Family.

Nothing in my life ever changes. I wake up, go to school, come home, and repeat it all over again. The people are all the same; boring, average, and petty. They're so uneducated that they fail to realize that all of our lives are caught in a rut because of this town. I would honestly love nothing more than for me to be freed from this town's never-changing clutches. There is nowhere else in this world where I would rather not be. Luckily this is my last year if I even graduate. I'll grab that piece of paper from the school saying "you did it!" and run away from this unchanging Hell.

As I walked with both hands in my pockets along the forested path that linked between my house and the school, I noticed a girl just standing there. I couldn't see her face, so all I could gather from her looks was the long, red hair that ran down her back. When I got closer to her, I noticed that she was quite small in size. I could also tell by her school uniform that she attended the same high school that I did. She seemed to be talking to herself, which was odd unless she was actually just talking on the phone. But she wasn't.

"What should I have for lunch today?" the girl asked herself. "Pizza? No. Grilled cheese and tomato soup? No. Oh, I know! I'll have a hamburger! On second thought..."

"Excuse me." I asked the weird girl that stood in front of me. There wasn't even a response. She was way too into her conversation with herself.

The girl continued talking, "Maybe I could just get a P-B-and-J sandwich today. It'll be simple, yet effective."

I, thinking that this girl was a straight-up maniac, grabbed her shoulder and caused her to jump in her place. She was startled, but I had to get this weird-o's attention. She turned to me and stared at me with violet eyes. A ginger with violet eyes? That's strangely gorgeous.

"Hey," I began, "were you just talking to yourself? It was really weird to be completely honest with you. Don't you have some friends that you could be talking to?"

She gazed at me for a few seconds, then looked to her feet with a frown. "No," she responded, "my friends all graduated last year."

"Well I guess that's what you get for making friends in the grade ahead of you. You should have known that they'd all get jobs and go off to college before you even get your diploma."
The sad-looking girl looked back up at me with tear-filled eyes and answered, "It's not that. I was forced to repeat my senior year again."

"That's what you get for being stupid, then. Although, I don't know how you managed to stay back. Even I can't be forced to be held back a year, and I'm one of the biggest delinquents at this school. Honestly, I'm proud of you for achieving a new level of mindlessness. I applaud you."

A tear made its way down one of her cheeks, then she responded, "It's not my fault... Why are you acting like this?"

I scoffed, "Didn't I just mention that I was a delinquent? You know, the lowest of the low, the baddest of the bad? I'm an undesirable person that the school wishes would drop out. Trust me when I say that no one ever wants to be around me. I'm the worst that this school has to offer."
"I'm sure that's not entirely true."

"Yeah, well I'm headed to the school. Classes begin in ten minutes... if I even decided to go to them." I told her as an excuse to end the conversation that was going nowhere.

Without a word, I passed by her and made my way further down the path. She didn't follow me, she just stood where she was without moving at all. Sure, I may have upset her, but who am I to care? There is only me, myself, and I in this life. No one else. Especially not some softy like her. She may have been pretty, but that's all she had going for her.

That girl seemed really sweet, but that didn't matter to me. I'd be rude to anyone, no matter who they were. Teachers, my friends, my father, everyone. I was never raised to be nice and respectful to anyone, well, I wasn't really raised at all. There wasn't anyone around to tell me the difference between right and wrong, which explains my behaviors.

As I came closer to the school, the image of the girl kept reappearing in my mind. It didn't make sense to me since I didn't even know or care for her, but the image was still there. I suppose it was just because I met someone new for once. It wasn't every day that I actually did see someone that I have never seen before. My thoughts were shaken once I saw my friend Harry running towards me.

Harry has been my friend since the middle of my sophomore year. We had both gotten into fights, and we were both forced to wait in the office for our fates to be decided for what we had done. I remember that I recognized him as another delinquent in the school, so it was no surprise to me that he was here for causing trouble. We chatted about who we were and what we did to end up in the office, and we ended up bonding over that. Now, about a year and a half later, we're best friends.

"Niall, you scrub!" he yelled as he pounded his fist on my shoulder in a playful way. "To go to class, or not to go to class? That is the question."

"Don't tell me," I began, "you're dropping your delinquent ways and pursuing a career in theater."

His face turned to shock and he replied, "No! Drama is stupid. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to wear make-up and and prance around a stage like an idiot in front of people. Come on Niall, you know me."

I let out a small laugh and said, "I'm not feeling the whole class thing today, though. Let's hang out in your dorm room or something. The school's atmosphere is killing me already."

Harry nodded and we walked towards the dorm rooms. Our high school was technically a boarding school, but I didn't need to pay hundreds of dollars for a room since I only lived right down the street. Harry's home town was about thirty minutes away, so staying in a dorm room was the only option for him.

The dorm building where Harry lived was placed behind the newly renovated high school along with the other four buildings. Each building stood tall with seven floors, with a resident assistant, or RA for short, on every floor. All of the students had individual rooms, which is something that most private schools didn't have. In the other schools, you'd be assigned a roommate for the year.

We arrived at the building and headed towards Harry's room, which just so happened to be on the first floor. Harry's RA, Melody was a woman in her early thirties with long, maroon hair. She was kind, and she always seemed to let the two of us get away with everything. She stood in the middle of the hall, watching the two of us approach Harry's room.

"You know, you guys should probably try to attend class more often. This is your senior year, so maybe you guys could start taking things a little more seriously? I mean, you guys will go nowhere in life if you keep acting like delinquents." she explained.

The two of us just stood there glaring at her. I couldn't tell if she was joking or not, so I just burst into laughter and walked past her to Harry's room. He started to laugh too, and unlocked his door to let us in to his room. I closed the door behind me and we sat down at the small table that sat adjacent to the window. We planned to sit in his room until lunchtime, which was the only time that we actually wanted to go into the school building.

Thoughts of the purple-eyed ginger swirled through my mind yet again, and it remained a mystery to me as to why. I wasn't exactly attracted to her in any kind of way, and her fragile personality was weak. However, there was something different about her that I couldn't see, and I couldn't shake the thought from my head about what it was. The girl was as gray as everyone else here, but comparatively, she was just a brighter shade. A little better than everyone else, but still dull. Maybe that's why this morning's event stood out to me so much. Because the brighter shade of gray is vibrant and colorful compared to the average shade.
I didn't know why, but I had gotten the sudden urge to attend classes today. Maybe after lunch, anyways.

- Parallel World -
(NOTE) This part probably won't make sense now, but it all comes together later.

Where am I? Who am I? I can't seem to remember anything. All I know is that I'm not from here, and I don't think that I belong here. I'm feeling very cold, and well, I can't feel anything actually. I just know that I'm cold.

I open my eyes and examine the room, but there isn't anything notable apart from a few things: an empty table, a basket on floor full of scavenged mechanical parts, and a girl. The girl looked like she was about twelve years old. She had long, flowing red hair and purple eyes that shined like the stars in the sky. Her outfit was just a simple, plain-white gown dress that went down to her knees, and she didn't wear any shoes or socks. I didn't know the girl, she just seemed very familiar.

"Hello?" I called over to the girl.

Her face turned to shock as if she was surprised that I was actually speaking, then she replied, "Oh! You're alive? I can't believe I actually did it!"

"Did what?" I questioned, not knowing at all what she was talking about.

"I made a friend. I got very lonely in this world. It was just me, alone. But not anymore, I have you now." she explained.

While I was here, I decided to ask her some questions. "Where did you find me? Do you know who I am? I can't seem to remember anything about myself."

She looked confused by my questions, but she responded anyways. "Find you? I made you out of parts that I found in the field outside. As for your second question, I'm sorry, but I can't answer that for you. Finding out who you are is something that you need to figure out on your own. Are you sure you don't remember anything? Like, anything at all that could bring us to the conclusion of who you are?"

"I just know that I'm not from here. And I know that I'm human, er, or at least I was at one time. You said that you created me from scavenged parts, so that can't be true." I told the girl.
She walked over to me and held her hand out to me. "I can show you what you look like if you want. Just come with me."

I reached out my hand, which appeared to be a mechanical claw of some sort, and she took it. She led me into a second room in the house that had a mirror. I walked towards it and finally saw myself. Man, was I shocked by what I was made to look like.

Notes

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