*DING*
[!WARNING! YOU'RE SERIOUSLY BURNING OUT. YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES UNTIL YOU DIE]
Max woke up from his nap interrupted by the system and his shivering body. The cracks under the warehouse doors were wide enough to let a lot of wind in. The cold, hard floor Max slept on didn't do any favors and since Rin only had one blanket for herself, the boy shivered intensely. To make matters worse for Max, he still had two hours until the sun would come up, then another hour until it started to release some warmth. Max tried to rub his arms together for warmth but nothing was happening. Luckily, Rin was woken by the sound of Max's intense clattering teeth.
" Max...what's wrong?" She sleepily asked.
" Ri-in.Heeeelp mee. Iiii'mm fre-freeeezzziing." Max blurted. Since he told her earlier what happens if he didn't warm up, she got a bunch of old books and papers, opened the door slightly, and started a fire to keep the mutant alive.
*Ding*
[ Your temperature is returning to normal. Body's returning to its normal state. You should keep an eye on your emo friend, she's a keeper.]
After an hour of sitting by the fire, Max finally fell asleep again, feeling a lot better. Two more hours later and he and Rin were on their way to school. Max had to go home to change first and to also inform his mom why he didn't come home last night. When he got there, however, he found her standing by the couch with one slipper in her crossed arms and another slipper on her foot. Her facial expression resembled a bull ready to charge at its target.
" Hey, Mom. Go...good morning."
" GOOD MORNING!" She busted out in anger. " I was worried sick last night Max. I thought something terrible happened. There's too much dangerous activity going on in these streets. I called CJ and Sue's parents and they said you weren't with them. Where...were...you...Max?"
Max anticipated his mom would be cross with him so he came up with a lie in advance. " I was at a new friend's house for a sleepover. She's new in town so..."
" SHE!! You were at a girl's house all night?" Miss Sue removed her second slipper from her foot, hit them against each other, and looked at Max one more time.
" Five...four...three...two." Max didn't want to stick around long enough till the countdown reached one. He dashed to his room, changed his clothes, grabbed a quick snack from the fridge, and dashed straight for the door. The second he touched the door knob, a slipper hit him right on the back of his head.
His thick, red hair cushioned the blow, and knowing that his mom still had the second slipper, he opened the door and ran for school, not daring to look back. Max made sure to reach a safe distance from his apartment building before he stopped to rest. Although his stamina was more than he was used to, his lazy body needed to re-adjust to it.
Just as he was catching his breath, a hand landed on his shoulder and shook him.
"Aaah" Max jumped, thinking it was his mom.
" Jeez, relax redhead. I'm not gonna throw a slipper at you." Rin laughed.
" Hardy har har very funny, Rin. And how did you know about the slipper...not that there was any."
" I didn't. You just told me. I assumed that's the punishment most moms use and turns out I was right." Max sneered at Rin and shamefully walked to school with a slightly throbbing head. His mom had a strong arm for a woman of her petite stature.
Once again as he was walking, another female surprised him by jumping out of an alley. "Aaaah." Max saw Sue struggling to hold in her laugh, so he decided to stop and wait for her to finish with her crazy outburst before he continued walking. Rin managed to catch up to both of them but she noticed how Sue was clingy to Max and decided to walk alone. Max and Sue reached at the gate and did their daily ritual of waiting for rich CJ to show up and as they waited, Sue decided to ask Max a couple of questions.
" So Max, where were you last night?"
" What do you mean? I was at my apartment."
" Pssshh. Stop lying. Your mom called worried sick about you."
" She did?" Max asked.
" Yeah. You should have heard her. She was all like, ' My baby. Is he there? Is my only child with you?" and my dad was like, ' No Miss Sue. Your "baby" isn't here. Try calling CJ's perhaps he's there. Our whole family was hysterical after that, man." Max didn't care if his friend's family laughed at his mother's cries of concern. He was just worried about what might happen to his mother if she found out the truth about him.
CJ's black sedan pulled up and instead of the two usual people, CJ, and the driver, there was a third person, a girl to be exact. She was taller than CJ, had hair as brown as his, and had a body that belonged to a model. Her face looked like it was sculpted by the most skilled artist but the rotten expression she had on killed it.
" Max, Sue meet my sister KC. KC, Max, and Sue." CJ said in an angry-depressed tone.
" Don't bug me." With those kind words, CJ's sister walked away from her brother to some group of kids. Although she was new, it seemed she already had long, lost friends there.
" Bro, I didn't know you had a sister?" Max said.
" Neither did I." CJ responded causing an awkward presence to overshadowed them. " Just kidding. She's my big sister. She got expelled from her last school for publicly shaming her school teacher. The video went viral and so did his wounds. They wanted to 'sue' but dad just payed for the damages and had her transferred here. She's now here, oh god." School didn't start until another ten minutes so Max decided to introduce Rin to everyone.
" Guys, this is Rin. The first official member of our gang."