A/N - This story is dedicated to Waldojeffers. He has helped me get through a lot of hard issues for me to talk about in my own life. Since it just so happens to be his birthday, I thought this would be a great to thank him. So, thank you for everything buddy, and I hope you enjoy the story if nobody else! ^_^

An Ordinary Childhood Memory

My reputation was all that mattered to me back in the days when I lived in Boston. It was all that I lived for. All I breathed for on a daily basis was simply living another day being the center of attention. It was as important to me as life itself. After all, almost every eleven year old boy, even today, finds nothing more important than to fit in. In my first year of middle school, I had to make friends all over again and I intended to do so immediately. On the other hand, little did I know that the most important thing in my life would get me into a whole lot of trouble.

"Today is going to be great! Aren't you excited to dissect miscellaneous paramecia?" My twin brother smiled at me.

"Not really. I have the feeling that this whole dissecting thing is going to have some sort of report piggy backed onto it," I sighed as I took in the fresh autumn air.

"We both know you're going to make me do the report for you, so if anyone should be discouraged I think it should be me," Cody raised his eyebrows.

"Ha ha, well that's what little brothers are for. Having a good old time with me and doing my homework," I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Sometimes, I just think I'm too nice to you," Cody squinted his eyes.

"Awww come on bro. That's what I love about you!" I hugged my brother and gave him a joke-filled peck on the cheek. He immediately backed away and wiped his cheek.

"Fine, I'll do the report for you, but only because you're my brother. Now I'd better get to school before you because you're moving way too slow for my taste," Cody stated as he ran toward the school building in the close distance.

I looked up to the sky and took in a heavy breath. "It is just another typical school day," I happily thought to myself as I entered the school building. Well, at least I thought it was going to be. I had gone to school in my favorite red shirt that day. It had a blue fireball in the center of it. On the back of the shirt was a boy on a skateboard who was holding up his middle finger. That was my idea of cool back in those days.

My mother always had a really tight eye on me, but when it came to clothes I picked out my own. She woke up much later than I and never saw what I decided to put on in the morning. I also got back to the hotel much before she did so she never actually got to see my shirts and laundry was out of the question because I washed my own clothes alongside my brother. Yes, I live in a hotel. It's kind of cool if you ask me.

My twin brother, Cody, could've easily ratted me out, but he was not one to do so. He was more concerned with his grades than me being a troublemaker. Sure, he looked like me. With his long blond hair and greenish blue eyes, he definitely passed as my brother. However, that doesn't mean he acted like me.

As a result of my personality, my grades in school were not the best ones out there. I was more like the moldy strawberry you find within a carton of strawberries. The one that everyone is disgusted by which they find annoying and useless. That is what kids like me are. We are the kids that are shunned by society as bad people.

I entered the classroom, immediately being greeted by all of the friends I have made over the past few days. After I finish talking with my friends, I notice my brother sitting in the front of the room alone, like the loser he is. Why would he want to sit up front? It's not that I disliked my brother or anything, but I constantly enjoyed taking advantage of him. "Stop being such a loser and come sit in the back of the room," I whispered into his ear. Even though he was book smart, I felt the need to coach him with life skills. It's not as if I didn't like him or anything. In fact, I've never seen brothers that were so opposite, yet got along so well together aside from us!

I suddenly realized the teacher was getting up from her desk about to teach her lesson. Then it hit me… I was wearing this shirt! If she sees it, I'll be sent to the deans office… again. I try to make my way to my seat without my teacher noticing the back of my shirt, but then it happened. My own brother tripped me. I was too focused on my shirt to forewarn myself. I should've seen it coming after that witty remark of mine to him. So I tripped and, to make matters worse, my head grazed my teacher's breasts and I fell straight into her lap. She looked down at me to see the back of my shirt. Middle finger and all.

I quickly rose as my classmates began to burst out in laughter. I glared at my brother, who didn't know whether to laugh or feel bad. The teacher ran out of the room with a surprised look on her face. I looked around to those that I found more important to obtain their friendship than living my own life, finding them all pointing at me and laughing. Cody then grew a big smirk across his face and yelled out, "Look guys, it's the teacher lover. What part of her are you going to shove your head in next?" and the volume of the laughing began to amplify. I clenched my fists ready to take action. I couldn't believe he would say something like that. My brother, the one who I never imagined would play my own card against me, did just that. I stormed towards Cody with nothing on my mind aside from the pleasing thought of him lying helplessly on the floor, bleeding to tears, like a rabbit after a fox has broke its limbs that can do nothing more than stare at its murderer.

I was about one footstep from bringing his life to an abrupt pause when the teacher walked back in the classroom with the school dean beside her. He was there to take me to his office and maybe even have me suspended. Who knows what would've happened? I certainly don't even up to this point in my life because I never made it there. I walked slowly towards the dean but instead of cooperating with what could have got me out of all of this, I decided to kick him with all my might on the kneecap and run for it! I darted towards the school exit as I turned around to see the teacher looking at me in shock with the dean on the ground holding his kneecap beside her. I turned around for one last look at Cody, to find him in complete shock. I'm not sure if it was based on my decision to kick the dean or at how much trouble his simple extension of the leg in my path had caused. As I got closer to the exit, a security guard saw me but I was gone before she even had the opportunity to rise. I had no idea where I was going. I was just running as far away as I could.

After I felt I had gotten a safe distance from the school, I scurried through my bag, finding fifty cents and a bus token. "Home isn't an option. I would surely be found there," I thought to myself. I decided to put that bus token to good use as I ran toward the bus stop. After only about a minute of running I tripped again. I had a tendency for tripping on that day for some reason. It didn't anger me though because not only did I go unharmed from the fall, but I noticed a very damp piece of money beside me. I picked it up and noticed it was a twenty dollar bill. This money actually gave me some sort of hope. I felt like an animal that was captured. Finding this money has allowed me to escape from the clutches of those who had taken me hostage. I stuck the money in my pocket not knowing what I might need it for. Unfortunately though, I was still led astray from my family and my old lifestyle like the animal under those circumstances would be.

I got up and saw the bus down the street. I walked a few steps to the bus stop and took out my bus token. Then, as I glanced at the bus map, I noticed that it showed that one of the bus stops was at a train station. I decided to take the train somewhere. Anywhere. I felt as confident as a murderer standing over his sleeping victim. There was nothing that could possibly go wrong as far as I was concerned. Looking back at my decision though, I highly regret possessing my extreme nature as a child. After the bus pulled up next to me, I inserted my bus token into the coin slot and ran to the nearest seat. I still was not excited about my decision but it seemed like the most rational choice for me to make.

As the bus pulled up to my stop, I was already at the exit door, ready to run outside. I walked up to the front door of the station where I found a man trying to sell his ticket to Pennsylvania for all of my money. After realizing I might not be able to get a ticket any other way because of my age, I took his ticket. The man was shocked that I even carried twenty dollars at such a young age, but I ignored him after I had used him for what I needed him for. Once I had made my way to the station, the train pulled up almost instantaneously. I noticed a family before me and decided to play it off as if I was with them until I safely made it to my destination. My decisions, as I look back at them, could be viewed as irrational and unrealistic to the average person, but as far as I was concerned they were the only options I had. You really cannot fully understand how I felt under the circumstance I was in unless you were faced by it. So with the plan I had put to action, I successfully made it on the train and, later, to my destination. In reality though, my destination was nothing more than a place for hiding. Anywhere that nobody could find me. Anywhere my life could be renewed.

"Ugh, I am thinking too much. I really have to stop recalling my past all the time," I say to myself as I reach for my daily breakfast that looked no better than the dog crap people look at with disgust lying on the curb. Well if you haven't guessed by my irritated tone and this horrible breakfast, I wound up in jail. I'm 18 now so I guess it's legal. You threaten an old lady to get some money for your own survival and you're locked up for a whole year. What sense does that make? It doesn't make much sense to me to say the least. Animals kill each other on a daily basis for food and they get rewarded with a meal while people like me end up behind bars for the same action. It makes me think about how different my life could've been if that one day never happened. If my brother hadn't been such a jerk. If I hadn't been such a jerk. I could've had a nice warm house to live in, an education that lasted beyond middle school, and, most of all, friends. It's ironic that all I ever wanted was to fit in and my decision back then left me completely without that.

I quickly shovel down that terrible excuse of a breakfast and glance over at the toilet in which I was going to flush the leftovers. Nobody in their right mind would consider this junk any better than crap anyway. George, my cellmate, was on the toilet though so I had to wait. It is kind of awkward that jail cells have open toilets, but I guess you get used to people looking at you use the bathroom. I mean if you were shameless enough to get into this dump why would you care about people seeing you take a dump? I hear a flush and walk over to the toilet to pour out the bowl of crap. As I pass by George on my way to the toilet, he snatches the bowl from my hand. I flick my fingers up in a careless sense hinting that I don't care if he keeps it, not as if he cared about what I thought anyway.

I then hear an unexpected voice. "You, come with us!". Two police men stand at the entrance to my jail cell pointing at me. I quickly rush over to them as they walk me out, one on each side of me. They bring me to a room where they say, "We have a call for you,". As confused as I am that anyone would call me, I answer the phone. I greet with the typical, "Who is this?". The voice replies, "Hey it's me. Cody... your brother. I have been searching for your whereabouts for years, but the last place I thought I'd find you would be in jail. Well how about I get you out of there to set things even? Since I got a full scholarship into college I do have the spare money,". I remain silent for a moment. I wait to see if he has anything left to say but he obviously doesn't. "You ruined my life and my childhood and you think money can buy my forgiveness? The only way you can earn any forgiveness from me is to rewind time so I can get the years you took away from me back!" I shout as I slam down the phone.

I get up and walk myself back to my jail cell as the cops follow me from a distance. I lay down in my cot that sits upon the cold cement floor without moving a muscle for the remainder of the day. "Did I just decline the only hope I have left in my life?", I think to myself. I know that nobody else would even bother to search for me. I shut my eyes thinking that my luck has now run short. There is surely no hope left me. My life is as good as over.

As I peak my eyes open the next morning, I see a jail guard shaking me. I sit up on my bed as he says, "Get all your things together and leave. You are free to go. This man paid for your freedom". I slide my head over to see Cody standing outside the jail cell with a sorry expression on his face. I get up with my few belongings and say, "Cody, give me some money so I can travel to a new hideaway. If you want to make me leave, then I will need a new place to stay where you aren't!". He pulls out a one hundred dollar bill and holds it out, still keeping that sad look on his face. I swipe it from his hands and push him to the ground. He remains on the ground staring at me as I say, "Thank you for this. Now leave me alone for the rest of my life and consider yourself forgiven if that makes you feel any better!" I leave without looking back at him. Things such as forgiveness had never been all that important to me. I simply say those words because they are what he wants to hear as a result of deciding to save my life. The same life which I thought could never have been fixed had been fixed overnight. Forgiving him would have no real impact on my life so why should it matter to me anyway?

I sit upon a bench on the street corner, looking around to see if Cody is anywhere in sight, but I do not see anything aside from the trees around me and the dirt trail beneath me. I take a deep breath of the pine scented air around me and thoughts begin to flush through my mind. Thoughts that hadn't crossed my mind since I was a child. Are my parents looking for me? Do they still care about me? Does anybody care about me?

After forming my new goal, I decide to go back home. I run to the nearest pay phone and jam the only quarter I have into the slot. I call my home phone number with such surprise that I even remember it. After three rings I hear a person on the other line. After a bit of background noise on the other line, the voice begins the conversation saying, "Yes? Who is this?". That is my mom! She always answers the phone asking who is on the line. I hang up the phone with a reassured smile on my face that my mom is still in the Tipton. The shamelessness I learned from being in jail begins to take me over as I run down the street waving my hands in the air. "Mom I'm coming home," I shout with all my might as I follow the train tracks to the station. I had never felt so relieved in my life. So sure I would once again have a life.

After a lengthy train ride back to Boston, I rush to into the Tipton lobby, immediately spotting Mr. Moseby. "Cody, didn't you just go up the elevator?" he asks me.

"No, it's me. Zack," I smile at the hotel manager.

"Zack! You've returned! My, are you grown up now! I hope this means your years of tomfoolery are over?" the old man stares at me. He's gotten up there in age.

"We'll see about that. Anyway, I'd best go say hi to my mom now," I tell him as I walk toward the elevator.

"Ah, yes. Carry would be absolutely delighted to see you. She was crying over you disappearing for the longest time!" He says as he walks away. My mom was crying for me? The last thing on my mind when I left seven years ago was what my family and friends would think. I guess fitting in wasn't as important as my life back then after all.

I make my way to the 23rd floor of the hotel and find our room. This is it… time to tie things back up with my mother. I knock on the door, kind of regretting doing so at first, but when I here the door being unlocked my heart skips a beat in excitement. The door swings open with Cody beside it. His eyes bulge open at the sight of me.

"You're back!" He says as his eyes begin to tear up.

"I'm back to see mom, not you," I roll my eyes as I walk past him. Unfortunately, he doesn't get my message since he decides to hug me.

"Oh Zack, please please forgive me. You're my only brother, and it really pains me to know that you don't want me in your life," Cody cries out.

"I already said I forgive you," I reply. Apparently he didn't get it the first time.

"That wasn't good enough for me. I want my brother back. Please… I really didn't know that tripping you that day would ruin your life. You know I'd never purposefully ruin your life…" Cody hiccups under his tears. For most of my life, when people say they are sorry, it never sounded like this. This time, I honestly think Cody wants me to be close to him again. I know he never meant to do anything to ruin my life, but the reality is that he did. I guess I will just have to suck up my pride though for Cody's sake… for our sake.

"Fine. Let's make a deal. You stop crying, and I'll be your big brother again," I raise my eyebrows as I look at his damp eyelashes. Without saying a word, Cody takes me in for a second hug, this time even tighter. He brings his head to my ear and whispers one simple word. "Deal,"

As we continue to hug, I notice my mother walking out of the bathroom, holding an empty roll of toilet paper. She turn around, seeing the both of us in a hug and immediately drops what is in her hand. She squints her eyes to make sure what she is seeing is real. "Zack, is that you," she gasps as she runs toward me. Never have I felt so loved in my life.

"Oh, my baby boy. Please don't ever leave again," my mother cries out as she bursts into even more tears than Cody had before our deal was made.

"Don't worry mommy. I'm here for good," I reply as my eyes begin to water up. I really do not want to cry, but this moment calls for it. The moments where I was struggling to survive didn't call for crying, nor did my jail sentence, but this little moment of reuniting certainly did. The most important tears you shed are those over happy times!

I may have had rough few years, but it's time to start over! I will not let an event in my past tie me down any longer. It is now nothing more than a mere memory. One that I could laugh about at the dinner table. One that I could smile about in my bed at night. Just an ordinary childhood memory!

I really like how this story came out, but I'd still like to know what you think. PLEASE let me know how I did in a review!

Again, I want to thank Waldojeffers for everything he has done for me and for being such a good friend! I love ya man! Happy Birthday! =)