Sometimes, things could only get worse before they'd get better.

Screw this homework. Screw it. Ignacio didn't give a s**t if he failed the assignment. All he needed to do was pass the class, and a D was still passing. It wasn't stellar, and there was no way he was going anywhere but the local state college, but he honestly didn't care. The last set of grades on his record were his standardized tests, and those were good. Stupid admissions office could forgive a typically bad final semester.

So Ignacio was more inclined to lay the backpack at the edge of the couch, while he laid down and played ping-pong with the ceiling. Could he make an honest dent in the ceiling? It was a more interesting theory to test than the theories his math class threw at him, and so, he started hitting the ball when he came back down to his paddle harder and harder and harder and harder--

--until it lodged itself in the ceiling. Whoops. Ignacio grinned at the ceiling and grinned at the paddle, before dropping it next to his still unopened backpack.

Now what?

Maybe he could watch the television. Ignacio reached for the remote to find it wasn't there. Confused, he moved his hand around the end table to make sure he hadn't moved it, before he heard an, "Ehem." Oh crap.

"Hi Papa." Ignacio chuckled nervously, moving his hand back to his side to glance up at the figure which seemed intimidating from his position down on the couch.

"Ignacio. Cesar. Araya."

...Middle name?

"Have you finished your work?"

The assumption was no. When Ignacio opened his mouth to make excuses, Baldomero glared down at him and continued talking anyway. "No? You should do it. You should do it right. now."

And Ignacio didn't want to. So, instead, he shrugged. "No." First mistake. And then he reached for the television remote Mr. Baldomero Ignacio Araya was holding tightly in his hand. He pulled it away from Ignacio, and glared harder. Second mistake.

"Ignacio, I don't think you understand what I said. You should do your work. Right. NOW."

"I did understand what you said," snarked Ignacio, with a smirk of disobedience shining on his face. "And I'm not doing it."

Third mistake. Final mistake.

"IGNACIO CESAR ARAYA." Baldomero kicked the couch, making Ignacio jump and whirl around to look at him. There was tangible fear in his eyes; why was Papa looking at him like that? Ignacio had snorted fire out of his nose; Baldomero's very eyes were made of fire. He fiddled nervously and glanced towards the wall, but Baldomero turned his head so it was facing back to him. "Listen to me.

"Despite what I tell you, despite what I've always told you, despite what you've gone through, you still do nothing productive. You lodged a ball in the ceiling!" Looked like Papa noticed. Whoops. "You haven't started on your college applications. You won't do any of your assignments and you've already come back with multiple Fs."

"On Pop Quizz--"

"THAT'S NO EXCUSE." And Ignacio shushed himself again, though this time, instead of fear, equal anger burned in his eyes at being interrupted. "There is no excuse for your inability to do anything. If you keep at this same pattern, you'll end up worse off than those other sufferers in that organ trafficking ring of yours! Nothing's worse than someone who was given a second chance who throws it to the wind!"

Ignacio was furious. Boiling. "DON'T YOU DARE SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN."

And then, "You, Ignacio Cesar, never tell me what to say. You're going to become a bum if you talk like your superiors like that. Unemployed forever. And then you'll have no money. No friends. No love. No shelter."

Baldomero thought he was fixing things with these statements?! He was ruining things. Bringing up bad situations and bad grades and continuously nagging and insisting that he would waste his chances and become nothing but a lowlife... He was done. "FINE." And Ignacio scooped up his backpack, shoving by Baldomero. "Have it your way."

And Baldomero thought this was good. Finally, the boy was listening. It was only when the boy returned back to him twenty minutes later with a loaded backpack, a fanny pack, a coat and a sleeping bag attached to his backpack that Baldomero said, "Ignacio Cesar Araya, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"If you think I'll be a bum if I keep living like this, might-as-well get a headstart."

He turned around and smirked. And that was the last his family saw of his face before the front door shut.

Slam.

Sometimes, things could only hit rock bottom before they got any better.