A/N: Edited :)
Somewhere in the world, an alarm clock burst to life, spewing out the latest rock music at an unbearable level and waking one foul mouthed human. Sheets flew into the air, landed on the floor, and were trampled by the occupant of the bed. With red hair askew and eyeliner smeared down her face she looked like a Zombie. Groaning, which only caused her to appear more like the walking dead; she dragged herself out of bed and pulled on a sweater to block out the chill of the morning.
Light streamed in through half open blinds, illuminating her room and giving it a surreal quality. Clothes, shoes, and bags spilled out of an open closet, covering the hardwood floor. The mess traveled across the ground and reached all the way to a desk chair set up next to the disheveled bed. Papers filled with writing and doodles were strewn about her small desk in a haphazard manner and her dresser was covered with all sorts of junk that could typically be found in a woman's room.
She took a few seconds to admire her masterpiece before making her way out into the small kitchen. Moving about as if routine, she opened the fridge to reveal nothing but a few plastic tubs of leftover spaghetti and a half filled bottle of milk. The light flickered despairingly.
Thoroughly depressed she slammed the door shut and ignored the appliance as it wobbled dangerously. Instead she shoved a few pieces of bread into a greasy toaster and waited impatiently for a meal that only slightly resembled breakfast.
Ember Willows was a college student struggling to live in a small apartment that was also occupied by her two best friends. Together they paid the bills and attempted to clean the home during sporadic fits of boredom. She was studying to become a writer, hoping to compose novels for children, but one wouldn't have guessed that by listening to the way she talked. With her crude language and blunt insults she could probably put a sailor to shame.
Three states away her family inhabited a two story gray house on a hill surrounded by a picketed fence and farmland. She only ever got to see them on the holidays but she called almost every day and kept all their pictures up on the fridge with little handmade magnets she had bought from an art festival a few years ago.
She shivered and bitterly took a bite out of her toast while glancing over at a rusted old thermostat curiously; 65 degrees. She cursed and stomped back towards her room, banging on the only other bedroom door as she passed by.
"It's time to get your asses in gear!" she shouted. She shoved the rest of the toast into her mouth and stumbled about her room, tripping over piles of dirty clothes, looking for something decent to wear. Satisfied with a pair of skinny jeans and a black t-shirt she pulled the sweater back over her head and moved into the bathroom where she brushed her teeth and reapplied her make-up.
With the usual morning necessities completed she ran back to her room, running into a disgruntled Taylor. She was just as tall as Ember with blond hair and brown eyes framed by a friendly face that was, at the moment, not looking so friendly. Ember heard her mutter something along the lines of death and despair before she lifted her purse off of her desk chair and rushed for the front door.
"I'll see you guys later, I've got errands to run!" she called over her shoulder before stepping out into the frigid air. Coming from the far south, Ember wasn't used to the cold, so unlike most of the locals who were walking around in long sleeved shirts, she had her trusty sweater on, a scarf, and a black knit cap that came down to her eyebrows.
Glancing down the breezeway of her apartment she locked the door before pulling her bike out from under the stairwell. Quietly and somewhat miserably she counted off all her sacrifices to live away from her parents and on her own; 'I do not have heat, I starve myself every other week until payday, I ride my bike instead of driving my perfectly good (Gas Guzzling) car, I take ten minute showers, I have yet to eat at a restaurant, and last but not least, I put up with my two best friends who happen to be idiots.' Feeling like a whiny Cinderella, she squeezed the handlebars of her bike and shut her eyes, eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to rein in her annoyance and self-pity.
Deep breath.
Sigh.
She opened her eyes and threw a leg over her bike and pushed off from the ground. It wasn't like she was about to lose her home or anything, but still, one couldn't help but feel frustrated by their situation.
Mentally, Ember went over her list of chores today. She knew she had to buy food, otherwise they would seriously starve and no one would bother to come looking for them because they were all lazy good for nothings anyways. She also had to pay the bills and pick up Taylor's birthday cake. It was days like these she was thankful for the huge basket she had made Cody put on the back of her bike for her.
The sky, slightly cloudy but still with plenty of blue visible, went practically unnoticed by Ember and the rest of the inhabitants of the city. Everyone was so busy and intent on getting where they were going that they forgot to stop and examine their surroundings; it was a typical human flaw.
Glancing down at the ground, Ember marveled at the fact that it was soaking wet when she honestly didn't remember it raining. But then again, she had worked her ass off and hadn't gotten home till 10:30 and fallen asleep the second her head hit the pillow. She vaguely wondered if she had had any homework last night to finish. Shrugging she continued to ride down the sidewalk and down the street towards city hall; bills first, food later.
"Stretching it a bit aren't we?" Bill asked. He was one of the few people that were actually kind to Ember when she came in to drop off the water bill and such even though Ember had laughed at him the first time he had introduced himself. His name was Bill and people paid their bills…yeah anyways. Terrible pun aside, Ember still had to pay her bills.
"You have no idea; I don't know how much longer I can keep up." Ember sighed and absently snatched a lollipop from the basket on his desk. People scurried about in the grey tiled room, the sound of quiet talking and office phones seeped out from a doorway that led back into the building. She sniffed the stuffy air warily, feeling out of place in the bland office.
"Don't worry, you're young. I'm sure you'll pull though." Bill straitened a stack of papers while Ember peeled the plastic from the sugary treat.
"Yup, what did that old guy from the Chocolate Factory say? 'More money is printed everyday' or something like that…" she sighed and stuck the candy in her mouth. Bill chuckled as she pouted and Ember shot him a playful glare before pushing away from the desk she had been leaning on. "Well, I gotta head out, I got stuff to do."
"Be careful," he warned as she turned her back to him and headed for the door. "The governments doing some crazy stuff these days."
Ember chuckled and waved goodbye before stepping back out into the cold. 'He probably thinks all that mission city alien mumbo jumbo is true,' she thought dryly. She dragged her bike from behind a set of bushes and walked it down the sidewalk to the crosswalk where she waited for the light to change. She watched as cars passed by, their engines chugging away almost happily. Bitter thoughts slithered into her mind.
"Hey Em."
She glanced over at her shoulder to see a young man around her age, dark shaggy hair and blue eyes rivaling her own. He was wearing worn jeans and a pair of heavy duty boots, a hoodie covered a barely visible band t-shirt.
"Hey Cody, what's up?" she greeted casually.
"Nothing much, just scored some tickets to a secret concert, you down?" He stood next to her with his hands in his pockets and a grin of his own.
"You know the rules; I can't go anywhere unless I ask my mom number one and mom number two." She chuckled and pushed her bike out onto the street just as the light changed. The tires clicked away as they dutifully spun, crunching against the loose pebbles and pavement on the road.
"Taylor and Shelby can come too, I got a crap load of tickets for free," he jogged to catch up with her and Ember hummed thoughtfully. Her eyes drifted up to the sky in thought.
"I'll see what they have planned. Don't forget Taylor's Birthday is tomorrow," she warned and Cody nodded obediently.
"How could I?" He sounded insulted and Ember laughed. "You're getting the cake and stuff now?"
"Yeah, wanna help?" She glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes. The second he turned to look at her she turned to face him with a full on puppy dog pout.
"Gah! Jeez! Don't look at me like that!" They both laughed and Cody ended up following her to grocery store with the excuse that he had nothing else to do anyways. They stood in front of the counter at the store trying to pick out a cake that Taylor would like. Ember even pressed her face up against the glass to inspect a promising one. Cody only shook his head and glanced around, hoping no one was looking in their direction while she made a fool of herself. When they finally settled on a chocolate one Ember collected a few other items they needed before dragging Cody to the cash register. The two idly looked through tabloid magazines while waiting in line.
"Listen to this one; Giant Alien Robots Destroy National Monument," Ember snickered and handed the magazine to Cody who glanced at the picture of the robot from the animated movie 'Iron Giant.'
"Classic," he commented.
They carried everything out to her bike and carefully loaded it into the basket that hung over the back tire. Ember climbed onto the bike and pushed it along slowly so Cody could keep up. The two chattered about the upcoming concert excitedly on the way back to Ember's apartment, caring little about their surroundings, in fact, at one point when they had been crossing the street a silver corvette stingray nearly mowed her over. It had slammed on its breaks just in time and Ember glared at it and flicked the driver off, a younger man around their age, before steering her bike around the rumbling vehicle.
The car's engine growled before it peeled away in a cloud of smoke that smelt heavily of burnt rubber.
"Wow, what a fuck face," Ember deadpanned. Cody snickered into the cake he was holding. He was one of the few who actually appreciated Ember's blunt language, even when she didn't use any curse words she still managed to come up with some pretty good insults. "So ANYWAYS, who else did you get to come over tomorrow?"
"Uh, a bunch, you said invite the gang so I…yeah," he trailed off with a nervous chuckle. His eyes flitted about nervously.
Ember stared at him with eyes wide. "Holy shit nuggets! Ok, you're buying snacks then." Cody argued but it was pretty much impossible to win an argument against a brick wall of sarcasm.
When the two stepped through the front door of her apartment they were greeted with excited voices and what sounded like an action movie playing in the background. Cody blinked in confusion while placing the cake in the bare fridge. Ember handed him the rest of the groceries before making her way to the back room to find out what was going on.
"Ember, they've got more video of those crazy alien things!" Shelby shouted. Shelby was shorter than both Taylor and Ember and her pixie cut hair was two toned, one side was black and the other bleach blond. She was hopping around in pajama pants and a tank top while Taylor sat at the computer, staring at the screen critically.
"It's just a fake, those things aren't real," Ember replied wryly.
"No way, look!" Taylor pulled Ember down in front of the computer to watch. She was forced to come face to face with video of what indeed looked like alien robots, and she had to admit, it didn't look faked at all.
Cody slid into the room to watch as well. On the clip, people were screaming from inside a building, crouching by a window, while outside the robots were fighting and at one point a giant one stepped close enough to shake the building. An explosion occurred off screen and the camera was turned off.
'Great, they're never going to shut up about this now…'she thought gloomily. Then, "Wait a minute, how did you get this?"
"Uhhhh," Taylor and Shelby shared a look before simultaneously jumping up and running out of the room. About a month and a half ago Shelby had found some videos that the government really didn't want getting out. Needless to say, Ember was woken up at two in the morning by some sketchy looking guys in black suits asking (ordering) he to hand over her computer. Not wanting to cause any trouble, Ember had done as she was told after shouting a few choice words at the men. A week later a new computer was found in front of her door.
"They're so mature," she muttered. Cody laughed and followed after the two girls, probably to go watch TV. Ember sighed and walked out into the living room. "I'm gonna run back out again, Cody, watch the idiots."
Cody saluted and jumped onto the couch with a sigh. Shelby picked the remote up and absently flipped through channels. They appeared to affix themselves in place, anyone would assume they had always been stuck to the couch in those exact positions.
Stepping out the front door Ember growled in annoyance but once again threw her leg over her bike and headed for the dollar store this time. If as many people as she thought were coming tomorrow, she was going to need a shit ton of paper plates and cups. She mentally went over the last week's expenses, figuring her account balance and how much she would be able to waste on the party.
Peddling down the street she couldn't help but think of the video. If it was true then there were either some REALLY big government robots hanging around, or Earth finally got some visitors of the extra terrestrial sort. She hoped it wouldn't turn out like War of the Worlds, or that new movie Skyline. Humans generally won in Hollywood, but reality could be a whole other ball game. She grunted in a very unladylike fashion, hating how weak humanity was.
She was just riding up onto the bridge, feeling gravity drag at her legs, when there was the sound of a blearing car horn accompanied by squealing tires. Ember glanced over her shoulder and froze. Well, at least her body did, but the bike kept moving. Despite that there was a car coming straight for her she still managed to form a sarcastic thought.
"Of course only something like this could happen to me."
In slow motion it probably would have looked really cool, but sadly for Ember, no adrenalin kicked into her system because it was all happening too fast. The car smacked into her and the force threw her off her bike, up over the hood, and onto the ground behind it where she lay unconscious.
It was that stupid silver stingray…