The Miracle Clinic

Overcast clouds swirl over Starlight City on this dreary winter morning. And sitting on his bed looking at them is Marcus Veridan. He lays there for a moment, letting his thoughts gently blow by like the wind outside. Eventually, the young teen wills himself out of bed as he starts his morning routine.

He brushes his teeth in the dull bathroom to the right of his room, then puts on whatever clothes are in his closet, and then makes his way to the kitchen. The fridge door opens as he glances at the food sitting atop cold shelves, he stares at them all as he contemplates what to eat for breakfast. Eventually, he decides to take out a carton of eggs, crack a few open onto a pan, and let them simmer while he also starts up the coffee machine.

The blank, almost stock-photo-like walls catch his eye as he stares off into them, imagining what could have been hanging up on them as his eggs sizzled.

Eventually, with the food now made, Marcus sits down at the lifeless counter in the lifeless house and begins eating. He glances around the counter noticing the absence of the once commonplace notes his parents would always leave for him. Now with those as nothing more than a mere footnote in his memory, Marcus finishes his breakfast and starts to wash the dishes in the sink when…

Ring-Ring-Ring-Ring-Ring!~

Marcus looks as the landline phone buzzes next to him. With one hand still on the dishes, he reaches his other to grab the phone. He answers it before resting the phone on his shoulder so both hands can keep cleaning.

“Hello?” Marcus asks as he scrubs the soap all around the pan.

“Yo Marcus, it’s me, Ronnie!” Ronnie remarks through the phone, “How’s your weekend?”

"Oh, hey Ronnie! It’s been going fine," Marcus states as the water rinses the soap off the pan, "just the same as usual."

"Ah I see,” Ronnie states through the phone before switching topics, “But hey, you excited for the gala tonight?"

"Wait, that's tonight?! I thought it was in December," Marcus states puzzled as he lays the pan on the drying rack

"Dude, it is December. You lose track of time or something?" Ronnie jokingly questions.

Marcus takes a look at the calendar hanging on the wall and notices he hasn’t marked any of the days in weeks.

“I, I guess I have,” Marcus responds as he turns the water off, “But yeah, I’ll be there! We meeting up at Burrito Bistro?”

“Yep! See you there!” Ronnie states before hanging up.

Marcus dries his hands off before setting the landline phone back down. He then walks over to the calendar to take a closer look at things. He flips back to the start of the calendar and sees that he always used to never miss a date on it. That is until…

October 12th, 2013. Just over two months ago. Around the time Marcus told Elizabeth & Alex about…well, everything.

As Marcus then begins to fill out the dates he forgot to mark down, he recalls all the other fun memories he experienced that kept him preoccupied from all this.

He thinks about how he got to meet many new friends, some he never imagined to ever chat with. How many people they’ve helped in the club, both in big and small ways. He even recalls how their new member, Cameron, seems to enjoy going to the club too even if he doesn’t attend all the meetings.

Marcus finally crosses off today’s date – December 8th, 2013 – and sets the marker down. Despite all of those days where he’s gotten to meet so many new friends and faces…do they see him in a similar light? Or are they just tolerating his presence?

The thought appears in Marcus’ mind as he steps outside to get some fresh air, being greeted by the first snowfall of the season as he does so.

Marcus lets out a deep sigh, seeing his breath appear cloudy amongst the cold winter air. As he stands, watching the snow fall down around him, he gets awakened from this tranquility with a loud crash.

“Oh look what you did now!” Someone yells, “This is why I said we didn’t need a couch, we could’ve been just fine with chairs!”

Marcus looks around and spots three people arguing outside the house next door. One of them is a teenage girl around his age who has long black hair with purple highlights, white skin, and blue eyes. She’s also wearing an old gray hoodie with some black sweatpants. The second person is a teenage boy with ginger hair so messy you’d think he just got out of bed, green eyes, white skin littered with freckles, sharp teeth, and one of their eyebrows has a slit. He’s wearing a white hoodie with black stripes on the sleeves, old blue jeans, and red running shoes. The last person who is lifting the couch is a big muscular man with dark skin and brown eyes. He’s wearing a red durag to protect his hair, a white t-shirt over a black leather jacket, and some ripped jeans.

“Hey, how was I supposed to know that thing was heavier than Graham!” The ginger teen defends himself as he takes a look at the couch he broke.

As Marcus watches them, he figures it would just be best to let them handle things themselves, but just as he's about to head back inside he thinks about a few people. That’s when he decides to walk on over and ask, "You guys need a hand with that couch?"

The three look at each other before agreeing.

“Uh sure,” the girl with the long black hair remarks.

After several failed attempts, the group of four finally manage to bring the couch inside the house. Exhausted, the four all rest on the couch.

“I almost broke my arm trying to lift that,” the man in the durag remarks before standing up, “I’m gonna go make a few calls.”

As the man stands up, Marcus looks over at the other two fellow teens. The one with the messy ginger hair is taking a swig of water while the long-haired girl stretches her sore arms.

"Just how heavy was that thing?" Marcus asks.

“Beats me, and thanks for the help dude," the girl with long black hair says.

"Don’t mention it, the name’s Marcus by the way, what’s yours?"

The girl doesn’t respond at first but Blanko quickly chimes in, “My name’s Blanko and she’s Van-”

“Just call me V,” the girl responds as she subtly nudges Blanko.

Blanko seems to have a small sense of realization wash over him as he replies, “Sorry about that Vanessa-”

Blanko looks down at the floor in shame.

“You and your big mouth,” Vanessa sighs.

“Uh, it’s fine, I think Vanessa’s a nice name,” Marcus remarks.

“Thanks but it’s not that it’s just,” Vanessa starts to explain before switching topics by asking, “I take it you’re from the neighborhood?”

“Yeah, I live in the house next door,” Marcus remarks, “What brings you guys here?”

“Oh we’re just renting this for a bit then heading out,” Vanessa explains, “I wanted to go check out the winter gala while those two wanted to do some sightseeing.”

“I see,” Marcus remarks.

The MSA Winter Gala is an annual event where a titan of the fashion industry, The Moon Shadow Affiliate, holds a gala to showcase their upcoming clothing lines and products. The event and the company itself are both located in the northern borough of Starlight City, the one where Marcus & everyone who attends Starlight High reside.

“I’m actually going there too,” Marcus remarks, “I heard they’re going to give out some free clothes and donate the rest to some shelters afterward.”

“That’s…nice of them,” Vanessa remarks as one of her hands squeezes her other arm.

Seeing Vanessa’s bitterness, Marcus asks, "Oh, do you not have a ticket?”

“Y-yeah, they sold out pretty quickly,” Vanessa remarks.

"Well lucky for you, I have an extra one," Marcus says as he hands Vanessa a free ticket.

"You're just gonna give this to me?!" Vanessa asks stunned.

"I already bought a ticket when I got a free one, so I've been meaning to give it to someone," Marcus says.

Vanessa doesn't know what to say as she sits there silent for a moment. Her lips begin to open as she starts to form some words when…

“Thanks, we appreciate it and the help with the couch,” the man in the durag responds, “But we have to go return the moving truck we rented.”

Marcus looks to see that the man has entered back into the room after wrapping up a call. Remembering what Blanko said back outside, Marcus realizes that his name is Graham.

"Oh, okay, it was nice meeting you guys and I'll see you at the Gala, Vanessa!" Marcus says as he leaves.

As Marcus leaves, the trio waits for the door to close before they continue to talk.

“So that kid gave you an extra ticket?” Blanko sighs.

“Yeah,” Vanessa remarks as she takes a look at the ticket in her hand.

“Guess that makes your job easier.”

Vanessa doesn’t respond as she continues to look down at her hand.

________________

“I’m telling you, you guys should listen to my SoundCloud,” X Locke remarks, “I already have one avid listener and that rounds up to like 20 million. I’m basically a celebrity already.”

X Locke is walking down a crowded street chatting about this to Ronnie, Alex, Elizabeth, & Cameron. Night has already begun to fall as the streets are lit by festive orange paper lanterns in the shapes of both moons, suns, and stars alike. The fairy lights that cling from street pole to street pole also have been changed to an orange hue for the occasion. The whole crowd are all making their way toward the building where the MSA Winter Gala is being held; The Jenksin Exhibition Hall.

“Since when did you make music?” Elizabeth asks.

“For like ever really, I’ve got a pretty nice singing voice too,” X Locke remarks before snarkily adding, “Wanna see?”

“I’m good,” Ronnie admits.

“Fine but you better not regret it when I make it big and you see me on all the billboards,” X pouts.

“Maybe that’ll be the case if you didn’t have a face for radio, bub,” Alex replies which gets a few good chuckles out of Ronnie & Cameron.

"Wow, I was just trying to have a civil conversation with you guys for once," X states, "especially since I'll be sitting next to you guys."

"Yeah maybe some other time," Ronnie suggests.

As they reach the gala, they look to see Marcus already at the front waiting for them.

"Sorry we're late, X decided to tag along at the last minute," Elizabeth explains.

"It's fine, I just got here," Marcus explains.

As the group heads inside, Marcus looks around and notices that Vanessa isn't anywhere to be seen. As that thought lingers in his head, he follows everyone into the building and into the exhibition hall, where several chairs are put in front of a huge stage with a golden statue of the letters "MSA" at the back of it.

“They really put out all the stops for this,” Alex remarks, impressed as he wipes some snow off his shoulder.

As they all make their way through the crowd to find a spot, Ronnie begins to talk to Marcus by saying, "Hey you remember that guy who works at my mom’s tattoo parlor?”

"Oh you mean Santiago?" Marcus asks.

"Yeah him, well they're both going to be models for the gala tonight!" Ronnie whispers with a grin on his face.

"How'd that even happen?"

"Oh, I'll tell you later, the thing's starting."

As the lights begin to dim. a man walks up on stage.

“Hello everyone and welcome to the 2013 MSA Winter Gala!” the man announces to a crowd of cheering people, “Now I know you all were expecting Miss Delaware to host these as per usual or even our lovely president, but one’s a bit under the weather and the other’s a bit preoccupied at the moment, so you’ll just have to deal with me – Ronald Sampson – for the night!”

Ronald Sampson, an MSA spokesperson and one of their many fashion designers, waits for the crowd to die down a bit before he continues to speak. He’s currently wearing a formal beige jacket covered in a flower pattern over a blue button-up & black tie, black round sunglasses covering his eyes, formal black pants that are constricted by a brown belt, black dress shoes that shine under the stage light, and a silver ring on his pointer finger.

“Alright now I know most of you are here for the free clothes but that’ll have to wait until after the show,” Ronald explains, “Now then please give it up for our very first model of the night!”

The crowd cheers as a person walks onto the stage. The crowd's cheers turn to confusion as the person who is walking on stage is wearing clothes that are dirty and clearly experienced some wear & tear. The confusion turns to panic as the person who just entered the stage runs towards Ronald and decks him over the head with a blunt object. As people begin to panic, Marcus looks at the stage in shock at the person who just attacked the speaker.

"Vanessa?!"

See You Next Chapter!~