Eyes Glazed Over

Why did it have to be me? Out of all my four other siblings, Mum made me do it, while my siblings were out meeting our neighbors. I really am the least favorite child.

The winds screamed and wailed, sending stray oak branches at my face. The tips of some of them grazed my face, one even scratching it a little. I winced- not in pain, but because tears were forming in my eyes because of the wind- and stared down at my shoes. The black laces were untied. I wanted to kneel down to untie them, but it’s not like I could just drop the garbage bag I was hauling, not in that wind.

The sky above me was dark and milky-looking, the stars hardly visible because of all the pollution in California. You couldn’t see all the stars and point out all the constellations, like the countryside in Virginia. Oh, god, I missed Virginia. I was never popular in school, but I had a small group of friends there. Matthew, who had a routine of which hoodie he would wear each day of the week. And then David, who was extremely religious, and always poked fun at Goliath. Goliath was a more petty person in the group, and insisted on calling me “Aiden Jack”, my real name, instead of my nickname. It was funny at first, but then it just got annoying. Very annoying.

And, of course, there was that girl. I think I had almost liked her… ah, what was her name? Oh, yes, Cora. She wasn’t what you would call ugly, but she wasn’t exactly very pretty. She had eyes that stuck out of her face, and she was a little overweight. But I saw only the good things in her. She didn’t make many people happy, but she made me happy. Everyone used to always call her Coraline and watch the movie on her birthday. She stuttered the first time she tried saying my name. The thought made me chuckle.

I finally made out two waste bins. I knew one was for recycling and one for waste, but I couldn’t tell which was was. I shrugged it off. So what if the recycling bin has a bit of trash in it? People can deal with it just like I deal with things. They need to learn to live a little.

With a shaky hand I managed to open one of the bins, and briskly hoisted up the garbage bag into it. The bins were bigger in California. Makes sense, I guessed.

I tucked my hands in my pockets and slipped out my phone. The screen was cracked because of the turbulence on the plane. I didn’t care much, but my parents fussed over it. The time read 7:53 PM. Underneath it was October 2nd, 2019. I squinted and spotted out my house in the array of estates.

A group of teenagers were talking to my older sister, Beth. Odd, considering they were my age and she was twenty-three. Beth turned to me faintly, her blonde hair and green eyes almost luminescent in the darkness. My brown hair and black eyes probably looked ghostly in comparison.

“Ajax! Come here!” she waved to me, grinning, her eyes a little lost in the night. She knew how much I hated these situations, but of course, she didn’t exactly give a-

“You coming or not?” she said vehemently. I shot back a precarious stare, but still walked up to her.

I looked around at all the teenagers surrounding her. Some looked fourteen, fifteen, some sixteen even. Some outgoing, some cold, and some just blatantly blank. I then realized how inadequate I must’ve looked, Beth wearing her swanky designer clothes next to me wearing my red Lifeguard hoodie, broken zipper and untied shoelaces. We looked in no way related.

I waved sheepishly. “Uh, hey, I’m Ajax.”

A rotund boy with a heap of acne sneered, “What kind of name is that?”

I folded my arms trying to look defiant, but I probably just looked moronic. “It’s not my name. My name is Aiden, Aiden Jack, but I don’t like the name Aiden so I combined them.”

“Aiden is a good name, though,” an irksome-looking girl with glasses said.

Everyone is so weird, here, what happened to ‘social skills’? I thought. These people were antagonized, merely there just to get under my skin. Yeah. That sounded right.

“Well, nice chatting with you!” Beth said coquettishly, already bouncing away. “Oh, Max, make sure to call me sometime!” she called out to one of the teenagers near me.

I glared at her in disgust as the teenagers around me filed away. How could someone like me, someone secluded and reserved, be related in any way to someone so desperate, someone always seeking attention in all the wrong ways?

God, if you’re there, open her eyes.

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*“Class, settle down.”

To my surprise, there weren’t any cliques in my sophomore homeroom. The girls with big glasses and braces seemed to be the best of friends with even the girls with silky hair and perfect teeth. The athletic boys laughed big hearty laughs alongside the puny boys who looked intelligent and feeble. The students finally turned around glumly, but their expressions morphed into that of an intrigued person once they noticed my presence. The teacher waited for a good thirty seconds as the students laid their eyes on me; my messy light brown hair, average build, twitchy demeanor. I looked halcyon, a meaningless remainder of the happy person I once was.

The dark-skinned teacher with a warm face turned to me calmly, but invitingly. “I’m pleased to say that we have a new student joining us, all the way from Virginia. I’m Mr. Dallas, your homeroom and science teacher. Now, would you like to introduce yourself?”

He gestured a dark, slender hand towards me. “Come on, don’t be shy.”

I awkwardly took a step forward and looked around, looking for something- or someone- that particularly caught my interest. Nothing did, really. Everything was drab, everyone looking stereotypical.

“Err.. my name is Ajax. I-”

Mr. Dallas cut me off. “The form here says your name is Aiden. Don’t you know your own name?” he said playfully. This was accompanied by several snickers and giggles. Haha, very funny.

“My name is Aiden, last name Jack,” I said all matter-of-factly. “I don’t like the name Aiden or Jack, so I just like combining them. Ajax.”

The teacher looked a bit sheepish, and laughed a nervous chuckle, dismissing his self-indulgence in trying to get a laugh from some highschool students who had no idea what they were doing. I mean, I didn’t know what I was doing either, but I assumed I had a clearer idea than them.

“So… Ajax, thank you for introducing yourself. Go sit in the back with Evie. The blue-haired girl.”

I was angsty and uninterested as usual, but the words ‘blue-haired’ grabbed my attention. I looked around- actually interested for once- and there was the blue-haired girl, her hair just down to her shoulders. She had fair skin- unlike most of the girls, who had tans because of Long Beach, Huntington Beach, whatever it was- and a bit of black hair emerged at the roots. She looked at me with a hard stare and pulled the chair next to her, her eyes never leaving mine. They were penetrating, hard not to look away from.

I sat next to her, her posture uninviting and slim. Mr. Dallas began talking some empty talk about whatever era the class had been learning about, and Evie turned to me.

“So, Ajax. Welcome to California. How are you liking it so far?”

I flinched a little, shocked she would even want to talk to me. “Uh, it’s okay.”

“Miss the countryside, huh?” She shuffled through her Adidas backpack and pulled out a black binder, not making any effort to look at me.

“Kinda.”

She turned to me, her head cocked at an odd angle. “Don’t worry, everything should be clear soon.”

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

## *SEVENTEEN YEARS LATER*

I lowered my glasses an inch down to my nose. The picture was somewhat blurry, but I made out the faces of Beth, my brother Marcus, my sister Adriana, and my brother Seth.

Wait,how could I miss it? There I was in the photo, fifteen, wearing a red hoodie, looking cranky and angsty. Oh, how I only saw the negative side of things. I turned the page with a lick of my finger, as the pages were stuck together and folded at the corners, and found a more recent picture. This was from 12 years ago. Evie, her blue hair now down to her back, and me, my face that frowned so easily managing a smile. A real smile. Evie’s white dress fell to the floor, it’s trail lying in a swirling heap on the floor. She didn’t wear the traditional veil, like most did, but she was the definition of class all the same. My trail of thought was interrupted as my eleven year-old rushed up the stairs.

“Dad, I finished packing some of my clothes.” Elora dropped a box next to me.

“Good,” I said with a half-smile. “Where’s your brother?”

Elora thought for a bit. “Huh. I don’t know. He’s not happy.”

I arched an eyebrow. “And why?”

“He doesn’t wanna leave California. He thinks New York is horrible and his whole life is ruined and he’s abandoning everyone he loves.”

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.