The Story Of Daniel

/o n e/

©Kristen___ all rights reserved

A/N: if you enjoy this chapter, don't forget to vote :) thanks

Chapter 1

Eleven Years Before

Daniel was just like any other seven year old boy. His room was covered in toy cars, he had a constant need for sweets, and he had a strange desire to stick dinosaur stickers on any and every surface. These were all normal things for seven year old boys, but Daniel was only similar to them in those few categories. Most children, by this age, had friends and playmates to spend their time with. Daniel, however, did not. He decided to spend the summer before school at the park, looking for insects and other bugs, while the other kids spent their time making friends and getting to know each other before school started up in September. Daniel never knew that spending so much time with bugs instead of people would affect him in the long run. But, when the summer days were all gone and Daniel was suited in a brand new dinosaur book bag for the first day of school, he realized he had made a big social mistake. After his parents had wished him luck and kissed his forehead Daniel made his way up the stairs of the school bus, feeling ready for his first day of second grade.

He made his way down the aisle in search of an empty seat. He found one and started to sit down. "No way!" the kid who was already in the seat said. "I'm not letting Bug Boy sit next to me." Daniel had never heard anyone call him that before, but he soon got used to it. After another attempt to sit with a fellow student, and being rejected with the same hateful nickname, Daniel decided to sit alone in one of the completely vacant seats. He stared out the window the entire ride and when the bus finally came to a stop in front of the school, Daniel waited for everyone to get off before he did, in fear of being bullied again.

Half way through the day, Daniel had to face the ordeal of lunch time. Since he had no friends, he had no one to sit with. So, just like on the bus, he found a vacant table, pulled out his lunch box, and ate alone. Everyone else was sitting with their friends, Daniel noticed, except for a girl who sat alone at a table near the back of the cafeteria. Daniel recognized her as Amelia Cooper, a girl who lived in the same town as him. Everyone in Grey Pond knew about her, her parents were all over the news, and not in a good way. They had been in an accident where the car had swerved off the road and into a ditch, their bodies weren't found but everyone assumed they were dead. He also knew that she now lived with her aunt who moved here to care for the orphaned Amelia. Daniel knew all this because he had been eavesdropping on his parents' conversation when he was supposed to be sleeping.

Finally, lunch was over. But then the teacher announced that it was time for recess. Once out on the playground, Daniel retreated to a bench so that no one would yell at him for trying to use the swings or slides. To everyone he was Bug Boy, and Bug Boy wasn't welcome anywhere at this school. As Daniel was looking around, feeling bored, he noticed there was a group of kids gathered. He didn't want to talk to anyone, but the curiosity eventually got the best of him and Daniel made his way over to the group.

"Hey, Amy how was lunch today?" a boy was sneering. Amelia was staring at the ground. "What's the matter, Amy? Don't like eating alone?"

"Don't call me Amy," she said under her breath. "Only my parents can call me Amy."

"What was that, Amy? You miss your parents?" All of them laughed, which infuriated Daniel. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? Wasn't the death of her parents enough pain for a life time?

"Leave her alone," he said. They all turned to him, confusion evident on their faces.

"What was that? Is the Bug Boy sticking up for Amy?" the boy said sarcastically. That was what pushed Daniel's anger over the edge. He walked up to the boy who was at least a foot taller than him, and punched him right in the nose. The boy staggered back, clutching his now bloody nose. A teacher rushed over. Daniel was sent to the principal's office and the boy was sent to the nurse. When he tried to explain his case, the principal didn't believe him. He called Daniel's parents who were very upset with him. They took him home early and sent him straight to his room to think about his actions.

That night, his dad came up the stairs to tuck Daniel in. "I'm proud of you," his father said.

"For punching a kid in the face?" Daniel asked.

"No. For standing up for a friend."

Now

Daniel was walking down the dirt road behind his house. He had his hands in his pockets, blocking them from the December chill. His cheeks were red and his breath came out in white puffs. There was a thick layer of fog hanging in the air looking like clouds that had fallen from their perch in the sky above. He turned onto the main road and walked down an old, cracked sidewalk. He stopped when he got to a tan house on the right side of the road, and confidently walked up to the dark green door, pressing the doorbell. After about thirty seconds a girl opened the door. She had her curly black hair pulled into a pony tail and her pale skin made her blue eyes look electric. Amelia Cooper. Daniel and Amelia had been friends since the second grade when Daniel punched a boy in the face for calling Amelia, Amy. She hated being called that. That was what her parents used to call her... before the accident. "Hey," he greeted. Every morning Daniel walked the four blocks to Amelia's house so they could walk to school together.

"Good morning, Danny." She always called him Danny. No one else, just her. Everyone knew him as Daniel, except for Amelia. To her, he was Danny. She stepped onto the porch and they walked down to the road, headed towards Grey Pond High School. On the way they talked about last night's Doctor Who episode, the book Amelia had just finished, and why there was no fog delay that morning. After about ten minutes, they could start to see the school through the fog. They really should have had a fog delay, Daniel thought. Just as the thought was going through his mind, he heard two things. A car horn beeping and Amelia calling out to him, "Danny, watch out!" Before he could react, he saw two yellow lights emerging from the fog, fast. In a matter of seconds, the car had hit him, and the world started to go black.

He had been hit by a car, as you can probably tell. Things like that happen all the time. People drive cars, people crash cars, people hit things with cars, and in this case; Daniel was the thing getting hit. Amelia stared at Daniel lying on the ground, motionless. The car drove away quickly; evacuating the crime scene and the girl all alone, staring at her best friend who she assumed was dead. After the shock finally wore off, Amelia dialed the emergency number on her phone and far off in the distance the sound of an ambulance siren could be heard blazing through Grey Pond.

When the paramedics arrived, they assured Amelia that Daniel was still alive and rushed him to the local hospital. Although they had told her Daniel had a fifty percent chance of making it, she still had a feeling that deep down, something was terribly wrong...

Little did she know, her dark assumptions were right. That was the day that Daniel's life changed forever. He had thought he had started his life the day he was born; and he may have been right about that. But his story had just begun. The unknown person behind the wheel of the car had slung it all into place and only now was it all about to begin. This was the start of the story of Daniel's life.