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"Ahhhh!"

A brown haired boy sat up from his bed breathing heavily. The boy looked only about 15 years old.

The boy looked down at his hands. They were shaking.

"Just another dream, just another dream."

This boys name is Jake.

Jake climbed out of his bed and slipped on a pair of socks and his favorite black hoodie.

***

"Hey kiddo. Did you sleep well last night?" A well dressed man in his forties asked Jake as he entered the kitchen.

Jake ignored the man, who happened to be his uncle and focused on making his breakfast.

Jake's uncle Max felt a little hurt by that fact that his nephew didn't say anything to him.

"Hey man you finally got up."

Jake felt an arm go around the back of his neck. It was his older cousin Dan. Dan is a fairly popular kid who is in the school band.

Jake ignored Dan as well and took a seat at the table to eat his breakfast.

***

"Hurry up or were going to be late." Dan called to Jake as he closed the door.

Jake soon followed Dan outside and they made their way to school.

Dan tried to connect with Jake by talking about school. Jake ignored him like he normally did.

After 15 minutes of awkward silence the pair finally arrived at school.

29 March 2020 11:06 AM

Jake walked into the cafeteria with his lunch.

He sat at a nearby table and began to eat his lunch that consisted of a tuna sandwich, crackers, and two cookies.

"Hey did you hear about the drug bust two blocks from here?"

"Yea, that hero After Image was the one who did it."

"He is so cool."

Jake looked over to his left and saw a table of five kids that looked to be his age talking about some of the exploits of the local Super Heroes.

"Some Super Heroes." Jake muttered to himself. "Where were they when my family needed them?"

***

4 hours 14 minutes later

"Look at this big fat piggy."

"Listen to him squeal."

Jake was walking to go outside so he could walk home with his cousin. He was a little late because he needed to pick up some stuff from his classroom.

"L-leave me alone."

*Smack*

"I didn't say you could talk."

The same group of five that was talking about the exploits of the Superhero known as After Image was picking on a fat kid.

"I can't take them all down. One or Two I could do, but five, not possible." Jake muttered to himself.

Just as Jake was about to walk past the group beating down the fat kid, the ring leader of the group of five call to Jake.

"Hey you, come here I need to talk to you."

"What do you want?" Jaked asked in an uninterested tone

"Hey now, don't be like that. I know who you are. You're the weird kid that never talks to anyone."

"Leave him alone Terence." The Fat kid shouted.

"Shut up pig." Terence shouted as he kicked the Fat Kid in the face.

Terence turned back with an ugly smile on his face. "If you help us show this pig a lesson I'll let you hangout with us."

***

Jake's POV

'What made this dumbass think I wanted anything to do with him.'

"Hey Jake there you are. I was wondering where you were."

I turned to find a familiar face calling to me.

Dan.

***

Dan is a wizard with words. Part of the reason he's one of the most popular kids in school.

He convinced Terence and his "gang" that we were running late and needed to get home.

On our way home Dan tried to start a conversation again.

"So... How was your day?" Dan asked me

"Fine." I replied

"... You really don't make it easy to have a friendly chat , do you?"

"Does it matter?"

Dan didn't reply to my question. Not that I care if he did or not.

"You go in ahead of me. I need some time to myself." I said to Dan as we reached the door the the apartment.

"Oh, ok. See you at supper then."

I walked off to walk around the block before I went inside.

Even if it were only for a moment I wanted to be able to clear my head.