April: Summer's arrival

[Because, despite of the 20 stations and the extra quiz, I managed to get done with bio early after all.

The style is a bit off as a result of some recent problems with writing, but my editor thought it was readable anyway. *nod* *grin*

Based on real people who were sprawled all over the grass. You'd think they died if it weren't for the blissful smiles on their faces. Countless sunburns these two days.]

Spring in southern California was not a subtle affair. There was none of the thin ‘veils of green’ shyly creeping their ways over hills and dales, no slow warming of the days as the skies gradually cast off cloaks of winter gray. Spring in southern California was a bit like one of its famed cities—say, San Diego or Los Angeles, where everything was happening and happening at once (or at least gave the impression that it was). Hurry. Rush! And overnight the new bright golds and greens covered the city with their translucent hue, replacing the faded brown-greens of yesteryear. Hurry! And in two more days the sun beamed down as if winter was a distant memory months away, and not the lingering presence of merely a week ago. Another day and all the spring flowers were in bloom. Another hour and millions of little feathered things added their voices to the tune of Spring as it dashed hither-dither in an ecstatic frenzy, leaving behind its dancing footprints fading into millions of shades of green….

Then in but a week was the first breath of summer, bringing with it its languid days of white-gold heat and azure skies that would last well past September. Almost instantaneously time slowed the frantic pace that it had set for Spring into the drowsy crawl reminiscent of a lazy feline on warm afternoons and brought with it—with its warmth and lulling sunshine—the entire school full of students to be left out on the grasses and on the beaches, sun-baked and sleepily content.

Gary wondered vaguely when Mike had trailed off from whistling into the indolent silence that now hovered over them, but it was only a passing thought in the back of his mind. The majority of his mental state was sluggish and as gloriously clear as the sky arching away above him. It was very soothing.

“We should do something,” said Nick weakly and with no detectable levels of motivation.

“Mmm,” commented Mike. Gary stared dazedly at the sky, feeling too lazy to respond.

“Should go and study,” mumbled Zach, failing to escape from the general lethargy from where he was sprawled on the grass, chin in hand. He sounded like Gary felt, and Gary felt like he would be incapable of movement until at least an hour after the sun had gone down, or until the world ended, whichever came first.

“You ‘n your stood—studyin’,” scoffed Nick. “That’s not…you know,” he appealed to Mike. “Like ‘health’….”

“ ‘Healthy’,” supplied Mike with a groan, rolling over so that he would be spread out face-down on the grass. He twitched, the lazily pushed at something at the grass under his head. “Ow. Stupid rock,” he muttered, but even that lacked its usual energy. “Hard.”

“Rocks tend to be that,” murmured Zach. Gary craned his neck and looked at him. He appeared to be staring off at something decidedly invisible that was located two feet in front of him.

“Feel sorry for the rocks. Roche pitoyable.” Nick rested his chin on his backpack and stared down at the ground, as if searching for rocks with which to share his empathy. “You have a pointy nose.”

“An’ pointy ears. We have our own mutant,” added Zach, yawning. He blinked. “Boy, we’ve been here for a while.”

Mike muttered something. It might be ‘shuddup’, but coming from against the grass, it was harder to decipher. Gary considered their conversation and decided that a ‘shuddup’ was probably called for.

“Not that long,” he answered in response, and squinted at Zach as his friend yawned again. “ An’ you should go in or somethin’, you’re getting sunburned.”

“We’re all getting sunburned,” pointed out Zach sleepily. “Most of the school’s getting sunburned. It’s a sunburning sort of day.” He paused. “That didn’t make sense.”

“The sun’s gone to your head, man,” Gary said wisely.

“Yeah but the rest of us get tan, you just get skin cancer,” said Mike, at the same time.

“That’s not fair,” protested Zach. “I get freckles.”

“You’ll get freckles an’ skin cancer,” amended Mike, very reasonably.

“Well I’m just going to have to die from skin cancer then,” decided Zach. He dropped his head onto the grass. “Because I’m not moving.”

“You really should go in, Zach, or do somethin’,” suggested Nick. “I’d help, but I don’t thin’ I can move. ‘Suis désolé.”

“Uhmph,” agreed Gary, trying, like Mike, to roll over but eventually deciding that lying just the way he was worked pretty well too.

“Gods, we’re pathetic,” said Mike with a laugh. Gary turned his head the other way to look at him. Mike was looking at them. Sort of. It was hard to tell because his own backpack was in the way.

“ ‘m not,” he disagreed, “We’re enjoyin’ ourselves.”

“Hmm,” said Nick, which might be a yes, a no, or an I’m-too-sun-baked-to-speak-a-full-sentence-right-now. In any case Gary considered it a case well argued and rolled his head back to stare up at the sky.

And felt dazzled by the miles of clear, sunlit air.

Summer had begun.

[The irony is, I just checked the forecast, and it might rain on Picnic Day. C'est la vie.

And now for more studying! ]