Realities | A TMF Fanfic

Prologue | The Boy In The Red Sweatshirt

Please read this story's description before starting.  It contains both context and this story's warnings. Thank you ^^

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A piercing ray of light shined through a dull window, easing the illumination, but not enough so it didn't hit a tired twelve-year-old boy's left eye, causing him to reluctantly wake up. Groggily opening his eyes, he saw his own violet locks fall in front of his face. Carelessly pushing them out of way, the boy took a second to scan his room. It was a lot smaller than his old one. This new room had poorly plastered wallpaper spread on its walls. You could tell it was meant to be a nice clean white, but instead with age it transformed into a yellowing off white, and had cracks stemming throughout it. The only decoration the room held was a cushiony mattress that lay on the floor -- with no box spring or bed set to accompany it -- a grey foldable chair, an old keyboard, and some moving boxes. Lots of moving boxes.

Turning to his phone -- which's charger was in an outlet that barely held it -- he lightly lifted it up to tell the time, which read "7:24". The boy let out groaning grumbles at the sight, and instead of doing anything just turned back into his bed, pulling his thin eggplant colored sheets -- the only type of bedding he currently had -- over his head. He didn't feel like getting up. He didn't feel like dealing with today.

Much to his discontentedness, he then heard a maternal voice call out, "Alexzander, sweetie? Are you dressed yet? You have to leave for the bus in a little less than a half hour."

Being in too much of a mood to reply, Alexzander just stuffed his face into his mattress, ignoring his mom. And soon enough, in accordance, he heard pattering foot steps, and the sound of his door swinging open as his mom entered the room.

"You're still in bed?!" she rhetorically asked, annoyed.

"I don't wanna go..." Alexzander mewled, still hoping to deny today's existence.

"Come on!" his mom encouraged, "It's the first day at a new school. It's an opportunity."

"An opportunity to make a buffoon out of myself..." Alexzander murmured, retorting. Getting the feeling he wouldn't be able to weasel himself out of this, he lazily sat up on his bed, still not getting up though.

"Look, sweetie. I know this isn't how you imagined starting off seventh grade, but you have to go," his mom reasoned, trying to be as gentle as she could manage.

Feeling his eyes droop, Alexzander complained, "I barely got any sleep last night... the city is loud. Why couldn't we have moved somewhere else?"

"I don't want to keep explaining this," Alexzander's mom groaned, putting her hand to her temple, "This used to be Grandma's condo, and we were able to make a down payment that makes the mortgage really low." Alexzander annoyedly mumbled to himself, honestly only understanding around half of what his mom said. Seeing his annoyance, she continued, "Plus I was actually able to get a decent job here. With your dad gone we couldn't afford to stay back at our old place."

Hearing the mention of his dad, Alexzander felt a deepening layer of stress, and clenching his hands into his lap, he soon started involuntarily shifting his jaw, a tick he had developed over the years. Noticing this, Alexzander's mom walked up to him, and kneeling before him, she lightly took his hands in hers, and calmingly looked him in the eye.

"I know this is stressful," his mom stated, acknowledging the feeling, "If you're feeling anxious during the school day remember what Dr. Garcia taught you." Alexzander sighed, remembering the techniques he had been taught. He had recently started seeing a therapist, and in order to cope with anxiety, they had taught him a couple of things he could do to help manage it when he was on his own, and what his mom was specifically referring to right now was a hand gesture that especially helped. Holding his hand, Alexzander's mom guided him through the gesture, which was slowly pressing each finger down onto the tip of his thumb -- index to pinky. Aftering finishing, his mom wrapped her arms around her son, taking him into a warm embrace.