"Beep beep beep beep," Blared my alarm clock.
"Shut up," I respond angrily.
Not heeding my requests, the harsh sounds of the alarm clock kept blaring on, so I took the liberty of getting up and slamming my fist on the snooze button. I wanted to smash it and keep smashing it into tiny clock bits and innards until I remembered that my poverty-struck wallet wouldn't like that very much. It's Monday, the birds chirp in sorrow, and it's the worst day of the week, I tell you. Everyone's in a sour mood, and the ones who say they aren't are liars. I pick up my white cylindrically shaped technological breakthrough, and at the pressing of a button, out extends a blue-tinted see-through screen; my epad. Think of it like an old-school phone but way cooler. As it extends into place, the date appears on the screen: January 19: 2043, flickering to 7:31 am. Flickering again, this time followed by the daily announcer's repetitive voice narrating what's on the screen like I can't read the damned thing.
Gooooood beautiful morning Tokyo Sakura academy! How's your morning! I don't know because III caan't heeaaarrr youuuu~! Today is nothing special, please note that Ms. Higashide's class is going on a field trip to...
After that I zoned out, can't remember shit. I carried on with my routine morning; brushing my teeth, saying a quick prayer before eating my school-distributed instant ramen, all the boring stuff. The ramen is okay, though. You know, they started putting fake meat in our ramen. Like, lab-grown and everything. How outrageous is that? Tastes about the same, though. It just... feels weird. While ranting to myself, the board made a pinging sound, I picked it up again, and it flashed one new recorded message from: Sister - Never open! Danger!
"Open," I said, the board automatically flickering to life as I set the epad on the table. A translucent hologram of my sister appears.
"Onii? Hellooo?" She taps what is presumably the camera while I continue eating my ramen. After confirming that she is indeed recording, she pulls back from the camera and continues her message.
"Onii, hurry up; I'll be waiting for you in the plaza. You better not be late." She warns as the board returns back into its translucent blue glow and I gulp down the last of my ramen broth and pop a mouth freshening mint.
"Whats the time" I asked, swiping my backpack, phone, portable charger and essentials I'll need for the rest of the day.
It is currently: 8:12 am. Class starts at: 9am. Shines on the board while I turn off the lights and leave my small dorm and make my way downstairs. On the way, I ran into Bean. Bean Sprout. His family owns a bean plantation up north and hes basically set for life. But currently, hes kicking and shouting curses at a vending machine for coffee.
"Shit shit, fuck!" He yelled, kicking the poor metal box with every curse.
"Whats got your nuts twisted big man?" I approached.
"Fuck! This damned machine scammed me!" He said, giving it another kick.
I pushed him aside, laughing "Heh heh–, Here, let me try".
I lined my right hand up with the smooth metal frame in a chopping stance, quickly closing my hand in for a one-inch PUNCH punch punch punch ... Ahem, sorry. Anyways, I punch the vending machine. It did not occur to me that punching metal is probably a bad idea. Shocker. I pull back, holding my strained and quivering/pulsing red hand. Bean just stood there staring at me.
"You're a loser," he said.
"Your mom," I replied. Just then, a tall can of iced coffee rolled out from the vending slot onto the floor, reading "Share with a friend!" On the front. The both of us stood there watching it roll a good meter or two away before Bean went to collect it.
"I told you it'd work," I smugly proclaimed
"YOU never told me anything," Bean refuted, cracking open his coffee with a satisfying hissss
"Look, you got your coffee, and I fractured my hand. We're all happy".
"Whatev's," he says, taking a sip from the coffee while rolling his eyes.
I continued my adventure to confront my mighty sister, now with an additional party member.
After about 5 minutes of walking, we reached the central plaza of the campus. A circular brick floor hub that connects every campus building. As the centerpiece, a sakura flower-shaped fountain spews clear cold water into the coin-filled pool at the base.
"Hey," Bean started.
"Yea?"
"Where do you think all the coins go?" Bean asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the coins disappear every weekend at night, right?"
".. Yea?"
"Do you think, like, some hobo comes and fishes it out?" An image popped into my mind of a hobo fishing coins on campus grounds.
"Must be one rich hobo." Realistically, the janitor probably drains it and cleans it out. Personally, I wouldn't mind fishing for a coin or two myself.
Finishing that thought, Bean started again,
"Man, look at that thing, I wish I could drive one." He said, pointing past me. I turn my head in the direction of his finger to discover a parked relatively new edition white flux train, with blue tinted windows and a hella cool paint job. It had a fiery design of red and yellow, with the words "YOU ROCK!" sprawled on the driver and passenger door. Call me cringy or whatever but whoever has the balls to paint that stuff on their ride. Oh right, a flux train is one of those new flying cars, powered by AI and all that.
"Yo', are you even listening to me?" Bean waved in my face. "I asked, what the hell do you think of the company that made it?"
"Uh, Tesuta? I dont know, they make flying car things and call it a weird name." I responded.
"Man, I wish I could drive that thing." Bean glistened.
"You just said that. Cant you just buy one anyways, rich boy?" I responded. My man's family is set for life, wish my ass.
"You know I'm on an allowance, broke boy" He bit back
"How 'bout you allow my balls into your jaw?" I snapped, No way he can come up with something better to say.
"What are you, five?"
"What are you, ugly?" Okay, I take it back. NOW he has nothing to say.
Bean chugged down the last drop of his coffee and threw the empty can at me. Like a good samaritan, I caught the can and chucked it into the nearest trashcan, "3 pointer! Score!" I told myself
"I'd rate that a 4/10" Bean judged, shaking his head.
"How ironic" I mumbled to myself.
"Whad' you say?".
"Nothin'" "Wheres my sister anyways? Hmmm" I said, changing the topic. Just then, someone crashed into my back, sending me stumbling forward.
"Onii! Save meee~!" The stranger yelped playfully
"Who's 'at? Who'r you?" I turned around
"What, dont remember the voice of your own dear sister?" The stranger said, following my back as I turned around, being met with an angry woman with white hair running towards me.
"Hana Nagaro! Give me my perfume back!" The angry lady charged. Her name? Renho. Renho Wildi. Shes a friend of my sister. Well... Usually.
"Eep!" Hana, my sister, shouted sarcastically, crouching behind me cowering. "Onii! Save your sister in peril!!"
Naturally, I side-stepped away, and allowed the notorious criminal known as my sister get caught by the dutiful white haired lady.
"ONIIIII!! WHYYYY" The thief said, while getting pounced by her 'friend' Renho, who rightfully snatched her perfume back.
"Dont rob me next time" Renho said, getting off of Hana and dusting herself off.
"A single betrayal..." Hana started "Will result in a thousand deaths!" She said, launching herself at me again, knocking the both of us down. I dont want to say it but it was kinda cringe.
"AGH" I shouted, collapsing on the floor "WHAT THE HELL?!? THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU??"
"Die! Die!" My sister said, plopping her handbag/purse onto my face. And lightly striking my chest over and over like a playful kitten. I'm saying she's childish, wierdo.
"Get offa me, dammit, you're a grown woman".
Bean let out a snort, "What a bozo," he said, giggling to himself. I flipped him off while Renho removed the lump of murder from my chest. By now, a lot of eyes were on us, some of them even started recording us. It felt like how seagulls act when you give one of them a chip.
"Nothing to see here, guys," I said, grabbing Hana's wrist and clearing a path in the crowd. I swear. If I see that video online, I am going to freak fuck. Renho and Bean shortly followed us as we walked to our class. During our walk, the second idiot, Bean's best friend, joined us. We were walking past the girl's dorm when we saw her trudge out from the main entrance rubbing her eyes, half asleep, and half awake. You know how some people have bedheads? This girl is one of them. Her name is Skela. Well, that's a nickname. Everyone calls her Skela, cause of her malnourished small frame. Her real name is Koharu Hasegawa. She usually wakes up late and barely does anything before heading to class. Some call it unhygienic, but she does everything twice at night. She brushes twice, showers twice, flosses twice, etc. She says it cancels out missing it in the morning, though I highly doubt that's how it works.
"Heyy, Skella! What's up!" Bean shouted, Bean has known Skella since elementary school, and I met both of them in college freshman year.
"huuh?" Skela yawned "oo's 'ere?"
After a few seconds, It clicked in her mind that we existed, and she quickly slow-walked over to us.
"How'd you sleep" I asked. She gives the same answer every time, but I thought I'd ask anyways.
"terrible. why's the human body need this anyways? just drink coffee..." She half dozed off again, with her head slowly drooping before quickly nodding back up. As we passed a vending machine, Skela bought a can of coffee similar to Bean's, with the words on the can reading "Share with a pal!" Infront instead.
"Pwuah!" Skela said, taking a sip of coffee "Much better!"
You could visually see her waking up, even her skin sleep-deprived skin started to glow up a tad. After this short break, we continued our trek to our first class: English. Yes, we all had English as our first class, I'm stuck with these fools. Honestly, I'm pretty confident in my English. I feel like I could live in America. Although everyone calls me a 'Westaboo,'. I'm not a westaboo, am I? When we finally arrived at the lecture hall, we found our usual seats and sat down. Hana and Renho are to my left, and Bean and Skela are to my right. Both pairs were chatting it up to one another, and I had nothing to say, so I just decided to chill out. In the middle. Like an NPC from an RPG game. As the lecture started, I soon realized just how little sleep I got last night, so I decided to get some shut-eye. Pshh, English isn't that important anyway. Apparently, that's what everyone else thought too. I scanned the room to see about half the class snoozing away, even diligent people like Hana were passed out. Only about 100 of the 300 students were awake, including me and Renho. It was probably just one of those days where nobody could stay awake, it didn't help that it was a Monday, either. Not caring, I crossed my arms on the table and set my head down on my makeshift pillow to get some sleep. As I went into my power hour nap, I saw a faint purple light beckoning me ever closer before drifting unconscious.