Preface
We turned out our lights, just like every other person in our grade might before going to sleep. We start to fade, drifting towards unconsciousness, reverently hoping that tonight would be different. It isn't. Of course it's not going to go away. We have heard it every night, for as long as we can remember. We can still hear it. The music in the night...
Chapter 1: Unique
I woke up to the sound of my alarm, a loud buzzing somewhere near my head. The music stopped. I hit the off button on my alarm as I got out of bed. Last night had been just the same as every night. The music had played. This time it was a soft, sweet lullaby. It changes every night. Sometimes it's a fiery bolero, other nights, a serenade of immense passion. Each night is unique, yet just the same as every other night. I could hear my mother calling that breakfast was ready.
"Haley! Breakfast!" she called.
"Coming!" I yelled back. We have a tendency of yelling to each other in the morning.
My older sister, Katherine (Kat for short) walked out of her room yawning as I started down the stairs to the kitchen. Our little brother Charlie wasn't up yet. He was always up at the last minute, rushing out the door, making us late.
"Did you hear it last night?" Kat whispered to me as we walked towards the kitchen. She's the only person who knows that I can still hear the music. I told my parents once, and they signed me up for mental therapy. I hated it. After a few weeks, I lied and said that I couldn't hear the music anymore. Kat still knows the truth. I tell her everything. Be it who I like, or who I hate, she knows and understands.
"Yes," I replied as soft as her. "It was a lullaby." She always likes to know what the music was.
By then we were in the kitchen. We ate breakfast and got ready for school. Everything was normal, yet I felt that something big was going to happen. I was right. When I got to school, there were people crowded around a table in the cafeteria. There was a new student sitting at the table. He looked like a fish in a tank of sharks. I caught his attention and tried to tell him that I would help him find his way out of the mess he was in. He heard me. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't know. In response to my offer of help, he said, "I can take care of myself you know!" and stormed out of the group.
The group of people were staring at me. I fled, embarrassed. The rest of the school day was normal, except for the fact that the new kid was in every one of my classes, and of course, the only seats left were next to me. In first period,
Algebra, I tried to apologize for the incident in the cafeteria. He was extremely rude and ignored me. What's his problem? I thought to myself, vehemently. I would find out all too soon what his problem was.
The Home of August Jonson...
Not again! I was just hoping for a night of peace. A night without the infernal music. I hate it! It has ruined my life. This time it was a lullaby, sickeningly sweet and gooey. Something a girl would like. Not me. I am very much a boy. For as long as I can remember I have been alone in this dream. This cursed nightmare of moving, music, siblings with huge egos, fathers who are ignorant of their sons, and high-strung mothers. Today I get to be, yet again, at the center of the ogling eyes of students of yet another school. I wish there were someone to whom I could talk about the blaring music trapped within me. But, alas, I am alone. I will always be alone, doomed to be the strange new kid, an act in the freak show that is the world.
"Augie! You're going to miss the bus!" I hate the nickname my little sister Flora uses for me. My mother uses it too. I wish they would just call me my name. August.
School. Another word for zoo. I am in a circle of students in the cafeteria of South Burlington High School. Another student has come over; I think she wants to help me out of this debacle. I know she doesn't know me, but I still snap when a tell her "I can take care of myself you know!"
Ugh. I had every class with that girl from this morning. She tried to apologize in algebra, but I was really into the equations. I ignored her. I probably shouldn't have, seeing how nice I had been in the cafeteria. She shouldn't be apologizing, I should be apologizing. I was the jerk. She did nothing wrong.
I think she said her name was Haley or something like that. It was actually nice, compared to what other people did to me, staring and whispering. I also think my mom was spreading my nickname around to the teachers in the meetings she had with them. I could have sworn Mr. Evans smirked when he asked me if I liked to be called something other than August. Oh, well. But, I should probably say I'm sorry to that girl, Haley or whatever. She seemed nice. At least she was trying to help me blend in. It's not her fault that every friend I ever had disowned me the moment they heard about my dismal secret. My internal buzzing. My music. Nobody understands.