I hated the rain, always have.
The way it covered the sky without warning, leaving a drowsy overcast that drenched everything and anything underneath its veil.
It had been raining when my brother was found dead, but I don't like to think about it too much.
My mother would get angry with me whenever I tried to talk about him at dinner or anything like that, usually leaving myself wallowing in pits of my own despair.
Me and my brother would always play video games on the sixty inch flat screen tv in the room that we had shared since we were only little kids.
He wasn't very smart, but I felt like I could always ask for advice from him whenever I felt like I couldn't rely on my own intuition.
The car hit a small crevice in the road, causing me to flinch and nearly drop my phone, immediately snapping me back to the current reality.
My mother looked at me strange, then turned her eyes back on the road, passing by fifth and seventy-two street.
I was playing solitaire on my phone, since it was predownloaded and my mother refused to give me permission to download anything that wasn't pre-installed when the phone was sold.
I have always liked card games, but my brother was exceptionally good at them, it makes sense if you think about it as well as- Never mind.
The truth is: I currently rode on the way to this big academy that I had taken an entrance exam for a couple of months ago.
I didn't think anything of it until I had actually been accepted, which left an unfamiliar feeling echoing through my brain. Maybe it was acceptance, or acknowledgement that had shaken me so much. Little did I really care enough to think on it, this was actually a huge opportunity for me and my future.
I didn't come from a rich or well known family, in fact I lived on the outskirts of Eclipse City/ I had originally gone to a public school for troubled middle schoolers my entire childhood.
At times I found myself more distanced and isolated in a place full of people like me, than if I were to have attended a normal school. Whatever normal really meant, I didn't dwell on it too much, since my mother had always said that me and my brother were "special" and shouldn't take any offense in terms of being called "normal" or even fitting in with those associated with the term "normal".
I glanced at the time on the dash of the car reading [6:35 AM] with the local news station title lying just below it, feeling a strange eeriness within the current moment.
I would only ever see my mom on the weekends now, so I had to get used to living in a dorm room by myself. Since it was only a couple weeks ago when I found out that I would be spending nearly six months in my own private dorm.
I wasn't worried though, I tended to live best when I had the privacy to just think about things and progress with other things that I wanted to get done.
I enjoyed thinking about things, it let me reflect on my mistakes and how I could prevent them. Which I sorta kinda wanted right now, with my mom glancing anxiously toward the shotgun seat with that same look that she would give me when I would run with scissors as a kid, or try to mess with the outlets on the living room walls.
I had never met my father, and my mother rarely talked about him, all I know is that she had cursed his name on the day my brother was found dead, crying out in the small hallway between our rooms and scratching at the blue drywall as the clock barely hit midnight.
We were now driving through the downtown district of Eclipse City in the early morning of the day, it was truly beautiful with the advanced buildings made of entirely glass, reflecting in the sunlight.
It was times like this when I felt too small for the world around me.
I wasn't athletic or anything, and had never played a sport in my life, but I wasn't out of shape either, just a little skinny compared to the other kids my age.
Oh! By the way, my name is Oliver Arrons, and I'm fifteen years old and about to be a student of Eclipse High School for the academically gifted.
The school was the most prized part of the entire city, and well known around the world as the most elite of all academies. Which was saying a lot when you took the time to really gaze at Eclipse city. It was huge, spanning hundreds of kilometers in every direction. It had been built upon the mountain lands of what was once known centuries ago as the Perian empire.
My mom pulled into the large parking lot that spanned for around six blocks, and cussed as she struggled to find a parking spot in the vast forest of auto vehicles.
I turned my phone off and took a deep breath, taking in the atmosphere around the car.
Three massive buildings that were interconnected by skybridges spanned into the sky, greeting him from above was a large sign that read "New Year, New Me".
I cringed at the stupid poster, and hesitated before I opened the car door. Glancing back at my mother while she reached for the small latch below the left hand car door.
My mother popped the trunk, allowing me to get out and grab the handle of my black suitcase.
She rolled down her window as I was about to head towards the tall dorm building.
She began to speak, but trailed off as her voice turned to a mere whisper, but eventually her lips curled up into a big loving smile and she spoke up.
"Love you..."
I smiled sadly and spun around until I was looking at the grand school hidden in front of a beautiful sunrise backdrop.
"Love you too mom."
Then I turned around and began walking along the large concrete sidewalk with several different artistic phrases and pictures drawn onto the pathway with bright chalks.
The day my brother had died, everything started to feel surreal, like I had lost a part of myself. Every day I grew more and more distanced and confused between what was real and what wasn't, making me feel less and less important in such a big world.
I was still quite young when it happened, if you could even count twelve as young.
It had been quite a shock when we found out that he had died because of gang violence within a dark alley of Eclipse City... I never really wanted to ask the question of "Why?" and every time it crossed my mind, I immediately blinked it away. I remember my mom on the phone with a lawyer asking her to try and cover up the incident as best he could.
Ever since I've tried and tried again to hide the thought behind countless blankets in my head, but no matter how hard I smothered it, the memory always climbed above the sea of blankets.
Rain fell somberly as I took step after step, not truly ready to embrace the new and terrifying life ahead of me.