Paths
Part One
Tom was lying in bed. It was a nice bed. It’s the same bed that he would wake up in some eight years from now on the day that he and his friends would go hiking in the mountains. It’s the same bed that he would pass out in every night as he struggled to become the hero that he never really intended to be, but he would be proud to become. But that story has very little to do with this story as Tom is still firm in his belief that he’s normal and his idea of heroism still comes from the cartoons he watches and the comics he reads. But this story is important to that story because this story is the one that leads to Tom’s introduction to one of his closest friends. But again, that’s not really here or there.
Tom lay in bed. He liked this bed. He really, really didn’t want to get up. But, Tom thought, that’s probably more due to the fact that today was the first day of school in a new city. Tom rolled over. He heard the voice again. The almost lilting voice of his mother, sweet and kind.
“Tom! I swear to God…if you don’t get out of bed this instant I’ll come in there and dump a bucket of water on you!” she yelled from the other room.
Tom rolled over again and was suddenly aware that someone was watching him. He bolted upright, eyes still stinging from sleep, he rubbed them haphazardly “H-hana? What are you doing here?”
The girl tilted her head to the side, her platinum blond hair falling off her shoulders and into her face “My mom isn’t feeling well today, so I decided to spend some time playing catch up with Jenny,” She grinned “I thought I’d find you half way out the door…”
Tom tried to smooth out the wrinkled shirt that he was wearing with his pajamas. The gesture was futile, but it made him feel better about being disturbed in such a distressed state.
“What time is it?” he asked as he rubbed the back of his head. He liked rubbing the back of his head…it made him feel cool. His hair was black, still spiked from the day before.
Hana checked her watch; it was an old, dumpy, metal watch. The kind you’d expect a jewelry salesman to wear, Tom knew it was her father’s before he passed away.
“Nearly seven forty…school starts in twenty minutes,” she responded after a few seconds considering the watch.
“Crap.”
“Yeah…you’ve gotta hurry up.”
“Tom! Move your ass, love!!”
“Crap…”
When Tom entered the small living room, after haphazardly pulling on clean clothes and brushing his teeth, Hana was sitting on the sofa showing Jenny something out of a magazine she had found.
“It’s a pretty simple stance, it lets you move quickly and – There you are! Took you long enough…I even sent Hana in there to prod you awake,” Jenny said as she switched her attention to Tom, she returned to Hana “I’ll show you when you get back, alright?”
Hana nodded and slipped off the sofa.
Tom shouldered his backpack and glanced around the kitchen “Where’s breakfast?”
Jenny handed him a luke-warm pop tart.
“What? You couldn’t have heated it up?” Tom grumbled as he screwed up his nose at the pastry.
“It was hot. Twenty minutes ago when I first woke you up. Now it’s cold and you’re in a rush. What have we learned?”
“Eat more cereal?”
“Cute. Now get. Hana’s going to show you the way to school,” Jenny said as she ushered the pair out the door “and Tom?”
Tom turned around at the end of the walkway leading from their apartment “Yeah?”
“Don’t get into any trouble…please? It’s your first day…I’d like you to make a good impression.”
Tom sighed and nodded. He turned back around dejectedly and started down the sidewalk with Hana close to his side.
Tom trudge along as Hana surveyed their surroundings, Tom didn’t particularly care what was going on in the neighborhood. He knew what was around him. Nothing. Nothing interesting at least. He loved the four acres he had left in Connecticut. The woods. The river. No cars for miles. He could disappear into that forest and not come out for hours. He and Chris had explored the whole town from those woods. They found caves and deer and caught frogs.
He sighed again and looked around. It was all concrete. The closest thing to ‘nature’ in Mesa was a little park a few streets away from his tiny apartment. The whole city felt like it was closing in on him.
Hana didn’t seem to notice at all. She walked along oblivious to the lack of actual things to do. She had told him that the mall was only a few miles away and that she’d walk with him up there soon. If that’s what passed for entertainment around here, Tom wanted nothing to do with it.
“Thanks for walking with me to school,” Tom said finally, feeling like he should at least speak despite how miserable he felt.
Hana smiled at him “No problem. I think Jenny just wanted me to go so that she could be sure you actually went.”
“Well…still…I appreciate the company.” Tom looked ahead toward the train tracks they were approaching. A gaggle of kids about their age were mulling around a crossing guard as they waited for her to make sure they wouldn’t be killed by a speeding train.
“How do you know how to get to the school anyway? Haven’t you been home schooled since you moved here?” Tom asked.
Hana laughed “It’s not like it’s complicated…there’s only one street you have to follow. Plus I’ve been there a few times for testing and stuff like that to make sure my mom’s actually teaching me what she’s supposed to.”
They mounted the slight hump leading to the tracks and waited a moment while the woman looked both ways. She led them down the other side of the slight hill and across the street. She waved at them as they left; they both returned the gesture, Hana more enthusiastically than Tom.
“Besides,” Hana said, as they joined the ever growing group of students “I like to get out and about. It’s kind of nice to see what normal kids do.”
Tom looked around at the ‘normal’ kids and shrugged “It’s not like normal’s a great thing to shoot for…normal’s kind of mediocre.” Tom said this as he watched a heavy set boy get off the school bus, shoulder a smaller student out of his way, but then slip and fall on the ground.
Hana giggled but stifled it quickly “This is as far as I go…if they catch me on campus they’ll start asking stupid questions and then call my mom to come get me…I’ll see you later.”
Tom watched her go. Suddenly feeling very alone. He wished that Chris hadn’t abandoned him…or that he hadn’t abandoned Chris. He hadn’t thought of Chris in a few weeks. He didn’t like to think of the way he left him screaming in the street. Crying. But his mom told him it had to be done. She told him Chris wasn’t real and he needed to make some normal friends. Normal. There was that word again.
Tom was getting jostled as he entered the school, packed through one of the tiny entrances designed for one or two kids that was now being forced to funnel several hundred. He held onto his book bag tightly and let himself be carried by the flow of people.
He was walking down the corridor, checking room numbers as he wondered just how long it would take the school to call his mom if he didn’t show up. Maybe a few hours. Probably a few minutes. Either way, he decided, it wasn’t worth it. His mom could be vindictive when she wanted to be. He glanced around and suddenly realized he was alone in the corridor. This realization was followed by the realization that the bell had rung and he was late.
“Crap!”
Tom jogged down the hall, not really paying attention to where he was going. Due to that inattentiveness he smashed head-long into a boy waiting around the corner.
The two fell to the ground and it took Tom a few seconds to untangle himself from the other boy.
After they both scrambled to their feet Tom turned to apologize for not looking where he was going.
Tom managed to get “I’m Sa-” out before the boy had him by his collar and was slamming him against the wall.
“Watch where you’re going, piss-ant,” The boy growled. He had put his face right in Tom’s and Tom could feel the boy’s breath.
The other boy had short, slicked back brown hair and bushy eyebrows of the same color, his eyes were pure green. He wore an expression of contempt on his face.
At this point, Tom began to consider several options. He could continue to apologize. But he thought that wouldn’t do any good.
He could try and beg his way out of this. But that wasn’t really an option, but it was something that crossed Tom’s mind.
“My name’s Tom. What’s yours?” Tom said happily as he tried to extend his hand.
Option three. Curve ball.
To Be Continued…
