Chapter one: childhood
It all started on a gloomy afternoon at Carmichael elementary school. Barry Allen was just 11 years old just minding his own business not bothering anyone or anything on the playground at recess. He was kinda just the kid who spent the time at recess watching other kids play and talk to one another, read books and kept to himself. And on this particular day he was watching the girl he had loved before he even knew what the word love meant. Iris West. She was everything to him even though they never actually have met before, just been in the same school since kindergarten. She was smiling and having a conversation with her best friend Linda Park. Barry wishes that one day that he could talk to her, become best friends with her and have a best friend. He was a lonely nerdy kid that know one talked to.
When the teacher blew his whistle to signal that recess was over, Barry was always the first to line up to go back to class. But on this day something happened that he never had expected to happen, Iris West was the second one in line. He was so surprised and what caught him even more off guard was that she had said something to him. "Hey, Barry" she said to him with the brightest smile that could put the sunshine to shame. He was speechless that she was talking to him, but before he could say something Tony Woodward came up behind Barry and yanked him to the ground. Tony was Barry's bully, nothing stopped him from picking on Barry. Not even the teachers cared. So he assumed that everyone around him didn't care either. He was wrong because not even 3 seconds later Iris was down on the ground asking him if he was okay, checking for any injuries. All Barry could say was "im okay Iris, i promise" she looked him straight in the eyes, his dark blue eyes and helped him off the sidewalk. For the rest of the day Barry kept looking at Iris every so often when she wasn't looking. Because she actually talked to him. At the end of the school day when he was walking to the bus that took him home from school he saw the sun start to come out. She was his sun even if she didn't know that. He walks onto the bus and starts walking to his usual seat, but for some reason his seat already had someone in it. So he went to his back up seat and someone was already in that seat as well, it's like all of Tony's friends had taken every seat on the bus and left Barry with nowhere to sit. Iris gets up from her seat and grabs Barry's hand "come sit with me Barry, it's okay" so Barry Takes Iris's soft caramel hand and lets her lead the way. Once they have sat down Barry looks at the ground because he doesn't want to be caught looking or staring at the girl who saved his life today. Little does he know that Iris hasn't taken her eyes off of Barry. She feels so bad that he is always being picked on by literally everyone but her. Sometimes even the teachers would poke fun at him. It seemed like he was just a punching bag to everyone. But not to her. Iris sets her hand on his anxious bouncing leg and his leg instantly goes still. Barry finally looks up at Iris and he sees that smile. He says in his head Man that cannot be science and returns a smile back.
The rest of the bus ride was silent between the two of them but the rest of the bus was as loud as the cafeteria was. When it comes to Barry and Iris's bus stop he is the first to get off the bus and then followed by a few other kids that get off at the same stop, last comes Iris. Barry starts walking into the neighborhood that they both lived in, Iris jogs up beside him and places a hand on his shoulder that makes him stop immediately. "You walk really fast barry, slow down" Barry looks at iris and says "thank you for what you did today for me, it means alot to me" "i wish a had a friend like you" barry said a little sad almost in tears but he wasn't going to cry, well not until he was at home. What iris said to him made his entire day better. "You do have a friend, Me Bear, don't you ever forget it." Barry walked home with a smile on his face and before he knew it the sun came out and shined down on both of them.
When Barry walked into the front door of his home he was greeted by his father and mother both sitting on the couch in the living room. It always makes him smile to see how in love his parents are and hopes that one day he will find a love as strong as his parents have. When Nora and Henry Allen called Barry down for dinner he didn't waste one minute of dinner time to talk about his day. More or less he talks about iris the entire time. Nora and Henry watched as Barry's face lit up when he was talking about her, usually they knew that when Barry liked to talk about someone it usually meant that he likes them. And boy does he love iris. So that night after dinner and bored games Barry went to bed with a smile on his face concluding the best day ever. Barry didn't know that this night was going to change his entire life. Forever.
A large booming sound woke Barry up instantly. He wanted to know where the sound had come from so he got out of his bed and then he looked over at his fish tank that had no water inside, it was suspended in midair for a second then it spilled all across his room. Barry heard screaming coming from downstairs so he went to follow the sound down the stairs only to see something that you would only see in nightmares. But this was real. He wasn't sleeping. He was wide awake. There was lightning everywhere you looked, then he saw his mom in the center of the lightning so he started running towards her wanting to hug her because he was terrified of what was happening. Nora screamed as loud as she could " No Barry, stay back, it's not safe, get out of here" she pleaded till Henry showed up next to Barry and said "run Barry, run" and before he knew what was happening he was outside a block away from his home. He notices that he is on the street where Iris lives. He's only been there once because his parents know that joe west is a cop so when joe wanted someone to watch iris one night nora stayed with iris and barry came along so he wasn't left at home alone since henry was a doctor and was working the night shift that night.
Barry came up to the west house and proceeded up the front steps to the front door and started to knock on the door with urgency. After about 5 seconds he heard the lock click and the door opened up. " What are you doing here so late Barry, you need to get back home, do you need a ride?" Joe asked with a soft yet stern voice. Iris heard the front door open so she hurried down the stairs to see Barry and her dad at the front door. She was really confused but then she saw Barry's face and she knew that something had happened. Something bad. Barry started to speak so quickly so all joe heard was " lightning…mom…middle…storming inside my house…they i was on your street a second later…i don't know how i got here i need help…my parents…" at that thought he started down the street to get back to his home. He had to get back to his parents house. Joe told Iris to stay put and that he will be right back. Joe trusted Iris to be home alone for a hour at most but he knew that Barry needed help so he called CCPD on his cell and told the captain " hey I need a task force sent to the Allen residence immediately." Joe got into his car and started towards the house.
When Barry got back to his house he saw cop cars flooded in front of his house. He runs past the caution tape and runs into the house and what he saw, no kid should ever have to witness. His mother with a bloody red chest right where her heart is. He rushes up to his mom only to see a tarp being laid over he body and then he just knew something happened. He had just lost his mom. Seconds later Joe West places a hand on Barry's shoulder and helps him up and out of the house. But as he and Joe were leaving another tarp was being laid across another body. His fathers body. Barry had just lost both his parents. He was all alone. No family. But he wasn't alone. Joe led Barry past his team of officers and into the front of his car. Joe walked quickly up the stair of the Allen house, grabbed a few suitcases and went into Barry's room and started gathering clothes and his belongings and within 5 mins they were full and in the back seat of his car. Barry was silent the whole ride to the west house. His new home. That night was the last time he ever stepped foot into his childhood home.
Iris was sitting on the couch watching some cartoons on the living room tv when she heard the front door unlock and open up. What she did expect was her dad coming home but what she didn't expect was Barry. He was completely numb to everything that was happening. She didn't understand why Barry was here and then Joe said to iris " hey iris show Barry to his room while I grab his bags from the car". Then Iris put two and two together. Oh he lives here now. He looks so distant. She reaches out to Barry and grabs his hand and leads them up the stairs. Barry doesn't hesitate at her touch he just accepts her hand in his because he is just numb. Barry gets to his room, which is across from iris's room, he doesn't notice that all he does notice is that he is not at home. "It's okay barry, don't worry you're safe here with me" she says in a soft sweet tone. That's what snaps Barry out of the numb feeling he's been in for the last hour. She comes around to sit next to Barry on his bed and looks over at Barry and sees the tears streaming down his face. He doesn't notice that she is looking at him because his head is facing the window outside where the storming had stopped to a light drizzle.
Barry looked over at Iris and realized that she had been there for a while. Not saying anything but just being a comfort at this moment. Barry doesn't know how long he just sits there. Because he is numb. He doesn't know if it will ever go back to normal. Well his life has completely changed in just a short time. Joe comes up the stairs and knocks on the already open door and sets the bags down in the corner of the room and proceeds to join Iris and Barry on the bed. They all just sit there for a minute and not say a single word. Joe taps Iris on the shoulder and says to her "hey let's give Barry some space so he can change and get ready for bed".
Later that night Barry couldn't sleep at all, he wondered if iris was awake. I mean it was 4:33 am on a sunday. Barry slowly and quietly exited the guest room, which now is his room and made his way down the creaky staircase and into the kitchen for some water. When he finished in the kitchen he decided that he probably wouldn't sleep at all tonight so he walked over to the brown leather couch and sat there. Iris was tossing back and forth side to side on her bed wishing that she could just sleep. She sat straight up in bed. She decided to get up and get a cup of water from the kitchen, little did she know that when she came down the stairs she would see Barry all alone sitting in the dark quietly sobbing. Iris completely skipped the water and headed straight for barry. Barry had noticed that iris was in the living room until she put her hand on his shoulder. Barry looked up next to him and saw iris. Of course it was iris he knew that she would be there for him and he would be there for her as well. They sat there on the couch for a while just embracing each other's presence. They didn't want it to end. After some time maybe a few minutes or an hour Barry was so quiet and Iris was a little concerned. She will always be concerned for Barry, that's just the way she has always been. She looks down to see Barry laying down on her lap, she's not sure when he decided to lay down but it didn't bother her at all. He was sound asleep. She thought to herself "he looks so peaceful when he's sleeping like nothing could hurt him." because she knew that when he wakes up his life as he knew it will have been changed forever. She figured that she wouldn't want to wake him up so she grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch which was big enough for both to share, and draped it over the sleeping barry and herself and started to drift to sleep as well.
A few minutes after seven joe west awoke to a suspiciously quiet house, too quiet joe thought, Joe walked out of his room and peaked down the staircase to see his daughter cuddled up next to barry. He smiled not only at the sight of them both sleeping together, but the fact that Barry was asleep. Joe knew it was gonna be a long night, but at least bthe worst was behind them. Or was it?
