Life's Many Surprises-chapter 2
#2 of Life's Many Surprises
Well here's chapter 2 of my first story which did pretty good. In this part I add some mystery I think, and a dash of action with a hint of humor. I hope everyone likes it.
Like last time, comments and crticisms are definitely welcome and are encouraged.
After Ryan made sure no one had followed them and was listening in on their conversation, he turned towards a worried Adam and began to explain what he meant.
"Ok so let's start from the beginning, when you woke up today, did you feel strange at all?" Ryan asked walking towards a chair and sat down; motioning Adam to do the same.
"Uhh no. Why did you pull me into this room?" Adam responded while ignoring Ryan's suggestion to sit down and instead moving closer to the door hoping to escape the interrogation.
"Adam, we've been friends for a while now, you've helped me out through some hard times, so it would only be fair for me to help you out through your confusing time as well." Ryan replied calmly while motioning once again for Adam to sit down.
"I don't know what you're talking about, yeah we've helped each other out but there's nothing wrong happening right now besides you taking me into this room when I should be practicing for the contest." Adam said slightly raising his voice becoming angry, trying to hide his growing apprehension.
"This can go a whole lot easier if you stop trying to hide things Adam. I know what you're going through right now." Ryan replied leaning back in his chair continuing to stay calm.
"I'm not hiding anything, now stop interrogating me." Adam retorted as he unlocked the door.
"Ok I'll stop" Ryan said while getting up and walking towards the door.
"Just remember to come to me when you want some help on controlling that new dragon body of yours." Ryan added as he opened the door and walked past a surprised Adam and was about to leave the room.
"Wha...what did you say?" Adam asked, unable to hide his apprehension anymore. Ryan turned back around with a smirk on his face.
"Thought that would get your attention. I told you Adam, I know what's happening to you and I can help." Ryan said as he reached out and put a hand on Adam's shoulder and looked into his ice blue eyes.
'How could he know that this isn't a costume? More importantly how can he help me, it's not like he's a dragon too or anything.' Adam said in his head as he just looked back at Ryan beginning to shake with worry.
"So let's try this again, when you woke up today did you feel strange at all?" Ryan asked as he turned around and locked the door once again and led Adam towards a chair so they could sit.
"Well I woke up with a really bad headache but other than that no." Adam answered trying to confirm if Ryan really knew without giving too much information away.
"Yeah that's common, was it-a truck ran you over bad or nails on chalkboard bad?" Ryan asked
"What do you mean that's common, common to what? And nails on chalkboard bad." Adam replied.
"Lucky." Ryan replied under his breath while rubbing the side of his head reminiscing about the pain.
"And I'll explain what I mean later." Ryan added.
"What do you mean lucky? And no tell me what you're talking about already." Adam said becoming annoyed with Ryan's vague answer.
"Ok, calm down...*sigh*...The reason why I know what you're going through is because I went through it when I was 16 also." Ryan answered.
"How do you know what I'm going through? Adam asked with a confused look on his face no longer feeling suspicious that his friend was lying.
"I know because I went through the same special change you're going through right now, although I didn't have anyone to help me through it." Ryan said looking at Adam's still confused but also surprised face.
"You couldn't possibly have gone through what I'm going through, you don't even look like me, this has to be a trick to get me to tell you everything." Adam said getting tired with Ryan's roundabout answers and vague information.
"It's not a trick Adam, I told you, I learned how to control my body and the changes, and with enough practice so will you. It's actually quite easy." Ryan said with a smirk.
"Prove it." Adam retorted while crossing his paws over his chest.
"I would, but when I change back to my human form I don't have my clothes anymore, they just disappear or something." Ryan replied.
"Mhm, likely story, you're probably just faking all of this." Adam said as he started to get up and walked towards the door once again.
Seeing Adam head for the door, Ryan bolted out of his seat and ran in front of Adam blocking his way out.
"Move." Adam said coldly.
"Adam please believe me. When have I ever lied to you or was just generally mean to you?" Ryan said staring into Adam's eyes and seeing a hidden rage begin to ignite within them.
"I don't care what you've done for me in the past; it's obvious you're lying about knowing what I'm going through. Now move." Adam said with a snarl and beginning to push past Ryan.
"Adam this isn't you, it's your dragon rage talking, you can't let it take over. Please listen to me and fight it." Ryan said straining to hold back Adam's heavy dragon body from pushing against him.
"No I like this...this power makes me feel invincible!" Adam roared as he pushed all of his body against Ryan.
"Fight it Adam. Nothing good will come from this if you let it take over!" Ryan groaned as he quickly realized he was losing this fight.
"Since you won't move out of the way, then I'll just have to make you move." Adam said as he moved back away from Ryan while bringing his right brick sized paw back getting ready for a punch.
"Adam don..." Ryan began to say as Adam brought his fist forward and punched Ryan into the right side of his face causing him to fall down immediately.
"Let that teach you a lesson, don't get in my way." Adam said as he looked down at Ryan's helpless body.
'Man he even hits like a brick.' Ryan thought as he willed his body to start moving again.
Just as Adam was about to open the door, Ryan was able to move his foot and trip one of Adam's massive foot paws, causing him to fall into the door and slide down to the floor.
"Ugh, still haven't had enough I see." Adam said as he got back up and picked Ryan's body up by the neck of his shirt glaring at him.
"Adam...*cough*...listen to me, you can fight this. Think about our friendship, all those years we've been there for each other, the jokes we shared. You can't throw all of that away for this." Ryan said as he stared into Adam's rage filled eyes; causing Ryan to close his eyes and brace himself for an even stronger punch to hit him.
After a few minutes had passed Ryan opened his eyes after realizing he hadn't been punched yet. When he turned to look at Adam, expecting to see the same raging dragon from before, he instead saw the caring dragon that Ryan knew was the original Adam, only this time with a wave of grief and remorse crashing over his emotions. Before Adam could give another punch to Ryan he had finally realized what he had done and was about to do which caused him to quell his dragon rage and control his emotions once again.
'What am I doing, what was I about to do? This isn't me; I could never hurt my friend like this.' Adam thought as he looked back at Ryan continuing to hold him up by his shirt.
"Umm could you put me down now?" Ryan said smiling trying to show that he wasn't mad at Adam for hitting him.
Upon hearing Ryan's question, Adam quickly put Ryan down gently onto the floor so he could rest and check his injuries. While Ryan was busy moving his jaw around making sure it wasn't broken or dislocated, Adam saw the damage his actions had done. Although Ryan couldn't see it, he could feel that the right side of his face was definitely tender and stung at the slightest touch; but from Adam's view, he could easily see that the right side of Ryan's face was swelling up fast and was a bright shade of red.
"I'm sorry." Adam whispered wishing that all of this hadn't happened and he hadn't just hit his best friend's face.
"Adam it's ok, I know that wasn't you doing all of that." Ryan said getting up and trying to comfort his best friend and show that he didn't harbor any ill feelings towards him for his actions.
Despite what Ryan said Adam couldn't bring himself to even look in Ryan's direction and continued to face away from his friend.
"Come on, I swear I'm not mad at you. Just please look at me." Ryan said as he kept moving around trying to get Adam to face him.
"I'm a monster. I can't believe I did that to you." Adam said quietly as he looked down towards the ground.
"No you're not; you're just a confused dragon going through some changes, that's all." Ryan said jokingly trying to get Adam to smile.
"Plus I told you that wasn't you who did all of that, it was your dragon rage, and I can help you control it so this won't happen again." Ryan added after grabbing Adam's muzzle and pulling it up, making Adam look into Ryan's eyes to get his point across that he wasn't angry about any of this and only wanted to help his friend.
"Ok so what do we do first?" Adam asked, hoping that Ryan really did have all the answers.
"First tell me what you were planning on doing for the contest since we only have a few minutes left." Ryan responded after glancing down at his watch seeing how much time they had left.
"Well...I was actually just going to use that time to find out if I got any cool abilities after I changed into a dragon." Adam chuckled realizing that he didn't really have a plan.
*sigh* "You really thought this one out didn't you?" Ryan asked thinking about what Adam could do for the contest.
"Can't I just fly around the room and that be it? I mean these wings are here to help me fly right?" Adam answered with his own question.
"Yeah you can fly with them, it's just flying takes a lot of practice to really get the hang of it...or you have a hard head and have a high tolerance for pain." Ryan said.
"But I don't like pain." Adam remarked while rubbing the top of his head imagining himself learning to fly in his backyard, his tree filled backyard that is.
"Not many people do. How about this-you could breathe a small flame and then break some piece of wood to show off your strength?" Ryan suggested.
"But that's boring, I mean yeah no one else would do that but I'm pretty sure everyone else would have better routines than that." Adam replied hoping that Ryan had better suggestions.
*sigh* "Fine." Ryan replied with a loud sigh.
"Ok how about this..." Ryan began to say and then finished the rest of his plan by whispering into Adam's ear after they both heard the doorknob on the classroom door begin to jiggle, signaling that someone was trying to get in.
"I don't know if I can do all of that besides just remembering it." Adam said feeling worried about Ryan's elaborate plan.
"Hey the contest is about to start and everyone who wants to be in it need to get in line to sign up or else you miss you aren't in he contest." A voice from outside the door said and then walked away to continue giving out the message.
"Ok thanks." Adam said to the person on the other side of the door.
"Don't worry Adam; I'll make sure you don't forget any of the moves." Ryan replied confidently.
"But first you need to go sign up and then come meet up with me outside my locker." Ryan said beginning to nudge Adam towards the door.
"Ok, I don't know what you have in mind to help me, but I trust you Ryan." Adam replied smiling at Ryan as they exited the room.
"Good, now go, and remember to come back to my locker. Also try not to run too much, dragons aren't exactly the best at running." Ryan said chuckling as they went their separate ways in the hall.
While Adam was walking down the hall, seeing the line to sign up consist of only 5 people, he started to think back on everything that happened between him and Ryan. He remembered the strange conversation he had with him, strange because somehow Ryan already knew everything that Adam was going through.
'But how?' Adam thought to himself, wondering how Ryan knew what was happening to him.
'I just have to remember to ask him later when he helps me practice being a dragon.' Adam thought as he finally reached the line and quickly was the next one to sign up.
Luckily all Adam had to do was fill out a small piece of paper asking things like his name, his costume, and a brief explanation of what he was going to do. Once he finished filling out the paper and handed it back, he was handed a number and was told to come to the stage when his number was called. Now that he was done with registration he began walking towards the auditorium to go backstage and wait for his number.
"Hmm, it feels like I'm forgetting something." Adam said quietly to himself. Since he couldn't remember what he was forgetting to do, he continued walking and soon reached the entrance to the auditorium. But just before he opened the doors to the humongous room, he heard someone calling his name.
"Huh, who's calling for me?" Adam asked with his hand still on the door handle while he looked around the hallway wondering who was calling for him.
"Adam it's me." Ryan said from behind his open locker not wanting anyone to see what he was holding.
"Oh ok, so what did you want, I'm number 6 in the contest so I don't have much time to practice." Adam said having completely forgotten Ryan's plan.
"You forgot didn't you?" Ryan asked giving Adam a look showing that he already knew the answer.
"Forgot wha...*eyes open up wide upon remembering what he forgot* heh yeah I sort of did." Adam said laughing a little at his forgetfulness.
"But I did remember the routine though." Adam added smiling, feeling triumphant that he at least didn't forget that.
"Well that's good." Ryan replied shaking his head a little with a slight smile on his face.
"Now put this in your ear and don't take it out until the contest is done." Ryan added as he pulled out of his closet and handed Adam a small bluetooth headset.
"Um ok, but how is this supposed to help me?" Adam asked feeling massively confused at trying to figure out what Ryan was planning.
"During the contest I'm going to remind you on what move comes next and I'm going to tell you how to do each move. Hopefully you're a fast learner and will be able to understand how to do the moves fast so this it's all one fluid movement." Ryan answered as he put the second headset that he was holding into his ear.
"I hope your plan works." Adam said a little worried that he would mess up during the contest.
"You and me both, but don't worry, I'll try to explain how to do the moves as best as I can." Ryan said while patting Adam on the shoulder as they both walked towards the door o the auditorium.
"No offense, but your explaining skills suck." Adam replied flatly while giving Ryan a glance.
"Heh yeah, but I'll try my hardest to explain it clearly." Ryan said giving Adam a hopeful look.
"One more question, why do you have two bluetooth headsets in your locker." Adam asked.
"Ever since I watched an episode of Burn Notice, I've always wanted to do all the spy things that they do with a friend. But first I had to buy a headset." Ryan answered with a smile.
"Unfortunately I'm the only one that wants to do that, so I'm stuck with two headsets and no one to talk to." Ryan added with a slight chuckle.
"You really are weird." Adam said laughing at Ryan's childish ideas.
"This coming from a boy who's now a dragon." Ryan remarked smiling.
"Hehe, guess you're right." Adam said laughing as they reached the door.
"Good luck, and remember I'm always there for you." Ryan said with a smile and motioned towards the headset in his ear.
"Ok thanks." Adam said feeling a little more confident that he had some help.
"Now let's go win us a contest." Ryan said triumphantly as he opened the door and entered the auditorium.
'Here we go.' Adam thought as he entered the huge room right after Ryan.