He heard the sound of expensive crystal hitting the dining room wall and cringed in disgust. On his way out he had dismissed the maid and cook, telling them that they wouldn't want to see this. His mother had arrived for dinner, unexpected, once again, and in the midst of the divorce both sides had tried to use him as an excuse. For his father, an excuse not to pay child support and for his mother an excuse to get child support. He cringed once again as the front door slammed violently. Crawling under the covers he thought about when his life had become this messed up. He quickly fell asleep with one final thought: I wish I was never born.
Waking up a little groggily Tristan realized that his alarm clock had never rang and hurried into the shower. Remembering that today they were taking a trip to the Museum of Art he didn't bother with his uniform but grabbed the first set of clothes he could find. Walking through the halls Tristan for the first time noticed all the different pictures of his older brother, Michael. Were those always there? Or am I just hallucinating? Since he had taken a minute too long starring at the pictures there was no time for breakfast. He reached for the first keys on the hook and was quickly on his way to school.
The maid wandered into Michael DuGrey's room seeing as the door was open and she had always kept it closed since he left last year for college. She noticed that the shower had been recently used and one of the towels was carelessly left on the floor. The bed was rumpled as if someone had been tossing and turning in it all night and a set of pajamas was thrown onto the bed. Figuring that Mr. DuGrey had been arguing with Mrs. DuGrey and had chosen to stay in Michael's room for the night, she quickly tidied everything up and left the room. On her way by the garage she noticed a set of keys missing and remembered that Michael had done something to a car not too long ago and it was probably in the shop.
Tristan peeled into the large parking lot and drove quickly to his normal spot but finding it filled had to make a few quick circles around the lot before he found an empty space. Whoever took my spot is going to have to pay later. He briskly walked across to the large building and entered heading for his first class. A smile found its way onto his face at the thought of once again seeing Rory after a long and disturbing weekend. Tristan walked by three administrators who didn't even acknowledge his presence but he was late enough to worry about that. He slipped into the class a few seconds after the bell rang and was surprised that the teacher didn't yell at him for it. Seeing that once again his normal routine had been interrupted he was forced to sit in the far bak corner instead of right behind Rory since that was where Brett, the star quarterback had suddenly decided to sit.
He was even more surprised when Paris leaned over and whispered something to Rory leading to a short fit of giggles that was quickly suppressed when the teacher, Mr. Hall, turned to look at them. Last time I checked those two didn't get along. And Brett also wouldn't risk his life to talk to Rory, especially not if I was around. The teacher took roll by the seating chart and Tristan was forced to bear through his one class of the day before heading to the museum.
Each student was allowed to drive themselves to the museum and Tristan was once again overwhelmed as Rory, Paris, Madeline, Louise, and Brett all piled into a BMW. He climbed into his car and was intent on following them but got left behind at a red light. Tristan arrived a little later than the rest of his class and silently stood in the back as the teacher explained about their two page report on one piece of artwork to get credit for the trip. To prove that they hadn't just printed off the Internet, they were to copy down exactly the inscription of the plaques next to the piece of work.
Tristan tried to follow Rory and her new crowd but quickly lost them as the entire class made one large scramble to get away from their teacher. Figuring that he couldn't find them in so large a place he grabbed a piece of paper and decided to copy down the first artwork he saw. With that done he sat in the gardens for a while and drew the scene before him and soon enough it was time to meet with the teacher. He excused everyone for lunch and said that they needn't stay any longer than this if they didn't want to.
Not in the mood to eat Tristan promptly exited the large building and mindlessly drove around. He ended up another town maybe an hour from Hartford and wandered the streets until it got dark. Realizing that no one had ever acknowledged him the entire day Tristan became fed up with the actualization and decided to test his theory on the way home. He stopped in a small town with some cheesy name and walked into the firs store he saw without even checking the name. Of course he had to follow someone into the store and the little bell on the door jingled as they passed through.
Tristan sat down on a stool and waited for someone to acknowledge and him and almost jumped for joy when a guy in flannel leaned on the counter in front of him and asked, "What can I get you, kid?" He started to answer the man when he noticed that someone behind him started speaking. Tristan walked out of the door defeated at the same time that a bouncy woman entered.
Reaching home, he went directly to his room and fell into his bed, hoping that the weird turn of events would stop by tomorrow. If he had not stumbled in during the dark of the night or woken up too late to notice he might have seen that the room was painted a light green instead of his preferred shade of dark blue. He might have also noticed that the pictures on the wall weren't the same and that even here his brother's image was everywhere.