Aries

1

My dad is a genius.

Don't get me wrong, he's still socially an idiot, and generally useless in any situation that doesn't involve mega hyper quantum mechanics or whatever, but he's still incredibly smart.

He's currently giving a facetimed lecture to his online class, but if he wasn't a professor, he would probably be working on another one of his "projects" he stows in every nook and cranny of the house, which mostly consist of tiny batteries with circuits as he tries to discover a way to loop energy in infinity.

Parents. Gotta love them.

After what feels like an eternity, my father's end-of-class alarm goes off on his watch. "... and that's all the time we have for today. Your homework is to finish the equation I just sent all of you." He signs off, takes a deep breath, and turns to me. "How's it going, Aaron?"

I roll out from under his car, grease coating my hands, arms, and probably my face too. "It's going," I say as I sit up to grab a rag and wipe my face off. "I still don't know how you took the brake pads off without a basic understanding of how a toaster works, though."

He waves a hand dismissively, "That doesn't matter. What does matter is what you want for dinner."

"Food," I remark, "preferably cooked. Not that charcoal you call a brisket." We smile at each other, though his seems pained.

"Yeah yeah, thanks for that." He steps out of his "office" (which is just a corner of our garage he managed to decorate just enough to look like it's organized) and to the kitchen door. "Wash up soon for dinner, alright?"

"Okay." I wheel myself back under the car and keep working.

.   .   .

After dinner, (ramen noodles. Again.) I go to my room and log onto Discord. Only one of my friends is online, the silent prodigy known to us only as "Z." They won't let any of us know their true name, gender, place they live, or even if they have pets. They've remained a mystery since we met them as a complete fluke.

I log in as CanisMajor12, a name inspired by my Mom's favorite constellation. "Yo Z, what's up?"

"The sky, of course." Classic Z and their apparent lack of humor. You get used to it after a while. "What are you thinking about?"

The question seemed to arise from nowhere. "Well... my Mom, I guess." I decided to quickly change the subject. "Oh, and baseball. Baseball is coming up soon too."

"I see." Z spends a few minutes typing each response, either because they think about everything excessively or because they're just slow. "You'll be finishing your high school classes soon, correct?"

"Yeah, sometime in mid June. I'll probably go to University of California, if I'm able to get in. My dad might be able to pull a few strings." Before Z could reply, a notification for a skype call pops up on my screen. "Sorry Z, I have to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

I close out of Discord and join the call to greet a battle-hardened soldier stationed in Iran.

"Hi Mom."

Hi everyone! Sorry it took so long, I've been trying to think up a good plotline for this story and I finally have one I like! Sorry for the short chapter, but I'm running low on energy and brain space for now. Feel free to Vote and Comment on the story, tell me what you think so far (despite having almost nothing to go off of). Thanks, I'll see you all next time!