Zosk POV:

I can barely contain my excitement. I'm going to be nine years old in about a week from now. I knew my parents were planning a big party for the big day. They couldn't keep a secret from me even if they tried. Most of my friends knew.

Kelly, down the street from me, had been invited. As well as Dan and Sally. I don't like Sally that much but my parents wanted me to spend more time with her. I huffed and snorted but they got their way. Then there was Jimmy and Tom. Older brothers who've I've been friends with since I started going to school with them. Pretty well much everyone on the corner block I lived on was invited over.

The party wasn't going to be anything fancy. No one on my block was rich. The fanciest place anyone on my block has had a party at is the pizza place in town. Eric, who could not come to my party, had one there just last month that I had attended. So it was decided that we'd just have a party in the park provided the nice weather would hold.

Be just my luck for it to rain on my birthday party. Then we'd have to hold it indoors. With the houses being small, it would be kind of cramped inside. I did like going to the park but could only go on weekends. Days were filled with school. With it being spring time, days were starting to get longer. But still had to focus on school-work even at home. Boring as heck. Got maybe at best two hours to spend with my friends in a day.

With my birthday coming up though, we'd take the day off from school and spend it at the party. The school didn't mind any as it was common practice among the students. Unless we were sick or late, rarely got marked as absent with a birthday party. Though a lot were held on weekends to keep missed school days down. Sometimes the school used our birthdays to hold meetings or something else. Cause my birthday was in the middle of the week, the school would remain open for the rest of the students to attend.

I was the lucky one this year to get the day off along with the friends who were going to attend the party. Be hard to pick a weekend with my birthday on a Wednesday. The Sunday before or the Saturday after hardly made much since. Dead center of the week.

That would be two weeks from now. I jumped for joy as I played on the playground at recess. Though the other kids watching me would be thinking it was more from just playing around then with my birthday coming up.

A few moments later, I bonked into the swing set while twirling around. I rammed the support pole into the center of my back. Ouch that hurt. I didn't cry or whimper, having been brought up to be tougher than that, and just moved on but was a little more careful now, given the slight lingering pain in my back from the crash.

Had to laugh even at myself for my own blundering. It did help a little to ease the pain and the silliness.

Though it was back to class a few moments later. Recess didn't last long. Back to sitting at a boring desk with boring work to do. Something I can understand out there in the real world to the reader as to why children act up in class. Can you remember when you were almost nine and wanting to sit there for hours? At least recess helps alleviate the stress of having to sit in class.

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As the day went on, the pain in my back didn't really go away. It wasn't too painful that I would go to the nurses office but it is at least noticeable. Made a mention of it on the bus ride home but most of my peers just shrugged it off and we all laughed at my blunder.

Had a snack when I got home. Teddygrams bear-shaped cookies. I could eat a box of those in one sitting if my parents would let me. But they kept such out of my reach and would only leave a small bowl of them for me to have. Think there was at most 10 per bowl, whatever the recommended serving size was anyway.

My mom was home. She had a part time job she did when I was at school so she could be home at both ends of my school day.

She greeted me, asked me what homework I had to do, asked about my day and kind of ignored me as most parents would when I explained about my day. So I just turned to go do my homework as was expected of me. Last time I tried to sneak out of doing the homework first, I got grounded for a week. Not fun.

My back itched some so I used the back of the wooden chair I sat in to scratch at it. Not very effective but at least made the itch go away for a bit so I could focus on my homework. I had some math to do, a little spelling and had to put a rhyme together. The last one was a bit more difficult but I finally got it.

Looked at a clock on my work place and noticed it was close to dinner. I would eat then see if I could play with one of my friends for a little bit. We had an earlier dinner time and playtime often came after.

Dinner was a fairly simple meal with my parents. I didn't have any siblings and my parents weren't really wanting another child. They saw the other families struggle when there was more than one child involved. I didn't mind much with the open neighborhood we lived in. Friends were nearby and most families were easy going. I heard that if you go into the city, things are different. I liked it out here in the suburbs. Life moves a little slower so people have a little more time even though we're not on the wealthy end of the spectrum.

I ate the dinner, not going too fast as my parents didn't like that and scold me for it when I do eat too fast. Then went outside on their permission. Sophius, a rich kid, was wandering around. A few of us envied him because he had cool stuff. Though rarely showed it to the rest of us. I always wondered if he had any friends. I shrugged and went to play with Jimmy and Tom. They were the closest and were already outside. We played till it started to get dark then I went home.

Not much more happened and the itch I had didn't bother me while I played. Likely cause when you're doing something, you tend to ignore other little things like an itch. I went inside where both my mom and dad were watching TV. The evening sitcoms were on so they were watching those. I never had any interest in them. I greeted them as usual before heading to the washroom to get cleaned up.

Took a small shower, as my parents wanted me to do so usually every other day or so, before drying myself off. Sometimes I would take a bath instead but rarely ever did anymore.

I went to my room after that. Gave my back a little scratching cause the itch was back. Sat on my bed before I started to nestle into my covers. Not much later than that, I was asleep. Bedtime was around nine or so with a little wiggle room on longer days or weekends.

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I woke to my back itching like heck, with some added pain as well, as my alarm went off. I groaned a little... the pain was dull but the itching was a bit unbearable. I got out of bed, trying to scratch at my back with my hands. The itch was just out of reach so I used a corner of the door frame of my room after opening the door. It helped to ease the itch for a while.

I shut the alarm clock off, got dressed, ate breakfast and went to school. To face yet another boring day of learning. When you're a child, you never really understand why you have to go through all of that. Even as an adult one has to wonder why you have to go through these classes.

So things went on like that for a while. All the way up to the day before my birthday. Save for on weekends, which I had those to myself or my friends to play with.

The itch in my back didn't get any better nor did it get really any worse. Just a constant reminder that it was there. Did finally ask my mom about it and she just used some itch cream to try to help keep the itch down. Didn't work too well and the stuff stank. She told me that my back did look a little 'raw' from all the itching so just told me to try not to do it so much.

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The day of my birthday finally arrives. I'm celebrating it with a bunch of friends from school. Started pretty well much right at lunch time with everything a kid of my age could want to do. Well, at least if you were me and your parents could afford it. Had a bounce house, games and a few other activities. Nothing too fancy but still it was enough. My friends made it even more worthwhile... Pretty well much lost track of time till they all had to go home later in the evening, close to when it was getting dark out. Made me kind of pout, them too, but we knew we'd be seeing each other soon. Least that's what they told me anyway.

The itch in my back was there all day too, not any better or worse than it has been before. But I was pretty well much able to ignore it. That evening though, I couldn't ignore it much longer. I used a scratcher my dad made a couple days before to help ease the itchiness. Felt so good. I still headed my mom's advice not to use it too much though.

When I brought the scratcher from my back, I almost leaped back slightly. On it looked to be like trails of blood. I turned on a light and sure enough, there was some red liquid on the scratcher. I panicked and started searching for something I could use to prove it was blood. All I could find was a shirt, the shirt I had taken off earlier. It wouldn't be much but enough.

I held the shirt to my back as best I could before pulling it away. There, on the shirt, where I had it at my back, was a little smear mark... definitely blood. I started to mutter some curses before I went down to talk to my parents. What's weird is neither one of them were there in the house. The house was quiet..... too quiet. That eerie feeling that something is wrong.... Turned the TV on, worked...made noise. Tried the phone..... dial tone. Turned the TV off, put the phone back on the hook. So where was mom and dad?

I soon found a note. I'm guessing it was left there, on the table, for me to read it when I got inside. The itch in my back had delayed that.

The note read simply: Dear Zosk, We've gone out for the night. The house is your's.... Don't wreck anything. Love, Mom and Dad.

Sure, as if I ever wreck anything. I was tempted to call the hospital but seeing as how I was standing, maybe whatever it was, would go away. I decided to head back up to bed.Grabbed a towel from the washroom to lay on the bed before laying on it. This was to keep whatever blood was coming from my back to mess up my bedding too much.

I was out a little later. Not sure why though as I rarely get to sleep that quickly.