beeeep beeeep beeep beeeep bee- the alarm was cut off as the well-rested boy lazily dropped his hand on the snooze button. He then stretched up his arms and yawned, a fresh start to a morning routine he had been developed over the years.
Milo had pulled off the covers of his bed and used the ladder to climb off his bunk. While standing in his red t-shirt and navy shorts, he began to walk over to the window with his trusty dog, Diogee, close by. He undid the lock and pushed the panel up to open the window.
"Oh, boy, Diogee! Doesn't it just seem like a perfect day?" he inquired, not expecting an answer. It was pretty nice, sun shining, but with a nice breeze rolling through, keeping things from getting too hot-a perfect day in late May. He closed his eyes and took a deep inhale through his nose, only to be startled by the buzz of electricity that had become all but extinct since the summer of 7th grade. He opened his eyes to see bright green laser beams shooting through the air in the city of Danville, coming from the general area of the water tower they installed a few years ago.
"Woah, that can't be a good sign." He leaned out the window to get a better look at the phenomenon, his head whipping around with the sound of multiple rays zooming by.
Most of the beams seemed to dissipate after they reached the clouds, and a few hit inanimate objects like the neighbor's mailbox and someone's yard, however, one beam and found its way toward an unsuspecting teen who was busy with his eyes following the path of the other beams.
"HHGaaaaAAAHHHHH!" The boy was struck in the chest from a stray green beam and had sent him flying across the room until he hit the opposite wall. THUD!
Diogee had quickly run to the boy's rescue, and had joined his side as he had slide down the wall and fell onto his hands and knees.
His elbows shook as he tried to keep himself up, and all the good vibes from the endless stream of optimism that had once been Milo Murphy had suddenly and unexpectedly vanished. His eyes, once filled with wonder for what the world had to offer him that day, had changed to an angry stare filled with distaste for anything that happened to cross his path.
After the shock of being thrown across the room had worn of and his shaking slowed, Milo got to his feet and made his way to one mirror in his room. Diogee suspected that something was off about his owner and had avoided the stomping feet that made their way across the bedroom.
Milo got to his mirror and started to inspect himself, first by turning his head to the left, looking for any new injuries, and then to the right.
"Bark bark."
The little dog had kept his distance for the most part, but came closer to investigate his owner, by sniffing at his knees before being scolded, "Hey, back off, you runt!"
A small creak of the door broke Milo's focus on his pet, he had turned his head around to get a better view of the intruder. "Ughhhh-hey Milo, is everything okay in here?"
His older sister, Sara-back from college on break, and in his room. Gosh, was she always this nosy?
He ran to the door slamming it in her face, she never saw it coming, "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, SARA! GAHH!"
Sara, not expecting to wake up before 9 today (considering she was on vacation from college), was dumbfounded from the interaction from her usually annoyingly cheerful, morning person of a brother. "That was odd, I've never seen that look on his face before." She just kept thinking about that glare: the narrowed eyebrows, and that frown. She had never seen him frown before-not like that.
Behind the door, Milo squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his teeth, and ran his fingers through his hair vigorously. He paced around his room, opening his eyes as to avoid running into something, until his eyes landed on the clothes he had set out the night before. White long-sleeve shirt next to a pair of folded up jeans and his purple argyle sweater vest he had traded his striped one for years ago when he had started high school. Now these clothes didn't fit him; sure they fit physically, but they didn't fit his attitude. No, he had to wear something different today.
He pulled out the top drawer to the left of his desk, only socks. Second drawer t-shirts, which he used as night shirts, but there were a few that would be good enough to wear today. Third drawer, other pairs of jeans that were worse for wear after certain incidents including a midnight sleep walk trip to a sandpaper factory. He pulled out a pair with the knees ripped out, "Yeah, that's it." He went back to the t-shirt drawer and pulled a plain white tee.
After putting on the garments, he walked back over to the mirror, giving it a stink eye as he was contemplating what else to wear, and then he remembered his closet filled with jackets and safety vests to suit any occasion. Milo stomped over and reorganized his closet by throwing most of it on the floor, until he found it: the leather jacket he got when he helped a pilot land his plane after the landing gear malfunctioned. He was so happy that day, he was able to help was nothing like that day.
He slipped the jacket on one sleeve at a time while remembering all the things that emphasized the fact how everyone-even the uncontrollable forces of the universe-were out to get him.
Milo rummaged through his collection of boots and found the pair he had worn during his motorcycle classes.
"Yeah, I should take the bike today." He knew his parents were out of town and Sara sure wasn't gonna stop him. He just had to walk over to Zack's house where his parents surprisingly let him use their garage for storage for things that Murphy's Law would destroy too easily given the proximity to Milo and his father.
He slipped on his boots, and moved back towards the door-there was no reason for Sara to still be hanging around outside his room-and the door gave a slight groan as he pulled it open.
"Good". She was nowhere to be seen. He made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth, hastily closing the door behind him and leaving a loyal little companion stuck inside.
"Hhhurrggghhh huuuurrpphh," Diogee groaned, muffled behind the door. Luckily for him, the older sibling heard his cries from her room and let him out. She knelt down next to him, petting his back. Diogee whimpered softly.
"I know, boy, something about Milo is definitely off, and we need to figure out what it is," Sara replied, as if she understood the animal- maybe after all these years, she did.
They both sat down on the floor waiting for Milo to leave the bathroom, Sara still had to get ready for the day too, until the door flung open with a thud as it hit the wall. Milo stepped outside the room into the hallway.
"And just what are you looking AT?!" the end of the sentence had increased in volume, catching both Sara and Diogee off-guard. He turned again, heading down the hallway towards the stairs, stomping with every stride.
As the angry teenaged boy made his way down the stairs, Sara hurried her way through her morning routine, skipping some steps in applying make-up for she was too concerned to care; she needed to tail Milo and figure out more about the situation.
She finished up in the bathroom and rushed downstairs, jumping past the last two steps, and after sticking the landing she walked over to the kitchen table with Diogee close behind. She stayed behind the wall, only peeking around the corner only to find Milo eating cinnamon cereal from the box with his hands, then grabbing milk from the refrigerator, and proceeding to drink it straight from the carton. A silent gasp escaped from her mouth. 'What is he doing? Milo would never drink from the carton,' she thought to herself. 'Hm.'
Milo finished his 'breakfast' and went out the door without a word to his less than hidden sibling, or his dog. Sara followed his path out the door and noticed that Milo left his backpack. Now she knew something was very wrong. He would never, ever voluntarily, leave his backpack behind; anything that he would need would be there, within reach, but it wouldn't do him much good here. Sara grabbed the right strap and slung the heavy sack over onto her shoulders. "Good, it's already packed, but still…." she ran back to the kitchen, opened the bottom drawer to the cupboard, and pulled out a roll of duct tape. "You never know."
Sara walked back over to the front door and held it open. "Come on, Diogee, we gotta figure out what happened to Milo."
The little dog sprinted out the door and took off down the street the way Milo had gone. "Arf! Arf!" Sara locked the door and followed behind her little brother's little dog. She had to get to the bottom of this, she had to figure out what changed her brother so suddenly.
