• Chapter 1:
    I will never forgive her for what she has done to her family, my family, my friends, and even me. There’s no reason to forgive her, but even so she has to come to find the truth…

    Monday was a very generic day altogether. The sun rose, my mother was awake by then, my sister had been out for who knows how long. Of course Monday always meant school as well. ‘5:20’ was when my alarm rang every day. Today felt so much different although it hadn’t yet started.
    “Haku, come downstairs! Its time for breakfast hunny, don’t make me come up there!” came a loud shout from downstairs. I sat up in bed and stretched for a couple moments from morning fatigue, which sounded really odd of course but was true. The only real thing I ever took part in my life was sports though. Things from swimming, running, basketball, baseball, soccer and many other hobbies were my past-time because I was active more than anything. If that wasn’t the answer to how tired I was, I don’t know what was.
    Another shout echoed upstairs, “Haku, I’m serious! I’ve got a job interview today downtown and I can’t be late. I don’t want to have to drive you to school again, now come get breakfast!” Mom sounded really frustrated today, maybe that’s why today felt so different.
    I quickly responded, “Yes mom, I’m coming,” and headed downstairs to humor her at least. I wasn’t dressed or showered however, but I don’t think she really cared too much. In the kitchen was a stack of toast neatly organized into a pile for me, and to top that were some scrambled eggs and a sausage link. While mom fumbled around everywhere, I took it to notice that this food would be entirely gone by the time she had looked up for a moment. For a while there, I actually believed I would too! Mom came back into the kitchen as she was dressed very promptly today for her interview. Since dad had left a long time ago, she had to do everything that she could to keep my sister, her, and me alive, fed, and safe with food and decent shelter.
    “Haku hunny, have you seen my bag?” she asked as she tied her hair up into a well-groomed ponytail. I pointed to the stove with one hand while my other hand was busy helping me drink some juice. Mom however didn’t quite have the same laid back personality that I did in the least bit. In fact, even while I knew where her bag was, I didn’t know nor did I care that it was starting to melt… “s**t, my bag!!!” She grabbed her bag as quickly as she could and tossed it into the sink, entirely forgetting that she was just washing dishes earlier. Either that must had made my day or what, because mom was more than panicked when she discovered what she did.
    “Uh… Mom, I think next time you shouldn’t leave your stuff where food gets cooked, I’m just saying here,” I muttered just after swallowing another gulp of juice. She turned to me and let out a highly agitated grunt as she stormed into the next room.
    “Well thanks hunny, that really helps me out now knowing that I’m going to be late getting to a really important job interview today.” She shouted from the other room. Luckily there wasn’t much of anything in her bag, so nothing got too damaged as far as I knew. Looking at the time on the wall, there was about 10 minutes left until the bus came. As quickly as I could, I downed the rest of my juice and shoved as much food as I could into my mouth and ran upstairs. After quickly getting dressed, I had about 5 minutes left to get from here to the bus-stop 5 blocks from home. So while grabbing my backpack in record time, I quickly zoomed out the door and made my way down the street. One step ahead of the next, I raced towards the bus-stop, watching cars make their way past me while their drivers gave me odd looks. A couple blocks later, I checked my watch really quickly, 2 minutes left. I peered ahead just in case the bus was early but saw nothing luckily. Normally the bus would be at the corner by now, and I would be sprinting just to barely make it on time. So, I slowed down a little bit this time just to see if I was late. To what I could see, I was just right on time if not early even! As I hit the last block, I stopped to take a quick breather and gazed around the neighborhood. Everything was on its normal time schedule today too minus the bus. I casually walked towards the bus-stop in realization, taking my time and regaining my breath both at once.
    “Hey, you’re finally here early for once!” said a friend of mine. He held out his hand in the air and I slapped it to return his humorous gesture.
    “Hey Shaun, why isn’t the bus on time today?” I asked him while setting my bag down on the sidewalk and taking a seat next to it. He shook his head and tossed his backpack next to me.
    “I don’t know, maybe the bus-driver decided she was sick of driving for once and crashed the bus or something!” I gave him a look of disbelief and he laughed. “What, it would be cool right?” I laughed as well as he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter.
    “You still smoke dude?” I asked in a disgusted manner. He lit it up and nodded to answer my question then looked at me.
    “Yeah, quiting’s hard though.” He offered me one but I refused rudely by flipping him the bird. “Well, at least it’s stress relieving instead of your consistent need to be active. When was the last time you decided to just take a break from sports, huh?”
    I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck gently, “I haven’t been injured for awhile is why, but that’s a good thing too.” More than likely Shaun was probably right, but even so I was the one who could run for a few miles without coughing up a lung. After a couple minutes of listening to the consistent bullshit that ran through Shaun’s head, the bus finally came. Strangely enough, the bus arrived five minutes after its normal schedule. While the doors opened to let my buddy and I on, I asked the bus-driver, “I was early for once! What happened?”
    She nudged her head towards the back of the bus and proclaimed, “New pickup, I’ll be 5 minutes later than usual.” I nodded and proceeded towards Shaun, who was already comfortably seated in back. After working my way down the aisle, I tripped for a moment there on somebody’s backpack. I stumbled forward just a bit, but caught myself while this itty bitty cry came from behind me.
    “Oh, I-I’m sorry!” I muttered as I picked up the bag I tripped on and handed it back. The person’s bag I tripped on was this girl that looked like she couldn’t have been in the school I was going to.
    She turned her head back for a moment and replied with a quick, “Thanks!” and buried herself in a book she was reading. This must’ve been the new girl the bus-driver had to pick up. She didn’t seem so friendly or hostile either, so I shrugged my shoulders and worked my way towards the back. When the bus pulled up at the school, everybody started getting off normally except for the new-girl. She sat there reading her book as if nothing else was happening around her, almost completely oblivious to the rest of the world. I couldn’t help but tap on her shoulder so she knew it was time to go. She looked up for a moment at me, and then around for a bit until she understood we were finally there. I didn’t care all too much what she did necessarily, but she was by far more than strange. I thought for a moment to myself, let’s just hope that her first day of school goes well.