"Hurry up, son! We need to go now, or we'll miss it!" A woman called from the living room.
"I'm almost done, Mom!" Matthew shouted from his bedroom.
Matthew was running late for a very important event he had to attend to. He had mistakenly said the wrong time to his parents, and his little few would be ruined if he screwed this up.
Matthew was throwing everything he needed into his duffel; clothes for a few days, his phone and charger, headphones, various notebooks, pens, pencils, his cutting knife, glasses case, and a few snacks. Then he put on his favorite Star Wars hoodie, grabbed his duffel bag and walked out of his room.
His parents and sister were already in the Trailblazer, his father honking the horn from outside. Matthew ran outside and entered the truck, sitting next to his sister Justice. The truck slowly backed out of the driveway and sped off.
Before Matthew could even relax, Justice started asking questions.
"How long will you be gone?"
"About a week." He answered.
"What exactly are you doing?"
"Calm down, hermana major, it's just a field trip to a writing school in Ohio. It's going to be awesome I'll get to learn more honing my writing skills as an author, and I get to meet a few of my favorite authors, James Patterson and Rick Riordan."
" I still don't see why you need to go." Spoke up his father. "You're amazingly talented as it is, so you'd be wasting your time."
" I already told you, there's always room for improvement I can't publish anything if my work looks like a 14 year old wrote it. It'll look over unprofessional."
The truck got real quiet after Matthew said that, but he didn't care. He knew what he was talking about, even if his father didn't. Wanting to have time with his thoughts, he grabbed his phone and ear buds, scrolled down to his music playlist, and clicked a song. "Piano Man" by Billy Joel played in his ears. Even though he wasn't alone, he began to sing.
"It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in."
"There's an old man standing next to me,"
"Making love to his tonic and gin."
Justice recognized the song. She took Matthew's hand and begun singing too.
"He says 'Son can you play me a memory?"
"I'm not really sure how it goes."
"But it's sad and it's sweet, and I knew it complete,"
"When I wore a younger man's clothes."
Matthew loved singing with his big sister. In fact he loved doing everything with her. People though it was weird how close the pair were, even their own parents, but Justice was his all-time favorite person. She wasn't an asshole like most older sister were, far from it. She was kind, caring, sweet, and made Matthew feel like the most important person in the world. He loved his sister, and she loved him back.
He'd do anything for her.
Anything.
At the school bus...
It was a rather tearful departure for the family. Matthew felt relieved to be leaving his family behind, but he hated being apart from Justice for so long. With tears in his eyes, he hugged his sister tighter than ever before. It had been years since they were separated, and that was the worse day of his life...
"Don't worry, Matt." Justice said reassuringly. "You'll see me sooner than you expect."
He didn't know what she meant by that, but he hugged her closer and kissed her cheek before pulling away. He grabbed his bag and got on the bus.
Then one by one the other students at his school got on the bus. Matthew scanned the faces of tH oncoming crowd boarding the bus.
Then he saw her.
The most beautiful girl at his school.
Her name was Ellie Williams.
The love of his life.
'Please.' Matthew thought to himself. 'Sit by me.'
As Ellie began walking down the aisle, many of the seats were already taken, so it seemingly looked like she would end up sitting by Matthew. His heart rose and then promptly sank when she sat down with one of her friends.
"Oh well." He said miserably to himself. "Alone again."
As tH last remaining students took the I seats, the bus driver started the bus up. While the bus began it's slow acceleration, Matthew looked out of the bus window and gave his family one final goodnight. Then after they disappeared from his sight, he immediately pulled out his ear buds, put them on, and blared his music, as he did on all long trips. This time he was listening to a song called "Civil War" by Guns 'n Roses. It was one of those heavy rock songs, a genre he didn't care much for until just recently when Justice properly introduced him to it.
He was getting bored already, so he dug around in his bag until he pulled out a pencil and a journal labeled "Cloud 9". He opened it to the page he left on and began to write.
As most people know about him, Matthew absolutely loved to write his stories. He would write about a fantasy world where all his favorite fictional characters live and he reigns as their God. Cloud 9 was an idea Matthew had come up with when he was just beginning to enjoy playing video games. He'd daydream about hanging out with his all-time favorite video game characters ever since he was a young boy, and eventually his fantasies carried over to his personal library and his most-watched shows, respectively expanding his imaginary world's population tenfold.
As much happiness as this world brought to him, it always depressed Matthew that this magical world would never be anything more than a dream, so he decided to start writing stories about Cloud 9, making himself an all powerful God since he "created" this fantasy world with his constant daydreaming. Very personal, yet also something Matthew desperately wanted to share with the world and those around him.
Even though he was a God in his stories, in real life Matthew was quite the opposite. Matthew was one suffering from crippling loneliness, and without the company of any friends, that same loneliness soon led to a dangerously high level of depression within him. Without the constant writing of stories and the overwhelming support from Justice, Matthew would have no reason to live. Not in a suicidal way (although it has crossed his mind before), his life would just be sad and boring.
His stories were his solitude, and he was happy with that.
He was happy being the God known as Eskalion.
He was also happy with the trip he was going on. His school had paid for a field trip to a writing school for the last week of school. All the 8th graders got to have a massive graduation ceremony at The University of Creative Works, and as a special treat, a few of Matthew's favorite authors were there, including James Patterson and Rick Riordan. Matthew was so excited to be meeting such talented writers and being the aspiring writer he was, he planned on asking for pointers on how to make his writing better and more professional. And he couldn't wait to show the authors his completed stories. Cloud 9 was very important to Matthew, it was everything he stood for as the young transcendent boy he was. He desperately yearned to know if there was anyone else out there in the world like him that would find just as much happiness in his stories as Matthew did.
Apart from being a dream Matthew wanted to tell the world, it was also a chance for him to make more friends. After all, who doesn't like a good book series?
Matthew found himself growing more and more impatient to get to UCW, he was ready! And he was also ready to spend the week in a fancy hotel in between visits to the school and...
The bus screeched to a stop, jolting Matthew's attention to the front of the vehicle.
He saw his English teacher Ms. Watts standing by the bus driver, about to address the class.
"Ok class, listen up!" She announced, adjusting her glasses. "We've arrived at the hotel we're staying in."
The bus erupted with cheers of joy.
"Ok class settle down. Class... CLASS!"
The bus quickly quieted down.
"Ok, now everyone exit the bus calmly and carefully, keyword being carefully." She finished.
Th students silently gathered their belongings and one by one got off the school bus. Matthew put his ear buds back in, cranked up the music and proceeded to grab his own bag and then follow the rest of his classmates out of the bus.
As the class of almost-high schoolers stepped out, they gasped in awe at the luxurious building before them.
"Welcome to the Madison Hotel!" Ms. Watts cheered.
The hotel they gasped upon looked like the kind of place only the wealthy would stay, not a bunch of middle schoolers from Flint, Michigan.
"Come now, children. Let get our rooms for the night. Quickly now, it's getting late. We have to be up early or the bus will leave without us." Instructed Ms. Watts.
As the group entered the building, Matthew knew he'd enjoy his stay.
The interior of the hotel was magnificent. Above the front desk hung a huge diamond chandelier that reflected all of the hotel's interior lights, almost looking like a mini sun inside the hotel. To both tH left and right of the front desk were elevators leading to upper rooms and evidently a skyrocket. Matthew made a mental note to himself to visit this place before their departure tH following morning.
As Ms. Watts gathered up tH children, she told them to assemble in groups they'd like to bunk in the same room with for the night. Within seconds everyone was in groups with their friends, and couples came together to ensure the lovebirds would get a room by themselves.
Which left Matthew alone. Again.
He sighed. Then he had an idea.
He walked over to Ms. Watts.
"Hey ?"
"Yes, what is it Matthew?" She asked.
"Um." He nervously began, shifting on his feet. "Well, it appears I'm going to be in a room alone tonight. I don't like the idea of being alone at night."
"I see." Ms. Watts replied. "Would you like for me to pair you up with someone?"
"I'd like that."
"With whom would you like to bunk with?" She asked.
"Well, there's this girl I kinda like, and - "
" So the rumors are true." She said with a smile. "You're in love with Ellie Williams." She added teasingly.
Matthew blushed in response.
"Say no more, I'll handle it" Ms. Watts said reassuringly.
"Thank you very much, Ms. Watts." Said Matthew with gratitude.
She glanced at her watch. "Great Scott, it's half past 7! Ok class, take your keywords and head up to your rooms for tonight. Good night everyone!"
One by one the students along with Matthew packed up the elevators and rode up to their rooms for the night.
Unbeknownst to Matthew, Ms. Watts had talked with Ellie, but because he was lonely. It was finally time to bring the king home...
This is my first fanfic and my first chapter, so I hope you enjoyed it. It's kinda slow now, but things Will quickly pick up I'm Chapter 2. Until next time, good bye.
P.S, I'm going to be updating and adding more chapters all summer, so don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.
