Chapter Five: Blue
blue: adj. depressed in spirits; dejected; melancholy.
"Hey Theresa," Odie greeted the redhead as she entered the brownstone, hands resting on the thick deli-style sandwich he had just created. "What's up?"
The girl gritted her teeth and slammed the back door, the cheerily painted metal of its surface rattling on its hinges as she stormed into the kitchen, tossing her keys down on the kitchen table. Reaching over to grab a bottle of orange juice in the fridge, Theresa sat down heavily on the chair across from Odie. "You know the school play?"
"Yeah," he answered, mouth full of lettuce, bread and ham, "you've been talking about it for months. You're in it, right?"
Theresa scowled. "Yes, I am," she said, taking a sip of juice. "And I've been telling you all that I want you to come next week. It's not every day you'll see me playing an Amazon queen with a name that sounds like a jungle animal's."
Odie gestured for her to continue, setting down his sandwich. "Course we're coming."
"Well, you might be coming, but apparently everyone else is too busy to watch me say about six lines. Neil has a photoshoot for some stupid face cream he's never even heard of, and Herry's going to visit his grandmother. Archie and Atlanta are, apparently, going to see some sci-fi movie marathon they've been dying to go see for weeks, and they've managed to get tickets for opening night. And I thought he'd want to come but Jay says it's the night of a lifetime star-wise, because some stupid comet is going to be streaking across a sky it hasn't seen in four hundred years and he's just got to see it."
Theresa's face was stormy as she glared down into her glass of orange juice. She bit her lip and muttered, "I didn't know nobody wanted to see it."
"I'm coming," Odie said sympathetically.
"Well," Theresa sighed, "at least you are."
--
Theresa sat quietly backstage, fiddling with the sleeve of her costume and blowing the tendrils of hair hanging over her face away. She sighed, thoughts on her six best friends. It felt kind of like she'd been stabbed in the heart, five of her friends turning their backs on her when she wanted them to be with her the most. She didn't usually try for acting parts in school plays but she'd joined this one because she'd known she would have their support. It was just too bad she didn't.
Rachel, a shy girl who had been helping backstage, came up to the crestfallen descendant of Theseus and gently tapped her shoulder. "Yeah?" Theresa answered dejectedly, not bothering to look up.
"Your friends sent you some flowers," Rachel said quietly with a smile, depositing a fragrant, colourful bouquet of gorgeous blossoms into her arms. Theresa gaped. "Oh, and they told me to tell you to meet them outside for ice cream after the show," Rachel added, then gave one last timid smile before leaving to fix up a falling curtain on set.
Theresa's heart sang. Friends? Plural friends? Did she really mean that Odie had brought the others, too?
Before long, Theresa was called up to the stage for the opening scene, and she stood smoothing her dress with a genuine grin. As the curtain opened languidly and her gaze fell upon the six of her friends sitting in the front row, Jay giving her a thumbs-up, she looked over at Odie and gave a small nod of deepest appreciation.
He grinned.
blue screen of doom: n. the error screen on a computer as characterized by a blue background and black or white blinking text.
"Odie?" Atlanta called from somewhere upstairs. The smaller boy's eyes opened sleepily from where he looked to be dozing off next to Herry, who was watching a soap opera starring a curvy young woman and a heavyset muscleman. He adjusted his crooked glasses and dumped his bowl of chips on to Herry's lap, where the Herculean teenager started munching away happily.
Trampling up the stairs and searching from the source of her voice, Odie entered Atlanta's room, where she sat in front of her computer, poking dejectedly at the keyboard. "I don't know what I did," she moaned, turning on her chair and looking at him pleadingly. "The stupid error screen won't go away. I've even tried turning it off and on a couple times."
"You probably let in a virus or a Trojan - see, I tell you all to install firewalls, but nooo, your computers are all so wonderful..." Odie trailed off, edging in front of Atlanta's computer and trying a combination of keystrokes. "That should do it."
The screen flashed black several times with a few odd noises, then resumed its evil blue display, although now decidedly upside-down. "Or it won't," Odie added, now thoroughly intrigued. "Hey Atlanta, what were you doing before it crashed?"
Atlanta suddenly went pink. "Um, I was, uh, typing up something. For... for school. Why? Did you see it? Cause it was for school. Honestly. Really."
Odie raised his eyebrows. That girl is crazy, he thought secretly, and attempted another few keystrokes. The screen display flipped back, right-side up. "Ookay. Well, there's not gonna be much to see so you go downstairs or something. I think Archie said he was bringing home doughnuts. I'll call you when I've finished."
--
"Odie?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you done yet? It's kind of hard to sleep, what with the glaring blue light and all."
The dark-skinned boy continued tapping away frantically at the keyboard. He had been sitting on that computer chair for hours now, and Atlanta shook her head a little as she sat up, turning on her bedside lamp. The floor near his feet was littered with empty Red Bull cans, the blanketing night outside was pitch-dark, and she hitched her eyebrows at the older boy. When you got down to it, Odie was utterly neurotic. "Look, Odie, if you can't fix it, why don't you just wait until morning and get some rest or something? I could send it over to the techno-Gree-"
"No, I can fix it!" Odie interrupted, eyes glued to the unchanging error screen. His voice was uncharacteristically loud, irritated, and accompanied by a large side serving of desperation. "I can fix anyth- AHA!"
Atlanta looked up wearily. "You fixed it?"
"Yeah!" Odie answered excitedly, still staring at the screen, which had now reverted to its state from before it had crashed. He faltered slightly. "Um, Atlanta? I don't think writing a love letter to Archie was any part of your homework."
She very accurately threw a pillow at the back of his head as she went very, very red.
blue in the face: adj. exhausted and speechless, as from excessive anger, physical strain, etc.
As the huge beast roared, coiling tail whipping above their heads, Neil gave a whimper, arms protectively encircling his head. "How'd he get his hands on the sphinx? I thought that one died because of that guy Eddie or whatever."
"Oedipus," Odie corrected, one arm stretched out as the opposing hand tapped away at the screen strapped comfortably on to his arm, a new invention he had recently come up with. Connected wirelessly to the internet and he could look up information on a monstrous ally of Cronus' in a heartbeat. "And she's supposed to be asking us a riddle which, if we can't answer, will subject us to untimely deaths."
Archie staggered backwards as the sphinx swept a feathered wing across the ground towards him, letting his whip fly and deeply cut her side. She roared again, a kind of screeching lion's call, and stood on her back paws, wings unfurling and ready for take-off. "Sorry, but she seems more likely to kill us all than ask us stupid riddles, Odie!" Archie yelled, taking aim with his whip again.
"I guess we've just got to ditch that thought, then," Odie muttered, tapping away.
Theresa was, with difficulty, making her way over to Odie, in between thwacking the beast with an end of a nunchuck every once in a while. "Odie!" she said, kicking the sphinx's tail with a leap. She landed on her hands and somersaulted back to her feet. "Odie, I sense - I sense something isn't right about this sphinx. It's almost like it... like it isn't real."
"Isn't real, huh?" Odie muttered, glancing back up at the sphinx, which was now trying to swing the huge form of Herry off her tail. "Must be some kind of simulation, enhanced with Cronus' magic... well if you're gonna play it like that, Cronus..."
Minutes passed, and the six battling the sphinx were getting more and more weary. No matter what they did, the beast always seemed to recover. Jay gave a grunt as he slashed a deep cut into the sphinx's leg, looking around quickly.
"Where's Odie, guys?" he yelled as Atlanta shot a blistering succession of lasers at the sphinx's face.
"I'm here," Odie piped up, emerging from behind the bush he was crouching behind. "Don't do anything for a couple seconds, okay?"
Archie ducked a swerving swipe the sphinx aimed in his direction. "Why...?"
"Just trust me," Odie said, grinning.
--
Cronus watched the stolen computer screen with relish, certain his simulated sphinx would take those pesky teenagers out (or at least one, leaving the world in his hands - he did so like prophecy ultimatums). Turning to gesture a giant over, platter of grapes at the ready, Cronus turned back to see his sphinx suddenly stop and shudder, magical pixels shaking, and disappear into nothing.
He slammed both fists into the table as the computer suddenly crashed, face contorted with anger. A white display had taken over the screen, a series of blue letters centered on what should have been his view of the stupid teenagers getting killed.
Cronus,
Happy Wednesday!
Much love,
Odie
A/N: Sorry for the enormous wait - I've really no excuse xD. Indigo is up next with Theresa :)