Far From Here
A/N: I'm sorry. I couldn't resist that essay-thing for Kai. I contemplated actually doing it, but then I realized that Kai's still unsure about his past. And would Kai really include the stuff she was asking?
DISCLAIMER: (enter what I've been saying for the past 11 chapters here)
Chapter 12: Alec's Essay (not a one-liner)
This is Alec's full and complete essay for Mrs. Eners (see chapter 9.)
"Oops. Try Again."
Nobody in Dawnfaith ever really knew just how much trouble they were getting themselves into on the 31st of December, 1987. See, that was the day I was born. My parents, Glen and Isobel Yvan, decided to name me Alexei Emlyn. Alexei is a Russian form of Alexander, which means ' great protector' and Emlyn is a variant of Emil, which means 'charming'. So I am supposed to be a charming protector. But I think the evidence of my later years would contradict this statement.
I spoke my first words when I was 12 months old. Coincidentally, it was at that same time that I took my first steps. My parents tell me that I had spotted a cake that was supposed to be split between a neighbour's son and I for our first birthdays and I had stood up and took two steps before falling back down and simply said, "Oops. Try again." Nothing very big happened in my early years, unless you count my discovering that if you pull the cat's tail, it scratches you and leaves huge gashes all the way down your arm that took months to go away. That happened when I was about four years old, and I blame Kai and his recklessness for that. You could easily say that Kai and myself were best friends. We lived so close to each other and were so close in age that we just sort of hung out together. That would prove to be the one part of my life that would change it forever.
Only a few months before our fifth birthdays, Kai had been over at my house to play. For some unknown reason, possibly due to five-year-old logic, which isn't really logic at all but random times of sporadic thought, we decided to head over to Kai's house. When we had reached the end of my driveway, a big black car had pulled up and dragged us both into its evil depths. That was the car that carried probably what you could call the end of my innocence. It carried me to the airport, which in turn trapped me in an airplane and flew me clear across the globe to Russia. Then another big black car came and hauled me off to the dark and frightening place known Balkoff Abbey. There, they fiddled around with my brain. I never really completely understand the reasoning behind all this torture. At any rate, they modified my memory and made me believe that my last name was truly Tchaikov, and assigned me my identity number, which would serve me as a name within the abbey for eight years: B13 R13 F3, which stood for Block 13, Room 13, Fleeter 3. While I was taught the art of Beyblading for world domination, my parents had reluctantly procreated twice more. And I think that my disappearance made them lose some steps going upstairs, if you know what I mean. Who in their right mind, names their kids Jekyll and Calypso? I mean, that's just stupid!
When I turned 13, I had finally decided that I had had enough of Balkoff Abbey. Somehow, and to this day I still haven't figured out how, I managed to convince Kai to escape the abbey with me. Have you ever been 13 years old, terrified of every shadow you see, including your own; and on the run from evil henchmen of your best friend's grandfather who could easily snap your neck in half and would probably do so when they caught you, and they would have no probably with it either because you had seen them do this to some poor unfortunate fleeter the day before? That was me. I was completely freaked out and skittish. Somehow Kai and I got separated before long, and I supposed that he must've have negated his grandfather's rage somehow, because he doesn't seem too much the worse for wear. I on the other hand, spent the next year of my life in exile, trying desperately to hitch my way back home and fighting against my faltering brainwashing. I finally found my way back to Dawnfaith in December of 2003.
If there's one thing in my life I wish that I could change, it would always have to be my attitude at the abbey. I say this not out of fear, but out of regret for how I ruthlessly used my best friend in the world to bear the punishments that justly should have landed on me. With that decision, I single-handedly changed the entire course of our friendship from its past direction to its present nonexistence. Because of what I did as a child, I was partially responsible for the messed-up specimen of humankind that is Kai today. And so, in looking to the future, I can see two things: I can see future storms with he who was once the person closest to me and is now distant, and I can see clear skies and reconciliation with my family.