One Day
It's kind of long but worth the whole read tell me what you think and feel free to give any suggestions
One day
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He awakes from his silent, sleepless, slumber to an irritating gleam of sunlight through his half-broken shades. His alarm clock reads 7:15 AM; bus arrives in 15 minutes, only a scarce amount of time before Neal misses the bus. He jolts out of bed, nearly tripping over his Husky, Buddy, and heads into the petite shower only to be grossed out by the giant hair clump by the drain. He decides to skip his morning shower and heads to his closet to pick out his daily attire. His door opens like a monster's mouth waiting to gobble him up in its dank, dark, daunting space. Once he returns from the depths of his horrifying wardrobe, Buddy who is directly in front of him gives a good morning bark signifying that its time for his breakfast. Neal makes his way to the kitchen to pull out an expired box of strawberry pop tarts and a nearly empty bag of dog food. He grabs the last package of pop tarts and empties what is left of the Kibbles and Bits into Buddy's bowl. Buddy is Neal's life and soul and everyone at school knows it since Buddy accidentally followed Neal to school one day. He was Neal's first friend when he moved to Chicago. He actually found Buddy on the street, abandoned, and decided he would make a great owner for such a wonderful dog. Neal grabbed his bulky, battered, backpack, and gives his dog the last treat in the box and gives him one last scratch behind his ears before he leaves. On his way out, he passes his hung-over mother on their raggedy, rancid, rancorous couch. He proceeds out the old wooden door and past the rust coated screen door to his bus stop. On his way, he passes his chunk of metal that he calls a car that doesn't even run. He stops for a moment only to kick its worn out tire and continues to stride towards his destination. Before he knows it, Neal is in an all out sprint to catch the bus before it leaves barely making it in time.
He sits down and stares out the window, contemplating what he can do to try and not be thrown out of school today. Two aggravating sophomores play with their cartoony, nerdish cards in the seat in front of him that are really starting to become a nuisance. Trying to ignore these geeks, Neal pulls out his walkman and hits play. Between riding the bus, and listening to his music, Neal gazes outside to notice some kids about his age spraying graffiti along a brick wall. The bus halts at a red light and behind him, some new kid, probably a freshman, pokes Neal's shoulder. He pays no heed to it and just turns his volume up trying to drown out the aggravating, piercing sounds of the kids on the bus. The bus continues on its lingering voyage to the school where Neal spends most of his day, that is if he isn't kicked out for his behavior. They pass the city's courthouse and its menacing spires that connect the ground to its roof. Neal has been lucky enough that he hasn't gone in that particular building yet. The bus finally pulls up to Jefferson High School after what seems like an eternity on a ride to hell. He lets everyone off first so he doesn't have to be pushed and shoved by the rest of the kids who think it's cool to sit in the back. He walks towards the school's front doors and who other than the principle is there to greet him with the usual cup of coffee and bad haircut.
"Good morning Neal," says principle Peterson.
"Hey," replied Neal.
"Not going to get thrown out today again are we?" ask Mr. Peterson.
"Oh no sir, not me sir," says Neal in a sarcastic tone of voice.
"Still have that tough boy attitude like your father's huh?"
Neal stops for a moment and looks back at Mr. Peterson with a detest and loathing look in his eyes making it clear to Mr. Peterson to never mention his father again. After his confrontation with the head of the school, Neal strolls over to his run-down, smashed up locker. The numerous dents and scratches on the door proves all the trouble Neal has gone through during school. 8 o'clock, school begins, the bell, with its ear-splitting ring, signifies another day of hell on Earth at Jefferson High. Neal grabs his shop class utensils and heads to the back of the school. On his way, he passes the most recent kid he beat up. Tommy Richardson, an equally built student like Neal only with a knack for saying the wrong things to the wrong people. They've fought more than once in the past, each being interrupted by either a teacher or Mr. Peterson. As they pass each other, Neal can see that his cheek was still swollen and his left eye had a faint hint that he had been punched. Neal continues to walk towards his class and takes a quick glance back at Tommy and sees that he is looking right back at him with the same detest and hateful look in his eyes.
Once Neal enters the classroom, the teacher immediately orders him to assist him in loading a 426-hemi engine into a 1961 Dodge Charger. Shop is the only class Neal Aces seeing as he already knows almost more than the teacher. The structure of the engine is like Beethoven's 5th symphony, graceful in its sound but complex in its structure. It must have weighed a ton since it wasn't as easy as the previous engines Neal has worked with, but once it was loaded, he departed from that area to work on his welding project. Neal turns on the gas that resembles the hissing of a king cobra, pulls on his bulky welding gloves, slides on his mask, which only allows a small window of darkened vision, and gets to work. The light emitted by the welding being as bright as the sun could make you temporarily blind and make your eyes feel like they have sand in them.
Coincidentally, Neal's archrival, Zeke Valentine, the high school's most feared kid with his grotesque facial features and horrible acne, is in the same class as Neal. If it weren't for the teacher, Neal would obliterate Zeke's entire existence. Once he melted some steel onto is project, Neal casually takes off his mask and inspects his work. While doing this he notices Zeke spying on him from the corner of his eye and can tell he's jealous of Neal's skill. Neal notices that his gas tank is almost empty and leaves to grab another tank out of the storage closet. While Neal is absent from his post, Zeke makes a dash for his project and decides to tamper with it making it look hideous in every aspect. When Neal returns with the rigid gas canister, he notices that his work has been altered. Furious by the time he spent on it has now gone to waste, he immediately glares at Zeke and sees that he is busy with his own work. Neal decides not to let it bother him since he is sure the teacher won't mind the blunder in his project as long as he is willing to do something for the teacher in return. In the mean time, Neal pulls off his gloves, and takes off his ghost-like mask and heads over to talk with Wes, his only other friend besides his dog Buddy. Wes is a tad bit skinnier than Neal, but can still fight as hard as any professional fighter can.
"Hey Wes," says Neal.
"Hey what's going on Neal?" replied Wes.
"Nothing much, just thinking of a way to get back at Zeke for ruining my project."
"What makes you think he did it?"
"C'mon man, seriously, who else has the nerves to trash my assignment?" asks Neal.
"I don't know now, but you can't just go off and assume people for doing things without any evidence."
"Dude just look at his face, you can tell he did it. Look how nervous he looks."
Neal and Wes take a glance over at Zeke and they can see that his hands a shaking a little and he can't concentrate on what he is doing without looking over at Neal.
"See man I told you," explained Neal.
"Yeah, I guess your right Neal," replied Wes.
There's ten minutes left in class and the teacher sounding like a mega-sized amplifier, let's everyone know it's time to start cleaning up. He helps Wes with his woodworking scraps and then heads over to the door to wait for the bell to ring. As he is waiting, he notices Zeke staring at him from the opposite side of the room. With a slow motioning of his thumb, Neal glides his thumbnail across his neck, indicating that something is going to be done about Neal's sabotaged project. The bell rings and Neal heads off to his next class, which happens to be Chemistry. The only reason Neal attends this class is due to the hands on labs that deal with fire the teacher assigns. The teacher resembles an older version of Albert Einstein, same white hair and facial features, only less hair on top and more of it on his face, and with the attire that he is wearing today, it indicates that the class is partaking in an experiment.
"Alright class quickly grab your aprons and goggles so we can get to work," orders Mr. Franklin
Neal grabs his apron and goofy goggles and heads back to his seat and noticed a girl, probably a sophomore, with a cute face and outstanding blue eyes and blonde hair, on the other side of the room looking at him with star sparkling eyes. Neal looks at her all the way until he's back in his seat and the teacher begins his daily lecture.
"Okay now everyone have their protection on?"
As soon as Mr. Franklin said this, the class clown decides to say, "Why no Mr. Franklin, I thought we weren't suppose to take our clothes off."
The class busted up laughing and even the teacher couldn't help but chuckle a little. After the quick giggle, Mr. Franklin resumes his speech. Some kid sitting across from Neal hands him a note and said it's from the girl that was looking at him earlier. Neal opens it and reads it with the at most enhanced sense of importance.
The note reads, "Hey I see you every day in this class and I'm beginning to want to get to know you more than just the kid who beats up everyone. You seem like a good person, even if you get kicked out for knocking them out. I would like to get to know who you really are. My name is Emily Valentine but my friends call me EV."
With that tiny motivation, Neal began to like Emily and her cute, star shining eyes. The experiment that Mr. Franklin prepared for everyone today includes using a Bunsen burner to ignite certain sticks that have been soaked in random chemicals that when burnt, give off different colored flames. The job of the students is to try to find which chemical they are burning and find that elements atomic mass, symbol, the number of protons and neutrons, and mention if it is part of a specific group of elements. Mr. Franklin gives the task of finding a partner up to the students since he trust everyone to get with someone who they can work best with. As sly as a fox, Emily makes her way over to Neal and before he knows it, he is standing right next to the girl who has a crush on him.
"Oh hey didn't see you there," said Neal.
"Hmm I'm just sneaky is all," replied EV with a bashful expression on her face.
"Well then, shall we begin?"
"You betcha."
Neal puts on his apron and goggles and helps Emily with her's. It isn't before long that Neal realizes that Emily is one smart girl, who knows more about chemistry than Mozart did about music. When Emily opened her binder to pull out some paper, one of her drawings fell to the floor. He picks it up and is mesmerized by its delicate, delicious, details and captivated by its elegant beauty. The picture shows a black and white rose that is beginning to wilt and tilt to the side with a ray of light on it to signify a sign of importance.
"Wow this is really nice," complimented Neal.
"Oh that thing? It isn't much, just a sketch; I'm no Vincent Van Gogh," responded EV.
"You're a lot better than me that's for sure."
"I'm sure you could do well if you tried and put some effort into it."
"Probably, but I'll stick to stick figures and simple shapes."
Throughout class, Neal began to like Emily more and more until he realized that class was going to end in two minutes. He quickly offered to hang up his and Emily's apron, and he catches himself and notices that he's never done anything like that before. Once the bell rang, Emily catches Neal before he heads off to his next class.
"Hey mister don't be a stranger now," suggested EV.
"Ok I won't, just for you," answered Neal.
"What the hell did I just say?" thought Neal to himself. He can't believe what he is hearing. He is actually starting to fall for this sweet and intelligent girl who vividly shows the likes for him. He shrugs it off like the tough teenager he is and walks off to his next class. Looking ahead, Neal can see Zeke heading towards him and tries to steer away from him but can tell that Zeke is on a crash course into Neal's world.
"Hey bud you got something going on with my sister?" questioned Zeke.
"What the hell you talking about bitch?" replied Neal.
"Don't talk to me like that you trailer trash homo."
With these few exchange of threats, the surrounding students formed a coliseum like barrier in hopes for a fury of fist flying action.
"Don't call me a homo pizza face,"
"You better watch what the hell you're saying you no good dirty rotten piece of shit,"
"Just get over it man I'm better than you at everything, even when it comes to getting a girl and it's never going to change!"
As soon as Zeke heard this, he immediately throws his scared and battered fist right in Neal's face. Almost as if Neal can predict the future, he swiftly dodges the punch and ducks to punch Zeke in his beer belly. This blow to the gut didn't do much but make Zeke even angrier. He grabbed Neal's head, started to lift his knee, and brought the two together that sent Neal flying a few feet back. Neal, now with a bloody nose, runs up to Zeke and punches him so hard in the face, he could've punched through a glass door. The impact of the punch sent Zeke to the floor. Taking advantage of Zeke's position, Neal runs up and kicks Zeke's stomach. Again, this did hardly anything to cripple Zeke, and he retaliated by grabbing Neal's leg and pulling him down to the ground, which causes his package of expired strawberry pop tarts to fall out, putting them up for grabs for the obese freshman that is standing by. He positions himself over Neal and sends a barrage of fist to Neal's face and chest. The extreme pain kept Neal from thinking of what to do next until he realized he had one of his arms free. When Zeke took a quick rest from exhaustion, Neal sends a burning fist directly to Zeke's chin. This blow was so hard, it forced Zeke to fall off Neal and forced him to land on his stomach. Before Neal could do any more damage, Mr. Peterson comes screaming around the corner to stop the brawl. Neal immediately dashes for the exit in an attempt to avoid the trouble he's just gotten himself into. If it wasn't for Mr. Holms, the weight lifting teacher, and his massive arms and gripping strength, he would've made it out, but was caught and slammed to the floor.
"And just where do you think you're going mister?" said Mr. Holms
"Get the fuck off me," yelled Neal
"You better calm down son, you're already in enough trouble as it is."
"But I didn't even start it this time."
"Yeah, whatever kid," addressed Mr. Holms, ending the conversation.
Mr. Holms escorted Neal to the principal's office right behind Zeke and Mr. Peterson. Neal can tell he's already in big trouble since he can see the cops just pulling up as he passes a window. As the two students and teachers walk through the hallway, other kids are standing on the sides watching the two of them walk towards what seems like death. As they enter the principal's office, the two police officers are anxiously waiting.
"Well, well, well, could've guessed it was Neal again," said one of the officers.
"Piss off pig," responded Neal.
"Alright that's enough from you young man," declared Mr. Peterson, "what exactly were you two fighting over anyways?"
Neal got the first chance and spoke the truth instantly.
"Honestly Mr. Peterson, that bitch started it and I was just performing self-defense," preached Neal.
"Whatever dude, you were hustling my sister and decided to smart mouth to me to show off," declared Zeke.
"Dude your such a bullshit liar, you can't even prove that," stated Neal.
"Not like you got any proof about me starting it," proclaimed Zeke.
"Oh really? Why don't we just interrogate a couple of those kids that saw the whole thing? I'm sure they'd be willing to testify"
With that statement, a raised eyebrow came to all four of the adults in the room and asked for any names of the kids that saw the fight that Neal knew. Mr. Peterson takes Neal to the back room as to keep the students names private. With a few descriptions, Mr. Peterson halts Neal with his listing of eligible students and takes him back into the room full with the police officers, Mr. Holms and Zeke.
"Alright Neal I think the best way to handle this is for you to go home and for Mr. Valentine here to spend the next couple days in ISS, as for the witnesses, I will call them down individually and ask them a few questions, that way we can decide if what you say is true, that you were only fighting back in a mere case of self-defense," explained Mr. Peterson
"Ok, I can deal with that," pronounced Neal.
"But I can't," whined Zeke.
As Neal walks out of the principal's office and heads towards the school's front doors, he confronts Emily. Speechless and afraid of what she might say, Neal keeps his mouth shut in hopes that EV starts the conversation. The two just stare at each other in a way that caused confusion among the passing students. Emily suddenly wraps her arms around Neal and hugs him tightly.
"Oh Neal, I'm so glad you're okay," whimpered Emily.
"It's not that bad, I've had worse," clarified Neal.
"I thought for sure my brother would've done a lot more."
"Please, that big guy? He's nothing more than a giant inflated beach ball."
With a quick laugh, Emily lets go of Neal and holds his hand.
"I want you to promise me that you'll try and behave yourself from now on, I wouldn't want my brother to do something as stupid as killing you or anything," Emily said with a lonely kind of look in her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," announced Neal.
"So what now?" asked Emily.
"Well now I have to take a long and grueling walk back home and just wait till tomorrow comes. It'll be another day, and I won't have to worry about your brother," explained Neal.
With a quick hug she starts to head back to her class and says,
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then."
"You can count on that," replied Neal.
He exits Jefferson High School and starts his menacing and tedious walk home. He strolls out past the flagpole and notices the sky. The dark and dead looking clouds indicate that it's going to rain soon, so Neal high-tails it home. He passes the brick wall that he saw this morning with the graffiti on it and stops for a moment. He reads out the words "ReVeNgE iS a BiTcH" and rolls it over and over in his mind. He gets a bad feeling about the fight he had with Zeke, but shrugs it off and continues homeward bound. As he jogs up to his front steps, he can hear Buddy barking his head off indicating his excitement to see Neal home once again.
"Hey, how you doing boy?" asked Neal.
Buddy, wagging his tail passionately, keeps barking up a storm and runs outside. Neal grabs Buddy's chewed up tennis ball and throws it at his nonfunctional piece of shit car. When Buddy returns with the slime coated ball, Neal is disgusted beyond belief. Neal heads inside, grabs a bag of ice for his nose, and plops down on their filthy, faded orange coach. Before he knows it, Neal passes out and is lost in tranquility.
5:45 pm, Neal has been asleep for almost five hours. It's been raining for a good couple of hours now. The moment he wakes up his mother walks through the door, drunk off her ass as usual and soaked from the pouring rain outside, and heads to the bathroom. He can hear the faint sound of her puking her guts out and can't help but smile, after all, she always ignores the warnings Neal gives her about over consumption of alcohol. She returns to see Neal's smile beginning to fade and puts on the most malicious and menacing expression she is able to.
"What the fuck you smiling about?" questioned his mother.
"You know damn right what I'm smiling about, you drunk so much that you barfed it all up...again," explained Neal.
"Shut your trap you little trouble maker, I know all about your little situation at school and I'm very upset with you."
"Me? You're worried about me? Look at yourself, you're so drunk you can't even walk straight, and you're worried about me? Please, save your breath for the breathalyzer and pleas for mercy from the cops."
"You don't talk to me like that young man, if your father was here he would..."
"Don't ever mention dad around me, ever," yelled Neal, interrupting his mother. "You know for damn certain that I don't like to talk about him and his unforgivable actions, so just leave it be."
"I'll talk about whoever the fuck I feel like, its my house and you live by my rules," shouted his mom.
Neal heads towards his bedroom with his mom following close behind. He slams the door and locks it just in time to prevent his mother from entering his room. He grabs his 9mm from under his mattress and jams it in his pocket. With massive amounts of hatred, anger, and despair inside of him, Neal leaps out of his window, leaving Buddy and his vicious mother behind. He pulls on his hood to protect his head from the rain and shifts his pocketed gun to the back of his waist. He starts walking to the nearest gas station to try to filch some food for dinner. The rain is really coming down, with no signs of stopping. As he makes his way to the station, he notices the cashier must be a new employee.
"Good, easy pickings," thought Neal.
As he entered the store, he exchanges greetings with the cashier in hopes of eliminating any signs of suspicion the he might've had about Neal. He strolls down the candy aisle and peers over at the front counter. Preoccupied with weather, the cashier doesn't even notice Neal. With a quick hand, Neal snatches two Snickers bars and two bags of Cornnuts. As he passes the front, he notices that the cashier is still watching the weather channel. Taking advantage of the clerk's position, Neal grabs a package of gum and heads out the door, thankfully he didn't have to use his gun as a threat. As Neal begins his stride home, the rain continues to pummel him with its icy cold feeling. When Neal approaches his house, he can see that his mom has left the house, probably gone on a search to find Neal. However, as he advanced to his bedroom window, he can see that it has been shattered. Looking down, Neal can see the footprints of an Etnies brand shoe about size 10. Neal can only think of one person with such a shoe, Zeke. He crawls in his window and falls with a thud to his floor. He realizes it's oddly quiet and it's not like Buddy to keep silent. As he followed the muddy footprints left behind by Zeke, he is horrified by the site in his living room. Buddy is lying dead on the floor, in a fresh pool of blood. Struck with such sudden surprise, Neal collapses to the floor in a world of sorrow. He looks up and sees Zeke's now bloody footprints make their way to their back door. The only thing on Neal's mind now is to make Zeke pay for his dreadful and unjustifiable deed. He rises like a reincarnated demon, ready to destroy everything in his path, and walks towards the door with a gloomy but sinful face that could only mean one thing, revenge. As he steps outside, he makes his plan to reassure Zeke that he has done something that can never be repaid, never forgotten, and certainly never forgivable. He starts in a hateful walk towards the Valentine residence that quickly turns from a jog, into a run. Once again, he passes the brick wall with the graffiti on it, only this time he doesn't stop, he just keeps on running towards the destruction of Zeke Valentine. While running to Zeke's house, he passes a patrolling cop car. The driver of the cruiser watches Neal run in the pouring rain like he's some kid of deranged mental idiot.
"What a crazy kid" thought the police officer.
He runs down to the court house and takes a left, still haunted by its terrifying columns of marble that portray an image of justice. He imagines his arms being those spires and how they will bring righteousness into Neal's life. As the building fades into the distance, Neal is quickly arriving to Zeke's house and he can see a faint shadow running in the same direction. It's most likely Zeke since his fat body can't carry him as quick and therefore is a longer trip for him. Neal haul's ass to catch Zeke before he enters his safe house and loses his only chance to get revenge. When Neal is about ten feet away, Zeke peers over his back and sees what resembles a demon of vengeance that could only be represented by Neal himself. With an extensive leap, Neal throws himself on Zeke, which causes the both of them to fall into the streets. Consumed by a state of unexplainable hatful emotions, Neal lays Zeke on his back and stares into his sorrow filled eyes. Disgusted by Zeke's now merciful face, Neal doesn't make a move but just lets Zeke sit there and think about what is about to happen to him.
"Oh please man, please please don't kill me, I'm sorry man" cried Zeke with a stuttered voice.
"Shut your mouth you worthless ingrate." Shouted Neal
With balled up fists Neal begins to give the reasons for his horrific actions,
"You killed my dog, sabotaged my project, almost broke my nose, denied me of your sister, and now the show starts."
"Oh please Neal I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, please forgi..." before Zeke could finish his plea for mercy Neal sends a raging right fist to his nose. Forgetting everything in his life, Neal continues to pummel Zeke with punch after punch. He then takes out his pistol, first looking at the trigger, but decides to take the butt of the gun to Zeke's head a couple of times.
Walking to Zeke's room, Emily knocks on her brother's door to see if he is still there.
"Zeke...you in there?" asks Emily.
She opens her brother's door and finds it completely vacant. She walks to the window only to be horrified by the scene outside. With a flash of lightning, she can see that the two kids outside in the rain are non-other than her brother and her one love, Neal.
Neal continues to beat on Zeke, making it clear that he has made the biggest mistake of his life in killing his dog. He rises off Zeke, who now has a blood covered face, and holds his gun with bloody hands. He stares at it gracefully and rotates it in his hand. He pulls back the bolt of the gun to find a single round in the chamber. Letting go of the bolt, it makes a clear sound of death as it slides back in place. He slowly points it at Zeke, but gradually pulls it back down, only to bring it up to place it in his mouth.
Emily dashes downstairs in her pajamas and slippers. As she heads out the door, she can see the silhouettes of the boys outside, one standing and one on the ground. As she bursts through the door, she can see the lone standing person bring something to his mouth. The door slams, and a gunshot is fired simultaneously. Emily jumps from the sudden ear splitting tone and watches as the figure drops to the ground, dead. A cop car pulls around the corner, drawn by the gunshot. As he rides up to the scene of the two boys, he calls the dispatcher.
"Dispatch, we need an ambulance over here right away."
The two boys lie under the rain, in the soaked and blood stained street, Zeke unconscious, Neal...dead.