Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 22:40:04 -0400
From: EleCivil <EleCivil@gmail.com>
Subject: Leaves and Lunatics - Chapter Two

Intro/Disclaimer:

Hey, back once again.  The response from the first chapter was
overwhelming.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in.

Alright, since this is the second chapter, you should know the ground rules
by now.  Don't read it if you're underage (Even though nothing "adult" has
happened...I've got to make sure I'm covered), and don't blame me or anyone
else if you get caught reading it.

You should probably read the first chapter before this one.  You don't have
to, but it'd make more sense that way.  But hey, if you're the type that
likes to start in the middle of things, go for it.

Well, enough wasting time.  Onward!

-----------------------------------

Leaves and Lunatics by EleCivil (EleCivil@gmail.com)
Chapter Two

-----------------------------------

It took two weeks to prepare for the move.  Apparently, Mr. Jeffries and
his friend from Ohio had been planning this for a while.  Cam found out
that they had made some kind of pact in college, saying that if either of
them ever made it big, they'd hire the other.  Of course, neither of them
thought that it would actually happen, but when it did everything seemed to
fall into place.  Cam spent most of the time hiding out inside.  After
spending so much time as a recluse, he found it hard to force himself
outside.  Besides, he didn't want to face anyone.  No reason to, really.
The time passed quickly, and before he knew it he was leaving Northtowne
for good.

It was a long drive to their new city, and it gave them a lot of time to
talk things out.  By the time they had hit the Ohio boarder, there wasn't
much on any of their minds that hadn't been said.  The conversation died
down, save for a quick sentence here or there to point out a field full of
cows or horses.  After a while, though, they had seen enough cows and
horses, and stopped pointing them out.  Cam slipped on a pair of headphones
he had picked up specifically for this trip and fell asleep listening to a
classic rock station on the radio.  It wasn't that he enjoyed classic rock,
it was just that he hated it a little less than everything else on the
radio.

When he woke up, night had already fallen.  Mrs. Jeffries was asleep in the
front passenger seat.  The classic rock was gone, replaced with some
political talk show.  Two guys with annoying voices were screaming at each
other about something, but he wasn't sure what.  They must have passed out
of his station's range while he was asleep.  He groaned, half out of
tiredness, half out of annoyance, and flipped off his radio.  This elicited
an even louder groan when he found that his dad was listening to the exact
same political talk show on the car stereo.

"What?  Better than listening to some guy screaming over an electric
guitar."

"Yeah, listening to two guys screaming over each other.  Much better."

"Ha.  Come on, this is important stuff they're talking about."

"Really?  What is it?"

"Tort reform."

"What?"

"Well, you see, it's when...Um, sometimes people in court...you know, I
guess it's not important to us at all.  Still, their screaming is keeping
me from falling asleep and driving into a river."

"Well, I guess that's important.  How long was I out?"

"Couple of hours.  We're just about there.  You might want to keep your
eyes open for a while."

They had gotten off of the turnpike and onto the interstate.  Not that big
of a difference to anyone in the back seat, so Cam sat back and watched the
street signs.

"Hey, look at this."  Mr. Jeffries pointed to a specific sign above the
road.  Due to its placement, Cam had to struggle to see it.

Gordon, OH Next Exit

"Gordon.  Weird name for a city."

"Get used to it.  We're Gordonites now.  Gordoneers?  Gordonauts?"

"None of them sound all that appealing.  So, is our stuff already there?"

"Yeah, movers got everything in earlier.  Good thing, too.  As soon as I
stop driving, I'm going to pass out, and I'd really prefer that I do it on
a bed."

They reached their new house just before midnight.

------------------------

Cam awoke to the sound of voices downstairs.  He had slept late, as he
stayed up the night before exploring the house.  Following his usual
morning routine, he looked around for his clock, and ended up rather
confused until he remembered that he hadn't unpacked it yet.  Standing up
brought another notable absence to his attention: His clothes.  His closet
was empty.  None of his boxes had been brought up yet, either.  It looked
like he was stuck in the same clothes as yesterday.  He grabbed them from
the floor where he had shed them the night before and pulled them on before
heading downstairs.

"Morning."  He mumbled, entering the living room.  He was relieved to find
that most of the furniture was already set up.

"Not quite.  Afternoon."  His mom replied.

"Oh.  So I guess that means you found a clock, right?"

"Yep, sorry.  Looks like you'll have to actually be on time for things
now."

Cam shrugged and mentioned that he was going outside to look around.
Having thoroughly seen the inside of the house, he wanted to check out the
outside, and maybe walk around the neighborhood a bit.

"Alright, but be back in an hour.  We've got a lot of stuff to unpack."

He stepped outside and stretched, starting to wake up.  He was surprised at
how familiar the place looked in the daylight.  Just like Northtowne,
really.  Rows of houses, lawns, gardens, the occasional fence.  Nothing
spectacular, but what would you expect from a place called Gordon, Ohio?

"Cam, over here!"

His dad was calling from the driveway.  As he walked over, Cam noticed that
there was someone else standing with him.

"Son, this is Mr. Rowan, who I told you about before."

"Oh, so you're my dad's new boss?"

"Boss?"  Mr. Rowan replied.  "Nah, I could never get used to him calling me
boss.  Let's just go with business partner for now."

He missed the last half of this, because his attention was caught by the
boy who had just pulled up to his driveway on a bike.  He looked to be
about the same age as Cam, with light brown hair that hung just over his
eyes.  He raised a hand and called out.

"Hey, dad!"

Mr. Rowan turned and waved back.

"What's up, kid?"

"Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be at Lunar for a while."

"Oh, is there a show today?"

"Not an official one, but there should be some of 'em out."

"Alright, have fun."  Mr. Rowan started to turn back to Cam and his dad,
but snapped back around.  "Oh yeah.  This is Mr. Jeffries and his son Cam.
They just moved into town."

"Oh, hey."  He looked at Cam closely for the first time, flashing him a
quick grin and a half-wave.  "I was just on my way to the park, you want to
come?"

Cam looked back at his dad, who nodded.

"Yeah, sure.  Let me get my bike."  His voice cracked slightly, but it
wasn't too noticeable.  His throat felt dry, and he noticed his hand
shaking a bit as he reached for the garage door.  He shook his head, trying
to get ahold of himself.  He was more nervous than he thought he would be.
Those last few months of solitude had really done a number on him as far as
shyness went.  Ugh, he'd have to get over that.  He quickly retrieved his
bike and wheeled it outside.  Soon enough, they were both peddling down the
street.

"So, where are we going again?"

"Lunar Landing Memorial Park.  It's just a few blocks from here.  Today's
the first really nice day of the summer, so I bet there'll be a few
Lunatics around."

"Huh?"

"You don't know The Lunatics?  They're pretty much our city's only
attraction."

"Nope, haven't heard of 'em."

"Oh.  Well, they're kind of a club.  They're a bunch of street performers
that hang around in the park.  There's a bunch of them.  Dancers, jugglers,
sketch artists, a few college guys that play incredibly lame love songs on
acoustic guitars to pick up chicks...you know, pretty much anybody with
some kind of hidden talent.  People come from outside of town for their
official shows, but you can usually find some of them out on any clear
day."

"Sounds cool.  Um...what was your name again?"

"Oh, that's right, I never told you.  Sorry about that.  I'm Andrew.  Your
name's Cam, right?  That short for something?"

"Cameron.  Not a big fan of it, so I go by Cam."

"It's not so bad.  Kind of cool, really.  At least it's different."

"Well...better than my dad's name, anyway."

"Why, what's his name?"

"Jeffrey.  Jeffrey Jeffries."  He snickered.

"Your grandparents actually named him Jeffrey Jeffries?"

"Yeah, they're not all that creative.  That's why he goes by Jay."

"So, see, you got off easy with Cameron.  You could have been Jeff Jeffries
Junior."

Cam laughed at the thought.

"My grandparents are going to be crushed."

"Hm?"

"You managed to out-do them as far as ridiculous names go.  They're very
competitive."

"No shame in that.  So am I."  With that, he lowered his head and sped off
in front of Cam, racing ahead.

Cam sped up, but not too much.  He lagged back a bit, taking the
opportunity to stare at Andrew as his legs worked the peddles, his long
bangs being blown backwards by the wind.

'Wow, what a cute guy.  Ach, got to stop thinking like that.  That's behind
me.  I left that in Northtowne.  I won't let it catch up with me.  I
can't.'

He sped up, matching Andrew's pace the rest of the way to the park.

---------------------------

The Lunar Landing Memorial Park was filled with people, but Andrew said
that it was actually a slow day.

"Well, slow for this time of the year, anyway."

A large statue of the lunar lander was in the center of the park, an
American flag flying from the top.  The plaque said that it was completed
just a few weeks after the first lunar landing, and that Neil Armstrong
himself had been there to speak at the opening ceremony.  He lived only a
few cities away, after all.

The area was filled with music, different sounds coming from every
direction at once.  A couple of the "gangsta" types had set up a huge
stereo system and were blasting hip-hop songs while breakdancing.  At the
other side of the park, a small rock band was playing an acoustic set.  A
guy and a girl were over in that direction as well, doing back flips and
headstands and such.  Cam noticed that all of the performers were wearing
the same shirts.  Dark blue, with a large, white crescent moon on the back
and a smaller one on the front pocket.

"Oh yeah, that's how you can tell which ones are actual members of The
Lunatics.  Something about wanting people to support the locals, and not
the out-of-towners.  I guess a bunch of people from other cities were
coming here to get free exposure, and taking all the money from the local
acts."  Andrew explained.  "The outsiders still come here to perform
sometimes, and people will still throw them some money, but now they know
that they're not supporting The Lunatics."

They circled the park, watching the different acts.  Some of them frowned
when they saw them approach, knowing that kids hardly ever paid off, but
most of them were just happy to have the extra attention.  Cam liked the
two acrobats a lot.  They flipped and twisted across the grass, cracking
corney jokes the whole time, pointing out each others mistakes and making
fun of the other acts.  He checked his pockets.  Broke, as usual.  Not even
a hand full of change to toss at their hat.  Ah well.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Andrew take hold of his
wrist.

'Oh my god, oh my god...he's holding my hand!  What do I do, what do I do?'

"Hey, take it easy, I was just going to give you some change."  Andrew
turned his hand face-up and dropped some coins into his palm.  "Jeeze, you
must have been really into the act.  You looked like you were about to have
a heart attack over there."

"Y-yeah...shocked me, that's all.  Heh...thought I was...uh, getting
kidnapped or something.  You don't have to give me-"

"Don't worry about it, I only gave you half of what I was going to throw
these guys.  It'll all end up in the same place."

"Oh...okay then."

"Want to go see something else?"

Cam smiled and nodded, his heart still racing.  Yeesh, that was a close
one.  So close, in fact, he could only think in short nonsensical words
like 'yeesh'.  Andrew pushed forward toward the front of the crowd, Cam
following his lead.  When they reached the front, they both threw their
change into the hat that the performers had set out.  The acrobats noticed,
and pointed it out.

"Hey, Julie, look.  We're getting charity from kids."

"Yeah, Mark.  You guys sure you can afford it?  I'd hate to see you lose
your milk money for the week."

"Quiet, Jules!  That milk could be ours!"

"So, any of you high-income types want to help out?  Remember, the best
gift you can give is something you made yourselves."

"Yeah, like money."

"Or are we going to have to keep bankrupting our city's youth?"

Andrew pulled Cam him to the side and whispered to him.

"It's just a bit.  They're trying to guilt the others into paying them.
They always do it when kids donate, and it usually works.  Watch."

Just as he was saying that, a few of the adults in the crowd stepped
forward and dropped some bills into the hat.

"Notice how every one of the guys that's here with a girl is throwing in a
wad of cash.  All ones, of course, but they're trying to look like big
shots for the girls.  It's hilarious, it happens every time."

Laughing, they walked over to where the band was playing.  Just as they
were approaching, the band finished up their slow, soft song and moved into
a fast, loud, popular song that half the crowd started singing along with.
Andrew joined in, belting it out loudly and out of tune, much like the rest
of the crowd.  Cam just stood and listened, not feeling confident enough to
sing in public.  By the time they hit the third chorus, though, Andrew was
prodding him and motioning for him to join.  Ah hell, why not?  Couldn't
look any worse than anyone else, right?  He started singing along as best
he could, throwing in some inarticulate mumbles now and then whenever he
hit some lyrics that he was unsure of.  The crowd was really getting into
it toward the end, jumping and screaming, pumping their fists in the air to
accentuate the lyrics, splashing each other with their bottles of water.
One of them caught Cam in the spray, soaking his hair and the top half of
his shirt.  He just laughed and kept singing.

For the second time that day, Cam nearly had a heart attack.  Andrew,
completely lost in the song, threw an arm around Cam's shoulders and raised
his fist to the air, screaming along with the last few lines.  Something
about running or hiding or something...hell, it could have been about
anything.  Cam didn't hear a word of it.  His eyes were barely focused, and
he was off in his own world.  The song probably ended or something.  It
looked like the blur that was the audience had stopped jumping around.

"Hey.  Hey, can you hear me?  Come on, I know I didn't scream loud enough
for you to go deaf on me."

Somebody was saying something.  Oh yeah, Andrew.  That's right.  Should
probably answer.

"Huh?"

"I was asking if you were okay.  You kind of zoned out for a second."

"Oh.  Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

Andrew tossed some change into the band's collection jar, which was
stuffed.  After putting on a show like that, it was no wonder.  Cam checked
his watch.  Three thirty.

"Jeeze, I'm late.  I was supposed to be home half an hour ago."

"Oh, let's go then."

"I can find my way back, you can stay if you want."

Andrew just shrugged and followed him back to the bike racks.  He and Cam
swapped phone numbers before riding back home.

-----------------------

His parents weren't too mad when he came home late.  Mostly they were just
glad that he was looking happy for a change.  He did have to explain why
his shirt and hair were dripping wet, though.  He told them about The
Lunatics and all the cool stuff there was in the park while they unpacked.
Before long the new house was looking familiar, filled with the same
decorations and pictures as their old place.

That night, he tossed and turned in bed, flipping between happiness,
sadness, and fear.  Going to the park with Andrew had been the most fun he
had had in...well, as far back as he could remember.  On the other hand,
those old feelings that he had been trying so hard to leave behind were
creeping back on him.  He cursed under his breath.  Something great like
this happens, and then he had to go and ruin it all by being...being...he
didn't even want to think it.  No, he was normal now.  Normal.  He'd be
normal if it killed him.

-----------------------

That's it for chapter two.  Kind of slow, yeah, but next chapter will pick
up quick.  Questions, comments, constructive criticism?  Just feel like
saying hi?  EleCivil@gmail.com