Life's Challenges (Chapter Five)

It was a bright and sunny morning. The sun shone brightly outside. Another day was born. His room was tidy and everything was in place, not that it had ever been messy. In fact, everything in his room looked stunning, even him, as he laid on the bed. He was curled up, fast asleep. The alarm clock beside him showed seven o’clock, which meant he was to wake in an hour’s time. On his pillow lied his smooth and flawless face. A face envied by all, including girls.

In his bed, he suddenly shifted position, face towards the window and back towards the cupboard. A few moments later, his position changed again. This time he lied on his back. In no time at all, his eyes opened. He stared into the ceiling, his mind blank. His eyes went to the alarm clock and he sighed. He got up and staggered into the bathroom. Minutes later, he came out, took his school uniform and went back in. The next time he came out, he was all ready.

Overall he was perfect, except one thing. His expression. Since there was still time, he walked to the balcony. The sun rays were streaming and shining upon his delicate face. He could hear the birds chirping outside and saw the trees swishing and swaying side to side following the wind. Everything was so calm and peaceful that he felt he was one with nature. The cool breeze blew.

He closed his eyes, just as he was feeling the peacefulness, a knocked came on the door. “Come in.”

The door opened and in came a lady in her fifties. “Young Master, its time to have your breakfast. Master, Mistress and Miss are already waiting for you.”

He nodded and followed her downstairs into the dining room where his foster family waited for him to have breakfast together. All three family members said good morning. He merely nodded and sat down. Excellent sets of breakfast were served. All of them ate in silence. It seemed that it was all too hard to bear for his sister that she spoke loudly, complaining to their parents about him. “Mummy, Daddy, yesterday when we were waiting for Brother, I went up to call him down. He said he would come but he didn’t. he made me wait outside his door for so long and didn’t even say sorry.”

Their parents smiled. His sister was always like that, liked to complain even if it was a small problem. But that was what made the whole family lively. She made them laugh. He looked at his foster parents and was suddenly reminded of his first stepmother who treated him like cow dung. He remembered the day he ran away from home when he was thirteen.

He had gotten lost. It was raining heavily when he saw two figures. He had felt afraid. Afraid what they might do to him. Afraid that he was lonely. Afraid that he was alone in the rain and darkness. As they went nearer and nearer to him, he backed off step by step until he could back off no more. His back reached a wall. He may have stopped but the figures haven’t. They came closer and closer. He closed his eyes, expecting something horrible to happen. But instead, a soft, gentle voice spoke, “Little boy, why are you out here alone? You should go home. Where do you live? We’ll bring you home.”

The voice belonged to a lady in her twenties. With her was a man in his thirties. They were smiling and looked friendly. He felt safe enough to tell them the truth. Not the whole truth, but part of it. “I ran away from home. I don’t want to stay there any longer. She tortures me everyday.”

“Who tortures you?”

“My.. my.. stepmother.”

They were silent for a moment. They didn’t seem to know what to do. They kept glancing at each other, wondering the same thing, what do we do with this boy? In the end, they made a decision. A decision that changed his life for the better.
“Little boy, why don’t you follow us home. Then tomorrow you can go back to your own home. Okay?”

“No. I don’t want to go back home. I’m not wanted there at all. Take me with you. I’ll be your new son. I’ll do anything. Just take me with you. PLEASE!”
The man knelt down and looked at him. “Boy, you may follow us back. We will discuss this tomorrow again, okay?”

He nodded. The couple brought him to their house which was now his own, four years later. He smiled at his sister. He loved her dearly for she was the one who made him smile and get on with life, although he was not exactly enjoying life to the fullest due to memories and the pain of his past. But still, he tried to get on with his life as well as possible. He wanted to forget that he was ever the son of Jack Yan and that he ever had a stepmother who didn’t care tuppence about anyone or anything but money.

That was why he was trying to open himself more to the world but it was taking a lot of him to do that because it was like he had never been able to do it before. He had been trying for years since he joined his new family. It was definitely hard work for him and he didn’t really have any confidence in doing it properly.
At that moment, his father spoke, “Son, are you okay? You’re not eating and you seem distracted. Is everything okay? Are you nervous about first day at school? Its not your first time.”

He smiled and replied, “I’m okay. Just thinking about some things. Not about school.”

He silently continued eating and when the whole family was done, he immediately stood up, took his school bag and out the door he went. He was used to walking to school. He didn’t really seem to be interested in vehicles no matter what they were even though his parents had tried to make him buy a car. Ever since he was a member in the family, his parents had kept trying to make him buy expensive things but failed terribly. He had never, not even once, showed any interest in anything but story books. Watches, wallets, even girls every man dream of, none had ever attracted him. His face was always expressionless. Only when he was with his sister would he smile and laugh a little. In school, there was only one person who befriended him.

Jiro was a hyper active teenager in the same class. As good-looking, smart and sporty as he was, which was just a little different from him, he had actually gone through the pains of trying to befriend him. He had gone through hard times before he was accepted as a friend. In spite of being a new student in the year before, Jiro kept trying to talk to him because he had no friends there and he was the one sitting nearest to him, which was in front of him. He, on the other hand, didn’t bother to reply him.

Jiro was very talkative and always trouble-prone. In his first week, he had gotten detention due to too much talking in class. When the teacher said he was to have detention after school that certain day, he had talked back to him and received extra detentions plus punishment. He had to clean the whole main hall floor and windows.

As he remembered that little amusing memory, he smiled to himself. Jiro was really a funny and weird person. For once the thought of Jiro actually made him smile. If he knew, Jiro would be jumping the whole day at school, giving no one peace. Beside him, his sister went on and on about him making them wait the day before. His parents were listening while making little jokes while laughing.

They’d eaten the last of their wonderful breakfast of the day. They left the table and went to get ready. He took his school bag. Without saying anything, he just left the house and was on his way to school. He looked at the ground the whole time. Suddenly, he bumped into someone. It was....

-brenda-