Da Capo [dah kah-poh] n. - From the beginning

Zitao groaned, blindly searching for his phone as it continued to vibrate. He was a light sleeper so keeping his alarm only on vibrate sufficed but now he was having second thoughts. He buried his face in his pillow out of frustration as his arm continued its hunt for the darn device.

"It’s too early for this" he moaned after two minutes of fruitless exploration. Through his sleepy haze, the teen wondered why he even had his alarm set in the first place.

A light bulb lit in his head, flashing brightly in his mind. He hastily scrambled up, hitting his knee against the wall in the process. With a quick curse under his breath, he threw his covers off. Immediately, he spotted the annoying, vibrating phone and proceeded to turn off the alarm before throwing it back on the bed.

School.

That’s why he had to get up at such an ungodly hour.

‘Waking up at 6:00 should be illegal’ he thought to himself as he stretched a bit. Rubbing the back of his neck as he yawned, Zitao slowly trudged his way to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth rather sleepily, and his thoughts wandered, only to come back to the topic of school.

Seoul School for the Performing Arts to be exact.

The creative writer was nervous yet excited at the same time. He still couldn’t believe he got in. His dream school. The moment he heard about the place, he knew he wanted to go there. He just had to. Now he was on the way to achieving his goal.

Sighing contentedly, Zitao the sink to spit out the toothpaste. He washed his mouth before grabbing cleanser to wash his face. Patting his face dry with a towel once he was done, the teen walked back to his room to change into the set of clothes he had set out the night before.

The guidance department had told him the school required uniforms the day he and his mom had went to go register. Pants had to be khakis, navy blue, blue jeans, or black. Shirts were polos in the school colors (teal, purple, and black) or the standard navy blue or white. Shoes had to be closed heel and once I.D’s were distributed, they had to be worn at all times. Zitao didn’t really mind the uniforms much. The ones back in China were stricter and less comfy.

Grabbing his backpack from beside his desk, he took one last look at himself in the mirror. He couldn’t find anything to criticize so he took it as a good sign. Smiling slightly, he walked out of his room and into the kitchen.

“Morning Zitao,” his mom greeted him as he stopped to savor the smell of fresh pancakes.

“Morning mom!” he chirped back, giving her a back hug and kiss on the cheek. “Smells good.”

“There’s a plate for you on the table. What time does your bus come?”

Zitao hummed as he got seated at the small dining table. He doused his pancakes in maple syrup before replying, “7:15.”

“Are you walking to your bus stop?”

“Yep.”

A comfortable silence settled upon the two as Zitao’s mother finished up the last batch of pancakes. Turning off the stove, she placed the pan into the sink and grabbed her own plate of pancakes. She settled into the chair across from him afterwards. Instead of eating however, she merely gazed at him with a mixture of amusement and fondness as he inhaled the pancakes.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?”

She shook her head as he looked up at her. “They said I could come in later today.”

He nodded his head as he got up to get another plate of pancakes.

It had been a long time since he ate breakfast with his mother, or any meal for that matter. A very long time.

‘Ever since the divorce’ he mused bitterly.

He suddenly felt like he wasn’t hungry anymore. Sighing, he placed his plate in the sink. The black-haired teen grasped a cup from the dish washing rack as he turned around to pour himself milk. Holding it in his hand, he plopped back down into his seat.

Zitao absentmindedly stared out at the lakefront in his backyard, his thoughts wandering as it always did.

“Are you excited?”

His mother’s question snapped him out of his reverie. Glancing at her, he gave a shy, yet happy smile. “Yeah.” The excitement came back to him in that moment, causing his