The alarm caused him to open his eyes, and then the horns outside awoke him fully. Time for another day.
Leon stopped his alarm, pressing the button extra hard due to the crack on his phone making it hard for the thing to register his inputs. He rolled out of his bed, getting his old earphones out to drown out the early morning commuters. He got his breakfast, an old croissant and an orange, which was the only thing in the fridge besides some milk and soda he was pretty sure were expired. They needed to stock up on food. He opened the door to his apartment, where two cups of coffee lay across the hallway. Ms. Chou struck again. She wasn't there, but she knew she was appreciated. So as he sat on the couch waiting for Jay to finish in the shower, he scrolled through the news on his phone. The war in Dyblys was still at a standstill, and the only thing changing was the body count by the day. Also the actor Emmet Dayton was exposed for cheating on his wife with a sixteen year old. All depressing, but life goes on.
Jay finally stepped out of the shower, wearing nothing but a towel. His freshly washed hair was the same colour as his eyes, and he stepped into his own room to get ready for yet another day.
After a shower that was sixty percent freezing water thanks to Jay taking the miniscule amount of hot water that was there, Leon finally got dressed. He put on the classic outfit, a black puffer jacket and worn out jeans. His smooth black hair was getting longer, to the point he was just a little extra away from looking like an overly relaxed metalhead. The patchy facial hair added to that. Screw it, that's the look now. Probably cheaper to maintain, anyway.
"Alright, we ready?" Jay asked, dressed in his work uniform for his station, a clerk at the gas station. And with that, the two were off.
The elevator was out of commission again, because somebody leaned to the left too hard or whatever the reason it stopped working was this time. So on their way through the stairway, they passed all the neighbours, waving to Mr. Jepson as he watered the plants on the second floor windowsills, and the kids loitering around, not doing much. But before them finally lay the allegedly great Lion City.
Well, it was a few blocks until the actual great parts were visible. before them lay a bunch of mostly abandoned buildings and a few food trucks next to some small buisnesses like dry cleaners beside them. The two ran past until they could find the subway, and the two got on, squeezing their way to a handle they can stand by.
"Yo, you hear that Emmet Dayton slept with a sixteen year old?" Jay said as he looked up from his phone.
"Yeah, wild shit." Leon sighed. "Granted, I don't think I've seen anything he was in."
"House of Wolves is a masterpiece, my guy." He said while calmly shaking his head.
Jay's stop appeared before he could continue, but his position was quickly replaced with a black cat, who's green eyes kept staring into Leon's. It kept it's eyes on him regardless of anyone else's actions in the train, eventually jumping up to meet his own eyes. When Leon reached his stop, the first movement of his hand caused the cat to scratch it. Leon tried to contain the outburst building inside him, choosing to glare at the cat as he walked out. The cat followed him, making what he swore was a smug look before walking another direction. But that didn't matter, North Lion public was in front of him.
Time for another day.
First was English. His analysis of the epic poem of Mourning Bell only got him a 45%.
"Leon, I'm expecting to see more from you during the leaving exams." Ms. Turner said with disapproval. Leon just nodded as he looked at the paper. His take on the historical context of the poem netted most of his points, but his take on the writing and themes by themselves were apparently pretty mediocre.
But next up was history, and his quiz got him a pretty low 90%. As he looked over the paper, he screwed up the dates between the state of Windara being founded and the exile of slave owners to Ikibo in the Halond rebellion. The events were only a year apart, but it dragged down the rest of the paper and made it look shoddy.
The rest of the day went fairly normal. Just with more worry about the Leaving Exams, the one exam that has the power to make the rest of your life. His history score would be good, and his English would probably be fine if he kept grinding, or at least knew the historical context of whatever came up. But truthfully, everything else was a crapshoot to him. But there was less time to focus on whatever job he could get from this exam, and to get the bus to his real job, at the car wash by the gas station Jay worked at. The job mostly consisted of turning on a button, letting the machine do the job, and sometimes collecting a tip. But occasionally he'd be asked to do a deep clean of the inside of the car. And it was always the most vile cars that asked for the treatment. When he took the job he hoped for at least a small chance to drive around and feel the inside of a classic, or a cool sports car. But for the most part it was twenty year old rust collectors with half empty cans and food containers polluting the backseat. And also tissues. Leon always made sure to wear two pairs of rubber gloves when dealing with them.
And today was one of those cars. Tissues, fast food wrappers, and the cars interior radiated some weird smell that took an entire spray bottle to remove. The owner also stank of some kind of herbal substance, on top of the sickly sweet smell of the electronic cigarette he wouldn't stop puffing on. He didn't tip either. Normally not an issue to him, but after looking at the watch the guy was wearing over his grey tracksuit, he felt the right to be a little pissed. And as he shook his hands after he left in an attempt to get the crushing despair off him, he felt his phone buzz. One text from Jay.
'Theres a guy here try get rid of him'
'please'
Leon left his phone in his station, just in case, and went into the store.
Another man in a grey hoodie, holding a knife to the other worker in the store, demanding money. Leon's known these were getting more frequent around other stores, but this place was shockingly immune until now. Granted, the guy didn't seem to be that aware of his surroundings outside of the terrified girl in front of him, so Leon was able to grab his shoulders and deliver a swift knee to his back. He dropped the knife, and the girl quickly swiped it from the counter. The man turned around and tried kicking, but the kick was more something poorly replicated from a kung-fu movie, so Leon could just step back and grab the outstretched leg, pulling it until the guy was on the floor. And finally, his steel toed boots delivered one kick to the chin, and his head hit the counter. When he got up, his nose was bleeding, and Leon grabbed him by the hood as he tried walking out.
"I'm gonna cut you a deal." He said. "If we report this then management will get on our asses, and you'll probably have to deal with the police. If you promise to never come back here, we can all pretend this never happened. Sound good?"
"Sure." The man said, squirming to try and free himself. Leon let him go, and he instantly fell to the floor again.
"What the hell is your deal, anyway?"
Leon tapped the left side of his neck twice with his index finger, then once with the middle. The robbers eyes widened as he quickly backed off.
"No way the spades have someone like you!" He yelled as he ran from the store.
"Sorry you had to see that." Leon sighed. "I'll be in the car wash if you need me."
As the former spade stepped out, a current spade was in the car wash, looking around for anybody to help with his motorbike.
"What's up, Travis?" Leon asked.
"Not much, man." He shrugged. He still had bright brown hair, that was naturally made to be curled in the dorkiest way possible. And while his clothes were at a glance an improvement, his leather jacket being patched with things like a cartoon spacewoman holding an oversized blaster. "Anyway, some asshole dunked my bike in a puddle of mud, you able to help with that?"
"Yeah, it's about fifteen long."
"Sure."
Leon hosed down the bike, trying to break the silence between them.
"So how are the spades?" He asked, without looking towards him.
"Same old shit, man." He sighed.
"Including Elijah?"
"Got a part time job at a car dealership, but he spends his free time at the junks."
"Of course."
The washing was done, and Travis rummaged through his pockets. He thought he had a five and ten long note, but he only had two tens.
"It's a tip, you need it more than I do."
Leon took the money as he sped off. Nothing of note happened for the rest of his shift, and he and Jay went home at nine. After both of them got past the trains evening rush, Leon was once again in his bed. It was still loud outside, from both vehicles and the distant voices of those outside. Whatever they were doing around outside at that hour, it probably wasn't legal. He stared at the ceiling and tried drowning out the noise. Lion City was often called the city of dreams, where anyone could make it with the right ideas and ethics. The worlds roaring centre of innovation. Fifty years ago, that was true. But things have changed. Jobs get outsourced, and the wealth gets concentrated into the same hands.
And any discussion by historians studying the city often asked the same question.
Does the city still roar?