Chapter One

The day started as it usually did. Groggily, Jess leaned over to hit the snooze button on my alert clock. He was so tired because he had been doing thirty hours a week at work lately and he was n't sleeping well because of his habitation living. Add in school and the preparation that came along with it and it was midnight or later by the fourth dimension he got to bed."Who invented these things anyway ? ”, he thought as he climbed out of bed.

Showered and dressed, he went downstairs to get some breakfast."Hi Jess ”, his sidekick and sister said to him, almost in unison."Hi ”, he replied back. After eating breakfast, he went back upstairs to brush his tooth. Then he came downstairs again and went to see his mother. Jess always went to his mother 's way and said"upright break of the day"to her before leaving for school day. Why he still did, he was n't sure. He had become so distant, there was no real connector left."Probably just out of habit ”, he told himself. He kissed his mother bye-bye and then left with his comrade for school.

In the car, he and his brother did n't talk much. It was n't that they did n't like each early, but Jess and Luke had very fiddling in rough-cut these solar day. They had different protagonist, Luke being to a greater extent of a social butterfly stroke ; different tastes in music, Jess listened to more heavy metallic element and rock, while Luke was more into the pop euphony scene ; etc ... Once they got to shoal, that was it. The car ride there was the most time they spent with each former in a day and whichever one was n't driving that day just stared at their speech sound the integral ride.

Everyday he dreaded going to school. High schooling had never been"as push"to Jess. He was a lone wolf, an castaway. He had not even a handful of champion, everyone knew everyone, but that was about it. Recently he had been feeling Sir Thomas More and more depressed, his thought sometimes turning to suicide. Home life was ... well it was n't a dwelling house anymore ...

"Good sunup Mr. Knight ”, said his home room teacher, Mr. Toer."Morning ”, Jess replied back. He took his fundament and started on the homework he did n't finish stopping point Nox. mathematics was a particularly gruelling subject for Jess. He was just one bad grade away from failing the content for the semester, but at this level that was the last thing on his thinker. Staring at the blank shell sheet of paper in nominal head of him, his mind started to weave."What am I even doing here ? I have no role, no desire, no felicity. If I decided to just run away today, will anyone aid ? testament my parents notice if I 'm not there ?"The Alexander Bell for the end of home room rang, jolting him back into consciousness."hoot it ”, he thought, realizing he had n't done a single problem.

When the campana rang at 3:05, he was already driving away from schooling ( his brother was in Reserve Officers Training Corps and stayed for after-school activities ), his substructure to the floor and the radio blaring. Music had become Jess'only reprieve from his life and he was retreating into it Sir Thomas More and more, barely paying attention to anything else. Music made him feel mightily, made him feel like he had a reason to live. It seemed that the lyrics of the song on the receiving set spoke directly to him, lifting him up, making him feel felicitous that someone, somewhere understood what he felt.

When he got home, Jess went straight to his room. As he was changing into his employment uniform, he took a smell at himself in the mirror. He was 16, had long, dark brown hair, electrical down centre, was about six feet marvelous, and had slim body. The mortal staring back at him looked so far away, it looked like him, but it was n't him. The eyes of the person in the mirror looked so forsake and hollow it was shocking. Sighing to himself, he turned off the igniter and headed to work.

At work that night, he just floated aimlessly through the evening, barely engaging the customer, just wanting the night to end so that he could go home and sleep. Sleep, the one thing and one prison term of the day when he did n't find hollow, lifeless. When did n't feel anything but peacefulness. The future day was Saturday and he did n't have to go to work or school so he could slumber all through the night and well into the first light.

Opening the door to his menage after work, Jess got a halfhearted"Hi"from his parents. The kind of"hi"that you say out of politeness, not because you actually meant it. He replied back, asked if anyone had made dinner that night, and then went to his room. Turning on his computer, he checked his e-mail. As usual, it was just a cluster of spam, but then Jess saw the e-mail. John Wesley had responded to him ! Jess read the e-mail, then shut off his data processor and got into bed. Falling asleep, he smiled to himself, feeling some small sensory faculty of hope.


criticism welcome. Like I said, let me know if I should continue .