Chapter 1

With tongue stuck out in concentration, Markus traced the grey line on the screen. His brown eyes squinted at the digital paper. Careful. He had to be very careful. One wrong move, and it was all over.

Suddenly, Markus heard a familiar voice shout at him from downstairs, "Markus! This is the fifth time I've called for you to come get your food! Come downstairs now!"

Markus jumped up, causing his hand to jerk to the right and mess up his drawing. He looked back at the screen with disappointment before he released a heavy sigh.

"Coming!" he shouted back.

The brunette moved himself away from the wooden desk and opened the door to the hallway before racing down the steps. He rushed into the kitchen where he saw Dan, his caretaker, cleaning up any dishes that were left after he served the two of them dinner.

"Yours is the one with extra beans," he said. "I'll meet you at the table in a bit."

Markus gave a nod to him. The boy grabbed his plate and made his way into the dining room before taking his seat at the table. He always sat across from Dan so it was easier for them to talk. The two loved to have fun conversations every night during dinner, and the topics were unpredictable.

Last week they had at least a one hour debate on the education system and how to improve it, and last night the subject was simply how Markus's day at school was. Markus was excited to figure out what the topic of the evening was. Usually, Dan was the one to bring it up. He was a very talkative fellow, which would make sense as he was the boy's father's best friend. At least, that was what Markus assumed.

Markus's father was a soldier at a military base not too far from the city he lived in now. When he was around 7, his father was shipped overseas to Afghanistan. One of the nurses took care of Markus until news came back that his father had passed; he was shot in the head during a sudden attack at his camp. Seeing no reason to keep the boy there, and finding no blood relatives for him to stay with, they sent him off to Dan who lives in Manhattan.

Dan was a good man. He lived a simple life in a simple apartment near Central Park. He worked as a freelance journalist in New York, only occasionally going to other cities in the country once Markus turned 13. He wrote scripts for movies and documentaries and sold them to numerous producers. Of course, he made and sold his own works too.

Despite his career, Dan was still a simple man and--as he was raised poor--was pretty cheap in how he spent his money. He would refuse to purchase any furniture over whatever was sold over a certain amount, and would often travel to other places in the city like the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn to find things for cheap prices. So the two lived a very basic yet comfortable life.

Markus started to get bored of waiting for Dan, and his mind wandering to their origins didn't help at all. So the teen called out to him.

"Dan! Are you gonna eat or not?"

"Give me a minute, kiddo," he called back. "Just gotta finish this pot here and put the leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow!"

Markus let out a hum as his response. After a while, Dan came to the dining table just as promised. The brunette smiled at the man and clapped his hands excitedly. This made Dan laugh.

"Were you really gonna wait for me?" he asked.

"Uh, duh! We always eat together. Well, except when you're in LA or Chicago."

"Don't forget Boston, buddy," Dan said with a wink. The two then laughed. "Anyway, so, I've got a question for you…"

"Shoot," Markus replied without thought. The boy picked up his fork to twirl it in his spaghetti before shoving the food into his mouth.

"I was wondering… How would you feel about paying your Pops a visit?"

Markus nearly choked on his food, his hand flying to bang against his chest as he coughed violently. Dan flew back in surprise. He threw himself out of the chair to run to Markus's aid, smacking the teen's back to help him. When he was settled, Markus looked up at Dan with shock.

"You… You wanna go visit Dad?" he asked.

Dan nodded. "Yeah. It's been awhile since we last went. Don't you think it's time? Just a quick 'hello', don't gotta be nothin' big. I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

"I don't know." Markus looked back at his food dejectedly. "I mean… I miss him, yeah, but isn't it a little too soon?"

Silence fell between them. After a short moment of it, Dan let out a sigh. "His birthday is this Saturday."

Markus's head snapped up. "What?"

Dan nodded. "It's already been a year, kid. Time flies by fast, don't it?" The man gave a sad chuckle. "Trust me, looking at that stone ain't easy for me either. I knew your dad pretty well if you'd ask me. More than he knew himself. It hurts to see it, but it's better than pretending like his death means nothing to me."

Markus's head hung again. It grew quiet once more before the boy let out a deep sigh. "You said it was Saturday?"

"Yep."

Markus nodded. "Let's go, then. Old man deserves a visit, doesn't he?"

Dan let out a dry laugh. "Yeah. He does." The man walks back to his seat on the opposite side of the table and picks up his fork.

"Let's eat," he said. "Then you can finish whatever you were doing and go to bed. But no later than 10, got that?"

"Yeah, yeah." Markus rolled his eyes. "I'll go to sleep early."

"I'm serious, Markus. I know what it's like working on only, like, three hours of sleep. It sucks, and I don't need to be called in just 'cause you fell asleep in the middle of first period again."

"That was one time!"

"One time too many," he retorted. "Come on, let's finish this food."

The two ate their dinner like they would any other night. Dan brought up a deal he got from a man in Chicago. He would be leaving to catch the plane on Sunday, the day after the boy's father's birthday. He wouldn't be back for about a week.

Markus showed he understood with small comments here and there, and with that subject hanging in the air they finished their meal. Dan collected the dishes to put them into the sink and clean up while Markus raced to his room.

The brunette took a look at his artwork before glancing over to the digital alarm on his bed. It was already 9:25 in the evening. He had a few more minutes to spare to finish this project up.

He immediately got to work. He fixed the mistake he made when he was called down for dinner and completed the lineart. As he was making an animation with it, he didn't bother to add any color.

Markus looked back at the clock when he was done. It was 10:05. Just five minutes after his bedtime. He gave a small shrug before standing up and walking over to his bed. He double checked to make extra sure that the alarm was set up for the early hours of the morning. When all was secure he climbed onto the mattress, pulled the blankets over himself, and rested his head against the soft pillow.

He closed his eyes to sleep, and after a few minutes of silence he succumbed to the darkness that drifted him off to a dreamless rest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With the rising sun crawling over the horizon came a brand new day. Markus got up during the earlier hours to get ready for school. He dressed in dark skinny jeans and his favorite band t-shirt before running out of the house in his black 8-eye boots. Dan was not awake--after all, the man was never really up until around ten in the morning--but the duo was used to not getting to say their goodbyes so early.

It didn't take long for Markus to get to school thanks to the trusty subway system of the city. He attended a school in the western area of Manhattan. It wasn't very large as it was a private school, but Dan said he promised Markus's father he'd give him a good education. Even if he had to go to a school full of people that were far more fortunate than he was.

That isn't to say he didn't make any friends. Markus did have one friend. His name was Allison, though Markus just called him Al. The two had most of their classes together and bonded pretty quickly on the former's first day. Now as juniors they were excited to graduate together.

Markus walked into the school with a smile on his face as he made his way into the cafeteria. Sitting at their usual spot was Al who waved at the brunette from across the room.

"Mark! Over here!" the blonde exclaimed.

Markus walked over to him, dropping his backpack on the floor and taking his seat next to his best friend. "Hey, Al. What's up?"

"Nothin' much. You ready for the exam this week?"

Markus scoffed. "As if I will ever be ready for any exam."

This made Al laugh. "Oh, come on. It won't be that bad."

"Says you. You've got what? An A+ in chemistry? I suck dude."

Al rolled his eyes. The boy took a bite of his sandwich before going on. "You're smarter than you give yourself credit for." His words were muffled by the food in his mouth. "You've got a solid B+ in that class. That ain't too bad."

Markus sighed. "Yeah. It's just-"

"You wanna impress Dan," Al finished for him, already knowing what his friend was going to say.

"Dude, I know. But Dan's been to a lot of parent-teacher conferences and he always talks about how proud he is. Stop thinkin' you always gotta do better. It's good to have limits. I'm sure you fry your brain enough in that class as it is."

"True."

With that, along with the well-timed ring of the bell, their small conversation came to an end. Markus and Al went to their first period classes. This was one of the classes that the brunette didn't share with the blonde teenager, and it was one he didn't like very much: calculus.

Markus saw calculus as the demon spawn child of algebra and geometry. The boy hated mathematics more than anything else in the world. However, he knew he'd need it if he wanted to be a biomechanics engineer. It was a decent experience. Not to mention he was very good at math.

Relief filled him as he heard the sweet sound of that bell and moved on to history, a class he did share with Al and one that he thoroughly enjoyed. So, he bolted off to the classroom hoping they would learn something interesting that morning.