A Bad Day

A Bad Day is the debut chapter of Season One. Within the first line of the chapter, the protagonist of the story, Ezra is introduced. Ezra's best friend, and the deuteragonist of the Series, Dane is the second character to be introduced, in the second setting of the story. The episode introduces one of the main settings of the story, the as of yet unnamed high school that Ezra attends with his best friend Dane. A recurring character, Margaret Tanen, who Ezra thinks of as the embodiment of minimalism, is also introduced.

Read
It was a cold, windy day. With a black schoolbag on his shoulder, Ezra was walking towards his school. It was the first week of his last year at school, which he had been eagerly waiting for ever since high school had started.

The summer had once again ended, having passed so quickly that he hadn't even noticed that it was there. This was to be the last year of high school, and he was planning to make this the most exciting year of his entire life! He had many ideas for dozens of parties and other exciting events, and could not wait for it all to begin.

When he had walked for about twenty minutes, he was already quite close to the schoolhouse. It was a house built of gray stone blocks, and it looked more like a giant box, not at all like the other ordinary houses nearby. It was like a stranger amongst the others, all of them in different colors like blue, green and red. In Ezra’s opinion this particular house would have fit better in a graveyard.

As he started walking up the stairs that lead to the main entrance, he thought of all those days he had spent here, and felt a bit sorry that he would soon leave this place. He liked his classmates, and even some of the teachers. Still, the art teacher whose lesson he was going to was definitely not one of them.

As he entered the classroom, the class was about to begin. He sat next to his good friend Dane, who was more talented at making art than he would ever be. Looking at his expression, Ezra could tell how excited he was about this task, as the canvases which had been placed on easels throughout the classroom indicated that they were going to paint this time.

Immediately after the bell rang, their strict and very punctual art teacher stepped in front of the class. She was the exact opposite of the classical artist figure: all orderly and not at all bohemian. Her desk was always well organized, her windowsills clean of dust and her clothes wrinkle free. Her vision of art was quite different from the other artists, which is why Ezra thought of her as the human embodiment of minimalism.

But before the class could start, a strange noise echoed in the room. It was the ringtone Ezra had put on his phone a few days ago: the voice of Lord Voldemort speaking to the students of Hogwarts. Although he liked creepy things, he wasn't happy at all that the phone had rung in such a moment as this. But it was behaviour that was typical to him: he always forgot to turn out his phone when it was necessary.

He reached his hand to his pocket and took out the phone, its screen showing that it was his mother calling. Most of the classroom was laughing as his face was turning almost as red as Dane's haircolor.

Just as Lord Voldemort was about to say “Give me Harry Potter...” for the first time, he quickly turned off his phone and put it back in his pocket. Then he looked up and noticed that the teacher, Miss Tanen, was standing right before him, her face indicating how annoyed she was.

“I understand that you are a big fan of Harry Potter,” she said angrily,“But you do not demonstrate it in my class! In this classroom, only I speak and you do exactly as I tell you to do.“

A few moments after that, she walked away and started explaining the task of this class: to put sadness on a canvas. As soon as she mentioned the colors that they should be using, Ezra remembered that he had forgotten to bring the acrylic colors he had bought a few days ago. This day just wasn't turning out well, and he had the feeling it was about to get even worse.

Thankfully, Dane had brought an extra paintbrush and had quite a large set of colors. As the class progressed, they soon started painting. Although he wasn't quite sure how he was going to handle this task, he was sure his artsy friend Dane would give him some ideas.

“So, what are you going to do this weekend?” Dane asked, as he started to paint something that resembled a wave on the canvas.

“I don't have any plans yet.” Ezra answered, “Since this year is packed with different events already, I thought I would use this weekend to just be at home.”

“Well, I'm telling you, this is the event you definitely do not want to miss.” Dane said, putting some lighter blue colors to the canvas. “One of my friends decided to have this party in the graveyard this weekend, and he told me I could bring a friend if I wanted. By the way, he said that the theme of the party will be a murder mystery game, so it's definitely something to look forward to.”

“If it's going to be something exciting, then I'm definitely in.” Ezra answered. “Now could you give me some ideas on what kind of a painting I should make?”

“Just think of the things that associate with sadness.” Dane said. “Sadness is one of the easiest emotions to put on a canvas.“”

As Dane said those words to him, Ezra immediately thought of tears. This thought made him a little happier, since he now had an idea to put on this white, empty canvas that had been placed before him.

As he started painting, Ezra wondered why it was necessary for all the students to take this art class, even for those who hadn't been blessed with the wonderful gift of artsyness. But in this class like in all the others devotion was necessary: all the students were expected to attend classes, participate in all the actions and do their homework properly. But Ezra wasn't very good with devotion: in fact, he even despised the word itself. Although he had had many hobbies throughout his life, he had never fully committed to anything. His future lied before him like a big black hole, taking all the good things in his life away and leaving him without home.

He looked at his friend Dane, who had already painted a lot more than he had. His painting was beginning to take shape: the waves had already been painted over with both light and dark blue colors. Dane was already working on the sky, painting a big moon which shed its light on the stormy sea.

As he looked at his friend, Ezra imagined him being a successful artist in the future. He would probably get into a good art college, graduate with flying colors and then have a magnificent career in Paris. Most of his other classmates had their futures planned too, and he was one of those few who had no idea what he was going to do in the future.

Still, there was one hobby that had stayed with him over the years: reading. He often loved to read different books, which helped to bring a little more color to his gray and pretty boring life. He often wished his life was as exciting as the ones of some of the characters he read about. And unbeknownst to him, his wish was to soon come true in a way he never would have imagined.

As they walked home from school at the end of that day, Ezra thought of the idea of the graveyard party Dane had told him about, and decided he should go. In thought, he didn't notice a big vehicle driving towards him in full speed, and got hit by it the moment after he noticed it. Hit by the car, Ezra fell on the street. When he was falling, he hit his head quite hard. Moments after that, everything started to fade, the world around him fading into black nothingness. As more and more people gathered around his unconscious body, Ezra couldn't hear or see them any more. He was now somewhere else, present with the body but away with his mind. He was standing on the brink of a whole another world, which was his to explore.

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Margaret Tanen

Trivia

 * Dane is Ezra's childhood friend. They have known each other since they were very young.
 * Dane's red hair colour is artificial.