The Joining: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

3: Now

     The incessant buzzing of the alarm clock had been unnecessary on this early Monday morning, as the boy laid awake after a fitful night's sleep. It wasn't that he was dreading the day exactly, it was just that he would rather be absolutely anywhere else than where he had to go.

As he did most weekday mornings, he briefly mulled over the options before him. Namely, if he chose not to participate in the rituals of daily life, and instead just hid in his bed. Unfortunately, it was not even realistic enough of an idea to waste time creating a fantasy about. Any insubordination would only be short lived, and the punishment not worth the crime. So with the lack of sleep still attempting to hold him down to the bed, Kyle Edison sat up with a heavy sigh.

He sat, his mind pulling him in every direction but to his feet. Would this week be any different? Would the busywork forced upon him daily lighten? Would he be forced into some kind of team exercise? Would he have a actual conversation with anyone that didn't involve the answers to a test that he was not prepared for? Would anything happen that would actually matter?

As he swung his feet to the floor, and with a grunt stood up to begin the short walk to the bathroom, he tried to psych himself up for the day and the week ahead. The school year had just started, after all. It was barely fall. He had plenty of time to make up for lost time and do better. He really wanted to do better, but when the time came to act on that desire, it just didn't seem like it was worth the effort. He and the mediocre C average he carried continued through the morning routine, finishing with wiping the steam from the shower off of the bathroom mirror and looking at himself in the glass. The barely controllable brown hair on his head was just another obstacle as he began to comb it down from a total disaster to a presentable one. There was a slight pimple forming, not enough to care about at this point, yet later he was sure he would look at it with anger. Blue eyes looked back at him with a pleading look, wondering why he was being put through this.

He dressed as slowly as he dared, just jeans and an unimpressive t-shirt. Unimpressive was a word that seemed to follow him like a cloud in the air. He trudged to the kitchen, glancing at the hanging clock on the wall. Despite his grumbling stomach, and the constant reminders from old commercials in his head telling him how important the first meal of the day was, he knew he didn't have time to eat anything substantial. Not that there was an overabundance of food in the house. Hopefully his dad would find time to get to the store soon, but with his constant work he knew that was unlikely. It wasn't anything Kyle minded, as he did like the solitude, only seeing his father a few times a week. Kyle didn't blame his father. Glancing at the picture of his mother on the living room wall as he grabbed an apple, he wondered how it would be different if she had been around.

Taking a large bite, he slung his backpack around his shoulders. Its bulk from the three schoolbooks weighed him down just as much as the weight of the day upon him. He sighed one more time as he slipped his white non-descript tennis shoes on, and glanced around, willing a distraction to appear. Or a comet to wipe out the Earth sometime in the next five seconds. When neither happened, he turned to the front door and stepped outside.

The walk from his house to his school was short, roughly ten minutes. Convenient on the way home, but on the way there he wished it was much, much longer. Still, when he was in grade school he was bussed several miles, and that was as good as torture at times too. At least if he wanted to speed up the journey, he could jog or run across the large field. On a bus, he was under the control of the driver. If there was one thing he hated, it was having his freedom to move around at his own pace controlled by anyone else. So at least that was behind him.

As he crossed the field to the main sidewalk leading to the high school, he saw others walking along. Few others crossed the field, despite it being a more direct path and at least allowing other distractions from the nearby wooded area. That was one reason Kyle liked it, he was typically the only one there. He wasn't trying to be non-conformist, he just appreciated the silence, which lessened more and more as he got closer to the school and the random discussions and yelling between his schoolmates. As he got to the point where he was forced to walk on the same path as others, he paced himself purposefully to not be too close to anyone. He wasn't intentionally anti-social, he just didn't want to be bothered nor bother anyone else. It probably wouldn't have been an issue in either way, as he didn't think anyone on the walk cared he was there at all.