Who Wishes Upon a Star Ch. 01

Hello, dear readers!

This is my first story submission on the site. As a longtime reader I have had hard time finding stories that resonated with me, stories with which I didn't have some clear issues. However, the stories I liked at least contained some elements that clicked and which I wanted to see explored some.

I need to declare that I mean not to offend any productive writers of the site. This being my first submission I believe the majority here have significantly more experience writing than I do. Consequently, I look forward to constructive criticism.

Now here is the bad news: If you expect a quick, sex-filled read, I must disappoint you. This is the first chapter in what I have envisioned as a large, evolving narrative. In the words of great Sean Bean, sex is coming. There is sexual content in this chapter, but don't expect much of it. I intend to include more of it in the future as I see fit so I hope this chapter intrigues you enough to continue reading.

All characters are, of course, at least 18-years-old.

Without further ado, enjoy!

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Fill my heart with song

Let me sing for evermore

You are all I long for

All I worship and adore

In other words, please be true

In other words

In other words

I love you

Sally didn't properly estimate the time needed to edit the recording, much less to polish the thumbnail or even upload the entire thing. Two to 20 minutes on deciding what to do next ended with a conclusion that the recording was itself a rushed piece of crap better left to time after school.

A voice came from the hall, "Don't expect me to be home when you come back. The breakfast is on the table, as well as the money if you want to order anything. Yes, also please wake up your brother. He won't answer me."

"Sure, Mom. I am going to call you when we come back."

"See ya, sweetie!"

"Bye, Mom! Have fun!"

Luke's bedroom was smaller than Sally's. It was probably not intended for sleeping in the first place, but when they had to move to a cheaper house someone had to concede. Plus, unlike Sally, he had no ambitious plans that required a larger room. Sharing a room was in neither of the twins' minds.

"I am not going to knock twice, dingus."

Waiting for what seemed like rather lengthy seconds of silence, Sally entered the unlocked room. The damp smell was the first thing that assailed her, building up from the creeping scent at the other side of the door. It was clear Luke had had his hands full. A piece of tissue lay beside the bed on which a scrawny 18-year-old tried to savor the last effect of that brief male experience when combining your thoughts about Teletubbies and the history of the Protestant Reformation could make perfect sense.

"You had nothing better to do, wasn't it?" Sally commented with way too much weariness to sound angry or interested, but enough to stress her disgust.

Luke stared at the ceiling for some time before answering not so truthfully: "It was a morning wood."

"Look, we had better go in the next 30 minutes. I have already got dressed, prepared everything for the pool and I just need to eat something. You, on the other hand, are..."

"I am aware, thank you. I felt like staying in my bed."

"And doing you know what."

Luke kept his gaze steady, barely acknowledging his sister. "There won't be a better time today, that's for sure. I will need to go through this BS sane."

"Please, just don't go as usual and everything would be fine. It's not like you're going to ruin your reputation by not going. Quite the contrary."

"I know! I've changed my mind; things are a bit different now and that's all you need to know Seally."

"Don't you dare!"

"Oh, yes, sorry for using the name more than half the school knows you by. I apologize, oh thou high and mighty. All those water associations might have made it slip. Be assured that more than 67% of sharks don't inhabit pool water so you should be perfectly safe."

"Go fuck yourself!" Sally growled and slammed the door.

"With pleasure! By the way, don't dare teach me about class!" No sooner had Luke said it, he hurled the copy of Sally's manga lying beside him at the door. The exuberant cover with two cutesy schoolgirls passionately gazing at each other indicated that the plot was of course the most immersive part. Just ignore all the licking.

Luke buried his head into the pillow, exhaling as if he wished to smother himself to numbness and go back to sleep. The year was ending and everything that wasn't shitty had already quickly turned to shit. But Luke knew he couldn't let himself drown in his self-imposed misery. The worst thing in these four years of school was already happening. "Be the change you want to be or whatever." He could say all the quotes because they sounded good. Putting them into practice was much harder when they were all somewhat vague or, to be more honest, they required effort Luke wouldn't always give. The worst thing was that he knew he had to. So many times, he had delayed and delayed, always having something else to do, either more important or less difficult. As much as his cynicism grounded him, the first step had to be taken. Even in the circumstance he had gotten himself into.

And the first step was taken, as he rolled his body off his bed, dragging himself face-down to the dusty floor like a corpse. He wondered if grease and sweat would be collected by squishing his room. "Sally certainly believes that", he guessed, "but I hope I keep it at that."

In the last moments of lethargy, it felt productive to do nothing and just stare. In the atrocious chaos that existed beneath his bed, Luke glared at the wooden box with superfluous Persian patterns adorning it. A small note on it read: To Luke, open when you see it fit, use how you see fit. You're my king!

Ever since he received it, he had had no wish to remember its existence, much less to open it. The dead man who had given it didn't deserve to be remembered. But during these last days, it had crept back into his thoughts. He wouldn't say he had turned desperate, one day can change everything and he was there to act upon it.

Packing his rucksack with the necessities, he descended the stairs and saw his sister still there sipping the last drop of coffee knowing full well Luke wouldn't bother himself with making another one. Both tried to sustain their silent treatment against the other, but it soon became unbearable to stay in a room where you only heard the annoying sound of crunching cookies and gulping coffee. "We better get going," Sally muttered.

Thirty minutes of walk it took to get to school was equally troublesome for them to spend mostly in their mind. Vistas of their neighborhood concrete weren't exactly exciting.

"Is it because of Vicky?" Sally said bluntly.

"Maybe. Is it so obvious?"

"So, what is it? I can't see why you are going to this thing now when you have avoided going every year before. It's not so obvious."

Luke gave himself some time to conjure a response. "Vicky might be THE problem. Or where the entire issue started. When she said she was leaving I didn't think much of it. I mean, at first. Just how many people had moved out in these 4 years? Well, when I went to bed that night I-"

"Jacked off?" Sally inquired with a sly eyebrow raise.

"Yes. I mean no, but -- Just shut up!"

"Sorry, sorry honestly. That was a bad thing to say. I reckon that night was worse than usual."

"When Vicky said that day in class that she was moving away, I didn't take note of it. It just was yet another smart person moving from this God-forsaken shithole and she is so much smarter than anyone, she really is."

"Well, that night when I came back to my room, I just...didn't feel good. I couldn't go to sleep; I was busy hating everything. There hasn't been a person I hated more than the prick sleeping in my bed, eating Mom's food, using all my stuff, living my life and ruining it. I remember it turning out differently. And now, Vicky and I are not even in the same country anymore."

Alone with his thoughts for a month or so, Luke now felt at ease, keeping to some level of reservation.

"It wasn't just that I'd never see her again. Back then I said that I could always contact her somehow, but that's where the entire point was. I can always call her in the future, but in all these years we have barely even talked. And I was never the one to start the conversation. Usually, it was just her asking for a pen or whatever. Especially after she moved from next door. And even then, I didn't muster a sentence. I just didn't give a fuck! She just smiled; she was always nice, maybe she gave more fucks than me. Like hell she did! She had found herself someone, just like Chelsea and co. But that night, I was whole alone and just reflected on all these years in high school, staring at myself in the mirror for good measure. I felt like shit. I told myself I didn't care, but I learned not to listen to the prick anymore. I'd expected that something would eventually just happen, and it will not. Nothing will just happen and it for sure won't happen without me doing something about it because ..."

"That's all I have to say about that." Luke looked at his sister whose expression stood completely calm with tired eyes gazing at the pavement.

"I get it," Sally said faintly.

"But, but... the Shire, the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, the Helm's Deep?!"

"I already said I'm sorry."

"One does not simply reject the LOTR Extended Edition marathon, Luke son of ... Marion."

"What can I say?"

As much as he wished not to, Charlie blew a resigned breath of bummer to Luke's determined refusal. As per usual, they waited for the first class at their reserved spot, sitting beside the wall of the cafeteria exit. Not many students went there, and the only annoyance was represented by cafeteria workers taking their smoking breaks now and then. The smell of leftovers of all the students and the staff was something that had become easily associated with relief from all the stresses and boredom of school life. Besides trading card duels and exchanges of opinions regarding things they had read or watched, ranging from your run-of-the-mill comic book movie to some piece of gaming news that was supposed to tickle their nostalgia, Charlie and Luke had for long been prone to a conversation even when they quite diverged in knowledge and enthusiasm.

The reputation as recluses had followed them all the way since middle school, but it was something they had accepted and sometimes taken pride in. It wasn't so for Luke any longer.

"Are you mad?" Luke began to worry.

"Sort of. The marathon is a tradition."

"I'm sorry. Truly. I can say I'm not doing it entirely of my own free will. I'm gonna make it up to you. Whatever you say."

"Dude, I don't care (though I'll keep that in mind). I will, however, be perfectly honest with you. I don't know what the hell do you expect by going there. You are going to the lion's den. Don't expect to get laid in a lion's den."

"Well...maybe. Actually, maybe you're right, but this isn't about reputation."

"It seems so to me."

"I don't want to explain."

"Suit yourself but listen to me! There is nothing there that would improve your situation for the better. There is nothing there that you would make you popular with ...those people. Luke, they will eat you alive. They don't want you there."

"Worst case scenario, I get bored and go home."

"Or you could watch the entire LOTR trilogy, Extended Editions, and experience the reason why humanity was created yet again. Just look at yourself. You don't fit with them and in swim shorts you'll make a great cosplay for Gollum. To be clear, Alpha Male like me is not someone to be proud of their looks."

"Thanks! I do appreciate the compliment."

A moment of silence passed. Charlie didn't want to dissuade his friend anymore and he didn't wish to continue the bickering and awful jokes.

"I could grab my swim shorts if..."

"I want to do this alone."

"I feel like you are going to war," Charlie scratched the back of his head carrying an exaggerated jovial expression to lighten the mood.

"You're the one to compare it to going into a lion's den." Luke smiled and tried to follow Charlie with less a combative approach.

"True, true. You'll see some nice things down there though."

"Oh, hell yeah! The only reason why I am even going." Luke amplified his sarcasm levels.

"Wait, will Miss Anderson also go swimming?"

Luke's eyes glowed with excitement for a second before he remembered the obvious.

"I wish, but she is probably going to drink coffee with other teachers. And since she has trouble wearing the most normal of normal clothes then I don't see them allowing her to wear a bikini."

"There are worse things to die for! But I know who you actually want to see." Charlie raised an eyebrow accompanied by a smug smirk.

Luke's mind returned to today's morning, to his fantasies used for quick entertainment. Chelsea occupied his head yet again.

Fill my heart with song

Let me sing for evermore

You are all I long for

All I worship and adore

In other words, please be true

In other words

In other words

I love you

Sally listened to and watched the closing number performed by Tiffany Brzezinski followed by applause from the audience made currently only of Drama Teacher Bennings.

"Ok, crew it looks passable. Tiffany, read Act II again for Christ's sake and don't find yet more words you can't pronounce. Jason, move away from that tree. The horse must be seen by the audience. We have an hour or so. Get moving people!"

And so, Sally and the cast went on preparing the hall before the students arrived. Albeit modest in its presentation and usually held in the school's gym, this little production managed to keep on living for the beginning of winter and summer holidays while avoiding budget cuts in the process. Miraculously, to be frank. To the rest of the students, it wasn't more than a groan-worthy delay before the real show started. For the school, it was primarily designed as one last injection of culture before semi-supervised debauchery.

Mr. Bennings was a prick molded out of pretentiousness, with a beard and a ponytail that were supposed to present the symbol of the fight against the machine in whatever circles he frequented. That look with stench fouled by a cigarette after a cigarette, perfectly resonated with the students as it just added to their imagination; he was a goat that had recently achieved human form.

The drama classes still attracted students prepared to go through Bennings's heckling. It was all based on one fanciful promise. For all its cheapness and Bennings's refusals to adapt anything but his own original work, there was a quasi-promise that made it all possibly worth it for them. 10 years ago, a student named Lisa Credence played a leading role and didn't continue attending the following year. Not long after, there she was on Broadway. Coincidence is what most people did say. But Bennings abused the fact and supposedly, she was discovered through a recording of his play. It being true or not, all those aspiring actors, musicians, and singers of Saturnine Lake were giving their all for a whiff of hope that they would one day leave this town and achieve their preconceived destiny. Sally had been in the group since she entered high school, just like most of the cast.

"Jesus Christ! You'll do fine."

"Maybe ..."

"C'mon Tiff, don't do this again. We already know, it's the pressure of--."

"Exactly! The pressure. And memorizing this entire thing has been a pain in my butt. Singing will be easy, thank goodness."

The cast gathered in the circle waiting for the show to start. Sean argued with Tiffany regarding her role. For three years, they had been Mr. Bennings's go-to choices for the protagonists.

"How is it different than every single goddamn year before?" Sean said assuredly. Luke would say a man deserved some time to act like a king if he could be a part of the drama club, the school's football and basketball team, the debate team, the student newspaper, the excuse for a student government and win a few competitions in between. Add to that the title of the school's "pretty boy" and you got Sean. He was an easy guy to both love and hate for both justified and unjustified reasons. Fortunately for Sean, he had reached the point of not giving a fuck.

The girl with the softest, the sweetest, the cutest smile, face, the most vibrant light-brown hair, those hazel eyes, and that adorable nose. If Sean's attitude bordered on smugness, Tiffany's was uncharted land to anything more than irritation. That dorky laugh to each one of your jokes seemed so genuine that you couldn't but feel warm inside even though you knew it wasn't a very good one. It wasn't hard to see why Mr. Bennings always chose her. Who could play a likeable school outcast better than her? But that smile, that waist, those...

"Sally?"

"What?" she was snapped out of her daydream by Tiffany's interruption.

"How difficult was your text?" Sally didn't realize that the conversation had changed into each member recounting their experience. Seemingly more out of boredom than out of frank interest.

"Well, ummm...."

"Well, I can't say I blame you Seally. I would've gotten lost in that entire paragraph," Jason took an immediate opportunity to strike a joke in an exhausting monotone,

Tiffany punched him lightly in the shoulder: "Oh, shut up! You're just a horse's head."

"Yeah, but I am like, a metaphor or something. I peer behind a tree and take a shit or whatever."

"You could've at least not come high at the premiere." Sean criticized.

"The premiere? I don't want to break it to you, but this is a school play, we won't ever do it again. I also didn't come here high, I got high while here. Like, behind my tree." Not even weed could cure his boredom so Jason just spewed "smarter-than-thou" truth to get some type of reaction which didn't come because Jason wasn't someone to take seriously nor was the truth in question seen as especially clever.

"Don't listen to him, Sally. What did you want to say?" Tiffany asked again wearing that same smile that made her look genuinely captivated. Necessary confidence boost for Sally to gather her thoughts and answer.

"No, I mean, I don't know how good I would I be in the main role. I don't really like singing." Sally didn't feel like discussing it further, finishing with a noticeable twinkle of silence.

Tiffany noticing a downer approaching said: "You just think that", adding her buoyant smile at the end and putting her hand on Sally's.

Sally answered with a much more bashful beam and a flat "thank you". Though she suspected it was just Tiffany's usual way of being nice, nevertheless Sally knew her words didn't properly describe how welcoming was to hear that from her. But in situations like these, she just wished to get away from the conversation.

While the rest of the cast had quickly diverged from the initial topic, Sean was still observing Sally and Tiff with keen interest. "I think it was George Eliot who said that it's never late for you to be --"

"BABY!!!" The shriek was followed by a leaping hug from behind Sean's back.

"I just wanted to wish you good luck. I bet you're gonna rock everyone's socks off," Megan Hill said with a giggle and a barrage of kisses all around Sean's head.

Sean tried to see the faces of his colleagues who were all trying to evade his gaze and occupy themselves with anything. The first expression he tried to find was Tiffany's whose fake disinterest was betrayed by a more sullen expression. Megan was the elephant in the room that literally entered it.