I woke up with this searing pain throughout my chest, and I felt like I was kicked in the crotch area or whatnot. My head was throbbing like I had a headache, even though I was just recently sleeping the night away. Oh right, my father beat me up again. So, I wasn’t imagining all this pain surging throughout my body. Great. Just what I needed. I’m surprised I’m not immune to pain yet. Yet.
My slowly got up, cursing under my breath because of it. My father was most likely sleeping; he doesn’t work, I have to. I work at the library, since I love reading so much (crazy, right? Or is it just me?). I get paid a decent amount from there, since my boss takes pity on me. Which is something I do not need either.
At least my legs don’t hurt, so I could walk to school. But, I should probably sneak out so I don’t wake up my father. I’ve never tried waking him up in the morning, but I knew it wouldn’t be very pretty.
So, as quietly and as best as I could without screaming my lungs off from all the pain, I went to the bathroom and attempted to shut the door so quietly, I was afraid I would be there for an hour. After I (finally) shut the door, I did what normal people did—minus taking pain relieving pills, just so I could subside the pain during school. I didn’t (never) have any time to make breakfast, so I slipped through the half-open door and set my destination to my school: Thunderway High School.
I was a freshman at Thunderway High. High school never took such a toll on me, since I was pretty smart. I was a fast learner, and I always got good grades. I was pretty fortunate this happened to me, since I have to deal so much with other things [cough, Father, cough, bullies, cough]. Anyway, like I said before, I was a nobody. The only people that actually noticed me were the teachers, principals, et cetera. None of the students ever paid any attention to me.
I had a crush on a guy named Percy Jackson though. He was part of the football team, but the team captain was another guy named Jason Grace. Jason Grace was pretty nice, though, I’ve never talked to him. I didn’t think he wanted to talk to a guy like me anyway. He had blonde hair that was styled in the front with gel so it looked like a small triangle (even if I was smart, I hated school probably as much as you do). He really liked to wear purple colored T-shirts, but I wasn’t sure if it was his favorite color or something. He had electric blue eyes and a small scar on his lip. He had an older sister named Thalia Grace, but she was a senior. Jason Grace was a junior.
Percy Jackson, my crush. He was also a junior. He had black, windswept hair like he standing on a windy beach for hours trying to keep his hair that way. He had stunning emerald green eyes, and perfectly tanned skin. He always had a smile plastered on his face; I had never seen him mad, sad, depressed, et cetera. He always wore either an orange T-shirt or blue, but I can tell his favorite color was blue, since he wore that more often. What? I wasn’t a stalker for knowing what colors he wore more. Of course not. He had a girlfriend named Annabeth Chase, and let me just tell you, I was pretty jealous.
Annabeth Chase is what you may consider as an Honors student. She always had the top grades in her classes, and I only know that because I hear it around school all the time, so she was pretty smart. Probably even smarter than me. She had curly blonde hair that was always tied back into a tight ponytail. She usually wore shorts and orange T-shirts that usually matched with Percy’s. She was very social, so she had many friends.
Jason, Percy, and Annabeth were considered the “popular kids”, along with a few others. If I would name the others, they would be Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Reyna Avila-Ramirez Arellano (don’t ask how I remember her whole last name), Malcolm Chase, Kayla Solace, Will Solace, Katie Gardner, Miranda Gardiner, Charles Beckendorf, Butch Iris, Silena Beauregard, Jake Mason, and Michael Yew.
There was a separate group of popular kids, but these were a lot meaner, and there were less of them: Luke Castellan, Octavian Castellan, Drew Tanaka, Clarisse la Rue, Ethan Nakamura, Chris Rodriguez, Alabaster Torrington, Pollux Nysus, Castor Nysus, Otrera Amazon, Leroy Dan, and Victoria la Rue. These were the majority of the guys that beat me up. Some of the people in this group were a lot nicer like they were from Jason’s group—like Alabastor, Ethan, and Chris—but most of their friends are in this group.
Most of the people in the nicer group became popular because of their connections. Leo has always been best friends since Jason since elementary school. Kayla and Will were siblings, and so were Malcolm and Annabeth. Will and Michael were also best friends since elementary school, and most of them were dating each other. Annabeth and Percy were (unfortunately) dating; Hazel, Frank and Leo were dating (threesomes); Charles, who prefers to be called by his surname, and Silena were dating; Will and Jake were dating; and Piper and Jason were dating.
Wow, that was a lot of explaining.
Anyway, I walked down the hallway towards my locker, trying very carefully to not bump into anyone, or it would just trigger all the pain in my chest, head, and crotch again. God, why wasn’t I immune to pain yet? I was still waiting for that day to come.
I hastily opened my locker, using the locker combination 30-10-4, and grabbed the necessary items I needed for my first class: Biology. I hated that class. Well, actually, I hated every class. But, that was pretty irrelevant at the moment.
I rushed over to the biology class: room twenty-five. It seemed so far from where my locker was, which I absolutely hated. It happened every single fucking morning. How much bad luck was going to happen to me?
Well, I had Biology, Geometry, Spanish Two, English, Orchestra, and Physical Education (P.E.). Not counting Snack, Lunch, or Tutorial. I had a very long day ahead of me.
I was just glad the people that bullied me were older, so they were in a different grade, which meant they didn’t have the same classes I had. So, I could go through my classes without having to worry about coming into contact with them. The only problem at school was that I had the chance of seeing them in the hallway on the way to my other classes. Usually when it happened, they would beat me up, and it resulted in a terrible and painful walk to my class, and me being late to my class. The teachers always eyed me suspiciously, like I was staying after the bell to sell drugs or something. I mean, seriously? What kind of character did people think I was?
I sighed and shouldered my bag. I shut my locker and continued down the road towards room twenty-five, my Biology class.
After school, finally, I decided to go to the park. In my free time, when I didn’t have to work, I would play my violin at the park. I would never play at home; my father always yelled at me about how loud I was. Were you listening to anything in particular, Father? No, I didn’t think so, so why did it matter that you heard my violin? God! If I only I could tell all of these retorts to him. But no, I would just get beaten up all over again! My hatred for Father has grown ever since my mother and Bianca died. If only they were still here with me, maybe I wouldn’t have to suffer like this so much.
The park was nearby my house. My father never cared when I came home and when I left; as long as I didn’t wake him up from his slumber, I was fine. If I was ever in my father’s presence, he would beat me up. You know, I sometimes wonder why I stay at my house when my father is still there. Probably because I didn’t have anywhere else to stay. I mean, I didn’t have any friends to stay with. So, I was just stuck with my father.
I arrived at the park: Miles Square Park. It was a pretty large park, with lots of grass and many trees. The ground was never flat. There were many various hills, and a narrow river ran throughout the park. It all ended at a very large lake that inhabited both ducks and swans. A playground sat in the middle of the park, and there were many benches set around, and many wooden tables, benches, and barbeques for others if they wanted to host a party here. A light tan sidewalk wound all throughout the park, where people jogged, bicycled, scootered, skateboarded, hiked, et cetera. It was such a beautiful park. But, there was this one place I always hung out at.
It was a little tree all the way in the corner of the park. I was never used to people praising me, so I never liked to play my violin in front of others. It was kind of awkward for me, but that was how I was. I also loved the little tree; it reminded me of…me. It was so frail and weak like it could snap at any moment, yet it still continued to grow. It was a strong tree, at heart…if trees…had hearts.
I carefully sat down, muttering under my breath once more because the pain relieving medicine wore off and the pain came back. I set my black violin case down next to me, and unzipped it all the way, revealing my beautifully polished black violin. I would describe it, but I’m not sure you guys would know the parts of the violin, so I won’t. It’d sound as if I were talking some other language other than English.
I took out the bow, and ran the horsestring of the bow on the strings of my violin, creating a sound that I’ve been in love with for so long. I started to play the violin after my mother died. She was in love with the piano and the violin, but I favored the violin more. Bianca favored the piano more. So, my mother gave us little lessons here and there, but it was for fun. We were never serious about playing. But, when my mother and Bianca died, I started to play the violin. It was just a memory about my mother, so I played the violin.
Since it reminded me of my mother and Bianca so much, and could only play sad and depressing songs. I played them at the top of my head. I would think of one note on the violin, and then another one would play in my head, and so on, until it created a beautiful piece of music. That’s how I played the violin in my free time. I loved it, and it was probably the only thing that could’ve ever made me smile.
I soon played. It was a deep, rich melody. Not as deep and low as the cello, but to me it was just right. The notes flowed together like Beethoven conducted it, though not as good and professional as him. I moved my arm in a rhythmic patter, back and forth, back and forth. I hoped no one was watching me; I’d feel pretty self-conscience.
I didn’t even realize I closed my eyes. It happened all the time, because the memories that took place between Bianca, my mother, and me played throughout my head, and closing my eyes made it clearer, more real.
The last time I ever saw them was when I was ten, back in Maine. It was a cloudy day, but no really bad weather. My father was keeping me at home, while my mother and Bianca went out to go shopping together. I was watching television when my father received a phone call. He threw me into the car afterwards (literally), and he drove us straight to the hospital. It was that day when my mother passed away, and the day after Bianca passed away. Mother had been trying to protect Bianca, so she received the most damaged to her body. But, if you haven’t seen a truck, trucks are pretty big. And, this one was a delivery truck for some company. So, Bianca passed as well, but a little later than my mother. My father was so furious and enraged that day, I was just depressed and sorrowful. I cried my eyes out in the hospital, in the car, and at home. Tears ran tracks down my face as I attended their funeral. My eyes twinkled with tears as we packed and moved to New York. I still remember the day my mother and Bianca died. I would play them their own song that I wrote and memorized myself, in honor for them. January twenty-third was my mother’s death, and January twenty-fourth was Bianca’s death. Sometimes, I hated to think about their deaths so much, because it hurt my heart so much, and I would cry my eyes out for hours. Mostly whenever it happened at home, I would try to be as silent as I can, so my father wouldn’t burst into the room and tell me to shut up. But, fate had their deaths happen, and I couldn’t do anything about the past anymore. It was just how life was.
I raised the bow off the thin strings of my violin gently and softly, so I didn’t do any damage to the strings, and someone’s voice startled me so much, I almost jumped.
“That was such beautiful music you just played, by the way.”
I abruptly stood up and whipped my body around at someone I would never expect to approach me: Percy Jackson, the person that I was crushing on. He had a plain, navy blue V-neck on, and dark gray jeans. He wore navy blue Vans to match his navy blue shirt, and his stunning emerald green eyes were staring right at me. His black windswept hair was as perfect as ever, and he was smiling so kindly at me, I could’ve sworn it was directed at someone behind me. But, I knew no one was behind me without even checking, because I was all the way in the corner of the park, where no one ever went. He even praised me, which was something I rarely ever received. I wasn’t used to praise, like I said before, which was why I was all the way in the back of the park, so no one could hear me play. So, why was Percy Jackson here?
Well, this could not turn out any good.