Caelum woke up at exactly 6:35 am, Monday morning to the tune of his annoying alarm. Looking over he realized his alarm had been going off for thirty-five minutes. Shit, he thought he was going to be late if he didn’t rush to get ready.

“Good Morning” a figure holding a bowl by the doorway called. It took him a second to realize it was his father. “Good morning dad,” he said hurriedly as he scrambled out of bed.

His dad stood in the doorway with a bowl of oatmeal in his hand chewing quite loudly. “Well are you going to get ready for school,” his dad said swallowing a very large spoonful of oatmeal and choking a little in the process.

He had a little awkward smile on his face. The corners of Caelum’s mouth moved up slightly and in an amused voice he said, “That’s the plan dad.” He said as he ran past his dad to the bathroom.

“Well, I’ll be waiting in the car for you whenever you decide to join me his dad called out.

He popped his head out of the bathroom and gave his dad a quick nod.

And with that, his dad disappeared. With a sigh, he grabbed his toothbrush and started to brush faster than he had ever before.

******

“It’s going to rain isn’t it.” He thought while looking out the passenger side of the window and up into the grey cloudy skies. Suddenly, the car came to a stop. He looked up out the window, surprised, he must have lost track of time.

“Hey Caelum, you know you don’t have to go to school for the rest of the day after the meeting? I could pick you up and we could do something together.” He glanced at his dad with a small smile. “I have a physics test today dad.” he said, “And I know how you feel about me skipping class.”

“Yea but I totally get if you don't want to go to your classes after the meeting” he replied.

Turning his body he fully faced his dad and said, “If I don’t feel up to it later today, I’ll call you ok.”

With that, he put one foot out of the car then quickly turned and said, “Bye dad, don’t worry I’ll be fine, and then hopped out the rest of the car and closed the door.

As he walked through school doors, he had a feeling today was going to be weird. His dad has seemed really worried about him going to school today.

He knew would not in fact call his dad if something went wrong. He knew his father had a lot to do, especially because he was now raising him all alone.

He could not and would not inconvenience his dad like that. Letting out a sigh Caelum entered the elevator and waited to reach the third floor for his meeting with the school counselor.

The counselor had called his dad and talked with him, and Caelum still had no clue what it had been about. All he got out from him was that he had a meeting with the counselor at 7:30.

Exiting the elevator, he quickly heading toward Mr. Lopez’s office, the school counselor.

He was alright in Caelum’s mind though from what he had heard seemed way too motivated in wanting to help his students, at least that sounded way better than the counselor last year... way better.

Mr. Lopez was an average-built man with light brown skin, and black hair. His face though was clearly very handsome, and he had many of the students fawning over him.

Caelum thought he was pretty good-looking too; with black hair and hazel eyes, he had inherited from his dad. He did have pretty chalky-colored skin, but he was pretty sure that was for spending way too much time inside.

Lost in thought he quickly refocused and noticed he was nearing Mr. Lopez's office already.

As he headed closer to the office which was conveniently located towards a balcony letting the sunlight practically blind the person facing it.

Upon nearing he heard a voice hurriedly talking to what he knew was Mr. Lopez. His eyes darting around he quickly checked his phone and saw it was 7:29 and that the door was slightly ajar.

The door being slightly open was odd because if Mr. Lopez was talking to another student, he would never have the door be open even a little. And the time of his meeting was 7:30 so really Mr. Lopez couldn’t be meeting with someone else so close to their scheduled time.

Curiosity overtook him and without a thought, he pressed his back against the hall and slid over to the door, and took look through the crack of it.

“Mr. Lopez, I really was hoping you could talk to him. I know this isn’t my first time bringing this up, but it just keeps getting worse and worse.”

The person speaking was not in view from where the angle of the door, but Caelum would recognize that voice anywhere it was Will speaking. Will was Caelum's best friend from last year, with coily short black hair and brown colored skin they used to be inseparable until last year.

He mysteriously stopped talking to him and Caelum eventually lost all contact with him.

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the door edge guard, the thought of just leaving crossing his mind.

“Oh, Caelum is that you?” “You can come in no worries and William we can continue this conversation after school ok I’ll try my best to help you.”

“Fuck” he thought, there goes his chances of leaving.

“Good morning Mr. Lopez, I see you’re kind of busy so if you need me to leave, I’ll gladly go,” he said coming out from behind the door.

“No, no it's ok I was just finishing up over here.” “William, I bid thee adieu,” he said in an overly cheerful voice and a terrible French accent. “Oh ok, well see you this afternoon mister.” Right as he walked past Caelum and towards the door William hesitated and then turned.

Hesitantly and with a slight stutter he said “Hey Caelum it's nice seeing you and Camellia misses you even though-”

Caelum showed no intention of turning around and acknowledging him and William seemed to see that. After a few seconds, he heard Will’s steps slowly fade away.

“Well, that wasn't too nice, Caelum we can work on that today, I know you and William have a… history. Mr. Lopez rambled until he noticed that Caelum was not responding.

Looking up at Mr. Lopez he said Caleum, “Can we talk about literally anything else today please?”

With a sigh, Mr. Lopez shuffled some papers and then looked Caelum directly in the eyes. “Well, this is a better time than any to bring this up. Caelum, I think you and I should talk about what happened last year.”

Time slowed as Caelum processed those words, but Mr. Lopez continued.

“It’s just that I heard about it from a lot of teachers, and recently you seem to be off in your own world during class. A lot of people are worried about you is all.”

“Why does everyone think I’m going crazy! I don’t need pity from anyone just leave me alone!”

“Now Caleum its’s not like that I just want the best for you.”

“No, because if you thought I was okay you wouldn’t have called for this stupid fucking meeting.”

Caelum picked up his bag in a hurry and started making his way out of the office and closed the door. He heard Mr. Lopez get up from his seat and he quickly turned a corner and pressed his back against the wall.

“Wait- damn he’s already gone.” Mr. Lopez mumbled under his breath though still audible to him.

After hearing him reenter the classroom, Caelum shook his head realizing why his dad had seemed so worried and why William was meeting with Mr. Lopez before he came in.

They all thought he was going mental, it just pissed him off even more.

Looking at the time and realizing he still had 15 minutes before 1st period he decided to take a detour. He headed to the school’s grass field, where he knew he would find Atlas.

The grass field of the school was a huge section almost the same size as a football field. It was just filled with little areas of shade, trees some recreational areas for relaxation.

The entire school seemed to be very luxurious with the school even being three stories high. The only way he had even been able to go here was because his mother had worked here as the vice principal.

Arriving at the field he looked around noticing that Atlas wasn’t there. Looking away he said, “I guess all this cat food is going to go to waste.”

He then preceded to shake a can of cat tuna he pulled out of his bag. A bush rustled and poking its head out a black cat looked at him and meowed. Jumping out of the bush the cat quickly ran over to him circling his legs looking at the tuna expectantly.

Setting the tuna down by a tree he also put his bag down and sat down. “You really like that tuna a lot huh Atlas, you go crazy for it.”

Atlas gave him an almost human look of what’s that got to do with you, then started eating the tuna.

Atlas was a fully black cat with a white mark on his underside that made him popular with the students. Too bad he went nowhere near anyone else even Caelum until he started bringing around the tuna.

Hesitantly he reached out with his hand and started to stroke his back.

Pausing for a little Atlas ignored the touch and preceded to finish his tuna. After finishing he sat down allowing himself to be pet.

With a content sigh, Caelum looked at Atlas who was gently purring now thinking, you know what I can live with this, with a content smile on his face.

Checking the time, he realized first period was going to start soon so he stood up with a sigh. "Ok Atlas, I got to head to class, I'll visit you tomorrow ok."

As he wiped his pants down a wave of nausea and pain hit him. His vision began to swim, the urge to vomit growing by the second. He fell to the ground and instinctively curled into a ball due to the pain, as his consciousness began to fade.

Before he fully lost consciousness, he heard a song playing. A soft melody, one he swore he had heard before.