Part 1:

It’s been two months since that incident, believe it or not. Many other people have already begun to ignore that it happened. At the time I had also accepted the fact that it was the end of the world. After everything the world had been through, it was only a matter of time.

Now I am sitting in the school cafeteria, writing and drawing all the possible outcomes as well as making up these theories trying to solve the mystery of the meteors. I am writing into a little journal that I bought at a local store. I used to write some of my personal thoughts into this journal, but now it’s just filled to the brim with nothing but the countless and possibly useless ‘information’ of the meteor. 

Ever since I started making up these theories, people in my year and above thought I was insane, stupid or that I belonged in an asylum. I wasn’t very popular in my school to begin with and it didn’t really bother me, but now since people have been hearing about my actions, it made me more of a prime target for bullies. Speaking of bullies, whilst I am writing up my theories, a hand comes from behind my head and snatches my journal from behind.

I turn around and am roughly greeted by the school bully, Drake as well as his buddies.

“What’s up Cheapskate?” He says as he holds my diary over his head. 

“Come on Drake, I’m not worth your time…” I say tirefully.

“Oh really?! You and that stupid brain of yours, you can’t use your words to stop me, Joseph!”

“C’mon just give it back! I don’t have time for this!” I yell.

I try reaching towards my diary but Drake is too tall, he’s captain of the basketball team after all… They always have to be so damn tall… 

“That’s it! Reach for those damn stars!” He continues to mock me.

After a while of torment, Drake then proceeds to throw a wild haymaker across my cheek, knocking and dragging me across the floor. His buddies laugh and ridicule me from behind him. 

“Go back to whatever Asylum you came from, Cheapskate! I bet you’d feel more at home there! Haha!” He and his friends laugh.

“Bastard…” I mutter under my breath, wiping the blood dripping from my nose.

Drake and the rest of his fellow hooligans begin to walk off, still with my research in his hand.

“Wait! My Journal!” I yell again.

“Hmm? Oh this?”

He gets a lighter from his rear jean pocket and immediately flicks the flame as it begins to burn the papers of the journal. I am left to watch it burn as I am found on the floor. The journal begins to catch flames. He looks down on me and drops the now burnt journal in front of my eyes.

“Hmph, see ya later Joseph! Maybe next time I see you, you’d have grown a bit more brain cells than before.”

I get up onto my knees as I hold the remains of my journal, still lit and scorching. The heat is there but I refuse to react. Even after all that- suffering and torment… I still lack that sense of defeat, vulnerability or weakness that many supposedly feel when situations like these happen to them. It didn’t bother me the slightest for some reason… I mean- it’s always been like that.

Maybe I am crazy…

“Yo, you alright Joseph?” someone comes up behind me.

“Woah! You took a beating! I-I-I mean- You okay?” Another voice accompanies it.

Those voices I instantly recognize, Samson and Geek. Two of my only friends in school with only one of them I can refer to as loyal. 

Samson or Sam for short, I’ve known for my entire life. Medium blonde hair that curled down the left side of his head, brown eyes and the same height as I. He's the loyal one or the one I trust most. He’s always been there for me even when the going gets rough, but lately we haven’t been seeing eye-to-eye due to my recent actions toward the meteor and such. Still, that doesn’t stop us from being close, of course. 

Geek, which is his real name, surprisingly, I only met last month during the first week of highschool. Short black hair and short in height. I don’t know much about him to judge him entirely but he is quite a goofball… and a prick I guess, although he does show a lot of judgement to us whenever we do things outta the blue. He’s good company but I feel that he has a few secrets hiding away somewhere that he doesn’t want us to know… Though, I could be completely wrong since I’ve only known him for a month max.

The two take grasp of both of my arms to carry me onto a nearby table despite my ability to walk being apparent. I shove them away to show so.

“I can walk fine. Besides, that punch was nothing.” I say.

“You sure? You look kinda- I dunno… concussed…?” Sam says, raising one brow.

“Yeah, that one punch seriously messed you up, dude!” Geek says with no hesitation.

“Whatever, I’ve had worse. It’s just now my notes are all burnt up, so there goes my research.” I say, disappointingly.

Geek looks at me funny.

“Research?! Ha! Don’t make me laugh, Joseph! All you ever do is scribble nonsensical garbage into that lil copybook of yours! What part of that is resea-ugh!”

His attempted insult is instantly cut off by Sam’s elbow thrust that was aimed directly into his solar plexus, knocking him onto his knees. 

“Like you’d ever have the tenacity to chase something down, Geek.” Sam defends me.

“No, maybe he’s right. Perhaps this whole thing will come crashing down sooner or later anyway.” I say.

“Joseph… you’re not giving up are you?” Sam asks.

“Hmm? I never said that, I mean- I haven’t hit a brick wall yet so I’m gonna keep going. And either way, I’ve already picked it as my science thing to research on so there’s no turning tail here.” I reply confidently.

“I guess so. Still, why did you have to pick a topic that even certified meteorologists won’t even research into?”

“Hmm, it’s just as Drake said; I just like to reach for those stars. I never really knew my limits when I was younger, maybe because I kept to myself a lot… but now’s a greater time than later.” I say.

“Heh, when you said that you were going to open up more before we entered highschool, I didn’t think you’d get all sentimental too.” He says jokingly.

The warning bell rings on the intercom alerting us that class will be starting in the next five minutes, although the sound of it reeks of distortion and technical difficulties, it’s been like this since the start of the year and they haven’t fixed it yet. Our school is relatively newer than the others around here as well which only shows that we lack that good maintenance the others bear. Sometimes I wonder if our school is understaffed or just doesn’t know anything about technology.

“I guess that’s our call, what’s next? Science right?” Sam asks.

“Yup, speak of the devil.” I say.

Sam and eventually Geek begin to pick up their bags and head to class.

“You not coming?” Sam questions.

“I’m not in the same Science class as you, remember?” I reply.

“Ah right. Forgot about that, guess I’ll see you at the exit then, yeah?”

“Yeah, see ya.”

Sam, Geek and I part ways. However, I remain sitting on the bench, still thinking about my approach to my Science research. I may have backed myself into a corner in this one, then again, what else is new? I’ll find a way to progress, and if not, so be it. After all, this won’t be the first time I’ll be crashing and burning.

“How the hell do you put up with that Joseph kid anyway? It seems like he’s always setting such a high bar for himself.” Geek asks Sam as they walk towards their class.

“That’s the way Joseph is. As a person who has known him for twelve years, I can surely say he has tenacity like no other. It’s rare to see him give up and even when he does, he always finds another goal to set for himself, even if it shows itself to be impossible for someone like him.”

“Okay… but why does he do it?” Geek asks again.

“Heh, even I don’t know. The only thing he ever says is, “to be better”, but even that’s a bit too vague.”

“To be better huh? So it’s all just one selfish goal to become superior to those around him?”

“I wouldn’t say superior, in fact, I’d argue to say that Joseph cares too little about himself to even consider himself superior.”

“Then what is he planning? I thought you knew!” Geek says.

“It’s hard to read Joseph’s motives sometimes, but I’m sure he’s just doing his best to get by.” Sam implies.