Chapter 1

    "Who would ever like you?" Is what they would say. Not only to be mean, but in general wonderment. Who would ever like someone like me? I thought to myself, as well.   

      Each day there I would be alone, when I eat, when I studied. Each day I felt like a wolf, an outsider circling the fire. Only smelling the succulent meat.

      I was always alone.

      One day an Autumn breeze blew in the door. Only a figure stood.

      Click

      Click

      Click

      The sounds of her shoes were beautiful. Everyone came to greet her. Everyone but me.

      "Don't even try to introduce yourself." Someone said to me. Why couldn't I meet her? I was excited just like everyone else.

      I didn't get to see her that day. However no one seemed to notice.

       I walked alone, with my head down to the floor. The bag on my back was heavy, filled to the top. Inside, text-books a wrinkled papers filled to the top in an ugly fashion. I counted each gray tile, the rough surface scraped against my shoes.

      I stepped into the house.

      "How was school today sweetie?"

      Terrible, everyone ignored me again, "It was good mom. Jack tried to eat the macaroni art we made." She laughed, her smile was beautiful. 

       My mother was the prettiest girl back in High School. She was smart too, she could have been any thing she wanted. What she wanted was to fall in love with a handsome young man. She got her wish.

      My father always had a smile on his face, showing his pearly whites. One day he stopped a robbery. A man tried to rob a convenience store, he stood up to stop the man and was shot in the chest. Because of my father, there was enough time for the police to arrive.

      Some how she always found a way to smile, to show me how to be strong. She would always say to me "There's no reason to cry, the sun always rises after the storm."   

       The next morning I came down for my usual breakfast, pancakes with egg eyes and a bacon mouth. 

        I didn't smell the bacon, or the eggs, or even the pancakes. Instead I found a body on the kitchen floor. The doctors said she suffered from a brain hemorrhage, I guess this was her last lesson to teach me.

       I waited in the lobby of the hospital with a red suitcase on the left side and my school bag on the seat to my right.

       The floors emitted a lavender scent but I couldn't shake the scent of death.

       "Jake, your godmother will pick you up. Can I get you something?" The nurse was nice, I wish I could have talked to her some more, but I didn't feel like saying anything. I could've asked for ice-cream, hell I could've asked for a pony. Nothing, however, would bring her smile back, or her rosy cheeks, or her gentle words.

       Now, I was truly alone.  

       Click. Click. Click.

       A familiar sound.