Story: beginning.

Paul had always liked his small town: he was afraid of the city and he was never interested in the big dreams some of his classmates had of going to New York, Paris, London or even Dublin. He had always loved here and he never strayed more then a mile from his house, except for school; which was three miles from his home. His parents had never brought him anywhere besides the local grocery store and he had never expressed a wish to go there. He was a quiet and simple boy, but he was arrogant; he thought he knew how he wanted to live his life.

His daily routine was very much set in stone: he got up every morning at seven, so as he would have time to brush his teeth, wash his face and have a cup of tea and a slice of toast before grabbing his bag and ambling at his own leisure to the point at which the school bus collected him, every morning except on weekends, it arrived at 7:45 precisely, and every morning Paul arrived at 7:40, just in case the bus should come early. Every morning, the bus would reach Paul's school at 8:30, having stopped several times to pick up students after Paul. Paul always sat in the second row from the front, by the window, and his friend, Clyde would sit beside him. I guess you could say Clyde and Paul were best friends, but it was more because they had been assigned seats beside each other on the first day than anything else. On Monday mornings, Clyde would over-excitedly describe in great detail the happenings of his weekend and Paul would attempt to look interested. In truth, Paul didn't really like Clyde all that much, he found him tedious, but he wasn't bothered enough to do anything about it. On every morning but Monday, Paul and Clyde would discuss homework, or rather, Clyde would discuss his homework and Paul would make an effort to look like he was listening. Some mornings Clyde would talk about the weather as well, but the subject matter never strayed from mundane things. 

Paul was an average student. He always had his homework in on time, which, at first, his teachers had been impressed by; but he was neither diligent nor did he ever show any initiative, he did only the bare minimal and so they soon lost interest.

Paul was humble, content; he had no expectations nor did he have any goals. He wanted nothing from anyone and so; he gave nothing and recieved nothing in return.