Chapter 1
It was the end of November and even if it was still fall, it was as cold as it would be during winter, and Mike just loved winter.
It was, without any doubt, his favorite season. He wasn't really sure why he liked it, but something about it, made him feel like home. The cold, the rain, the clouds that covered everything like a big blanket were just the perfect combination which helped him to believe that there was still something good in that world.
He felt free while riding his bike back home: the wind through his hair, the rain wetting his face and the amazing feeling of being in control for once. He didn't care if it had to ride almost two miles every day, he was happy while he was there.
He had lost count of how many times his mom had yelled at him that he should have rode the bus like everybody else, but he had never listened, he never did. She didn't know him, she didn't know anything and that was the way things were supposed to stay.
When he arrived and walked through the door, he was welcomed by his parents' screams, he had really hopped for a second that they wouldn't be home and that he could enjoy a little bit of peace, but ironically his wishes were never satisfied. Sighing he run upstairs and slammed door behind his back and locked it, just to be sure that nobody would come to bother him.
He was jumping from one hell to another, everyday, without any break. It was like a circle without an end.
Taking deep breaths and dropping his backpack and coat on the floor, he lied on his bed and reached for his mp3, plugged in his headphones and after playing shuffle from his playlist, he was finally able to shut down the yells coming from downstairs.
Mike wasn't stupid, he knew why his parents were like this and it was because of him. He was supposed to be the second men of the house, the one that, with two sisters, would make his dad proud and his mom happy. He wasn't that. He never did that and he never would.
He closed his eyes and let the music fill his head, maybe a few years ago he would have cared about his parents fighting because of him, but now, he didn't care about anything.
The clock on his nightstand flashed, in red, the time: it was ten past four; he had tons of homework and zero desire to do them. So, instead of starting to study, he grabbed the comic book that had abandoned on the floor the night before and started to read it. It was an old number of the X-Men, he was kind of obsessed with those kind of things. When he was younger he used to believe that those heroes were real and that one day they would come and finally save him. Of course it never happened and at some point he had started to see them for what they were: just old comic books.
It was only when his mp3 turned off alone, probably after running off of its battery, that he looked up and saw that, magically, it was 6:30.
"Shit!" he murmured throwing away the book and getting up from his bed. It happened every time.
He run to his backpack and quickly took out his books, why did it keep happening to him?!
Forgetting about dinner, knowing that he would definitely have problems with his parents, Mike started his homework, without any clue on what time he was going to finish. Maybe if he could focus he would finish at a reasonable time, but he seriously doubted that. Sighing for the thousand time, that day, he just gave up and started solving the equation in his book.
The first thought that came in his mind was that his neck was hurting like hell. Why was it hurting so much?! He slowly opened his eyes, just to find himself almost lying on his desk and his face smashed on his History book. It was one in the morning and he had been sleeping on his book. Fantastic.
He stood up and quickly changed into his pajamas and went to bed, tired and sore, hoping that when he would wake up in the morning his life wouldn't be as painful as it was.
His eyes went completely wide when he heard his mom yelling. "Michael! It's 7:30! Get the hell out of your room! You are going to be late! Again!"
So much for a different day. Saying that he got dressed, packed his stuff and had breakfast faster than a lighting, was nothing. He was literally flying.
He arrived at school just in time, red as a pepper and all sweaty for riding his bike like crazy. But he made it, he was there and another useless day could start. Ignoring all his classmates disgusted looks, he sat down at his usual spot: right besides the window, happy that he would be able to escape from that torture.
Mike mentally slept all through first, second and third period. He honestly had no idea what they did in those classes. Didn't care about History, English and definitely didn't care about Spanish. When the bell rang he thanked whatever god existed. Lunch break. Thank you so much.
He had just given his sandwich a bite when, for the first time in three years, he heard footsteps, getting closer and closer.
"What are you doing?"
Mike turned his head, now facing the hallway between the shelves and there right in the middle, there was a woman.
"What are you doing?" she asked again, her voice squawking and her hands on her hips.
"Eating?" Mike answered. Wasn't that obvious?
"You cannot eat in the library! That's why you have a cafeteria." She said getting angry and her face redder.
He looked at her and tried to think if he had ever seen her around, but nothing came up on his mind. She wasn't tall at all, her black hair was pulled up in a messy bun and she was wearing a white shirt and a black skirt. He didn't remember her, was she new?
"You cannot eat here." She repeated.
"There's nobody around." He stated quietly.
He understood that he might have said the wrong thing when the woman became so red that Mike thought she was going to explode.
"Get. Out. Of. My. Library." Her voice sounded like a runner who had just run ten miles. "And you are going to have detention. Hopefully you will learn to respect this place!" she declared irritated.
Wait, could the librarian put people in detention? Was that really happening?
Eventually what should have been just a thought was actually spoken aloud.
Oh shit!
"Yes, of course I can put you in detention! And you, mister, you just won two weeks of it! I want you there one, no, twice at week! Every Wednesday and every Friday!" if she could have had smoke coming down from her nose that would have been just perfect.
Rolling his eyes he put his lunch box back in his backpack and stood up.
"Two weeks, understood?" she asked "And if you don't show up I will know."
Mike nodded, trying really hard to keep a straight face. Where did she come from? She looked like a Hobbit.
Only when he was out of the library the all situation hit him. Shit, he thought. Shit, shit, shit.
He didn't care about detention; it was actually a good excuse to avoid his house for a few hours, but that place had been his safe place. Shit.
Where was he going to have lunch now? The cafeteria was completely out of his list, way too dangerous. The bathrooms were even worse, no way that he was going to end up with his head down the toilet again.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
Maybe he could ask to one of his teachers to stay in class? No way, they all hated him.
Panic hit him pretty hard. This wasn't really happening.
He spent the rest of the school hours trying to think about a place where he could stay but nothing came into his mind and because he was so wrapped in his own thoughts, he almost forgot about detention, remembering what day of the week was only at the end of his lessons.
Well, at least he had even more time to think about a solution now.
Mike Wheeler walked, for the first time in his life, into detention. Ironically, he was almost excited about it. It kind of disappointed him when he found that it was just a normal empty classroom, with desks and chairs, and nothing scary or threatening like he had imagined. A male teacher was sat in a chair, playing with his phone, completely ignoring Mike as he walked in and took his place close to the window.
He waited, unsure of what he was supposed to do. A few minutes later, someone else walked in and with rush sat in one of the chairs right in front of the teacher.
Mike hadn't been able to take a look at the person's face, but from the shape of the body he could definitely say that it was a girl.
The teacher rose up, still with his phone in his hands. "There will be no talking, no cell phones, no music, no homework, no drawing and no painting. If you guys have to go to the bathroom you will have to check with me first so I can call someone to take you. Detention is going to finish at 5." Then he sat down and kept playing with his phone.
The girl who was in the front row suddenly turned back and stared at him, surprise on her face.
He looked back at her, he must have seen her somewhere around, she had really curly brown hair that barely reached her shoulders, tanned skin and very large and big brown eyes.
She was really pretty.
What the hell, Mike?! You can't think that of someone that you just saw!
The girl kept looking at him and that was making him quite uncomfortable. Did she know him?
Well, of course she did! Who didn't know Michael Loser Wheeler?
He was about to look away, when she did something really weird, she smiled at him and waved her hand.
The first thing he did, was turning around and making sure that she was actually waiving at him and not someone else, but when he saw that he was the only one there, he turned back and barely nodded his head to her.
Really?!
She smiled again at him, before going back to her original position.
Saying that he was stunned was a huge misunderstanding, what the hell was that?
So instead of thinking about finding a new place where to have lunch, Mike's head started to repeat what had just happened all over again.
It wasn't the fact that a pretty girl (seriously?) had just waved at him, it wasn't that she had smiled at him; it was that she had seen him, that had confused him that much.
But she was just trying to be polite, he guessed, even if nobody was polite with him.
The logical part of his brain kicked in and told him to stop, she had just tried to be nice and that was all.
There was no point on focusing on something that didn't make any sense, so, kind of bored, Mike decided to pay attention to the weird teacher in front of him. He was in his mid-fifties, with a weird combination of white and black hair. The best part was that he hadn't stopped playing with his phone since the minute detention had started. Mike wasn't sure if he had seen the teacher around, well, he didn't know any other teacher except his owns.
He had been so wrapped in his own weird thoughts, first about the girl and then about the teacher, that he hadn't paid any attention to the time, ten more minutes and he was going to be free.
When the clock on the wall finally hit five o'clock, he jumped of the chair, grabbing his backpack and rushed out the door.
"You! Wait!" a voice said from behind his back.
But of course he didn't stop.
"Hey! Come on!" the voice was closer and for a second Mike thought to actually wait for her, but he just kept walking.
"Don't make me run!" she almost yelled.
What the hell did she want now?!
He turned to finally face her and she was just a few feet away from him. "Oh thank you, I thought you were going to make me run!"
Mike looked at her… was he dreaming? Was all that day a weird dream that he was having while sleeping on the desk in his room? Why was someone talking to him?
"Why were you in detention?" she asked.
No way that he was going to answer that.
"I have never seen you there and I spend a lot of time in that room."
Mike saw her brown eyes looking at him head to toes, she knew who he was and from the way she was acting and from what she was wearing, he knew she was someone he couldn't talk to. This could have been a trap and he was just going to fall for it because he was stupid enough.
"Gotta go." Mike whispered and walked away, leaving the girl behind him.
"See you soon!" she screamed while he was walking out of the door.
He got onto his bike and headed home. This was his life: a prank after a prank, a joke after another and useless illusions after useless illusions.
Not that he cared about what had just happened, but a part of couldn't stop thinking about the fact that that girl, was the first person to talk to him in seven years, without insulting him or breaking him. But as he pedaled to his house, he thought that she was going to tell everything that had happened to those people, how he had been so quiet and wasn't able to say a word. They were going to laugh and then, they were definitely going to beat the crap out of him.
For a second he felt like crying, so he could just get everything out: the frustration of being caught by the librarian, detention, explaining that to his parents, how his dad was going to look at him with disappointment written all over his face and now the thought of what was going to happen tomorrow. However, he didn't cry, he just kept pedaling… what did he do to deserve all of that shit?
Author's note: Hello! Just wanted to write a quick thank you to the people who decided to follow this story and leave a review! It really means a lot! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter that is indeed slow, but, kind of necessary to understand what our Mike is going through.
Thank you again to everyone!