The Wonders of Ink

PROLOGUE

"Are you sure you want THIS one?" the tall lean tattoo artist asked his newest clients. She nodded her head vigorously but said nothing.

"I should warn you that this place is. . .different to say the least." he tried to discourage her again but got the same result so instead of chasing after a lost cause he readied his machine, needles and ink.

Once he was completely ready to begin the bell to signal a new costomer rang and as the man looked up he saw the boy who always came with this girl and saw that he wanted a tattoo to match his little friend. The artist shook his head and got to work on this girl and then the boy who would, undoubtedly, be changed forever.

CHAPTER ONE

"Earth to Clayton!" a 15 year old bleach blonde girl yelled at her best friend. She was waving her hands around in his line of vision to try and get his attention, when that didn't work she tried to find what he was staring at.

"Why are you looking at them so weird? There just a group a punks, nothing real special about them. Well maybe that tall boy with the long hair he's kinda cute--if your into that kinda thing. For you maybe--" she shut up when he finally looked at her because she had begun to ramble.

"You know you talk a whole lot for a "shy girl" Stephanie. Sometimes I wish you'd just shut up and let me have my ADD moments." Clayton raised his eyebrows at her waiting to see what she'd say to his ragging on her.

"Well those moments are way to frequent for me to let you have every one of em. And I'm only shy if I'm with people I don't know." she smiled and laughed as they both stared at the group of kids. All the boys had tattoo sleeves and all the girls had lots of tattoos too but not near as many them. Each one of their hairstyles and colors was different but still somewhat the same, with the punk rocker look of bright colors and strange do's.

Clayton and Stephanie had been standing silently watching in fascination when their bus pulled up to the curb and finally broke the line of vision and the akward silence. This, of coarse, was Stephanie's cue to get back to her useless before school babble.

"Man, they had alot of tattoos! They had so many I could barely tell what some of them were supposed to be." she told Clayton as they walked to their usual seats and got comfortable. Clayton just nodded but when Stephanie looked at him to start up the conversation again he just blurted whatever came to his mind first.

"I liked the black haired guys sleeves. They had dragons on them...I think." this was enough for Stephanie to keep talking and so did.

"I really liked the blonde girls tattoo on her neck. It was like this flower with a sword coming out of it. It was awesome looking!" she started laughing again for some reason in her head and so Clayton thought it an appropriate time to make a joke.

"How could you even tell she was blonde? I saw at least six other colors on her head." he showed the number on his fingers while Stephanie covered her mouth in laughter.

"I know a fellow blonde when I see one, and she sooo was one." she ran her fingers through her long straight hair while Clayton admired, far too much than a best friend should, in secret.

"That is not the natural color of yours so don't go claiming things only blondes get. I still remember when you were brunette and had it cut short." Clayton snickered and ran his hands through her hair and slowed down just enough for her to notice.

"Don't be bringing up those days! That was sooo long ago and were in highschool now." she took his hand gently and quickly moved it away from her hair and onto his lap as she sighed. She knew all too well Clayton's feeling but wasn't a big dater. She had only had around two boyfriends in her whole life and Clayton had been with her through both of them. Though Stephanie had shown some signs of having the same feelings for him she had never even hinted that they were to get together, so Clayton had just stayed in the background flirting here or there. It was different now though, more insistent, and Stephanie was definitely noticing.Clayton knew that she didn't like to dwell on these facts so he changed the subject.

"Speaking of school, are you ready for our first day as freshmen?" he grinned, knowing she was scared to death of being in highschool but still excited.

"Oh! I'm still sooo scared! What if I get lost or I don't have what I need or. . . I upset an upper classmen! Oh no!"

"Calm down. Everthings gonna be fine, ok?" Clayton put his hand on her arm that was now fanning at herself, but when he spoke began fanning him.

"You have to stay with me ALL day! Even if we have know classes together, in between classes you come straight to me. No exceptions." her eyes opened wide and she began to breathe easier as Clayton laughed.

"It's not funny. I'm really stressing out here, Clay! You'll stay with me though, right?" she had frowned at him at first but then took on her pleading pouty face that she knew always worked on him, even though he would do anything for her anyway.

"Of course!" he said to her but added in a whisper as Stephanie turned away, "You know I always will." A short akward silence passed that only Calyton felt but thankfully was ended when the bus stopped at the highschool.

". . . It's so big. . . isn't it Clay?" Stephanie asked with a wide smile on her face and a curious excited twinkle in her eye.

"Yea, sure. Let's go and get in line, it's already pretty long." Clayton pointed at the group of freshmen that came out the door getting their schedules. When Stephanie was still staring he grabbed her hand and pulled her out into the surging crowd. They were jostled every which way but Clayton was strong enough to cut a path for them without much fuss.

"You think we'll have a lot of classes together?" Clayton asked as soon as they secured there place in the giant line of stressed out teens.

"Oh I hope so. I don't wanna be in a class full of people I barely know. I mean we should be in just about every class together, we picked all the same classes and requested the same hours for them. . ." Stephanie kept talking while wringing her hands and Clayton nodded while scanning the crowd just to see who he knew and who he didn't. He saw Scott Trace, a football player who had been here since he was born, standing with a group of cheerleaders flirting heavily. He said something and they all laugh and one lays their hand on his arm and asked him something making Scott look uncomfortable. He finally answered and watched the girls' eyes widen and they started laughing again but not in a flirty way, that's for sure.

"HA! Scott just got dissed!" Clayton exclaimed, interrupting Stephanie mid complaint.

"Wha--? Oh! That is funny, what happened?" she is mildly annoyed at the interruption but is used to it from Clayton so turned to see the embarrassed Scott.

"Those cheerleaders, who I guess are juniors or seniors or something, were flirting with him then they asked how old he was and when he said he was a freshmen they all laughed and walked away! Ha!" Clayton giggles as they make their way to the front of the line and the students at the table ask for last names. Clayton is paying no attention like always to Stephanie answered for him and herself.

"Mead. Shole." She jerked her thumb at herself then Clayton who finally noticed they were at the front of the line and looked apologetically at Stephanie and the students handing them their schedules. Stephanie grabbed hers as fast as she could and scanned it quickly then snatched Clayton's before he could even see what his first class was.

"Oh we have almost every class together! The only ones we don't have together are Biology and World History. I have Biology 2nd hour and you have World History then I have World History 6th hour and you have Biology." Stephanie handed his schedule back and he looked it over trying to remember where each room was and wondering which hall locker number S134 was in.