The sun will rise again tomorrow

The city of St. Louis was completely covered in snow. A common sight for the current period of the year. The view from Erik’s room was astonishing. Living on the tenth floor of a block around the city centre had its perks and the view was breathtaking. The commuters were just a show of colourful dots walking over a white carpet which covered the whole landscape.

All of a sudden a voice disturbed his silence.

“Erik honey, are you ready to go?”. His mother’s voice could be heard echoing from the hallway. No answer. “Erik?”, his mother raised her voice again, while directing her steps towards her son’s door. When she entered his room, the eleven year old kid was just staring through the window that was facing the city centre.

“We need to hurry if you want to avoid the busy streets darling” whispered his mother.

“Can i skip it today?”. First day in a new school came quickly. He had spent the whole summer thinking of a way to make new friends but now that the day was finally here, all his training went down the drain.

“Don’t be silly, you’ll be fine. You’re not the only one who has no friends in that class, everyone goes through this in the fifth grade.”

“But i don’t know anyone…”

“Baby come on, i promise we will have some pizza after you finish today, what do you think?” whispered his mother. A slight smile appeared on both of their faces and stroking his hair, Vanessa gently turned Erik around and directed him towards the corridor.

The elevator ride to the ground floor felt like an eternity but the drive from their home to school passed in a blink of an eye. The front yard of the school was full of children. Four people were standing in front of the school doors, the principal and three other teachers, each waiting for the right time to call the groups they were assigned to overlook over during the middle school period.

“Fifth A!” shouted a woman and the crowd started to mix and stir. All of a sudden a group of people started flowing towards the gates, elbowing their way through the packed crowd.

“Fifth A, this way!” shouted again the woman while turning around and going inside, followed by unsynchronized bouncing heads. At least that’s what Erik could see.

It was a school none of his friends chose to go to, and it felt like a betrayal to him but “life goes on, the sun will rise again tomorrow whether we like it or not”. His da’s words were the only ones he could hear in his head, despite the deafening noise around him.

“Fifth B!” another woman shouted. Shivers started going down his spine. The thought of meeting new people scared him. Seeing other children talking and making groups around made him think he probably was the only stranger. A stranger in his own city, the one he always admired from his window, up high, closer to the clouds than the ground itself. The crowd began to stir again. This time, the call was directed to him as well. A tall woman with short snow white hair was standing in front of the school doors, glancing upon the sea of children.

Erik’s body suddenly started to move, even though his mind wanted to stop, turn around and go back home, his legs kept going forward. He found himself in a smaller crowd among the ones he would later call classmates.

“Fifth B, follow me!” shouted the white haired woman and turning around, she started leading the way through the big building. It was an ancient one, with tall walls and high ceilings. Climbing the stairs was the hard part. He never climbed so many stairs which seemed hundreds and hundreds, but there were only two floors and Erik’s class was on the last one. It was a small room, but big enough for eighteen children.

Being among the first who stepped inside, he quickly picked the seat in the back of the class, giving way to everyone to group up with their friends and as soon as everyone sat down, the teacher opened the class registry and greeted everyone.

“Hello everyone, my name is Monica, and i will not only be your coordinator this year, but i will also be your maths teacher. Every problem you will have, goes through me, and every concern any of the professors might have, likewise. I would like to hear your name and what school you came from, in order to know each other better.”

Her voice was soothing and she seemed like a nice person. Luckily he sat on the very last chair in the back of the room, out of her sight.

“Should we start from the back? Don’t be shy, everyone is new here.”

The words cut like knives. All he thought about was speaking in front of a bunch of people he did not know and it was terrifying. Slowly pushing his chair backwards, Erik stood up. His legs were shaking and his mind was clouded. His red cheeks were visible by the time he stood up completely and a couple of giggles could be heard from around the room.

“My name is Erik Branson and -” it looked like he forgot what he was about to say but in reality his mouth was not able to form any sounds because of the embarrassment. “- and i come from Victoria elementary”. With shaking legs, he sat back down, trying to avoid showing his emotions and keeping a straight face.

“Hello Erik, thank you for breaking the ice. Not everyone is brave enough to do that. Let’s carry on.” said the professor, pointing towards the kid on Erik’s left.

The presentation went fast but he did not pay much attention. The background voices sounded like gibberish as he was scribbling in his notebook but as soon as the last girl in the front row finished introducing herself, the professor pulled out a bag and slammed it on the desk.

“Sorry for that, it is heavy,” said the professor with a smile on her face.

“Every year we have a project, we give you one of these notebooks” and while she was talking, she started handing one to each kid. “Consider these as your diary but do not put your real name on it, a fake one would do just fine. You document everything here and at the end of the year we collect them back and try to improve in case there are any issues. We are talking about bullying, general problems, house issues, everything.”

As she got to Erik, she placed a little black notebook on his desk, looking at him and smiling.

“Today is just an induction hour, the real school starts tomorrow. What have you done this summer?” The question was not directed to Erik, which made him feel relieved. He opened the booklike notebook and instantly started thinking of what name he should choose. Dentra? Maybe not. Ibani? No… I should think of something nice… Ithlis. I like this one.

Suddenly the bell rang which meant the induction day was over.

The rest of the day passed in a blink of an eye. Finding himself in his room, he curiously eyed the little black notebook his professor gave him. All of a sudden, he found himself with a pen in his hand, ready to begin his first day’s report.

Dear diary, today I believe I overdid it with my emotions. There was nothing I should have been scared of and yet, my legs were shaking like a twig in the wind. I wish my emotions were stronger than this. And I hope I will have the courage to meet some new people tomorrow.

As he was writing, the tiredness overtook him, and falling asleep, he dreamt of nothing. The night came and went.

The second day at school proved to be different. His courage proved to be unmatched and that day he met everyone. When his mother asked how his day had been, his joy exploded, infecting her with smiles and happiness, but not his father.

While on his way to his room, Erik caught a glimpse of his dad talking to his mother.

“We need those twenty thousand dollars or else we will lose the property” his dad whispered. His mother never said a word. Instead, she lowered her head and kept wiping the dishes dry as her husband was washing them.

Sadness overtook him, and retired in his bedroom. His joy was killed by the gloomy mood of his parents.

Dear diary, today i finally had the courage to meet people, and it went exceptionally well. I am happy and I never thought it would be easy. I wish my parents were as happy as me. I wish all their problems were solved, all their dark thoughts brightened.

The next day Erik got woken up by a loud knock. As his dad opened the door, a loud happy noise escaped his mouth. As he went to the door of his room, he realized the house he had woken up in was different. It was a villa, not his apartment. In front of the house there were two nice and luxurious cars, and his dad was shouting from the top of his lungs.

“Baby, we have our fifty thousand!! We can afford it!!”

What is happening? Erik thought to himself. Looking around the room, all the thoughts came back to him. The notebook.

After realizing it, he thought of trying to write something else and try to prove his theory.

Dear diary, I wish I was old, I do not want to go to school anymore.

After a blink, his legs started to ache. The bed next to him seemed small. His vision was unfocused and a look at his hands was enough to understand he was not a kid anymore.

What have I done? The voice inside his head was an adult’s voice. He tried to look around after his small diary but it was not there.

He went outside of his room, legs barely moving. The house was wrapped in spider webs, as if no one lived there in decades. Everything was dark. A sudden breeze entered the corridor, through a broken window. It was a hot one. It felt like summer. The sky was a dark orange and purple and the sunset felt like a strange sight to his eyes. As the sun went over the horizon and the night started taking over the world, his father’s words echoed in his mind clearer than ever

“Life goes on, the sun will rise again tomorrow whether we like it or not”.