Chapter 1: Home

Disclaimer: I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion. It belongs to Hideaki Anno, Gainax, and Tatsunoko Productions. I only own the characters I made up.

I sit in a dimly lit classroom, occasionally looking at the movie being played for us students. Using my arm, I keep my head from slamming into the desk due to lack of energy. I briefly scan the room and see students either watching the movie or talking amongst themselves. It honestly bugs me how happy some of these kids are. Even though most of them never bothered me personally, I know how they are. They are the kind of people that thinks fucking some slut makes you hot shit. These people pretend to be your friends only to knock you down for amusement. They're scum, and it pisses me off how these kinds of people are allowed to be happy.

. . .

What am I doing? I should be enjoying the movie, not thinking about those idiots. I should be happy that Ms. Ferron chose a movie over handouts! Granted, it was The Hunchback of Notre Dame in the French language, but it beats working. She says it will help improve our french. But if you ask me, I think she ran out of classwork ideas. So why am I so . . .bitter?

Beep!

The school bell snaps me back to reality. Ms. Ferron pauses the movie and turns the lights back on. Despite not giving my full attention to the movie, I'm a bit disappointed it ended abruptly. It was just getting good.

"Alright class," she says in her subtle accent, "On your way out, grab the worksheets resting on the stool near the door."

The class lets out a collective groan.

"Oh stop complaining," she scolds the class, "These worksheets will be due at the beginning of class and I will not be accepting late work. So do not bother turning in the assignment the day after."

Great! More work I'll put off till last minute.

Ms. Ferron dismisses the class. I immediately grab my stuff, the worksheets, and head out the door. I initially plan on traveling through the halls as quickly as possible but stop when I hear someone call out to me. I turn around to see a girl casually walking in my direction.

She's shorter than me. I think she only goes up to my chest. She has short brunette hair and glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. She's also wearing this ridiculously cute smile; not that I'd say that out loud. It's Jade. Of course, who else would it be?

I wait patiently for her to catch up to me. When she is within talking distance, I ask her to walk with me. She agrees. Whatever she wants to talk about we can do that on our way to the bus station.

She asks how my day was. I force a smile and tell her "It was fine, I guess."

I hate doing that.

Her face molds into a frown as she looks up to me. "Are you okay?"

Crap! My smile must have not looked genuine. She probably thinks I don't want to talk to her. I put more effort into my performance and add a chuckle for good measure.

"Yeah, I'm okay! Why wouldn't I be?" I say in the most convincing way possible. Jade's frown turns into a small smile. But I can still see concern etched on her face. "Soooo. Did you just want to ask how my day was or. . ."

"Hmm? Oh!" She apparently remembered something. "I just wanted to remind you to actually finish your homework this time."

Really?

"Is that it?" The question gets her all worked up.

"What do you mean 'Is that it?'" she looks me dead in the eye, "You've been forgetting to turn in your work for a while now."

"Okay MOOOM," I say mockingly. Was it really that obvious?

"I'm serious Michael," she says, "It's not just french class. I noticed you didn't turn in last week's math project." She lets out a long sigh, "If you keep this up you're going to fail both french and math."

It never ceases to amaze me how nice she is. She's genuinely worried about me. Why? The very idea that someone thinks I'm worth their time is confusing. I don't know how to react, so I laugh. She probably thinks I'm being an ass.

"What's so funny?" she asks.

"Nothing," I tell her, "It's. . . just nice to see that you care." I try to sound sarcastic, but that's kinda hard to do when you're being sincere. Jade responds by rolling her eyes.

"Anyway. If you have any trouble with the worksheet, just meet me tomorrow morning in the lunchroom."

"Alright. I'll think about it." That's a lie.

Satisfied with my answer she gives me a hug. I'll never get use to that. Fortunately, my dark skin color makes it difficult to tell if I'm blushing. I awkwardly reciprocate the gesture by having one arm pat her on the back. She let's go and bids me farewell. We then go our separate ways.

Why is she friends with me? It's not like I don't enjoy her company. It's just. . .I don't see what she sees in me. I remember the first time we met. It was a year ago and we were in some class involving computers. We worked together a few times but that's it. I honestly thought she'd forget about me as soon as we moved to the next grade. But. . . she didn't. When we met again, she greeted me like an old friend. I once entertained the idea that she liked me but immediately dismissed it. She has a boyfriend and I'm no prince charming. So why does she keep hanging around? Could it be pity? It's not unlikely. But if she genuinely likes me for me then. . .well it doesn't matter. She may be one of the few people I can tolerate, but it doesn't change what will eventually happen. My friendships don't last, and honestly, it's for the better. I quicken my pace. If I don't hurry someone will take my seat.

Home. Perhaps that's why I'm so bitter.

I'm one of the first kids to enter the bus. I'm glad I decided to hustle. Being stuck at the back is not something I enjoy. The kids back there are usually loud and act like complete retards. I sit in my usual spot, which is directly behind the bus driver. Rule of thumb, the closer you are to the bus driver, the further you are from the chaos. Just as I'm about to get settled, somebody sits next to me. I hate it when people do that. I'm about to give this person the death glare when I realized who it was.

The guy's taller than me, even when sitting down. His skin tone is slightly lighter than mine; sort of caramel colored. He's wearing a black, long sleeved shirt along with blue jeans. The short afro on his head has a hair pick sticking out of it, which is something I think looks stupid.

"Shane?" surprise evident in my voice.

My brother turns to me and shows a toothy grin. "Sup."

"What are you doing here?" I ask, "Don't you have practice after school?"

"Coach's sick today," he explains, "Since we don't have a substitute, the team gets to go home early."

This slightly elevates my mood. I shift my weight against the window and tell Shane to wake me when we get home.

"You got the keys?" asks Shane.

Not this again.

"Of course I got the keys! What kind of question is that!?"

"Calm down. I'm just asking," he says casually, "We don't want a repeat of last time?"

"That was ONE time!" I say while irritated. He's referring to a time when I tried to break into the house. I resorted to that option because I left my keys inside. So I tried to break in by picking the lock with two small twigs. I didn't get far with that attempt. What made it worse was the neighbors almost called the cops. If Shane hadn't gotten home when he did, I might've ended up in big trouble. He's been holding that one incident over my head ever since.

Shane responds to my irritation with laughter. I throw a few playful jabs his way. He counters with a headlock. I hate how he has the height advantage, even though I'm the older brother. After our "fight", and a few wordy insults, Shane let's me get some sleep. The rest of the trip is uneventful.

When the bus stops on our street, Shane wakes me up. I let out an irritated groan but stayed awake despite myself. The two of us gets off the bus and walk home.

While on our short walk, Shane and I talk about our time at school. I give him the general run down of my day. You know, things like "The classes were boring" or "The cafeteria food still tastes like shit". Shane had a particularly interesting day. Apparently, some kid was walking around school asking if anyone had weed on them. That's just dumb. Why would you ask for drugs in a place you can easily get caught? We continue our conversation until we reach the front door of the house. Home.

Seeing the front door sucks any enthusiasm I have out of my body. There's a car in the house's driveway. So no doubt she's home. A sigh escapes me as I dig into my left pocket. I pull out the keys and insert it into the door lock. I inhale deeply through my nose and force a smile. I open the door.

It's quiet. Odd, usually the television is blaring some religious channel. I walk into the living room and no one's there. The tv is showing some guy in a suit, holding what is no doubt a bible. But the volume is actually manageable for once. Could mom be asleep?

"I don't think mom's home," Shane says.

That could be possible. Her work vehicle's still here, but she could've taken the other car she uses to travel. The only way to know is to check the garage. But to get there I'll have to walk past her room. I'm not going anywhere near there. Not after was she accused me of doing.

Shane says he'll go check the garage. I'm initially worried, I can't help it. But I eventually decide he'll be fine, even if mom was home. I know some might think it's silly to worry about walking past someone's room. But after the things I've been accused of doing, I'm not willing to take any chances. Shane is sort of mom's favorite, so she won't bother him. Not that I'm jealous. Actually, I'm glad he doesn't have to experience what I experienced.

"Mom's not home!" yells Shane from the garage.

A wave of relief cascades across my body. I don't have to put on an act now that I know she's gone. Judging from the fact she took her travel vehicle instead of her work one. I predict we have an hour or two of freedom. I intend to make the most of the time we have. My brother grabs the remote and changes the channel to watch cartoons. I go to my room to grab my laptop. When I return to the living room, I sit down and load up kissanime.

"Hey," Shane looks in my direction, "Wanna watch Evangelion 3.0?"

Shane pauses for a moment. He shakes his head and says "Naw. Not right now."

"Seriously? We might not another chance to watch it."

"We'll watch it when mom leaves for work." Shane suggests. Like that'll ever happen. She leaves at 10pm and I'm usually asleep by then. I could watch the movie without him. But decide against it. I know it's a bit silly, but I feel the need to do everything with my brother. Even the most trivial things. I guess it's to compensate for my lack of friends.

Instead of watching the 3.0 movie, I decide to do a bit more research on Neon Genesis. Maybe one day I'll actually watch the series instead of getting second hand knowledge. But for now, I'll just watch another review on why Evangelion is so "deep".

An hour passes and we hear the garage door opening. I put away my laptop and Shane changes the channel to a nature documentary. Mom enters the living room carrying groceries.

She's a tall woman and is a bit on the rough looking side. She's wearing what looks like traditional african clothing. You know the ones, the long dress with a colorful cloth covering the hair. Those kinds of clothes. There's an exhausted look on her face. Then again, she always looks exhausted.

"Boys" she calls out to us, "Could you help me with the groceries?"

"Okay mom," the both of us respond.

Shane takes the groceries mom already was carrying to the kitchen. I go to the garage to get the rest of the groceries. When we're done helping, she asks how our day was and we give the appropriate answer. "School was great", we both say in false enthusiasm. I hate doing that.

She in turn gives us a smile that reeks of insincerity, "That's good to hear."

Mom tells us she's tired and goes to her room. Shane and I take a seat on a couch. We sit there in silence.

I don't feel so good. My stomach feels like it's done a one-eighty. My arms are stone. My breath, fire. My eyes can't seem to focus on one thing and my brain is speaking an unknown language. I can't stay here.

"I'm going outside." I tell Shane.

"Why?" he asks.

"I just need to walk for a bit. If mom asks where I am, tell her I'm jogging around the park." I grab my keys and put on my black hoodie. "I'll probably be back in thirty minutes. The tv's yours till then." I exit the house and locked the door.

The neighborhood is quiet as usual. Every once in awhile there'll be dogs barking at one another or lawn mowers cutting grass. But the neighborhood always returned to silence. That's what I love about the suburbs. There's rarely needless noise. Usually I'd take the time to appreciate how peaceful it is here. How people usually mind their own business. How every once in awhile, you'll see someone riding a horse down the the road. How if you were patient, you'd get to spot owls, deer or even the occasional coyote. But lately, I've being taking in the scenery less and less. Right now, I'm just trying to make this feeling go away. This horrible feeling.

I wander into a park that's particularly woody. My brother and I would always call this place "The Forest", though it's not an accurate title. Sure this park had a lot of trees that made for some good hiding spots. But it doesn't deserve the title Shane and I gave it. I walk towards a spot where there's a higher volume of trees. I leaned against one of them and closed my eyes.

I stay in that area for god knows how long. But that feeling won't go away. It's aggravating, and it's making me think about things I don't want to think about. Mainly about how different things were four years ago. A time when my mother and I got along. When she wouldn't make me feel like shit. When I could feel more than bitterness and anger. When she wouldn't go into a damn rant about how I'm going to hell for things I never did! A time when cartoons weren't considered evil, and a scary movie was just a scary movie. A time when my brother didn't have to cry because he couldn't stand what I was going through. A time when-

My vision's getting blurry. Am I crying? Dammit! I immediately wipe the tears away. The feeling isn't going away. It's only getting stronger. My insides are growing rocks. My skin turns to ice and my mind's far away. There's nothing in my head or heart except raw, primal emotions. Sadness, despair, and disgust are just a few swirling around inside me. The strongest emotion at the moment. . .is anger.

This anger burns my nerves and stains my vision. I couldn't keep it in this time. I let out a primal scream, as if declaring to the world that I've had enough! I let out my frustration on the nearest thing available. A tree. I'm punching it, kicking it, tearing off the damn bark! My body's moving on its own! It won't stop until something pays for all the torment I had to deal with! I'm no longer there, I'm in a place that has no name or discernible location. When I return, my body stops hitting the tree. My arms and legs are bruised. But for some reason, I feel slightly better.

After a few rounds of breathing I look to see if anyone saw what I did. At first it seems like the coast is clear, but then I look further. Between two trees at a distance is a kid. The guy is pretty far away, but I can tell he's staring at me. He's wearing some kind of school uniform, I think. It's kind of hard to tell at this distance. He looks to be my age. I suddenly become embarrassed, no doubt he saw me going mental. But why is he just standing there, and why do I feel like I've seen him before? No. . .that can't be-

Snap!

A branch falls and nearly hits me. This cause me to momentarily look away from the person staring. When I confirm that the thing that fell was indeed a branch, I look back at the kid. Only, there's no one there. He must've run off. Well, it's probably about time for me to get home.

I walk out of the park. I pause and stare back at the place where I saw that kid. No sign of him. I continue walking.

There's no way I've been out here that long! It's already getting dark! It must be six or seven by now! How did this happen? I'm pretty sure I've only been out here for an hour. I better get home quickly. Mom's probably gonna yell at me, but I could care less.

Something's wrong. I don't know what it is, but something feels. . .off. I'm running now. I don't know why, but it feels like if I don't get home as fast as possible, it'll be too late.

While attempting to cross the street, I see a bright light coming towards me. Crap, it's a car! I try running faster but the "car's" too quick. The light collides with me and I'm in immediate pain. My skin feel like it's on fire. My insides are being crushed. Oh god! Is this how I die?

I can see nothing but white. The brightness is burning my eyes. The light consumes my body until there's nothing left. The world goes dark.

Sirens.

That's that's the first thing my conscious mind picks up. Opening my eyes is a struggle. My eyes initially refuse to comply to my demands, but they eventually relent. The world's all blurry. But I can make out a few things. There's fire on the streets and twisted metal everywhere. The road looks a bit different and. . . are those buildings? Where the hell am I?

I try to get up but my body isn't listening to me. I scan the area once more. I think my mind's playing tricks on me because I see what looks like a giant metal arm. My eyelids are getting heavy. I don't think I'll be able to stay conscious. The world is fading away as my mind shuts down. Why does this place seem. . .familiar?

Author's Notes: Yes, this is my first time writing fan-fiction. Though, if I'm being honest, I'm proud of the end result (even if it might be riddled with mistakes). The idea for this story just popped into my head one day. Unlike any other idea I had (which would fade into obscurity), this one wouldn't fuck off. So to appease the little devil, I wrote this. I might continue writing the story if things go well. So, tell me what you think and have a good day.