I DO NOT OWN ZERO DAY. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO BEN COCCIO. AFTER REALIZING THAT I HADN'T TOUCHED THIS STORY IN 3 YEARS AND WANTING TO FINISH IT AND HAVING NEW IDEAS FOR WHERE I'M TAKING IT AND CRINGING BECAUSE MY WRITING STYLE HAS HOPEFULLY IMPROVED SINCE I BEGAN THIS STORY, I HAVE DECIDED TO REWRITE WHAT I HAVE BEFORE FINISHING THE STORY. A SHOUTOUT TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED, ESPECIALLY 90THEGENERAL09
FACE CLAIMS FOR OC'S (ALL CANON CHARACTERS OC'S ARE THE SAME)
JOHN MCCARTNEY- ANTON YELCHIN
DR. NICHOLAS ROBERTSON- JOHN CUSACK
JEFF MCCARTNEY- LUKE WILSON
OLIVIA MCCARTNEY- AMY SMART
Eastly Acres Psychiatric Hospital. Hartford, Connecticut. May 7, 2001.
John McCartney sat in the chair, he wasn't even looking at Dr. Nicholas Robertson. The cops had encouraged him to go to Eastly Acres and his parents hadn't given him a choice. Couldn't say he blamed them, after what happened. Trying to kill yourself via your old man's sleeping pills isn't something than can just be brushed off as shit happens. 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 as he put down his notepad that was still blank as it was from the first day.
"I just don't have much to say." John replied with a shrug; which wasn't exactly a lie. Even if he had something to say, it wasn't anything anyone wanted to particularly hear.
"I know it's hard after what happened, but just say something, anything that comes to mind." John got up and 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 and the commentators to determine the cause for the bloodbath at Iroquois 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. Inwardly, he groaned at how pretnetious he sounded, but he didn't give a shit.
"Your Zero Day?" the doctor asked as John turned to face him.
"I think that everyone experienced their own Zero Day. Their own guilt, theor own fear, their own sadness. I think that everyone's was different, but also the same. My Zero Day was different because I knew Calvin Gabriel and 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 and I lived in Wisconsin, before we moved out here to Connecticut." John said as he sat back in the chair, letting the memories flood through him. "You see, we moved around a lot. My old man was always between jobs. He had a hard time finding a job and when he did get a job, he could never hold on to it for very long. The year we moved to Connecticut, when I turned 17...I must've had 7 different lockers and 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 asked in pure frustration as my parents gave me the bad news.
"I'm sorry John, but the tire factory had to lay some guys off and 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 exclaimed angrily I liked living in the land of cheese heads and I was not ready to leave.
"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, trying to be optimistic.
"Where is it?" I asked with a sigh.
"Connecticut." Mom replied. I groaned as I went upstairs to start packing my shit up. Despite finally feeling at home for once, I knew that my feelings were irrelevant. There was no work for my dad, so we were leaving.
New Stratford, Connecticut. 3 days later.
A few days later, we left Wisconsin and 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 and a pool in the backyard. My uncle Fred, who lived in town and 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 had that feel of being taken right out of a calendar. 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 and there was a family of 5. There was a mother, a father, and 3 kids: 2 Boys and a girl.
"Hey there, you must be the new neighbors." The dad said pleasantly.
"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 Pam and these are our kids: Calvin, Eric, and Madelyn." He said, introducing the kids. Eric and Madelyn were 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. Not in a bad way, it just was what it was.
"I'm Jeff McCartney, this is my wife Olivia and this is our son John." My old man said. We all shook hands, you know, the usual bullshit.
"So John, are you going to Iroquois in the fall." Cal asked me, clearly trying to make small talk for his parents benefit.
"Yeah, what's it like?" I asked back, attempting to do the same for the same reasons.
"Don't ask. Unless you play a sport, people won't think very much of you." Cal admitted softly.
"So, what are you guys up to?" Pam asked.
"We were just about to sit down and 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, clearly trying to make new friends with us.
"We'd love to." My dad said as the adults got in their cars. Eric and Madelyn went with their parents, but Cal had his own car. a 1999 Audi A4 Sedan. It wasn't too epic, but considering that I was still without a car, I couldn't really complain.
"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. Cal started it up and off we went.
"Sorry about my parents, they can be a little too friendly sometimes." Cal said as he drove behind my parents and his.
"It's cool." I said. I understood, parents could be parents. At that time,as he told me about what it was like living in New Stratford, I was thinking that Cal Gabriel as a pretty cool dude. He stayed that way...till the end.
HOPEFULLY, YOU GUYS WILL LIKE THE REMASTERED VERSION. REVIEWS NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.