Rain. Why does it ruin the best of moments? First you're walking around with your best friend on the first day of school and then it starts pouring down rain and a wild houndoom charges at you and tries to eat your best friend. It's a real mood killer. Or...when it starts raining on your best friend's grave on the day of their funeral. But, that's another story, back on the plot.
This story has nothing to do with rain, but it was a nice start right? ;p Well anyways, this story begins with two families. One is a nice rich family who has a daughter named May. She loves her life...well sorta. She loves her home, her huge yard that she can run around in, her pet furfrou, and of course their amazing pool with cool neon lights for when it gets dark. But the one thing that she isn't too fond of is,,,her parents. Her father is a well-known business man who is always on the road or in a plane going from region to region, and when he is home he never gets to spend time with her because he is always on his phone talking about meetings, products, and other business stuff like that. Her mom though is the worst. May, because she is young, doesn't know this yet, but I do because I'm the narrator. Narrators know all, like Morgan Freeman. Her mother, after she puts May to sleep, goes out to the local bar and gambles her money away like it's some common pocket watch. Money isn't the only thing that she sells away. On some nights May's mom might have a few to many and things tend to get out of hand. Like sleeping with other men. She comes home with a breath that smells like whiskey and a body that smells like...well only God knows that, but when May's mother is home, she doesn't stop drinking. May doesn't know the meaning of drunk because she is about to be in preschool, but when her mom gets drunk, things get ugly. Most of the time it's just some choice words are being said, well, more like screamed, but on some nights May might get a punch thrown at her. And what's worse of all is that May thinks that this is all normal, and when her dad comes home she hides the alcohol and tries to get rid of the smell of her breath and doesn't go gamble at night, she becomes an angel.
This next family is a bit different than the other family. This family is not as rich. Some may say that they are poor. They live in an apartment complex and seem to live off of it just fine. It's only a mother and her son. Delia and Ash Ketchup...I mean Ketchum live in this apartment alone. Ash's father walked away from him and his mother when he was a baby. Ever since that happened, Delia has barely had enough money to keep both her and Ash alive. Delia works both day and night, she has little time off of work and she uses that time to sleep. Ash doesn't see his mother that much but he knows that she loves him and that after he gets older and gets a job he'll be able to see his mom more. They both cannot wait for that day.
Both Ash and May are four years old and are ready to start preschool. Both are excited for the road ahead. May goes early because her mother was drunk and couldn't tell the time so she arrived very early. Ash walked there with his mom. They both reached the top of a valley and at the bottom they saw the one place that would change Ash's life forever. Preschool.