I DON'T OWN ZERO DAY

John sat in the chair, he wasn't even looking at Dr. Robertson. The cops had encouraged him to go to Eastly Acres & his parents hadn't given him a choice. Couldn't say he blamed them, after what happened. That didn't make it any more unbearable though.

"John, you haven't really talked much in our sessions, this is the 3rd." Dr. Robertson said.

"I just don't have much to say." John replied.

"I know it's hard after what happened, but just say something, anything that comes to mind." John got up & looked out the window. The shrink wasn't going to quit, so he decided to get over with.

"I'll leave it to the sociology professors & the commentators to determine the cause for the bloodbath at Tielsen High School. I'm sure they know a great deal about The Zero Day, but they don't know about My Zero Day." John said, not even looking at the shrink.

"Your Zero Day?" He asked as John turned to face him.

"I think that everyone experienced their own Zero Day. I think that everyone's was different, but also the same. My Zero Day was different because I knew Calvin Gabriel & he knew me."

"Calvin Gabriel." Dr. Robertson said as he jotted down Cal's name. "The other shooter." John slowly nodded.

"Cal was the only dude that I could actually call my friend..."

It all started back when my family & I lived in Wisconsin, before we moved out here to Connecticut. You see, we moved around a lot. My old man was always between jobs. He had a hard time finding a job & when he did get a job, he could never hold on to it for very long. The year we moved to Connecticut, I must've had 7 different lockers & eaten in 7 different cafeterias. I didn't even remember anyone's name. Wen we moved to Wisconsin though, that was the longest we'd ever stayed in 1 place: 4 months. I liked living in Wisconsin. I finally felt like I was home. However, I was destined to hear those 2 words that have plagued my life.

"We're Moving?"

"I'm sorry John, but the tire factory had to lay some guys off & naturally, your father was 1 of them." My mom told me as I got the news.

"But mom, you said that there was a good chance that we'd stay in Wisconsin."

"I know, but on the bright side, your uncle Fred found me a new job working as a security guard for a shipping warehouse." My dad said.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"Connecticut." my mom replied. I sighed as I went upstairs to start packing my shit up. A few days later, we left Wisconsin & we drove cross country to Connecticut. As we pulled into our house, I had to admit, it looked pretty nice. It was a 2 story house with blue tiles. My uncle Fred, who lived in town & was real loaded, helped us out a lot. As we started moving out stuff in, I looked around our new neighborhood. I could tell it was nice. It took us a couple hours to finish moving in. We were talking about what to do for supper when we heard a knock at the door. My mom went to open it & there was a family of 5. There was a mother, a father, & 3 kids: 2 Boys & a girl.

"Hey there, you must be the new neighbors." The dad said.

"We were going to come over sooner, but we wanted to give you a handed to get settled first." The mom interjected.

"I'm Steve Gabriel, this is my wife on & these are our kids: Calvin, Eric, & Madelyn." He said, introducing the kids. Eric & Madelyn clearly twins. When I saw Cal for the first time, I wasn't quite sure what to make of him. He had a way about him that was just... unusual.

"I'm Ryan McCartney, this is my wife Rachel & this is our son John." My old man said. We all shook hands, you know, the usual bullshit.

"So John, are you going to Tielsen in the fall." Cal asked me.

"Yeah, what's it like?" I asked back.

"Don't ask. Unless you play a sport, people won't think very much of you."

"So, what are you guys up to?" Pam asked.

"We were just about to sit down & talk about what to have for dinner." My mom said.

"We're going to have dinner at Applebee's, you all should join us." Steve offered.

"We'd love to." My dad said as we all got in our cars.

"Hey John, you wanna ride with me, we can listen to "the devil's music". Cal said in a voice that told me he was kidding. Everyone else laughed along with me.

"Why not?" I said as I got in his car.

"Sorry about my parents, they can be a little too friendly sometimes." Cal said as he started the car.

"It's cool." I said. I understood, parents could be parents.

JOHN & CAL SEEM TO BE GETTING ALONG, WILL JOHN CARE FOR ANDRE, OR WILL HE BE PUSHED OUT? REVIEWS NEEDED.