Chapter 2
"Three points!
We're ahead by three points!" Leroy is shaking Cole by the shoulders.
They're both jumping up and down on the sofa.
It creaks and squeaks under their weight but it holds.
"Five more minutes and we'll end first quarter with a three point lead!" Cole shouts back, and sure enough, five minutes later, the pair of them are
tumbling
off the sofa, laughing and shouting.
It's the first time in two whole centuries that anyone other than Belvaria's gotten the World Championship.
"There's a party going on at Nolan's tonight," Cole says as the game breaks for commercials.
They're playing old reruns of ads for outdated things--teleporters, hovercrafts, etc.
"There's
always
a party at Nolan's." Leroy is rummaging around the kitchen for more snacks and comes up empty.
"We need to do some shopping."
Cole snorts.
"With what cash?"
Leroy rolls his eyes.
"Who needs that when you've got the five finger discount?"
Cole heaves a sigh.
Leroy pauses in his last sweep of the kitchen and eyes Cole.
"Oh, c'mon, it's not like we haven't been doing this for years.
Thought you would have gotten used to it by now."
Cole makes a noncommittal noise and slumps back into the sofa, "Call me old-fashioned but, I dunno, stealing just doesn't sit right with me."
"Do we have any other choice?" Leroy makes his way back over to the sofa and leans his arms on the back, peering down at Cole.
His eyes are alight with something a little bit dangerous, a little bit devilish.
"Suppose not..." Cole glances at him and right then, Leroy drops an apple on his face.
"Ow!
Shit--!
That really--hey, where'd you get an apple from?" Cole scrambles up, rubbing at his nose, the apple in his hand, hard and smooth and shiny.
"Guy down the street used to own an orchard--I've been taking care of a few things in there at night, you know the trees that are close enough to pull that gamma tarp over?
And you said you missed fruits and stuff, so... yeah." He trails off at the end, scrunching his nose and scuffing his feet against the floor.
"How'd you learn how to
garden
?" Cole asks, eyebrows in danger of disappearing into his hairline, even as he takes a large bite of the apple and almost groans out in satisfaction.
It's sweet, and crunchy, and right now, it's just about the last good thing left on this whole damn Earth, except for Leroy of course.
Leroy waves a hand and jerks his head, motioning for Cole to follow.
They make their way through the long hallway of the abandoned house, down to the door leading to the basement.
For the most part, they haven't been in there yet--it's only been a couple of weeks since they've moved in and stretching tarp over literally every inch of the roof is a tedious task, but completely necessary for ancient houses like these.
The basement is damp and dark.
Leroy clicks on his pocket fuse and the room lights up with a soft, blue glow.
"Whoa..." Cole's eyes go wide.
"Right?" Leroy says, grinning as he lifts the fuse higher to cast the light about.
The basement is chalk full of
books
.
Encased in Plexiglas and sealed tight into boxes of transparent alloy.
Books, like the ones they've only seen in museums and in holographic projectors (back when they still snuck around into public schools for lessons).
Hundreds upon hundreds of books, their titles in stacked letters, some of them recognizable, others in languages long lost to the ravages of time and the ruthless pace of change.
"This one here, is on gardening.
I found it the other night when you woke me up from snoring too loudly," Leroy says, bending down to push open the lid of a Plexiglas's case, pulling out a tattered volume with a bright yellow and black striped cover--
Gardening for Total Newbies
.
"
Newbies
?" Cole reads, smirking, but Leroy makes to jab him in the side and he lowers his eyes back to the book.
The pages smell like history,
proper
history, and stories.
So, so many stories.
"Right here's the chapter on apple trees, and then over here... there are these fruits call 'cherries' before The First Surge.
Y'know."
"They look yummy."
"Sure do," Leroy says as he flips to another page, the pair of them settling down on the dust-covered basement floor, a pocket fuse between the two of them, huddled over the pages of a book that holds the stories of people from thousands of years ago.
They miss the entire football game
and
Nolan's party but neither of them can remember to care anymore.
Like a diamond in the sky
.
Nighttime is the only time it's really safe to go outside without a thick layer of processed fabric clothing on.
Nighttime usually finds Leroy and Cole splayed out across the roof, staring up at the stars, and tonight, it is no different.
"Which one do you think we'll go to?" Cole asks.
"That one," Leroy says, pointing.
"Hm... that one doesn't look so great, what about that one?" Cole points to another one.
"What's wrong with the one I picked?" Leroy lets his hand fall.