The feel of the wind blowing on your skin. Mid to late August leaves the temperature still high, but the breezes aren’t humid, just on the good side of cool. Drifting into fall, but hanging onto summer. Bright rays of sun shining down on dark pavement, and on the tops of trees, sometimes leaving little circular droplets of sun on the ground in its wake.

Many don’t notice, or they just wonder for a moment, before moving on with their day. In the back of their mind is the forgotten thought of why the sun leaves circles on the ground when shining through trees.

Shouldn’t it be some other messed up version of a shape? There are so many leaves, it seems impossible to make near perfect circle patterns that scatter across grass and light colored sidewalks.

The Pinhole Effect.

It’s a small miracle of nature that, of course, can be explained through basic science. The reason why sometimes, instead of distorted chips of sunshine but circles are formed, is because the leaves of the tree make small gaps, and the sun that shines through comes in the form of a circle. Kind of like poking holes in a box and lifting it up to let the sun shine on it, making circle patterns. Think of it like that.

Could even be a metaphor for life.

Beyond the sun making circles on the ground to the point where it can even show up in pictures, the science behind it, and the plain old temperature, August isn’t just when everything starts to cool down.

August is also back to school.

The time every student hates and every parent loves. Kids are busy, and no longer moping in their rooms, merging with couches, or annoying everything in existence six ways to Sunday.

College kids though, are people who are in the middle of that Teenager-Adult transition stage, and you kind of feel sorry they have to go back to school. Between worrying about grades and a bank account?

They need a break.

Students who are not in their transition stage to adulthood, on the other hand, are a much different story. Drama is something that seems like a necessary evil, hormones are through the roof, and most likely, some think their life is at its peak.

This does not mean every student's personal life is perfection.

Focusing in on Highschool students, those could be some of the hardest years of your life. With the weight of your social status, grades seeming to have a bigger impact than before, stress can sometimes be the first thing that comes to mind.

High-schoolers seem to never have the ability to be flawed, from their grades, to what they wear, to the fact that they can’t believe in the childhood magic they once had. Santa, the Easter Bunny, Unicorns, Dragons.

Those kinds of things just didn’t exist for you anymore.

Couldn’t exist for you anymore.

Portland, Oregon. Technically, it never gets what you would call too hot. A bit over 80 degrees, was usual for summer. That didn’t mean it didn’t push it to 100 or even try to get over that.

What were you supposed to do when it got too hot? Sure you could barely wear any clothes, but then what? Peel off your skin?

Least to say, not many people liked the heat.

Diago Zegarra was one of those people.

That boy absolutely hated two things for sure.

Those two things were the heat and his very own first name.

In his own personal opinion, when he was being particularly bitter, he thought it sounded like someone tried to say Diego and Diablo at the same time but didn’t get it quite right.

Not to mention, his middle name was Nenufar.

Sure it meant, water lily, but that wasn’t really helping his case.

At the tender age of 16 going on 17, he had two moods. The world was with him, or against him.

Diago lived off the side of the city, near dense forests where the crickets were so loud at night, you had to blast music in order to drown them out and get some proper sleep.

Sadly, the boy never really got much of that anyway.

Between jobs, studying, helping out around the house, and helping his Pa with his baby sister, he didn’t really have time for trivial things like relaxing or sleeping.

Part-time at a cafe, and part-time for Portland Parks & Recreation Urban Forestry. It seemed as if he was on his feet all day. Even though his dad was a mechanic, it didn’t pay for everything. Winifred Redwood, his Ma, had ghosted on their family as soon as his hermanita Ellie was born.

They had basically been struggling ever since.

His sister, or hermanita, Estrella Zegarra.

Star Zegarra, if you wanted the English translation, but the ‘English’ version isn’t what you’d find on Ellie’s birth certificate.

Diago hated it when people called her Star and not Estrella because it seemed more ‘American’. It’s not like his baby sibling was named to please every person who asked if there was a translation.

It was obvious that made him mad.

When it really came down to it, a lot of things made Diago mad. Though he tried not to think of it like that, or think of it at all actually.

YahYah would laugh at him, and he knew it was just YahYahs morbid, or confusing, sense of humor. YahYah didn’t really think his problems were funny, but the general sense of his strong emotion of anger. Leiyah Mitre, or YahYah, was Diago’s best-friend since first grade when they had pushed him out of his chair and stole his Yo-Gos.

Diago was almost positive he’d fallen in love that very day. Even though his sense of masculinity was very fragile most of the time, he could say that he loved his friend. Just because you loved someone didn’t mean it was romantic. It was the way he loved Ellie, or his Pa, or Yo-Gos.

Diago really loved Yo-Gos.

Diago thought about stuff like this a lot, like currently as he was lying in his bed at 5 am, having woken up before the sun so he could make breakfast, get himself ready for school, get Ellie ready for school, grab the mail, clean up the mess from breakfast and make his Pa a plate and lunch, Ellie also needed lunch, take Ellie to school, and get to his own school himself.

All of this needed to happen before 8 am when his Pa woke up to go to work.

It needed to be perfect, so his Pa didn’t have to worry about anything else, he definitely had enough on his plate already.

This is what launched Diago into action at that moment, he hoisted himself up, thanking himself that he’d already taken a shower the night before. Usually, that was the norm, but sometimes he just didn’t have it in him, and it was postponed until morning.

Doing simple things first, like brushing his teeth and washing his face, with ProActive mind you. It didn’t work for everyone, but if Diago didn’t use it, his face was sure to be oily and covered in pimples, zits, and every horror imaginable to a teenager's face.

After that was completed, he scooped Ellie out of bed. The usual, she brushed her teeth with her unicorn printed toothbrush, then took her shower.

She had to because her long curly black hair was always a mess when she crawled out of bed.

It was then up to Diago to style it, and he was sure by now he knew every braid, twist, turn and look known to man.

Maybe he should add hair-stylist on his next resume.

The main problem of the morning is, once hermanita is awake, she absolutely hates staying still, so Diago plays a certain game.

Sure it was probably originally made for dogs, but as long as he says the word ‘brush’ over and over while in the bath,

Ellie will be still for him as he brushes her hair.

Once he notices she’s definitely getting uncomfortable he’ll say ‘kiss!’ and she’ll turn around and he covers her face with kisses. All and all, it makes the morning a little brighter and gives him reason to get through the day, because he really loves his family.

When they were all done he dried her off and let her get dressed. Diago had faith that Ellie liked picking out her own clothes and making sure she had everything in her Hawkeye printed bookbag.

It gave her something to do while he made breakfast and their lunches for the day.

With him helping here and there, Ellie had actually gained a rather cute sense of style. She absolutely hated pink, but she loved purple, yellow and orange. She would comment how they reminded her of a sunset.

So when speak of the devil, the small girl comes skipping down the steps in a small yellow sundress and zip-up sandals, he can’t say he’s really surprised.

It made him proud that she could do that perfectly on her own already.

Those thoughts made an uncomfortable feeling coil in his gut.

Diago didn’t want Ellie to grow up too fast, nor did he know if it was okay for him to even feel proud. It’s not like Ellie was his own kid or anything, she was just his sister.

The conflict must’ve shown on his face, and the star in his life took it the wrong way, her small hands tugging at the sides of her dress as she looked down at the outfit she picked herself with a bit of a dejected look.

Ellie was only six, yet she seemed to be so in tune with the world around her. Diago didn’t want her childhood to be tainted like his own.

No one should ever have to grow up as fast as he did, especially her.

So when she asked in that small voice of hers, a tentative,

“Do I look okay Hermano..?”

Diago scooped her up again, mumbling ‘kiss!’ before covering her face with kisses again. That got the sad look off her face and brought bubbly laughter to the surface instead.

“Of course hermanita! Mi Estrella, you look perfect! Now, who taught you how to dress so well?”

He assured with light laughter, looking down at her from where she was in his arms. Ellie giggled and he kissed her nose.

“It’s because of you, silly!”

She wrapped her small slender arms around her neck in a hug and Diago’s smile grew ten times bigger, the dimple in his left cheek was sure to show.

He gasped like he couldn’t believe it, placing a shocked look his face.

“Me, huh? It was me who taught you how to dress so well?

I never would’ve guessed! It can’t be me!”

Pulling back to look at him, Ellie nodded rapidly, that little grin still on her face, unlike himself, she had dimples showing on both cheeks.

“Yes, you!”

She managed quickly before bursting out into another fit of laughter.

Diago set her down at one of the chairs seated on the island in their kitchen.

“How about breakfast huh? I made french toast sticks just for you.”

He said as he placed her plate in front of her.

It was homemade french toast sticks just like he said, dusted in powdered sugar along with a couple of strawberries.

Syrup neatly placed in a small bowl on the side for her to dip them into, a glass of apple juice nearby, water already condensing on the outside as it waited patiently to be drank.

It was mornings like this Diago really enjoyed. The peaceful ones where nothing went wrong and he could drag himself out of bed with enough time that he didn’t need to rush. Good things couldn’t last forever though.