WARS Chap. 1 - Swifty & Rat

(To start off, a little note. This has nothing to do with wars. W.A.R.S. stands for We Are Really Stupid. This is a teenage style stand-alone series of chapters. Each chapter doesn't have a specific timeline, nor do the events that show happen one after another. Essentially, Chapter 1 might not be the first thing that happened in the character's story. It's up to you what the timeline really is.)

It was like any summer school day: boring, never-ending, and stupidly warm. For Nathan ‘Nate’ Waters, it just seemed to drag on and on.

He, like every boy in the school, was dressed in the summer uniform. It was a white short-sleeve shirt with a solid red line going down the side of the arms, along with a red, black and white tie. He wore a pair of black school trousers, and black shoes, which felt like they were on fire. A silver metallic watch was on his left wrist, and a pair of small headphones was around his neck. He had brown-black hair of a decent length, with a few bangs in the fringe to show off his rocky attitude.

He was, at that moment, on the verge of falling asleep, until a balled-up piece of paper hit him on the back of the head, before bouncing down onto his desk. He sighed, before opening the ball. It was his friend’s writing, Ben ‘BD’ Daines.

‘Dude, we gotta get Will outta here’

Will was short for their teacher’s name, Mr. Williams.

Nate turned to BD, who was a few rows behind him. “How the hell are you gonna do that?” he mouthed to him.

BD was a guy that could be depended on no matter what it was. If you needed a friend, this was the boy to go to. He was a tall, thin guy, with short blond hair, and had a black stud in his right ear in the shape of a card. It had the print of the ace of hearts.

BD shrugged. “I dunno. Where the hell is Rat when ya need him?”

Ryan ‘Rat’ Thomas was one of their other friends. He was a really dim-witted but big-hearted guy. You tell him to jump off a cliff; he’d sprint at the bloody edge. However, for some odd reason, he wasn’t in class.

A vibration in both of their pockets made their brows turn downwards. It was someone texting them. They both sighed, before quickly slipping their phones out. They both had the same text: ‘Shut. Up.’

“Wait, that’s it?”

They both turned to the sender, a girl by the name of Emily ‘Raven’ Rivers. She too was a close friend of Nate, BD and Rat.

Raven had long, black hair, down to her mid back. She was dressed in similar clothes to the boys, except she wore a skirt instead of trousers, had flat black shoes, and her shirt was more form-fitting to her figure, of which BD had confided in Nate that he had fantasised over more than once, even though they were close friends. What he basically meant, Nate had figured, was that he’d knocked one off on her, which was essentially… bloody disgusting.

BD glared at her. “We’re trying to get out of class, numb-skull.”

“Oops.”

Nate sent her a text, asking if she’d got any ideas. She shook her head when she read it. She thought for a few moments, before she sent both boys a text: ‘8]’

BD let out a gasp of realisation. “You’re a genius!”

Nate decided that he’d do it. He stuck his hand up.

“Sir, you sure you can read properly? Where are your glasses?”

Mr. Williams looked up from his papers, before looking back at them. He then frowned.

“Eh? Where’s my specta-thingamajigy?”

'Your specta-what now?' Nate thought, totally perplexed by his response.

“My spectacles! My reading implements!”

'The glasses?'

Mr. Williams looked confused. “Class is dismissed!”

There was the universal look of confusion, before the sound of scraping chairs and chatter broke out. Nate, BD, and Raven looked at each other, bewildered but really happy. 'How in the hell did that work?!'

Mr. Williams left the room first, with a confused look on his face. He seemed to be muttering about where he’d left his glasses, by the sound of it.

The trio left the class soon after, greeted the moment they stepped outside by a blast of fresh, cold air. They all sighed in bliss, bathed in the refreshing wind.

A girl’s voice called Raven by her nickname, which meant it was her best friend, Amelia ‘Amy’ Valentine. She had reddish-brown hair, with similar length to Raven’s. She was certainly the brains of the group, almost always acing tests and getting really high grades. Nate recalled one time that she had cried for a whole day because she got a B. That took a lot of hugging to sort out.

“Hey Amy,” Raven said with a grin. “You seen Rat anywhere?”

Amy shrugged. “Last I saw him was in the common room with Swifty.”

Swifty was the nickname of the final part of their gang, Jonathan McCoy. He was named Swifty due to the fact that he was both the only one so far that can drive as well as speeding pretty much wherever he went in the car. And he tended to talk fast.

BD sighed. “Figures he’d mitch class. C’mon, we’d better get them both before heading off.” None of them had any more lessons for the rest of the day, and were going to Nate’s house, since Nate had a pretty big TV, all three major games consoles, and a lot of food. This was what they all did since coming back for their A-Levels on a Friday: head off early to Nate’s, eat whatever was in the kitchen, get drunk, and wake up the next morning with a sore head.

Nate’s parents worked as housing agents, so Nate pretty much had a lot of money on hold, which was how he was able to buy the food all the time.

The four began to walk to the sixth-form common room, but they met up with Rat and Swifty halfway there.

Rat was called that because… in fact, nobody really knew why, he was just called Rat one day, and it stuck. Some reckoned it was because he had two massive front teeth when he was younger, but there wasn’t any real proof, as his teeth right now were perfectly normal. Rat was wearing a hooded jacket over his shirt, coloured brown, and had light brown, short hair. His eyes matched his hair.

Swifty had the same eyes, but his hair was black, and went down past his shoulders. At heart, Swifty was a rocker, even more so than Nate, proven that he wore a spiked wristband, and a few straps on his other wrist that had band names on them. He’d certainly gone to more rock shows than Nate had.

The two gave the others a stupid grin. “Hey guys,” Rat said, in his usual, slightly dumb-sounding voice. “How was class?”

“You ditched us!” BD said with a gasp. “Thanks. We had to make up some crap about his glasses.”

Raven shook her head at Rat. “Don’t ask us how it worked, it just did.”

Amy loosened the knot on her tie a little. “C’mon, let’s go. I’m gonna drown in my own sweat if we don’t get to Nate’s now!”

“Gross,” said Swifty with a grimace. “We walking to your place, or driving?” he asked Nate.

“Dude, you left your car at my place.”

“Oh yeah…”

The group signed out of the school, before quickly making their way to Nate’s, which was only a five minute walk from the school. His house was pretty big on the outside, with a varnished wood balcony and an underground garage large enough for two cars. There was a small garden in the back, but it was rarely used by Nate.

Raven sighed. “Why do you get all the good stuff?”

Raven’s family wasn’t exactly the richest of people. In fact, they’ve never been on holiday, only scraping by with the bare minimum. She remembered, with a slight shame, that she had more Christmas presents one year from the gang than she had off her family. Only Amy ever knew that fact.

“Hey, it’s everybody’s stuff once you’re inside, remember,” Nate said as he unlocked the door. “Just don’t… blow stuff up.”

Rat and Swifty both thought of the same memory, where they’d sort of blew a hole in the wall with mixing a BB gun with a mini-explosive round they had found in the basement. Nate’s grandfather kept a lot of explosive things from his time in the Cold war under his son’s house. Not that Nate’s grandfather was American, but he had served in the army at one time, and had participated with some actions in the war.

“No, we won’t,” Rat said with his usual stupid grin.

Amy sighed. “Please, we don’t want to clean up your stuff again with a sore head like last time.” They had to repair the wall the next day (which was the week previous) with a hangover, which wasn’t the best of ideas. Mind you, it’s not often that they DO come up with great ideas anyway.

“OK!” Rat said with the same grin. Both he and Swifty went into the house, and ran off into the basement.

“Oh God, give me strength,” Nate said with a sigh.

“Don’t worry about it dude.” BD slapped Nate on the back. “Let’s get that PS3 on. I’ve been practicing.”

“If your driving’s even twice as better as last time, you STILL won’t beat me.”

BD grinned mischievously. “You’re on!”

Raven and Amy rolled their eyes. “Ugh. Boys,” they said, but still followed the two into the main living room.

There was a gigantic television screen that took up one whole side of the wall, whilst the three games consoles – PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii – were all set up and plugged into the sockets under the screen. There was also a Sky+ box that had the film and sport packages. Why? Because they all either watched a film together before crashing or they watched the rugby/football whenever it was on. In the four corners of the room there were speakers, as well as a speaker built into the ceiling, and also a subwoofer integrated to provide the bass. It was, in a nutshell, pretty damn loud. The sofas surrounded the TV, whilst there were a few gaming chairs in front of it, in which Nate and BD immediately sat in.

“Dude, you sure you been practicing?” Nate asked a few minutes later, who was at least half a lap in front of BD.

“Hey, at least I’m not a lap behind like last time,” BD answered.

Amy scoffed. “You’re still losing though.”

“Shut uuuuup!” BD said with an annoyed voice. He then cringed when his car smashed into the side of the wall. “Oh great, thanks Amy. Now I’ve lost for sure!”

Meanwhile, underneath them…

“Crayons!”

“Vaseline!”

“Water!”

“Dust!”

“Aaaaaand, mix!”

Rat and Swifty were throwing all sorts of stuff into a giant pot, which was never a good idea. Especially since that dust was explosive powder. And the less said about the water, the better.

“We’re outta stuff to mix,” Rat said with a sad frown when he saw that they had nothing left.

Swifty grinned. “There’s a lot of stuff in Nate’s garage.”

Both of their eyes widened, before running out of the door that led to the garage. “Let’s go get them!”

Swifty skidded to a halt. “Wait, wait.”

“What?” Rat asked, looking eager to get more stuff.

“I’m thirsty. You want a drink?”

Rat nodded. “Sure. I’ll go get the stuff.”

“Coke?”

“Yep.”

Swifty went upstairs to get drinks, passing the gang who were sucked in by the big TV. He asked them if they wanted anything, but they responded with a vague “No.” Swifty shook his head, not totally understanding how games could be so interesting. It wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t a fan of gaming; he just didn’t get sucked in, as such.

BANG!

The floor shook. Swifty’s eyes widened, knowing that was certainly not a good thing. 'Oh God Rat, what the hell have you done?' Swifty got up, leaving the drinks where they were in the fridge. “I’ll go take a look,” he said to the gang, who nodded at him when they looked over to him.

Swifty quickly went downstairs, worried that there was another hole in the wall waiting to be fixed. Thankfully, when he reached the basement, it wasn’t the case. It was a lot more… comical.

“Dude! What the hell happened?!” Swifty asked Rat, laughing.

Rat, from the front, was covered from head to foot in black soot. By the shattered pot on the floor, and the lingering smell of smoke, Swifty guessed that the pot had exploded when Rat had put something in, causing it to shatter, and basically set fire to Rat.

“I blew the pot up,” Rat said with a grin. “It hurt.”

“Well, no!” Swifty said with a sarcastic gasp. “Dude, we gotta clean this up before Nate sees it and kills us.”

“He’ll probably kill us.”

“He WILL kill us.”

For the next ten minutes at least, the pair cleaned up the pieces of pot, and threw them into the bin outside via the garage. After that, Rat went off to wash his face off and get some of the soot off. How he was able to get all of it off though, was something that Swifty thought about. It was all over his clothes and everything. “Good luck on that,” he’d said to Rat as he left. Rat grinned like usual. Swifty sighed, before heading back upstairs. He’d never got that coke afterwards.

BD was waiting by the top of the stairs with a curious smirk. “What was that all about?”

“Nothing major,” Swifty answered. “Rat just dropped something down the stairs.”

“What the hell was it?”

“I dunno, but whatever it was, it got him covered in this black stuff.”

BD shook his head. “Heh, that idiot. Where is he now?”

“Trying to wash it off.” Swifty and BD went into the kitchen. “You want a drink?”

“Nah, already got one,” BD answered, picking up a Carling can.

“Dude, you’re already drinking? It’s only four o’clock.”

BD brushed it off with his hand. “Aaah, don’t worry about it. It’s not as if I got anything tomorrow morning. I got a driving lesson on Monday after school, so I’d have recovered by then anyway.”

“Fair enough.”

The two watched the girls play on the Wii, who were playing Wii Fit. 'Of course they are,' Swifty thought happily. It was always… a pleasure to watch the girls play on the Wii.

BD and Swifty have a common thing between them: they both fancied the pants off the girls. Never in a million years go out with them, but to watch them as friends… that was the benefit of it all, really; watching girls without being classed as perverts.

The two got out their usual piece of paper, hidden between the gaps of two cupboards, and wrote down a few things about the girls: how far they were leaning, what moans they were making, if there was any cleavage visible through their school shirts, etc., etc. Basically, they were being proper teenage boys.

Nate looked over to them both, and shook his head whilst smiling. 'You utter pervs!' He looked over to the stairs when he heard someone coming up them. It was Rat, whose jacket and trousers still had some residue of the black soot on them.

“What happened to you?” Nate asked him, who looked both confused and worried at the question. Thankfully, Swifty came to his rescue.

“Oh, Rat dropped something down the stairs. Don’t ask me what, I have no idea. But whatever it was, it made him covered in black soo– stuff.” He’d almost said 'soot'.

Nate shrugged, before he wrinkled his nose at something. “Jeez, what the hell was that stuff? Smells like something was burning.”

Both Swifty and Rat froze. They’d completely forgotten about the smell. Swifty racked his brains, trying to think of something. 'Crap, crap, crap! Now what?!'

“Who knows what that stuff was,” BD said. “You know what sorta crap is down there. Knowing Rat’s luck, he dropped a box of that gunpowder you were telling me about the other day.”

Rat seized on the chance. “Yeah, it did have something like a gun on it. I was taking it downstairs, ’cause I saw it somewhere around the top of the stairs.”

Nate sighed. “Ugh, Gramps is a freakin’ idiot sometimes. Don’t worry; I’ll talk to him about it later.”

Swifty and Rat let out a breath of relief. For the first time in their lives, they’d talked themselves out of a situation.

The four went into the living room, watching the girls finish off their exercising. They both panted, sweat beads rolling down their foreheads.

“Phew!” Raven said with a relieved sigh. “Finally done.”

“And not a moment too soon,” Amy said.

All four boys thought the same thing: 'No you haven’t.'

Amy turned to them, and shook her head at them gawping at her and Raven. “Haven’t you anything better to do than watch girls?”

BD and Swifty shook their heads. “Nope.”

She glared at the pair. “This is why you two don’t have girlfriends!”

The two looked as if her words had pierced their hearts. It was a known fact among the group that it was only BD and Swifty that hadn’t been involved in love yet. Rat had gone out with a girl a couple of years back, Raven had a year-long relationship with a gothic guy before he turned Emo and started to creep her out, Amy had a couple of boyfriends who all turned against her, and Nate had had a seven-month relationship with a girl who had moved away. Nate and that girl still kept in touch, but had obviously split up due to the distance.

Amy looked awkward after saying that, and went to quickly apologise to the two with a hug. “I didn’t mean to say it like that, you know that!” Both BD and Swifty looked at each other with a wink over her shoulders.

'Ohhhhhh yeeaah…'

The rest of that night was light-hearted, like it always was. They ended up watching a film, and getting drunk. They were all giggling when Nate’s parents walked in, looking absolutely wrecked from the day’s work. His parents bid the gang a quick good night, before hurrying upstairs to their room, not exactly wanting to be in the same room as six drunken teens.

Nate really couldn’t remember much after the end of the film, but when he woke up the next morning with his legs dangling over the back of the sofa, beer bottles around it, and with both Amy’s and Rat’s heads sleeping on his stomach, he realised that it had been one heck of a great night. These friends... these five people... they meant everything to him. He wouldn't change them. Ever.