“Mommy, can we go home now? I’m cold.” I asked my mom as we walk through the frozen foods aisle.
“No, baby. You just want to go home and play games.” Mom replied making me blush with embarrassment.
“But, mo-”
A wild man screamed, “DIE DIE DIE!” as an automatic rifle goes off. Everyone screamed and panicked. Mom grabbed my arm and ran to the women’s bathroom. Tears rolled down my face as mom pushed me into a bathroom stall.
“Shshsh, shshsh. Everything will be okay. Just get on top of the toilet and stay quiet.” I nodded then climbed on top of the toilet. Mom pushed up my downcast face looking straight into my eyes, “Good boy, now whatever you hear. Stay quiet. No matter what. You understand?” I nodded again. “Tell me, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
“Yes ma’am,” I choked.
“Good, lock the stall once I leave.” She walked out. I quickly did what I was told and locked the stall.
A minute passed and nothing happened. I stand to see over the stalls. Mom was holding the doors. There was a sound of a foot kicking wood. Then, there was another kick. Finally, there was a gunshot and mom’s scream. Mom got shot bleeding on the ground. The door kicked open as I go back to the fetal position. I held my palm over my mouth to keep from screaming. Then, there was another gunshot. The screaming stopped.
“Stupid bitch.” A raspy man spoked. He sounded like he smoked ten cartons of cigarettes. “Is there anyone else in here!?” He shouted with a menacing tone that made the tears fall down faster. He kicked open a stall door. Nothing was in it, so he kicked the next one and the next and the next and so on. All the way to the stall right beside me. When he got to my stall. I felt a warm liquid in my pants. All I could do is sit there and wait for death.
I heard footsteps run into the bathroom. “Police! Put your weapon down and freeze.” It was my dad.
“You fuc-“ Two gunshots interrupted the psycho. A body dropped. I wailed as there was a knock on my door.
“Are you alright?” My dad’s voice said.
“Yes, daddy.” I choked as I open the door slowly revealing my face.
“Oh no, oh no… oh no oh no.” Daddy cried as he grabbed me in a hug. He turned his head to mommy and sobbed with me. He clenched his teeth and screamed, “YOU SON OF A BITCH.” He grabbed his gun and fill the already dead maniac with lead. He dropped his gun and body and wailed. I did the same. We laid there until other people arrived.
“We had the funeral a week later on February the 25th. It’s almost been 2 years since she died.” I choked as tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Why didn’t you go to a therapist right after?” My therapist asked me.
“Because I could handle it on my own. I did actually handle it on my own. It still hurts sure, but it will always hurt.”
“That’s all the time we have today. I’ll see you next week, Chloe. Have a safe trip.”
“Thanks, have a good day, Janet.”
Thanks for reading. A friend and I decided to make a collaborative writing project. I'm doing one perspective and he's doing another. It'll probably not be put up on this site. If it is, it'll probably be on my account. Also, if you have any pointers on to making this more emotional. I would appreciate it.
The first day of school. Great. Something I’m so happy about. The worst part is it’s my first day of high school.
I’m Chase Parker and I live in Smiths Cliff, Alabama. A small town close to the mountains. It’s only about an hour away from Birmingham. God, I hate this place. I wish I could leave.
I walk onto the bus and take my seat in the way back. It’s where the high schoolers sit and I will be sitting here until my brother can get a parking space for us. I can’t wait to stop using the bus. Too many loud annoying kids, screaming at the top of their lungs. Not like that bothers me I mostly ignore the blended sound of kids screaming. I’ve used the bus since I started kindergarten. Lucky me that Alabama is a beautiful state in terms of scenery. Mornings are the best even though I’m groggy and wish I could sleep more. Waking up at five in the morning helps with that grogginess.
When I get to the high school, I walk to the front entrance where there are memos of what homeroom teacher you will have. I search on the memo for my name. It seems as a career tech student that I do not get a homeroom teacher. Not like that bothers me. I walk into the front halls with butterflies in my tummy. I’m nervous but excited for the school year. I go into the lunchroom and take a seat by my friend, Steve Queen. He has a cool name, right? He’s way taller than me as he always picks on me for being short. He’s a very stocky six feet with curly hair and glasses. He’s pretty attractive in the face, his body is a bit disproportional. Steve and I have been friends since a year ago when we learned that we have a common interest, Dragon Ball Z Abridged. I can’t tell you how many times we would recite the lines to it. He also sat beside me in math and was in all my classes, so we became really good friends even though he playfully abuses me. Well, that sounds like I’m his wife and he’s my abusive husband. No, if you’re asking. I’m not into him. He already has a girlfriend who he’s been with for two years now.
“Hey Steve, how was your summer?” I ask.
“Ok, I worked on my trucks, watched anime, and played video games.”
“Well, I went to Europe this summer.” Yes, I went to Europe. Britain, France, and Italy. Venice is amazingly beautiful. If you ever get married, Venice is the perfect place for a honeymoon. I just wish some circumstances on how we got the money changed. My mother was murdered in February by a maniac. Her life insurance policy was fantastic, and she even left me with a college fund. I just wish she was still here.
“That’s great, how was it?”
“It was awesome.” I proceeded to tell Steve all the cool parts of the trip. How I got a pedicure from flesh-eating fish, how cool it was being on the Eiffel tower, and that other amazing things.
When we were interrupted by the Principal, Mr. Jefferson. “Students, I want this year to be a great year for everyone. So please join a club or sports team.” Like hell, “It’ll make your school life so much more interesting and great. Morning career tech, go ahead and load the bus when the bell rings.” Well, that was a boring speech. After that, I and Steve continued to talk about different things. Apparently, he’s been getting into a game called Yu-gi-oh. I’ve heard of it before. It’s some type of card game. He shows me his cards. The art on the cards are truly amazing, and the effects on them are a bit complex. A guy in front of us joins in on our conversation. His name is Jason Stallman. He has somewhat longish dirty blonde hair and a few inches taller than me with grey eyes. Next to him is Joseph King. He’s a big mixed black-white guy that I stabbed in the ear in seventh-grade. The reason why I stabbed him in the ear is that he cornered me in a seat and started hitting me, so naturally being the petite guy that I am. I stabbed him in the ear with a pencil. We became friends after that weirdly enough. The bell rings and we head to the bus
I didn’t realize how far away career tech was. From what I can tell it’s about thirty minutes to get there and come back. That’s a long time to be doing nothing. When we get off the bus, I head to our math class that is my first period. The teacher seems very nice. He’s a balding man who shaved his head with glasses. He has that ‘I’m smart and fashionable’ look going off for him, and he is a good speaker.
The bell rings and forty-five minutes. I head to my career tech class. I’m doing electronics. I take a seat on the back-left computers by two other kids. A scrawny redheaded guy and a fluffy brunette guy. We did say anything to each other as the instructor, McVie, talks and introduces the classes. He seems to be very strict. Something I dislike in a teacher. I don’t mind safe, but strict isn’t how you teach, but then again what do I know about teaching. I’m just the student.
The guy finally stops talking and I look through the computer I’m using. There’s Minecraft on the one I’m sitting using. Weird. I guess some guy decided it would be fun last year to install Minecraft.
I turn to the redheaded kid and say, “Hi”
He answers with “Hello” back. When he speaks, he has an impediment. Not like that bothers me.
“What’s your name?”
“James.”
“I’m Chase. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.” It goes silent for a few seconds. Both of us seem to be socially inept.
“Do you like My Little Pony.” Yes, I’m into My Little Pony. A boy shouldn’t like that stuff, but after mom was murdered. I couldn’t help, but watch something so full of happiness. It kept me from going into a full-on depression.
“You’re a brony?”
“Yeah, I’ve been one ever since May,” I answer proudly making James chuckle a little bit.
“No, I’m not into MLP, but I am into anime.”
My eyes light up, “Ever seen Dragonball Z abridged?”
“Hell yes, that show is awesome.” James and I continue our conversation for an hour, then the bell rings. I’m apparently in this class for two hours instead of one. That’s interesting.
Between the change, this emo-looking boy a few inches taller walks to me and asks, “You said you like My Little Pony, right?”
“Yeah, is that a problem?”
“No, because I like it too.” He beams at me as if I’m the first person in real life with the interest.
“Really? That’s so cool!” I thought for sure I would be the only Brony where I live.
“Come here. I gotta show you something.” He gestures. I follow him to a computer not too far away from mine. He had a search for MLP porn on it. Along with looking through imagines. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a teenager with hormones, so it’s natural that I would look this stuff up on my private time.
“Why do you have that pulled up?”
“I didn’t pull it up. I found it like this.”
“You should close it quick before the instructor finds it.” I go back to my seat.
Thirty minutes later I hear stomping come towards my side. I turn around and I find a very angry McVie going through the computer that had pony porn searched up on it. “Who looked up pony porn on this computer?!” He bellowed. He was not very big or imitating guy. He has had a very rough look to him with his long messy ‘hippie’ hair. He was about a couple inches taller than me. “It has to be someone on in this corner. Now fess up, so we can get this over with.” Oh, shit that means me. Fantastic. I’m not normally the kid to do bad things, and I tend to cry when I’m accused of those things.
“That guy,” I point to the emo boy from earlier. “He told me to come with him so I can see what’s on the computer. He also told me that he didn’t search for it, but someone else did.” Honesty is the best policy.
“Bull, I had Hunter last year. He never did that.” Now I know his name. He looks me straight in the eyes and says, “Maybe it’s you.”
I start shaking with adrenaline, “It’s not me, I promise. Hunter just showed me it.”
“If it’s not you, then who is it?”
“Maybe that guy,” I point to the fluffy guy sitting beside James.
The investigation lasted for the rest of the class period. No one confessed. Great, that’s a good kick off to the first day of school. The rest of day was boring.
Hey guys, this is a pretty boring chapter. I need to start here before I can move to the more interesting stuff.
The next day I did my normal morning routine. Wake up at five, take a shower, and go to get food. My dad was there getting ready for work. He’s a supervisor for the Densal police department. Densal is a town about ten minutes away from Smiths Cliff. He’s a really cool guy. Best dad I’ve ever known. Then again, I only known one dad.
“Chase, how was school?” He asks me. Crap baskets, I wanted to avoid talking about school.
“Alright, boring though.”
“First days of school are always like that.” He hugs me, “I have to go now. Have a good day at school.”
“Bye, daddy.” Yes, I call my dad, daddy. I don’t know why I do it. I just always have. I used to call my mom, mommy.
The clock ticks at seven. I got dress and wake up Caleb, my brother, or I like to think of him like that. He’s actually my best friend who I’ve known all my life. He’s two years older than me, but only a grade ahead.
I’m back at school in my electronics class with McVie. We have to do safety certification thing on this program called ‘NIDA’ I forgot what it stood for, but I don’t really care. I decided it would be funny to change the background to some of the computers to Fluttershy. My favorite of the five ponies. No one caught me and to be honest, no one cared.
The rest of the day, nothing really happened. Actually, that whole week. I was just doing my NIDA and getting it completed. The class goes by boringly. The weekend was pretty boring too. I just sat there playing Planetside two. It’s a cool first-person shooter that is also a massively multiplayer game. I had gotten a really good computer because “why not” as my dad puts it.
Monday rolls around and I’m back into McVie’s class. I forgot to mention that I became friends with James’s friend Kerry. The big fluffy guy that sits right next to him. He’s a pretty cool guy all considering.
I started on the real stuff in NIDA. Direct Connection circuiting is so much fun. We got our books that day too. How exciting. Besides all the other school work I had to do. Nothing really exciting happens besides that fact I’m a sponge for history. Then again, I’ve been to Normandy, Rome, Venice, London, Liverpool, and Paris. A lot of what had been named are historical relics.
I go back home and restart my routine for Tuesday. I go to the bathroom and shove everything off and throw it on the table. I turn on my CD player and press play to Green Day. I’m not a big fan of music, but Green day is a great band. I turn on the shower and look in the mirror/sliding door that covers my shower. I stare at my naked body and ask, “This is me, huh?” I don’t know why I do this, but ever since I was a little kid I’ve done this. I’m short, but with long legs like my mom. Carmel brown eyes and straightly fine hair with cute pinkish red lips. Not to be a narcist or anything, but I’m cute. At least, once I take my think lensed glasses. I sigh and jump in the shower.
“Do you have skype?” James asks me as we’re on the computer.
“No,”
“You should get it. It’ll be fun to talk to you out of class.”
“I would like that.”
James quickly, but neatly scribbles his skype account name on a piece of paper. “Here, just type in this and send me a text telling me it’s you.”
“Sure, I’ll talk to you when I get home.”
“Cool! Anyway, have you seen…” we converse for the rest of the two hours.
At lunch, because most of my friends are in career tech. We all eat together. We have a little place just for us. Hell, we even got our own seats. The only one that’s not in our career tech is our friend Karman. A tall nerdy guy. He’s cool, but he can get annoying. He’s not a bad looker either. Once you take off the glasses.
“You should play Yu-gi-oh,” Karman tells me.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know how to play.”
“We’ll teach you.” Karmen pulls out a box from his backpack and shows me how to play. The game is pretty fun once it gets going. Maybe I’ll ask dad tonight if it’ll be ok to get some cards.
“Daddy,” I say in a soft tone.
“Yes, buddy?”
“Can I have yu-gi-oh cards?”
“Of course, if you use your own money.”
“But daddy,” I whine. “A couple of my friends have been pressuring me to play this game and well, I just enjoy playing it.”
“Oh alright, but you’re coming with me.”
I gasp when I squeal, “Thank you daddy!” as I hug him.
“You’re welcome, buddy.”
I get onto my computer and download skype. My little pony is getting a little stale. I decided to look up anime sites. I get Crunchy Roll. I see that they have sword art online two. I tried to hold in my excitement as I watch the first episode.
When skype installed I sent a contact request to James with a message saying it’s me. It was accepted pretty quickly. I then get a call. I had some cool headphones, so I plug them in and accepted the call.
“Hey, Chase.”
“Hey, James.”
“How was your day?”
“Pretty alright. I learned just now that there was a sword online two.”
“Just know? It’s been up for a while. You sure you don’t live in a cave?”
“No, but I did play Xbox for years. I just recently stopped.”
“Why did you stop?”
“Well… because my mom died. I lost all my aggression from that.”
“How did that happen?”
“You remember the mass shooting in the Wal-Mart in Densal?”
“Yeah, the one that ten-people died from. Your mom was one that was killed?”
“Yup, she died trying to protect me.”
“Oh, shit, I don’t know what to say to that.”
“Let’s just talk about something else.”
“Sure, you know…” We talked until I went to bed at nine.
For three weeks, I have been getting into Yu-gi-oh. It’s an incredibly fun game. I had a pretty bad deck to start, but Karman has been helping me build better. I first made dark worlds. I even went to my first tournament. Nothing too big, just in a little place called dragon quills. Remember how my dad is cool? Well, he brought us, people. Everyone loved me after that. I lost the game of course. Also during these two weeks, I’ve been getting to know James and Kerry. Kerry if hilarious. A bit like Gabriel Iglesias hilarious. I’m now getting into anime more and more. McVie is still being an asshole. At one point, a guy said “Bruh” to him. He said, “I’m not your bruh.” My friends died laughing at it. Now we have been using that line when we get into Skype calls together.
I’ve never had this many friends before. I’m very grateful for them because used to I didn’t have any friends. My dad did say a week before I started high school that everything will change. He was right like always. Jason, Steve, and Joseph also got into Yu-gi-oh and anime. Well, Steve has always been into it, but Jason and Joseph are getting into it. We start playing Yu-gi-oh on the bus. Of course, I’m losing, but it’s all in good fun.
“Fag.” This tall buff guy tells me. He’s a guy who’s been an asshole to just about everyone in class. I try and be nice, but my niceness is wearing off fast. I’ve been doing a new tactic of staying away from him, but he just wants to follow me.
I couldn’t help but say, “I’m not the one following a cute boy and calling him a fag. You know you’re just projecting how you feel about me in anger and shame. Just give into your feelings and be,” I change to the most feminine way of speaking and sparkle “Fabulous!” At this point, everyone’s chuckling as the asshole was getting red in the face. He throws a punch at me. It was slow, so I dodge and get behind him to whisper in his ear, “Ho ho ho, you gotta be quicker than that.”
He swings another. I dodge being that they are so slow. “Stop moving!”
“Can’t do that. I don’t very much like pain. I know it’s your thing. I mean, there is nothing wrong with BDSM.” I back up into a guy. Before I could move, he had me in a full nelson. “Let me go, you bastard!”
Asshole is grinning wickedly as he pulls for another punch. I snap my foot into his nose knocking him down with a nosebleed. I then plant the heel of my foot hard into my captor’s groin and squeals. I quickly back away from the scene and saw what I’ve done. I don’t like fighting, but I know how to do it and where to hit. These two got into the wrong end of me.
McVie rumbles in on the scene and shouts, “What happen.”
I turn to him. I hit my adrenaline crash and tears quickly flowed down my face as I cry, “I’m s-s-so s-s-sorry, it’s all my f-f-fault.” I drop to my knees and wail.
“Stop your crying. You’re a man right.” That just made me cry harder. He barks, “You three get to the office. Now!” I pick myself up and cry all the way to the office.
“What happened here?” A woman’s voice said concern.
“From what I can see these two,” McVie gestures to Twiddle dumb and twiddle dee “Got into a fight, and this one,” He gestures to me. “Is just crying for who knows what, Mrs. Harold.”
“Berry, get a statement from those two. I’ll deal with this one.” Mrs. Harold walks to me. I feel her rub my back “Calm down, sweetie… What’s your name?”
“C-chase.” I said wiping my eyes as I look up at her. She is beautiful. Golden blonde hair cornflower blue eyes. She is hot. She hands me a tissue
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Yes,” I proceeded to tell her about the incident.
“Well, you’re quite good at fighting, Mr. Parker.” God, hated when people call me that. I always expect my dad. “Do you do martial arts?”
“No, but when I was younger I did karate. I have a thing for it really. When I see people fight I like to couple their moves and put myself in different situations.”
“Oh, well, what you just told me is a bit hard to believe. I’m going to get a few of your classmates and see what they say. You can go back to class now.”
“I understand and thank you.” I walk away.
“You’re welcome.”
I walked back into the room and immediately there was clapping. I couldn’t help but smile broadly. I hate grinning because I have braces. I went back to my seat. People come up to me to tell me how I’m amazing. A few people were pulled from class. At lunch, my friends told me how cool it would’ve been to see that fight. They also asked how I learned to fight. I told them, “I watch too many actions and martial art movies.” The rest of the day was dull.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully next chapter I can get Chase's ninth grade year done and start the real story. I am just having too much run with throwing Chase some obsticles.
A month later, a lot has happened. First, I got a new Yu-gi-oh deck called Geargia. It’s pretty cool and I am now second place in my school. Not only that my friends have a thing going on in Study hall where we sit on a round table and play Yu-gi-oh. We always play big team battles that we never quite finish at thirty minutes. McVie is being an asshole as always. He’s been picking on me lately and getting onto me. Kerry and James have been a bunch of fun lately on the internet. We started playing a game called ‘Unturned’. A blocky zombie game. It’s fun if you like Minecraft and zombies. A cool new anime has come out. It’s called Tokyo Ghoul. I absolutely love the opening song. I think my favorite character so far is Touka Kirishima. She’s a real badass bitch with a cute delicate side. I love a tough girl with sensitivity. I stopped going to the tournaments. Some of the people there are complete assholes. I can’t stand them. A guy actually tried to hit me because I was taking my time. Jeez dude, if it wasn’t for the fact he was too slow. It would’ve hurt. Besides keeping up with anime. I have down very much besides going through the motions of routine.
Another month later, OH MY GOD. Tokyo Ghoul is the coolest thing ever. I don’t want to spoil things, but the last episode made me love crazy. Karman and I have been going at it in Yu-gi-oh. Kerry, James, me and a bunch of their other friends decided to make a thing called the ‘Bruh Society’. What was a joke, was now more than that. Speaking of McVie. He’s really been on my ass. A computer acted up and he immediately blamed it on the three of us. Mostly looking at me. Really unfair. I mean computers can act up at any time. Especially old computers. Halloween rolled around and I didn’t have any costume bought, so I went as the scariest thing known to man. Me. People were pretty freaked out by that.
Two months later. I have been on an anime marathon lately. Just binge watching them like a boss. I’ve been growing my hair out. I want it to look like Touka’s hair. Or at least similar to it. Thanksgiving was pretty great. I’m always eating at my Uncle Kevin’s house. I swear he’s gay, so does my dad. The colder months are hell on the bus. Because of how old the bus is. A lot of the windows don’t shut all the way. I move my computer upstairs into my room for more privacy. I used mom’s table that just so happens to fit perfectly in the room. I now have two screens for my computer. I got sick the first day of winter break. I’m so unfortunate. I got a lot of stuff for Christmas. One notable thing is a cell phone. I did have a cell phone before, but it was the boring flip phone.
New Year’s Eve was shit. I didn’t stay up for the passing of 2014. I just wanted it to end so I can get passed this year. All of this year sucked major shit. Starting with the fact I gained a traumatic life event at the very beginning. I even cried myself to sleep New Year’s Eve just to end it quick.
A month later. Dad planned a trip to Cleveland to see the rock and roll hall of fame. I’m not really into music like my dad and Caleb are. We aren’t supposed to go into April. Hardass McVie was being soft all this month. Maybe it’s because everyone needed to get back into the swing of things. Tokyo ghoul season two came on. The first episode was cool. I don’t really like the opening music choice. Jason and I decided to plan for a con in February. Team Four Star is supposed to be there. I can’t wait.
Three weeks later. McVie brought in these giant robot arms. They were pretty cool. He told me I could work on learning them. Two things I learned from working on them is that they are cool as fuck and the computers are too slow to handle the program for the robot arms. I’m making due with it.
The day before the anniversary of mom’s death. I really don’t want to go to school. I want to go back to bed and cry, but I have to do my normal routine. I go to the backroom and throw everything off. I look in the mirror. Tears start falling down my face. No, not right now. I got stuff to do. I wipe off my tears and took my shower.
The school was as noisy as ever. I zipped up my jacket, pulled my hood over my head, and took off my glasses and threw them in a box in my bag. I did want to be seen or see anything today. I just want to be left alone and be invisible. I sat alone on a seat in the hall not daring to go into the cafeteria. Tears start falling as I go into the fetal position.
“What’s wrong.” Says a man’s voice.
I didn’t even look at him to respond, “Nothing, I just want to be left alone.”
“If it’s nothing then why are you sitting here crying.”
“I said,” raising my voice a little louder and turning to look him straight in the eyes as I said angrily through my teeth, “Leave. Me. Alone.”
“Alright, fine, I get it. You can always talk to me if you need me.”
The bell rings and I walk to my first period. I bump into someone, but I don’t care. I feel a hand grab me by the shoulder. I did even see who it was. I just smashed my elbow into the guy’s jaw, knocking him out. All I see is black the next second.
When I gain consciousness, I was being held down by two guys. “What the hell happened? Why are you holding me?”
“Finally, you came to.” Mr. Jefferson says as he stands over me. “You can let him go now. He won’t do that again. Chase, follow me.” I follow Mr. Jefferson into and sit down in a chair in front of his desk.
“So, what happened?”
“I can’t explain it to you. I gotta show you.” He turns on a tv monitor and plays a video of a kid going kung fu on everyone around him. Everyone besides the unlucky victims run away. The kid stands there and looks into the camera. There was no soul in him. It was like he was some type of animal. Then I look closely and I realize. That’s me.
“What do you remember last?”
“I remember being really depressed and angry. I just wanted to be left alone. Then some douche had to grab my shoulder. I did even care who it was. I just smashed my elbow into his face. After that, darkness.” The tears start rolling down hard. I can’t believe I could be so animalistic.
“Well, the darkness was your rampage. You’re lucky that everyone was only knocked out and fine for the most part.” He hands me a tissue as I cry. I’m such a monster. “Well, we can safely say that the person on the screen wasn’t you.”
“B-b-but it w-was m-me.” I sob.
“No, Chase. That person on the screen is a psycho that had no morals or care for human life. You, on the other hand, are crying because you have a care for human life.” My eyes go wide. Then I almost tackle the guy. I wailed on his clothes.
“Thank you… Thank you… Thank you.” I repeated.
The school sent me home after that. I just fell into my bed and cried for the rest of the day.