Game Plan (chapter one) (standard:drama, 3369 words)
Author: Sue Simpson (Sooz)	Added: Feb 16 2003	Views/Reads: 3368/2203	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
When Davie recieves a card from the mysterious girl on the bus, he asumes she is asking for a date. Instead he is initiated into a secret club, the members of which made up of the siblings of 'murdered' suicide victims. This could be a bizarre religious s

As bad days went today was worse and Mickey Blaine was glad to be
standing at the bus stop in the icy wind and torrential rain. At least 
being here meant that he was on his way home and another school day had 
come to an end. What made today worse than most was the fact that it 
was Mickey's Sixteenth birthday. He figured that no matter who you are, 
birthdays carry expectations. It's as though everyone has a God given 
right to have a pleasant day on their birthday. But this year, it 
seemed someone had forgotten to remind God that it was his birthday, 
and today had been just like every other day. Now, although going home 
was marginally better than being at school, he had to make jolly and 
pretend that this was the best birthday ever. The thing was, no matter 
how much trouble the folks had gone to, they could never give him the 
one gift he really wanted. No one could. 

Andy McGaskill and two of his sidekicks were pounding towards the bus
stop, Mickey watched their approach as they stomped in puddles and 
soaked all the people they passed. Mickey huddled further into his 
coat, partly against the weather that was worsening by the second and 
partly against the inevitable onslaught of McGaskill and his cronies. 
Instinctively as they went to run behind his back Mickey turned 
sideways on to face them. Sean Blevin pushed into him ramming his 
shoulder hard into the Perspex of the almost useless shelter. At the 
same time McGaskill grabbed the shoulder strap of his sports bag and 
spun him round by it. Mickey almost lost his balance and had to pull 
hard on the other end of the strap to stop McGaskill running away with 
it. 

“Get lost McGaskill you freak,” shouted Mickey. 

The boys ran off down the road laughing and splashing each other in the
puddles. 

A man at the stop smiled a little smile at Mickey and looked relieved
that things hadn't got any worse there. If the thugs had really hurt 
the lad then he would have had a decision to make. Sure he could do the 
British thing and look the other way, but maybe he'd have had to do the 
right thing and intervene. Mickey smiled reassuringly back at the man 
as he hunched his sports bag back on to his shoulder.  The man was 
absolved of any feeling of responsibility and turned away from the 
sadness in the young lad's eyes to face into the biting wind. 

Sports bag that's a laugh. Thought Mickey. He remembered briefly how
much he used to love playing football, funny even the cold felt colder 
now. 

When the doors of the bus opened a small cloud of body steam came off
before the three disembarking passengers. A lady struggled to get her 
brolly open before stepping off the last step and into the nasty 
weather. She almost poked him in the eye and was either too rude to 
apologise, or just plain didn't see him standing there. It seemed that 
since he'd been back at school, Mickey was either the focus of 
everybody's attention, or just plain wasn't seen at all. Nothing felt 
‘normal' anymore. 

His left leg dragged behind him ever so slightly when he boarded the
bus, and he had to hitch awkwardly while struggling with his cumbersome 
bag as he climbed the steps. Of course the only seat available was 
towards the rear, three rows from the back, so he had to endure the 
gamut of “Excuse me's” and “Sorry's” while he bumped and bundled his 
way to the seat. The large man already occupying the window-side place 
made a show of moving over but put his rounded bottom back in exactly 
the same position as it had been before he raised. Mickey mumbled a 
“Thank-you.” And flopped gratefully into his three-inch of seat. 

She was there. Mickey blushed and felt awkward after his clumsy entry.
He daren't look at her, would she be laughing at him? But after his 
peripheral glance he instantly forgot about the cold that had seeped 
through his clothing and wrapped around his bones. He thought about her 
a lot and her presence on the bus made the nightmare journey to and 
from school bearable. She always sat alone, or at least she always 
seemed to be alone, where was the giggling side-kick that teenage girls 
seemed to be permanently adhered to? She was gorgeous, heck she even 
had boobs, but that wasn't what attracted her to Mickey. On his very 
first day back at school she smiled at him. Of course she would never 
know what that one warm smile meant to him, but she seemed nice.  A 


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