Falling Like The Stars || UNDER HEAVY EDITION ||

Fifteen

The alarm triggered in my ears. The first few minutes were lazed by hiding myself under the pillowcase or pulling the blanket over me. I fiercely hated awakening to dominating noise pollution. Nevertheless, the alarm won the match—and the award was merely my deafened ears.

"Why the heck don't you just stop?!" I screeched as I turned down the horrendous clock.

"Because you're late for school, Blake." A known voice laughed at me. George. I didn't expect to see him standing in the doorway with a modified camera.

It almost looked like he was clicking pictures of me while sleeping. I cringed to the fact that he waited there the whole night, darting pictures of my clumsy stature rolling up and down in the bed, in the awful pajamas which tend to leave the stench of unwashed socks. I gulped at the consideration of the perplexing etiquettes I perform at night, striving to scuff my back when the perspiration bizarrely transformed into itches.

The facts instantly turned into a nightmare.

"And what're you doing here...?"

"Testing the camera your dad bought for me. He said you needed protection."

Embarrassment hammered me with a bang. "Oh, right. So you've been here for...?"

"Fifteen minutes. I assumed you'd acquire some privacy. Was I wrong?"

Nothing could have been more blissful. Relaxation swept over me. "George, you seriously are a hell of a sibling I've got."

"Oh."

Christ!   "It was a compliment. You're awesome!"

He smiled wryly and stormed out of the way. I could bet this was the best feeling ever: less weird, more me. If that ever made sense to anyone.

I sarcastically turned towards the clock. My ecstasy was sucked down the drains. I was tremendously late. The one thing I loathed doing, although highlighting the aspect that the teachers would barely even mind if I shot up extremely delayed in the middle of school hours. Honestly, they wouldn't even notice my presence if I actually happened to attend the class—I'm the invisible "someone" seated across the back of the grade, without name, fame or game.

Nevertheless, I grew up hating being behind schedule, and I was determined to stick to it, since not going doesn't stand the millimeter of a fortune. The next few moments passed like a lightning bolt. My hands pulled and shoved at everything that my wardrobe stuffed, and I wasn't sure if I wore the right pair of socks, but for the matter of time, everything was a screwed up process anyway.

The last thing I knew was that I was putting on my tubes dexterously under my nose, the façade refining the look. I flit down the staircase in a half-walk, half-run prospect. Then, I found myself dumbfounded in the dining hall.

And I repeat, dumbfounded.

Josh was saying something. His expression reflected graveness. Danny and George were seated at the far corner, letting Julie and Debbie grasp the depth of the circumstance. Ben, as always, vanished in the thin air. Air, which I couldn't endure.

"What?" The words stumbled out of my mouth. I glanced at the seated residents, and was charmingly surprised that mom and Mariana kept their heads low. Something was definitely eerie about the scenario.