The book of scraps

Chapter 1: The Actor

When I opened my eyes I was standing in a room shrouded by white. There was nothing around me. As I had the thought that there was nothing, voices whispered into my ears.

"Nothing?"
"Something?"
"The end?"
"The beginning?"
"Both? Both? Both? Both? Both? Both???"
"ALL!"

In fear, I covered my ears. How can nothing have something and something have nothing? How can it be both? What does it mean by "ALL"?

As my thoughts seemed to cloud itself in circles, I heard a "thump" in front of me. Then another few "thumps" afterwards, almost in a rhythm-like pattern. I glanced up, slightly removing my hands from my ears, and was shocked to see that a blue ball was bouncing my way. It then rolled towards me, tapping my feet. Hesitantly, I bent down to pick up the ball but when I stood back up I was under a tree. I then heard footsteps in front of me so I quickly looked up to find that a few feet away from me was a brown-haired, pale-skinned boy wearing a red jacket. His blue and brown heterochromia eyes stared intensely at me.

"Where.... How did you do that?" He asked

At first, I was confused as to what he was asking me. Then I realized that I had appeared out of nowhere in his perspective.

"Ah, right... I wasn't here before... if he was standing there the whole time... how do I explain this to him when I don't even know how I got here either?" I thought.

"Hey, did you hear me? How did you just appear out of nowhere?!"

I flinched a bit. " I gotta change the subject for now... or at least come up with a lie... I got it!" I thought.

"Answer me or I'll-"

"I fell out of the tree! A-and I saw this ball so I picked it up..." I lied, hoping he'll believe me.

"You... fell? But I didn't see you fall?" He asked

"Oh- um I had already fallen, you see... and I think I just seemed to appear here cause I was standing up after picking up this blue ball....." I explain hesitantly.

There was a moment of silence, and I could feel myself sweating profusely in panic."Common, just take the bait!" I thought.

The boy just stood there thinking to himself in silence.

"Alright then.... Could you return my ball?" He asked calmly

"O-of course!" I said with nervousness in my voice, "thank goodness he believed my lie!" I thought as I handed him the ball.

He turned to walk away, and I sigh in relief. Suddenly he turned back around and, with great surprise, I stood at attention.

"Hey.... What's your name?" He asked

I panicked. I didn't remember my name so I couldn't reply immediately because I was thinking up another lie.

"Oh um... My name is [restricted] so embarrassing that I don't tell people it." I explained, while waving my hands in "no" matter. "What was that?" I thought.

"Really? Well since you are in my backyard, I guess you have no choice but to tell me your name now." He taunted as he walked back my way. I could tell that he was starting to suspect me and if I didn't give a name, I was going to have problems.

"I- it's... [restricted] uh... [restricted] um... [restricted]" I panickily looked around for clues since none of the names worked. "Scoo..."

"Scoo?"

"No! I mean... uh ap...?"

".... Scraps?"

"Yes! It's uh... Scraps! Scraps is my name!"