Chapter One: I Used To Love The Rain
Rain. It was something I had admired from a young age and something I knew others despised or thought of as a nuisance, I felt the same way as the rain. I felt as if I had been a nuisance to people around me and that all I was causing for them was annoyance and bitterness that slowly started to build up within their minds and hearts. When I was young I never thought these things, I always felt carefree and didn't think of the things I did to be so frivolous; I guess I had been wrong. I asked for everything, probably more than I cared to admit than most, it didn't bother me or the person I was asking for a couple years because. 'It was just supposed to be a phase'. That's the sentence I heard fall from my parents' mouth almost every other day, it didn't hurt as much anymore because I knew that I couldn't change their view on me now, but when I first heard it I couldn't understand their words and their feelings behind them, I was oblivious to the cold-hearted words my parents spoke and continued on with my day-to-day act, not noticing the hatred in the eyes of my parental figures.
I used to get up later in the morning for school, I didn't do it to annoy my parents in any way I just wasn't able to get up earlier. Now that I know they don't want me being disobedient I've been getting up earlier, or I just don't sleep at all. Homework helps me stay up, being that it's the beginning of the school year for eighth grade and homework likes to be thrown at you as much as possible, it isn't hard for me not to be busied with papers and studying.
When I woke up this morning it was silent, except for the low rumbling sound coming from the corner of my room from a small fan that was sat clumsily on my dresser. My hair felt all over the place and my eyes felt droopy, I couldn't see much due to it being still dark out and the fact I had just woke up from the uncomfortable feel of the desk beneath me, while also on top of multiple papers that included an essay on an interesting book I hadn't yet finished but still wrote about, and a few math papers. My neck hurt from the lack of normality of the surface below me, my neck immediately cracked as my head lifted from the desk but in an unpleasant way, not in the way I was used to. I turned my head and looked towards the darkened sky showing through the glace window, I assumed it had been around four in the morning which meant I would have at least two hours till I had to leave for the bus even though my bus came around at 7:20. The glass looked fogged and my room felt as if heat was nonexistent, I'm not sure how I was able to fall asleep on such a cold surface but I guess overworking yourself to the point of falling dead asleep on top of your desk is a good enough explanation.
Getting up from my discomforting chair was a pain, my feet had started to gain feeling once more which caused me to stagger a few times when I was getting across the room. I went towards my dresser with heavy steps and reached for the small fan as it's low breeze slipped through my hair lightly. I wasn't expecting anyone to be up at this time, only because both of my parents worked day jobs and got home later in the night which left me to dawdle around and work on assignments I was handed with that day, dinner was a different story though. Sometimes it would be early and sometimes it would never happen, but either way, I never really expected anything to come out of it such as an excuse or an apology, I just didn't expect a lot anymore. As I was about to pull open the middle drawer of the dresser in front of me I heard a faint but fairly noticeable knock bouncing off of the door causing me to still and silently stand in the quiet followed after the small knock. I was waiting for something subsequent to happen, and nothing did for a solid five seconds until the low voice of my father grumbled past the wood, "Keith, are you up? If you are, go back to sleep, it's way too early." It seemed that his presence lingered a little longer until finally I heard his footsteps walk away and back to either his room or the bathroom that was across the hall, and the breath I had been holding unintentionally was finally released. I wasn't expecting him to be up because he was never up this early, so I usually had time to myself but that was really unusual.
After my father had come and knocked on my door and told me to sleep I had just worked on my half-finished essay that had been due two days from now instead, it was better for me to get it done ahead of time instead of sleeping more and I was already too awake to go back to sleep anyways. This was the first book report of the year and it was decided for us that we would be able to choose our books at the beginning instead of choosing our own at the end of the year since we only have two book reports to actually fulfill within a certain timespan. Most of the kids in my class chose a lengthy book they knew they couldn't read or understand, and some kids chose simple books and pretended to find them to be difficult, eighth graders can be lazy sometimes but they always end up making it seem like they did a decent job on something, which in itself, is pretty astonishing. The book I had gotten was something the teacher recommended her students not to read, but the book sounded fascinating, so I convinced her to let me read it, but only if I was able to write an actual decently typed out paper with the maximum of three pages and within a five week span, which had been a longer time-span than the rest of the students unless she wasn't telling me another student of hers also had the same agreement with her.
The title of my book is called House of Leaves, it sounds like it'd be boring and time consuming but once I had picked up the book and read the first couple of pages, I was instantly hooked. The pages are all different, the names of the characters are unique sounding and they have actual personalities to say the least. I looked down at the keys of the borrowed computer in front of me and I realized I had an almost all the way written report but my endless thoughts stumbling out caused me to stay on the computer for nearly two hours, so it meant it was around six. My face fell and a low sigh made it's way through my parted lips as I leaned my head back and let my hair fall into my face almost instantly, I'm used to tireless nights and countless unanswered questions filtering my mind as I stayed awake but sometimes I'm just too emotionally exhausted to do anything remotely consistent or maybe it's not really emotionally exhausted but just plain exhaustion from a multitude of things or people. As my hands clasped around the wooden desk I heard a second knock that morning but it seemed more relaxed and calm, it was most noticeably my mother on the other end. "Keith, the bus is coming in an hour, be dressed and come downstairs at 6:40, your father and I have something to discuss with you involving.. school." Her voice quieted at the last part and as soon as she was finished her feet turned and walked away, leaving me with the fear growing inside my stomach about them figuring out something I knew was deemed inexcusable.