New Genesis

Chapter 2

Mark woke up around ten.  He looked around his room as he dressed. His bed sat in the corner underneath shelves filled with Jone’s Soda and his CDs. He had a whole shelf devoted to comics and another to books. After he had dressed he grabbed a comic from his growing collection and went downstairs to eat breakfast.
“What time are kids coming over?” asked his mom as he entered.
“Around seven.  I told them to eat dinner.”
“Good. Here I made you some cinnamon twists.”
Mark took the twists and some orange juice and sat in his family room. He ate as he read. Mark read the comics slowly. He knew he was the only one of his friends that read comics and wished more did but he found solace in the fact that he looked nothing like a typical comic buyer. Almost everyone who buys comics is actually fat, sweaty, and nerdy.  After he was done he put his dishes in the dishwasher and asked his mom where his dad was.

“He’s at the bank. He needed to cash a check.”
“When will he be back?”
“I don’t know”

Mark shrugged and went to his basement. Mark turned on his PS3 and sat down on his sofa. He played the videogame until his dad got back home.

“You ready for some Texas Deathmatch viewing?” inquired his dad.
“Yep.”
Texas Deathmatch viewing was a term his father made up after a Texas Deathmatch in wrestling.
It consisted of watching hours upon hours of tv programming. It was how Mark and his dad bonded.

Mark paused the videogame and relaxed as his dad put a tape into the vcr. Mark’s dad refused to get a DVR. His reasoning was that they watched too many shows and it would fill up to fast. Mark had to agree. As his dad pressed play the intro for 24 started. After the show Mark’s dad made lunch and they watched more shows. They stopped watching around three and Mark restarted his videogame.  Around five thirty, Mark turned off the videogame and tv and went upstairs.

“You need to get some soda and snacks for tonight.” ordered his mother.
“OK.” Mark held out his hand as his mother handed over a 20.

Mark drove to the store near his house and bought some soda and chips. He even bought some root beer that he personally liked. As he walked around sent out a mass text to his friends to make sure of the number of people coming too his house.  He received texts back from most of them saying they could come.

Mark sadly did not receive a message from Jessica. He wanted her to come because he was going to ask her out. Mark returned home around six and prepared for the party.

At six twenty Michael Pham arrived at his house.

“Hey Pham how are you?”
“I’m good. How about you?”
“Cant complain.”
Mark left the door unlocked so that people could let themselves in. His friends arrived one by one. In the end  the group comprised of Michael Pham, Michael Loscher, Blake Curry, Josh Thoele, Matt Martin, Jake Meyer, Zach Jones, Matthew Wesly (aka Chewyy), and Tyler Cook. They all sat in the family room and watched a movie.
After the movie, Mark’s mom brought out a cake with candles for Mark to blow out. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Mark. As they ate the food, they talked about the superheroes.

“I still think there was a war between the superheroes.” said Josh.
“Yeah but there’s no proof.” replied Steven.
“And all of the adults deny that there was a war.” added Chewyy.
“But look at the footage of them leaving. Some of the superheroes are missing.” defended Mark.
There was a theory among the friends that there had been a war between the superheroes before they shut themselves off from the world. There were superheroes missing from the video of the Speech that was given by Icarus.
“Some of the most famous superheroes aren’t even in at the speech,” replied Jake.
Jake began to list of some S-class superheroes that were not present at the speech.
“And not to mention Thundra wasn’t even there.”
The friends agreed that if one superhero was going to be at the speech it would be Thundra.
“And anyways most of the superheroes in the video are ones that no one really knew,” added Blake.
Before anyone else could say anything Blake let out one of his gigantic sneezes right on Jake.

“My God! Always on me!”
The grouped laughed and let the topic of the superheroes die.

They moved to the living room to play mafia.  They laughed and joked for hours until Mark received a call from Jessica.
“Hello?”
         “Get it on.” yelled Tyler.
“Shut up! Sorry hello?”
“Hi Mark. Sorry I couldn’t make it.”
“Its ok. What are you doing?”
“My sisters and I went exploring around our house and we got lost. I’m really sorry!”
“It’s ok. What can I do for you?”
“Well me and my sisters found something really weird in the forest around our house. And I was wondering if you wanted to go look at it.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. It’s my birthday present to you.”
“Um..” Mark looked at the clock and noticed it was almost eleven, “sure I think I can go. Just one second”

Mark turned to the group and asked if they wanted to go look at something cool that Jessica found.
“Sure ,”  they all replied.
Mark turned back to his phone, “Ok we’ll be right there”

Mark made sure it was ok with his parents. They wanted him home by twelve thirty if possible. The group headed out and drove to Jessica’s house.