Chapter 2: Sloth
If this is your first introduction to my story series "The Children of Sin," let me suggest reading the first chapter, entitled "Children of Sin, Chapter 1: Lust." In it, we were introduced to Leslie, both master and victim to her personal sin, Lust. Her secret was soon found out by the hero of this chapter, Samuel, the child of Sloth. This chapter focuses more on his character, but I hope to continue to elaborate on both characters throughout the rest of the Sin series (hopefully to cover all seven deadly sins, and possibly an epilogue now that I think of it). These chapters are pretty lengthy, as I try to focus as much attention to detail on the inner workings of the characters as possible. If you like what you read, please tell me so, because it just might encourage me to write the next chapters faster.
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Samuel was a lazy slob. Sure, one could argue for his good grades, his great talents in art and the written word, and his highly sensitive nature. He was well liked by many people, although shunned by the more popular kids in his school. He was labeled as a geek often, and most of it stemmed from his shyness and his fashion choices. He wore very loose-fitting clothes, was very quiet and shy by nature, and enjoyed spending his lunch hour sitting outside reading a new science-fiction novel (when the weather permitted). He didn't try out for any team sports, even though he had some good height (about 6' tall) and agility from his days skateboarding around his home town. He had a very attractive face, and kept in pretty good shape (despite his growing paunch). His Korean eyes were such a startling deep black color, it was sometimes hard to see the black iris in the middle in certain lights. Despite his being born with naturally shiny, straight black hair, he had made the choice to start dying it a couple years ago (a choice that got him a lot of grief from his mother, but being a professor at the nearby college, she eventually learned to accept it as a part of his developing self-image). He had gone through a few odd colors before finally settling on a nice, burnt orange color, and his loose, shabby appearance had recently earned him the nickname "Shaggy" from a number of his "sk8r" friends, as his hair resembled the style and color of the Scooby Doo character of the same name. Samuel hated being called "Sam" or "Sammy" (even his mother never called him that), and he was a generally well-adjusted guy.
It just hurt him sometimes to hear people talk about him behind his back, or see how certain more attractive people acted towards other "non-conformists" like him. He was well liked among the geeks, the band nerds, the FFA nerds, the computer nerds, the goths, the freaks, the skaters, the metal-heads, the "gangsta-wannabes," and even the pot-heads. Samuel had experimented with pot a few times, and enjoyed the feeling he got when he got buzzed, but he wasn't that crazy about it. His real passion was his artwork and his writing. His dream was to write novels (mostly science-fiction) and illustrate them. He had even gotten around to story-boarding some ideas for a comic-book, drawn in the popular Japanese "manga" style.
But all this didn't change the fact that he was a lazy bastard. In the past couple years, the frequency of his personal artwork and writings were dwindling down. At first, he blamed it on school. He was often in school well after it ended, mostly struggling with an art project of some sort, but even then he would often leave those after-hours sessions early to skate with some friends around the college campus in town. He just was too distracted by his life as a care-free high school senior to be motivated enough to finish any of his work, and unfortunately his grades were starting to show it. Samuel decided to really work his ass off this last semester, cutting a lot of his skateboarding time so he could keep his nearly flawless 3.7 GPA. He was in the top 10th percentile in his school, and would graduate probably in the top ten of his class as well. His ACT and SAT scores were terrific, and he had already been accepted and was being fought over by a number of good schools in the country, although he figured he might end up simply going to his mom's school. He just hadn't made up his mind yet, and for some reason he was sure taking his sweet time doing it. Despite his best intentions, Samuel found himself distracted by outside forces once again. And this one was named Leslie Daniels.
Samuel simply couldn't believe that it had happened. When he woke up that morning, he had nearly convinced himself that it had all been a dream. The events from yesterday afternoon were simply too good to be true, but it had happened. He had not only convinced the sexiest, most beautiful, and most unattainable girl in school to go to the prom with him, but he actually found himself witnessing and becoming a part of one of the most unbelievable sexual adventures he'd ever had. It was all too bizarre to believe, but at the same time, too bizarre to have simply dreamed. He couldn't wait to tell his friends...
He froze, and remembered the promise he had made. She didn't want him to tell anyone about their dating, let alone her secret. Leslie had the image of an absolute angel, completely unattainable and irresistible to just about every guy in his school. She was extremely intelligent, and it had been her writing (as well as her stunning body and gorgeous face) that had first attracted Samuel's attention. They had only talked with each other a couple of times before that fateful day, usually always with great cordiality and a few laughs, and he had fallen desperately for her. She was, for all intensive purposes,
the
perfect woman. It wasn't until yesterday that he decided to muster-up the courage to ask her to the prom, despite his horrible luck with women and their greatly differing social statuses in their school. But now, against all odds, he found himself involved in a truly strange relationship with this goddess of a girl. A very strange relationship. Not only had he stumbled upon a soft part of her heart, he had also stumbled upon one of her darkest secrets, and he knew exactly what would happen if this information ever found its way into the school's rumor-mill. They had to be careful, he knew this, despite a hidden want to be able to brag about his "amazing conquest of the unconquerable goddess."
He had to chuckle at that thought as he lay in bed. Shaking the last remaining cobwebs of sleep from his head, he knew himself better than to pull some stupid popularity stunt like that. Maybe if he were two years younger, he would have considered it, but he was 18 years old now, an adult. This was the last year that he would have to ever deal with the petty crap that went on in high school. So what if everyone thought he was a luckless nerd? It wasn't like he was going to be seeing the majority of these people next year anyway (unless, of course, he decided to stay closer to home for college next year, in which case the chances of seeing these people greatly improved). He looked at his clock, and just about jumped out of his bed when he realized it was nearly 10 o'clock.
"Shit! Not again!" the newly revived teenager cursed at himself. He'd been late to school
way
too often this past year, and now, if he hurried, he might be able to make it to his third class. He scrambled to put on some pants. Thank God he had started the habit of showering late at night and wearing a clean T-shirt and underwear to bed, because it really helped to shave time when he found himself in such a predicament. He didn't once stop to wonder why his alarm-clock wasn't buzzing, nor why his mother hadn't woken him up; he knew he had a habit of forgetting to set his alarm-clock, and his mom was often forced to leave the house before he needed to wake up for school. He just scrambled to grab his books and his shoes. Suddenly, he heard a voice.
"Samuel! Are you up yet?" Mom? Why is she still here? Shouldn't she be at work by now... And that's when Samuel realized that it was Saturday. No school today, buddy. He chuckled and shook his head, embarrassed by his mad dash to make it to a non-existent class. He wondered if he'd ever be in the same situation in college.
This past year, Samuel's mom had been more and more lenient with her son. Time was that if she was needed in the office by 6 a.m., she had her youngest son up and ready to go to school the minute she woke up (usually closer to 4:00). Even during the weekend, she used to wake him up if he wasn't out of bed by 8. Now, she just let him sleep. Maybe she was learning to respect her son's awkward sleep-patterns since he became the "man" of the house. Or, more likely, she was simply letting him get as comfortable at home as possible in a final attempt to keep him there for college. Samuel wasn't necessarily thrilled about staying home to go to the same college where his mom worked, but he didn't hate the idea either. His mom had been good to him, if somewhat strict with his studies. He knew she wanted the best possible future for him. Being a Korean immigrant and raising two sons alone hadn't been the easiest for her or her family, but they were doing quite well. Samuel's mother was a rather well respected professor of economics at her University, and had traveled the world, helping businesses in developing countries to grow into powerful worldwide corporations. She told him once that she had helped the Daewoo Auto Makers in South Korea grow in the U.S. market, or something like that. Even though she would have preferred to keep her sons in better private schools, both sons rebelled and told her of their intentions to go to public school when they were much younger, and by the time they had moved into this neighborhood, Samuel was finally able to enroll in the local public elementary school in his 6th grade. That's kind of how the house worked when Samuel's older brother, Michael, was still living with them; a democracy, all important decisions made by two-thirds vote. Now, he was in his first year of medical school in Boston, far, far away, and it was much more a question of not ticking mom off with his latest antics.
As Samuel walked into the kitchen of their house, he saw his mother, in her usual business attire, cooking up some eggs and brewing up a pot of coffee. "Wow, she's really laying it on thick today," Samuel mused to himself as he sat down at the kitchen table.
"Samuel, are you finally up for the day?" his mom asked him with her thick Korean accent and her usual smile.
