The Secret of Xavier

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

       My bedroom door slowly creeping open, waking me up from my sleep. Surprisingly, the boom of the loud thunders weren't the thing that woke me up.

       "Daddy?" a quiet voice said. "Sleep here?"

       I sighed and sat up, rubbing my eyes before looking at my two year old son, Xavier, standing in the doorway as he clutched his favorite teddy bear. I nodded, so he walked over and climbed onto my bed. "Just go to bed," I told him. "I need my sleep."

       "Why?" he asked, pulling the blankets over him.

       "Because I have to go to school tomorrow," I told him.

       "Why?" he asked.

       I sighed at his constant question. "I'm eighteen, Xavier. I need an education."

       "Why?"

       "Just go to sleep, okay?"

       "No. No thunder," Xavier said, pulling the blanket so it almost covered his face. "It scary."

       I sighed. Knowing past experiences with him, it was going to be a long night. "Just....Hum yourself to sleep. It will block out the noise."

       Xavier looked at me with a smile. I knew exactly what he was going to ask. "A song?"

       I sighed once again. "Xavier, I need to go to sleep."

       "Please," he begged, his bottom lip quivering. I could never say 'No' to his begging look, no matter how bad I wanted to.

       "Fine," I said. "One song. Then you have to go to sleep, okay?" Xavier nodded, his smile growing wider as I began to sing one of his favorite songs. Not even halfway through the song, he was sound asleep. Now it was time for me to get some shuteye.

~*~*~*~

       "Hudson!" my environmental science teacher, Mrs. Lancaster, said sharply, causing me to sit up quickly. I rubbed my eyes before looking at her, wincing at the stern look on her face. "School isn't a place for sleeping."

       "Sorry," I muttered. "I was up late last night."

       Mrs. Lancaster sighed. "Then you should have went to be earlier." Oh trust me, I tried. "I was telling the class about an upcoming project, which you will have to do in partners. I have your partners chosen already and once I tell everyone who their partners are, I will go around with topics and one person will pick their topic."

       I listened as she told everyone who their partner was, listening to some complaints as they didn't get paired with their best friend. My partner was Nova Howell, a quiet but friendly girl. She was normally by herself, but she did talk to people when she had to.

       After all the pairs were listed, we had to go sit with out partner. I got up and sat down in the empty seat beside Nova, giving her a small smile.

       Mrs. Lancaster came by with a hat filled with pieces of paper. Nova grabbed one out and opened it. "Our project is to create a substance that will help plants grow," she said.

       I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? That can take weeks."

       "Luckily, we have one month," Nova said. "She told us. Weren't you listening?"

       "If I recall, no, I was not," I said. "I was sleeping because I was kept up late last night by my s--brother." I mentally slapped myself. I slipped up almost all the time whenever I talked about Xavier. Anyone outside my family only thought that I had a little brother, not a son.