Shadow-Man

1

I woke up early in the morning, like I usually did. The day started out just like any other day of my life. I woke up, got ready for school, then rode my skateboard there. Everyday at school was always the same, and painfully so, and I had absolutely no reason at all to believe that that day was going to be any different. Nothing interesting ever happened in any of my classes, and everyone and everything was exactly the same. This was largely caused by the fact that we had to have uniforms.

The dress code was very strict, and heavily enforced. All of the girls had to wear black flats, white socks that went half way up our shins, maroon plaid skirts that went all the way down to our knees, white dress shirts, and a grey vest, with our hair pulled into a ponytail. This meant that I wasn't aloud to cut my hair, no matter how much I wanted to. The boys wore pretty much the same thing, except they had maroon slacks, and black dress shoes. During formal events either at the school, or funded by the school, all of the students also had to wear maroon blazers.

I got to school, stepped off my skateboard, and kicked it up to carry it inside. My skateboard always took up most of the room in locker, which made things just a bit complicated because I didn't have much room for all of my books, but it was the only way I had to get to and from school, so I managed. As I was grabbing some books, and putting my skateboard into my locker, I heard my friend call out my name.

"Ty!" She called out. She was always so positive. I turned around, and saw Clair, my friend. She had long, red hair, with striking blue eyes, and very pale skin. She looked like she was almost the exact opposite of me. I had tan skin, brown eyes, and dark brown hair. Clair was most definately more attractive than me, but this didn't bother me at all.

"Hi Clair." I said in a voice that was a lot calmer than hers.

"I hear we get to watch a video about something special in global studies." Clair said excitedly.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but I really don't think it's going to be very exciting."

"It might be."

"Doubtful. Nothing exciting ever happens around here." With that, the conversation was over, and Clair and I took our seats in our first class.

We did watch a video in global studies like Clair had said that we would, but I more or less missed part of it. The second I had sat down at my desk, I took out my sketchpad, and began drawing instead of paying attention. Our teacher started the video, but I still didn't look up. Eventually, I did end up glancing up at the screen, and after that, I couldn't pull my eyes away from it.

The video was about recent news, and it was talking about a murder. After that, it talked about a mugging. Then a car crash, another murder, and a stand off that almost ended in a mass shooting. It was all just news about all the crime, and the people that were dead. What bothered me most was that there was footage of the victims of these crimes, meaning someone stood back, and took a video of someone getting killed instead of trying to help. That wasn't right. To stand back and watch a life get taken was wrong. I left that class angry at the world.

I wanted to do something. I wanted to help, and I wanted to make a positive difference in the world. I didn't want to be like everyone else, standing back and doing nothing more than taking a video while someone else gets killed. It just wasn't right, and I didn't want to be any part of it. I decided right then and there that if I ever saw someone who needed help, I would help them. No matter what.

The opportunity to hold true to my decision presented itself a lot sooner than I had expected. I was skateboarding home after school, just that day, when some movement caught my attention. I stopped, and looked over to my left, where I saw something going on in the alley way across the street from me. I couldn't quite see what was going on, so I just stared for a moment, until I heard a voice.