Thermophile

PART ONE: One: Abduction

The annoying buzzing of my alarm clock woke me. My limbs were like the heaviest objects in the world that it took me a solid two minutes to move and to silence the noisy thing.

Contented of the quiet, I laid in my bed and stared at the white ceiling full of glow in the dark stars. A sigh bubbled out of me, "Two more days before school," I murmured with my just-woke-up raspy voice.

"Kat! Come down already, we're going to be late!"

Ugh. Who got late when they were only going for a run?

"Don't make me come up there!"

Apparently my brother did. Why was I going with him again? Oh, right I lost on a freaking Mario Cart video game bet. If he would've just let me win and didn't had to be a hardass, I would've left him alone after I made him help me with my ten-page paper about Marie Antoinette. But noooo, he just had to beat me and take me to freaking run when the sun itself was just waking up-not even one of its rays peeked from the dark-blue horrizon. He even made me set the time on my alarm clock, to which I thought wouldn't be of no use until the school started.

I heard Leib's pounding footsteps on the stairs of our humble home. Not a minute passed and my door swung open, revealing my hyper big brother, who was dressed in gray free-arm tank and dark blue track pants. The light on his smiling face was enough to brighten my lamp-lit room.

He wasted no time launching himself on the bed and started bouncing. "Wake up, sunshine!" His booming voice filled the room.

Gah! I presented him my back, curled to my side, and slipped my blue blanket over my head.

"You lost the bet so you have to honor your word,"

I grunted. Where were we, in the olden times?

He somehow managed to find my shoulders over the blanket and started to shake me. "Come oooon, little sis. You cannot just stay here all day, that's what you've been doing since summer break started. It's turning you into a hard core hermit."

I whipped the cover off my face to retort and to get air. I was suffocating under there. "For your information, I went out with Les yesterday." Leib's hold disappeared.

"Yeah, you walked to the beach and returned after an hour." He deadpanned, crossing his arms over his chest.

Why you little-I grabbed the dolphin-stuffy beside me and hit him with it.

He just laughed and dodged while I tried my best to smack his pretty-boy face.

"I'll wait for you downstairs," he cheerily said and skipped out of my bedroom.

I looked up at the ceiling and plead for a rain to disrupt Leib's plan. Not that I was not athletic, but I was just complaining. I like to run sometimes-okay, when I really needed to burn fats-but not on breaks. All I wanted to was wake up late, chill, eat, stare at the sunset seated on the sands by the beach, eat, sleep, and the cycle went on and on and on until school started again.

"Kat! Did you flush yourself in the toilet?"

Gah, he was so impatient! I heard my Dad yell at Leib to tone it down. We were such a lovely and energetic family in the morning.

I irritably rolled my blanket into a ball and punched it before I stomped to my bathroom. Brushed teeth, showered, and changed into black jogging pants and red oversized tee. Barefoot, I went down the stairs to find my running shoes.

"Jeez, did you even comb your hair?" Came Leib's voice. He was seated on the peach, flowery couch backed on the white wall beside the stair rails.

I shrugged, "You were rushing me." To prove that I didn't care that my hair was still dripping wet, I flipped it in his direction hoping to spray him with some water from my hair and tied it in a high, messy ponytail.