Chapter 2

17 Years Later

The alarm began to buzz and David swung out of bed instantly to stop it. He had to walk across the room to shut it off, having long ago found that unless he was forced to get up he would just hit snooze. He heard movement outside his room so he quickly threw on his boxers. He looked into the mirror and tried to put on a fake smile. Unconsciously he tugged at the choker around his neck.

He began getting dressed for school and thought about the day ahead of him. He always dreaded going to school. It wasn't that he was stupid or anything, quite the opposite. For as long as he could remember anything he questioned or wondered about came to him extremely easily. It was the constant fights and insults that made him dread his daily routine.

He often wondered why people still singled him out when he was no longer a typical nerd. About a year before he had been overweight and he had finally decided to change things in his life. He got a simple gym membership and changed his diet. It was amazingly simple and yet extremely difficult for him.

He headed down to the kitchen and started the stove, letting the eye heat up. He knew he had time, but Beth had made a habit of showing up early. Beth was the last of his childhood friends that hung out with him still. He cracked a few eggs and tossed them into the pan and ran back to his room to put some gel in his hair and spike it up. With that finished he ran back into the kitchen and flipped his eggs. The doorbell rang and he dashed over to it.