Chapter 1

“James? Hello, James?”

I snapped out of my daydream and looked over at Mr. Davers. He was looking at me with a frown.

Damn, I had done it again. I had completely zoned out in class. I heard some giggles from the girls in my class at my dazed expression. I grinned at them as that was expected of the class slacker.

“James, can you answer my question?” Mr. Davers asked me.

“Yeah, for sure, Mr. Davers,” I said with a grin. “The circumference of the square...”

The entire class began to laugh and I saw Mr. Davers give me a disappointed look. This was my History class and I was acting like a complete fool for laughs. It was nothing new to the other students.

“I guess we are all here for your amusement, James,” Mr. Davers said as he shook his head. “Carol, please explain the significance behind World War 1?”

Carol answered the question as some people still snickered at my response. I looked over at my friend Joseph who was doodling in his notebook. He turned and looked at me with a grin.

“‘The circumference of the square,’” Joseph said with a loud laugh. Several of the other students around us also laughed.

Mr. Davers looked at us with a serious expression on his face. I could tell that he was getting upset now. “Joseph, is there something you would like to share with the rest of the class?”

“Nah, Mr. Davers. Everything is copacetic,” Joseph said with a silly grin on his face. He had smoked some weed during lunch and was high as fuck. I had also taken a few tokes and was feeling it.

The class laughed again. Mr. Davers was going to respond when the final bell rang. Everyone got up and rushed out of the classroom as it was the last class of the day. I grabbed my bookbag and was heading out with Joseph when Mr. Davers called my name.

“James, please stay back for a moment. I want to talk to you,” Mr. Davers said.

Joseph hurried out of the class before Mr. Davers told him to remain as well. I stood to the side as my classmates walked out. Once the class was empty except for Mr, Davers and me, he faced me with that same serious look.

“James, why do you goof off in class?” Mr. Davers asked me.

I shuffled my feet as I did not know what to say. Mr. Davers seemed to be waiting for a response. I always had some sort of one-liner to drop in class but nothing seemed to come out of my mouth now.

“I just don’t get it. You’re very smart. You pass all of the exams and quizzes and do very well on the essays but you goof off all the time! Why is that? Do you think it makes you look cool?” Mr. Davers said.

“No, not really,” I said as I continued to shuffle my feet. “I’m just ... you know...” I had no idea what to say.

“You can’t continue on this path, James. You will be graduating high school in a few months and the real world is not going to be kind to goofballs. It is time to take yourself and life seriously.”

“Yeah, for sure, Mr. Davers. I’ll do better,” I said. I was anxious to leave. There was a video game that was calling my name at home. I didn’t want to waste another second being lectured by Mr. Davers.

Mr. Davers let out a sigh. “I sure hope you do. You may leave.”

I nodded at Mr. Davers and quickly left the room. I walked to my locker where Joseph waited for me. He was leaning against a locker and playing Candy Crush on his phone.

“Did Mr. Davers chew you out?” Joseph asked me in that sleepy voice of his. Joseph and I were quite similar in many ways. He was 6’0 and thin like me. However, he had long blond hair that he kept in a ponytail. He always had a baseball cap that sat backward on his head and wore oversized shirts and denim jeans all the time. Joseph always looked like he was half-asleep as his eyes were always droopy.

We both liked the same anime, manga, music, and video games. We would spend hours hanging out at each other’s homes just chilling with our hobbies. Another hobby was smoking weed which we did often as well. Joseph preferred a bong to a joint but smoked one during lunch at school every day.

“No. He just lectured me about my future and how the real world is serious,” I said with a grin. I put my books into my locker and closed it.

Joseph laughed. “Man, he needs to relax. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

We walked out of the school and headed toward the bus stop. Neither one of us had a car as we both did not have a job. The money that we had was from relying on our parents for weekly allowances. We were bums in every sense of the word.

It was a nice sunny day and I considered going to the park to skate but I really wanted to play my video game. It was an open-world fantasy RPG that had been consuming my nights ever since I bought it two weeks ago. Joseph and I both played the game at night and would work together to do the various side missions that would get us extra EXP and rare items.

The bus came and we got on. We chatted about the game for a bit as we rode the bus. There was a new mission that we were excited about undertaking as it could get us a special weapon that we needed to fight a dragon.

The bus dropped Joseph off near his home before I disembarked. I walked toward the house where I lived with my parents and younger sister Miley. As soon as I opened the door, I could hear my sister and my mom arguing. They were constantly at each other’s throats.