Chapter 3

One year later…

"FOR THE LAST TIME, CUPCAKE, SHUT UP AND DO YOUR PUSH-UP!" Coach Harrison shouted, even though I had done nothing except do push-ups for a straight hour, with no breaks.

I said nothing but did my last push-up obediently. In the past, I would've retorted with a smart remark, but something in detention had… changed and broken me, somehow.

My detention had ended just a few days ago, and ever since then, I didn't interact with anyone. Sure, I answered a question when a teacher called on me to answer, but other than that, I didn't speak. I barely ate. And nobody cared. I was nothing more than a shadow on a black wall, in the middle of the night with a new moon. (Apparently, my metaphors are up and running on overtime today)

He looked at me with a cruel smirk. "Well, looks like someone finally decided to follow the rules, huh, runt?"

I did nothing, except to nod.

He let me go, and I went up to the locker room to change. The worst part about detention was that I had absolutely no freedom. Everybody told me what to do and I had to obey, or my detention was extended by double the amount. "Detention" was only a more positive connotation for "prison" in Rocky Mountain High School.

"Hey, maggot, where you going?" a voice said, putting me out of my thoughts. I didn't even need to look to know it was Austin.

I ignored him and started to change.

"I said, where do you think you're going?"

Even though I knew that Austin wouldn't stop bothering me until I answered him, or until he went physical (did that sound wrong?), I didn't say anything.

He leaned in my face when I was done changing, and said, "What did you say, maggot?" Just to try and get a reaction.

I didn't respond to that.

Exasperated and tired of getting nothing from me, he punched me, and I took the blow. A full one-sided fight broke out between us, with Austin punching me, but I didn't do anything. I was too broken inside to do anything.

But no, it gets worse. A teacher happened to look in the locker room, and who else but Coach Harrison himself.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE, RUNTS?"

Immediately, Austin went into what I nicknamed "whiner mode". There really is no need to be elaborate for why I call it that.

"He-he just attacked me! I was in the locker rooms, and when he came in, he just started to assault me! I only hurt him because of self-defense, Coach Harrison!"

Austin was pretty much one of those guys who were full of politeness and kindness to adults, but who had an entirely different side where he wouldn't care if he killed someone, no exaggeration.

"Detention, Daniel Aaron Richards, for the rest of your life here." Coach Harrison calmly said, as if that was an easy case, though it was obvious I didn't do anything.

I knew there was no use pleading with him. Once he says it, it's done. In fact, he pretty much had as much authority here as the headmaster (which was saying something or not, depending who you were). So, I finally made up my mind. I was tired of me being treated like this, where everybody shunned me for the entirety of my life, and I now wanted to put an end to this. In detention, I had finally started to believe what Austin said about my parents. How they ran towards the shooters to be killed. How they never wanted me. How I was an accident.

I was too broken to live anymore, with detention being the final straw. (And again, my mind was pushed to the brink in that tiny room. I couldn't tell you how many laws they probably broke experimenting on me)

I pushed both Coach Harrison and Austin to the ground, and I started to run, with them chasing after me after a second.

I knew where I was going. I contemplated this for years now, and I never actually did it until now. Along the way, I spotted other members of the school staff and students, and likewise, when they saw the ever-growing crowd following me, they got the gist of it (Hey, he's in trouble! Let's see what he did!), and ran after me, too. Soon, I had pretty much the entire school behind me, and that's was I was planning. You'd think that I was crazy for detention (cough, cough, prison) for the rest of my life, but that wasn't it. Eventually, the things I didn't do would lead up to me getting expelled. The school was lenient about how I only had here as my home, since my parents were dead, and because they had to be, or else they would be in big trouble, but at the first chance they could, they would kick me out.

I ran to the top of the building and only stopped going up when I reached the roof of the school. I ran until I was at the very edge of the building, and I waited until the entire school saw me. Once they did, they did the one thing I expected them to do. One guess:

Cheer me on.

The students were cheering for me to jump off into oblivion. The teachers tried to calm everyone down, but they weren't doing a good job, anyways. I guess they wanted me gone as much as the students did. The headmaster wasn't even helping, and he was calling someone. Just my luck. He was calling the police to try and subdue me. I would just jump before they came, though.

Fine. I was planning on doing it anyway, I thought.

That's when I saw the girl I met last year. Now that I think about it, I didn't see her for the entire year, even though I saw nearly every face in school during my detention. Out of the entire school, she was the only one who wasn't yelling at me. Her blue eyes looked pleading, and because of that, I started to contemplate my choices (Don't you dare, people. Don't. You. Dare.). I could step down for her sake, or I could jump, like everyone wanted me to, and die, yet leaving one girl who didn't want me to go.

I couldn't make up my mind fast enough, so the Austin did it for me. He ran up, ignoring the teachers, and pushed me off the roof.

The last thing I saw was the girl running, trying to reach for my hand, but being held back by the teachers, before the sound of wind surrounded me, welcoming me to the hard ground below.

I'm finally free, I thought. I could practically see my parents. Based on what the school told me, my mom was slender and short, but wise and pretty and loved us all, and my dad was tall and bulky but loved me and my mom with all his soul.

I loved them too, so I welcomed death.

And then everything turns dark.

I woke up to the sound of nothing. Literally, nothing. When I opened my eyes, I discovered that I was in a hospital room.

Oh, no. You can't be kidding me.

I survived the fall?!?

"Oh no. No. No. You have to be kidding me," I groaned out as I tried to sit up. Surprisingly, I managed to do that. Either they made the hospital scenes in movies and books overdramatic, or I was in better shape than I thought.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was most likely dead. I fell from a 356-story building at age fifteen. I would've hit terminal velocity (200 mph or 53 meters per second) long before I hit the ground, and judging by how there was no way the ground could've cushioned me from the fall and how I fell-back first-my spine would've broken into pieces, my organs crushed, and major arteries burst. In short, I would've definitely died from that. Even the date on the calendar seemed wrong. How would I still be alive if it's the year 3141? That's nearly a millennium!

Yes, I was definitely dead. There was no way I could've survived that.

My train of thought was broken when a girl around my age walked into my room. That's where I knew I was dead. Where did I see those blue eyes before? The black hair? No doubt about it. She was the same girl who I last saw last before I died.

I fainted again and welcomed the darkness. Maybe this was a dream before I woke up to be with my parents.