Chapter 2: A Child's past

Chapter 2: A Childs Past

It’s been near 13 years since the birth of John and Desaree Flareson’s son, Jack. He has had a normal childhood, with the exception of being made fun of. By appearance, he was a normal 12 year old who was days away from being a teenager. The one thing about him, that made him a target for bullies, was his red eyes. This wasn’t the life he or his parents had hoped for.
       He was a very average kid. He stood at 5'6, his dark brown hair grew a little past his eyes, and he was the basic body type. He has a little 10 year old sister named Maggie; Mags for short. She was mainly like him, except for the red eyes. Her eyes were as blue and shiny as sapphires. To Jack, she was more of an annoyance then a sweet little sister. He did love her, but didn’t really want her to know that.
       Jack Flareson woke up on the morning hours of May 28th, 2001 and yawned; He stretched his arms, and shook his head. He moved his covers, and got out of his very comfy bed. He stretched some more and walked over to his mirror. From his reflection in the mirror, he gazed at his room. It wasn’t that special of a room.
       His oak door sat in the center of the north wall. His dresser, which bore a tall mirror and many small drawers, sat against the eastern wall. His king sized bed sad long ways against the back wall. On the western wall, sat a rectangular window with light blue curtains hanging from the top. Below it, sat his desk, which had many cowboy action figures standing on it in different poses. On his four walls, he had posters of many Western heroes and movies.
       His bed sheets also had a western theme to them. Also on his walls, were whips, toy guns, cowboy hats, vests, and more. All he had on was a gray tank top, black boxers, and white socks. He rarely had friends over, because he didn’t really have friends. He was more of a loner.  He moved his hair out of the way and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He stared at himself as if he had nothing better to do. He started talking to himself.
       “Look at yourself Jack. Why do you have these hideous red eyes? Mom says they are cute, but Dad says I will grow out of them. I seriously doubt it. At school, I am called a freak.
Joe beats me up whenever he and I are alone and I’m afraid to say something about it. To make matters worse, Maggie calls me a most hideous name: Red Eyes. I don’t wanna live this life anymore I wanna die I wan-“
       There was a knock on the door.
       “Jack, honey? You up?”
       “Yeah. I’m up.” he said quickly.
       “ Breakfast is ready. Pancakes.” she said concerned.
       “Ok. Be down soon.”
       He heard her walking away down the stairs. He stared at himself even more. He sighed deeply.  He closed his eyes and remembered back to his first day of Elementary school. He was 6 years old and was cheerful, just like most kids in any first grade class. The skies were clear. No clouds, but a very bright sun. It scorched at 85 degrees.
       On his first day, his mother would kiss him as they waited outside the elementary school. He looked up to her with fear in his eyes. She looked back, feeling concerned. She smiled weakly.
       “Honey, please enjoy your first day of school and ignore what the other kids say about you. Understand?
       “Yes mommy. I understand.”
       “Good,” she said as she kissed his cheek.
       He entered the school and was entranced by how beautiful it was for a kid like him. Kid’s finger paintings hung on the walls, doors made from very fine wood. The brick hallways stood as if they were just built, even though it was built back in 1901. He saw many grownups, and kids his age and older. For once, he smiled at this magnificent scenery.
       As he strolled down the hallway, he was pushed to the side by a dark skinned boy, about his age. The boy was accompanied by other boys, who looked mean. Jack moved his head away to avoid eye contact. He ignored them and walked away. He began to get nervous and fear that he may have seen his very first bully. He was so concerned about it, he could hardly speak when his name was called in homeroom.
       “Jack Flareson?” called the teacher named Ms. Kording.
       He could hardly move, let alone raise his hand.
       “Do we have a Jack Flareson?” she called again.
       His mouth watered, but slowly the words came out.
       “H-H-Here...” he called.
       The other kids ignored him, because they could hardly hear him. Ms. Kording, who was very young and very beautiful, saw this small action. She checked him off on her clipboard. As she continued calling out the names, she got to a kid named Joe Tozic. Jack looked around and saw the boy who pushed him earlier, raising his hand. He stared at Jack with a mean look. He turned back and gulped very hard, like he was about to die. After the last name was read, the teacher stood up from her desk and strolled around the room, explaining the rules.
       “Now, in my classroom, you will all obey my ten rules. Number one... Only speak when you are spoken to. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary actions. Number two... Failure to turn in work on time will result in a zero for the day. Number three...”
       She continued on for close to ten minutes. When she was done, the bell rang and they stayed in their seats. His first class of the day was Math. Ms. Kording was exceptionally smart, having graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. To her, Math was the core of knowledge in the universe and without it, life would cease to exist. She handed each child a book titled: Math For Kids.
       Jack opened up the massive 300 page book and saw some funny looking and bizarre figures.
       “Fractions? Division? Multiplication? What are these things?” he thought.
       The entire class period had them practicing Multiplication first. Jack was decent at it, but he got a B- for the day. He felt pleased with himself, but not thrilled. Different classes like Social Studies, Reading, and English past through the first half of the school day. Now, his favorite thing in the entire world came before his next class: Gym. Lunch was surprisingly good to him, but with all good things, there are bound to be bad things. He sat at a one seated table in the cafeteria, which was very big. It had multiple tables from one person to 5 people. The food was located at the back of the area, with four lunch ladies on duty.
       Jack was sitting at his one person table eating a plate of strawberry milk, corn, mashed potatoes, and ham, when he was approached. Joe Tozic and his friends approached him and stood behind him, arms crossed and looking very mad. He continued eating his meal.
       “Jack Flareson is it? Why don’t you turn around and face me? I have to talk to you about something.”
       “No,” he said bravely.
       “Boys, please turn him around for me?”
       The two friends agreed and took each of his arms and turned him around, facing Joe. He kept his head down and stared at his shoes. Joe grew more agitated. He grabbed Jacks head and forced it up. In an instant, Joe moved back, shocked at what he saw. His friends were confused by this and went to see for themselves. They looked into Jacks eyes and were speechless.
       “What are you?” shouted Joe.
       “Nothing,” he said quietly. “It’s just the lighting.”
       “I seriously doubt that your eyes are freaking red. RED?!”
       Soon, a third grade teacher named Mr. Hurst came inspected what was happening.
       “What is going on here?” he shouted.
       “Nothing,” said Joe quickly. “Just messing around.”
       “I sure hope so. We don’t want any accidents, now do we?”
       “No sir. We don’t.”
       Mr. Hurst smiled and walked away, out of the cafeteria. Joe stared at Jack with a mean expression.
       “Listen here and listen well Jack I don’t like those mutant eyes of yours. Neither does my boys. Now, unless you can turn them into blue, green, or brown, you and I will NEVER be friends. I’ll be your worst enemy and someone is bound to get hurt. Got it?”
       “I do. I have only one question though.”
       “What?”
           “Are you the one that's going to get hurt?”
       At this point, Joe was infuriated. He wanted to punch him in the face, but was restrained because of the teachers. So, he calmed his anger and walked away from the table. Jacks heart was racing from what he said. He smiled and felt confident that he could stand up to anybody. The rest of his first day was nothing too exciting. At the end of his last class, Science, they were given a homework assignment that dealt with them writing down what they knew about the subject. He didn’t know much about science, but he was willing to learn all about it for the next 179 days.
       The school day ended and Jack was eager to go again tomorrow. As he went out the front doors of the school, he reflected back on what had happened hours earlier. He had a bad feeling about Joe and his friends. He was cautious as he passed his fellow students. He could see his mom and dad waiting for him across the street, but in his eyes, they were too far away, but he was determined to reach them. Before he could go to them, he tripped. He fell on his face, onto the cold stone sidewalk. His parents saw this and began to run across the street.
       Jack tried to get up, but his muscles were too weak from the sudden fall. He managed to flip himself over on his back and he saw everyone laughing at him. On his right, he saw Joe laughing so hard, he had trouble breathing for a bit. He looked from side to side and still, there was laughter. Tears began coming down his cheek, but he also felt a little angry. He saw a fourth grader laughing and holding a Styrofoam cup in his hand, drinking some Dr. Pepper.
       What happened next was a mystery to him and his classmates for a few weeks. He could feel a fire inside his body burning up and as he stared at the cup, it happened. The beverage in the cup began boiling at a scorching temperature and eventually acted like air, boiling up to and enclosed area. In a flash, the cap of the cup shot up like a rocket and flew 30 feet into the air. The boy holding it, quickly dropped it from the intense pain from the heat. The beverage spilled out as it hit the ground and it was, indeed, boiling.
       The kids couldn’t believe what had happened. Even Jacks parents, who happened to catch the entire thing, were stunned by what happened. The laughter ceased at once, but the laughter turned into whispers about what just happened. John helped us his son and brushed off the dirt off his body.
       “You ok Jack?”
       “Yes daddy. I’m fine.”
       “Let’s go home and talk about what just happened. Ok?”
       “Ok,” he said quietly.
       He opened his eyes and saw his 12 year old self in the mirror.
       “Well Jack, I guess we gotta get dressed and get ready for our first day of hell.”
       Today was in fact, the first day of summer vacation. For him, summer vacation was the worst time of the year. Every summer, he would go out and play at the neighborhood playground all by himself. His parents made it clear that every day of the summer; he would go outside and do anything he wanted. On most days, a neighborhood bully named Joe Tozic, would pick on him. Mostly it was name calling, but there was rare occasions when Jack would defend himself from Joe and his gang. The worst that would happen was him getting a black eye.
       In school, he was safe from Joe and his gang. They often got detentions for picking on other kids, besides Jack. Whenever he learned of their detentions, he would walk home in a
happy and chipper mood. On other days, he would be walking home and be submitted to their torture. If they could give one reason on why they pick on him, it would be because of his red eyes.
       As a last thought of his past, he remembered back to last year; when he did something he thought he would never have the guts to do: Ask Amy Winzmen on a date. Amy was a beautiful 12 year old girl, with long blonde hair, rosy cheeks and a fantastic personality. It began on a normal week of school in early March. He and Amy had been good friends since she moved to his town when they were in third grade. She was the closest thing he had to a friend, since many kids steered away from him because of his eyes. She never cared if his eyes were red, blue, green, or any color. She liked him for him. For Jack, she was the first girl he ever had a crush on.
       Every day he would walk home from school and think about her. She was the only thing he would think about when doing class work. He wasn’t sure if she felt the same, but he needed to know. Whenever there was a big test or assignment, they would always be partners. When she was upset or alone, she would come to his house and ask him to hold her. He always did, without question. Deep inside himself, he truly, truly, loved her.
       On this week, it was Tuesday when he did it. When they were studying for an English test in his room, he got up the nerve and asked. He stared at her while she worked. She looked up at him and smiled.
       “What is it Jack? Something wrong?”
       “No,” he replied. “Nothing at all.”
       “Then why are you staring at me?”
       “I wanna tell you something, Amy. Something important.”
       She put her pencil down and sat up straight.
       “Shoot,” she said.
       “Ever since you moved here back in third grade, you’ve been my best friend. No other kid would dare approach me because of my... abnormality.”
       “You’re not abnormal. You’re just special. I like that about you. You stand up for yourself when Joe and his gang torture you.”
       “Yeah, but there is more to it then just this.”
       “Oh?”
       “Amy... Every day we spent together, whether it is in class or at each other’s houses, I get to know you each of those days. We have striking conversations about everything that has happened in the world. You make me feel like I’m not a freak.”
       “You aren’t a freak Jack. I never thought you were.”
       “I know. I am so happy that you moved here all those years ago. If you hadn’t, I probably would’ve never had a friend. They way you treat and speak to me, makes me feel like the luckiest guy in the world.”
       “What are you saying Jack?”
       “Truth is Amy, I truly, truly, love you.”
       “What?” she asked in disbelief.
       “I love you Amy Winzmen. I wanna be with you. I wanna be your boyfriend.”
       She was speechless. She couldn’t believe that her best friend was revealing his feelings for her. He grabbed her hands and held them tight. His heart pumped rapidly as he awaited an answer.
       “Amy, will you be my girlfriend?” he asked romantically.
       “Jack. This may be the most romantic thing I will ever see in my life. I like you, I really do, but...”
       “You’re saying no.” he said sadly.
       “No! No! I really wanna say yes Jack, but I can’t.”
       “Why? Is there someone else?”
       “There is not. I was saving you to be my first boyfriend, but it won’t happen now.”
       “Why?”
       “Well, this is hard to say, but I am moving away next week”
       “What?” he said as tears poured down his cheek.
       “I-I-I’m sorry Jack. I really am. Maybe if you had asked me maybe a few years ago, we could’ve been together. I feel the same way about you. I love you, but now... it won’t be possible. I have to go. I am so sorry.”
       She packed up her things and left Jack, alone and deep in tears. He covered his hands in his face and deeply cried as if he had never cried before. He heard the front door shut and he knew he would never see her again. She was the only girl he had ever loved and in less than a week, she was going away, forever. He wailed and wailed and soon, his face was watery.
       Could faintly hear feet running up the stairs and in a few seconds, his mom came in. She quietly came around him and sat next to him on the floor. She took him in her arms and held him as he cried into her hand me down silk dress. She continued to hold him tightly and trying to calm him down.
       “It’s ok honey. It’s ok.”
       He continued wailing and took his hands off his face and hugged his mom, his face carving into her chest. She carefully lifted him onto his feet and walked him to the bed, sitting right by him.
       “You wanna tell me what happened?”
       He shook his head as he wailed some more. She nodded and kissed his forehead. She got up to leave, but was stopped when she reached the doorway.
       “W-W-We are n-n-n-never gonna happen!”
       “Why is that honey?” she said as she turned around.
       He calmed himself the best he could and wiped the mucus off his nose, and the tears from his eyes and cheeks.
       “I asked her to be my girlfriend. I told her everything.”
       “Everything?!” she said shocked.
       “Yes. She would’ve said yes, but she is...is...”
       “Is what, dear?”
       “Moving! She is moving!”
       He wailed some more. She felt saddened by this and went to his bed and sat down next to him, hugging him tightly.
       “Sssshhhh. It’ll be ok.”
       “No it’s not!” he muffled. “I loved her and now we will never be!”
       “There are other fish in the sea, dear. She was but one fish in a sea of millions.”
       “She’s the only fish I want!”
       “Sssssshhhhh. You get some rest and then come downstairs and we’ll talk about it some more. Ok?”
       “Yes, ma’am.” he sniffled.
       The next week was the hardest for Jack in many ways. He, along with many of her friends, went to her home and said their good-byes. After she hugged the last of her friends, she looked across the street and saw Jack standing there, with a tear running down his face. She smiled at him, but he remained with a frown. He turned around and walked back to his home, the wind blowing his hair around.
       The last few months of school were hard on him, because Amy wasn’t around anymore. He had a hard time concentrating on his school work, and started doing badly on his card. When John asked his son about the poor grades, all he could say was: “Amy is gone.” For Jack, Amy was the reason he did so good. He was one half of the brain, while she was the other half. Without her, he couldn’t do as well as he had done before.
       Without her on his side, he couldn’t defend himself from Joe. When he would tell Jack that he was a freak or a nothing, he just let it be. In his mind, that is what he was without Amy: A nothing. Most days, he would come home with a bloody nose, or a black eye. When his parents asked him what has changed about him, his answer was: “Amy is gone.” He couldn’t do much of anything anymore, but somehow, he made it to the seventh grade.
       His mind was back in the present time. He looked away from the mirror and shook his head violently. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. He opened a few drawers and pulled out some dark blue pants, a brown and white shirt, long white socks, and a leather belt. After he finished putting on his socks, he walked to the side of his bed and put on his black leather cowboy boots. He got up off the bed and went to the mirror again.
       “Well,” he said depressed. “Here we go Jack. Another day of my screwed up life.

Author's Note

Please be honest. Point out grammar and punctuation mistakes. I want know how you like the story. How do you feel about Jack and all the other characters, and the character development?