Chapter 1

The wind whispering all around, shaking the trees leaves. Bristling the grass. Birds chirping, singing their song. Squirrels doing their dance chasing around up high in the branches of the trees. What is quiet? This does not exist. Everywhere all around everything makes a noise. How do people really know what quiet is when they have never really experienced pure quiet themselves?

I sat in my meadow. Eyes closed experiencing the noise around me. Pure tranquility. Life is so complicated to us, why can't we just make things easy? I get up from the grass leaving my imprint behind from sitting there quite some time. I walk back to the small cramped house where it is just me and my mom. Our new small town. Our small lives. Nothing ever happens here, no one ever leaves small towns like this. Milford Pennsylvania is not really where I want to spend my life or where I even wanted to go to begin with but it's hard to get out of here. The move was painful enough as it is, so I figure I only have two more years left then I can try to escape to a college somewhere.

"Logan!"

"Yea mom!"

"Help me with these boxes"

I walked through the screen door through the kitchen and up the stairs. In the attic mom was trying to hoist some boxes onto the uppermost shelf. Her frail frame wouldn't be able to give her the strength to lift them high up onto that shelf.

"Here mom", I said lifting the boxes from her hands easily as if they were empty cartons and gently placed them onto the shelf. My weight training over the summer paid off. I used to be some lanky gangly skinny boy. Now my arms and chest have nice muscle on them nice bulk and tone. I didn't want to start a new school with a weak frame, instantly getting picked on by the locals. Now with my muscles I can show that I can hold my own. I also needed these muscles to protect my mom. I made a promise to her that I would never let anything hurt her ever again.

"Thanks, they're so heavy", she says as she wipes her brow. Wrinkles are starting to form on her forehead even for her young age. It must be the stress. The move has been hard on her. We moved here to get away from my dad. A few months ago he started to beat my mom. At first it wasn't so bad just a slap across the face when his temper really started to flare up but then it got worse. He started hitting her hard and she would get giant purple bruises all over her body, he also started to hit me as well. That's when my mom and I decided it was time for us to leave. We waited for when my dad left for a business trip, took our belongings, packed them in the back of the van, and left the now almost empty house. My mom made a new bank account for herself and detached all information of her connecting to my father so my he wouldn't be able to find us, we would be safe from him here, in the middle of nowhere. I left everyone I know, my friends, and my family. Now it's just me and my mom.

"Can we get horses?"

"Very funny, we can once we get some money," my mom replied turning around walking away chuckling 'horses' at the absurdity of the statement. It was true that we didn't have much money, my mom was a stay at home mom and the only money she did have was money she inherited when her parents died. She got a job in town at the diner as a waitress. Not really her dream job but its really all she could get with her lack of a college degree and working experience. It's a change from our once comfy lifestyle; we will now be like millions of people in the United States who are living paycheck to paycheck. My mom was truthful about this to me from the start to me; I'm old enough to understand all of this.

I can't say I'm not nervous because I am. This town is so small so different. The people at the new school I'm going to have been together since kindergarten, they're not going to want a new kid coming in from out of nowhere. I might not fit in. I go into my room and hop up onto my chin-up bar. One…two…three…four… Lifting myself up to the pole then back down calming myself down. Sweat starts to form on my face as my arms start to ache. Pain is only a feeling, my body is just trying to wimp out I tell myself in my head. I keep going until I don't have enough energy to hoist myself up one last time. I then start doing sit ups. The exercising feels good to my body. My abs start to have a tiny ache but it's the comfortable kind. I do two hundred sit ups before I decide its time to stop. I now feel relaxed, not as stressed for the first day at my new school tomorrow.

I get into bed and get under the covers. Anxiety keeps me awake. I just sit there lying in bed until I look at the clock. It is 12:28. Suddenly a noise breaks my silent. A wolfs howl fills the air. The sound sent a chill down my back. Wolf howls creep me out. I take my ipod off the dresser and put the ear buds into my ears. I blast the music and soon I'm in a deep sleep.