Zack Anderton wasn’t happy when his alarm went off at quarter past seven. Not opening his eyes he fumbled around on his bedside table. Eventually his fingers touched his mobile phone and he turned it off. Pulling his duvet tightly around him he hoped he would be able to grab a few extra minutes sleep. But when he heard the door to his bedroom opening he knew he wasn’t going to be so lucky.
“Oi, no snooze time for you today, not after what happened yesterday!”
Zack opened his eyes just enough to see the blurry outline of Sami standing in his doorway with her arms folded, already fully dressed. “How can you be so awake at this time?” he yawned at her.
“Years of early starts and a caffeine addiction,” Sami replied. Zack closed his eyes and tried to ignore her, secretly hoping she would miraculously disappear. However Sami wasn’t going to be beaten, and seeing his discarded school uniform on the floor she picked it up and threw it so that it landed on his head.
“Alright I’m up I’m up,” Zack announced, throwing the uniform off of his face and sitting up in bed.
Smirking Sami informed him, “Breakfast in fifteen minutes. Better be quick. I won’t be buying Chinese tonight if you make me late for work again.”
With that she walked out, leaving Zack to kick his duvet off and slowly lower himself out of bed. He tried to remember the dream he had been having. He had been lying on an operating table surrounded by men wearing surgery masks and clothes. He had tried to fight them off but they had placed an aesthetic mask over his mouth, and then he remembered no more. The dream had gone.
Giving a yawn he walked over to his wardrobe, tiptoeing his way around crumpled pieces of clothing spread across his floor. He examined himself in the mirror hanging from the wardrobe door. His mousy brown hair had tidied itself during the night but he could easily sort that out with a bit of wax. His face had a couple of spots on it, but they didn’t spoil his gentle brown eyes or his wild, beaming smile that was almost a permanent feature. He took off his T-shirt to put on his school uniform, catching a glimpse of a body toned by years of football and athletics. Despite only being thirteen he was already turning into quite a handsome young man. According to his uncle he had the body, hair and brains of his dad, combined with the smile, eyes and humour of his mum.
It didn’t take him long to put his uniform on. After ruffling his hair with wax to keep it wild and unkempt and adjusting his tie so it was as slack as possible, he barged through his bedroom door and bounded onto the landing with so much speed he almost knocked his younger sister Becca into the airing cupboard. “Zack watch it!” she squealed as he tore past her.
“Sorry sis,” he yelled as he jumped down the first three steps on the staircase at once. As he landed his foot slipped on the polished wood. Within seconds the world was spinning around him as he fell head over heels down the stairs. He felt each individual step jab into him as he fell, until he landed on his back and banged his head on the tiled floor at the bottom. He stared up at the ceiling, time seeming to slow down for a couple of seconds, until he became aware of Becca kneeling over him.
“Zack are you ok?” she asked, sounding as concerned as she looked.
“That didn’t really go according to plan,” Zack groaned in reply.
The voice of his older sister Amy was then heard bellowing, “What the hell has he done now?”
Zack could sense movement at his side, as Sami appeared and began to examine him. “Can you move?” she asked him in her professional voice.
Lifting himself up into a sitting position Zack replied, “Looks like it.” His body ached a little but he was surprised that he wasn’t hurt anymore than he actually was.
Becca gave a loud gasp. “Oh my God you’re bleeding!” she exclaimed.
“Am I?” Zack asked. He felt behind the back of his head and felt something warm and sticky in his hair. “Oh how about that,” he remarked as he saw blood on his fingers when he pulled his hand back.
Sami helped him to his feet and took him into the kitchen, where she promptly sat him down. Across the table from him was his fifteen year old sister Amy. She hadn’t touched her toast and was instead preoccupied texting someone from school. Her long brunette hair was swept down to one side and her pretty face was covered in foundation. “Can’t you stay out of trouble for one minute?” she muttered to Zack without taking her eyes off her phone.
“He just fell down the stairs” said Becca as she took a seat next to Zack. The eleven year old stared at him through her rectangular glasses, and fiddled with her long mousy hair tied back into a ponytail, which she always did when she was nervous.
Zack noticed this and gave a laugh. “Don’t panic sis I feel fine.”
Becca didn’t seem convinced. “Do you have concussion? Does the room seem blurred?”
“Let me handle this Becca!” Sami said, examining the wound at the back of Zacks head. As she worked he remarked to himself how useful it was that one of his uncle’s best friends was a fully qualified doctor. Sami didn’t normally stay with him and his sisters. She was looking after them while their uncle was away on business, something that he did quite regularly. It meant that for the rest of the time he was able to work at home, so Zack didn’t mind too much.
Sami moved to his front with a pocket torch in hand, and shone it into his eyes checking for concussion. Zack stared back at the pretty woman with shoulder length raven hair and glasses over her bright blue eyes. She had just turned thirty, and had worked at the hospital in the nearby town of Tinchester since completing her medicine degree. She had met his uncle at a party shortly afterwards. At first Zack had thought she would become more than just friends, but they both seemed happy with their current relationship.
“Ok Zack, you’ll live,” Sami announced. “The cut isn’t that deep and there’s no sign of concussion. You’ll be fine for school.”
“Just my luck,” Zack muttered, suddenly remembering his unfinished English homework due in today.
Amy gave a frustrated huff and put her phone into her trouser pocket. “I’m going to brush my teeth” she announced, pushing her breakfast to the side. “I’m not hungry.”
“Do you want any help with the lift sis?” Zack asked, before taking a bite out his slice of toast.
“I’m perfectly capable of doing it myself thanks!” Amy snapped at him. She then pushed herself away from the table, revealing her wheelchair. She used it to wheel herself out of the kitchen to the staircase, where a specially fitted lift would transport her upstairs.
Silence fell in the kitchen for a moment, broken by Sami saying, “She seems in a bad mood today...I mean worse than usual.”
“She’s split up with Luke again” said Becca.
“Again?” Zack exclaimed. “Are those two going for a world record number of break ups or something?”
Sami took a sip of her coffee before placing it on the table with a loud clunk. “Maybe I should go see if she’s alright. You let me know if you feel any different Zack.” With that she also walked out the kitchen to join Amy in the bathroom.
As soon as she had left Becca turned to Zack and said, “Seriously, are you really feeling ok?”
“Why do you keep asking? Have my natural good looks been spoiled in any way?” Zack joked.
“I saw you fall head over heels down a flight of stairs. A lot of people don’t walk away from something like that, but you don’t get a scratch. How do you do it?”
Zack gave a shrug. “Guess I’m just one of the lucky ones” he remarked, before taking another bite out of his toast.
“You mean to tell me you almost broke your neck this morning?”
“Yep.”
“And you then decide to come into school as if nothing had happened?”
“Bit difficult to skive when you’re being looked after by a professional doctor mate.”
Zack’s friend Andy stared at him with a look that was a mix of amazement and confusion. “Yeah I know, but a knock on the head is nothing compared to what Hodgson will do to you when you don’t hand in your project.”
“Let me guess, you two geniuses didn’t complete your English homework again?” said someone else’s voice. They both turned to see their two other friends Lucy and Christina taking their seats at the school desk behind them. Lucy had the blondest hair in a fifty mile radius, but coupled this by being one of the smartest girls in Zack’s year with the sheer determination to go with it. Christina was a bright redhead with freckles covering her face, and had a wicked sense of humour. She had made the remark about their homework. Together with Zack and Andy, they formed one of the tightest groups of friends in the entire school. They had lived in the same village all their lives and had all been born only a month apart from each other.
Andy, a mixed race teen with an African-American dad, simply pulled his hands behind his head and replied, “I actually did complete it this time. Whether or not Hodgson likes it or not is the real problem.”
“Oh my God what did you do to your head?” Lucy gasped, seeing the blood stains in Zacks hair.
“I kind of fell down the stairs this morning,” Zack told her.
“That’s it? I would have at least expected a half baked story about how you saved a small child from being hit by a car or something,” Christina sniggered. She seemed to be finding his injury hilarious.
Lucy acted a lot more sympathetically. “Are you feeling ok? Have you been to the hospital or...”
“Lucy this is Zack we’re talking about. He’s the only teenager in the universe who can crack his head open and then feel ok for school,” said Andy.
“As much as I’m enjoying all your attention, you guys shouldn’t worry about me. I feel just fine” Zack told them.
Lucy smirked at Zack while raising her right eyebrow, which she always did when she was engaging with his banter. “You are one weird boy you know that?”
“One of a kind,” Zack joked back.
Before they could continue their conversation, Mr Hodgson walked into the classroom and hushed the teenagers. Whatever slim hope Zack had that he might forget about their homework faded almost instantly when he began they lesson by announcing they would read out their analysis of Hamlet in alphabetical order. With the surname Anderton it was almost inevitable Zack would be first up.
“Ok Zack, what’s your excuse this time?” Hodgson asked the instant he realised Zack didn’t have the work with him.
“Well sir, I sort of fell down the stairs this morning and suffered a serious, and painful, head injury.” The class gave a collective snigger, wondering just how he was going to get away with it this time.
“So you failed to bring in your week long assignment, on the basis that you banged your head this morning?” said Hodgson
“I had it ready sir, but in all the confusion this morning I left my folder at home on my desk.” Zack felt quite pleased with his excuse. It was foolproof.
“Zack you’ve got your folder lying on the desk in front of you,” Hodgson pointed out.
The class roared with laughter. Zack caught a glimpse of both Andy and Christina giggling madly. Lucy simply rolled her eyes to the ceiling.
Hodgson didn’t seem to see the funny side of it. Zack knew his english teacher was beginning to run out of patience with him. He wasn’t a disruptive pupil, or a badly behaved one, but he had gained a reputation as a smart aleck who always did his best to outsmart the teachers. “Do we have to go through this every week Zack?” Hodgson asked in exasperation.
“Well when discussing Shakespeare’s representation of the relationship between a mother and a son actually comes in use during my life, I’ll buy you a chocolate bar sir,” Zack replied.
“This isn’t funny Anderton” Hodgson barked. “I want that project on my desk first thing tomorrow morning if you don’t want detention. You have real intelligence and potential inside your head, just like your father, which is why it’s such a shame that you don’t seem to have any intention of using it.”
Forty minutes later as they filed out of the classroom Lucy said to Zack, “Maybe next time you should try to hand your work in on time.”
“Or come up with a better excuse,” suggested Andy.
“Bit unfair Hodgson always compares you to your dad though Zack,” said Christina.
“Well having a dad who was the most famous scientist since Einstein does heighten the expectations of teachers a tad,” Andy pointed out.
“Doesn’t mean Zack is going to be a world famous scientist though,” Christina argued.
Zack didn’t say anything. He didn’t like talking about his dad or his mum, on the basis that they had been killed seven years ago. They had been driving to see his uncle, his parents in the front with him and his sisters in the back. He didn’t exactly remember how it happened, but sometimes it returned to him in his dreams. There was a loud bang, causing the car to swerve violently. He could hear his sisters screaming, see his dad desperately trying to maintain control, but he was powerless to stop the car from skidding off of the road and down a grass bank. The last thing he would see was the tree trunk looming ahead through the windscreen. There would be another bang and then he would wake up.
The only thing he remembered for certain was waking up in the hospital with his uncle at his bedside, his eyes bloodshot from the sleepless hours he had spent by his bedside. He then learnt that his parents had died on impact. Both Becca and himself had been miraculously unhurt, but Amy had suffered a serious spinal injury. She was told she would never walk again, and would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Their uncle became their legal guardian, and moved with them into their family home in the village of Oakdale, where they had lived the past seven years in peace.
Lucy noticed the distanced look in his eyes and quickly changed the subject. “We going to the brook tonight?”
“Yeah I’m in!” Zack replied, snapping back to reality.
“Oh shouldn’t you go home and work on your English project” Christina tutted.
“I’ll head home do a bit of work on it first, so how does six sound for you guys?” said Zack. His three friends made general noises of approval, and as the bell rang for the next lesson they split up to go to their separate classrooms.
Zack’s house was located at the far end of Oakdale, facing the only road running through the village and surrounded at the back by large oak trees. The house was a two floor red brick cottage with a thatched roof and small front garden filled with rose bushes. The interior consisted of a low ceilinged kitchen with a red tiled floor, a conjoined living and dining room and four decent sized bedrooms upstairs for each of the family members.
After returning home Zack went to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Taking his tie off as fast as possible, he slung it to the floor and made his way to his wardrobe. Selecting a red T-shirt and a pair of jeans he changed out of his uniform and took a seat at his desk. He cleared himself a space from all the scrap paper and chocolate wrappers spread over the tabletop and, and in it placed his English folder. Yet he couldn’t summon the energy to begin working, and instead reclined against his seat lost in thought.
Lucy was right; he really should start working harder at school and stop being so lazy. But the truth was that school bored him. He tried to concentrate and put the effort in, but before long he would find his mind wandering away. It was like he had an itch in his mind, the more he tried to ignore it the more irritated it became. He couldn’t explain it, but he had had it for as long as he could remember. Some sort of voice trapped inside him, egging him on, constantly reminding him that there was more to life than school and homework.
His eyes flickered over to the picture on his desk of him and his parents. It had been taken on a warm summer day just before the accident, at a barbeque for family and friends. His uncle had been the one to take the picture, and it showed him with his mum on his left, and his dad on his right. It was his favourite picture of his parents, reminding them of what life was like when they were still alive. Sometimes he could still hear his mum calling him down for lunch, picture his dad emerging from his lab in the basement to announce he had bought cinema tickets for that afternoon. Zack wouldn’t say those were the happiest memories of his life as his life now was happy enough, but they were good memories that almost seemed a lifetime away.
In the background of the picture, chasing his old dog Poppy around a tree trunk was Amy, free from her wheelchair. With her was the daughter of another family who used to live in the village. Saphia was a girl Zack’s age, and they had seen each other all the time when Zacks parents were alive. She had always been quite an odd girl, as her hair had been coloured a deep, radiant blue. He had never asked her why her parents dyed her and their own hair this colour, and never got the chance as her family moved away shortly after the accident. Despite being a little weird she had been a good childhood friend, and while looking at the photo Zack often wondered what Saphia was up to now.
Giving a sigh he picked up a pen and opened his folder. As he worked he completely lost track of time, and he only realised that it was six when he got a text from Andy, saying they were waiting outside. Grabbing his phone Zack abandoned his project and bounded out into the hallway. “Where are you going?” Amy shouted at him from her bedroom.
“Just out with the others for a bit,” Zack told her.
“Oh no you don’t. Sami will be back with the Chinese in a bit.”
“I’ll only be half an hour. Don’t eat all the prawn crackers if I’m late.”
“God I hate you!” Amy bellowed after him as he bounded down the staircase. Her comment didn’t bother him. She said she hated him about three times a day, and that was when she was in a good mood. Taking extra care not to fall this time, he opened the front door and stepped out into the early summer sunshine.
Copyright Michael Foster 2012
Copyright Michael Foster 2012
