Joyous Exception

Leaving his room, after getting a change of clothes, he opens the bathroom door and takes off his dirtied clothes, then placing his phone atop a counter.

I don’t know what’s happening right now, but I honestly couldn’t care not knowing for now, because…because…

Looking in the mirror, he sees his reddened eyes with dirt stains surrounding them.

She did say that crying every now and then was a good idea, but she probably didn’t think I’d be crying over something like this, right…Louise?

He wipes his face with a nearby towel and makes his way to the shower, turning the nozzle, and stepping in. He then begins scrubbing his body from head-to-toe.

Damn I’m filthy! I didn’t realize at the time but there’s so much dirt all over my body! Wait now that I think about it my stuff is still in my apartment. Well, this…might not…

Struggling to think about the inevitable, he cries.

Even if…this might not be permanent. I mean thinking about this situation logically, I should be about to wake up and start bawling my eyes out after realizing this was all a dream.

He turned the nozzle of the shower back, turning it off. He steps out and grabs a towel to begin drying his body. While doing so, he hears a vibration from his phone, indicating a message. He impatiently grabs it and checks to see what it was, to find that it was spam.

Why did I even sign up for those things in the first place?

After putting his phone back down, he quickly got dressed. Once he got his clothes on, he put his phone back in his pocket and left the bathroom. He walked to the living room and sat on a brown-cushioned couch and reached for a remote located on the edge of a glass table in front of him. He aims the remote at the TV across the room and presses the power button. With that, the TV turns on and he places the remote back where he found it. After some time, he feels a cold sensation on his head and looked up to find a glass of water being held by his mother.

“Thanks Mom, you know me so well.” Grabbing the glass, he thanked her.

“So, are you ready to tell me why you came home looking like a mess?” With visible concern, she asked him.

He placed his glass down and mentally prepared himself the best he could.

“I can’t exactly explain it all, but if I end up crying that’ll be okay, right?” Slightly anxious, he asked her, with a low voice.

“Of course, it’ll be okay because I’m here. But I’m glad to see that you’re not as stubborn as you used to be.” Patting him on the shoulder, she wore a comforting smile.

“I was at a friend’s house and…we ended up getting into a sort of, a fight…and after that I ended up running to the school where I left my bike. When I got there...I was exhausted and started crying about the fight, so that’s probably why I was all dirty when I got here. I remember having a weird dream about……” His head began to hurt as he tried to remember the conversation he had in the dream, but the only thing it brought about was a painful migraine. Worried, she hugged him from behind to calm down him down.

“That’s enough, you can stop now. Just try to relax now, you don’t need to think about it anymore.” Doing this brought tears to his eyes once again.

Ah, this sucks, I know she’s trying to help, but honestly…

“Thank you, Mom. I’ll stop thinking about it for now. I’m feeling exhausted right now though, so I’m going to go to my room so I can sleep.” Hearing that, she let go of him, allowing him to get up from the couch.

“You go do that ok, it seems you had a rough time today, so I won’t worry about you doing any of your chores or schoolwork, but you better get them done tomorrow, okay?” Waving to him, she walked into the kitchen.

“I’ll make sure to do that.” Consenting to making up for his absence, he went back to his room. Soon falling back down onto his bed.

I was happy when I saw Mom again, but this really is the worst. How will I even be able to go to school tomorrow? Well, a good night’s sleeps can help, I hope.

He closed his eyes and settled into the night.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The day begins and he gets out of bed. He takes off his clothes and puts on his uniform. Leaving his room, after picking up his bag and phone, he wanders to the kitchen in search of something to fill his growing adolescent body.

I barely ate yesterday, so I need to make sure I eat enough today.

He took out a piece of bread and began to toast it, as well as getting out an ample amount of butter to spread on said toast. Once the bread has been adequately toasted, he placed it on a plate to prepare it. After putting the butter back where it belongs, he picks up the toast and begins to madly devour every piece of it. Once there was none left, he licks the crumbs that remain on his fingers and went to the sink to wash his hands. With his hands now freshly dry, he checked the time on his phone to see how much longer he can wait until he absolutely must leave.

Okay so I should have about…only like 20 minutes? That’s illegal, I should at least be given like an hour or so to prepare myself. Well, I might as well just walk to school now and just wait by the front gate like I usually do.

He throws his plate in a trash bin and walks to the front entrance. Before leaving, he puts his shoes back on.

“I’m off to school!” With a joyous grin, he yelled into the empty living room.

It feels so good being able to say that!

With that, he prepared to get on his bik-

Wait a minute, if I use the area of the circumference of the square to find the limit of the equation it tells me that: I LEFT MY BIKE AT SCHOOL!

“Oh my god, and after I ran all the way back there to ‘get it’ too.” Hanging his head low, he stared at his hands and the ground.

Well, whatever, it’s not like I really needed it.

Embarrassed, he continued to walk pridefully as if doing so would help him recover from this early morning blow. While walking he noticed a cat in the middle street to the left of him.

“Ehh…” Carrying the cat in his hand he looked for a name tag of some kind but to no avail.

There should be a vet nearby or animal shelter nearby, so I should be able to leave…him there.

He pulled out his phone and looked up a nearby vet and found that it was open. Casually walking in, he walked up to the receptionist.

“Umm, I found this cat in the street and thought that I could leave him here, is that something I can do here?” Holding out the cat, he prompted the receptionist.

I’ve never done this before, hopefully I don’t have to go somewhere else.

“Yes, thank you. Just hand that little guy over and you can be on your way.” Accepting the cat, he…

Behind the building, he began panting in a cold sweat and looked down at his shaking hands.

How could I ever get used to this?

After calming down, he went to his original route to school. Soon, he arrived at a cross walk on red and waits.

I hope no one realizes I left my bike at school overnight, even after coming back to get it too.

Once the cars stopped passing by, he crossed the street and continued moving forward. Slowly taking each step as he went to school.

The walk to school never really does get easier for me. I wish that just telling myself to not get nervous would make me less nervous.

After a long walk, he arrives at the school’s front gate and leans his back against the brick wall quietly watching the rest of the students pass by him. While waiting, he prepared himself for the new day that was to come. After waiting, this time with no incident, he could hear the bell announcing to him that he could no longer hide from what was to come. He got off the wall and entered the campus, walking slowly towards his classroom. Soon, he arrived at the class and anxiously walked in and momentarily paused in his path before continuing again, but this time energetically taking strides. He reached his desk and karate-chopped the girl’s head. “Ahh!”

“Who do you think you are, taking my seat like it’s yours to keep?” Crossing his arms, he jokingly asked

“So, this is your seat, right?” Rubbing her head where he had lightly hit her.

Wait? Did I accidentally hit her too hard?

“Yeah, I just said that. So, why are you in my seat anyway?” Silently apologizing in his head, he pushed forward with his crusade.

“I was just curious about the empty seat in front of me and wanted to find out more or were you expecting something else?” With a smug look on her face, she touched the bottom of her lip with the tip of her finger.

Turning away, blushing slightly, he tried to clear his mind.

Stop thinking about it, I can’t get my hopes up, I’ve already gotten…no, it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Well, that isn’t exactly what I was expecting but it almost lines up.” Erasing his mind, he turned back to her with a blank expression.

“Okay, so I’ll let you have your seat back now before the teacher gets here.” Getting up she sat down in the desk behind his.

Surprised, he mischievously smirked to himself. He sat down in his seat and turned around to face her, patiently waiting for her to notice him.

This…is real, right? I’m not gonna find some camera crew or wake up from a dream, right?

Soon after, she looked up confused to find the boy in front of her staring right at her, as if trying to pierce her very soul with just his gaze alone. He extended his arm towards her forehead and lightly flicked it.

“How’d the project go last night?” With a confident tone, he pulled his arm back to his side and donned a bright smile.

“I barely got any work done on it; I wonder why.” With a sarcastic tone, she looked back at him with furious eyes.

“W-a……” His trembling lips made an attempt to say something, but only incomprehensible mumbling could be heard. “…you… re-…”

Placing her hand on his shoulder she held up a thumbs-up with her other hand.

“This…shouldn’t be…” Trembling he looked at and suddenly, his eyes widened as he stood up front his desk a stared at ‘her’ with a blank expression, that he had forced his body to maintain to hide his expression. Looking down, his hands had become dirty, and something was wrapped around his wrists.