Smile

Chapter 1: Dreaming of you

The achingly bright sun beams down on the dim, cold walls surrounding Ichiji's room. The dust specks brighten like sparkles as another morning comes reigning down to another dreaded day at school. The ambiance of the Vinsmoke mansion was one of consistency; a lifestyle throughout all that is never meant to falter. Although the enclosures were soundproof at all ends, the overly grumbling of Ichiji's father, Judge Vinsmoke, resounded into Ichiji's last second of sleep.

He got up to the yelling of his irritated father, acting as close to a deranged alarm. "Not again," He sighed, kicking off his covers. He gets out of bed with a minor stretch and continues on to the bathroom. He checks his phone to see that school starts in 10 minutes. "Shit," he gets dressed then grabs his bag before heading downstairs in a rush. He goes into the kitchen and grabs a red apple and bites a piece of it. Hope I don't see him, he thinks to himself. Fate was not on his side that day.

He's almost out when he spots his father as he's trying to leave. "Normally you would have already been at school by now. When did my son become a damn delinquent..." Internally, Ichiji winced. "Sorry for being tardy sir, my alarm didn't go off this morning." His father tended to have an intensity about him that was always there no matter who he spoke to. It felt a bit controlling.

"Probably the fault of that woman, she was too soft on you." He said while he took a sip of the coffee he was drinking. Ichiji finally gained enough courage to leave the house. Staying around his father for too long while he was in that mood would become intolerable very quickly. His family relationship was not the best, in fact it was terrible. His mother dying young and his father being an asshole, It really sucked that nobody could get along but it was far too late for that to change.

Ichiji walks outside to see the warm colored leaves spread across his lawn. The temperature drops as the morning carries on, and Ichiji wishes he had a few layers on. He turns to see his chauffeur waiting for him in a black mercedes. "Good morning, sir. I have your ride. Please hurry, we are late." The chauffeur held open the car door for the boy, waiting for him to enter. Ichiji lightly smiled at him. "I'm walking to school. It's a nice day outside. Thank you though. Oh, and don't tell my father." The chauffeur nods as he drives away. As he walks down the road to the main gate, he admires the stone walls covered in decorational moss and vines. He hated living here, but the horticulture surrounding his home increased his mood all year round.

Ichiji shrugged off the mediocre lesson he had to suffer through. Although he normally skipped classes, his father would constantly demand him to make sure he kept a steady attendance. That bored him though, he found no fun in attending classes since school never really mattered to him in the first place. Ichiji glanced over to the clock, waiting for the time when he could finally be out of this. He tore his attention from the clock onto the board, where his teacher was finishing up the day's lesson and explaining the pointless homework due the next class. I don't even bother with doing this stuff, why should I be here, he thought, shifting in his seat. No matter how his teacher would prepare and paint the lessons, he never truly cared but, his teacher would clearly take note of that. Ichiji's teacher always had a good eye on him, reporting his miss-dos, such as tardiness and attendance issues to his other teachers. Despite the fact that they always had tabs on his attendance, Ichiji always would brush it off, since it truly never affected him in any way. As the bell rang, it merely served as background noise for the teacher, Mrs. Linlin, as she turned her attention to Ichiji. "Ichiji, I need to talk to you after class about your performance in school," she said, dismissing the rest of the class.

Ichiji stood up grabbing his stuff and shuffled to the front of the class, avoiding the others filing out the classroom. He stood in front of Mrs. Linlin's desk as she pulled up the attendance record for his class. "All these days that are labeled red are you arriving late. I cannot have this type of behavior in my class." She then brings out his grades for the class. "Listen, your father asked me to keep you in check, but I'm not seeing you put in the effort. You walk in late almost everyday, you don't pay attention in class, and your tests as well as your quiz grades are below par. If you don't want me to call him and tell him about this unexceptional behavior, then you'd better get your act right." The condescending tone in her voice angered Ichiji, but he couldn't do anything about it, "I'm going to have to give you after school detention for this behavior. If I don't see you there, your parents are getting called, do you understand me clearly?"