Perfectly Normal (Part 1)

“Don’t fuck with me!” The young man’s voice wavered and his breath was short. “I will win!” The sound echoed through the empty room. White surrounded him; white walls, white ceiling, which floor. No doors, no windows, no hallway, no furniture, just white. He breathed in a shaky breath and then slid to the ground.

“I will make it.” He said weakly. He shoved a lock of brown hair out of his pale face. His voice sounded almost like he might cry, but he kept himself as much together as he could.

*****

Donavon had a normal life. He went to school, he had normal friends, he had normal parents, everything in his life was normal. He looked at himself in the mirror, even his face was normal. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He had a thin body, but not too thin, and nice abs but not too nice. He was just a normal kid and he was bored of that. But little did he know, his life was about to change drastically. And no one could be sure whether it would be good or bad. Not yet anyways.

Donavan’s parents were the same. His whole family was. As a matter of fact Donavon hadn’t met one unique person in his entire life. Everyone seemed the same to him. He sighed again in boredom and slumped back down in his bed. He knew his mom would be calling him down for dinner again. It was Wednesday and that meant it would be pork chops, applesauce, and mashed potatoes.

“Donavon!” His mom’s voice wafted up the stairs and into his small bedroom. He rolled his eyes and sat up. He knew she’d be on his case tonight as soon as he got downstairs. He knew exactly what she’d say too, but he was going to listen to it anyways, because that’s how his life went.

He slowly trudged down the eight stairs to the first floor. He breathed in deeply and the aroma of the food awaiting him filled his body and almost made his mouth water. Almost, but not quite. He sat down in his normal seat at the kitchen table. His mom, dad, and sister, Kate, were already there. They glanced up at him momentarily before looking back down at their food. Kate slowly dug into her first pork chop and Donavon’s dad started on the mashed potatoes. The room was silent except for the sound of forks and knives scraping against the plates.

“Donavon,” His mom started when everyone was half done with their food. “Donavon, you’re in tenth grade now. Don’t you think you could at least do your homework? Maybe you could even show up at all your classes once in a while. Don’t you understand how important school really is?” Her voice grew gradually louder and Donavon rolled his eyes and nodded just like any other night.

“Yes mom.” He said expertly.

“Listen to your mother.” His dad said. His dad didn’t realize that he had said ‘yes’ and not talked back, but no one seemed to care. This was how it always was. Kate finished her meal and stood up, threw her plate into the sink, and walked hastily out of the room.

“Donavon, please.” His mother said, but that was it. She stood up and dumped the extra food into the garbage and threw her plate into the sink. His dad followed suit and Donavon was left in the kitchen all alone. Why, he thought, why was he always the last out? Why did they all run from him?

He stood and walked from the room. His half eaten pork chop stayed on the table, forever unfinished. He never really ate all his dinner; he didn’t understand why his mom kept making him so much.

Donavon trudged back up the stairs again and lay down on his bed. He looked around his room, it was normal like everything else. Blue wallpaper because he was a boy, a bed with brown posts and blue sheets, a dresser made of wood, and a nightstand. He fell asleep with nothing in his mind except the normality of his life and how much he was bored of it.

Donavon awoke the next morning feeling slightly dizzy. There was no way he was skipping school because he was sick, especially not when his mom already thought he hated it. He climbed out of bed and threw on a pair of clothes: a red t-shirt and a pair of jeans with converse shoes. He trudged down the too-steep stairs yet again and grabbed his lunch money off the kitchen counter. He could tell he was late already because his whole family had already left.

“Bye to you too.” He said to the empty house, annoyed, as he left. He slammed the door as hard as he could and stomped off down the sidewalk to walk to school. His cell phone read eight-fifty-three. He was almost an hour late for school already. By the time he got there he would be almost two hours late and his mom wondered why he skipped half his classes. He sighed loudly and kept on his trail to school.

The school finally came into view forty-five minutes later. The tall circular tower spun out of the top: that was the janitor’s wing and where the school bell was kept. The building was made of red and orange bricks that were now all different shades of browns. Few windows were seen, but the ones that were, were all stained glass. They were different shades of reds and blues and purples put into the shapes of books and A+’s. A typical school, Donavon thought, typically normal and boring.

He entered the school and the halls were still crowded. This confused him, he looked up at the clock and saw the time, ten-oh-four, and they were switching classes again: second hour just ended. He threw his backpack into his locker and pulled out science, which was his third period class.

“Hey Don, wait up!” Someone screamed for him down the hall. He turned on his heel to see Jonathon running up to meet him. Jonathon had been his best friend ever since he was a little kid. Donavon waved back at him and saw Jonathon smile as he did.

“Jon, how are you?” He said when his friend finally caught up to him and they were walking to science together.

“Good, you?” Jonathon asked.

“I’m fine.” Donavon looked at the floor. “Do you ever get bored of your life?” He asked, embarrassed.

“Who doesn’t?” Jonathon answered back. Donavon looked up at him, unable to understand how he got bored. Jonathon wasn’t normal at all. He was dark skinned with bright blue hair and hazel colored eyes. He always wore new clothes; different every day. Donavon shook his head and looked at the tiled floor as they walked into the room.

“Did you get lost on your way here, you two? Or are you just too busy fondling to get to class on time?” Mr. Davies yelled as they entered the room. He was always making gay jokes to the late kids. Donavon had told the principle once, but he didn’t believe him. Mr. Davies pointed to two seats in the back row that were empty and told them to go sit down. His bald head shone in the bright light and made his brown eyes appear darker than usual.

Donavon sat through the whole class, it was normal, as was everything else. They talked about the planets, but planets had never interested Donavon. He got bored quickly and took to looking out at the classroom.

There were only nine kids in the entire class; two of them were Donavon and Jonathon. The others were; Ericka, Samantha, William, Jackson, Kelsey, Heather, and of course, Mr. Davies. The entire school was small. This was the size of all the classes. Most of Donavon’s classes were even with the same people. He liked to study them, watching people was one of his favorite things.

Ericka Sherrington was the prep of the class. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Her body was slim and curvy and her outfits always were brand new. Everyone knew her family was rich. The Sherrington’s owned the local country club. Ericka sat twirling her pencil around in her hair and eyeing William who never once looked back at her.

Samantha Johnson was a heavier girl. She had brown hair and slightly chubby cheeks that overlooked her brown eyes that were as creamy as chocolate. She was the smartest girl in the class and that didn’t help her reputation much. She stared at Mr. Davies as if he were the new God come down to save her.

William Luis was a jock. He played on the high school football team and had dark black hair that was spiked at the top. His green eyes were darkened and normally covered with a pair of sunglasses or a low hat. Today he had his headphones on and you could hear the music blasting all the way back to where Donavon sat.

Jackson Kao was just a normal teenager. He didn’t have a girlfriend, or many friends at all for that matter. He had dark skin and flowing black hair that was pulled into a pony tail at the nape of his neck. He had brown eyes and teeth that were brighter than the sun on a hot June day. He seemed to always be paying attention as he slumped over on his desk, but once in a while Donavon could see a daydream flickering through his eyes.

Kelsey Laurence was a small girl. She was maybe four foot ten and skinnier than Ericka if that was possible. She had blonde hair and brown eyes that had a tint of green in them as well. She was sitting at her desk straight backed and tapping her pencil to a beat that no one could hear but her.

Heather McPhillien was a small Indian girl. Her dark skin was the perfect color and her black hair matched the black of her eyes. Donavon had always thought she was beautiful, but she was so shy. She was very smart as well; she never stopped paying attention to the teacher and she got straight A’s.

And so the day went on in that fashion and soon school was out. Donavon yawned loudly as he shrugged his backpack over his shoulder and walked out of the building. Jonathon had left early to go home sick which left Donavon’s day just as boring as if he were in school. He started the hour long walk home, but soon gave up and slipped into his hiding spot at the halfway mark.

His hiding spot was where he went when he wanted to be alone and think. It was a small area in between two garages of the neighborhood. To get in you had to crawl underneath a fence that you couldn’t go over, jump over a bush, and slide sideways through a tight squeeze. Donavon could barely make it through, but he had to because this was the only spot that he could be alone anymore.

The inside was like a long narrow hallway. It was covered by the two roofs of the garages that met together and kept the rain out. At one end was the narrow place he slid through and at the other was a shoulder high fence that over looked a road and the river beyond it. It was very calming.

Donavon had spent hours there. It was his favorite place in the world to be. He slid down the wall and looked through the holes of the fence that were over the road. The cars looked so small from up here and the people were practically invisible. He liked to watch them drive by and wonder where they were going and what they were thinking. Sometimes he would make up stories to go with them.

He wished he could be one of them. Driving away from here and never coming back again. That was his dream: to get away from here and never come back. He wanted to travel the world. He wanted everything that wasn’t normal, everything that wasn’t what he already had.