Chapter 1:

Another unspectacularly spectacular day

A journey of two lifetimes, with a girl in pj's


***

“ There are certain things, once they are done they cannot be undone. Are you sure you want to do this? There will not be anything left. No more second chances. This will be it”

“Yes”

“And you're sure?”,

“Even if there is another way… I’ve learnt now.

***

This is the beginning of a spectacularly unspectacular day.

Rio is what anyone would call an average person, an average student with average grades, average hobbies, average dreams and aspirations or as he would put it, spectacularly unspectacular. Right now Rio is asleep. Well not for long.

*beep beep, beep beep, beep beep, beep beep*

Still in a sleepy daze, without opening an eye he thinks to himself “Why is this thing so loud” but without a second thought, he simply rolls back over and tries to escape the chores of everyday life, and flee back into his slumber.

*beep beep, beep beep, beep beep, beep beep*

The noise continues, but Rio is adamant he will not succumb to this evil noise that is out to disrupt the peace and sanctity of his bed. Now maybe he would have won, but unfortunately for Rio, this noise emanating from the alarm clock, that climbed out the depths of hell, is not the only enemy his slumber faces today. He has an elder sister.

“WILL YOU WAKE UP YOU USELESS DUMBASS!!”

Rio darts up, but his eyes still closed, as if they too are fighting against the need to arise, yet in the face of such urgency he forces them open, and he sees the emerald glimmer of a slab, that looks pristine, it has what appears to be like a bookmark sticking out the side. “Wait a bookmark?” he thinks. His thoughts stretched as though frozen in time, “that looks like a book, but that can’t be a book, it looks like it’s flying, books don’t fly”. And it was in that moment he realised, books can indeed fly, especially if his elder sister is throwing it at his face. Just like that, Rio is greeted by the presence of an emerald coloured textbook, which is in pristine condition, accompanied by a crimson book mark, to his face.

“WAKE UP DUMBASS, WE’RE GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL”

“ OWWWWWW! Okay, I'm up, I'm up, you can shut up now. And why did you throw the book at me Raye”

“Because you were clearly not gonna wake up, and I got you a brand new book to start off the new school year”, He looked at her confused, thinking out loud, “I would’ve preferred it if you left it on the table instead of my face”. Raye, ignoring his valid complaints in the way she gave him his gift, tells him to hurry up, feed the cats, get dressed so they can leave for school already.

Rio glances at his clock from hell, “What time is it, 7.45am okay. 3, 2 1, and up. Marco, Polo, here kitties time to eat, I have your favourite, store-bought, steel containers of fishy and whatever else they put in them".

Without haste, Marco appears out of nowhere, as though he has been waiting all night for this moment, the precipice of his existence, food. "There you are Marco, where's Polo?" Hmmm, time for a hunt he thinks. Whilst Marco’s life seems to gravitate around food, Polo chooses games, and that too in times where Rio has to be somewhere. So a game of cat and mouse ensues, in which the cat is the mouse, so off he goes. To be a cat, in search of a cat pretending to be a mouse. Rio, much like most people with cats, speaks to his cats as if they were human and can understand, so he goes around looking for his adopted human, that is actually a cat, who pretends to be a mouse. He starts with looking under the bed, making a sound as you would to surprise a child,"boo", nope not under the bed. He moves onto the shoe box by the window "rarr", nope. Okay, then surely in the wardrobe, he thinks. "pew pew", no “where the hell are you Polo?”

Out of nowhere he hears "Miaow".

As Rio would conserve with any person he asks Polo, “Where the hell did you come from? the house is tiny, we have like 8 rooms, and two of them are the same room. He notices something stuck to Polo’s rear paw, a souvenir from wherever he was hiding. A dryer sheet. “Wait is that a dryer sheet stuck on your paw, were you in the drier...? Better add that to the list of hiding spots, and I better make sure to check if you're in there before I dry my clothes.”

“RIO HURRY UP”

This little game of human cat mouse took far longer than he had expected, and he was greeted again with a book to the side of the face. The same book mind you, his sister went through the trouble of using the exact same book.

So not to be greeted by the same book a thd time Rio rushed to get reay. Mentally ticking off everything he needed to get done before throwing himself out into the world.“Morning routine, check. Smarty school uniform, check. Bag, check. Wallet, check. Phone, check. Headphones, check. Final head pat for the cats, check. Off we go”.

And so Rio and Raye siblings a year apart, leave to go to school, walking their way to the bus stop. All the while, Raye insists that if they miss their bus it will be Rio’s fault and he would be beaten to death in his sleep, with that new book she got him, and then buried in the cat’s litter box. Just the standard sibling talk.

Like most teenagers, Rio has a crush, her name is Cana, she started school just when he did, the same year, the same class, and she even gets the same bus as him. To Rio she was an angel, she had mauve hair that looked glistened in the sun, with brown eyes, as deep as the night sky. As kind and sweet, as one can possibly imagine. As they get closer to the bus stop, he sees her. There she is, waiting for the same bus as Rio and Raye. But today, ight be a different day he thinks, not exactly like every other day, not just another day in the spectacularly unspectacular journey that Rio is on. “Maybe I’ll ask her out today, I mean it's a new school year, if we start dating now we could become highschool sweethearts. Maybe she'll say yes. What should I say, how should I start the conversation? Maybe “You like raisins, how about a date”.

He hears something akin to a whisper, from another world trying to reach him. “Hi Raye, hi Rio, how was the break.”

Rio, still lost on his express train into frantic thought, continues thinking that he should just say hi, like a normal person. “Maybe smile, and she’ll smile back. Wait if I say hi how will she know I’m into her. Should I do something with my eyes?”.

Again he hears this voice from the other side, almost a voice from the heavens. “Rio, are you okay?”

But still on that train, Rio thinks, “Wait, what do I do with my eyes normally? If I give her weird looks, she’s gonna think I’m weird, am I gonna get arrested, I can't get arrested, I'm too young for jail time, mum would kill me. Stupid eyes, What the hell are my eyes supposed to do, what the fuck do anyone’s eyes do?

Another voice from the other side, but this time far more powerful, and aggressive “hey dumbass she's talking to you?” This voice is his sister Raye.

Rio’s thoughts start to derail, “dumbass…” he thinks. Cana being the kind and considerate person leans closer to Rio who is still somewhat on his derailed train of thought, as to inspect his well being.

This snaps him back, and suddenly he realises that it was not the voices that were coming from another world, but more that he had dazed off and the voices had pulled back at the tether keeping him here. The angelic voice he heard at the beginning, now clear, says “Rio, are you okay?” It was Cana she was directly in front of his face.

Rio’s frantic mind darts through his entire existence, grasping for something to say, anything to say, just wishing the next words from his mouth don’t destroy any semblance of dignity he has left. And as if he found the words from the depths of his soul his lips part and a solitary word comes out “Raisins”.

He is mortified, petrified, unable to move, having now just looked at cana and said raisin.

But Cana, being the sweet person she is, looks at Rio smiles and says, I don’t have any raisins, maybe we should get some during lunch, smiles turns and gets on the bus that has now arrived.

Rio, aware he just made himself look like a total loser, was still slightly proud of the fact, he at least made her smile. As he stood there basking in his pride from not being a total failure, he was greeted for a third time this morning, with something to the side of his face. This time, his sister’s school bag. “Hurry up and get on the bus you creep” she scowled. Rio looks at her again confused, and thinking out loud, “I don’t know how you’re one of the popular ones at school”. Just like before, she ignores his remarks, and they both get on the bus heading to school.

Ten minutes and a bus journey later

Rio’s school, unlike how he sees himself, is a somewhat spectacular place. It hosts the country's fourth ranked academic faculties. Filled with all kinds of colourful individuals, artists, scientists, scholars, actors, political leaders, business moguls, all sorts of people have been carved out from these academic halls. Perhaps this is part of why Rio feels spectacularly unspectacular at times. He is worried he may never measure up to those that have walked the same halls as him, particularly as he doesn’t really have any interests like his predecessors to chase. He just attends here as it was the wishes of his parents, I mean his sister already goes here, as does his childhood friend. Erik. Rio and Erik have been friends since they were kids, growing up they used to be neighbours, they would play every day, they would play until day turned to night, for as long as they remember they were always friends. Eriks energy would counteract Rio’s lack of. If Rio was the black hole created from the lack of spectacularity, then Erik was the star that exudes specularity. He was popular, loved by everyone, athletic, smart, but above all he was always Rio’s best friend.

Recently Erik and his family had moved houses, to be closer to Erik’s dad’s work at the hospital, and to his mother who was getting treatment at that very hospital. So they had not seen each other over the break as much, but he should be here today.

You would think, after being hit in the face three times already, Rio would have had a change in luck, how much worse could it get. Right? Well Rio’s childhood and current best friend, is a physical person, and he expresses his love and admiration for his bestie through physical touch. His one shortcoming in Rio’s opinion. As Rio stands at the entrance, changing his shoes, right as he places them into his designated cubby, the only thing anyone notices is a brown haired boy standing at five foot ten inches, darting through the entrance, throwing his bag to the ground, going from zero to one-hundred in the matter of seconds, and launching himself at Rio.This brown haired boy is, you guessed it Erik. Rio on the floor, having been tackled by Erik, is both glad and sad to be on the floor (when I said expresses his love through physical touch, I did not necessarily mean hugs, I meant tackles), glad he sees his friend again for the first time since the break, sad he’s on the floor, in what seems like a day filled with a cycle of endless abuse. He looks at Erik and says, “I'm glad to see you again, but have you gotten taller again”, “oh yeah, I guess I have” the boys pick themselves up from the floor. “How’s your mom?” Rio asks. With a pause, Erik replies “She’s doing better, I’m just glad to be closer to the hospital so I can see her often, enough about me. How was the break?”. They catch up as much as they can before the bell and head over to their class.

Having dealt with the first few moments of madness at school Rio finds his desk, three across, from his childhood friend Erik, two behind Cana, and right next to the window. The perfect place, with the perfect view to let him board his train of thoughts. The day starts, lessons begin and continue, all the while he loses himself in his thoughts. Rio, daydreams and thinks of the oddest things. He wonders about cereal, how if it is really a cold soup? What about fire, why does fire not have a shadow, but creates shadows, is that even possible? He thinks about what the world would feel like if he could taste colours? His mind darts through thoughts varying from breakfast foods, to existentialism. Only to be broken, by yet another gift he received. To the side of his face. This time a chocolate bar, from Erik, was thrown across three desks to land swiftly on his right cheek. Without thinking he looked at Erik and said “could people stop giving things to my face!” Erik, Cana and the entire class laugh, which is just enough to get the attention of their teacher. Mr Peterson. Who immediately looks at Rio, Telling him to wait outside. Which Rio has no problem doing as he was bored of the class anyway. Minutes fly by as he waits, and the class comes to an end, with the lunchtime bell. Rio is asked to follow Mr Peterson to the faculty lounge which he does.

On their walk to the lounge he looks at Rio, and starts to speak. “I’ll be blunt, your grades last year were just barely enough to scrape by, if you can’t improve this year, you will be held back, or worse, asked to leave”. Rio, unfazed, or perhaps simply not bothered by this, remains quiet, much to the dismay of Mr Peterson. “Do you understand Rio, your parents, how would they react?”. This snaps life into Rio, and he realises he cannot let them find out, “I understand sir, I’ll improve this year”. Now at the Faculty lounge, Mr Peterson asks Rio to grab a seat at the extra desk and write a letter of apology for his behaviour. Actions which Rio begrudgingly completes. Whilst, writing out his hollow excuse for an apology, Rio realises something, he can’t go with Cana to go get raisins any more as he’s tied up with his empty words to seek unwanted forgiveness. The realisation makes his chest tingle, almost rhythmically, he can almost hear a noise, a song even, coming from his chest. Then he realises that it is his phone, going off in his blazer pocket. Which is stupidly still on loud. And Mr Peterson, he does not appreciate this. Just like that Rio, bought himself additional time after school to write a hollow letter of apology.

The day continued, he completed his lessons, he did his part to clean the classroom, he even had an opportunity to catch up with one of his better teachers, Miss Hayo, when he had to go complete his second act of redemption for Mr Peterson. And then just like that it was time to go home. A solitary journey, as that notification in his pocket during apology number one, was from Raye to say she, her friends and Cana are hanging out after school, and ofcourse Erik had gone to see his mother.

So he begins his solitary journey home, to commemorate his first day of school, which was nothing but a hideous steaming mess. Thinking how everything went terribly, and what we would have done in place of what he had done. Ultimately, how this had become another spectacularly unspectacular day on the pages of his journey.

"Just another day, in your spectacularly unspectacular journey that didn't work out?"

Huh, who was that, what was that voice? Is there anyone here? It sounded like a girl he thought.

Again, Rio hears the voice, this time asking him "Don't you wish things went a little differently?"

No longer nonchalant, Rio looks around and says clearly and out loud, as to make sure his words were not misunderstood, almost akin to how a tourist speaks in a foreign land, “Seriously who said that? Erik? Raye? Where are you? "Hello?". There is silence, no response, and Rio comes to the ultimate conclusion, one he feels he was heading towards his entire life, “great I've finally lost it, I'm in the middle of the street hearing voices and talking to myself. If I go mad it's not even gonna be mad with power, I'll just be regular, crazy, brilliant”.

"You're not going crazy I'm right here"

"Mother of g--, where the hell did you come from?!" and what is she wearing? Are those pj’s? It's like 5pm right now. Did she just wake up or is she going to sleep?

"I've been here this whole time, and yes they’re pj’s, no I didn’t just wake up and also no I’m not going to sleep now. It’s 5pm "

"Uhh no you haven't, I've literally been standing here looking around trying to figure out who was speaking, I know, I'm seeing as well as hearing things now" Rio thinks that is the only explanation to why he is seeing a pretty girl in pj’s and why she's even talking to him, but also why even pj’s does he have some weird problems.

But before he could even complete his thought she says "Aww you think i'm pretty, thank you"

"Wait, how did you know that, are you in my head? wait a minute of course you’re in my head this is all a part of my very first psychotic breakdown" Rio wonders if this is the kind of thing he should celebrate.

"Yes and no, I do know what's in your head, but no you're not having your first breakdown, so maybe put the commemorative banners away for now. Let me just get to the point, i'm here to help, i'm going to give you the chance to change everything as you know it"

"what do you mean?'' Great, even my crazy has its own version of crazy he thinks in his mind.

"I'm not crazy, you're not crazy, we're not crazy. listen, i'm going to cut straight to the chase, don't you have moments that you regret? what you have here dressed in these cute and awesome pj’s and coming right up to you is the opportunity to address all your regrets."

"Huh what, yeah this is definitely my crazy, everyone wishes they could fix regrets but it doesn't work like that. Why am I talking to myself, wait if this is my crazy and I am talking to my own crazy, does that mean i'm talking to myself, wait am I speaking out loud or is this all just happening in my head”.

"Oh my god you're not crazy, okay maybe you are but i'm definitely not. Ugh why are you so difficult to help!? no-one else was like this! you know what the best way for you to understand is to just live through it!"

Rio feels an ethereal light cover him and immediately feels sleepy

And right now Rio is asleep. Well not for long. Because as you guessed it…

*beep beep, beep beep, beep beep, beep beep*

Still in a sleepy daze, without opening an eye he thinks to himself “that was a weird dream” but without a second thought, he simply rolls back over and tries to escape the chores of everyday life, and flee back into his slumber.

*beep beep, beep beep, beep beep, beep beep*

The noise continues, but Rio is adamant he will not succumb to this evil noise that is out to disrupt the peace and sanctity of his bed. Now maybe he would have won, but unfortunately for Rio, this noise emanating from the alarm clock, that climbed out the depths of hell, is not the only enemy his slumber faces today. He has an elder sister. Suddenly Rio gets the sense, he is about to get attacked, his face tingles, as if in presupposition of something about to happen.

“WILL YOU WAKE UP YOU USELESS DUMBASS!!”

Rio darts up, alarmed and both eyes open. And he sees it, an emerald coloured textbook, which is in pristine condition, accompanied by a crimson book mark, hurtling its way through the air making its way to his face. Which undeniably is about to make contact.

The beginning of a spectacular day.