DING! DONG! DONG! DING!

The school bell rang, signaling the end of yet another day. Students, from freshmen to seniors, began pouring out from the front gates that led from the courtyards of Path Worthy's High School, and they were all filling into the surrounding city streets. These students, who were still in midst of puberty and maturity but reaching adolescence in due time, often came out in pairs or small groups, usually containing same peer ages, but with a wide range of looks and appearances. They all chatted in innocent clamor about truly meaningless topics, while also planning out the upcoming evening with friendly gatherings or night shifts.

Some of them, however, strolled alone beyond the academy's boundaries and into the bustling metropolis, just minding their own business. Amongst them was a young male sophomore walking along the sidewalks. In retrospect, he was rather handsome, enough to make any normal schoolgirl fall head over heels for him, as well as any schoolboy to blister with jealousy. Sadly, though, he was not exactly the type to attract random people to himself, and yet he preferred to be alone for the most part, despite that empty, chilly feeling he sometimes feels.

Regardless, if there is a God in this world, He sure did take His time in designing every detail to this young man's image. He had tannish skin and a slim framed form with a slight muscular bulk due to the heavy lifting he often does at work. His pitch-black, shoulder-length hair was like a layered coating of a raven's feathers glistening in the afternoon sunlight. He kept his hands in his pockets and his dark brown-eyed gaze fixed straight ahead, focused merely on the concrete grounds in front of him. Until he heard a familiarly excited voice call out his name.

"Hey, Zeke! Wait up a sec!"

Stopping dead in his tracks, he turned around and saw long, lusciously blonde hair swaying back and forth as the girl ran up to him from behind. She was at least several meters at distance away, and he was pretty surprised that she could manage the pace she was moving at in knee socks and a mid-length pleated skirt that bounced slightly, almost revealing her unmentionables (which he was embarrassingly trying to avoid stealing glances at). Then again, she was a star athlete at their school.

"Oh, hey Matti!"

"Hey! Me and Bella and few others are going to try out that new karaoke place tonight!" Matti said as she finally caught up to him at a close space. Her face had rosy cheeks and she had that typical large grin crossing her lips, "You wanna join us?"

Zeke lifted one hand behind his head with a nervous smile, "Uh, sorry. I'll have to pass."

"Huh?! What's with you lately?! Not hanging out with us after school. Not to mention not returning my texts half the time. Being this unsociable really doesn't suit you!" Matti scowled at him with her eyebrows furrowed and disappointment in her tone. Then her expression suddenly changed to that of a sympathetic glare as she had come to the realization, "…Is your uncle making you work that hard again?"

She hit the nail on the head. Zeke would never admit it out loud, but he knew for a fact that his uncle was a workaholic. Living with a sociopathic, diabolical genius working discretely for the government isn't easy. Especially when that said genius makes you his personal apprentice. He never had much of a choice since his parents died when he was still horribly vulnerable and tender for a young child. If he wanted to live with a roof over his head every night, eating warm meals and avoid sleeping on the streets, he agreed to work as the underling of a mad scientist whom he happened to be related to by blood. At extra expense, it increasingly limited his freedom. Was it all worth it in the end? That was the one question he had pondered repeatedly in the back of his mind since day one.

"Yeah, pretty much," Zeke clarified with a blank expression, "Actually, we're expecting something very important to be delivered to the lab today, and he said I should be there for that."

That was not something he was supposed to say, courtesy of government secrecy, but in the end, it slipped out anyway. Fortunately, his friend was not at all curious about that. She was far too concerned with his availability and his basic privilege as a teenager to go out and have fun.

"Jeez, can't he cut you some slack for just this once? It isn't fair! He shouldn't be able to control his own nephew like that," Matti started to complain as though speaking Zeke's thoughts through her mouth, "Can't you just talk to him? Ask about taking a vacation or something," Once she said that, Zeke looked away from her with a rather pained expression. Matti noticed this, and thus walked up closer to him and leaned into his face with her hands clasped together at her chest like praying, "Please?! It's been getting really boring after school without you—well, I mean, everyone says it and it's no fun! So come on, can't you just do it? For me?!"

There was a long pause between them until Zeke finally gave into Matti's pleading jade green eyes, "Well, um, I…guess I could try it."

There is a huge difference between trying and doing. Everybody knew that much. Trying would not be enough to seal the deal, but a moment of stern glaring later, Matti's lips curved back into a happy grin, "Great! And be sure to tell me how it works out, okay? Gotta go now!"

She then turned around to the opposite direction and started running towards her best friend Bella who was standing over by the school's front gates, getting annoyed while impatiently waiting for Matti to return to her side so they could get going on their way.

Matti soon stopped short halfway between and spun her head back to face her favorite guy friend, who was still struck with a dumbfounded face as to what he just agreed to do, and she shouted to him, "Can't wait to hear how it goes! See you tomorrow!"

After that, Matti caught up to Bella, and soon they walked off and disappeared into the crowds. Once they were gone, Zeke came back to his senses and shook his head with a sigh, "Man, what am I gonna do with her?" He had asked this question plenty of times before, and every time he had no answer.

Deciding to not think about it for now, he turned back around to his initial walking direction and went on his way. He didn't like breaking promises, especially to the one person left in his life who genuinely does so much and so hard to be his friend. But he had learned that having friends will only get him loneliness and guilt, courtesy of the old man, and the thoughts of confronting him about anything terrified him, as it has done so in the past. And, deep down in his heart, he knew there was no way that he would ever accept it.