View difference between Paste ID: WbJnQrt2 and mnbfzwTg

 CHAPTER 1
-That day was supposed to be a normal day for me… and suddenly it wasn’t. But I guess that’s just life. I stood outside the rusted front gate, hoping that day would have been a good day. But that day it felt someone had died. The sky was a light gray and white clouds covered the morning sky, leaving but only the smallest gaps for the sun to go through. The concrete pavement along the school’s front was particularly filthy that day, covered in dirt and grass stains. Stains from my schoolmates, who were mindlessly pacing and screaming around the patches of grass and mud and doing drugs beneath trees or whatever kids these days do, like playing music on their guitars and procrastinating on homework. The air was smoggy and filled with the distinct odor of burning plastic mixed with the wonderful smell of morning dew.
+
 With my trusted messenger bag in tow, I made my way to school.
 
 That day was supposed to be a normal day for me—and suddenly it wasn’t. But I guess that’s just life. I stood outside the rusted front gate, hoping that day would have been a good day. But that day it felt someone had died. The sky was a light gray and white clouds covered the morning sky, leaving but only the smallest gaps for the sun to go through. The concrete pavement along the school’s front was particularly filthy that day, covered in dirt and grass stains. Stains from my schoolmates, who were mindlessly pacing and screaming around the patches of grass and mud and doing drugs beneath trees or whatever kids these days do, like playing music on their guitars and procrastinating on homework. The air was smoggy and filled with the distinct odor of burning plastic mixed with the wonderful smell of morning dew.
 
 I dragged my lethargic and very unkempt body through the front gate, wearing my school uniform like everyone else, ignoring all the irritatingly loud chatter and abornal 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—both looking like they’d transferred from an all-girls’ Christian school with long plaid skirts and long, curly hair tied in ponytails which flowed majestically in the wind, with thick, old-looking notebooks held across their voluptuous chests. They had this unusual aura of prominence and at the same time ultimate virginity.
 
 “Hey Paula, did you hear?” the blonde one whispered loudly in the brunette’s ear.
 
 “Yeah, I heard.” the brown-haired one replied, staring blankly at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact with me.
 The blonde made eye contact with me at that moment—with malicious intent. “The rumor about a super-powerful vice-president coming to our town today?” she asked.
 
 “Yeah.”
 
 “Don’t you think it’s strange?” the blonde said, dropping her gaze and raising her chin snobbishly as she walked straight ahead.
 
 By then, the girls had already passed me by, leaving me standing there. I thought about it for a while since no one had told me about any rumors like that, but maybe it’s because no one really wanted to talk to me. Why? I didn’t know and I didn’t care. Little did I know that what was going to happen for the rest of that day would be a lot more extravagant than any rumor in the history of the school.
 
 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 up at his smiling face and noticed that he looked neater that day than he did. His glossy blonde hair was combed neatly to the side, his checkered sweater vest, made to hide his lithe torso, was neatly ironed. His light freckles and gray eyes were as prominent as they had always been, hidden behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.
 
 I decided to whisper softly—if not monotonously—in reply to Charlie’s incessant tapping, hoping not to get caught by the teacher. “What is it?”
 
 Charlie’s warm smile grew larger as he bounced a little in his seat. “Yeah, 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.
 
 Impatient as he sometimes was, he began tapping his foot, his eyebrows furrowed and he bit his lip and eyed between my bag and I alternately when he suddenly pointed at something in my bag and the smile quickly 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. Back then, I didn’t even know how simple a task like that was for him until later that day.
 
 I grabbed my case out of my black worn-out 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 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 causing their leaves to dance around and their trunks to twist violently. At that moment, I regretted not bringing my umbrella to school.
 
 Eventually, time flew by and it was already lunch break. I bravely entered the cafeteria and like this morning, excessive chattering invaded my ears and the smell of burning smoke and violent flatulence raptured my nose. It was a modern Heorot with the loud cheering from the jocks as well as the occasional flying food and drink. I always hated it—the jocks especially. I ignored their presence and 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 his pals at the corner of the cafeteria and I 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 one end of the cafeteria to the tables on the other end.  I was determined to fill my hunger with another sandwich.
 
 I finally got halfway through the violent ocean of tables and cave-people when I witnessed a particular conversation happening on one of the seniors’ jock tables next to me. It was between one of the popular track-and-fielders with cropped black hair and the infamous ‘giant man’ of the school, both wearing the over-used school jersey. I heard they were best friends through eavesdropping. I also heard that that overly-muscled ‘giant man’ was apparently 6’8” or something along those lines. I later knew that both were true.
 
 The track-and fielder slapped the ‘giant man’ on the arm with little effect. “Tony, fetch me another chicken sandwich. I’m hungry.” he ordered. I then assumed the name of the ‘giant man’ was Tony and continued listening as I stood there in the middle of the crowd ignoring the cussing and physical abuse.
 
 “Sure, Jeff.” Tony replied, smiling back at Jeff like a child.
 
 Tony stood up from the table—causing it to bounce a few inches due to his size—apologized for the inconvenience and quickly made his way through the ocean of people, pushing and shoving like everybody else.
 
 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 and stayed right behind him through the crowd to the stall where the sandwiches were sold. We both 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, it 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, awkwardly excusing himself repeatedly as he disappeared into the fog of carbon dioxide.
 
 I had finally reached the cashier to order my sandwich which should’ve satisfied my hunger but apparently someone had already bought the last one—and I was pretty sure I knew who that was.