A/N:
'Cause I'm only human,
And I bleed when I fall down,
I'm only human,
And I crash and I break down.
Your words in my head,
Knives in my heart,
You build me up and then I fall apart,
'Cause I'm only human.
Human - Christina Perri.
Christina Perri is an awesome artist and this is an awesome song, so I recommend you listen to it and/or watch the music video.
Just so you know, the sensitive may get a little spooked/depressed after watching the music video a certain amount of times. You have been warned, people. AND DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS, BECAUSE I AM TOUGH!
Hope you enjoy the chapter!
-Mari's P.O.V.-
My eyes flashed open. I glanced over at my own digital clock that Aunt Cass gave me. 5:34am. What the... It's Saturday, and I'm super tired! Why did I wake up now?
Funnily enough, I couldn't fall back asleep. I sighed. Typical Mari sleeping patterns. May as well get up.
I jumped out of bed, then took a shower, and came out wearing my favourite denim jacket, but with a black guitar shirt and matching leggings. I then wandered down a flight of stairs.
I had no idea what to do, so I wandered over to the living room, sat down on a couch, and watched San Fransokyo from the bay window. Hundreds of neon lights illuminated the city, and the dark living room I was in. Numerous cars flew past the house. The sun announced its presence with a very slight tinge of orange-red on the horizon. Altogether, the view was extremely comforting. I gradually began to drift away, into my personal daydreams...
When I finally stopped daydreaming, the sun was a little way above the horizon, and the neon lighting was slowly starting to turn off. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked up to see Aunt Cass.
"Morning, Sweetie." she greeted, looking down at me.
"Morning, Aunt Cass." I replied.
"You okay? You seem a little...?" she started, but I stopped her.
"No no no, I'm fine." I reassured her.
"Alright. I'll go make breakfast. What would you like?"
"Aunt Cass, it's okay. I've always made my own breakfast. I can..."
"No, you remember that you are technically now my step-niece. I signed the adoption papers yesterday. So, as your step-aunt, what would you like? Scrambled eggs and toast, or my extra special over easy?"
I chucked and gave in. "Fine, I'll have scrambled eggs, thanks."
She looked at me with her face in a teasing pout. "Why is it that when I give people those two options, they always choose scrambled?"
I realised she was playing me, and laughed lightly. "Maybe everyone just loves scrambled more than over easy eggs."
"Probably."
Aunt Cass went into the kitchen to cook up the breakfast, while I continued to stare out the window.
After a few minutes, Aunt Cass called out, "Mari, your food is ready!"
I jumped up from the couch, ran to the table, and scoffed down a heap of scrambled egg.
"Mari, don't stuff your mouth full like that! You've got all the time in the world!" Aunt Cass exclaimed with a shocked face.
"Well, I've never tasted anything so good in, I don't know, eight years, so yeah..."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah," I uttered, "I had to live on food scraps a kind baker gave me. He seemed to overlook the fact I was actually a Fujita, but what was odd, was that he would never let the others eat it. They had to find their own food."
"Maybe he saw that you were actually a good character at heart."
"Uh huh, that's it." I replied, sarcastically.
We both chuckled.
"No, I'm serious. He may have guessed that you were forced to join, which was kind of what actually happened. You never know."
"Okaaaay, if you say so..."
Everything was quiet for a few seconds, but then Aunt Cass came up with a different topic.
"Hey, have you heard about the new mystery superheroine? She's been making appearances around three months ago, and everyone's talking about her. Who she is, and stuff like that. They say she's joined Big Hero 6, or, should I say, Big Hero 7?"
"Actually..." I started, but then I trailed off.
I found my voice again instantly, though. I cleared my throat. "Uh, yeah. I keep hearing it from the gang."
"Ok." was all Aunt Cass replied.
Everything was silent for about seven minutes while we ate, and when we were finished, we both took our plates to the sink, and Aunt Cass persuaded me that she would wash the dishes.
"Honey, if you're wondering, Hiro won't be up until ten or so. And," Aunt Cass added, "I'm usually the only one awake. Do you usually wake up at this time?" she inquired.
I responded, "Sometimes I get an hour of sleep, sometimes a full twelve, but, that's my crazy sleeping habits."
"Wait, why sometimes only one hour?" Aunt Cass asked concerned.
"Uhhhh, stuff." I replied nervously.
"What stuff?" enquired another voice.
I turned around to face Hiro, who was tugging along a red case, subconsciously showing fear on my face.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude..."
"It's okay. It's nothing anyway." I comforted him. But not completely.
"Right..."
"Why are you up at 7:15am on a Saturday, may I ask?" asked Aunt Cass.
"Well, um, I kinda have to meet up with the gang at Fred's house. See you later Aunt Cass!" Hiro yelled as he ran out the door.
Aunt Cass and I both raised an eyebrow.
I turned back to the couch and sat down, looking back at the diminishing street lights. Although, I was only there for five minutes, before yelling out, "I GOT IT! I FINALLY GOT IT!"
"What?" Aunt Cass questioned.
"I NEED TO GET TO SFIT! NOW!"
Before Aunt Cass could interrogate me further, I was already racing out the door, into the familiar streets on San Fransokyo.
I barged through the glass doors of Ito Ishioka, SFIT's Robotics Lab. I turned sharp corners, bumping into multiple confused students on the way, until I reached my personal lab. I pulled out a piece of paper, and set to work on a master project...
Since I knew that my new project would take a little time, and I wanted to get it finished as soon as possible, I decided to bunk in my lab at SFIT, as you can do, although I wasn't able to before because of a person named Ayako.
Aunt Cass and Hiro seemed to be a little concerned, but I managed to persuade them. Aunt Cass gave me a soft blanket, and I slept on a little three-seater couch at a corner of the lab.
Around a week after I set up in my lab, I was eating lunch on my couch when Honey Lemon burst through the lab door, screaming, "MARI, I'VE GOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SHOW YOU!"
"Uhhhhhhhhhh..."
"PLEEEEEEEEEEASE?"
I sighed and gave in. "Fine."
I walked up to Honey, lunch in hand. Without warning, she grabbed me by my forearm, and pulled me along, sprinting though the wide halls.
"Honey Lemon!" I wined.
She didn't stop until we had reached the entrance of the main cafeteria. I glanced at her, puzzled, but she was looking ahead. She tugged me inside, and made me sit at a table, the same one where... the gang were seated at.
Everybody stared at me, and I stared back at them. This continued for half a minute, until I turned to Honey Lemon.
"So, what's the important thing you wanted to show me?" I asked her.
"Oh, that was nothing. Everyone just wanted to get you out of that lab. You've always been busy, and you must be stressing because of it. And, I don't mean to sound selfish, but you haven't been hanging with us lately."
"I haven't been busy!" I protested.
"You never come out of your lab, except to get meals from the cafeteria, where you should be eating, instead of your lab. It's an obvious sign that you're busy!" Wasabi theorised.
"Oh. I'm sorry guys." I said, apologising in a small voice.
"It's fine." everybody replied in sync, then laughed afterward.
The bell rang, indicating that it was break. Everyone had finished their lunch, and put away their own dishes.
"Bye everyone! Have to do work!" I said, waving and walking away. Somebody grabbed my forearm, Gogo, who spun me around.
"Ahem. You have work, again?" she spoke, while the others looked at me expectedly.
"Right. Sorry." I responded.
"Come on! Let's go out for bubble tea!" Fred exclaimed.
"We just ate." Wasabi stated.
"I DON'T CARE! BUBBLE TEA IS AWESOME!"
Everyone else in the cafeteria turned around sharply and looked at all of us, glares marking their faces. I yelped faintly and hid behind Hiro, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious.
After a few seconds, everyone turned back to whatever they were doing. I sighed heavily, moving away from my human hiding place.
"What was that?" Hiro asked me.
"Instincts." I replied.
"Instincts?"
"Uh huh, instincts." I confirmed, looking at the ground.
"Bubble tea!" Fred exclaimed, though not as loud as before, while fist pumping the air.
"Yeah!" exclaimed everyone else, following Fred's lead and fist pumping the air as well, before exiting the building to then enter the nearest bubble tea shop.
A/N: And that's what happens when Mari randomly has an idea spring up in her mind. And when people look at her harshly. Mari fun facts, peeps.
About my updating, yeah. It's not exactly every Saturday, it's irregular. So I will be updating every Saturday and other times during the week (because I'm an impatient idiot. Yay me).
Sad that I had to say goodbye to the school leavers from this year yesterday. They were great friends.
Stay awesome!