that was about to explode. He rushed to his bed, and attempted to sleep, trying to distract him from the pain of the thought and let the time pass by as well; however, he was unsuccessful; the opposite occurred; questions seemed to swirl in his head. "...Who did this?...Who was it that died?...Was it suicidal?...Or was it murder?..." He could not concentrate on sleeping.

All the while, the rain continued to pour on; it was yet another factor of the gloomy Tuesday. It seemed as if the world had come crashing down on the city this day. Enrique figured that tomorrow would only be worse; he hypothesized that waiting until Thursday to find more news about the situation would be best for him; he had to spend tomorrow and the rest of today distracting himself from a larger, much more powerful other distraction. The only thing that he could think of was the rain.

Promptly, he climbed out of his bed and exited the house. The rain beat down on his head as he briefly walked away from his house. He was getting more and more soaked by the minute; however, he didn't care; he just had to distract himself from the painful thought of someone's death via an explosive device. After standing in the rain for over an hour, he returned to his house; he took a shower and dried off following his episode of standing in the rain. However, this episode was effective; it allowed Enrique to focus more on the rain and how he was getting soaked more than he did about the incident at school.

Following his shower, he continued reading a ridiculously long scientific article on climatology that he started reading over the weekend; he did this entirely out of boredom, since the thought of the explosion at school was no longer a priority on his mind. He read the article continuously until he started to fall asleep; this was at about eight o'clock. He crawled back into bed, without minding to have dinner, and slept until the next day.