Throughout his life, Michael Baker has always been middle of the road. The best way to describe him was average.
His life has always been average. He's lived in an average home, in an average neighborhood and in an average town. He's have had the same grades, social life and even experiences that is nothing short of average.
There is nothing really spectacular about him, honestly. He's not trying to start a pity party because believe him, he's have loved it every single minute of it, being just a middle of the road schmuck.
There was no pressure to succeed as much as his older siblings. Michael was not some physical specimen like his older brother, Forrest, who has a full ride to play football to the University of Michigan. He was also not an intelligent creature like his sister, Gracelynn, that was able to graduate high school at 16 and go to the University of Chicago on a full academic scholarship either.
Pfft. Even their names were nothing short of extraordinary, way different than Michael.
Michael even knows deep down inside that my parents don't even notice me that he is there, after all, he was an afterthought since they wanted just two kids. He was the afterthought after a perfect marriage of a perfectly planned household of two kids and then he came along.
Even his name was just so common....Michael. He knew about twelve Michaels in school and he was always the forgotten Michael which is strange to him considering he was the first you'd find on an attendance sheet or yearbook.
But Michael did not fuss too much. He was perfectly okay blending into the background and just being this average individual. He was no introvert, in fact, he was known for being a little chatty for the most part that can some time turn some people of, but that was all that was for him.
He was just the extra in the motion picture that is high school with the smart students, hot jocks and other misfits that are more prominent than he is.
He thought going to college would be different, but knowing his average grades would only get him as far as a community college. Even then, he was just a low run of the mule student who kept to himself and didn't want to try something out of the ordinary.
He was fine blending in thank you very much. He was fine with his ordinary and average looks, body, height, weight, and everything in between. He was not someone people would stop and stare or be perplexed and capture his beauty and looks.
One thing that Michael thought was something out of the ordinary for him, finally...something, was his sexuality.
Being a nobody, he never really thought about attraction to anyone perhaps because no one even noticed him. Over the years he thought that his average sensibility made him asexual, but in reality he just hadn't found that special moment that made his hormones skyrocket.
That changed in high school and noticed all the hot guys that his brother would bring to the house. He would peek out of his room window and see them play any type of sport imaginable. Sometimes they would be shirtless, sometimes they were not.
He also remembered the different snooty and intellectual boys that his sister would bring home. They were a walking encyclopedia of class and culture that made him feel smart, for a lack of a better term.
Michael couldn't help his libido whenever all these types of different male creatures came to his house. His two siblings were very popular which meant, different groups of people coming to be entertained at his house, and that included a lot of popular and attractive male guests.
He knew deep inside that no one noticed him. How could these people possibly even see him at his own home when they didn't even know who he was at school? Knowing his siblings, they would have never acknowledged he was their brother.
It was bad enough that he was just this average nobody at school, now he had to be some average nobody at home too!
Since his siblings could do no wrong, his parents would let them have parties and other social gatherings at their place. That made Forrest and Gracelynn even more popular, and Michael even more frustrated.
Whenever his siblings would have a party or a social gathering, they gave him an ultimatum, either stay in room or get out of the house. There was no way in hell he would be a part of these gatherings.
It was 9 times out 10 that he spent those nights locked up in his room. He tried to use that time to either study or watch some Netflix but the loud thumping, accompanied by trap beats and laughter made this extremely impossible.
So he turned to the next thing that made him more than ordinary, his love of music. He considered himself an arbitrary lover of music. From the classical to the modern, the symphony to the beat, he loved music and talking about it.
His group of friends from high school, the ones that he would consider friends were not the most intellectual or social to talk to, so he couldn't do much there. Most of the time at school he would listed to music on his phone and fly away to an experience with the music.
He wanted to go into Music Production and become a music producer and engineer but knew that would be to out of left field. Either he would have to move to a major city like Los Angeles and New York to start somewhere or go to a major university and major in such a program.
Both of those methods seemed to farfetch'd for him considering the options were vastly impossible for someone like him.
Moving to a new city would seem exciting but he was also not stupid. He would need to be financially sufficient for such a thing to happen and that method would take years!
Getting a degree from a major university would be the best option but the options to transfer to a major university would be a burden financially and academically. Also, he didn't have the patience to handle all the snobbery that comes from being part of a music conservatory or major university.
He was at his wits end, with that type of exciting career prospect. So Michael had no other choice but to go to the next best thing...creative writing.
Nothing against creative writing Michael would say, it's just something that he knew was far out of his zone when writing was involved. He wasn't that talented in many things so writing was something that he could do.
He's always envisioned himself living in a trendy apartment in a chic and hipster part of a major city. Being from Michigan, the closest city would be Detroit, but he had bigger ambitions that he needed to fulfill and Detroit wouldn't cut it.
Maybe he could become a music writer, create a music blog or become a writer for a local newspaper that delved into local music scene. Anything could be possible.
But what couldn't be possible was the function that his brother had dragged the family to. A function that his mother forced him to go to. She added that it would show family unity for such a stressful time in his brothers life. Michael knew that to be a complete and utter lie.
"You need to be more appreciative of your brother," said his mother. "He is doing amazing things, you should be more like him, it wouldn't hurt to have some determination in your life."
Michael scoffed it off. It was always the same ole' same ole' with her.
In reality, he knew that his full ride athletic program would give him the best resources available and would still pass while doing the bare minimum. Sure, Forrest was a great player, one of the best tight ends in college football for pete's sake!
The Baker family were close to the stage in the hall, since they had a huge star in the family, it was fitting they were close to the action.
Every head honcho in the University of Michigan and donor was here along with professional coaches and staffers in football. It was a big celebration for the football team as they would welcome new football players and say goodbye to those that either have been drafter or graduating.
All of this was quizzically boring for Michael as he was never a big sports person to begin with.
His father learned that the hard way when he tried to have him play every sport imaginable. It didn't work out for him and only made him more scorned and forgotten by his father. I mean even the sister played sports so how could he be so utterly useless.
His father was an old fashioned red blooded American and his son being such a wimp was a big no-no. He was never talked about by the family when it came to accomplishments.
"Forget it Maureen, the boy is useless," gruffed out Frank, his red blooded American dad.
Michael rolled his eyes, he long gave up to appease his father and now just saw him as someone who he just had to get along with. For both of their sake considering he still lived in his house.
He noticed his brother hanging out with the rest of the big football players in the team. He was a great player of remarkable talent and wit and had the looks and charisma to show it. He had shiny black hair like coal and dazzling ocean blue eyes, that brought everyone to a standstill.
Michael always wondered how he could have siblings such as Forrest and Gracelynn when they were the epitome of beauty and perfection and he was....well, you know, average.
His sister was on the other side of the round table, looking the ever beautiful and charismatic. Her long black hair pulled high beauty queen style and contoured for the ages. She was on the prowl, obviously looking for a suitable football player to snag her teeth and manicured fingernails to.
She had an evil look in her eyes, like she was ready to attack and meet her new date for the next following weeks. The determined look in both of his siblings' eyes always made him scared to be quite honest.
Unlike his parents who tried to pretend he did not exist, his siblings made sure of the fact that he was the forgotten and ugly duckling of the family.
See unlike his siblings who were tanned beauties of black hair and blue eyes, Michael was as said before...average. He has red hair that looked like fire, pale skin and smattering of freckles across his face that looked like he had grainy sand thrown at him and a prominent nose.
When they were little Gracelynn and Forrest would joke that Michael looked like Linguini from the film Ratatouille. Being a young boy then, it bothered and flustered the poor boy but grew to hold it with pride considering that was his favorite Pixar movie.
Gracelynn threw a sneer at Michael and swiveled closer to Frank. Being the only daughter, she was the apple to his eye and was daddy's little girl.
