In Spite of Everything

Prologue

"Are you okay?"
12 year old Dana looked up with a start, hurriedly wiping away the tears that had started to leak from her eyes, feeling mortified.

The kid that stood in front of her on the dusty sidewalk had curly black hair that was just long enough to cover his ears, pale skin with a smattering of freckles across his nose, and the most unusually large brown eyes that Dana had ever seen.

The combination of these features, coupled with his rather awkward demeanor and short, skinny frame led Dana to decide that he was an odd looking boy.

He fidgeted, obviously uncomfortable, as Dana's eyes all but bored into his face.

"I asked if you were okay," he finally muttered, pointing at her scraped knee. "You were crying."
Dana's face flushed as she came to her senses. In one quick, fluid motion, she got to her feet.
"I was not," she said harshly, through gritted teeth. Internally, she scolded herself for doing something so stupid in public. She didn't cry in front of anyone. Ever.

The boy just looked at her for a few seconds, and then nodded. "Okay," he said simply.
Dana eyed him suspiciously, disgruntled by how easily he'd agreed.

"Who are you, anyway?" she asked, smoothing down her blond curls. She didn't want to pursue the topic of whether she had been crying or not.

"My name's Jason," the boy replied, shoving his hands into his pockets. "We're in the same grade."

"O-oh," Dana stuttered, feeling stupid. There were only a couple of people that she talked to at her middle school. She didn't particularly pay attention to anyone else.

"Do you live around here?" Jason asked, cocking his head to one side.

Dana nodded as she began to walk. "Just around that corner."

Jason's round eyes brightened a little.

"Me too!" he exclaimed, eagerly trotting alongside Dana like some sort of puppy. "Maybe we're neighbors. My brother and I just moved here recently, so I don't really know anyone else in the area."

Dana gave him a half annoyed, half incredulous look. It seemed as if all of his initial shyness had suddenly evaporated. In spite of herself, Dana was curious.

"You live with your brother?" she asked as they continued to walk.

Jason smiled, evidently pleased that she'd asked.

"Yeah. He's way older than me, and he has a job," he said, making no effort whatsoever to hide the pride in his voice. "He's always really busy because he's so important. Pretty cool, right?"

Dana frowned.

"Well, what about your parents?" Dana asked. "Are they..." she trailed off, suddenly wondering if she was being rude.

But Jason didn't looked disturbed by her questions, just thoughtful. He kicked away a pebble that lay on the sidewalk that they were walking on.

"My mom died when I was a baby--but I don't know where my dad is. I've never met him, and my brother never talks about him."

Dana was silent for a moment.

"That sucks," she finally said, staring at her feet.

Jason shrugged. "Not really. My brother is awesome."

He seemed to mean what he was saying, but Dana wondered if she'd heard just a hint of longing in his voice.

She bit her lip, feeling sorry for him, and a little guilty.

Earlier, she hadn't really been crying about her scraped knee. She'd been crying because her mom had promised to pick her up from school so they could spend time together, and then cancelled at the last minute. It wasn't the first time, either.

Dana had felt resentful because her parents were often busy with work and couldn't spend a ton of time with her.

Yet here was a boy with no parents at all who was still optimistic. It made Dana feel like...well, like a little bit of a brat.

To Dana, one of the best feelings in the world was being hugged by her parents, and feeling safe and content and happy for a little while. She couldn't imagine ever not having that.

"Ah, this is my place," Dana said, pushing aside her complicated thoughts after they'd been walking for a while.

"Really?" Jason said, grinning. He pointed to a neat little red brick house a little bit further down the road. "That's mine."

The house was enswathed in creepers and a handful of colorful wildflowers. It had a really homey, rustic look to it.

Dana thought it looked nicer than her own polished and professional looking house.

"I'd better go, too," Jason said. As he spoke, a sudden gust of wind blew some of his curly locks away from his face.

He isn't as strange looking as I thought, Dana allowed as she studied his bright eyes, his slightly crooked smile and his windswept hair.

As soon as she'd thought that, she felt her face heat up with embarrassment.

"We'll talk again tomorrow, okay?" Jason called out as he turned around and began to run towards his house.

Dana shook her head to herself as she unlocked her door. No way. She was not going to talk to that weirdo again.

But she did.

*****

A/N: Okay guys, so that was the prologue! What did you think? I had a lot of fun writing it :D