The next day Tal got irritated by how he could not put his alarm into snooze. It kept on ringing as if the alarm clock could understand that Tal was still half-awake.
"Aishh stop it already! You are a phone not a rooster!" Tal groaned and got pissed off by the sound.
He let it ring for a few more seconds, not even caring if his time to get ready for school and meditate in the morning was consumed. With his eyes barely opened, he scratched his head with annoyance as he tried to double-tap the stop button of his alarm. It was just a basic gesture of double checking if he really tapped the stop button but his weak morning index finger felt numb as he tried to locate the stop button from the bottom of his phone's screen. He couldn't see it either as it was on the top of his desk but instead, he relied on his sense of touch which only made his phone fall to the floor. Unfortunately, his phone's screen protector cracked.
"Crap! I thought it was your original screen" He nervously spoke to his phone when he hurriedly got up to check after it.
The phone rang and stopped when he succeeded to tap the stop button. He went to the bathroom and buried his face in a bucket full of ice cubes and water. Everything felt peaceful to him as the cold water landed on his face.
He went outside to water his mom's plants. The peaceful quietness of their house, the breezy morning air coming inside through the jalousie windows which were intentionally left open for the family to save electricity, and on top of that, the sounds of the birds chirping.
"Do mornings usually have this kind of ambiance?" Ves asked herself, back before she never gets to enjoy her mornings due to full schedules and her morning rush for work. She felt more relaxed than she was after her soul got into Talin's body. As far as she could remember there was nothing for him to do today except for his exam and afterward, his work.
After a minute of staring at his mom's babies, He went back to the bathroom to finally take a bath. Misty and cozy, that was the weather he felt outside so he headed out to the kitchen to boil some water and mix it with the water in the bathroom. After boiling, he took the heater and slowly entered the bathroom. He mixed it with the cold water inside the bucket. He took the dipper with the hot and cold mixture of water and briskly poured it out on his lower body. He released some long breaths to refresh his mood as his left hand subconsciously reached for the soap.
The two things that Ves always did back then was she never showered with cold water and never leave the house with her hair wet. That was the two traits that she applied on being Talin.
At first Mrs. Cuevas finds it weird that Tal asked for her extra hair blower for him to use. The old Tal never really did that kind of thing. After he takes a bath, the old Tal would just let his wet hair air dry, not caring about his shirt or uniform getting wet coming from the small drops of water falling every two seconds until his hair was fully dry.
After Tal took a bath, his mom and brother had gathered in their kitchen. It was still six-thirty in the morning, his brother's class starts at seven-thirty while his class starts at eight. His mother, Mrs. Cuevas' just leaves the house with her two sons the same way the laundry shop that she works at opens at eight.
"You're finally finished, right? Can I go next?" his brother asked.
"Yeah sure, ask mom first maybe she's in a hurry"
"No it's okay Gayo you can use the bathroom first, I sorted things out in the laundry shop last night because the customer called me. I'll just prepare our breakfast" Mrs. Cuevas responded.
"Okay ma, i'll quickly change so that I can help you," Tal uttered. He rushed to his room. He blow-dried his hair and decided to put on the school's long sleeve uniform and straight dark brown pants. He then put on some hydrating tomato moisturizer and applied some gel-based sunscreen. He finished his look by styling his hair by putting on some styling wax.
He then wore his eyeglasses for the reason that sometimes his eyes were sensitive to the light. He also wore his white converse chuck Taylor sneakers.
"Alright, let's surpassed the"Mrs. Highly meticulous" test by being stylish and presentable." He exclaimed while fixing his blazer's collar and stomping his feet as he felt the soft cushion inside his shoes.
He heard a snap chat message notification sound as he checked his backpack. It was Arvin. He sent a photo of him from yesterday's night attending the anime festival.
"Taking a picture with Slyphynford eh? But he mentioned his waifu was Umaru? But it's okay as long as he's not into Taihei I'll be fine with whoever he simps for" Tal hissed to himself.
He locked his room door and put the key inside his pocket. He was about to close his door but an improperly placed lamp caught his eyes. Being a perfectionist and organized as he was, he went back and fixed the lamp's arrangement.
As he went downstairs, he smelled the savory smell of Ves' favorite breakfast,
"Oh my God! It's been months since I last tasted you Toci!" She spoke to herself while being hyped up knowing what her breakfast meal would be. Back when her dad was alive he would not let her eat processed foods.
He ran to the kitchen quickly. His mom already finished cooking their breakfast.
"Sweetie, come on here! Take your seat while waiting for Gayo to be ready too." Mrs. Cuevas said as she walked closer to enter the bathroom.