My Dad didn’t care about much, all he cared about were three things: always being right, work, and sometimes my mom. As far a I could remember, he would wake up early in the morning, go to work, and come back late at night covered in dirt and sweat. Now I don’t even see him in the morning.

I had gotten my license, so I'd been driving myself to school recently, but with my mom in the passenger seat because she drove it back home after. Devon and Trevor were my best friends, and really my only friends. At lunch we had our own table, probably because we weren’t the most popular, but our own table was pretty cool so we didn’t mind.
It was spaghetti and meatball day at lunch, which was Devon’s favorite lunch. We got our food and sat down at our table. Devon immediately started shoveling the spaghetti down his throat skipping over the meatballs.
“Why aren’t you eating the meatballs?” I said, taking my first bite.
“Save the best for last,” he said back with a mouth full of food.  He wiped off the spaghetti sauce that was on his face. A piece of spaghetti flew out of his mouth and landed on my plate.
“Gross!” I yelled.
Devon smiled and continued to eat. Trevor grabbed his fork and reached over to Devons plate. He flicked off a meatball and it plummeted to the dirty cafeteria floor. Trevor began laughing. Devon picked up the now hairy and dusty meatball with his fork and flung it at Trevor. He missed, and the hairy dusty red sauce covered  ball of meat hit me perfectly in chest, leaving a red splatter on my white shirt.  I stood up and ran to the bathroom.
“Where you going, Felix?” Devon yelled, laughing.
I washed the stain out as best I could, but it was no use, the red splatter was still there. Walking back to my seat, I whacked Devon in the back of the head.
“It's just a shirt, Felix,” Devon said, rubbing the back of his head.
“Unlike you guys my parents don’t have a lot of money. This was my only shirt without a stain on it,” I said back staring at the stain. “My dad is going to kill me.”
My next class was Geology of course. It was my least favorite class. All we learned about was rocks and minerals. I was sick of hearing about rocks, it was the only thing my dad talked about when I actually saw him.
Mr. Dwayne was the teacher of that class. He was an alright teacher, but the way he taught was so boring. He knew it as well, because at the beginning of class he made us put our hands on the table and asked the class a question.  The person who answered the question right got to relax in the back of class and didn’t have to take notes. Everyone in the class’s eyes lit up.
“Nearly all gold on Earth comes from where?” Mr. Dwayne asked.
He started going around the class giving everyone one chance to guess the answer correctly. Students said random guesses. Most didn’t even make sense. It was almost my turn. Mr. Dwayne slowly was getting closer. He pointed to me.
“Felix nearly all gold on earth comes from where?”
“Nearly all gold on Earth comes from meteorites that bombarded the planet over 200 million years after it formed.”
Mr. Dwayne was shocked. He stepped back. “Correct,” he said. “How did you know that?”
“My Dad works as a gold miner, rocks are the only thing he talks about.” I stood up and walked to the back of class.
At the end of the day, my mom was sitting in the car to pick me up.  “Your father is coming home early tonight,” she said.
At home, I started doing my homework. School was easy for me, all my subjects I understood and my grades were great. English was simple, math was easy to understand, history was just a memory game, and geology was just like a long conversation with my dad. 
My door swung open and my dad walked in. He was dirty and covered in sweat again, but this time he looked more serious than usual.
“Hey, Dad.  How was your day?” I asked.
“I need to talk to you about your future and where it’s going.”
I stopped smiling because I knew this wasn’t going to be good.
“As you know, money has been tight for a whi- well forever, so it’s time for you to get a job, my job.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. I knew what he meant, but I couldn’t believe it.
“You are going to work with me starting in 2 weeks when summer starts, also you’re grounded.”
“What? Why?”
“Look down.”
A red blotchy meatball shaped stain reminded me that I was suppose to hide this shirt before my Dad got home.
The next day at school, I told Devon and Trevor how I had to work with my Dad all summer, and how I wouldn’t be home all day until night time.
“Why don’t you get a different job?” Trevor asked.
“My Dad doesn’t trust me to work at a different job, he thinks i’ll mess it up and get fired before I even get my first paycheck.”
Devon laughed, “I guess it’s time for Felix to become a big boy now.”
Devon didn’t care much about people’s feelings. He mostly cared about having a good time, letting nothing bother him, enjoying life as if life was a movie and he was the only one who was watching.
I knew Devon was only cracking jokes to make me laugh, but when summer arrived there wouldn’t be a joke funny enough to make me smile.
In class I noticed how often I looked at the clock. It seemed to jump from from hour to hour, from 9am to 10am and from 11am to 3pm. It felt like everyday was getting shorter and shorter. It was the only time I wanted my classes to feel longer. Days flew by. Each day I knew summer vacation was getting closer.
On the last day of school, everyone was smiling and making plans to celebrate after school, telling friends what they plan on doing during vacation. In English, my teacher, Ms. Penn, made us write what we planned on doing for summer vacation for our last work sheet. The sound of pencils and erasers filled the room, pages being flipped and torn out to be handed in. I, on the other hand, sat there wondering what to write. Should I write some bull spit about how fun and amazing my summer is going to be or do I tell the truth and say I will be working with my hardass Dad in a gold mine, digging away at rocks to find a different type of rock to sell and make a small profit that I can’t even keep most of because I have to help my family stay afloat before we lose the house and become homeless?
Ms. Penn’s hand held my shoulder, “Are you feeling alright, Felix?”
I opened my hand, two halfs of a pencil rolled out and a small amount of blood did as well.
“I’m fine!” I said. I stood up and walked to the bathroom cuffing my hands together. I washed them and saw two deep cuts in my hand. Devon walked in and went to the bathroom.
“Sooo ah why you bleeding?” Devon said mid-pee.
“I just cut my hand with a pencil.”
“Well that was stupid,” Devon said while he walked out of the bathroom.
“You forgot to wash you hands!” I yelled, before the door completely closed. 
At the end of school my mom picked me up. She asked about the cut on my hand. I lied and told her I fell.
When we got home, I laid in bed and tried to relax because I knew this would be the last time I could actually do that.
I started hearing taps on my window, each tap got louder. It was Devon and Trevor throwing rocks.
“Guys, stop throwing rocks you will break a window!”
Devon smiled and threw one more. The gray stone struck me and the eye. I saw purple stars and a blurry outline of Devon and Trevor laughing. I jumped out my window holding my eye. “You alright?” Trevor asked.
“Yeah,” I said, flipping off Devon.
“We are going to go to the mall, wanna come?” Devon asked still laughing.
“Sure.”
I got into Devon’s new car and we headed off.
When we got there the mall was full of people running inside to buy a new game that just came out. Devon and Trevor wanted that game as well, but they were going to wait until the rush calmed down. We walked around the mall for a while going into stores. An hour of Devon and Trevor buying pointless things went by. We walked across the mall to the game store.
“Hey, the line went down!” Devon said running towards the store. We got in line and slowly made our way to the front desk.
“Three copies of Murder Zone, please,” Devon said to the cashier.
“I don’t want the game,” I whispered to Devon.
“What! You don’t want the game, why not?” Devon yelled loud enough that everyone in the stores head turned and it got real quiet.
Trevor kicked Devon and whispered, “he probably can’t afford it dumbass.”
“It’s fine, Felix, i’ll pay for you,” Trevor said, pulling out a $100 bill.
I was so embarrassed, I couldn’t even tell Trevor I didn’t even have a game console for the game. The cashier handed Trevor the games. I took it and thanked him. I went home and jumped face first on to my bed. I turned around and laid on my back staring at the ceiling. My mom walked in and slammed the door shut.
“Where were you?” she said, with one hand on her hip.
“I went out with my friends. We went to the mall.”
“What did you waste your money on now?” Her eyes staring at the new video game.
“Nothing, I didn’t spend any money. Trevor just bought me a game that I didn’t want.”
“Felix, you have to tell us when you go out.”
“What do you mean us, it's just you. Dad is never here for us. He is always at work finding stupid rocks!” I stormed out of my room and left the house.
“Felix, you’re working with your dad tomorrow. You better be back and in bed soon,” my mom yelled as I slammed the door shut.
I grabbed my car keys out of my pockets and drove back to the mall. When I got there the stores were closing, but the game store was still open and full of people still waiting in line. I walked into the crowded store and acted as if I was looking for something. A boy walked up to me and asked if I needed help with anything. I shook my head no and he walked away.
Slowly making my way towards the back of the store, I saw the new gaming console. PS4, I saw in big letters written on the box. It was the same console Devon and Trevor thought I already had. I knew I must have it, but how? Then it hit me, a flash of stupidity and genius hit me at the same time. I grabbed the box and walked away from the crowd. Then I started crumpling and hitting the box quietly. I opened it slightly, just enough so the boxed looked worn and used. The best or worst part of the plan was next. I walked over and stood in line with the rest of the people.
A couple of minutes went by until I was next. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I’m not sure if it was because I was scared or just pure adrenaline, but I went with it. The cashier asked for what I needed and something inside me snapped. My light smile fell into an angry scowl, my thoughts toward the cashier turned from friends to foe. I slammed the PS4 box down on the counter and demanded a refund. The cashier's eyes light up as if I pulled out a gun.
The young cashier’s spoke with a quick but a shaky voice, “Um-um-um do you ha- have a receipt sir?” he asked. 
I smashed my fist on the counter and yelled “NO”.
The boy jumped and said, “W-well I’m afraid we can’t gi-give you a refund s-s-sir.”
I reached for the box and ripped it off the counter, the boy flinched.
“I had this piece of s*** for 2 days, 2 DAYS!” I yelled and walked out of the store.
The alarm went off as I exited the store, I stopped and looked at the cashier. “You’re a-all set sir,” he yelled.
I shot him a glare and walked out of the mall. Getting into my car I freaked out and screaming in excitement, I drove home with the largest smile on my face.
When I got home I ran to my room and turned on the console and started playing the game. I called Devon and Trevor and invited them to play online. It was the first time I actually felt normal. When I played the game with them it was as if all my worries went away. Even after I started working with my Dad the next day, when I was done I would just go to my room and play with my friends. My summer finally had plans. Even if the plan was to sit and play a stupid game all summer it was still a plan and that was good enough for me.