Jamie was awoken from a nice dream by his alarm. It was an old clock with a ringing hammer. It read 6:56 He almost decided to go right back to sleep, as his warm futon beckoned to him, but remembered today was his skydiving field trip provided by the high school. Once again he almost skipped it for his bed when he remembered his best friend Cole was going too, but his girlfriend Kiana would be mad if he didn't go. She had begged him all week to go. He barely signed up in time. He dragged himself out of bed, and put on some clothes. Nothing special. Just some loose jeans, a cap, a black shirt with red print which read, "don't ask me questions, i'm the pretty one," and threw his metal tags around his neck. He also put on a pair of red sneakers, which he had always thought fondly of.
He grabbed a sandwich, and took a final look inside his room. It was a white room. It was neatly organized, and decorated with posters, a soda fountain, a popcorn machine, furniture, and his xbox 360. He couldn't shake an odd feeling, like something bad was going to happen. Maybe related to his secret, but thought listening to Cole on the bus ride to the skydiving center would help it go away. He took a bite from his sandwich, dug his free hand into his pocket to fetch a coin, and threw it across the room into the jukebox, turning on a loud rap song, and shut the door. It was time to jump.
Jamie was right, Kiana looked happier when she saw him get on the bus. She was sitting by two of her friends, so Jamie decided to sit next to Cole who was sitting alone. "big mistake," he mumbled to himself. His Korean friend, clad in combat boots, black pants, a white shirt with black print that said in large capital letters, " CAT4 THE WIN!!", and a loose black vest. He too was wearing his metal tags. He looked more than happy Jamie was there too.
"Hey, Jamie!," Cole said energetically, "your kind of late, you know that right? Oh well, it doesn't matter, your here now! how's it going? There is a hole in the ceiling in my house! Did you know the Earth is round!? I lost my old boots in the cemetery looking for a shovel! There was a mix-up with my meds, and someone else got my Vicodin! I got a bunch of Excedrin instead!"
"Cole do you have the Excedrin with you?"
"Uhh, yeah. Why?"
"Because listening to you gives me a migraine."
"Ohh...," Cole said. He was quiet for the rest of the ride. The ride was long. It was cool, but everyone on the bus was talking at all times, and his headache got worse. He didn't realize how tired he actually was until Cole's bottle was empty. Uh oh.
When they arrived at the entrace to the center they were greeted by their instructor. He escorted them in. On the way they saw a large sign reading:
WARNING!! DO NOT WALK OR RUN ON RUNWAYS!! ONLY ONE CITIZEN DEATH HAS BEEN CAUSE BY STUDENT STUPIDITY!! COLE HAS BEEN THROUGH THERAPY AND WILL NOT HURT ANYONE ELSE!! HOPEFULLY!!!
"Hey they remember what happened last week!" Cole said with enough enthusiasm to scare the instructor, the class, and a passing pilot, who ran screaming, "I WANT TO LIVE!!!"
"You went through therapy that fast?" asked Kiana.
"Sorta. The therapist decided to use his vacation days after the first hour! Haven't heard from him since!" After a few looks from instructor, and class, they walked into a classroom. The instructor said this was "training" and would get them later. They were put through six hours of "training" which was basically a buzz cut ex-pilot yelling at them.
"OKAY! This is what's going to happen! We're going to count to three! One! Two! Three! Then you jump! There will be a cord to pull, but wait until the right altitude! OKAY? Let's go over that again! One......."
Somewhere Jamie lost interest. He could see Cole ready to explode from boredom, or counting to 3, and Kiana was writing a note to her friend. He took a nap. He awoke to see Cole giving his shoulder a shake.
"Jamie," he whispered, "wake up, we're going to suit up, and get in the air."
"Ohh, okay," he mumbled, "let's go"
The two got prepped with the other students, grabbed their parachutes, and got on the plane. When they got in the air, and at the right altitude, the instructor opened the door. One by one the students walked to the door, the instructor counted to one, then two, then pushed the students out. All except Cole who just ran and jumped out screaming something about eating clouds. Jamie then realized he was next. He got to the door, and tried to remember what he was supposed to do. Before he could remember he was pushed in the back, hard. He fell through the air desperately thinking about how to deploy the chute. He soon realized he wasn't in a video game, and the right trigger didn't apply here. He searched desperately around his back for a cord. A button. Something. To no avail as he saw the ground below, and knew what was going to happen.
"mother fu-" was the last thing he said before colliding face first with the ground.