Riley's POV:
I was lying in my bed, slowly but surely waking up. Mom must have yelled for me to wake up at least six times by now. At this point, I knew she was being serious so I managed to tiredly lift my back up off the bed. I stretched my arms up and yawned before turning around so that my feet were dangling off the bed. Soon enough, I touched my feet to the ground and stood up. I slowly walked on over to my closet and opened it, looking at a variety of dresses, along with several outer outfits. Consciously, I chose one of my most favorite dresses in the whole wide world and got it off of the hanger. Then I went over to my dresser and picked out the rest of my clothes. After doing that, I went into the bathroom and started to get changed into my outfit.
"Riley, honey! Are you up? Breakfast's ready!" Mom yelled for me while I was still getting myself dressed for another day of school.
"Yeah, mom! I'm getting dressed, be down in a minute!" I yelled somewhat loudly so that she'd be able to hear me. I then got myself the rest of the way dressed and made my venture down the stairs. After I got down the flight of stairs, I looked to the dining room table to see mom, daddy, and Auggie all sitting there. They seemed to already been eating breakfast. I then greeted all of them with a wide smile. "Hi guys!"
Auggie was the first to respond. He was so adorable with his innocent little smile. "Hi Riley! How are you today?"
I giggled a little at his enthusiasm. I then kneeled down to his level so it'd be easier to talk to him. "I'm doing great, Auggie. How are you?" I simply asked the kid in response. I had a smile on my face for the entire time.
"I'm good." He giggled, looking up at me as if I was the most important person in the whole world. And, to him, I guess I was. Well, besides Mom and Dad, of course. He'd always been real close to them, in all of his five years of living.
I then noticed Mom turning her head towards me. She opened her mouth almost immediately after my encounter with Auggie. "Morning, Riley! Oatmeal's out on the stove."
I nodded my head and shouted quickly. "Thanks Mom!" I then headed towards the kitchen and grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet. After that, I went over to the stove and looked at the pot of oatmeal. It was still piping hot! I carefully grabbed the large spoon which was inside of the pot and scooped up a spoonful of the oatmeal. I got about another spoonful or two of oatmeal before returning to the table. Everything was basically quiet there for awhile besides the sound of everyone eating or Mom and Dad sipping away at their coffee. I, however, was just silently eating my oatmeal. It seemed like it was just way too early for me to be able to function properly today. I mean, usually I'm all awake and alert, but today, not so much. But whatever, I guess I just didn't get enough sleep last night.
"You okay there, Riley?" Daddy asked me in a gentle voice. I came to noticed that there was a concerned look on his face. He must've really noticed I wasn't as chipper as my usual self.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired is all." I smiled gently and continued to eat my breakfast. I'd gotten to the bottom of the bowl within five to ten minutes. By the time I had finished, I happened to hear a familiar buzzing sound.
"Maya." My best friend, Maya simply stated over the intercom. I heard her let out a quiet yawn before I gave her a spoken response.
"Just a sec!" I shouted with great excitement as I ran over to the door. I then pressed the buzzer which would open the door right away. "Okay, it's open!"
With that, Maya came right into our apartment. Together, the two of us walked right over to the breakfast table. We then sat right down beside each other.
Mom looked towards her and decided to talk. "Maya, oatmeal's out in the kitchen. Go get yourself some."
"No thank you, Mrs. Matthews." Silly Maya. She obviously must have thought that she was just offering some to her. But that wasn't the case. Mom had always been somewhat strict about Maya, or anyone else for that matter, coming over before leaving for school.
"I wasn't offering." Mom said rather bluntly. "Seriously, go get yourself some."
"Okay.." Maya said with a sigh. It was clear she didn't even want any to begin with. But mom, she didn't care. She wanted us to have a good, healthy breakfast before we went to school. Mom figured that neither of us actually ate the disgusting cafeteria food half of the time. Well, Maya actually ate the food but that's enough blabbering out of me. Maya went over to the stove and got herself some oatmeal before returning to the seat next to me. She ate the contents of her bowl slowly and I, being the great friend that I am, just waited patiently for her to finish.
After finishing her breakfast, I happened to look at the clock to notice it was 6:57 AM.
"Guess we should go, huh?" I asked her politely, pointing at the clock.
"Wow, it's that time already?" Her eyes turned wide whenever noticing the time. She then turned to me and nodded. "Yup, let's go."
With that, we both got up from our seats and started to head for the front door. But not without looking over to my family. "Bye!" I said as I waved goodbye to both mom and dad and Maya and I exited the apartment. We walked out to the street and noticed it was raining. "Great…" I rolled my eyes with sarcasm. I was practically drenched by the pouring rain. It really was a shame that we didn't bring an umbrella with us cuz I was absolutely freezing! But yeah, we walked for what seemed like an hour, but in all reality, it was probably no more than thirty minutes. After those long minutes of walking in the pouring rain, Maya and I finally got to the subway station.
We showed the workers our passes and they let us through to get on the subway. We had to wait and wait for about ten to fifteen minutes until everyone who was going on the subway was boarded.
"Alright, if everybody's on board, we're going to depart to our first stop." I heard a man announce over the subway's intercom.
So within a minute or two, I felt the subway start to move. But, something about the subway just seemed a bit off. It was making some weird sounds which were really starting to freak me out.
"M-Maya..?" I gulped nervous and clung onto her arm due to fear.
"What is it, Riles?" She asked, having noticed the fear in my eyes.
"The..The subway..it's not supposed to make these kind of noises, right?" I asked, my words getting kind of stuttery every now and again.
"Eh, I'm sure it's nothing. Don't worry about it, alright?" She said in a soothing voice, as if she were trying to calm me down.
It just wasn't working though. I was still freaking out very much, inside and out. I decided I would just stay sitting there nervously. But then I saw a flame ignite from afar. I knew it wasn't just 'nothing' now. "M-MAYA!" I instantly screeched, pointing a finger at the ever-so-quickly spreading fire.
Her eyes instantly widened with fear, which was really strange considering that she was normally really brave. "R-Riley, we need to get outta here-" Maya spoke in a strict voice whenever a loud fiery explosion cut her off.
I made an attempt to hold onto her but I didn't have much luck. The force of the explosion sent me flying through a nearby window. I felt glass shards pierce my skin, along with a horrible burning sensation that took over my entire body. I came to a realization: My entire body caught on fire. This was probably the least of my problems if I was to be totally honest because soon the subway tumbled over, crushing every bone in my entire body. My world faded into darkness as the last bit of my consciousness had slipped away.