MARIEL

4~ Time To Change the World ~

Jason Christian Caravan, otherwise nicknamed Hawk based on his obsession with the bird, felt antsy this morning. He hated winter. It was too cold to do much outside, and he missed riding his bicycle. He was 14 years old, and while his usual activities were spent inside working on his computer, he felt he needed to get outside and burn the energy that tended to build within him.

Today, he wanted to ride his bicycle, but he was afraid to ask permission now that his parents were pissed off at Esther, his sister. His annoyance with her increased at the thought. She always had to put his parents in a bad mood. She could never be good like him. All she cared about were her friends and her stupid dance shit, so she never made effort to be with her family. He had heard his parents talking about this before, saying that they wished she would appreciate them more. However, the conversation made him smile. He would gladly accept the position of 'favorite'.

With that thought, Hawk closed his laptop and left his room to go downstairs and find one of his parents... preferably his mom because she tended to say yes to him the most. He reached the bottom of the stairs, which immediately led into a small hallway with another doorward that entered the living room.

Mary Caravan sat on the couch with her feet curled under her body. Her brown hair was tied in a bun atop her head and she held a mug of coffee in her hand as she watched the flat screen television mounted above the fireplace from across the room.

Perfect.

"Where's dad?" Hawk asked, bounding into the living room.

Mary turned her head and a smiled a little. "Hey, buddy, you slept in late."

"Wasn't sleeping."

Mary nodded and looked back at the home improvement show on the television. "Your dad had to run to the store after babysitting your sister through her job."

"Oh. Mom, may I please go for a bike ride? I did all my Monday homework last night."

"It's icy outside, honey."

Hawk shifted uncomfortably. "I know, but I have ridden before. I'll be safe, I promise. I'll stay on the sidewalk."

Mary sipped her coffee and looked back at her son. She hesitated, and then sighed. "Fine. But wear your helmet."

Aggressively, Hawk nodded and then darted from the room. After he had changed to warmer clothing, he jogged to the garage to retrieve his bicycle.

The wind nipped at his ears even under the black helmet that covered his ear length brown hair. Most of the sidewalks were fairly clear from the snow, but patches of ice remained. This did not stop him from madly pedaling. He liked to go fast, and he had the energy to do so.

Hawk was one of the "odd" boys in school who had no interest in sports, but preferred to spend his time studying technology and science. He was the one who was always assigned group leader whenever his class had a project, because he could create and solve problems with incredible calmness and speed. Because of this, Hawk wanted to create something of his own, something that would change the world, but he had no idea what it should be at this point in time. Part of him wanted to do this to impress his parents, but he also wanted to be noticed. Sure, he was noticed when he was needed in school, but he was never noticed like Esther was. Esther always had eyes following her, always had people begging for her attention, always had people clapping for her 'successes'. He snorted. 'Successes'. Having a nice ass and a good rack wasn't the definition of successful.

Success to him was curing cancer. Helping the poor. Feeding a country. People like Esther had too much greed and caused more problems than solutions. People like Esther thought their looks were the most important thing in the world and ignored the actual problems happening.