CHAPTER 1
That day was supposed to be a normal day for me… and suddenly it wasn’t. That’s just life for you. I stood outside the front gate, hoping today would have been a good day. The sky was a light gray and white clouds covered the morning sky, leaving only the smallest gaps for the sun to go through. The pavement along the school’s front was particularly filthy that day, covered in the dirt and grass stains of my schoolmates walking around the grassy areas doing drugs beneath trees and whatever kids these days do.

I dragged my lethargic and very unkempt body through the front gate, ignoring all the irritatingly loud chatter and laughter of the idiots around me. I stood there, on the paved path, contemplating my dull surroundings when two innocent-looking girls, a skinny blonde and an obese brunette passed by—both looking like they transferred from an all-girls’ Christian school with long plaid skirts and long, curly hair tied in ponytails with thick, old-looking notebooks held across their chests.

“Hey Paula, did you hear?” the blonde one whispered loudly.

“Yeah, I heard.” the brown-haired one replied, staring blankly at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact with me.
“The rumor about a super-powerful vice-president coming to our town today?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange?”

By then, the girls had already passed me by, leaving me standing there. I thought about it for a while since no one’s told me about any rumors like that, but maybe it’s because no one really wanted to talk to me. Why? I don’t know and I don’t care. Little did I know that the rest of that day would be a lot more extravagant than usual.
I hurriedly sat at my old desk at the back of the classroom next to mouldy window, just in time for Algebra. The teacher glanced at me, squinting her old, wrinkly eyes, and quickly disregarded my existence by continuing her lecture on the properties of equality and stuff like that.

I took out my notebook and scribbled down some drawings of people with guns—pretending to take down notes. In my little corner of the classroom, I was invisible to everyone… everyone except for the guy next to me. A certain Charlie.

My doodling was abruptly interrupted by Charlie’s mild tapping on my shoulder. I looked at his smiling face and noticed he looked neater that day than he did. His glossy blonde hair was combed neatly to the side, his checkered sweater vest, neatly ironed, made to hide his lithe torso. For a while, I thought he had make-up and green contacts on because I could barely see through to his freckles and gray eyes.

I decided to whisper softly—if not monotonously—in reply to Charlie’s tapping, hoping not to get caught by the teacher. “What is it?”

Charlie’s smile grew larger and he bounced a little in his seat. “Yah, do you have a pen I could borrow?”
I did have several pens in my bag. “Let me check.”  I replied, pretending to dig around my bag for my case, trying not to let him see too much.

His eyebrows furrowed and he bit his lip and eyed between my bag and I alternately when he suddenly pointed at my bag and the smile came back to his face. “There! Isn’t that your case?” he whispered loudly.
I looked back at my bag and I noticed he saw my case through the little gaps in my books. I wondered how he was able to see through my books considering the bad lighting in the classroom. Little did I know how simple a task like that was for him until later that day.

I grabbed my case out of my messenger bag and handed him a pen—my worst pen.

He quickly snatched it out of my hands and smiled at me thankfully. “Thanks dude! I really owe you one.”

I nodded with a mild smile on my face, trying to conceal the fact that I wanted to strangle him. I was jealous of Charlie. He had the looks, the brains, the personality, the physical ability during PE, and especially the money—his father’s money from the coal company. With all that money, why did he even need to ask for a ballpen? What happened to the one he was using just a few minutes ago? Wasn’t it working perfectly fine?

I let the thoughts in my head pass as I stared out the window, noting the dark storm clouds that were forming and the strong winds that bent the palm trees outside. At that moment, I regretted not bringing my umbrella to school.
Eventually, time flew by and it was already lunch break. I entered the cafeteria and like this morning, my schoolmates were making excessive noise with their mouths. I always hated it—the jocks especially. I bought my regular chicken sandwich and orange juice combo that I ate for lunch every day and sat down at my old, worn-out table with Charlie and pals at the corner of the cafeteria and finished it all with a loud burp. After eating, I didn’t feel full like I normally did. I felt a bit hungrier than usual.

I got up from the table and pushed and shoved my way across the massive ocean of people flooding their way to and from the stalls at the one end of the cafeteria to the tables on the other end.

I finally got halfway through the ocean of tables and people when I witnessed a particular conversation happening on one of the senior jocks’ table I was passing by. It was between one of the track-and-fielders with cropped black hair and the infamous ‘giant man’ of the school. I heard they were best friends. I also heard that the overly-muscled ‘giant man’ was 6’8” or something along those lines. I later knew that both were true.

“Tony, go fetch me another chicken sandwich. I’m hungry.” the runner ordered. I assumed the name of the ‘giant man’ was Tony then and continued listening as I stood there in the middle of the crowd.

“Sure, Jeff!” he yelled enthusiastically. I then assumed the runner’s name was Jeff.

Tony stood up from the table—causing it to bounce a few inches from the ground due to his size—apologized for the inconvenience and quickly made his way through the people ocean.

I stood there in awe as I watched the ‘giant man’ in action, head and shoulders above everybody else, making his way through the crowd. I quickly followed him through the crowd to the stall where the sandwiches were sold. We lined up in front of the stall to order, with me trying not to get his attention by bumping into his thick back too much.

After buying his sandwich, he quickly turned his body a few degrees and bumped into me, causing me to suddenly fall onto the ground.

He looked down with wide eyes and offered me his free hand. “Sorry dude, didn’t see you there. You okay?” he asked kindly, with a small puppy smile. “Here, let me help.”

I grabbed his large hand and he quickly pulled me up to my feet—nearly ripping my limp arm off, like I weighed nothing. “Thanks.” I said.

He smiled at me. “Don’t mention it, t’was the least I could do.” he replied. “See ya later, little guy!”
He patted me on the shoulder and briskly walked back through the crowd to his table.

I had finally reached the cashier to order my sandwich but apparently someone had already bought the last one… and I was pretty sure I knew who that was.