//------------------------------// // A New Day // Story: SHADOW REBORN // by AGENT KANE //------------------------------// A 15-year-old teenager heads towards the bus stop to start his first day of high school. With the cool weather, the young man enjoyed the walk through the streets of the city. The boy had pitch-black skin and wore a black leather coat with red-and-white stripes running down the side of his sleeve. For the rest of his outfit, he wore blue jeans, and black shoes with white edges. As the boy walked his mind was full of worry about the start of the school year. What he understood from the letter the school sent, the first day of school was to have the students go on educational field trips to build friendships and excitement for learning. His group was assigned to visit a science museum. Although he likes science, he is worried about the friendship part of the trip. The boy was busy thinking about the science trip happening today as he stepped on the bus. Getting on the bus he walked between the rows of seats in the aisles hoping to meet new people. While he walked by, some of the other students who saw him looked nervous and stared with fear. It seems that everyone has heard about what happened in elementary school. Remembering that time Kane's mood got worse. Back then the skin around his body was rough and cracked. The most noticeable place was around his eyes. The condition made it appear as though scales were spreading from his eyes. The irritation of the skin caused a permanent glare that was sensitive to light. For a while, he refused to go outside during the day leaving Kane's pitch-black skin with a sickly pale skin tone. For school, he tried to cover as much as possible when not required to show his face during attendance. The whispers of children spread the rumor that there was a red-eyes monster pretending to be a kid. Kane heard the things other kids said, and as mean as they were he did not want to be mean back. Most of the kids did not believe Kane was a monster, rather that he was weird and scary-looking. There was a kid who wanted to show how tough he was so he picked a fight with Kane. When Kane asked why the kid said because Kane looked evil with his red eyes and ugly face. The kid explained, "Only evil people look like you." Kane felt hurt that the boy would want to attack him because of something he could not control. Still, Kane wouldn't just let the kid hurt him. As the boy rushed Kane, Kane felt sorry for the kid's bad luck, Kane's dad had taught Kane how to fight and he used it to protect himself. The bad part was that he did it too well and the other kid got hurt, badly. Kane had broken the boy's jaw, leaving his face a bloody mess with two massive puffed-up black eyes. The teachers found Kane sitting on the boy's chest, with tears running down Kane's face as he continued to punch the boy's swollen face. He got in a lot of trouble that day, and even though the school decided it was not his fault it didn't stop the other kids from feeling like he would attack them next. Now everyone thinks he loves to fight, just his luck. After that random boys would try starting a fight outside of school to claim they were the one to beat the monster. Every time the other boy would be left covered in bruises, but never to the extent that the first boy was. As he grew older his skin improved losing the scale-like look and giving some much-needed relief from the constant pain. If you don't consider how he looks and the stories of all his fights, he is a nice person. Kane can't help being born with rare red eyes that seem to glow in the night when the light hits them just right and to top it off a head of pure black hair. Taking all of that together he looks like a walking shadowman. He hated that, so he added a streak of red in his bangs to add color to himself, he hoped that it would help him look less scary especially now that his skin had smoothed out. Returning to the present, he started walking to the back when he realized all the seats were full. The only seat left on the bus was in the back. Kane hated sitting in the back. Having to see everyone lean away from him, when he walked by, hurt and was not a good start to his day. By the time he got to the empty seat, he wished the day was already done. There Kane saw a girl, with purple and pink highlights, busy reading a book for science class. She had her hair in a ponytail and wore glasses. He sat down and looked at her. She was wearing a blue blouse with a purple bow around the collar of the blouse. Now that he was sitting so close he realized that her purple hair highlight matched her skirt and boots. She even had a star on her skirt that was the same color as her pink hair highlight. He had a strange weird feeling but quickly ignored it once he realized that he had never seen her before, making him hope that he could finally have a friend. He was still prepared for the worst though. And nothing happened, she didn't move away or look at him fearfully. He was surprised, she was not scared of him like the rest of the class. In fact, she ignored him like it didn't bother her that he was sitting next to her. Everyone is always scared off when he is nearby, especially when they get a good look at his red eyes. If that doesn't scare them, learning about his family will, Kane thought. His parents were born in Mexico City, Mexico. His dad was a fearless navy man. Because of this, the first time he went to school the other students were terrified of the towering man. As for Mom, she only spoke Spanish, but to others, she sounded furious. Put this together and the students thought he was nothing but trouble. Remembering that day, he can't help but chuckle at the people who got scared when all his mom was doing was telling him to go and have fun and make friends. This made Kane think that his mom had the right idea, so Kane thought to himself 'Here goes nothing.' He turned and faced the girl to talk to her. "Hi, how are you doing?" asked Kane. The new girl responded, "Fine, how are you?" 'Well at least she answered me nicely, that is a good start.' Kane thought. "Good, my name is Kane," said Kane. She responded, "My name is Twilight." Kane stared at her with a clueless look on his face. "You don't have much experience with this do you?", she kindly smiled at him. "Is it obvious?" Kane responded sadly. Twilight laughed and smiled, "No, but I know what it is like trying to make friends so I understand." Filled with happiness Kane continued. "You are really nice," said Kane. "so, excited for the science trip?" Twilight excitedly responded, " Yes, this is going to be fascinating. I read online that they have lots of exhibits on technology, natural science, and even physics!" "I know it will be, and I really am looking forward to all of them on the tour," said Kane. "You are interested in everything? even new technology?'' asked Twilight. "Yeah, I want to learn more about how we can use it to discover new things about the planet." As the bus moved closer to the museum, the pair grew comfortable with each other.