*BEEP, BEEP*

The alarm was going off to mark the start of a new day in Toronto, Canada. The boy stretched his arm out and turned off the alarm.

He was about to go back to sleep but realized that summer break is over and he was now in his third year of high school (four years of high school in Toronto). It was a school day and he had to get out of bed or he’d be late.

“Auhhhh.”

He let out a groan as he did his daily stretches to wake his body up and get ready for the start of the day. He then put on his uniform, fixed his hair, and checked himself out in the mirror.

Ace is a 16 year old boy standing at 176cm with a build that is not too skinny, but not built at all. His face is handsome enough for girls to check him out but he was quite shy so he unconsciously avoided them.

He has dark brown hair that he inherited from his mother and green eyes that he got from his dad.

Once he finished admiring and checking himself out, he made his way to the kitchen where a woman standing at 168cm with dark brown hair made into a ponytail over her shoulder was waiting.

She was cooking something on the stove and when she noticed Ace, a smile covered her face. This woman was Ace’s mother, Selena Bracker.

“Good morning! First day back at school, are you excited?”

“Good morning..”

This good morning was way too loud for a Monday morning. It annoyed Ace a little bit because he was still half asleep but it was his mom so he didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Good morning..”

The next person to walk inside the kitchen was Ace’s father, Joshua Bracker, a man standing at 185cm with black, messy hair. He had a build that was more on the built side, a result of him playing sports and working out when he was younger.

He couldn’t work out as much anymore, but he made sure to maintain the build. He also wasn’t a morning person so he entered the kitchen with a slouched poster but, he made sure to get up on time as to not be late to work.

“Leeeenaaa, is breakfast readyyy yett?”

His dad always kept a somewhat playful and relaxed attitude with his wife, and has been doing so for the past 20 years. He calls her by Lena, a nickname that he gave her back when they first met.

“Oh Ace, you’re up, good morning..”

His dad noticed Ace sitting at the table and gave him a pat on the head with his eyes half open as he made his way to a seat across from Ace.

“Breakfast will be ready in a second, I’m making eggs with a side of a special ingredient coming straight from me, hehe.”

His mom winked in his dad’s direction while pointing at herself to return the playful attitude her husband showed her.

Ace felt a little uncomfortable when his parents acted like this, but he’s used to it, so it didn’t bother him anymore.

When his mom finished cooking breakfast, they all sat at the table and started to eat.

“So Ace, mmf, arefh you readyf toh gofh backf toh schfool?”

His dad asked while chewing on the food in his mouth.

“Finish the food in your mouth before you start talking.”

“Sorry, sorry, are you ready to go back to school?”

“Yeah, made sure to sleep earlier last night.”

Ace finished his breakfast quick and started to leave for school. He’s at that age where he doesn’t interact with his parents too much.

“I’m off for school.”

“Have fun!”

Ace exited the house and started to walk towards his school. It was about a 20 minute walk from his house to the school. Once he reached the halfway point..

“Oh shit..”

It started pouring and Ace started sprinting with his bag over his head, desperately trying to avoid getting soaked more than he already was.

Ace was quite athletic, he played basketball in school and made sure to do a small exercise everyday. He made it to the school in about 5 mins sprinting at full speed while making sure to avoid slipping.

He reached the school entrance and put his hands on his knees, exhausted from sprinting to the school.

A boy the same age as Ace noticed Ace defenceless, and pushed him over from behind while his hands were on his knees.

“Hahhaahahah, idiot, don’t stand like that in front of me.”

Ace fell to the ground face first, but it wasn’t too hard a push, so he was fine. As he started to get back up, he looked up to see who it was and noticed it was his best friend, Isa Porter.

Isa was a boy with dark brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair who stood at 175cm.

He wasn’t as athletic as Ace and his face wasn’t as handsome, but he was quite smart. He always got really high grades but he didn’t care too much for them, he cared more about gaming and spent most of his time doing that.

“I’ll get you back for that.”

Ace said as he stuck his middle finger up at his best friend while holding a small deadly grin on his face.

“Hahaha, yeah right.”

Isa stuck his tongue out to his best friend who was making his way up from the floor. Once Ace got back up, they made their way to their class, Isa rambling on about the game he was currently playing.

Once they were about to reach the class, they were greeted by two other boys standing at the class entrance, both around the same height as them.

“Yo! Jin! Roy! How you guys been?”

Ace started waving his hand in the air, excited to see his two friends after a few months. He saw Isa over summer break a few times so he wasn’t as excited as when he saw Jin and Roy.

Ace walked up to one of them and did a handshake. They put their hands together, slid them back towards themselves and folded their fingers. They called this a “dap”, and it was used by most of the kids in the school.

“I played basketball all through the summer. Ace, I’m definitely going to beat you now!”

Jin exclaimed excitedly, sticking his fist in front of Ace after they dapped.

“Hahahaha, in your dreams. Ace never lost to you once before and I was playing with you the whole time, you didn’t get any better.”

Roy said, backing up Ace and his skills as a basketball player.

All three of them were on the basketball team, with Ace being the star point guard and Jin always trying to get better than Ace. They’ve played one on one, time and time again but Ace never came close to losing.

Once they all talked about their summers, the bell rang, and the school day started.

Ace never cared too much about his studies but he knew that they were important so he tried to keep his grades up. They weren’t as high as Isa’s but they were all above average.

The day wasn’t as boring as a regular school day, because it was the first day back, so the students still had the excitement of finding out who was in their classes but, to Ace, it was still school so he wasn’t as excited as others.

He was happy to see his friends again, but he wanted the in-class parts of school to fly by and be over quickly.

When school finally ended, Ace and Isa walked home together. Ace and Isa have been neighbours for years so they walked home together every day. They’ve known each other for about 10 years and have became close friends since then.

The rain had stopped by the time school ended so they went to the convenience store on the way home.

“I’m grabbing a blue popsicle, you?”

Ace said as they walked towards the store.

“You already know what I want.”

“Yeah, yeah, a red one, same as always.”

“You get the blue one every time, I don’t want to hear it from you.”

“I take pride in the blue popsicle, once you try the blue, you never try another one. That’s just how it is.”

Ace puffed his chest out while defending the popsicle he’s loved trying to persuade his friend to try one.

“I’ve already tried the blue, disgusting.”

Isa put a finger near his open mouth to express that the blue one made him want to vomit.

“The red one tastes like frozen blood, I don’t know how you can eat that.”

“You’ve never even tried it, how do you know?”

Isa put his palm to his face at his friends dumb remarks.

“I don’t need to taste it to know, it smells disgusting.”

“Popsicles don’t have a smell, idiot.”

“…”

“Can’t say anything back, I win this argument, show me your forehead.”

Ace stuck his forehead near his friend and received a hard flick to the face. This was something the two friends did whenever there was any type of argument and there was a clear winner.

Ace put a hand to his forehead, hurting from the hard flick. Both boy’s flicks were pretty deadly as a result of them flicking each other over the years.

“You also buy me a popsicle for saying something dumb.”

“Wait wait, who said anything about buying the other person’s popsicle?”

“Cmon, just today, I forgot to bring money.”

“You flick me then ask for money?”

Isa put his hands together, looking at Ace with a nervous smile on his face, begging for some change.

“Fine, fine, but you’re buying me one tomorrow.”

Isa pulled his closed fist towards him, celebrating at winning Ace over.

Ace went inside the store while Isa waited outside.

After a few minutes, Ace came outside with his hands behind his back and an evil grin on his face.

“Hahahah.”

After revealing his hands, he started to laugh.

Isa gave a sigh in response to the things Ace was holding.

There were two blue popsicles in Ace’s hands.

“Idiot, you just wasted your money, I’m not eating that.”

“Yes you are. You made me use my money so you better finish that. Also, it’s hot as hell out here, no way can you walk twenty minutes without sucking on that.”

Isa sighed and agreed to finish the blue popsicle.

On the way home, they were drenched in sweat from the heat but they continued to talk about the games they were going to play once they got home.

Ace wasn’t as big of a fan of games as Isa but, he still enjoyed playing them with his friend.

Once they reached home, they both gave each other a dap (handshake) and rushed inside their houses that were right next to each other.

They both wanted to get away from the heat as soon as possible.

As Ace entered the house, his mood shifted towards a more dark, depressed feeling...