With a groan, Kai rolled over as the first rays of sunlight landed on his eyes.
Perhaps it was bad luck, or perhaps Kyle Whitaker had desired this foolproof alarm system to wake him up before school.
After all, the only way to make oneself desire to leave one's bed is to make one's bed undesirable. By virtue of being blinded, the sun helped Kai do just that.
However, his immediate desire to roll out of bed caused him to notice one thing.
His body seemed to be lagging slightly behind his own motions, like an afterimage.
Kai slowly waved his hand in front of his face, attempting to catch the phenomena in action.
However, this time, everything felt just fine.
Writing it off as a figment of his imagination, Kai prepped his shower and got ready for school.
~~~~
Only when his mother wandered downstairs in her bathrobe at 6:45am did Kai find out school was not held on saturdays.
"Sweetie, did you hit your head real hard at the football game?"
"Huh?"
Kai was making efforts to hide his confusion when Kyle's Thursday night flashed through his mind. Kai quickly shoved it down to hide any physical reaction he may have had from his mother.
And then he remembered the chicken pot pie.
Realizing he still had the whole day ahead of him with nothing to do, Kai decided he would learn to recreate the delectable meal he had eaten the night before.
He looked towards his mother, who was slowly pouring herself a glass of coffee, and asked
"Mother, can you please teach me how to cook chicken pot pie?"
"No."
His mother's glare told him that cooking classes would not be held on saturday mornings either.
~~~~
At 7:34am the rest of Kai's family was woken by the sound of the fire alarm.
His father rushed downstairs only to see his son scraping flaming eggs into the running kitchen sink.
"Lordy me… that son o' mine sure is somethin'..."
Kai hadn't even looked up before his father stumbled back to bed.
However, he did notice when Hannah woke up shortly after.
"MOM! MOM! THERE'S A FIIIRE!! MOM!!!"
The girl had sprinted out of her room and was banging on the door to their mother's office.
Kai continued scraping the flaming eggs into the drain. He then turned off the faucet and walked over to his sister.
"KYLE THERE'S A FIRE WE GOTTA GET OUTTAA HEEREEEE!"
"It's alright, Hannah, I was just cooking some eggs."
"But Ky, there fire alarm went off!"
"It's okay… I just burned them a little is all."
"Oh, okay. Well, did you make me any?"
Kai sighed. "No. They all burnt up."
"Oh. I thought you said you only burned them a little."
Kai frowned.
"Alright, I burned them a lot. But I'll cook you some more, alright?"
"Yaaaaaaay!!!"
As the small child ran off cheering, Kai instantly regretted his decision to atone for waking her.
~~~~
At 8:06am, Kai and Hannah sat down at the dining table and began to eat.
"Ky-ulll… why do these eggs taste nasty?"
~~~~
At 8:25am, Kyle's mother returned from the grocery store.
Kyle watched her flinch, as if she had walked into a brick wall, as the smell of many attempts at cooking eggs assaulted her nose.
"Oh. My. God. Kyle…"
"Want some eggs, mum? I accidentally cooked too many!"
In an attempt to support the new interests of her son, his mother swallowed her fears and nodded.
Little did she know, Kai had not cooked too many. The leftover eggs were just never eaten because they were, quite simply, unpalatable.
As his mother took a seat at the dining table with her widest smile plastered on her face, she mumbled "can't wait…."
~~~~
The next few hours were spent with Kai's mother attempting to teach him to cook eggs. However, there was not one salvageable batch left by the end of the three dozen eggs she had purchased that very morning.
By noon, Kai was asked to head to the store and pick up some more.
Despite his pleas, his mother was not willing to drive him there.
And so, Kai was forced to learn how to drive.
~~~~
}SKKRRRRRTTT{
Kai nearly blew through the stop sign on the exit to his street. Instead, he left some lovely tire marks on the road leading up to it.
'Apparently my sudden understanding of this world is limited to the things I've already seen. Great.'
With that thought in mind, Kai prepared for the drive of his life.
He swerved from one lane to the next, careened around corners, and by the time he had arrived at his local Kroger, he had a newfound respect for his mother's terrible motion-sickness inducing driving.
He began to exit his car only to be stopped by a well-wishing passerby.
"Hey, I think you left your key in the ignition!"
Kai looked up at her blankly.
"Ah, yes I did. Thank you…"
As the woman walked away, suddenly he realized the meaning of her words.
'bruh'
~~~~
Becca walked past Kyle's car in the parking lot when she noticed he had left his keys in the ignition. Out of habit, she shouted "Hey, I think you left your keys in the ignition!"
Her stomach dropped. Now he would notice her! How awkward.
But he didn't. His gaze practically passed through her.
Becca breathed out what she had intended to be a sigh of relief. But it wasn't. Somehow, his ignorance of her very existence after last Thursday stung even more than she had thought it would.
She was planning on taking him back, anyways! She just didn't like how far his eyes wandered on other girls sometimes!
Before she knew it, she was back at her car. Becca skidded around the corner and sped home.
~~~~
Kyle woke up chained to a pole in near darkness. He was able to move a few feet in any direction, but the darkness made it quite scary to do so.
Suddenly his prayers for light were answered. A small flicker in the distance illuminated towering trees overhead. As he stepped towards it, he felt cool grass underfoot. He ignored the urge to curl up into a ball to hide from the chill in the air.
The air was slightly misty, and Kyle feared his presence would not be noticed as the light grew nearer.
This concern did not last for long. As the light grew nearer, it also grew wider. Suddenly, he no longer was cold.
Kyle felt panic building within him. "Help! Help! Someone help!"
Alas, no-one answered. He screamed and screamed, past when his throat was raw, until eventual the flames devoured his voice along with the surrounding woods.
~~~~
On Sunday, Kai was once again awoken by the terrible might of the suns blinding rays. He readied himself for school, only to be stopped by his mother once again.
"My baby boy is growing up so fast!"
"Mooooommmmm"
"He's even mature enough to be excited to go to school!"
Kai actually had no issue with being called a baby, as he had never been trapped in a busy restaurant with crying children before. However, he was enjoying his stay on Earth, and had decided he should at least pretend to be somewhat like Kyle for the time being.
And his mother had told him he hated the nickname herself.
However, she was right about one thing. Kai was somewhat excited to go back to school despite his dread.
'Wait- I have to drive myself to school before the sun rises.'
'BRUH.'
~~~~
A quick google search on
[How to drive in the dark]
left Kai with the wondrous knowledge of headlights.
He grabbed his keys and headed outside, determined to not forget his key in his car this time.
He got inside and began poking around at different buttons and symbols when he realized car doors had locks.
He had been supposed to lock his car when headed to the grocery store.
His self disappointment only grew when he discovered the brakes.
'So that's how they didn't need to turn off their cars at red lights!'
Eventually, Kai began to experiment with different ways of the steering wheel when
}HYOOIIINNKKK{
And that's how Kai learned about car horns.
~~~~
Three hours of practice driving later, Kai learned about fuel. Fifteen minutes later, he learned about "rising fuel prices." Three minutes after that, he learned he was now poor after filling up his car.
However, Kai was now feeling much more comfortable behind the wheel, and that was what really mattered.
On the way home, Kai swung by the grocery store and spent what seemed to be the remains of his money on food. He had forgotten to eat breakfast, and dang was this hunger painful.
Suprisingly, 4 bags of lettuce and 3 donuts weren't enough to fill him up.
By the time Kai got home, he was just about ready to try and cook dinner himself. If it weren't for the eggs the day prior, he probably would have.
Instead, he tried to distract himself from the wait by reading more comics. Namely, UnOrdinary.
When dinner finally rolled around, he ate a heaping portion and headed to bed with a filled stomach. However, some part of him knew that food wouldn't be enough to always fill his hunger.