In usual fashion, after Jack left his uncle's office, he made his way out of the school gates and down to the park. The school never really cared whether or not him and his friends were there, they were a strange bunch anyway that rarely contributed to classes yet always managed to receive top grades. Also, they were what people would call delinquents so the school realized it was actually a lot easier and beneficial if they were out of class rather than in class, with the exception of Combat training for Jack. That was mandatory for him and the last time he skipped they used the skill Chains to make sure he stayed in detention. Unlike his friends, Jack was never able to master the combat classes like he did the academics, most of the teachers he had worked with put that to his fascination with botany and entomology which overshadowed his care for fighting. Whenever they had training he would always just sit in the grass and document or watch the ants that seemed to be omnipresent in the courtyard. The thing he found most fascinating about these insects was that they would outlast the humans by hundreds of thousands of years. The Abyssal beasts killed mammals, fish, crustaceans, basically everything, but they had never been able to kill the insect colonies that still persisted in monster controlled zones.
As Jack walked through the park just by the school he felt at peace within the aura of nature exuded by all the living things around him. For him, botany and entomology were the only things that truly mattered as they were the best closed loop of existence. Humans came and destroyed the world in the name of justice and expansion, the abyssal monsters are doing the same. But insects actually contribute to the environment, even the ones most annoying to humans are actually beneficial to nature. Termites destroy our furniture and houses, but they perform a vital role in nature in that they decompose dying trees and provide fertile soil for the new trees. Everything helps each other. Sometimes Jack wished he was just an ant working in his colony for the good of his colony.
"Oi, what did that old bugger want from you again, ugh don't tell me he touched you!" A loud voice arose from the park bench ahead of him full of fake disgust.
"Shut your face that's my uncle" Jack shouted back towards the bench, spotting the great shine off his mate's bald head.
That was Leo. Despite being 18 he was perfectly bald, his excuse was that he just had so much testosterone that it made his hair fall out early. That would have been a believable lie if not for his inability to gain any muscle whatsoever.
"Those are usually the ones that get you" A second voice came from the teen next to the bald one. James smirked as he retorted, a glint of mischievousness in his eyes.
"Haha Jack don't worry we are just taking the piss, your uncle is a goddamn war hero! I wish my uncle was as cool as yours, instead mine just uses his telekinesis to stack shelves at big Wesco."
Jack rounded the bench and sat down next to his two friends with a sigh of relaxation. They both smirked at him with shit eating grins and he felt a wave of panic as he realized they were down a member.
"What are you two looking at?"
All of a sudden a large soft object smashed into the back of his head and cake was thrown everywhere. The entire back of his head was covered in icing and a little bit of candle wax. But, most of the large cake that had been heading his way actually missed and slammed into Leo's bald head. With the white icing covering all his face, he gaped in shock before erupting at the culprit.
"WHAT THE FUCK ALICE CAN'T YOU AIM!" Leo shouted whilst rubbing the cake from his eyes, trying desperately to recover some of his lost pride.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Both Alice and James shouted after laughing hysterically at Leo's indignation. They both brought out party hats and horns, slapping the hats on themselves and blowing as hard as they could into the horns.
Alice wrapped her arms around Jack's neck in a hug, very careful to avoid getting cake on herself.
"Thanks guys, this is actually really nice, even though I do have cake in my hair. Though seeing Leo so pissed is worth it. Shame we can't eat it." Jack said through a smile whilst wiping the cake from his hair after detangling himself from Alice's arms.
"Come on Jack, do you really think we are that dumb" Leo asked whilst getting James to help him get the cake from his bald head.
"Yes." Jack said with a straight face.
"Well you have greatly underestimated us, we got a backup, and like an actual cake..." Alice said as she pulled out a proper birthday cake from her bag.
"Aaaaand, we got something to help us really celebrate." She continued as she pulled out two liters of vodka and a few liters of mixers.
"Alice, its like 2 in the afternoon, its wayyyy too early" Jack said hesitantly, really debating his choice of friends. But Alice's smile and expectant eyes were too much for him to resist.
"Ah fuck it" A grin rose onto his once hesitant face as he grabbed the cake and alcohol off her and began drinking.
Hours ticked by as the group of new adults all ate, drank and laughed with each other. Having been friends since primary school, they had an unbreakable bond and each of them felt like family to the others. In the years after the death of his parents, when his uncle was still working for the military, these were the only people who were truly there for him. And all of them would be there for him for the rest of his and their lives. They knew that no matter what, they would do anything to protect their friendship.
That is why Jack had to keep his feelings about Alice a secret. He cared too much about her as a friend to ever disrupt their friendship. Yet she was everything to him and so it got harder and harder to keep his feelings for her a secret. Alice was magnificent. With her raven-black hair cascading like midnight silk, she drew Jack in like a moth to flame. Her eyes seemed an oasis in a desert of monotony, they held secrets Jack ached to uncover, yet it seemed impossible for him to ever do so. With every fleeting glance, Jack drowned in the depths of her gaze, lost in a world where only she exists. But she is a tempest, untamed and elusive, slipping through Jack's fingers like grains of sand, he knew she would fall faster the tighter he dreamed of holding. Though their heart beats in sync, she remained a distant melody, forever out of reach. Intangible to the teenage Jack. She was his everything, and if he told her how he felt, they would be nothing.
"What are you staring at weirdo" Alice smiled at him with that beautiful smile of hers whilst flicking a bit of cake at him. The flames of the fire they started flickered in the background as the music played and the sun slowly went below the horizon. Even fireflies began to come out of their hideouts as the evening settled into a maelstrom of laughter and fun.
"Nothing" Jack said as he turned back to look at the rest of the park, the cool evening breese swirling through his brown mullet and making the back flutter about. Just coming over the green grassed hill were figures of darkness. Moving erratically, they stalked down the hill as if looking for prey.
That was when he heard it.
The booming music of the stereo on one of their shoulders brought a smile to Jack's face. It was the rest of the students in their year, here to celebrate his birthday and perhaps have fun for the last time in a long time, depending on what system they manifested.