City X ([BxB])

Chapter 4: The Mistake The Would Change Two Lives

As for the ten years I was talking about, it consisted of me wandering around the West Side most of the time, not talking to anyone except if I had to buy something for home, such as food. The school system there wasn't that much better, either. We were all learning lower level stuff, and I wasn't allowed to show off my intelligence. If I did, my classmates will come find me, considering they really hate people with smarts. Sadly, I had to learn that the hard way

But at home, I use my free time to improve my knowledge with whatever resources I have around me. I even gathered so much stuff at the junkyard one time that I made my own telescope. The brass always glimmered in the small lamp I got working again while I looked up into the night sky each night, the stars just moving around a little bit each time.

Even though we never had that much food or clean water to drink (to help out hydro-powered machines inside our bodies such as our stomachs), the activities I did and the stuff I made distracted me from our lack of resources. I drew, wrote, read, played games with myself, the like. This was all fun to me, and I never got bored of it. Of course, when I got older and read more books, these activities became more complex, which exercised my brain to its full capacity, sometimes making me pass out! Too descriptive... yeah...

Anyways, during those years, I learned some of the different ways of the West Side, such as not looking people directly in the eyes if they look threatening, or talking to anyone unless they talk to you. That stuff is common knowledge down here if you lived here all your life, but for me, I had to learn it on my own. No teachers to help me along the way, no father to help me either, and with my mom being so busy trying to make money to keep us running, it was every man for themselves.

Each passing day, I learned something new, about someone or something. I'm a very observant person who can learn a lot about someone just by looking at their faces. An example would be Damien, how I just looked at him and observed him for a little while and knew exactly what type of person he was.

But one day, the exact day I turned fifteen, I noticed something I never saw before, as if it was just put there. A magnificent new piece to my telescope, which can make it zoom in at least twenty-five times more than it could already zoom in.

No note was left behind, and I already know my mom didn't put it there nor get it for me cause then she would've been mad about not having enough money, which she already does on a daily basis. The only thing left behind was a carving in my wooden desk, the only letter being an uppercase "D"

"Who left this?" I yelled downstairs to my mom, the smell of fried apples coming from the small kitchen on the first floor. An audible sigh came from my mom's mouth, and she just cursed some... not-so-kid-appropriate words to herself. She turned the oven off and walked up the stairs, which creaked with each step she took. Walking into my room, she looked at me and was just oblivious to the glass that was on my desk.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, looking around my room. Pointing to my desk, she looked at the glass piece and the signature left behind. A shrug and she left the room, not say any more about that. That was the most confusing thing that has ever happened to me, not including everything else that happened after I applied the lens and looked out my window with it.

Speaking of which, after I applied the lens late that night, I saw something, not too close, but not too far. Something new, but reminded me of something old. Something that was the same, but also different. A darker colored brick was in place at the same spot a really light colored brick was before, which was kind of odd, considering I haven't seen any bricks infused with copper since I was in the South Side. A place I have only seen in memories and my telescope, all lit up, looking as pretty as it'll ever be.