Holding On To Hope

Daniel's Background (Prologue)

Daniel James Cooper was born on March 12th, 1999 to Mary and Hank Cooper. Raised in an abusive household, Daniel never really felt that he had a father figure. In fact, he never even called Hank "dad", but instead by his first name. Daniel was much closer to his mother, but Mary was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer when Daniel was 13, and passed away the next year.

After his mother passed, Daniel had an even harder time at home. Hank abused him even more, without Mary there to stop him, and Daniel eventually had to start buying his own food and clothes with money he stole from Hank's wallet because Hank was too drunk to even notice Daniel half the time, much less buy him food or clothing.

When he was 15, Daniel was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and soon after started drinking. He would sneak a beer from the fridge and drink it in his room with his door shut. Hank didn't seem to notice or care. When he started High School, Daniel started smoking marijuana. He was introduced to weed by a classmate, and he loved it. It was an escape for Daniel. An escape from the shitty life he was living. A chance to get away from all the pain and suffering.

Daniel never had many friends. He was normally known as the "emo kid" because he listened to a lot of hardcore rock and metal. But Daniel didn't care. He was okay with being alone. It gave him a chance to just be alone and quiet, and think.

Because Daniel didn't have many friends, as you could probably guess, he was bullied a lot. But Daniel didn't care much about being bullied either. If anyone said something that bothered him, they'd figure that out while they were on the floor crying with a bloody nose. Because of this, and the fact that he had some "minor anger management issues", he was constantly being moved from school to school.

But our story doesn't start until August 17th, 2016. Daniel's first day of his Junior year at O'Connor High School.