Things hadn't always been this bad for me. Everything in my life always seemed great. Not perfect, but great; good enough to not be complained about. But not anymore. It seemed everything had gotten turned upside down, and it all happened in a matter of a week or two.

The average morning used to be: you'd wake up to the happy, shining sun. You get up, feeling very refreshed from a peaceful nights sleep, get ready for school or where ever you were going, and go downstairs. Mom would be making breakfast, the pleasant aroma of the classic eggs and bacon entering your nostrils and making your mouth water, while Dad sat at the table, clad in his clean business suit, reading the paper, awaiting his breakfast before he kissed his wife and bid his kids goodbye and left for work.

My younger sister, Linda, would happily bounce down the stairs and take her rightful seat at the table, and immediately gorge out on Mom's peachy cooking. Mom would finally sit down to her breakfast herself, and we would all have a pleasant morning, talking about what would be going on today or later in the week. Okay, maybe breakfast wasn't that perfect, but you get the idea.

But it wasn't like that anymore...

Instead of waking up to a happy, shining sun, the sun now seemed to be your worst enemy, and instantly put you in a bad mood with its too bright of shining. You now get up, slowly get ready, still tired from a very restless sleep, and mope downstairs. You have to now find your own means of breakfast, which is usually nothing more then cereal or a granola bar because money's real tight now, while you notice Mom is sitting at the table, idly sipping a mug of coffee and looking at some business papers while Dad is completely out of sight. Why? Cause he's gone, and made it real clear that he's not coming back. Not any time soon.

Linda, no longer her happy go-lucky self, now stomps down the stairs, nothing but a scowl on her once happy, soft and light face. The whole house that used to be full of happy morning chatter is now sadly quiet and dull.

"Good morning," I try saying. I, even though I'm the only one right now, still try to see the good in the world, and I still always try to be positive, although it does no good.

No answer. Mom just keeps reading on while Linda looks up and glares at me, a look that says 'fuck you' and 'just shut the hell up' all at the same time. The sun isn't the only thing that puts you in a bad mood; it's little morning situations like this.

I can't recall exactly how this all happened. Tracing all this back to the roots seems like asking for a little much, and the memories are a little bit fuzzy. But all I know is I didn't do anything to deserve a life like this. I seemed to always be alone, even in a room full of people. I didn't know how much longer I could go on...

---

I strolled into school that Wednesday morning with nothing on my wind except going home. I wasn't in the mood for another agonizing day of school.

While heading down the hall to my locker, I was fingering the straps of my bag, looking down at the ground and peoples feet as I walked, thinking about the events that had happened this morning at my house, when I suddenly felt my shoulder collide with someone else's, and hard.

"Sorry," I immediately said as I looked up to see who I had run into. But I froze once I saw who it was.

I didn't recognize him at all. I figured he was new. Time seemed to slow as I quickly studied his features. He was way taller then me, standing about 6'2. The top of my shoulder was almost parallel with the top of his arm, inches above his elbow. He wasn't real lean and thin, but he wasn't real bulky and fat either.

His hair was mainly a dark brown, with some lighter shades within it. His hair was long, ending just past his shoulders, and was just barely styled in messy dreadlocks.

He wore a big black shirt with nothing on it except two thing white lines that went down the baggy sleeves. He wore faded, baggy old jeans and had big, black converse shoes. His appearance was topped off with a chain wallet I noticed, a black studded bracelet on his right arm, and a thick pinky ring was worn on his left hand.

The look on his face was nearly what made me quiver the most, but his features were what made me unable to look away. He at first glared at me with nothing but hate in his eyes. His right eyebrow was pierced and the earring of choice was a silver loop with a still little ball in the center. His eyes, I noticed, though kind of hard to see because of some stray strands of hair, were a beautiful shade of dark green, but they seemed darker because of the evil look he was giving me. His nose seemed in perfect proportion with the rest of his face as did his mouth, and he had a little bit of a stubble going on on his chin and it went all along his jaw line all the way up to where he had some small sideburns going on. The look in his eyes softened a little, and his face and body relaxed. Time started again as he just nodded at my apology, and walked on down the hall.

I watched him walk away until the hoard of students pushed me on my way down the hall, and I snapped out of my little daze. Who was that guy?

I finally made it to my locker and opened it, just randomly and quietly listening to the girls a few lockers down from me. Call me nosy, but it was a bad habit of mine.

"Oh my God, did you hear about the new kid?" Some tall blond was saying to her freckled friend.

"You mean the giant?" She asked.

"Uh-huh," the blond said, twirling her hair around her index finger. She leaned on her locker and chewed hard on her fresh piece of bubble gum. I couldn't stand people like this, but I moved at a slower pace as I put books back into my locker and took out the ones I needed. I wanted to hear what she had to say about him, if he was even the same guy I had just bumped into. I had a hunch it was; no one else here was that tall.

"I heard that he just got out of some jail or somethin'," she said. I listened closer.

"Are you serious?" The other asked. "What for?"

"I heard that he shot a kid and punched a police officer," she said, her eyes wide. I rolled my eyes to myself. Who the hell would be stupid enough to do this? But still, it could be true. But I knew better then to trust bimbos like this. But still, I had to listen.

"He's been to like, twenty other schools all around because of all the fights he gets into and stuff," the blond was saying. "And Dean told me that he heard that he's–" She leaned in closer as did her friend, "A Devil worshiper," She whispered loud enough for me to still hear.

"You mean, he worships Satan?" The other chick asked. I silently laughed to myself.

"Uh-huh," the blond said, leaning back now.

"Wow," the freckled chick said, her eyes wide. "We'd better stay away from him."

"Ya-ha," the blond said as if her friend was stupid. They both shut their locker, and took off down the hall. Was any of that really true? Sure he dressed and looked a little different then everyone else here, but no one was really that strange and bad. But then again, you never knew.

I closed my locker now too and headed to my first class: math, my best subject. As I walked down the hall, I couldn't help but wonder who that guy was, and if all those things were true...