SUNDAY

Lucas Check was a seventeen year old senior at Monte High School.

His dark eyes scanned the homework. He brushed his dark hair out of his face. Sighing deeply, he pushed back from his desk and chewed on his pen bit. He sighed for what must have been the hundredth time. His phone vibrated on his desk. He eyed it for several minutes before picking it up and reading it. It was a text from Roxanne. A rather pretty, tall girl. She had a rather lanky skinny frame with short, dark hair worn in a short, messy bob. She was asking him if he knew if the library had any more books on making food or something. Lucas put down the phone, ignoring it. She could wait. Lucas glanced at the clock. It read 4:14. 

“Aw, crap!” he shouted. 

Running out he grabbed a few tools and jumped out onto his bike. He sped down the streets kicking himself for not leaving earlier. He sped out into the street just as a blue car began to go. They screeched to a stop. Lucas fell off his bike in an attempt to swerve. 

“OH MY GOSH!” He heard someone shout as a car door opened and was slammed shut.

 He looked up. The girl looked so familiar. 

“Luke is that you?” she said. 

She was very pretty with strawberry blond hair falling in spirals down her back. Her big brown eyes looked down at him full of concern. 

“Whaa?” Lucas muttered, trying to make his brain function through what had just happened.

“So sorry I think I bumped you with my car. It's Penny from school. We're in the same class. Math class I mean.” Lucas stared blankly waiting for her to stop talking. She did not and seemed to just flow with senseless chatter. 

“Um, well thanks, er Penny. But I mean I got to go.” Lucas said, standing and pushing his bike up next to him. 

“Oh you have to go somewhere?” she asked, smiling. 

“Um yah, I've got to go to work,” he said smiling.

“Oh, I can give you a ride, there's room for your bike in the back and I've got nowhere to go.”

“Oh, I mean, It's not very far,” Lucas said, trying to escape the girls grabbing fingers.“No, no really I'm fine,” Lucas said, swinging a leg over his bike seat. 

“But you're bleeding,” She said, pointing to Lucas' knee.

She was right he had a pretty bad gash on his knee. Lucas winced. He had felt kind of a throbbing but did not feel the pain till he looked directly at it. 

“Oh, no it really is fine,” Lucas said laughing a little and began to peddle off shouting over his shoulder. “Bye! See you at school!” 

“See you at school!” Penny shouted after him.

About fifteen minutes of hard peddling Lucas arrived at the house and grabbing his back pack he jumped from the bike and ran over ringing the doorbell. 

“Mrs. Cent! It's me, Lucas! You needed someone to fix your chair!” Lucas shouted, ringing the doorbell. 

He heard someone shouting, “Aw yes Lucas, thank you for coming.” An elderly woman said, answering the door with a smile. 

Mrs. Cent was the mom of a friend, Gasper. Jasper was an ok kind of guy. He mostly kept to himself and was not too good at what seemed to be anything. He did ok at everything though, or at least it seemed. And the kind of ok as in he could maybe make it work. Like Lucas, he liked reading. But he preferred the comics. The only thing he really was good at was gaming. He was a huge nerd when it came to that. He mostly called up Lucas when his mom needed something fixed. Lucas was kind of a handy man and would fix odds and ends around the town in order to pick up some extra cash. Today Mrs. Cent needed a chair fixed. Her son of course could not fix it. And her good for nothing husband definitely could not get himself away from the bar long enough to get anything done. The chair was an easy enough fix; it just needed some screws replaced and a few others tightened. Easy enough. Mrs. Cent counted out the dollars, handing each to Lucas individually. He was used to it, kind of a thing she liked to do. Lucas was pretty sure she did it because it made her feel like it was more money. Or possibly she did it because it made her feel more honest. She seemed to have this strange fear that people would falsely accuse her of trying to swindle them or something like that. He wondered if she had had some bad experience previously. But Lucas would never accuse her of trying to swindle him; she was one of the most honest women he knew. After hanging out with Jasper for a little bit he headed out, excusing himself that he needed to get some last minute homework done before school tomorrow. 

Soon  he was off peddling down the street. He had stayed longer than he had meant to and the sun was disappearing low into the sea of buildings. He stopped for a minute after reaching the top of a particularly steep hill, breathing hard. It was then when he heard a kind of a clattering sound down an alley to his right. He looked over flinching. It was too dark to see down the alley. Lucas squinted his eyes trying to force the darkness to resolve itself. It seemed a kind of oddly dead silent night for the city. He heard nothing but the driving of a car a few streets down. He sighed before remounting his bike and continued peddling for home. But all the way he had the strange feeling that something was up. The hair on the back of his neck had pricked up and he just felt very uneasy. He sighed when he reached his home and felt much better once he had unlocked and relocked the door behind him.

 His Grandpa greeted him in the dining room. His grandfather, who everyone regardless of relation just called Grandpa Check, lived with Lucas and his dad. Lucas’ dad was yet unmarried and worked most of the time. Lucas did not remember his mom who had walked out on them when he was only two. But his dad really was trying his best. His Grandpa greeted him with almost cheer. And the five other elderly men followed suit. Lucas’ grandpa had made many friends throughout his long life and kept in contact with as many of them as possible. He invited his best ones over every Sunday. Lucas greeted his grandpa and shook hands with a few of the men.

“Ah, you see my grandson is not lazy and is out verking like the man he is.” He said, nudging the man to his right.

“Excuse me! What are you saying? Are you really implying that my grandchildren, Mark and Penny, are not some of the hardest working children I've ever seen!”

Penny? Lucas thought remembering the girl he had met on the way to work/

“Aw! Well that's a thing! Lucaz here is a man! Whilst your grandchildren are still but children!” Grandpa Check said defiantly. 

“Ha! But they really are quite popular at school in fact , I'm sure that Lucas is even friends with them. Come here Lucas. Surely you know Penny and Mark?! Sweet things they are!” he said laughing and had already pulled out his phone trying to find pictures of his two adoring grandchildren.

“Erm, Yah I know them,” Lucas said, smiling a little.

He was not wrong, they really were quite popular. Mark was what some would call a Jock. He really was nice. Seemed kind of slow but was a nice enough guy. Penny was the perfect sorority cheerleader kind of girl. Also quite nice but you would not really say that Lucas knew them. He had really never tried. Lucas was kind of just working and getting it done. Not to say he was not nice. He was a very kind and positive guy. But he was just what one would not describe as outgoing. He tried to mostly keep his head down and work. 

Lucas scurried off to his room as the argument of grandchild vs grandchild grew more heated as the other elderly men joined in. Lucas flopped down on his bed and picked up the book he had been reading. It was called, ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ By H.P Lovcraft. One of Lucas’ favorite writers. He flipped through the pages so fast it was like he was not even reading the book. He was so invested in the story he did not even notice when his dad had entered his room until he rapped the top of Lucas' book.

“Good book then?” he asked with a half smile.

Lucas jerked his head up and glanced at the clock that read 11:48 pm. 

“Yah, It's pretty good. Erm, you're home early,” he said, putting the book down at his side table. 

“Yah, slow day. Well how was your day then?” his dad asked, smiling in a kind of tired manner.

“Erm, it was pretty good. Fixed a chair for Mrs. Cent today and hung out with Jasper.”

“That sounds nice but you should probably be going to bed. It's a school night you know,” his dad nodded to the clock.

“Oh yeah, sorry. Just lost track of time” 

In about twenty minutes Lucas was in bed asleep.