Thirteen years later

Luke POV:

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I groaned as the sound of my alarm clock woke me up. I rolled over and hit the button to turn the alarm off. I took my time getting out of bed before I started getting dressed. 

My name's Luke Jackson, by the way. I'm thirteen years old and I live with my grandma, step-grandpa, and my aunt, who just happens to be two and a half years older than me. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Where are your parents?"

My grandma said that a couple of months after I was born, my parents went on a trip together by boat and that they got caught in a really bad storm and drowned. But I think that's just B.S. They probably just abandoned me since they were barely into their twenties when they had me. I mean, why wouldn't have they taken me as well? And I've never actually seen any baby pictures of me with them.

That being said, don't think that I'm in some charity case because I don't have parents. I've actually had a pretty good life. At home, I do have what could be considered a typical family. My grandparents are basically my parents, and my aunt is basically my older sister. 

At school, I have good grades, and I'm the captain of my school's track team. Since I also love swimming, I could've joined my school's swim team, but my grandma wouldn't let me. I guess it's because my dad, her son, apparently died from drowning. But I figure that I'd be pretty good since my grandma does always say that my dad was one of the best swimmers she's ever seen and that "he's even better than Michael Phelps in his prime." I'm not sure if I believe that statement though.

Once I was all dressed, I looked in the mirror. I had auburn hair and pale blue eyes, like my mom, but I looked a lot like my dad. I was about average height for my age, standing at around 5'2". One thing that was a little odd about my appearance was the fact that I had some gold flakes in my eyes. Whenever I asked her about it, my grandma always said that that was the case because my dad's grandpa, on his paternal side, also had gold eyes.  

Since it was starting to get hot outside, I just wore a plain and basic navy blue T-shirt with some black shorts. I made sure to pack an extra pair of clothes today for Track, as well as my running cleats.

I tried to brush my messy hair, but I couldn't. Like my dad, I had really messy and disheveled hair that swept to one side.

Just like every day, I spent about five minutes trying to neaten my hair up. Once five minutes had passed, I gave up, just like I did every day.

I then stuffed my homework into my backpack went down the stairs of our brownstone. We had moved into this brownstone when I was about five or six years old. I dropped my backpack and track bag on the ground, in front of the door, and took a seat at the kitchen island. Estelle, my "aunt", was already sitting and eating her breakfast.

"'Morning, Luke," my grandma greeted, with a smile.

She handed me a plate of blue eggs and bacon. They're blue because of some inside joke she had with my dad, and they would eat blue food on special occasions.

As soon as I took a bite out of my food, I couldn't stop eating it. My grandma was a great cook. Everything she made was amazing. And don't even get me started on her blue cookies; I will fight you for the last one.

Within two minutes, I was done. Seeing my empty plate, my grandma asked, "Do you want more?"

I quickly nodded my head, "How's that even a question?"

My grandma chuckled a little at how fast I finished my food before taking my plate and putting more eggs and bacon on it. Before handing me the plate, she scolded, "This time, eat slower. You don't want to have a stomach ached, do you? Especially today."

Oh, I forgot to mention that today's Regional Championships for Track. If my school wins, we would win the first regional championships by a Manhattan school in ten years. 

As I started to eat my second plate of food, my step-grandpa came down the stairs. My grandma handed him his coffee, and his food in a box so he could eat it at school (he's a high school teacher).

He pecked my grandma on the lips and looked at Estelle, "You ready to go?"

Estelle nodded. She went to the same high school that my step-grandpa worked at so they usually left together unless he had to be there early for a meeting. Estelle handed her plate to my grandma and got up from her chair. While she opened the door, she said, "Good luck, Luke."

I nodded, "Thanks."

My step-grandpa, Gramps as I like to call him, said, "Yeah, good luck, buddy. We'll all be there cheering you on."

I smiled, "Thanks."

I then started eating my food again while they left. Once I was finished my second plate, I got up and placed it in the sink. I kissed my grandma on the cheek and said, "Bye, grandma."

She replied, "Have a good day at school, honey. And good luck."

I thanked her before slinging my backpack around my left shoulder (I'm a lefty) and grabbed my track bag with my right hand. I opened the door and started walking to school. It wasn't a long walk, only a couple of minutes since it was only about ten blocks away.

As I was walking, I swore I saw someone with only one eye. I looked back at him and saw that he had two eyes. Probably my mind messing with me, I thought.

When I arrived at my school, Goode Middle School, I was immediately surrounded by my friends the moment I walked through the doors. They all were wishing me good luck for the track meet today. While we were walking, one of my friends, Tyler, said, "If you lose chip today, we'll all kill you."

I smiled, "I don't have any plans on losing."

Another one of my friends, Matt, said, "We'll all be there. Actually, the entire school will basically be there. So, no pressure."

I opened the door to my locker and replied, sarcastically, "Thanks for those calming words."

I took out my books for my morning classes and stuffed my backpack inside. As soon as I closed my locker, the bell rang. I looked at my friends and said, "I gotta go. I don't wanna risk getting in trouble today."

My friends nodded, understandingly. I made my way down the hall to my first class of the day, English. 

Currently, we were reading The Odyssey. It was a decent epic that I thought was interesting, but I honestly thought that it bashed Poseidon a lot. Before we read it, we had gone over some of Greek Mythology and he was my favorite Olympian. But then again, I do love to swim, so I probably have a little bias towards him.

I walked into the classroom and set my books down on my desk, which was in the middle of the classroom. My teacher, Mr. Johnson, greeted the class once everyone was seated. He said, "We left off last class with the flashback scene of Odysseus escaping the lair of the Cyclops---"

I stopped paying attention at that point. Not that I wanted to. I have severe ADHD, which makes it really hard to pay attention in my classes. I started to think about the track meet and how nervous I was about it. My stomach was aching because I had so many butterflies.

Suddenly, I was taken out of my thoughts by the sound of someone calling my name. I quickly looked to the front of the classroom to see Mr. Johnson looking directly at me. I apologized, "I'm sorry. Could you repeat what you said?"

Mr. Johnson asked, "Why did Poseidon start to punish Odysseus after he had escaped from the Cyclops, Polyphemus?"

I thought about it for a second before answering, "Polyphemus was Poseidon's son, just like every other cyclops. And Odysseus stabbed him in his eye."

Mr. Johnson nodded his head, "That's right."

I could tell he was a little mad because he wanted to lecture me for not paying attention and not knowing the answer.

Mr. Johnson asked a couple more questions to the class before telling us to open our books and read the next two "books." He also turned the audiobook on, which was a lifesaver since on top of my ADHD, I also have really bad dyslexia.

By the time we had finished reading/listening, the bell rang, signaling that this period was over. Mr. Johnson dismissed us, and we all left his classroom.

The next class I had was Math. It was pretty boring, to be honest. Plus, my dyslexia made it impossible for me to answer questions correctly since I was seeing different numbers than the rest of the class.

After Math, I had lunch. I made my way back to my locker to drop off my books before grabbing my lunchbox and walking to the other side of the school, where the cafeteria was. I saw my friends sitting at our usual table. I sat down and opened my lunchbox while Matt said, "Luke, did you hear about Stacy Hall?"

Stacy Hall is one of the hottest girls in the school and my grade, and she's also the most popular. I shook my head as I took a bite out of my ham and cheese sandwich. Matt explained, "She has a crush on you, and she wants to ask you out to the end-of-year dance next week."

I choked on my sandwich. I quickly said, "What?! Why me?"

My friends all facepalmed. Tyler asked, "Dude, are you that stupid? You're the most popular guy in school, and you're insanely good at track. No seventh-grader has ever been the captain of a school team, let alone the track team. Plus, you aren't that bad-looking either. All the girls, to some extent, have a crush on you."

That last part surprised me. I mean, who would want to date me? Yeah, I am pretty popular, and I am the captain of the Track team, but that's it. I guess I'm not ugly, but I wouldn't say that I'm super attractive or anything like that.

Another one of my friends, Andrew, then asked, "What are you gonna say when she asks you out?"

I shrugged, "That I'm not interested or something like that."

Andrew's eyes bulged out of their sockets, "Why not?"

I explained, "Stacy's extremely shallow; all she cares about are the number of followers she has on social media. Plus, knowing her, she probably just wants to date me to become more popular and get more followers."

My friends shrugged, accepting my answer before I changed the subject.

Once we were done eating, I went back to my locker and grabbed the materials I needed for my last two classes. They were History and Science, respectively.

I went to my history classroom, sat down at my desk, and opened my textbook. For the past two to three weeks, we've been learning about Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire.

My teacher, Mr. Davis, entered the classroom a minute or so after I did. In class, we reviewed Julius Caesar's assassination before learning about the rise of his son, Augustus Caesar.

As soon as class was over, I made my way to my science class. In it, we were learning about Photosynthesis, how plants turned sunlight into ATP. To be honest, science was probably my favorite class, but it did get pretty hard sometimes due to my dyslexia.

Afterward, I went back to my locker and grabbed my backpack. I made sure to put all my homework in it, before closing my locker and walking towards the boys' locker room.

While I walked through the school, people were wishing me good luck and patting me on the back. I didn't pay much attention to it, though. My body was shaking due to how anxious and nervous I felt. The butterflies I've had in my stomach all day were still there. If anything, they got worse.

When I reached the locker room, I stood in front of the door and took a deep breath. "You got this," I said to myself.

As I grabbed the handle of the door to pull it open, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around to see Stacy Hall. She was wearing a beige crop top that sagged a little too far down at her chest, and a pair of jean shorts that looked a couple of sizes too small. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, and she was about an inch taller than me.

Thanks to Matt, I knew why she was here. I forced a smile at her and said, "Hey, Stacy. Can I help you with something? I was just about to head in."

I motioned to the locker room door. Stacy eyed me for a few seconds, before saying, "I was wondering if you would go to the dance with me next week."

I slowly shook my head and politely said, "Sorry, but I don't even know if I'm gonna go. And if I am, I'm probably just gonna go with my friends."

Stacy looked shocked like she's never been told no before. She quickly forced a smile and said, "Okay, how about this weekend? We can go out then if you don't wanna go to the dance."

I shook my head again, "I'm not really trying to date anyone right now. I have other things to focus on."

Stacy's face turned red, probably in anger. She scoffed, "Am I not pretty enough?"

I was mentally laughing my ass off at her face and how mad she was. I just looked at her and said, "You're not my type."

Stacy scoffed again before storming down the hall, out of sight.

I wasn't lying when I said that she wasn't my type. I would never, in a million years, date a girl like her, that only cared about the number of followers she had.

Once I knew she was gone, I started laughing out loud. Her face, when I told her that she wasn't my type, was just too funny.

As soon as I calmed myself down, I turned back around and pulled the locker room door open.