Irons

[Taiylor Wallace]

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan had always been revered as one of the most beautiful places in the world, especially around its so-called 'iron country' or 'copper country'. The land turned from forest to plains and cliffs and back to forest again, surrounded by some of the most beautiful bodies of water on earth like Lake Superior and the many rivers running into it. Lake Superior, nearly an inland ocean, stands as one of the legends of sailing. As any sailor on an iron barge will tell you, Lake Superior cannot be crossed when storms arise.

Of the many bays of Lake Superior, Keweenaw Bay is one of the largest. And on a small, pointed miniature peninsular between Keweenaw and Huron Bay, there is a small town of fishermen and outdoorsmen called Irons.

Irons was hardly a whole town, barely more than a village. It wasn't easily accessible thanks to winding narrow roads through thick forest that led to it. In fact, it was much easier to reach by boat. Many people rode the cargo ferry over from the west or southeast sides. That ferry carried large semi trailers over, full of things for the few stores around the town.

In town, there could be found 'Yooper-Mart', a jokingly-named grocery store that was roughly a tiny Wal-Mart. Next door to it was a barber shop and salon, then the town's only gas station, a butcher and fishmonger (Finnish twin brothers named Sven and Lars), and a tavern. On the other side of the main street was an old-style cafe called Maggie's, owned by the town's favorite crazy Irishwoman. Next door was a locally-owned Lake Superior gift shop, a year-round ice cream vendor, an art studio, and then an outdoorsman shop called Vigo's, owned by a kind old Russian man.. Out scattered along the roads were various other businesses, and then many homes.

Irons boasted a population of about 400 full-time residents, 250 of which were teens and kids. The town's population swelled to 700 in summer when vacationers came to enjoy the Irons campground or to live at their personal summer cottages along the Keweenaw or Huron Bay sides of Irons. Everyone, even the summer-only residents, knew each other. The youth all attended Irons schools together, the largest class being about 30 kids.

=======================

"Jasmine! Jasmine, get off that damned computer and go outside for once!"

It was about noon, summer vacation had begun hardly a week ago. Three whole months to just write, but Jasmine's mother always kicked her out of the house and made her go hang out with her friends.

"Jasmine, do you hear me?" Mrs. Sandra Green yelled down the stairs to Jasmine's basement bedroom. She and her husband were lovers of the outdoors and always tried to get their kids to be the same. In fact, Jasmine's 8-year old brother Ben was already running around with his friends, he had been since breakfast that morning. Mr. Hugh Green was already off to work in the shipyards across Keweenaw Bay, helping load and unload freighters, sending many of them to Marquette to the iron refinery there.

[Rose Swan]

At the sound of her mother's screaming voice, 16 year old Jasmine rolled her eyes. She peeked her bright blue eyes over the corner of the screen and gazed out her window to see the kids from school who tormented her shooting hoops across the street. Going outside meant dealing with them. Her mother was oblivious to this, and quite frankly, she liked it that way. It would be a mess if she really knew what happened in school. Besides, she hadn't gotten dressed yet, and sh was still dressed in a t-shurt and sweatpants while her blond hair was pulled into a messy bun. She wore black plastic framed glasses, much like Tina Fey, and it added an air of intelligence to her curious eyes.

She decided to ignore her mom. She was just getting to a good part of writing her novel. Her dashing hero was squaring off with a ferocious beast that looked like a panda bear crossed with a moose. It wasn't the most attractive hybrids, but it gained points for originality. The damsel was wounded by the monster already, and she was close to dead. He had to finish the battle quickly otherwise she would die and he wouldn't be able to save her. It was a predicament that needed Jasmine's attention now. And even if her mom insisted that she needed fresh air, there was perfectly good air inside. Edmund Pevensi from Narnia had put it best in the movie.

[Taiylor Wallace]

"If you don't get up here, I'll switch off the breaker to your room!" That was a real threat. She'd done it once before a few years prior when Jasmine wouldn't come up for Thanksgiving dinner because she was in the middle of a climax to a story. She'd lost about five pages when her computer shut down. Mrs. Green was a lovely lady, but very stern. "Call Kim and the rest of your little gang and go do something!"

Dao Kim had been Jasmine's best friend since he'd first moved to Irons from Japan. They'd both only been babies, but were attached to each other from the start. Kim and his father Dai ran a small martial arts class in the town's gym. Kim was a third-degree black belt and often tried to be Jasmine's protector from the bullies.

The others were all very different from each other. Nico Vengrosk was the son of Sven the butcher and the nephew of Lars. He was a Finnish kickboxer and track and field hot shot. Annalise Demailles was a South African beauty, a cross-country runner. Oslo Rokov was a Russian weightlifter, hockey player, and one of the gentlest giants Jasmine knew. And Oslo's half-sister Jaquelyn was half-Russian, half-Australian (mostly Australian) all-around athlete.

They were a motley crew to say the least. Irons was a very diverse town, but Jasmine's crew were the outcasts. Not for their nationalities, but for how different they were from the rest. Oslo was the only one of them who was really accepted, only because he was the favorite juggernaut of the hockey team.

[Rose Swan]

Jasmine paled immediately and hit the save button on Word. But she continued typing anyway. A handful of words being lost won't kill her. While she loved her friends to death, and they were all outcasts like her, she was the outcast of their group. She wasn't good at any sports like they were, prefering to sit on the curb or bleachers with a notebook and pen in hand.

There was always a smear of blue ink on the very right side of her right hand where it made contact with the paper, and that was her trademark flaw. The others had double joints, scars, bruises, missing teeth, broken bones, the stuff that came with being awesome. She just had something washable. Blue ink.

Kim lived next door to the bullies. She hated the telephone, merely for the fact that the proper credit for its invention wasn't given to Nikola Tesla and Alexander Graham Bell stole all the credit like an asshole. She preferred to go talk to Kim face to face. But mainly when the bullies weren't outside.

Mom and Kim could wait. As long as the bullies were out, she was in. She hit save again upon finishing another paragraph, and kept writing.

[Taiylor Wallace]

After about five minutes, her entire room went dark, and she heard the sound of the breaker box shutting upstairs. Before her mother could yell at her, the doorbell rang. After a moment, her mother called, "You're lucky, kid! Nico's here with Anna!"

"Ey, Jazzy!" Nico called down. "Come up, ey? Awful lonely without our favorite author around, you know." His accent was heavy and sweet as ever. "Everybody else is getting together at Maggie's and then we're going kayaking."

[Rose Swan]

As her room went dark, she was ready to start screaming at her mother for being a total bitch until the doorbell rang. "Give me five minutes!" she yelled before standing up and pulling a flashlight out of her desk drawer to go through her closet to find jeans and a t-shirt. She ran a brush through her hair, and popped in her contacts to avoid having her glasses falling off while kayaking. They were her favorites, and she wasn't letting the murky water claim another pair.

She pulled on her old but trusty tan Converses and headed upstairs to greet her friends. They headed outside, and as she walked down the sidewalk in the direction of Maggie's, she nudged her hair to cover her face on her left side where the bullies were. Jasmine didn't want to deal with them today. Not them and her mother too.

[Taiylor Wallace]

Nico was the oldest of the group at age 19 while the others were still Juniors and Seniors in High School. He'd graduated two years prior, but he'd stuck around. He made his living by kicking ass and winning huge prizes in kickboxing competitions that took place about once a month around the country, sometimes going out of the country to learn from foreign pros.

Anna smiled and wrapped an arm around Jasmine's waist with a giggle. "Hiya, cutie." She always flirted with everyone, but Jasmine knew it was just playing and that Anna was actually interested in another girl who lived across town.

"Oslo and Jackie and Kim should already be there," Nico grinned as he pulled out a toothpick and chewed on it. He'd always had the habit.

As they walked down the street, they came past the butcher and fish shops. Sven and Lars were always there, and they loved Jasmine to pieces.


"Hei, Jasmine! Kuinka voit tänään, kultaseni?" Lars called out from the window of his shop, completely forgetting to speak English.

"Lars, hän ei aio opetella suomea vain ymmärtää sinua." Sven poked his head out from the butcher shop.

"Turpa kiinni, Sven."

"Miksi et, kovaa suun?"

"Etkö uskalla kertoa minulle mitä tehdä!"

"Voi, haista paska."

"How you doing, sweetie?" Lars finally spoke in English with a smile, ignoring his brother. He was a thin and somewhat average man with a short brown beard and a clean-shaven head. His twin brother had short hair and a goatee of the same color. Both had gentle blue eyes.

[Rose Swan]

Jasmine smiled and waved at her friends on the porch, and was finally grateful and relieved that she got past that stupid house in one piece. She lightened up a little after that, and waved at Sven and Lars when they reached it. She understood nothing they said except for an obvious "Hey Jasmine." She stood and smiled awkwardly as she always did until they started speaking English.

"I'm great, Lars. How are you?" she said. It was a genuine smile she was wearing now, as the butchers were super nice, even nicer than her mom and dad. She was glad to see them.

[Taiylor Wallace]

"Oh, just fine, honey. Though, dealing with tyhmä here..."

"Sanoin että pidä hyvänäsi," Sven growled.

"Ugh, you better run, Jas, he's about to explode... again." Lars then laughed away as his brother lost his temper.

"Those two..." Nico shook his head. It wasn't uncommon to hear the two argue. In fact, something was wrong if they DIDN'T.

"Heads up!" Nico suddenly whipped around to see Kim charging and leaping at him. Nico blocked Kim's high kick and then Kim caught Nico in a headlock. "Still can't beat me, Vengrosk." Kim let him go, then hugged Jasmine. "Hi, kiddo." Kim had Asian-black hair and dark brown eyes that sparkled with life.

"You people comin' or what?" Jackie called from down the street beside Oslo. Jackie was quite the beauty too, always tan with coal-black hair and ice blue eyes. Oslo was much the same, only with darker and much more rugged skin and looks.

[Rose Swan]

Jasmine happily hugged Kim with a bright smiile. "Hi Kim." she said. She released him when she heard Jackie calling down to them. With a big smile on her face, she raised her arm and waved it at her. "We're coming, Jackie!" she called and started walking down to the cafe, where the others were.