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Alone he perched, high up near the top of the steel tower at the apex of the hill, an endless vista spreading forth before his gaze of a place he never belonged. Off in the distance he could see a few fireworks exploding, released by some eager soul who couldn’t wait until midnight struck. It was probably some kid at a party with all his friends.
He ached with loneliness at the top of his tower, wishing he had his own collection of friends, some party that was awaiting him.
He pushed the feeling aside; what use were wishes? He’d been at his latest and last foster home for a month now, but hadn’t been able to bring himself to attempt befriending foster siblings or others from the neighbourhood. He’d long ago given up on that venture. I never worked. Nobody was ever interested in being friends with a too-skinny, too-smart, shabby looking, pass-around kid. And he didn’t know how to relate to them.
He sighed, still yearning despite all efforts to the contrary.
Before his thoughts could fall to the morbid, he forced his mind to other matters.
The new year.
In a week he’d be leaving his foster home to go to college. He’d actually finished high school six months ago, but being sixteen, it had taken this long for the courts to grant him emancipated minor status to let him leave the foster system and move across the country to attend college. He’d be allowed to live in student housing and not have to stay with any more families who didn’t really want him anyway. He’d be free.
The new year.
He contemplated the concept. The changing from the old into the new. A time for fresh starts, a new future. The time for resolutions and good intentions to keep those resolutions. It all fit his current situation.
So. Resolutions then. He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. A chance to pursue what he wanted. He’d no longer be the strange foster kid, the orphan. He’d be a student, just another young man starting his journey in the cast world of academia. He could do this.
He would do this.
As bright showers of multi-coloured lights burst and showered and booming explosions echoed ushering in the new year, he gathered up a new determination and made the decision that, do or die, he would gain his friends and find the place where he belonged.
Fin