Chapter 1

New discoveries await Thomas, some of them unpleasant.

 

 

 

            As far back as I can remember there weren’t many people that I trusted. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever truly trusted in anyone, except for one person who came into my life unexpectedly. His name was Jonathon. The first time we met was three years ago, when I was fifteen . . .

 

          I woke up around six in the morning to get ready for school. After washing my face, I began to change into my uniform. Yes, my parents had enrolled me into a private school. An all-boys academy, to be specific. Apparently, they had thought that a co-ed school would be too distracting for a teenage boy to get a good education. This was just a sweeter way of saying that they doubted my self-control over my raging hormones. Whatever.

          I walked down the stairs toward the kitchen as I struggled with my tie. The smell of waffles guided my nose while my eyes were busy watching my hands. I wondered if this school had even heard of clip-ons. I plopped down at the breakfast table, giving up on my tie, and was served a hot steaming plate of the best chocolate-chip waffles ever. I glanced up at my mom.

          “What’s with the feast? Did someone get married?” I asked, picking up my fork. I received a light flick on the forehead. 

          “Of course not. I just wanted to do something nice for the family once in a while,” my mom huffed. 

          A lump momentarily formed in my throat before I could take a bite.   She still referred to us as a family even though it was me and her. My father had died more than two years ago in an accident, leaving us to take care of ourselves without even any life insurance. 

          I quickly stuffed the waffle into my mouth. “This is really delicious! I think you’ve out done yourself with this batch. Maybe you could open a waffle house,” I said in an attempt to change the subject. 

          She smiled at me. “Thank you, Thomas. If you really like it, maybe you could invite one of your friends to have some, too.”

          I took another bite and smiled back at her. “Nah, they’re too good to share.”

         

          After I had finished, I grabbed my bag and headed out the door. Since we only lived four blocks from the academy, walking to school was almost a given. I walked two blocks and was joined by my friends Ren and Carson, right on schedule. We had become friends in almost one class period on our first day here. Ren and Carson weren’t like me at all. Ren was a sandy-haired Amerasian genius who was too lazy to prove that to the world outside of schoolwork. We were only freshmen and he had been offered scholarships to several colleges, all of which he declined. No one had any clue why. Carson, on the other hand, was a soccer fanatic. Not only was he the captain of the team, Carson was also the best player out of the varsity team, including the seniors. He was also gifted with good-looks that drew in the girls and left everyone else jealous. I personally think that bleaching his hair was the major reason. 

          Compared to both of them, I was completely average. Nothing about me stood out, except for the fact that I was on the short side. I wasn’t as smart as Ren nor as athletic or attractive as Carson and my hair was a normal brown color that you could find in a Crayola box. I was pretty good at pool, but that wasn’t really considered a talent you could display proudly. No, I was a nobody. Albeit, a nobody with really cool friends.

          After greeting me with a casual “hey” and a slap on the back—to which I almost lost my balance—, both Ren and Carson fell into step with me and began to fill me in on things that I had missed at some point in time or another.

          “I’ve been running last night’s scrimmage through my head and I finally found a weak spot in Dennis’s defense. I’ll have to tell him about it today,” said Carson.

          “Oh, Thomas, could you lend me your science homework from yesterday?” asked Ren, “I didn’t feel like doing it, but I’ll be sure to correct any mistakes you made in return.”

          “Hm? Yeah, sure,” I replied. I closed my eyes as a crisp autumn breeze blew past us, enjoying the feeling. It carried a sense of something different, a sense of change. I was about to tell the guys this, but then thought better of it. They’d only laugh. Nevertheless, I kept the sensation as we arrived at the academy.

         

          I sat down at my desk as the bell rang for second period. It had been a month since school had started and I knew nearly all my classmates, so it was noticeable to me that we had a new student. He sat at the front of the class, one desk to the right and one up from me. His head rested on his hand, no doubt waiting for the boring routine that was being introduced to the class. I suddenly realized that I had been staring at him when his head, still propped, turned back just enough to look at me. His black hair fell over his dark eyes. I offered a small wave. He smirked.

          If he was ever going to return that gesture, I would never know, because right then the teacher had barged into the room and slammed his books on the podium. Everyone’s heads snapped up at that, except for the new student, who just slowly turned his attention to the front.

          “Alright, students. As you can see, we have a new classmate joining us today,” he stated. As expected, many of the boys began to look around the classroom, searching for the new kid. Mr. Foley, the teacher, rapped the podium to get everyone’s attention again and motioned for the new student. 

          He got up and went to face the class.

          “Everyone, this is Jonathon Cooper. He has just transferred from Biscouse Junior High and will be attending this school,” Mr. Foley announced.

          Now that he was up in front of the class, I could see what Jonathon looked like. He was slightly taller than average; definitely taller than me. His bangs were parted to the side and reached all the way down to his brow, his eyes staring at something behind the class. He was also pale, not in a sickly manner, but more like a ‘not-been-in-the-sun-for-a-while’ kind of way. Well, he didn’t look sick.

          Mr. Foley turned to Jonathon. “Is there anything that you’d like to say to the class?” he asked. While you can? I added silently, watching Mr. Foley with slight disdain. Teachers with beer bellies aren’t exactly qualified in my book. Plus everyone knew he hated kids.

          Jonathon kept his gaze to the wall behind us. “Yes, there is,” he replied. “I cannot promise anyone in this school anything, no matter how much is at stake.” And with that, he sat back at his desk while the class began to murmur and whisper. This kid’s a nutcase, was the thought that emanated from the students. The teacher’s lip fish-hooked a bit, but he merely began on his lecture about the benefits of “taxation without representation.”

          I sat there in surprise. That was probably one of the oddest things I have heard anyone say in real life, but somehow it made me feel strangely comfortable knowing that someone out there knew how to give out a piece of their mind. If I had said this out loud, there was no doubt that I would have been humiliated then beat up right on the spot. Maybe my forte was common sense.

          It was now lunch period and I was starving. Ren and I were standing in line getting our food when I saw Jonathon again. He was sitting alone with a lunch box set out before him. I guess he hadn’t met many friends who had first lunch. We took our lunches and Ren began to head toward our table. I started to follow then hesitated. My mother had always said that I had a tender heart, but I never really thought about what she meant until later now. I stopped, coughed in Ren’s general direction and nodded towards Jonathon's table. Ren looked from Jonathon to me and back again. Finally, he sighed and followed me. Looking back, I was kind of glad that it was Ren who was with me instead of Carson. Ren never put up much of a fight since it was too tiresome for him.

             I slid my tray onto the table and sat across from Jonathon while Ren parked himself next to me with another sigh. 

          “Hey, your name’s Jonathon, right?” I asked. Of course I knew who he was; I just didn’t know what to say. 

          “Yeah,” was all he said. It was a start.

          “Well, um, my name’s Thomas Breakfield,” I introduced, “and this is my friend, Ren Childers.” I pointed to Ren beside me, who was busy shoveling down his food. He nodded toward Jonathon to let him know that he wasn’t completely ignoring him. I continued. “So, if you ever need help or anything, you can always ask us. You can even hang out with us.  I mean, if you want.” 

          Ren gave a weird choke then quickly covered it with a belch. Before I could do anything, he quickly finished his food and got up with a “see yah” and left. Now it was just me and Jonathon at the table. I began to eat my food while Jonathon had already started. He brought his own lunch of roast beef and a slice of cobbler. I was too busy eating and embarrassed to be jealous at the moment. Why did I have to come over here in the first place? Stupid legs! Stupid Ren! Stupid tender heart!

          While I was silently abusing myself, I didn’t even notice Jonathon had finished eating until he had stood up. I looked up at him as he brushed off his pants. 

          “Thanks for eating with me,” Jonathon said, “I know it probably wasn’t all that pleasant.” He began to walk away, leaving me speechless, when he turned right back around to look at me. “You have something right here,” he told me, pointing to the side of his mouth. I quickly wiped it off, not even bothering to use a napkin. Jonathon chuckled and walked away.

 

          School was out and everybody was rushing to the front gate, either to catch a bus or walk home. Ren, Carson and I made our way through the crowd and onto the sidewalk. Leaves were still falling like huge brown snowflakes and the light that passed through the trees cast a warm orange glow. We walked and laughed about all the funny things that happened today, until Ren and Carson left for their own houses. Now I walked by myself through this autumn wonderland and turned the corner for the last block home. 

          The sound of crunching leaves ahead made me look up. Several yards ahead of me was Jonathon, his hands in his pockets while he walked with his head tilted towards the trees above. I stopped in mid-step. What should I do? I really didn’t feel like talking to him since what happened at the cafeteria. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice I was behind him. 

          I breathed in and took a stealthy step. What I heard was a satisfying crunch of leaves. Jonathon heard it, too. He turned around and saw me staring in disbelief at my foot. The look on my face must have really funny, because after a moment of silence he suddenly busted out laughing. 

          My astonishment was replaced by embarrassment and irritation at being laughed at. I straightened up to my full height, which wasn’t all that high. “What’s so funny?” I demanded. 

          Jonathon clutched his stomach with one hand and covered his face with the other, his laughter slowly melting away into muffled chuckles. He took a deep breath, his eyes closed and his face still hinting a smile, and said, “Your face, it was hilarious. It was like you never knew that leaves could make noise.” He opened his eyes and looked at me. “Why were you following me?” he asked.

          I blushed, imagining what kind of expression was on my face when he saw me. I’m so stupid. “I wasn’t following you; this is how I always go home.”

          “By following other people?”

          “No, by using this sidewalk! In fact, my house is right over there!” I told him, pointing past him to my house, only 30 meters away.

          He turned to look at it. “Ah, well that’s nice to know,” Jonathon said as he glanced down at his watch. He looked back at me. “It was fun watching your face, but I’ve got to get home. See you later.” With that, he crossed the street and started towards an old Victorian house. 

          I kept on walking, my head hanging almost to my chest. How could I be so stupid? I couldn’t even think of any sarcastic comebacks. I climbed the porch steps and pulled out my keys, thinking about all the retorts I could have come up with when I noticed the screen door. Had I not been staring directly at it, the long slit in the mesh would have gone unnoticed. My senses quickly went into full alert as I slipped my hand through the screen and pushed the wooden door. It had been forced open.

          My first reaction was to barge through to see if my mom was alright. But common sense butted in and told me that she may not be the only one in the house. So I quietly opened the door and snuck inside. Common sense also advised me to set down my book bag just incase I had to run, so I complied. 

          I walked stealthily to the living room and peered in. No one was waiting to grab or shoot me, so that room was considered safe for the moment. I walked to the middle of the room and listened for any sound coming from the house. It was completely silent for a minute until I heard a soft sob coming from upstairs. It sounded like my mother.

          I dashed out the living room and up the stairs. Following the sound, I ran down the hall until I reached the master bedroom. Bursting through the door, I found my mother slumped against the wall. The room was torn apart and all her belongings were thrown onto the floor. Tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to control herself, taking deep breaths to calm down. When she saw me, she wiped away her tears with the back her hand as she tried to smile.

          “Mom,” I croaked, full of relief and hopelessness. I stumbled into the room and fell to my knees beside her, hugging her and trying not to cry. 

          My mom returned my embrace, stroking my hair as if I was the one who was almost beat up. “Shh, it’s all right, Thomas. Everything’s fine. Don’t worry, it was only a warning. Shh.”

          I pulled myself away from her shoulder. “It was the loan sharks again, wasn’t it?” I asked as I kept my voice from cracking.

          She hesitated, then her gaze went to the floor and she nodded.

          Damn those monsters.    

          “Let’s clean up,” I said, attempting to be bright and changing the subject. “I’ll put the drawers back in the dresser and fix the screen door. Maybe I can hook up a generator to the screen incase they come back.”

          She gave me a small smile. “Thank you, Thomas.”

         

         

          A few days later, everything was back on track. I got up, changed, ate and headed out the door, stopping only to admire my handiwork on the screen door. It kind of looked like a crack-addicted spider came and spun up the hole. 

          Craftsmanship: another activity of mine that always left something to be desired.

          Maybe now would be a good time to explain about our loan shark problem, before Ren and Carson show up. You see, my mom and I had been living off my dad’s retirement and the money from my mom’s part-time jobs. I tried helping by running errands and carrying out newspaper deliveries whenever I could, but I’ve been swamped with homework so it’s hard to make time. But almost three years ago, after my father passed away, we were really low on money so my mother had to take a loan. She was rejected from several banks, so she borrowed money from a friend of my mom’s friend’s husband. After that, we were able to get out lives almost back to the way it was before, but those loan sharks were quick to take back their money and interest. This incident wasn’t the first and it probably wasn’t going to be the last. 

          As I walked, I noticed that Carson and Ren still hadn’t met up with me. I checked my watch. I was right on time. The sky was overcast as rain clouds moved across the sky. Shaking my head, I continued to walk to the school.

 

          I wasn’t all that nervous about my friends being gone until lunch. I thought about skipping and going to the library, but my stomach was growling. So I waited in line and got my food, still thinking of back-up friends I could sit with. But when I looked across the cafeteria, all the tables were jam-packed. This is what happens when kids had to stay in because of bad weather. 

          Not wanting to feel like a total idiot, I walked purposefully down a row of tables, searching for a purpose to walk to. As I passed a table, I saw one available seat close to the wall. I set down my lunch and found myself face-to-face with one person I really didn’t want to be with. 

          “Hey, Bambi,” said Jonathon as he took a bite of spaghetti, not even bothering to look up from his book.

          I stared. “Huh?”

          “Bambi,” he stated, as if that word alone made sense.

          My face must have given away the fact that I didn’t understand what he meant, because he then set down his book and said: “Bambi, the deer. Deer-in-headlights, the same look that stuck itself on your face a few days ago. Make sense?” he asked, taking another bite of pasta.

          “No,” I replied after several moments of silence. “It doesn’t really make that much sense.”

          He shrugged. “Too bad.”

          I focused on eating my chicken nuggets before Jonathon had anymore to say.

 

         

          Sometimes I think Wisdom smiles down on me and grants me intuition to foresee what is to come and how I might prepare. On days like this, though, I sometimes think I did something to piss her off. 

          By the time school let out, it was raining like crazy. Students riding buses stood inside to wait for their transportation. Parents came by to pick other boys up. What about me, you ask? Well, it was raining cats and dogs, my mom was at work and I forgot to bring an umbrella. Nothing out of the ordinary.

          As I trudged through the downpour, I let my mind wander so I wouldn’t feel the cold as much. I mostly thought about the current situation at home and what I could do to help. If I prioritized correctly and divided my time, I could probably run more errands and such. As I was mulling over these things, I noticed that it wasn’t raining on me. I spun around so fast I almost tripped.

          Behind me was Jonathon holding an umbrella over our heads. His face was impassive even after my awkward gyration. But when he saw my face, a smirk crept along his mouth.

          “Took you a while,” Jonathon said, “You did that ‘deer-in-headlights’ face again.”

          I frowned. “Why are you following me?”

          “I wasn’t,” he replied, “My house is over there.” He pointed down the street. We weren’t even to our block yet. He looked back at me. “What were you thinking about? I was behind you for half a minute before you noticed.”

          I scowled and looked away. “It’s none of your business. Butt out.”

          Jonathon shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He took a step to leave, stopped and turned to face me again. “By the way, I was supposed to give you this,” he said, handing me a folded piece of paper. “It slipped my mind.” Then he walked away, leaving me in the rain with a note.

          Sheltering it from the water, I opened the slip of paper. Inside was a description of a person, a name and what appeared to be a license plate number. “Hey, wait!” I called out.

          I ran to catch up with Jonathon. Safely under the umbrella, I pulled out the note. “What’s this?” I asked him.

          “It’s a description of some sort of gang leader that was over at your house. That’s the company name and the license plate number on the car he rode,” he replied. His face was impassive again, as if this was a small matter.

          My jaw almost dropped. “How did you get this information?” I demanded. I had no clue on who was chasing us for repayment and here comes someone who just magically acquired this information. My eyes narrowed. “Wait, how did you find out about these guys? We were both walking home at the same time and I didn’t see them.”

          His dark eyes slowly looked at me and for a moment my heart tripped over itself. Then he turned his gaze up ahead. 

          “I was walking ahead of you before, Bambi.”

          “Oh,” was all I managed to say. Duh.

          We finally reached our block, and then separated to our houses. I ran to the front porch, glad to get out of the rain and into the warm house. It was a Wednesday, so that meant Mom wasn’t coming home until later tonight. I hung my jacket on the peg beside the front door and climbed up the stairs to my room. I opened the door, shrugged off my backpack and flopped on the bed. Outside, the rain was beating against my window.

          I’m not sure how long I lay there trying to organize all my thoughts. I wasn’t sure what to do with the new information that Jonathon gave me. I could call the police, but my mom was the one who chose to borrow money from them. So if I reported these people, then she was going to be responsible for this as well. But if I didn’t do something about this, we were just going to get hounded on again.

          I groaned. This was too much to think about in one sitting and by myself. But it was my problem; I couldn’t talk to anyone else about this. Mom would just be even more worried, defeating my purpose on keeping her away from unnecessary stress. Carson was out of the question. I could talk about it with Ren, seeing as how he was some sort of prodigy, but he wasn’t one to go out of his way to help someone. I don’t know how I’d be able to go on with my friends knowing that I was too wimpy to deal with my own problems.

          I buried my face in my pillow. And what was with Jonathon helping me out of nowhere? I mean, he seems like a guy who prefers to be alone, but now he’s helping me like he owes me something. Does he? I guess he could think so since I tried to be friendly to him on his first day of school. If that was the reason, then he really was a nutcase. 

          Then I remembered when we were walking in the rain, he looked down at me and my heart felt like it skipped a beat.  What was that all about? I shook my head. It was probably just the cold getting to me. I was so drenched, it surprised me that I hadn’t caught pneumonia on the spot. That was it.

            I checked the time. 5:23 p.m. I should get dinner started. 

         

 

            It was ten ‘til eleven when I finally went to bed. After doing a quick check around the house to make sure everything was fine, I slipped into the covers. I did this every night, just in case my mom forgot. She’s great and all, but sometimes she can be somewhat of a space-case. 

           As I lay in bed, I let my mind wander one last time before sleep enveloped me, reviewing the all the events that happened. Ren and Carson had called earlier that night. Turned out Carson had a soccer tournament today that he said he mentioned earlier, not that I really paid much attention. Ren just felt like ditching school. As for the other things that needed to be taken care of, I’m sure I could get it all straightened out eventually . . .

 

 

          I’m not sure what time it was when I heard the crash, but I do know was that my body was wide awake and running down the hallway before my brain even registered what I was doing. 

          I skidded in front of the stairs, backed up, leaped halfway down the stairs and jumped over the banister. I landed in front of the entrance on my bare feet. Adrenaline coursed through me as I took in the current surroundings. Glass littered the entry way, inches from my toes. The front door was ajar and I heard loud noises coming from the living room. I ran toward the voices. 

          I burst into the living room and what I saw nearly made me scream in rage. 

          My mother was huddled in the middle of the room, crying, just as I had seen her a few days ago. But this time, there were people here; men in black suits that did not seem to be happy. Had this been the only things wrong with this picture, it wouldn’t have been that horrifying. The cherry on this sundae was that these guys had pipes and crowbars and my mom was bleeding.

          I was apparently a minor surprise since everyone in the room just turned to look at me, so I used that to my advantage. Charging at the nearest man, I rammed him in the gut. He doubled over as I turned to attack my next opponent. My frenzy didn’t last that long and I was immediately forced to the ground by two burly men. I struggled under their combined weight as rage blinded me. Why are they doing this? How could they gang up on an innocent woman? I’ll kill them!  My reasoning was clouded by fury.

          “Well, well. What do we have here?” said a voice above me. I saw a pair of feet in front of me and the man knelt down. A rough hand pulled back my hair. “Seems like we woke up the money w***e’s son.” The man sneered at me, revealing several gold teeth. I glared back with as much hate as possible.

          “It also seems like someone’s upset about losing business,” I spat back. “You’d think after the first dozen times, someone would figure out that hunting down clients with crowbars did not improve corporal income.”

          My comeback was rewarded with a blow from a pipe to my shoulder. I gasped at the pain but still held my defiant glare.

          The boss pulled me up by my collar, making me wince. “You’re in no position to be a smart-a*s, you little f****t,” he said. His face was inches away from mine and I could see myself in his mirrored sunglasses. “We came here for our money. But, not to our surprise, it’s not here. Now we’re disappointed, which is bad news for you.” He released my shirt and I dropped to the floor, letting out a yelp of pain. 

          My mother cried out in a choked voice: “Thomas!”

          One of the men moved in to hit her again. “Get away from her!” I screamed. The man didn’t pay any attention to me and raised his hand to strike when the boss spoke up.

          “Hold on.”

          I was panting, relieved that she was spared and enduring the throbbing pain in my shoulder. The boss loomed over me, a curious look on his face that grew to a wicked grin worthy of Satan himself.

          “Okay then, boy,” he said, “I’ll give you another chance. If you promise to repay the money this b***h—I mean, your mother—borrowed from me, without the interest, by the end of your school year, then me and my men won’t bother you again. But if you can’t pay it back by then, we’ll just have to come here and make you pay however we find appropriate. Do we have an understanding?” 

          I grimaced. “Why are you doing this?”

          This time the boss laughed. It sounded like a barking noise. “I guess I’m just a kind-hearted guy!” The rest of his men laughed at that, too. He held up a hand, signaling for them to shut up. “The other reason is that you’ve got spunk, kid. You stared death in the face and attacked its ego. I like that. It’s going to be fun watching how this turns out.”   He motioned with his fingers to show that it was time to leave. His men filed out the living room, leaving only us three behind.

          “How much?” I asked.

           He gave me a crooked grin. “You’ll have to ask your mommy about that one.”

          I peered past the boss’s pin-striped pants to check on my mom. It looked like she passed out from either stress or excessive excitement. Now that my anger had faded enough to allow me to think properly, I could see that she wasn’t in critical condition. Several gauze packs would do the job.

          “So, have we got a deal?”

          The man’s voice brought my attention back to him. What little pride I could muster forced me to stand up. “Yeah, I accept,” I replied, sticking out my hand.

          A look of curiosity flitted across his face again, and again he laughed. “Why, aren’t we one hell of a gentleman? Man enough to suck in a whack from a pipe and shake the hand of an enemy. I might consider taking you under my wing.” He took my hand and gave it a firm shake. Then he strode across the room and out the door, into the night.

 

 

           

Author's Note

Cue writing critics.

Reviews

[Vera Iconica]

Brilliantly written. I hope to see more writing from you in the future.