Rising Ch. 1: Air Show

Hey. What's up? Remember me? The smart mouthed, lovable, handsome kid with big fluffy white wings? Yeah. It's me, Gabriel Collins.

Things have changed since I've lost/regained my wing. I go from rich kid with a ton of secrets to an open superstar, working for the government. Hey, things could be worse. Anyway, It was a good month after I helped out Cyrus with the whole 'Bishop' thing. Oh, and I got the greatest girlfriend in the world. None other than Nicole Miller.

Yeah, life is looking pretty good right now.....that is, until HE came along.





I was high flying in the air, above an open crowd. I was in Times Square, New York City. This is an air show I put up every now and then. I do it for sponsors who want to raise public awareness about certain things. Last week, it was about adopting lost girls from China. Right now, its about drugs. No matter what it is, its bad for you. Anyway I just did the finishing act, which is me dive bombing the crowd and pulling up at the last second. The crowd went NUTS for that one.

I landed on the stage. WOW, am I tired. I'll need a vacation after this is done.

I grabbed the microphone and said, "What's up NEW YORK?" They cheered. "OK, Seriously guys, its not about me. Its not about what I do. Its about you. Yes you. I talking to you to, guy in the orange shirt, third row, glasses on." They laughed. The guy I pointed out laughed too. "This is about what we can do for a great country, like America. One of the problems here is smoking. Yeah its addicting. I get it. But seriously? If you don't know that its bad for you by now, then ask somebody! I mean for crying out loud, it rots you, literally rots you, from the inside out, people! Listen we got a special video for all you, its a video showing the current condition of several smokers. Sadly, none of them are with us, today. Here it goes. The lights on the stage dimmed, and the video began to roll. I went to the side stage to get some water.


I was resting and catching my breath. Nicole came up next to me and surprized me with a kiss on my cheek. "Hey you! How's my Superstar?" I looked up to greet her. "Hey!" I gave her a hug. "You here by yourself?" She nodded. "Yeah, Mom and Dad couldn't make it, but they did say 'Good luck with the show' and 'Watch yourself around my daughter'." She said both messages in her version of what her parents sound like. I laughed. Her dad was even more suspicious of me than before. I don't blame him. Its probably because I now live by myself, even though I'm sixteen and going on seventeen in February. The video was about to wrap up and I needed to wrap up this concert.

"Hey, I'll see you in a minute, OK?" She nodded. I went out to the stage with the mic in hand. "Do all of y'all see what I mean now? Those people, especially the one in the wheelchair, use to be healthier than a horse." I paused for a sec. Then I said this in a different voice, "All well. We all gotta die someday. That's one slow death pal. So the thing is, the only one alternative to smoking, is to not smoke at all. Remember to get a T-shirt at the concession stand. If you got any questions, there is a website, called w-w-w-dot-holysmokes-dot-com, you can look up for information. There is also a questions section so that you can express yourself freely. Have a good day everybody, and lets give one last big hand to the people made this possible." They clapped and cheered and began to leave.

I gotta go too, I got a date with a brown haired, blue eyed angel.