Tate

Chapter 5

Okay, so my legal name is Tate and every time I get a new teacher they call me that and I wince and correct them. It's a pain but I realize that they learn to catch on eventually and I forget that they said it in the first place. 

My classmates tend to ignore me so I don't have to worry too much about them. Faith says that if I didn't ignore them so much then they wouldn't ignore me but I'm not completely sure what she's talking about.

I've done a lot of research on names and the meanings of them. I have to find one that fits after all. 

Tate: Cheerful. Origin: Old Norse aka Scandinavian 

It's not that I'm not happy, but I am definitely not cheerful. Plus it was originally a girl's name. 

Max: Greatest. Origin: Latin 

All I can say about that one is I'm definitely Ethan's favorite.

Eli: Elevated. Origin: Hebrew 

It's not that Tate is a bad name or anything, it's just that It doesn't fit me at all. That's what mom and dad called me and moms gone and dad is not coming back. 

Tate is what the cops called me. It's what the paramedics called me. It's what the social worker called me. None of them are gonna see Tate again, which means I'm not Tate. 

I'm not sure where I came up with the name Eli. I'm sure I read it in a comic or saw it on TV somewhere. All I know is that at some point, I wanted to be a new person and I became one and that's what people started calling me. Of course, I couldn't have people calling me Max because Ethan has been calling me that since I was born and so that name belongs to him. 

So I'm Max, I'm Eli, sometimes I'm Tate.

All I know is that I don't exist.