Rockland

“6:59 and 21 seconds, that means that they’re only 39 more seconds til’ he wakes up,” said a giddy female voice ’Oh man, today’s the big day, his first day of high school; I think I’m more excited than he is. OOh, only ten seconds left; ok 5,4,3,2,1.” Once the clock struck 7 am a blue trumpet materialized, then let out a loud, high B flat.

“Wake up, Kurt!!” the female voice said even more giddy than before “It’s the first day of school!!”

’Yeah, Yeah, I’m up, I’m up” he woke up still reeling from the sudden expulsion of sleep’s blissful voice, “Did you have to be so loud about it Saturday. now everyone in the dorm is probably up.”

“Sorry, I guess I’m more excited than you are for YOUR first day of school,” she said sarcastically putting extra emphasis on ‘Your’.

“I’m excited about High school to begin, but less eager to be woken up by a trumpet, and the start of high school with permanent hearing damage.

“Yeah, Yeah, whatever now get ready, school starts in ... 2 hours.”

“Wow,” he responded sarcastically ” Going to school at 9 am completely justifies waking up at 7 am.”

And with that final remark, he had exited his dorm room into the joining bathroom he shared with his dorm mate. “Alright time to make myself look beautiful,” he said with lightness in his voice.” Can’t keep my fans waiting,” finishing off flicking his nonexistent long hair.

“Bvvvfffuahaha,” emerged a voice from the joining dorm room “Ah that’s rich.”

“It was just a joke,” he shot back defensively.

“Yeah, sure it was” the voice shot back

After getting past the minor bump in the road, he had resumed getting ready. He started the process by brushing his teeth, a task he was never sure if did it correctly or not, next came a visit a to the porcelain throne, a disturbing visit for all those involved, came the shower; a responsibility that Kurt needed the correct temperament, to get the most out of it. He proceeded to turn on the shower and wait about two minutes for the shower to warm up, and after waiting those two minutes he came to a chilling realization, the shower had no hot water.

“Fuck, why is the water cold at 6′ fifteen in the morning?” He loudly exclaimed

“Probably, because someone used it all” The same voice from earlier answered

“Thanks...I guess, “Kurt said not expecting an answer

Despite the chilling reveal, he pressed through and took a truly cold shower. After concluding his bathroom ritual, he began his bathroom ritual: but, he could not do it without first playing some music.

“Hey, Saturday” he called out to his AI

“Yes,” she responded

“Can you play me some music while I get dressed?”

“Absolutely, anything in particular?”

“Surprise me”

“He, he, you got it,”

After a couple of seconds of pause, country music began to play.

“How does this sound?” She said devilishly

Initially surprised and upset over the chaos of music, he realized he could make her upset if he acted as he liked it.

“Absolutely wonderful,” he said grinning” How’d you know I liked this stuff I’ve never asked you to play country music before?”

“I . . . didn’t but I will make a note of it.”

Getting dressed was usually a boring experience for Kurt, but thanks to the addition of music it made the process a little bit sweeter.

“Could you turn that down?” said the same voice from before ” It’s a bit loud”

“Um . . . sorry about that” he said promptly turning down the music

Luckily for him, he had just finished getting ready so turning down the music was of no consequence to him.

7:45, that’s 45 minutes, a new record he thought to himself

Upon arriving downstairs he was immediately sucker punched by the smells of breakfast. It was a layered smell of Pancakes, sausages, eggs, hash browns, and eggs, it was a most delicious smell. And in the kitchen, he could see one of his roommates, a new person to meet he thought; but as got closer he had realized it was a friend

“Asya!” he called ” It’s nice to see you, I didn’t know you got in”

“Oh hey Kurt, it’s nice to see you” she said not at the same volume but equal in intensity.

“What you been up to?”

“You mean since the month that I last saw you?”

“Yeah, anything can happen in the span of a month.”

“Nothing, just ‘relaxing’ I guess,” she said putting quotes on the relaxing

“What’s with the air quotes?”

“Nothing just that my relaxing, wasn’t very relaxing,” she said heavily ” And no I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Ok, Ok, fair enough,” he said backing off ” Moving on, um, breakfast looks good.”

“I know right,” She said almost instantly changing to a happy demeanor ” I made Pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns; you can help yourself to whatever you want.”

“Thanks,” he said already filling his plate with the food.

“Oh seems you already started”

Kurt had filled his plate with everything but the eggs when Asya questioned him about it. He told her he didn’t like it when syrup touched his eggs, she gave him a wired look but didn’t give it too much of a thought. No sooner than when Kurt sat down to begin eating, did his fellow dorm/classmates come downstairs to the dining area. Amongst the crowd of new and unfamiliar classmates there was laughter and joy, this was surprising to Kurt at first, but once he realized that just because he doesn’t communicate to people outside of school, doesn’t mean others don’t; not only did he see how lonely he really was when he looked in the crowd, he saw his friends: Jackson, Matt, Ennie, Raina, Jane, and Dan. He was really surprised to see Jane and Raina. He hadn’t seen her since the fifth grade, for middle school they had gone to separate middle schools. He had known Ennie since kindergarten but had met Jackson and Matt 3 years ago at summer camp, he tried to flag those three down so they could eat together.

“Guys over here,” he said trying to get their attention.

“Hey guys,” Jackson said as he sat down

“Hey Matt, how you doin’?” Kurt asked Matt and Ennie

“Sup,” Matt responded blandly

“I don’t know good,” she said frustrated with Kurt’s question” Why do you care so much ?”

“Damn, just asking how you doin’ Ennie, that’s all,” Kurt said taken back by her tone ” Either way you guys ready for today?”

“Yeah I guess,” Jackson responded

“What do you mean ‘Yeah I guess’ ?” Kurt said questioning Jackson ” This is our first step of the million step journey known as Highschool, the start of the rest of our lives, here we lay down tomorrow’s foundation toda-, toda-, toda-, kah, kah.”

Kurt had begun choking, almost immediately all the liveliness of the dining area had disappeared, and all eyes had been placed on Kurt. Quickly people ran to his aid and just as quickly he put his hands up causing them to stop. His throat began to shrink Inward, it turns out his Larynx was disappearing, allowing him to swallow the food, ending his coughing fit.

Immediately after swallowing his food he tried to speak but only sharp exhales came out; once he realized this he again threw up his finger asking for a second.

“Sorry about that guys,” he said finally regaining the ability to speak ” You guys looked pretty scared.”

Kurt sat down trying to return to his meal but he saw that only his friends had returned to eating, everyone else still had their eyes trained on him.

“Apologies, once again,” he said standing up with a little annoyment in his voice ” To fill you all in my Ark is adaptive evolution, and it allows me to adapt to survive any situation, but the only problem is I can’t control it. For example.”

He looked around the table until he found a knife, “You guys ready for this” he said raising the knife high above his hand “Here we go.”

At that moment Kurt dropped the knife and just before it pierced his skin a giant hole appeared in his hand, where the knife would have made contact. “As I said earlier I can’t control it,” He said with frustration ” I would have added armor plating to my hand instead.”

Kurt then went to sit down and began eating once again with his friends. ” I never realized how desensitized you guys are to my Ark,” Kurt said with slight surprise.

“Well yeah after that time you fell off the roller coaster,” Jackson said.

“And the time with the shark at the beach,” Matt added

“And that time with the bus,” Ennie added

“And don’t forget the time the roof collapsed,” Asya also added

“And once again that was not my fault,” Kurt responded quickly ” I just got a steel toe that’s all. Well either we are here now. And like I said earlier today is the start of the rest of our lives let’s step on the right foot, shall we?

" I remember those days,” Kurt said, ” Everything was so much easier.”

“Well, do you mind telling the rest of your story?” a calm, inquisitive voice asked

“Certainly,” Kurt said ’Now, where was I?”