4 years later
It was just minutes before school was being let out. We weren’t doing anything, just watching a movie in my Language Arts class. It wasn’t a normal school day, either. It was the last day of school. I wasn’t all that anxious to get out, because that’d mean I’d go to my three month anti-social coma for that long. Ever since my parents died, I lost my friends, and I was now an anti-social. I couldn’t make new friends for whatever reason. I guess I was afraid I’d lose them, too.
The bell rang, and I was the last one out. The screams of joy were to the roof, and I just sat there as they piled out. End of sophomore year. Got two more to go.
“Kairi.” My Language Arts teacher called before I left. “Take care of yourself.”
“You too.” I said before leaving. I was the last one out of the classroom, but not the school. I was first out of the school. Everyone was saying their goodbyes to their friends, throwing old homework at their teachers. I had no reason to do all that. I just didn’t.
I boarded the Las Vegas Girls Home bus and waited for the others. There were four girls that went to my school that live at the Girls Home. Of course, they all had friends while I didn’t. Once they boarded we drove off, and I looked back at the place I wouldn’t see for three months.
Once we arrived, I got off quickly and made my way inside. The girls were talking about summer plans, not like they could go anywhere, anyway. But they all had friends, so they could hang out together. But it seemed I was destined to be alone.
I trudged up to my room, avoiding the girls as I made my way through. I was glad I didn’t have a roommate. It meant I could be alone for a while. I felt the tears form in my eyes slowly.
Today wasn’t just the last day of school. It was the anniversary of my parent’s death.
~~~~~~~~~~
The week flew by. A week of summer was gone, only eleven more to go. So far I’ve daydreamed of all my family together again, like we were on Christmas morning. The one day we were all together in a year. Not even our birthdays mattered. Just Christmas. So I thought of the ones I could remember, from when I was five to ten. Five good Christmases. But that one day would make me last the rest of the year.
A knock on the door shook me from my thoughts. “Come in.” I called, and Ms. Tranton poked her head in, the one who answered the door for me four years ago. “Yes?”
“You have a visitor.” She told me, and I let out a deep breath.
“Damn it.” I muttered to myself as I pushed myself off the bed. Sometimes, my parents’ co-workers would stop by every now and then to check up on me. It would go like this:
“Hi.” I said.
“Hello. You doing alright?” Whoever stopped by would ask.
“Yeah, fine. Do you know where my siblings are?”
“No. Sorry.” And they’d leave. That’d be it.
I made my way down the stairs slowly, going through all the people that could stop by. I turned my head to see who it was, and I stopped. I stopped moving and breathing, I couldn’t feel my legs, and I was getting dizzy. My eyes were just on the figure, and wouldn’t move. It sorta looked like…
Suddenly I could feel my legs, and I sprinted down the rest of the stairs and jumped into the figure. I still wasn’t sure who it was, but I was pretty sure.
“Nathan?” I asked him. It was the only word I could say.
“Kairi.” The figure said, arms wrapped around me. It was Nathan.
I broke from him for a second. “How’d you find me?” I asked, and the tears started to form. But they weren’t sad tears. They were happy. And for the first time in four years, I smiled.
“It wasn’t easy. After driving around Vegas for a while, here I am.” He replied, placing a stray lock of hair behind my ear.
“Where’d you go for four years?” I asked, although I don’t think I wanted to hear the answer.
“I, uh, kinda went to… jail.” He replied, rubbing his neck nervously. But then the sad tears came.
“Jail?” I whined, dipping my head so he couldn’t see my raging eyes. “They put you in jail?”
“Yeah, but hey, I’m okay.” He replied, bringing me back into a hug. And then I realized it wasn’t just us.
“Serah?” I asked the twelve year old. She nodded, and I broke from Nathan to hug her.
“Hey sis.” Serah said, and the happy tears were back. “Long time no see, huh?”
“Too long.” I replied, and I realized we were both crying.
“Yeah, I found out that she actually got adopted.” Nathan told me, and I looked back at Serah. “It took me forever to convince them I was her brother.”
“Yeah, they wouldn’t even let me see him because they thought he was lying.” Serah said, and I shook my head out of shock.
“Really?” I asked, being the only word I could say.
“Yep! But I’m glad he got me away. I hated them.” Serah replied.
“Oh. That’s good, I guess.” I answered, and I heard Ms. Tranton from behind us.
“Visiting hours are almost over. Kairi, it’s almost dinner.” She said, her arms crossed.
“Oh, Ms. Tranton…” I started, looking over at Nathan and Serah again. “These are my siblings.”
“Alright. I’m sorry, but we must ask you to leave.” Ms. Tranton said harshly.
Nathan stepped out in front of me. “This is my sister. I’m taking her home.”
“Not without the proper paperwork.” She replied. Nathan looked over at me funny.
“Wait, I have to adopt you?” He asked, and I dipped my head. I heard him sigh.
“Come. Right this way.” Ms. Tranton said, and Nathan followed her into the other room, leaving Serah and I in the foyer.
After what seemed like years Nathan came out of the room, rubbing his wrist. “You belong to me now.” He laughed.
“Oh yeah, let’s see how far that gets you.” I laughed, and Ms. Tranton came out with the stack. Damn, was it a lot.
“Okay, you’re all set to leave. You can get your things and go.” Ms. Tranton told me before leaving. I nodded, and she was gone.
We made our way up to my old room, passing some girls who are still going to dinner. They all awed at the fact that there was a guy there, but I glared at them. We entered the room, packing what little personal belonging I had.
“This was your room?” He asked, staring out the window. “Nice view.”
“Tell me about it.” I said back, and we picked up the things and left. I found that Nathan still had the electric car, and I sat in shotgun, ready to finally go home.
We drove home, sharing our experiences of the last four years. Nathan actually learned how to drive, not like the Grand Theft Auto way, but really drive. Serah had to live with weird people who wouldn’t let her have fun, and I was stuck in a Girls Home. Well, didn’t we have such bad lives.
I realized as we pulled into the driveway, the house was still the same. I’m guessing it was the same inside too, but I didn’t know. We climbed out and entered, and it was still the same. I couldn’t believe no one tried to buy it. Or rob it, either one.
Nathan put a pizza in the oven as I awed the place I haven’t seen in four years. Yep, still the same. “Okay, so we have the whole summer ahead of us. What do you think we should do?” Nathan asked, making me face him.
“Nothing, Nathan.” I replied, flopping down onto the couch. Oh, how it felt.
“We’re not gonna do the same thing we’ve done for four years now. We’re gonna go somewhere. I’m old enough to buy plane tickets.” Nathan argued, crossing his arms.
“You think I care?” I asked back, copying his pose.
“Guys, we need to get out of Vegas. Out of Nevada. Let’s just go somewhere to have fun, and leave all this behind for a while.”
“Nathan, we just don’t want to go anywhere. Why can’t we just relax and lay low?”
“Cause we’ve been moping around for four years and we need to end it!” Nathan yelled seriously, making me jump slightly. “We need to go and do something we haven’t done in years.”
“Oh yeah?” I said, sitting up and staring into his eyes. “And what’s that?”
Nathan let a small smile slip to his face. “Have fun.”
Serah and I shook our heads. “There’s no way.”
“You’re a doubter.” He shot back at us.
“Whatever.” I muttered as I headed over to the bathroom. I shut my eyes for a second, wiping some stray tears from my eyes and I was somehow standing in front of the office. I was ready to head away, but a machine caught my eye. I didn’t realize it was there, ever.
“Nathan!” I called, and he was by my side in two seconds. “What’s this doing here?”
“Oh, the scientists got rid of all of Mom and Dad’s experiments. There all in the spare room upstairs, except this one. It wouldn’t fit.” He replied.
“Oh…” I trailed, and he nodded and walked away.
I’ve never seen it before, and I really didn’t want to be in the same room as it because it was my parents’ last invention, but I was suddenly intrigued by it. I wondered what it actually did.
I slowly walked inside, the floor making a creaking sound as I took the first step. I slowly approached the machine, blowing on it and wiping the dust that’s been collecting on it for four years now. I didn’t really think the machine was that high-advanced. It was made of all silver metal that was big and bulky, and it had a screen, a couple buttons, a camera, and six funny looking remotes. The remotes only had four buttons on them; forward, backward, play, and eject.
The machine was just a stereo.
“My parents took years out of their lives to make a bulky stereo?” I asked like it would answer back, but it didn’t. I looked around the machine and saw a plastic cover that was over very thin slots on the machine. “Oh, I’m sorry, CD player.” I corrected myself.
I looked over for some writing, something to tell me what this was, and I found two words right above the camera. The System.
“The System?” I muttered, saying the name back through into my head. It couldn’t be a stereo. My parents weren’t music nerds. They were… video game nerds.
I picked up one of the controllers and examined it. How could this be a controller? It couldn’t be. There’s no joystick, no ‘X’ or ‘O’ buttons. There was nothing. Not even a ‘Start’ button.
“Kairi?” I heard Nathan’s voice behind me. I whipped around to see him standing in the doorway. “Dinner’s gonna be in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” I said quickly as I put the controller back down where the others were and headed out, passing him to go sit down for dinner.
That night I was all thinking about The System. What could it do? What did it do? Maybe the camera takes a picture and makes you the character of the game…? Maybe it holograms locations in the game like you’re in the scene…? I didn’t know. But I wanted to.
I woke up at around ten the next morning. I stood up and stretched before heading out to the living room, where no one was. I walked around some until I found a note on the kitchen table.
Kairi,
Serah went over to Jackie’s house, and I went out to the store. There’s cereal if you want any, I’ll be back soon.
Nathan
“Of course.” I sighed as I put the note down. Serah was always more social then I was, even from getting back from insane adopted parents.
I got dressed and began searching around the house for the video games, remembering they were in our parents’ closet. We don’t play them that often anymore, all because our parents played pretty much every single game out there. But now there was a whole stash, so a grabbed more than a few and headed back into the office. I opened the cases and put the video games in, wondering what it did, and hoping it wouldn’t destroy them. The System accepted PlayStation games except portable and vita, all Wii, and PC. Once I finished inserting the discs, there was still room left in the slots.
The System turned on by itself, and I realized the screen was a touch screen. I grabbed a controller before continuing, tightening the strap around my wrist. The options menu showed, options being number of players, order of games, and level of reality. I hit 1-player, shuffle games, and ultra realistic, and hit the play button. I heard a disc being ran so I knew it would start, and The System was scanning it. Suddenly a red light spread horizontally and ran up and down my body. They weren’t scanning the disc. They were scanning me. I looked down and saw my feet dissolve into computer particles. It didn’t hurt, but was enough to freak me out. Soon the dissolving spread to my thighs, waist, chest, neck, and then my head.
And I didn’t know what to expect next.