2 Mundanities of everyday life

"Son please keep living, I know that you'll feel like life is no longer worth anything but I believe that you will do great things. You just need to persevere" her last words echo through my mind as the tears flow like a fountain. I scream out to her, "Mother please, please don't leave me, I-I can't..."

Like some kind of heavenly angel the sound of my alarm rings to pull me out of the memories I can't bear to keep reliving and to notify me that my shit show excuse of a life continues, "It's time for school big brother, please wake up. It's time for school big brother,please wake up"

As I sigh to release all of my built up anxieties and roll out of bed I'm left thinking to myself whether life is really worth living anymore. After thinking about that I'm reminded of my mother's sacrifice. "huuu, mother I won't let you down" I realise my mistake and harden my resolve as I start to get ready for school. While getting dressed I put the tv on for the weather "Great at least the weather will hold up today also what do they mean beware of the bulldog geez" whilst wondering how to spend my afternoon I hear the oh so familiar sound of my door caving in under the knock of my best friend Sam, "Hey Levi, you awake in there bro?" chuckling at the idea anyone could sleep through the explosions he calls knocking I answer, "I'll be just a minute, so please calm down." hearing the sincerity in my voice Sam shouts back, "Calm down? I'm not angry, you say this nearly every morning how do I seem angry to you?" Feeling as if a puddle just asked me what being wet is like I tell him, "Forget it, I know you're not really angry or anything". As I finish up my preparations for school and reach the door my every instinct screams at me to just stay at home, assuming it's just my lazy side acting up I ignore the feeling.

Opening the door to my flat, I see a large, well built hulk of a man with tanned skin, dark brown hair and a crooked smile on his face while the only evidence that this person is still a teenager is the school uniform stretched across his body. I say to him, "Hey Sam I didn't keep you waiting too long did I?" After saying that my mind immediately thought of two people about to go on a date and Sam says, "Is it weird that I just thought of two people meeting for a date?" I instantly reply, "YES" while thinking 'he must never know' Sam, with an unhappy expression on his face, says, "I bet you were thinking it as well" even faster than last time I retorted, "What? No, I would never. Anyway we should get going" as I stepped out of my flat once again I feel every part of my body scream to go back as I wonder what's wrong with me today.

Reaching school, I feel a chill run up my back and almost at the same time someone approaches Sam and me from behind and this person says in an almost angelic voice, "Did you get ms king's homework done?" remembering my instincts earlier I become nervous and start sweating all over as I ask in an almost choking manner, "Was that for today, Rebecca please tell me your joking." Turning to the schools 'Princess' I notice her long silky black hair and watery blue eyes with a face and figure that could put models to shame. I once again feel my mind is at peace seeing the childhood friend that is pretty much my sister smiling at me. After hearing my words the smile of a goddess turns into one of a sadists as her eyes turn cold as she speaks in a way that seems like she's going to enjoy me squirming, "Oh so I'll take that as a no from you Levi? I guess you'll be spending your afternoon in detention. Well afterwards you can walk me home at least. Sam did you get the homework done?" Sam in a matter of fact way replies, "Of course I'm too young to die but good luck Levi I'm sure that you'll be fine" hearing this I retort in my mind 'you just said that you're too young to die how am I supposed to survive' and sigh saying, "I guess I should start writing my will oh and Sam can you destroy my computer just throw it in the tub that's my final wish" hearing our conversation Rebecca frowns and says, "Come on guys it can't that bad I'm sure detention is easy to get through" realising that miss perfect has never needed any form of correctional action taken on her behalf both Sam and I look at her with shit eating grins. At the same time the first bell of the day rings as Sam pats me on the back and says, "May we be reunited in Valhalla brother" and we separate while Rebecca trails on behind me with a contemplative expression on her face.

At lunchtime, I grab some food at I scoff it down hoping to have enough time to finish and realise it's history homework so I can copy and paste it. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel I copy and paste three different articles and just edit a few words each sentence so I don't get caught.

At the starting part of the final lesson of the day ms king starts calling attendance as she also checks for homework feeling relieved that it was easily done I sit back and wait. Looking around I notice that quite a few people have nervous expressions on their faces. I see Sam and Rebecca looking at me with confused expressions on their faces as ms king gets to my name, "Mr Animo, yes he's here and where's your homework Mr Animo? Ah you have it? Bring it here then." As I walk over to ms king I see an old shrivelled lady who is wearing a suit that match's her dark grey hair and has a sickly skin tone whist realising that something is off. As I hand her the homework I see an upset expression spread across her raisin of a face as she says, "What's this? This isn't your homework. Hmm, no I can see you have done the right topic but that's not the homework. You've only done a page and a half when the minimum was two and a half. Also, upon further inspection this was written in a far too eloquent manner to have been written by you. So young man what do you have to say for yourself hmm?" I finally realised what that feeling was and I feel things crumble around me as I say in a defeated tone, "I apologise, I have no excuses for this" as I hang my head I hear ms king say, "Well at least you won't waste my time with any pointless excuses so after class stay in here and write lines about how you'll do your homework properly and without cheating in the future. Now go back to your seat so I can carry on with attendance." As I walk to my desk I notice that all the students no longer have nervous expressions and that Sam is giving me a pitying look while Rebecca has an upset expression on her snow white face.

After class in detention I quickly finish writing lines on both sides of the paper and ms king tells me to wait for the rest of time in detention to finish. As my eyes wander around the room around the class and I look out the window and whilst staring at the clouds I wonder what I want to do in the future and I say to myself 'mum I'm sorry but I don't know what great things you think I'll do but I just don't know what direction to take or how to do anything great' and as I finish that trail of thought I sigh and say under my breath "huuu...please someone show me the way" at the same time I see what looks like a bird falling and as it gets closer to the ground I start to notice more than just the feathers and wings. I see what looks like a woman falling her hair was golden and it looks like it's almost glowing and her fair skin was garbed in white cloth and adorned with a golden metal plating different parts of her body the person almost resembled a Valkyrie from Norse mythology however she looked more like an angel and as she got closer I realised she's looking at me in the eyes and then as she becomes almost level with me she waves and once she fell out of the view I could see from my seat. Almost instantly I raise from my seat and look at the ground where she should have landed on the ground but notice that nothing was there and I hear a shrill voice shout to me "Levi detention has another five minutes sit down and stop making a nuisance out of yourself" realising my mistake I sit back down and apologise to ms king as I contemplate what I just saw.

Once detention ended, I walked towards the student councils room and wait outside as I wait for Rebecca to finish her meeting. I continue to think about the woman I saw and decided to ask miss perfect what she knows about angels and Valkyries.

About two minutes later the student council starts leaving the room and I hear Rebecca's kind voice thank everyone and while she leaves the room she noticed me and a frown appears on her face as she says, "Look who it is Mr Cheat-imo, why are you here I would have expected you have other things to cheat on instead of being here." Realising she really hates cheating a self deprecating smile appears on my faces as I say, "I'm sorry I know that I shouldn't cheat and I know that I should've done the homework in the first place. So to make up for it how about we go grab something to eat and I'll pay for it ok." After hearing what I said Rebecca has an elegant smile widen across her face as she says in a tone that can't quite hold back her excitement, "Fine I'll forgive you but you better not regret your promise" after that I ask her about he day and how her second third and fourth periods were today and we continued to make pointless conversation until we got to The Dessert Tavern, Rebecca's favourite restaurant.

Halfway through our meal I ask Rebecca about Valkyries and Angels and she looks at me blankly and says, "hmm, I know a bit about them but it seems a kind of out of nowhere for you to suddenly have an interest why do you want to know" drawing a blank I quickly try to think of an excuse when Rebecca suddenly says in an exited voice, "Could it be you want to become a fantasy buff as well?" Hearing what she said I replied in an overwhelmed tone, "As well?" She looks at me deeply as she answers me, "Yeah you know I like reading fantasy novels well that's what drove me to find out about all the lore and history behind fantasy creatures!" For the next hour she proceeded to blurt out all the knowledge she had on Valkyries and Angels and when she finished I asked her what about stories where angels falling from the sky and she told me that there were a few stories regarding that theme but that they are mostly hoax stories.

After that we finished our desserts and realised it was getting dark so I offered to walk Rebecca home and she smiled wonderfully while accepting. Seeing her smile I was momentarily stunned and then I noticed she was already leading the way so I ran to catch up. On our way to her house we continued our pointless conversation and about fifteen minutes after leaving the tavern I start to feel the strange instinct of danger that I felt earlier in the morning and I started feeling on edge when someone popped out from the side ally ahead of us and the figure was dressed in all black with a bulldog mask on and he shouts in a clearly fake voice, "hand over all your money or I swear to god I'll blow your fucking heads off" at the same time he pulls a gun out and points it at Rebecca. Seeing a gun I instinctively push her into the porch that's sunken into the building next to us. After I did this the bulldog masked man try's to shoot his gun only for it to jam, realising his gun has jammed I throw Rebecca my phone and shout, "Call the police and I'll try to keep him from running" afterwards I charge at the man and tackle him to the ground and at the same time he pulls a knife out and try's to stab me. Seeing the knife I grab his wrists and stop his arms whilst thinking 'why the fuck didn't I run after seeing his gun jam Damnit'. As time went on the struggle continued and I realised that I would lose this struggle if we continued this way. But then I heard Rebecca shout, "Yes hello police... it's an emergency a man with a bulldog mask and a gun tried to mug us but it jammed and my friend is trying to stop him from running we're currently on Bleeding Heart yard. Yes I know it was stupid but I think he just panicked. Please hurry." Hearing this my resolve flared and I took one hand off his wrists and started punching him and grabbing his wrists again. Whilst repeating this the man thrusted the knife when I went to punch and as my punch connected I felt a sharp pain in my chest after that I kept punching him repeatedly until my fist was painted crimson and the man's skull was visible and the man himself was long unconscious. Realising this I roll off of the man and lay there on my back feeling an inexplicable coldness envelope my body and a sharp and lasting pain in my chest. Starring at the sky I hear my heart beat slowing down and after blinking I see Rebecca looking at me with tears marring her exquisite face. Seeing this my hand moved to wipe the tears away but just as may hand reached her face it lost all strength and I said to Rebecca, "I'm sorry that I cheated" as she forces out a laugh I hear sirens and continue speaking but this time towards my long dead mother, "Did you see mum I did something great, I saved the girl I love, even if it was unnecessary in the end, and even helped capture a criminal. Did...I make you... proud?" Hearing this Rebecca face started to distort as she said whist also weeping, "Levi you idiot don't speak as if you're about to die, please stay with me. I-I love you too." Hearing this a peaceful smile spread across my face, "I'm glad" I said with the last of my strength while my vision turned black, I felt at peace even though I still feel like I could have done more with my life.