Investigation: Shunned

Chap. 6

*NICK'S POV*

As soon as I wake up I feel the nerves in my stomach start to turn. When I go to my kitchen in my small apartment I share with my younger brother, my stomach is still turning.

I grab a bowl of cereal, thinking that maybe, just maybe, that food would help calm my nerves. As soon as I get one spoon full in my mouth I gag, resisting the urge to spit it back up.

With a long sigh I throw the bowl of cereal out, thinking about what a waste it was.

Suddenly I hear the slam of the fridge door, making me jump. I turn to see my younger brother, Samuel, throwing the milk down on the table. My brother is only 14. But being at 14 he seems to be pissed off at the world, every single thing I do ticks him off. Okay, so maybe his not pissed at the world. His just pissed off at me.

"Why the hell did you throw all the cereal away? You know we can't afford that," Sam grumbled, running his hand through his messy black hair.

"Sorry dad, I wasn't hungry," I said the words without even thinking and I looked over at my brother to see a flash of hurt.

"Shit," I mumbled, sitting back down in my chair.

Our dad died last year. Day before Christmas to be precise. We were going through a rough patch, money
low and Sam was in his teen years and his mood swing were through the roof. The night our dad died Sam and dad got in a fight. It was something small, so small I can't even remember what it was. But Sam does. But I do remember the last words Sam said to dad. From word to word he said "why don't you just kill yourself."

That night us kid went to bed without a care in the world. Come on, it was Christmas Eve! We couldn't wait for the morning to see what we got. But when we woke up in the morning we saw something that was the opposite of presents. The first thing we did was look in the lounge room for presents. We didn't look at anything else, we just ran down stairs. I know I was only a year younger then I am now but I got really excited for Christmas, okay?

But when we got in the lounge room, nothing was there. So I looked around, thinking that maybe dad added a twist this year. And that's when I looked on top of the stair case and froze. Hanging from the stair case with a neck lace of rope was my dad.

Why dad killed himself, no one has any idea. But I don't think it was Sam telling him to die. Something else drove him off the edge, it has to be something else.

So that left me with my extremely emotional 14 year old brother. Our mum left us as soon as Sam was born so simply going to our mum wasn't a choice for us. For fucks sake, I don't even know what our mum looks like let alone who she is!

Back in the present, Sam is emotionlessly getting his breakfast, avoiding my eye contact. With a sigh I got out my chair and made my way to my room.

"We're leaving in 5 minutes," I yell over to Sam as I got in my room and continued to get ready.
~.~
As soon as I got in the car the nerves started eating me again. Before I was so distracted with Sam I forgot about football tryouts today.

Once we were in the car I started up the old thing and set off towards school. The worst thing about all of this is that football tryouts aren't until the end of the day so I have to put up with a bucket full of nerves.

It only took 5 minutes to get to the school but another 5 minutes to find a car park. I finally found a car park and although it was a fair way away from the school at least it was a car park.

Sam and I went our separate ways and I went straight to class, the same as I do every morning. I walked up a flight of stairs and made it to my first class, science. May the day of nerves begin...
~.~
The final bell went, signalling the end of the day. As soon as the tardy bell went off I was out of the door, walking to the gym for football tryouts.

When I got to the gym, I saw all the guys standing on the oval. With my nerves growing stronger I ran towards the oval, towards the group of football players.

There were 50 or so guys, all there for tryouts. I suddenly realised that my chances of making the team were very thin.

After quick warm ups we went to simple ball throwing, just standing on the spot and throwing the ball. The guy across from me started with the ball. I readied my arm like Luke taught me to, getting ready to catch. The guy across from me threw the ball. The ball span through the air and straight towards me. I went to catch but as my hands clamped around the ball it bounced out my hands and landed half a meter in front of me.

Silently cursing at myself, I picked up the ball and got ready to throw it. As I released the ball it went a meter too wide and missed the guy I was throwing to. I looked up at the sky and grumbled. I'm going to have to pick up my game.

The guy returned with the ball, I have no idea what his name is, and effortlessly threw it to me. I reached to catch it and caught it. Finally, something has gone right.

I pulled my arm back and threw the ball without thinking and it flew straight toward the guy in front of me. I felt like dancing a happy dance.

This went on for another 10 minutes and I didn't make one more mistake. We then went into the more difficult stuff. First was running and throwing which wasn't to difficult because this is what I did with Luke most of the time. Next we went straight tackling.

I think it went pretty well. Over all I dodged most tackles although I did get taken down a few times. After tackling we went onto a few more things it was over.

"Okay," the coach called out to the group. "Here are the people that made the team." I felt my nerves kick up again and I started shifting on my feet, listening to the coach call out the names one by one.

This went on for a minute and coach finished calling out the names, my name not being called out once. I felt this crushing disappointment rush through me as I realise I've destroyed everything.

"Wait," coach yelled over the rumble of the crowd. "Sorry, I missed someone. Nicolas Walker." Suddenly a smile spread across my face and I felt like dancing. I've made it! I've actually made it!

Everyone packed up and I made my way to my car, a new bounce in my walk.