Akuma Hanbun - Melissa Kay Nguyen (nonfiction book recommendations .TXT) 📗

Chapter One
The sun was shining on this beautiful Sunday morning. Today was going to be another one of those days, and to top it all off, I had a major headache. Sighing, I forced myself out of bed and nearly tripped over my junk on the way to the bathroom. I did my daily routine, felling like a programmed robot, and almost falling to my doom, walking downstairs. Wasn't this morning perfect? I finished my morning gag with breakfast and headed towards Jayrel's house. There everything would lighten up, hopefully.
"Hey Jay!" I almost sang. He was one of my bestest friends since forever. When we were little no one could say his name right. In the name Jayrel, the 'R' was silent. Finally, we all just called him Jay to make things easier. In high school, you want to make sure your name is short and unnoticeable . . . unless you wanted to be noticed.
"Sup Liz!" Jay replied. My name was harder for people than his was. My name is Alizza. It sorta sounds like Alissa but with a 'Z.' I don't really see how that’s hard, but I guess some people just have issues. I wonder if Jay ever thought the same for his name. So many things to think of. . .
Jay and I talked and I explained how my morning was such a thrill ride. We laughed sometimes, the headache got a awkward silence from us. The headache was rather unusual because I don’t remember ever being sick before and I had woken up from a strange dream with a horrible headache. My head felt like humpty dumpty. It explodes and tries to put it back together again. But no matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to fix it. I didn’t tell Jay because it wasn’t really this big of a deal; it was probably just a migraine or something.
Jay and I hung out at the mall and then I sighed in the middle of him trying to stuff as much slices of pizza he could into his mouth. Sometimes, I think he has the mind of a three-year-old inside a seventeen-year-old body. He gave me this look that was rather funny because his face was all puffed up and pinchy from the pizza stuffing.
"Wahh wong?" he chocked out. I looked at his face to see is he had genuine concern playing in his face, but all I saw was a stuffed face, beautiful light blue eyes (with dark emerald green specks), and dirty blond hair. What I saw was a somewhat immature hot best friend. It was kind of weird to think Jay was hot. I silently scolded myself and shuddered.
"Nothing, just bored," I lied. I had sighed because my headache returned, and the hurt was even worse than before. Growing annoyed, I groaned and clutched my head, massaged my temples. Totally forgetting that Jay was with me, I left the table without a word and that knocked up the pain even more. Jay finished his pizza and tired to walk me out to my car, but then I had this sudden flash of anger and guilt. I slapped his hand away, gave him a glare, and then sat down in my car. Jay gasped like I had just decided to rob a bank and then he gave me his 'what-the-heck-Liz?' expression.
"Ah Liz?" he asked.
"What?" I snapped.
"Your eyes turned red for like, five seconds," he said, his eyes wide. Really? Was he lying? There was no way my eyes did that. I mean how could it? That wasn’t normal eye behavior! Something definitely weird was going on. Why would it start now? I’ve been doing the same thing for the past couple of years, so why change everything now?
I got up from the table and left Jay sitting at the table by himself. My brain’s voice told me to go, leave, and don’t look back. I really did just want to go curl up in my bed and wait for Mom to come home. A nearly sprinted out of the mall and locked myself in my car. I sat there and tried to do some deep breathing or whatever those yoga people did. A voice, not my brain’s, whispered something. It was soft at first and I couldn’t make out the words. Then it got louder and faster, it was then I totally freaked out.
The voice had been a little girl’s voice. She was saying, “Come play with me, I’m waiting. Come play with me, I’m waiting. Come play. . .” Was I going crazy? Then, out of nowhere, the little girl’s voice screamed a blood-curdling scream. I looked around, thinking it was somebody nearby, to convince myself I wasn’t crazy. But no, I was alone in my car, so it was just in my head.
There was a spreading, aching pain all on my back and around my arms. It seemed to pop out of nowhere, like a lot of things lately. Only it didn’t stop, it hurt bad enough that I was sure that I was going to be ripped apart any second. I wanted to howl and scream, but there were people walking by and glancing back at me every now and then. What should I do? Where was Jay? Yes, I finally panicked and yes, people were staring. Well, forget them, I was in pain.
I clutched my body and cried. The pain was beyond unbearable. Of course, as if on cue, Jay came running out. Seeing him, I groaned and then a huge wave of emotions just… just appeared. Guilt, anger, pain, fear, and a pinch of happiness. Just a pinch though, maybe even less. Jay rapped his knuckles on the window and the noise annoyed me. A look of concern flashed on his face and to me, at the moment, it was like pity and I didn’t need his stinkin’ pity. Growing irritated, I sighed and sigh, and rolled down the window.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Oh yeah, I’m absolutely fine if you consider excoriating pain is okay. If you think that a voice in your head screaming its butt off is okay. If you think that getting easily annoyed by one of your best friends is okay, then yeah I’m totally fine,” I snapped. He put his hands up in defeat and I heard myself growl at him. That was NOT Liz behavior!
“I’m sorry Liz; I didn’t mean to get you mad. You know I care,” he murmured. Slowly he slid one of his hands through the open window to comfort me. Before his hand reached whatever he was reaching for, my own hand shot out and pulled the window up. I watch in horror as he howled in pain. Hopefully I didn’t break any bones…
How? Why? Did I just do that? I sat numb in my car thinking about this as Jay was going crazy trying to get me to free his hand. For some reason, I had to forcefully force myself to roll the window down and give Jay back his hand. He sucked on his knuckles like a kid would and gave me a glare. Wow, that’s got me scared! Boo hoo. I gave him a small wave and a reassuring smile. That’s when my eyes betrayed me and I started to cry. Jay looked at me then his hands and decided I was more important. I didn’t want to be near him then so I drove off without a word, and probably ran over his foot in the process. Ouch.
I pulled into the garage and pushed my way through my house. I swallowed some pretty useless aspirin, that didn’t help at all, and stalked, up to my room. A wind blew through my room as I slammed the door. Weird, but then again, a lot of weird things have been happening. Yawing, I realized I was exhausted. Finally, being sleep-deprived, dream land welcomed me.
 

Chapter 2
“Honey, wake up,” my mother, Cathrine called. I groaned an unspeakable language and my stomach growled. At first, I didn’t really notice, but then there was this big blow of pain. It shocked me at first, but it lingered. Of course that’s just my luck. I shoved past my mom and practically into the kitchen. I was hurting really bad and there was nothing anyone could do. All I cared about now was making the pain go away and stuffing food into my face. Making food helped me to forget the pain and so the pain somewhat subsided.
“Alizza? Our new neighbors are finally settling in and I saw a cute boy about your age over there,” she winked, “I want you to give his parents. Okay?” I blushed and tried to roll my eyes, but I must have looked a bit blank because my mom was giving me the ‘hello-anybody-in-there?’ look. There was a little awkward silence, and I really wanted to leave, so I hastily grabbed the envelope and stumbled out of the kitchen. Sometimes, I wish Mom was a little more normal.
Mom was the kind of mom who was into “bonding” with their children. Every Sunday when we go to church and Father starts to talk about angels and devils, she starts to get jittery. My dad had passed when I was born and Jay’s dad had moved out, but we later found out that he was in a car accident leaving him in a coma. He still in the coma and it’s been about five years. Jay’s mom is almost as bad as my mom. Sometimes I wonder if they were long lost sisters and they just don’t want to tell Jay and me. But then…that would mean we were…COUSINS!!! That would be really weird.
In the middle of thinking random thoughts, I ran into the new boy. Great, just great. My first impression with this incredibly hot guy was turning absolutely perfect. How could I be so mindless?
“Whoa,” we both said. I fell on the ground on my butt and he fell on his side. I had dropped the envelope and we both bent to get it and just like in those really old movies, we touch our hands and hit our heads. This was turning out to be fabulous. It took me all I had to not raise my arms and scream into the clouds.
“Uh sorry, umm welcome to the neighborhood,” I stammered. The guy was taller than me and I purposely chose not to look into his eyes because I would probably stand there and drool. I’d probably blush too, and I hate it when I blush. My tan skin turns into a pinkish-orange and personally, I think I look like a little piggy.
“So, uh, do all cute girls attack the new neighbors here?” he asked. Now I blushed. What nerve he had! Already, my headache had come back and I was steaming at him for it. He touched my shoulder and I shot up my head to yell at him. My face was boiling hot and so I guessed my face was also red. I shot up my hands but it was too late. He saw. He touched my nose, and I could’ve sworn that he make a little oink noise. God, he worse than Jay. I crossed my arms and gave him my ‘back-off-I-bite’ look.
“Aww! You blushed!” he laughed. Oh, he thought I blushed. I slowly gave him a menacing grin and he face dropped. Now that was funny. His eyes grew wide, and his mouth drop. My grin grew wider.
“What do I have something