10. Hibernation
Tuesday, September 13th Jason sat on his bed, gazing out the window at the rising moon. The sun had not yet fully set, but a gibbous moon rose into the darkening sky. His eyes were swelling with frustrated tears as he looked at the message on his phone again. Had our first practice today, wasn’t the same without you . The message was from Winston, who had taken over the helm of captain from Stav. It had been a long day for Jason before he had gotten the text. The simple message was enough to bring Jason to the brink of a breakdown. Less than a week into the school year and Jason was already tired. He wanted to feel like he belonged in Madison, but he also wanted to go home to Vancouver and see his friends. Above all else, he wanted things to be easy. Being away from home was hard, making friends was hard, getting up and going to school each day was hard, having to put on a happy face for his family and the people at school was hard. Jason wanted his older, si...