Upon awakening that morning, something seemed almost tragically off. The smell of pancakes wafted through the small house as Tyra arose from her bed, likely summoned by her mother for school.
On any normal morning, she would have shot awake, no thanks to her alarm, and promptly shut it off before curling back to sleep for another half hour before her next alarm would sound off. In any case, she slipped out of the blankets and padded through the darkness in search of the light switch located directly next to her door.
Flicking the switch, the room became illuminated by fluorescent light and she was able to finally see her room. The anime figurines littering her desk were the most vibrant objects in the entirety of the room, only shadowed by the looming bookshelf directly next to them.
Today she chose out simple clothing, just a short-sleeved green shirt that draped almost to her knees in the back and mid-thigh in the front with comfy black leggings underneath. Suddenly, the thought hit her, it was today.
Before she could run to her laptop, also located on the antique wooden desk, her mother called once again, "Tyra, are you awake yet? You have school in half an hour!"
With a sigh, she headed downstairs to eat, knowing her mother would be miffed if she had to be called again. Because she hadn't woken up earlier, there wouldn't be time to read what she wanted to, so instead she would be forced to wait until the end of the day to be satisfied.
Her mother sat down a plate of chocolate chip pancakes in front of Tyra as she sank into her wooden chair. "Eat up! I'm leaving soon and you still need to get everything together."
"What is all of this for?" She questions, glancing between her mom and the steaming food.
"Normally you either grab frozen waffles from the toaster or simply decide to do without, so today I thought you should get a decent breakfast."
"Thank you..." she graciously accepts the food, cutting it up and stuffing it into her mouth without syrup. After finishing, she runs upstairs to grab her bag and rushes out the door to her mom's car as they leave to drop her off.
Quickly running home from her school, Tyra slows as she turns a corner onto her street. Grasping tightly onto her Attack on Titan bag, she stops for a moment to take a breath at her doorstep.
Most of the time, her mom would be getting out any minute now, but she had a meeting at the school below her grade that day, so Tyra decided to walk, or well run, instead. The house wasn't very large, so with her amount of energy at age 14, her room quickly came into view.
Dropping her bag inside, she hastily threw herself into the spinning chair and opened up her laptop screen. The wood of her desk was a nice dark brown that she liked, however there were other parts of her room that she was not so enthused about.
Specifically, the slowness of her computer. It wasn't easy of course, but she held away an exaggerated eye-roll as the lock screen finally popped up. Typing in her password, she was practically jumping in her seat with excitement.
The cause of this excitement was of course the cause of her soon despair, the final chapter in the Naruto manga. With no one at school to share in her energy, Tyra was forced to hold it in and only semi-pay attention in class until the final bell rang.
Thankfully though, she had pre-set her window the night before on an online manga reading website and so didn't have to look very far for it. Moving her mouse over, she clicked on the blue arrow to go to the next page and so began to read the last installment of the Naruto series.
"No, no!" It can't be over!" Tyra cries at the end.
She is sitting in front of her laptop screen as the sun sinks behind it's horizon without holding back her sadness. Larger tears run down her face and onto the long green t-shirt and black leggings.
She hears the door open downstairs and the sound of shuffling feet before her mother calls out, "Tyra!"
"Yes?" She calls back, immediately wiping away her tears.
"I brought some dinner!"
With a sigh, she turns back to her computer, pressing the mouse over the screen to signal for the website to go back to chapter one. However, as she goes to put the computer to sleep, planning to return to it later, a strange light began to be emitted by it.
She only had time for a "Wha-" before the light became too bright and she closed her eyes against the onslaught.