AN - I know, I know, "Not another high school fic" right? Well, mine a little different. It starts off a bit wobbly, but gets better. Trust me :)
Chapter 1 – World Coming Down
The summer sun beat mercilessly down on the roof of the car as it made it's way to the parking lot of the public housing estate. Goku stared out of the car's window at his new home. He decided at once that he didn't like it at all.
It was an ugly, grey building, some five storeys tall and in serious need of repair. Thinking about living there made him want to cry. Not that he would, of course. Especially not in front of Radditz, but his older brother was already getting out of the car and besides he hardly paid any attention to his younger sibling anyway.
Deciding he had delayed the inevitable long enough Goku got out of the car and went to help his father with their bags. Bardock barely waited for him to heft the first case before starting for their new home. Struggling under the weight of both his and Radditz's bags Goku followed slowly, cursing again that his life had come to this.
He dragged his feet as he made his way across the parking lot and then up the worn concrete steps that wound their way around the outside of the building. As the three men made their way up to the third floor appartment that would now be their home, curious neighbours looked out at them from behind their curtains or, as some of the more bold ones did, came outside to stand in their front doorways to frown at the Son family as they passed by.
A mulitude of aromas, some enticing smells of foods Goku had never smelt before, some ciggaretes and the unmistakable smell of alcohol wafted all around the complex. It was accompanied by a cacophany of noise, tellies blaring and people arguing the predominant ones. It made Goku despair inside about what sort of place they were now to live in. And, more importantly, what sort of neighbours they now had.
It had been a very rough year for the Son men. First in December of the previous year Goku's mother had left, saying she just couldn't handle living with their dad any more. As both the boys were old enough to choose who to live with, they both loyally chose their father, as they were both closer to him anyway.
Goku and Radditz had never been as close to their mother, a fickle woman, who was all love one minute, cold indifference the next. Goku openly agreed with his father, that they were all better off without her anyway, but secretly, he missed her. A lot. The last they heard she was living a few suburbs away with her mother. She hadn't been to see them at Christmas either as it would be to awkward, she said. The day just hadn't been the same without her.
Then in January, Bardock's workplace had been downsized and he found himself out of a job. At his age he had found it impossible to get another job at his trade and was forced to go on the dole. It was very hard for him, as he was a proud man.
Being on the dole caused another problem. They could no longer afford their mortgage repayments, and were forced into public housing, which is where Goku now found himself, new house, in a new suburb, which meant a new school too. Leaving his old house and all his friends, heck, his whole life behind had been heartbreaking.
His old school had been a nice, respectable Catholic school, where everyone wore uniforms and mass was held every Monday. His new school was to be the local public school, which they had passed on the way here, it was so close. Goku thought it had looked like a prison, with it's grey walls and cyclone fencing.
He wasn't looking forward to it or it's students. He was imagining what they'd be like, his new schoolmates, and decided if they lived in places as wrecked as this one, that they all must be ferals. Then he remembered with a sick feeling, that now he lived here too.
Goku was shaken from his thoughts by nearly walking into his father's back. Bardock had stopped out the front of a door, and was fumbling for the keys. Goku studied the door, and decided it wasn't inviting in it's iron and wire self. If the door was bad the inside of their new home was worse. Small, dark and musty, it had only six rooms, only three of them had windows.
Goku put the bags down in the hallway and went to his new room. It had already been decided that Raditz, being the elder, should have the larger bedroom. That left Goku with the smallest, un-windowed one.
He stared at the bare walls, with their peeling paint, and had to leave suddenly as he was so homesick for their old house.
Finding his father in the lounge room, setting up the telly, Goku asked him if they could put the Air Cooler on as it must have been 35 in there. That's when he was told that the house had only a ceiling fan. Some help THAT was going to be.
Goku took himself back to his room and sat in the corner, pulling his knees up to his chin, telling himself that they had officially hit rock bottom, and things HAD to get better. Maybe tomorrow.
That's when he heard the knock at the door.
AN - So, what do you think? Please leave a review and let me know. :)
