Marc's Tale - Issue 1: Beginnings (Part 1)

Marc awoke to the bleating of his alarm clock. In well practiced routine, he turned over, reached out his hand, and with his eyes still closed, hit the snooze button. He turned back over, and pulled the covers back over his head. Seven minutes passed. Suddenly, Marc bolted upright in bed and glanced over at the clock.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself. “I’m gonna be late.”
Marc sprang out of bed, and grabbed the clothes he had set out the night before. He opened his bedroom door, and rushed down the hall and into the washroom, closing it’s door behind him. He quickly turned on the hot water tap in the shower, and then turned to brush his teeth. The water in his apartment took about two minutes to actually get hot, so he usually spent the time waiting brushing his teeth. Once the water was hot, he turned the cold water tap on slightly just to cool it down a bit, took off his boxers, and jumped into the shower.
“Steve’s gonna kill me. I’m supposed to be there at 8:30, and I have to pick up Sarah yet.” Marc said to himself, as he washed the shampoo out of his hair. He quickly turned off his water, and grabbed his towel off to the side, and dried himself. Once dry enough, he threw on his clothes. He opened the door of the bathroom, and he could hear the alarm in his room going off. He ran into his room, flicked the alarm switch off, grabbed his wallet and keys, and bolted towards his front door. He threw on his shoes, and grabbed his hat off the hat rack, and he was off.

“You know Steve’s gonna kill you, right?” Sarah said, as she opened the passenger door to get in.
“Ya, ya, I know. Sorry, I slept in a little bit. Surprise, surprise.” Marc said, as he shoved his car into first. The shifter on the piece of junk tended to need a little elbow grease just to switch from one gear to the next. At least it ran. Well, at least it ran most of the time. Every so often it would choose a day to take off, and just not work for the next 24 hours. The next day, it’d be fine again. Marc wasn’t sure why it did that, and he sure as hell didn’t have the money to pay a mechanic to find out why. He just lived with it. It was the same with the fact that every time he tried to change the radio, it shorted out. He figured it went with the territory of who he was. He was just cursed with anything with this car since he’d purchased it six months ago.
“Well, as long as you don’t try to blame me, I’m fine with you being late. I don’t understand why Steve wants us to get there so early anyhow. I mean, I like Wonderland, but why we have to be there the moment it opens is beyond me,” Sarah said, letting out a yawn at the end of her sentence. She was as much a morning person as Marc, which is to say that she wasn’t one at all.
“Agreed. I really hate getting up this early period. Starts the day off wrong when I see this side of eleven in the morning,” Marc smirked.

Marc pressed the doorbell to Steve’s house. Instead of hearing the jingle of Steve’s doorbell, he heard a fizzle and pop, and nothing afterwards.
“Figures,” he mumbled under his breath. He raised his hand and knocked loudly. He heard footsteps approaching, and then the door opened. Steve stood in the doorway, an expression of annoyance clear upon his face.
“I knew you’d be late. Your always late,” Steve half growled, glaring at Marc. Then, turning to Sarah, “Good morning, Sarah. Come on in. We’ll be leaving in about a minute. Christine’s in the bathroom.” He stepped to the side, holding the door open. Sarah went in, and sat down at the kitchen table. Marc followed her in the door, smirking a bit as he entered.
“Good morning to you too, Steve. Seriously, I don’t see why your in such a big rush. The rides aren’t going anywhere” Marc took off his coat, and set it on the back of the chair at the table, and started to fill up his mug of coffee with fresh stuff from Steve and Christine’s machine.
“First off, Marc, I want to be there early so we get in some rides before the rush comes. And secondly, that’s not even the point. The point is, your never on time. I know you say it’s cause you don’t believe in time, but really, it just makes you seem like an ass hole. Well you may not care about time, it makes it seems like you don’t care about your friends when you constantly show up late. It’s selfish.” Steve was getting red faced now. He was just getting going.
“Wow, someone is grumpy today,” Marc smirked, placing the coffee pot back on the coffee maker. He noticed the clock on the pad turn from 8:45 to a flashing 00:00. Weird, he thought, and then put it out of his mind.
“Not grumpy, Marc. Just annoyed. I swear…” Steve started, but then the door leading to the bathroom opened, and Catherine came out, smiling as she saw Sarah and Marc.
“Hey Marc. Hey Sarah. Are you guys ready to go? I know Steve’s raring to leave, so we should probably head out. He’s been a little grumpy all morning.” That was Cath. Always honest, always happy.
“I have not been grumpy,” Steve muttered.
“Sure you have, honey. Now grab the cooler and we can be off,” Cath said, and she walked to the door and threw on her shoes.

“See, we’re even here early, despite me being late,” Marc said to Steve, as they waited in line at 9:56, waiting in the lineups that led through the main gates.
“Ya, because I speed the entire time, Marc,” Steve grumbled, glaring at Marc. He was still sore over Marc’s nonchalant attitude, and wasn’t about to just let it go this time.
“Now boys, no fighting. This is supposed to be a fun trip,” Catherine smiled to them, taking a break from talking to Sarah about the gossip of who was dating who at the college, and, more interesting in Sarah’s mind, who was cheating on who.
“Fine,” Steve gloomed. Marc and him stood in silence for the rest of the way up to the metal detectors, and Steve brooded. Steve went through first, without a beep, and gave his ticket to the girl at the counter. Marc followed next, and the detector went off. He emptied his pockets, taking out the loose change that had probably cause it to go off, and then the guard went over him with his hand held metal detector. It went off over his knee.
“Old knee injury?” the guard asked, a stern look on his face.
“Um, ya, that’s it. You know how it his,” Marc said, a quizzical look of amusement on his face. The guard patted him down just to be sure, and then gave him his change and wallet back, and let him pass through. After Sarah and Catherine got threw, they walked over to where Marc and Steve stood chatting about where they were going to head to first. It was to be Dragonfire first. Steve and Marc both agreed that the newer side of the park, with all the newer rides from the last couple of years, would surely draw the most people this early, and they had a better chance of getting more rides in on the opposite side of the park. The two couples walked that way, with Steve and Christine leading Marc and Sarah.
“What was that about back there with the metal detector,” Sarah asked, leaning up against Marc’s side.
“You got me. I think his metal detector was on the fritz. He found metal in my knee. Seemed to think it was from an old injury. But, I’ve never been hurt there,” Marc said, the quizzical look of amusement from earlier returning. “Oh well, not my fault his stupid detector doesn’t work. I just let him believe what he wanted.”