The Story Of Daniel

/t h i r t e e n/

Chapter 13

Seven Years Before

Daniel was sat at the table in the kitchen eating his cereal. He took his time eating, in hopes of stalling the inevitable walk to school. But this time, he was no longer walking to the elementary school. It was his first day of middle school.

"Daniel, you need to hurry or you'll be late for school," his mother told him.

He sighed, there was no use in arguing.

"So, are you excited for your first day in middle school?" she asked, sounding just as excited as she hoped Daniel was.

"Yeah," Daniel lied with a fake smile. He put his bowl in the sink, grabbed his book bag, and walked out the door calling out a good bye over his shoulder. He then walked to Amelia's house. Daniel was hoping that Amelia would feel the same way as him; nervous. But when she walked up to him on the side walk, she had a smile on her face.

***

Daniel and Amelia got to school a few minutes early so they sat on a bench outside of the school. From there, he could see a clear view across the street, right to the elementary school, and he got nervous all over again. "Are you ready?" he asked Amelia.

"Ready for what?"

"This new school." By now, more students were gathering in front of the building. Some of them were in their grade while others were much older.

"Oh course I am," she said quickly, too quickly. She had always been a horrible liar, and Daniel could tell that that was exactly what she was doing; lying.

"Amelia..." he said, "I'm your friend, I can tell when you're lying."

She sighed and slumped down on the bench, "I was bullied when I was little, but last year was okay. It was like we were at the top of the pyramid, so no one messed with us. Now I'm right back at the bottom."

"I'm scared too," he confessed. "I guess we can be scared together. Whatever they throw at us, we'll dodge it together."

Now

Amelia had locked herself in her room for the last two days, only coming out for meals. Daniel had assumed that she was just reading all those books. But he was wrong. She wasn't reading. This was what she was doing.

The walls were covered in paper from the sketchbook. Every foot of the wall space was reserved for Amelia's magnificent sketches. There was even some lying loose on her bed. There were sketches everywhere, literally. It was beautiful in an alternative poster kind of way. The fact that they were all drawn in pencil gave them an edgy black and white look that incased the entire room in an old fashioned aura.

"Wow." He said it out loud this time. This was amazing; Amelia's artistic abilities were far beyond Daniel's. He turned to smile at Amelia who was standing by the window. She gave him a half smile and lowered her gaze to the floor. She's way too modest, Daniel thought to himself.

Daniel walked closer to the wall to examine the pictures more closely, they showed anything you could think of; Jelly, forests, castles, cats, images from Doctor Who, animals of all sorts, people... the list went on and on. There were logos from some of Amelia's favorite bands, there were pictures of insects, and there were pictures of... Daniel. There were hand drawn pictures of Daniel Johnson on Amelia Cooper's wall...

Most of them were of Daniel before the coma. He looked younger and happier and more... free. Daniel couldn't deny that he had been robbed of those things since the coma. He had definitely aged and his parents were keeping constant tabs on him. As for the happiness... ever since he had woken up, Daniel had just felt so small and irrelevant in the span of the entire universe. It wasn't exactly sadness, it was mere realization. His coma had made him think about how many other people this had happened to. How many other people had been put into an unexpected seven-year-long sleep that changed their life completely? And who cared that it had happened to yet another person, who cared that it had happened to Daniel? The whole thing made Daniel feel so small and insignificant.

Daniel pulled himself away from the deep thoughts and turned his attention back to the wall in front of him.

And that's when he saw it, a picture that caught his eye. Among the cats and castles and imaginary figures was a picture that snagged Daniel's full attention and held onto it. It was a picture of two people sitting on a bench, the girl had curly hair in a ponytail, Amelia. The guy... was Daniel. They were both laughing, everything looked so peaceful. The image sparked a memory of when Daniel and Amelia were waiting at a bus stop. The bus never came, so they decided to just talk on the lonely little bench. Daniel learned so much about Amelia that day, and it ended up being the best day of his life up to that very point. Daniel stopped reminiscing of better times when he saw that the drawing had words on it. In Amelia's scrawl, at the top of the page it said,

Danny, I'm sorry

For all that I've done

You may not blame me

But I was the one

I don't deserve you

But please

Be my best friend again

Just you and me

Amelia had always had a passion for poetry. This picture was a testament to everything she stood for. It showed her artistic abilities, her love of poetry, and her devoted friendship with Daniel. She was wrong though. It wasn't her fault. She didn't need to ask for forgiveness. No matter how many times Daniel said that, she wouldn't listen to him, and her unnecessary iron will to believe she had done wrong broke Daniel's heart.

A tear fell down his cheek as he turned around. To tell Amelia, they would always be friends, nothing could change that. But she wasn't there. She was no longer staring at the ground by the window, and a quick search of the room showed no sign of where she may be. Except one thing.

The window was open.

A/N: hello, readers. if you enjoyed this chapter, would you mind clicking the star icon to register a vote for it? it would mean a lot :) also, feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you guys are thinking