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There was a time in Clay Terran's life when he hated nothing more than the sky.
On a grey late summer day, after a faint knock, the headmaster stood in the doorway to the classroom and asked him to come with him.
At first Clay assumed it was about the accident with the hockey puck, which was why a thick band-aid decorated the bridge of his nose.
The doctor even said he would have a scar from it, but somehow Clay thought it was actually pretty cool.
Daring.
That's what the girls were into right?
He felt it was unfair that he had to stay in detention for weeks for the broken window - although it was DEFINITELY an accident that the puck didn't fly properly in the school hallway.
The middle of the bridge of his nose had already paid enough of a toll.
But the look on the adults' faces when he entered the teachers' lounge spoke a very different, scary language.
His father's voice on the phone sounded pressed.
Submissive.
"A-and, champ? How's school?"
This was the first time he had been in contact with his father in weeks.
It hadn't been long since he had left Clay and his mother.
Why, the boy didn't know.
"How's y-your...nose?"
A squeeze and convulsively withheld sobbing on the other end of the line.
Clay's nerves snapped without an ounce of patience.
"DAD, WHAT HAPPENED?"
Endless seconds of silence followed before a dazed, frightened voice quaveringly pressed 'Mum's dead...' into his ear and the world became colourless from one moment to the next.
There was a time in Clay's life when he despised the sky.
Especially when it rained.
Especially when a few metres in front of him a coffin was lowered into the earth, in which his mother lay.
How could this ugly, dark grey mass above him dare to take his mother to him?
What had he done to him?
And then this lousy idiot feigns grief, too, by pouring rain.
Clay hated the sky.
And Clay hated his father.
Why hadn't that traitor been more careful?
Why had his mother had to be behind the wheel and why had his father gotten away with only a broken leg?
Clay was sure they had argued. About the divorce. About Clay. About anything.
That was the result.
The end.
The time after the funeral was silent.
Classes ran past Clay like a river of dirty water.
Every day he got up, got dressed, went to school.
His father took care of the rest and fortunately Clay was not part of that 'rest'.
He stayed with his mother's relatives, but they didn't take care of him either.
The sky remained grey and colourless and Clay hated it.
He often stayed longer at school than was necessary.
He would distract himself in the library or do a few laps on the sports field.
Sometimes he sat for hours on a bench in the schoolyard and tried not to think about anything, which never worked and always ended in tears.
Here, of all places. At night under the starry sky, all alone on a bench, all the knots that had built up over the day burst and discharged in tears upon tears.
The concentrated loneliness of the situation, the realisation that he had lost the most important person in his life and no one was there to catch even the smallest bit of him.
No one but the sky and the stars.
"Clay? Is that you?"
A familiar voice behind him made him wince and Clay tried to stifle his sobs.
"Go away, Apollo! Leave me alone!"
Out of the corner of his eye, a boy Clay's age appeared.
A classmate.
But the two had never had any points of contact beyond group work until now.
Clay knew almost nothing about him except that he had lived abroad as a child.
He heard Apollo coming closer.
"Don't come near! Stay away!"
The homemade condolences he had received from his class were more than enough sympathy.
Apollo should leave him alone and mind his own business.
"Just listen for now. I don't have a mother either..."
Actually, it was stupid and childish.
Clay didn't even know why they were laughing and smashing motivational mantras at each other after a while.
After all, everything had been so cold and lonely until a few moments ago.
"You all right?" asked Apollo, gasping for breath.
"Not really, your face is all red," Clay replied, equally gasping.
"So is yours, haha"
They stood in the middle of the schoolyard, cautiously waiting for their breathing to return to normal after their collective screams.
There was silence around them.
"It's pretty rad that you can see so many stars here..."
Clay blinked and looked at Apollo.
Of course his classmate worshipped the sky.
With that name, absolutely no wonder.
"I never met my parents after all but when I look up at the sky...I don't know...I feel connected to them somehow. Does that make sense?"
What a dreamer.
What else was he thinking about, he wondered?
" I guess it's alright..."
Maybe, just maybe, the sky wasn't so bad after all.
"Say, would you like to have lunch together tomorrow during recess?"