Yet another clueless adult. Nothing that Jessica hadn't heard before. It lacked the SICK PERSONALS that the teacher brought to the table as well. Empty words, devoid of meaning. The last line, especially, was laughable to Jessica. Acting like nothing was wrong was her BAG, and infinitely preferable to the truth.

Because the 'truth' was that Jessica was friendless, unlikable, and that her own family forgot her birthday. For three years straight.

SCREW the truth, the truth sucked and Haywood knew it.

"OOOHHH SICK BUUURN," Jessica called out after Haywood delivered a piece of verbal ART. She flipped 'Mark' off as she backed away.

"LATER, LOSER!"

She was feeling pretty good about her verbal victory. Maybe with the help of Haywood and his crew, she might actually be able to get something done today. Maybe they could have fun knocking over a store or two. At least it would beat last year, when she stayed at home alone and ate a dozen cupcakes while watching anime and crying.

But she was blindsided by an unexpected source.

[i]Like havin' some tacky trick makes you important.[/i]

Jessica stopped in her tracks, and looked at the ground, chuckling nervously.

"Y-yeah... assholes."

Because Jessica knew that, even though her epithet wasn't that great, it was also the only thing that made her special. Nobody liked her, and she wasn't good at anything, but Mongrel was HERS. No one else could do what she could, even if that something wasn't incredibly cool. It hurt, but it would be best to come clean about her status as an Inscribed before things got too weird.

"A-actually, you know, I was lying to that guy. I'm really-"

Thunderbolts and lightning. Very, very frightening. Jessica's eyes widened as she looked out at the ocean.

"...Shit."

---

[i]"Ugh... what happened...? My birthday... w-was it a 'rager'? Did I party HARD?"[/i]

Jessica stumbled to her feet, brushing the sand off her face.

[i]"The beach still? How did I... huh? Wait... this isn't..."[/i]

Second after second, more information came in. The wreckage, the groaning people, the new scenery, and then memory of the storm.

[i]"Wait, what?"[/i]

Jessica continued looking around in disbelief. It was all coming together, but none of it made sense.

All she wanted was a happy birthday.

Of course something like this would happen.

Of course.

And now she was gonna die on a desert island because her parents didn't know or care where she went. All because she wanted to get out of her room and try something different. Whatever she tried, it seemed failure followed her. It was too much to take in all at once. Jessica was still a kid, after all.

She crouched and buried her face in her hands, because she didn't want anyone to see. She whimpered, sobbed, and began to cry, trying her best to do so softly and muffle the sounds. No one could see her like this. Crying was lame. Banzai Blasters didn't cry.

Banzai Blasters didn't cry.