RING! RING! RING!

"Ugh," I groaned out. I moved to the side and turned the alarm off. With a deep breath, I moved to a sitting position.

I was in the Kane's guest room. For such a big house, the room looked so depressing. Only one window looked in, and the room itself was small. Sticking out my hand, I almost reached the closet.

As I stared at myself in the mirror, I contemplated how I got here.

'Adventure my ass,' I thought. 'And now I have to go back to school for a second time.'

Looking at the time, I only had thirty minutes. I reached for the bottle of ibuprofen on the side and popped a pill into my mouth. Reaching for the black cane to the side, I grabbed it and pressed down as I rose up.

I put the watch/chronograph that Chronos had given me on. It wasn't particularly luxurious, but it was great quality. It was a silver color from the stainless steel. The hands were simple, not overly luxurious or too intricate.

I limped over to the closet and changed my clothes. Putting on a T-shirt, jeans, and a tan sweater, I began to go towards the kitchen.

Immediately, the aroma of the food hit my nose. The smell of bacon filled the entire house as my mouth began to water. My pace quickened slightly as my stomach began to rumble.

As I walked closer, I could hear the sound of the TV. "The sprees of arson across California continues, with no clear suspect," the anchor said before Carter's voice overpowered it.

"Hey!" I heard Carter exclaim. "That was my plate!"

"Well, too bad! It's mine now!" Sadie playfully said. I snickered as the thought of her sticking her tongue out came into my mind.

When I walked in, I felt the three gaze shift towards me and the accompanying empathy. It felt odd as I didn't even remember an Uncle Rubio, but even then they saw me as a crippled, disabled kid.

But at least I could walk now! It's a feeling that I missed, and I'd rather take the pain than lose the ability.

I quietly grabbed the plate, balancing it on one hand as I headed to the table. I impaled a piece of scrambled eggs with my fork and began to eat it.

"Zack," Ruby began. "Are you ready for school?"

"Not really," I answered. "No one likes school."

"Oh," she stated. "I see."

With a nod, I continued to eat.

"Well we're leaving in ten minutes," she informed. "So you three try and finish fast."

"Actually, I was thinking about walking to school," I replied. They once again looked at me like I was crazy.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Can you even walk that far?" Sadie bluntly asked, drawing out a snort from me. This really didn't help the look that they were giving me.

"I just want to explore the area," I explained. "Also, being early to school on my first day is going to be awkward."

"I can take you later if that's what you really want."

"Oh no, I don't mean to be a bother, you have work," I refused. I inflected my voice downward, showing confidence and power while retaining politeness. A small grin followed afterwards, reaffirming my message in her mind. "I need the exercise after all."

She opened her mouth to say something, but then quickly blinked and closed it. She looked as if she had more to say, but I just kept the same reassuring smile on my face.

A burnt aroma crept up into the air as Ruby turned back. She mumbled something as she picked a meatball up in her spatula and examined it.

"This won't do," she mumbled. I saw her poke it before heading to the trashcan to throw it away.

"Wait," I called out, rising up and walking over. "It's cooked on the outside but not the inside right?"

"Yeah, I forgot to change the heat," she admitted. I limped over to the cabinet and grabbed some vinegar out.

"Vinegar is acidic, which slows down the maillard reaction," I explained as I poured it into a bowl. "This will slow down the browning of the outside while allowing the inside the chance to cook. The taste might be a bit off though."

"I never knew you took chemistry," she said as she put the meatballs in the vinegar before putting them back in the pan.

"I learned a thing or two about organic chemistry," I replied as I took my seat back. Sadie gave me a side-eye, but I saw Carter had a small glimmer of admiration in his eyes.

"Carter, Sadie," she began with her British accent. "Perhaps you two would like to walk to school too?"

"Yes," Sadie responded immediately, although I couldn't tell if it was because she understood the hidden meaning or because she wanted to walk. Or perhaps both.

Carter hesitantly nodded his head. When I asked to walk, I didn't expect to be babysitting.

But yet, here we are.

"-and I don't remember anything on the test," Carter said. We were walking on the sidewalk to their school first, as it was on the way to mine.

"Have you ever heard of the proverb that a bird sitting on a branch isn't afraid of it falling for it could fly?" I asked. "You just need to trust in yourself."

"But what if I don't know it?" Carter childly asked.

"You're in elementary school, grades don't matter," I said, switching to a more pragmatic view. "Actually, they don't matter outside of school."

"Yeah, nerd," Sadie insulted. I couldn't help but chuckle and high-five her. Something about her personality reminded me a bit of myself.

"So Zack, have you ever lived outside of California?" Carter inquired.

"Nope," I answered. "Born and raised in SoCal."

"Then why haven't we ever seen you around before?" Sadie asked. I had to hold in a laugh. If she were a bit older, then I would've relentlessly bullied her.

"California's a big place," I answered, ruffing her hair. "And we're more northern."

"Oh," she said.

As we made a turn, it was a straight road to their school. "You two go ahead. I'll be watching if you need me."

"Okay," Sadie and Carter said as they continued to walk forward. The middle school was going down the road, so I wasn't particularly fond of walking all the way together.

I kept watching them as they slowly shrunk as they approached the gate. They opened the gate and walked into the school together. As if on cue, the warning bell began to ring.

Something about living with kids makes you have a special place in your heart for them. They grew on me, so I couldn't help but smile as I watched them walk away.

When that had finished, I began to turn and walk to the middle school. Oh, the horrors of 7th grade.

The school itself was smaller than I had expected. Instead of classrooms, there were rows of portables visible from the fence. The field had very uneven grass with a lot of anthills and random holes.

But imagine having to run the mile. Couldn't be me, probably.

I walked up to the office and pushed the door open. The receptionist was on the phone, so I just waited awkwardly, leaning on my cane. It took her a few minutes to put the phone down and acknowledge me.

"Are you the new student?" she asked. I nodded. "Zane right?"

"Zack," I corrected with a tinge of embarrassment. "Zackary Lockheart."

"Oh, sorry about that," she apologized. She opened a drawer and began looking through some folders before pulling out a paper. "This is your schedule for now. You'll have to take placement tests so we can finalize some of your classes."

"Ah okay," I said. She slid the piece of paper over for me to examine. When I did, I noticed an immediate problem.

"Uh, madam, this says I have P.E. first." I flipped the paper over for her to see.

"Oh," she said with empathy as she realized the problem. "Do you have your medical form?"

"Wasn't it already submitted?"

"Let me check," she said as she found my student folder and looked for the form. "There's no medical form in here."

As I opened my mouth, I paused and began to close it. I was about to go off on a tirade, but frankly those rarely produce the results you want. No, you need to keep your emotions in check, and use the emotions of the other party against them. And the first step is identifying it.

"I sense that you feel that this is unfair or ridiculous. That a kid with a limp and cane should have to have P.E."

Getting ahead of their thoughts is a surprisingly effective strategy. When you say their concerns, it suddenly seems more ridiculous. Part of the reason why identifying their emotions is important, you force their rational mind to think about it.

"Perhaps honey, but I can't do anything without a form. If you at least have a note, that would be enough."

"A note," I mirrored back.

"Yes, a note from a parent or doctor," she said.

"Parent or doctor," I repeated as if in thought. "What about a guardian?"

"A guardian would also work. Do you have a note from one?"

"No, but I think there's an arrangement we can make," I began. "Schools act in loco parentis, so legally if you fill out a note, it would be valid."

"I-I can't do that," she stammered out.

"Why not?" I challenged her. "Is it a legal issue or personal? If it's the former, it won't be a problem."

She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it. There really wasn't a good answer to that.

"Please miss," I pleaded with a tinge of sadness. "Just for a day so I can get everything in order."

At first, she looked at me with a sympathetic yet defiant look. I, however, just remained silent and continued to stare distantly. After a silent standoff, she resigned as she grabbed a note and filled it out. "Just this once."

"Of course madam," I said respectfully. "Thank you so much. I hope you have a good day."

Waiting for just a second so it didn't seem cold, I began to walk away with my schedule and note in hand.

Man, if I had to redo my last life, I'd challenge administration more. The amount of stuff you can get away with as a crippled is surprising. The only downside would be that you're crippled, but hey, God can't love all of us.

Where was I? Oh yeah, P.E. I had gotten to school late, so everyone was already in class. That left all the students on the field, walking or running around in laps. I saw the P.E. teacher sitting on a chair whilst reading a magazine.

"We're off to a great start," I mumbled to myself as I saw the scene. I very slowly walked towards the teacher sitting on his chair. It wasn't until I was a few steps behind him that he had finally noticed me.

"Kid, you're late," he said as he returned back to reading.

"Sorry sir, there were some troubles with missing forms that I had to get sorted out," I explained. I handed him the note. "For you."

He grabbed it and quickly read it. "Alright, you can just stand or sit here for the class today."

"Okay," I said. I chose to remain standing, but I held the hook of my cane with both hands and leaned over it.

As the kids ran by, I looked at them to determine who were the good kids, the gray kids, and the bad kids. Of course, I could spend all day nitpicking their microexpressions, but there wawa an easier way.

Subconsciously, we look away from people who are disabled. So those who look at my face, like they would with others, were the good people. The gray people were those who had no reaction. And the bad kids were the ones who smiled or snickered with their friends.

However, there was an outlier. One kid who snickered and laughed, but kept looking at me in the face. I kept a mental note of him, with his predatory grin and eyes that seemed feral.

'Is he a monster?' I thought to myself. It would explain it, especially the prolonged looks every time he passed.

This might be a problem.

"Would anyone like to share their thoughts?" The English teacher asked. No one raised their hands, and he began to scan the room in search of a victim.

"What about you Jack?" he asked. "What's your thoughts?"

"Uh, I think that it's," he began, drawing out the last word as he thought of some words. "-interesting and unique."

I dropped my head into my arms. At that point, just say you don't have any ideas. He just made it clear to everyone that he didn't even read the book.

"Zackary," the teacher said. "With that look, I guess you've read The Giver before."

Everyone turned to me and began to laugh. Great, this got turned back to me.

I took my head out of my arms and faced everyone. I took the cane off the table and put it to the side. "I have."

"What are your thoughts on it?" he asked. "We've finished the whole book already, so don't worry about spoiling it for your classmates."

"I doubt they even read it," I mumbled. The only people that heard were the people at my table, who widened their eyes.

"Don't be shy," he said. "Come on, if you give me a good answer, I'll let everyone leave early."

Now everyone was glaring at me. Just what type of school was this?

Taking a deep breath, I thought about how to describe my thoughts. It'd been a while since I read it, but I remembered the plot points.

"I think that The Giver helps exemplify Augustus Comte's philosophy."

"Pardon?" the teacher asked.

I took another sigh, realizing that I would have to explain who Comte is. "He was a French philosopher who thought that society is like the human mind, where it starts off focused on religion before finalizing at science, disregarding everything else. The society in The Giver believes in science and doesn't have emotions, the pinnacle of Comte's philosophy."

"Your old school had a philosophy class?"

I nodded my head,

"Huh, interesting," he said before redirecting his attention to the class. "Who agrees with that idea?"

Pretty much everyone's hands went up. I had a small grin on my face. They weren't even listening, just focused on the end.

After a moment, everyone's hands went down. "Well, a deal's a deal. Everyone is dismissed."

Everyone began putting all their items back into their backpacks, zipping it up, and heading out. When I walked out, I had to look around for the nearest gate. I wasn't too familiar with the school layout, so by the time I did find one, the dismissal bell had rung.

Lucky for me, the exit I had chosen was further down the street than the entrance to the school. I reveled in the fact that there were significantly less people. Well, until I heard someone call my name.

"Zack!" Sadie called out.

"What the?" I said to myself as I turned. Sure enough, the brother-sister duo were at the entrance waiting for me.

Yeah, I wasn't going to walk all that. I stayed where I was as they ran up to me.

"Shouldn't you too be waiting at your school?" I asked.

"You were taking too long!" Sadie said. "And we got bored waiting."

"Didn't you guys just get dismissed?"

"No, we get dismissed 30 minutes earlier than the middle school," Carter said.

"Oh," I replied. "Your parents are going to be so mad at me."

As we began to walk, a thought popped into my mind. "Wait, how did they let you out?"

"Yeah Sadie, how did they let us out," Carter repeated, pushing the explanation onto her. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Uhhhh," she began. "They didn't."

"Are you trying your best to get me in trouble?!"

"No! I'm just making you walk less!" she defended.

I let out a long breath. I thought she exaggerated her personality, but my god I didn't expect this.

"You know, you'd make a great law-" I began before stopping abruptly. A chill went down my spine as if I was being watched by a predator. I felt my muscles tense as my body became more guarded.

I slowly turned around to see the same kid I saw before. He was grinning sadistically.

"My my, I didn't expect to see three of you," he said as his tongue went a lap around his mouth.

"What are you?" I questioned. Looking around, I noticed an oddity. No one else was there. No people, no cars, in fact they seemed like they were making an extra effort to avoid us.

He chuckled. "It won't matter to you three."

"Zack?" Sadie and Carter whispered to me in a frightened voice.

"Run home," I whispered back. "Fast!"

I pushed them back with my cane, not taking my eye off the boy. As I examined him further, I saw through a strange fog. The Mist, I presumed. And immediately, I was able to identify what monster he was. He had one-eye.

'Shit!' I thought. How do I get out of this alive? Fighting would be suicide, but the moment I turn my back, I'm dead. He couldn't charge me for now because I could just evade. A stalemate.

It wouldn't last long as he slowly began to approach me. He began to squat, getting ready to charge forward as he continued to close the distance. My only move was walking backwards, but I was sure to meet the street soon.

The stalemate continued as we waited for each other's move.

'Please! Someone come!' Neither Julius nor Ruby would come, but I just needed someone else to see the scene. Even if they saw two kids fighting, they would at least attempt to break it up.

Another feeling of dread crept over me. Except this time, it was orders of magnitude worse than before. If there wasn't adrenaline going through me, I would've been frozen in place.

Behind him, I saw a strange black object flying. It was bird-shaped, but completely black. "Holy shit, what's that?" I asked, pointing to it.

'Please work! Please work!'

The cyclops gained a puzzled expression as he looked at where I was pointing.

"What did you summon?!" he questioned me as the object got closer and closer.

When he turned, I began to see two people running towards us. Thank Chronos!

"Run faster you twat!" A British voice called out.

"Oliver there's a fucking cyclops up there!" a familiar voice said. I heard metal rubbing against wood as Oliver unsheathed his sword. The cyclops, too stunned and confused, was frozen as Oliver ran forward and sliced him down. His acceleration didn't stop, and he continued to glide through the air towards me.

When the cyclops turned to dust, his eyes widened as he saw me. He began to put the sword back as he tried his best to avoid me, but ended up shoving me.

"Zack?" he asked. "Why are you here?"

"What is that giant ass bird?!" I frantically asked.