Words In The Dark

Chapter Two: Cesar

Chapter Two: Cesar Almost Gets Eaten

     Foil character. Protagonist. Antagonist. Ok, that's good, good, and bad. Or was it bad, good, and bad? I can't remember. Crap.

     "How are we feeling about hamburgers for dinner?" The sudden question surprised Cesar and derailed him aggressively from of his train of thought. He had been thinking about his most recent creative writing lesson and he had been going over how to make a strong foil character for a good ten minutes at that point. Studying was not something Cesar excelled at, but he figured it was worth a try anyway.  

     "What?" He muttered distractedly. "Oh. Uh, whatever you feel like, Dad. I don't mind either way." He sat back in his chair again and continued to revise his notes, clicking and opening a new Google tab on his laptop and typing something in the search bar as he did so. "I've got a quiz tomorrow and I should probably study." He added as an afterthought, bringing his pencil up to his mouth so he could chew on the eraser while he lost himself in a thousand different words. 

     He'll probably pass it, his dad thought. Cesar smiled and looked over at his idol, his heart soaring. His dad's unwavering faith in him was one of the many things that made him want to make the honor roll so very bad. He had been trying to get on it for years, but he had always been a bit slower on the uptake than other kids in his grade. He constantly put himself down over it, but it seemed like any time Cesar brought up some sort of exam or homework assignment he was stressed about, his dad reassured himself and Cesar almost instantly that he would do well. It was something that both pressured and motivated Cesar and made him strive to succeed. 

     "How important is the quiz?" His dad asked, walking around the island to grab an apple from the fruit dish on the counter. Maybe I can take him out for dinner to calm him down a bit.

     Cesar shook his head with a smile in his father's direction. "Not too important. It's nothing that warrants too much anxiety. You don't need to take me out to dinner like last time to calm me down. I'm fine." He looked down at his notes and scratched a notice onto a sticky note and stuck it to the page, covering up one of his previous sentences with a better, revised one.

     I swear this kid can read my mind, his dad thought with a smile. Cesar tried to stifle a similar grin. "Well, if you change your mind you know where I am." His dad said. "If you want, there's some chicken noodle in the fridge. Oh! Don't forget to feed Ax. You know how annoying he is about his food." With an eye-roll and a goofy grin, his dad walked around the island once again and rubbed Cesar's head, ruffling up his hair before heading into his study. Now how should I torture my character next? Cesar laughed when the door shut. 

     If you couldn't tell, Cesar's dad was a writer and a pretty good one at that. The older man lived by one philosophy, and that philosophy was: If the characters want a happy ending, they're going to have to work for it. Sadly, he also lived by the same philosophy he put on his characters so he was often gloomy and down when he wasn't in his son's company. Cesar was constantly trying to shake his father out of it, but silly jokes and genuine compliments rarely worked. The one good thing about having a writer for a father, Cesar continually noted, was that his father understood that mistakes were a blessing in disguise most of the time. It saved Cesar from a rough grounding and frequent lectures on multiple occasions like his friends continually got.

     Cesar closed his laptop and shut his notebook. He stood up slowly and cracked the joints in his back to relieve some of the stiffness before he stretched over the counter to grab an apple. He bit into it, and after deciding it would be enough to hold him over through the night, he headed down into the basement with notes, laptop, and apple in hand. On the way down he stopped at the storage closet and grabbed the bird food, a smile dancing across his face as he did so. Thinking about how happy his bird was going to be about the new food made his chest swell with happiness. When he finally reached the door to his bedroom, he balanced the many things in his arms and opened it gently. He then stealthily peeked his head inside.