Tied Until the End

Notes : First off, this may sound like a rerun of my other story about Resident Evil, but it is not. I got a lot of positive feedback, but the only point that bugged readers was the characters. So I wanted to start from new, and make a brand-new, completely different, 3rd person style story. Hope you like it...

''Juan Garcia?''

''Here.''

The teacher turned her attention to the teenage male sitting right next to her, alone in his seat. She checked his name on the list and moved on to the next student. Juan Garcia was a normal teen. That was the way he was perceived by his fellow comrades in class. Often silent, Juan was the type to think a lot, and not do much. He did not like to act if it was not worth it. He analyzed every situation, pondering whether it was worth it or not to make a move. It made him look a bit too intellectual for his own tastes, but it had saved Juan from quite a large number of unpleasant occasions.

Physically, his style reflected his personality. He had no need for recognition of any kind. He just wanted to fold in the crowd easily. Wearing a pair of blue jeans, a deep blue shirt with a black T-shirt under and a pair of black sneakers. He was pretty much in the normal height and weight, which helped him not getting too much attention. He liked to be with some friends, but he did not like when it was too noisy. He had slight beard, which was surprisingly dark for a teenager. Heritage from his Hispanic background.

His mother was Puerto Rican, and his father, whom he had never met, had been of Mexican descent. After his father had ran away when he was under one-year-old, he had been raised by his mother until the age of four, in a small town outside of Nashville, Tennessee. His mother was both alcoholic and drug addict, so she had no job, no money, and no life quality. She then went into rehab, so he had to move all the way to New Jersey to live with his aunt, whose husband had been killed in a work accident two years ago.

He had luck from there on. His 55 years old aunt had never worked of her life. But when her husband died, she figured she had to start doing so. But before she could find a job, the government came knocking at her door. At first she did not understand when the man working for the U.S. government talked about her husband and his work, but she clicked when he started talking about insurances policies. So she was left alone with a two story house, a car, a few pieces of furniture, and 500 000$ U.S. in insurance money.

That's when Juan came to live with her. She took care of him like her very own son. Every night, before sleep, she would kneel and pray to thanks god for giving her all that she needed to give Juan a normal existence, at least from now on.

So, overnight, Juan had his life totally changed. Instead of having his mother drunk in the living room, he had his aunt, always there to listen to him, to talk with him, to reassure him. After a year, he started going to school. He made a few friends, but was from time to time victim of racism in this upper class neighborhood. So he learned to keep a low profile, to avoid other kids' comments.

Juan was very serious, and he reached high school without much problem. When he arrived in this bigger school, he made more friends, because people were more open to who he was. Unlike his previous school, people in high school were from various ethnic background. Black, Asian, Portuguese,

all sorts of people. So it was easy to find other people like him, that had experienced the same sort of thing he had been through.

Another great turn of his teenage was when he started searching for a part-time job. He Made application for dozens of jobs, until one job called back. He had a interview set for the next Monday with the local grocery store's manager. After seeing this formal young man entering the room, dressed very simply, and expressing himself in a polite and proper English, the manager immediately liked Juan. He was hired after ten minutes of interview. On his first day at the job, he was relieved to see a few familiar faces in the small crowd of new employees.

In the middle of the row, he saw Christopher, a guy he knew. He chatted a bit with him. But then he heard somebody call him, in a shy female voice. He turned around to see a girl he could not recognize immediately.

After a few seconds thinking, he found the answer in the light blue eyes of the girl facing him. It was Stephanie. He had met her a few months back. He only knew her name and face, nothing more. She was barely recognizable in this work uniform. Stephanie was the type to be the beauty queen. She had been in the school's basket-ball team for a while, and she was the school's vice president. She was the very example of the perfect popular teenage girl.

And yes, she was of an outrageous beauty. Her fine facial traits, accentuated by her shoulder length dark brown hair, made every man in the school go crazy. She had a body that screamed sensuality, and that, Juan knew that. But the one thing that Juan had seen that most man could not see, was also the one thing that made him want her even more than her body. Her eyes. She had light blue, sort of grayish, eyes, which looked huge, especially when she was happy.

But Juan had no chances with her. He knew it. She was nice to him, but in a sort of pity way. She almost treated him like a kid. And that very day, it all changed. They worked together often, and soon, Juan proved of a serious help, his height and muscles being of use for all kind of grocery work.

That was two month ago. Right now, Juan was sitting in the school bus, ready for the end of year party, at a nearby amusement park. Even though none of Juan's friends could come, he felt like he had to go there. It was the thing to do. And that was at 99 for Stephanie...

Hope you liked it. Leave me a review. Don't worry, this is only the start. Basically, this will be sort of a fanficition on Dead Rising, in a Resident Evil universe. That doesn't mean I won't continue my other story, The Savior. Like Isaid in the intro notes, it's just that I wanted to put in some more original characters, and to detail them more.