A/N: Okay, well this is my first story actually. It might be confusing, weird, and random at the same time for some readers; but it's meant to entertain, so enjoy. BTW: The rating is not T on this chapter, but it will be T later so I suppose I should put it as T.
It's cold, real cold. A bit of snow is falling, in fact. My whole body feels numb, but I keep running in this freezing tundra. And to make it worse, I can barely see anything ahead of me. It's dark and I have a hood on so my face can't be distinguished. One bakery salesman is chasing Daiki and I, yelling his head off. He also keeps running. We both have a bag of bread loaves occupied on our hands.
Usually, on the second-to-last day of the year, families would be inside a cozy house getting read to celebrate. But winter is the worst season to be living outside in Kumi City. Our stomachs and flesh suffer. The temperature is agonizing. Horrible, just horrible. By the way, my name's Shizu. Shizu Sanu, but I don't think that's my real last name.
"Keep running", Daiki said. I roll my eyes while still sprinting.
"Anything else to say in this time?" I ask. He doesn't reply, we reached a 10 feet tall fence. We both look back at the salesman catching up.
"Ready?" I ask. Daiki nods. I bend my knees, and jump onto the fence. I crawl up the fence as fast as I can, and Daiki does the same. We reach the other side in about a minute. The salesman stops at the fence, and gives a nasty snare.
"You street mutts aren't worth it.", he said and walked away extremely angry. His comment doesn't affect us at all, we've been called that by citiers since we can both remember.
We keep moving, but only walking fast this time. After a few minutes, we see the East Dump. There are 8 dumps in the city. The usual names: North, NE, East, SE, South, SW, West, and NW. They are near the borderlines of the city. The homeless are usually living near the dumps surrounding the city as well. But I'm not homeless, I for one have a tent, so I refuse to say I'm homeless. Daiki and I finally reach our home.
Next to the dumpster, we see a couple of small fires, trying to survive the snow. It looks like about a hundred people live here. We go to our family tent.
"Shizu!" Akio shouts happily and he runs up to hug me. 2 years old and still cute. Akio then runs to Daiki.
Chou comes walking and carrying Kouki. "Welcome back", she said smiling.
"Hope the trip wasn't hard", Yuina said as she walked up behind Chou carrying Ume.
"It was alright." I reply, "Is Ryuta back yet?"
"Not yet." Yuina said.
"Aww, we can't celebrate your birthday yet, Souta." I said smirking.
He appears behind Yuina and said,"I was about to sneak on you! And you're late!"
"Your presence is obvious, and if I'm late then why isn't Ryouta here?" I said. He gives me a glare and then he murmurs 'butt head'. My patience is over. "Huh? What did you say? Butt head?" I shout.
"I was just saying what you are!" he yells back.
"Shut up! Daiki and I were the ones who brought you some freakin' bread!", I shout back.
"I prefer cake more!" he yells. Our family is intently looking at us.
I reached for his neck to choke him when inside the tent someone says, "It's useless fighting with each other, dears." Kazue comes out. Souta and I give her a quick bow.
"I apologize." I say to Souta. He does the same.
Kazue smiles. "Let's all get in the tent now, dears." she suggests. All of us manage to get in the 6 feet by 6 feet tent. We all sit and wait silently for Ryuta. Okay, maybe not silently. Souta and I are glaring at each other, Kouki starts crying, and Akio's stomach is growling.
"Can we pwease eat now?" Akio asks.
"On birthdays, we wait until everyone is here for dinner, dear." Kazue said with patience.
"Well, we can eat now." A voice- Ryuta says while coming inside the tent. "Sorry I'm late."
"Ryuta!" Akio shouts as he runs up to and hugs him. Ryuta hugs back smiling. Now we have to really squeeze inside the tent, but we still manage to fit. Daiki and I give one bread, 5 inches wide and long, to each person. 10 more breads to eat tomorrow. We sing happy birthday to Souta, and everyone older than him tells him something while eating the bread.
"Happy birthday, I still remember when you were a baby~", Chou said.
"Happy 5th birthday, you still have a long way of surpassing me." Daiki said smugly.
"Happy birthday, you still need to mature." I said grinning. Souta gives a pout.
"Happy birthday, you were born five years ago on this day." Yuina said.
"Happy birthday bud, you are one year closer to becoming a man." Ryuta said.
"Happy birthday, hope you listen on what I'll have to tell you tomorrow, dear." Kazue said.
"I can't wait! I wanna know what you guys know about this world!" Souta whines.
"Oh you will, tomorrow. Just have a good snooze tonight." I said, calming him down. The whole family goes to sleep after drinking a few sips of our water supply. I try to go to sleep, but thinking about the day after tomorrow makes me awake for a few extra hours. I still manage to get some sleep at least.
~~~The Next Day~~~
"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" someone shouts, waking me up. I discover the voice belongs to Souta. I quickly open my eyes, sit up, and tell him to be quiet. Kazue, him, and I are the only ones awake.
"People are trying to sleep." I whisper. I'm so tired, didn't get much sleep, I was thinking last night. He opens his mouth, but I interrupt, "You'll know when Kazue has the energy to say it, now go back to sleep." He gives me a glare, and lies back down. I squint my eyes, but I let it slide. Wait a minute. I look around the tent and ask Kazue, "Where's Ryuta?"
"Outside, probably just getting some air, dear." Kazue said.
"I'll visit him then." I reply as I head out of the tent. I see Ryuta sitting on the left side of the outer tent.
He smiles at me. "Happy New Year's Eve." he said.
"Thanks, you too." I said as I smile back. I sit next to him. The sun just rised, it should be about 6:00 AM. The snow from last night dried up mostly, but unfortunately, it'll continue sometime tonight. Only a couple of tents actually have people awake. And as I think of tomorrow, I start fiddling with my thumbs.
"Nervous for tomorrow?" Ryuta asks.
"How can I not be?" I reply with a question.
"Daiki and you will do fine. After all, I made it through, AND I raised you guys." he smiles smugly.
I roll my eyes. Yuina did most of the raising. I hear a noise from the tent as I look back. Daiki comes out, with a sleepy face.
As he yawned he said, "Morning, I mean, Happy New Year's Eve." I give two slow nods. Ryuta gives a smile. Now we three are sitting on the left side of the outside of the tent. I can tell Daiki's also a little nervous; we both have that trait where we squint our eyes and watch into the distance when we're nervous.
"Okay, now that you two are here. I'll give a few tips on Kumi Academy." Ryuta said.
"If we make it." Daiki cuts in. Ryuta gives a weird expression like he's pursing his lips.
"Now, I'm JUST going to say stuff about the try-outs. Waste no time during them." he continues.
"Yes, yes, we'll be as slow as turtles." I cut in, sarcastically. Ryuta purses his lips again. "Okay, sorry, go on." I apologize.
"As I was saying, you two must go right after we celebrate the New Year. I'm sure if you fast walk, you'll reach there in 2 hours. They open the doors at 8 AM but people will already be lining up. Do not forget your birth certificates, it's in the back of the tent. It's your only ticket of admission." Ryuta paused and then took another breath, "I know you guys heard this a few days ago but maybe I'm a bit worried too."
"Well, you are a human." Daiki said lifting both palms up with a face that looks like it's saying 'I don't know'.
I roll my eyes, "You look like a person who spends his day on the computer while smoking." He puts his hands down and smiles creepily. I burst laughing, then Daiki, and then Ryuta. We quiet down after a few seconds knowing our family is still sleeping inside.
"Well, I'll go back to sleep. It's not every day you get a break from work." Ryuta said yawning. He goes back inside, and now Daiki and I are just sitting beside each other. I sighed a bit. We're both silent for a few minutes. I break the silence.
"Let's train for tomorrow, dear cousin." I said mockingly.
"Yes, let's." Daiki replies in the same tone.
We get up, take one water bottle out of our storage, and head out of our little land. We both have no idea how the academy's gonna test us, but we'll try to cover basic stuff. We're walking to a training spot we sometimes go to, next to Kumi River. It meets Kumi's borderline 1 mile north from the East Dump. Although, I don't exactly enjoy lakes, it's quiet and peaceful there. On our way there, we ask a bunch of math and language arts questions. Just in case they pop up in the test we take.
"12x8?" I ask.
"96, name all vowels." Daiki replies.
"A, E, I , O, U, and sometimes Y; square root of 64?" I ask and reply. Our city- and country even- really don't have to know much in book smartness. We just need general basics. We're probably dumb compared to the country Dez. Kazue teaches all the kids in our family the basics. Our questions go on until we reach the lake in 30 minutes.
Here's how our training went, with a few 5-minute breaks here and there:
-Yoga for an hour just stretching and relaxing
-Practice combat skills (kicking and punching) for 45 minutes
-Practice flips, cartwheels, and splits (almost got it!) for 45 minutes
I can tell the time is near 10 AM, maybe 15 or 20 minutes before 10. Oh what the heck, I pull my sleeve up, and look at my rubber watch, it's 9:42. Courtesy of Ryuta, getting it on my 13th birthday. Kazue, he, and I are the only ones with anything that tells time, I feel special. "It's 9:42, want to do our last training while going back the our home?" I ask, smirking a bit.
"Okay", Daiki said, smiling smugly," 1, 2."
"Go!" I shout. We both start sprinting. After 2 minutes of pure sprinting, I start to get tired, but Daiki keeps going. Screw those fast legs. I know he's smiling right now. I pause and take a few deep breaths. All I do now is fast walk. Daiki starts to slow down now. He looks back at me and waves his hand. I squint my eyes, "We're only 6 feet apart!"
"Yeah, but I'm still past you~" he said. I don't like this. My stamina is pretty low. I'm only good at short distance, not long distance. Unlike someone I know. Daiki keeps on being a few feet ahead of me the whole time and I just forget it. We reach home at 9:58. Our family is awake now. Akio runs up and hugs us. I give the water bottle to him. Daiki and I spared about 1/3 of it. He smiles and drinks the rest. We all eat the bread Daiki and I stole from yesterday, but this time only half per person. Souta is as excited as he was a couple of hours ago.
"Okay, Souta, dear, it's time. Ryuta, watch the three young ones in the tent and everyone else, sit outside, dears." Kazue said. Souta jumps for joy. I've been through this, and everyone else above 5 years. Chou was not as irritating as Souta. We all sat down, and I pray it won't snow during this long talk. "Now, Souta dear, what do you know about this world so far?" Kazue asked patiently.
"Well, I think I know common sense, you know, remember to breathe." he said. I roll my eyes. "I know we don't have a home, which means we're poor. I know we're obviously not real family." he continues. Say something about the world, not about you! I say in my mind. Souta still continues, "I know the world is round. I know we're in a city called Kumi in a country called Lual. That's pretty much it." Well, you can't really expect much from a 5 year old.
"We'll tell you the general ideas of our world, dear." Kazue starts.
"Every land, everything in this world, is in one piece. The humans divided it into 6 countries: Thor, Hestle, Lual, Asthy, Dez, and Suipia." Yuina said.
"Each country is known for something, well except Asthy, they've been isolated for hundreds of years. Thor excels mostly at sports and they're very competitive. Hestle have amazing food and drinks, in other words agriculture; you'll learn that word in a few years. Lual, our country, is great at technology. Dez is very book smart and Suipia is filled with 'nature' people." Daiki said. Souta keeps nodding. This is so weird, we're sitting in a circle like a religious ceremony or something.
"We try to avoid war and help each other, the countries. But we sometimes reach conflicts and you don't want to know what happens there. Each country has a royal family, ours is in this city in fact. Although the princess is off visiting other countries, she's been gone for 3 years already." I said, hoping Souta is actually listening.
Chou continues after me, "Our city is special. This is where you can train to become Users. Our country created these armbands that you can use to fight out of this weird material. It's nice."
"Is that where Shizu and Daiki are going to go to tomorrow?" Souta asked?
"Yes, dear, they're going to try out for it. Now on the laws..." Kazue goes on. Then the cycle goes on and on. We talked in a circle for so long that snow fell a few inches. When the whole speech was done, I was so tired.
"Time please." Chou requests. I look at my watch.
"1:55 PM." I reply. She nods. We all got up and stretched. Ryuta comes out of the tent, looking tired of watching three babies. It's hard for him. He used to be a User, and now he's a works at a front desk only getting paid $500 per month. That's why Daiki and I will have to steal food often. I smile. "Let's eat!"
We eat the last bits of the bread. After lunch the whole family gets into a snow fight. We then make snowmen, snow angels, and try to slide on the snow. Many homeless people stare at us, how we're all shouting and laughing at the top of our lungs. Now it's starting to get really cold. Have I said that before? Oh yes, I have.
Everyone goes back inside the tent, and we talk about the year. Our gains, our losses, and our- can't think of anything else. By the time it's 5 PM, we're done doing all the chitchat. We eat supper, and we won't eat again until midnight comes. Of course, anyone under 5 years will have to go to sleep early.
For supper, we have a 7-inch long jar of almond nuts and two packs of beef jerky from our food supply, to share of course. We all eat in happiness. Our family always has four things: beef jerky, almond nuts, water bottles, medicine, and milk for the babies. Oh, and I forgot love.
After supper, I sit in the middle back of the tent. I see Kazue, Ryuta, Daiki, and Souta playing cards on the left side. I see Yuina and Chou tending the babies on the right side. I lay down knowing I need rest. My eyes close and I slowly fade to sleep.
This is the life.
"Shizu, Shizu, wake up." A voice said. I opened my eyes and I saw Chou, Ryuta, and the rest of the family's above 5 years olds behind them. I gave a little mumble, and then I sit up. I rub my eyes.
"Wha? What time is it?" I ask while yawning. I bring up my hand to check my watch when Chou catches it.
"Wait, Shizu." Chou said.
"Before you check the time, I have to say a few things. We didn't want to wake you up, you looked so tired. I'm going to give Daiki and you a beef jerky pack and a water bottle for the tryouts. Here's your birth certificate." Ryuta said. He gives me a beef jerky pack, a water bottle, and my certificate.
"Now you can check the time." Chou said, as she smiles. I look at my watch. There's a pause.
"HOLY CRAP IT'S ONE O' CLOCK!" I shout on the top on my lungs. I hastily put on my jacket, and I make a quick check that I have everything. I run out, I pull Daiki(whose already ready) on his shirt, and run out of the tent with a quick bye to my family. They give me a few waves when I glance back once. I'm sprinting now and so is Daiki. "You better have your birth certificate." I said quickly. He smiles and nods.
"Pretty flashy leave you had there." he said, and snickered a bit. I glare at him.
"Come on, we lost one hour already!" I shout at him.
"Okay, okay." Daiki said. After this, I noticed it was snowing about 2 inches high. I glance at my clock, 1:09 AM.
And then I remembered I didn't tell my family 'Happy New Year'.
A/N: Like it, hate it, ate it? Then review if you have anything to say, thanks~