My eyes fluttered open against a ray of sunlight shining through a large window and onto my face. That, however, wasn't the only thing that roused me from my sleep. The other factor was a dull, throbbing pain in my shoulders and back.

With a small groan, I rolled over, moving from laying on my stomach to laying on my side. Pulling an arm free from under my torso, I reached up to my face and rubbed at my eyes using my wrist. After clearing the gunk from my thrat, my eyes wandered over towards the wall across from me and settled upon a clock. Half past noon. Close to the normal time I woke up nowadays.

Letting a large yawn flow up through my lungs and out my mouth, I swung my legs off the bench and placed my feet on the floor. My eyes moved from the clock to my thighs, and from there to my feet. I stared at my sneekers for a minute, blinked, then shook my head and looked back up and over to the front desk of the bus station.

There was no one up front. Slightly surpised by this, I rose to my feet and streached my arms up above my head, as well as my tail, except it moved straight out instead of straight up.

It must be a holiday of some sort, I thought dismissively to myself as I walked towards the door of the station. My tail swayed gently behind me, completely independent of my thoughts, as I pressed my palms against the cool, smooth glass of the door.

I stepped outside the door only to lean back against it once I was outside. My eyes trailed along after a car that drove by. It was pretty nice looking. A shiny, lime green Volkswagon. Following up from the car, which had already disappeared over a small hill, my eyes settled themselves upon the view of the sky. I stared at it for a moment, then chuckled, shook my head, and started walking up the sidewalk to where a cafe I knew about was.

It would rain about five times a day, where I lived. In Hawaii. For some reason this just amused me. I had been living here for a while now, simple because I liked being near the ocean better than when I was living inland. I always felt stranded and lost when I was too far away from the sea. At least there I could place myself on a map inside my head and know where I was.

I walked up to a glass door and stopped, then turned and looked at it. There was a picture of a foaming, steaming cup of coffee in white, and print under it reading "Harmino's Coffeehouse Best." I stared blankly at the picture for about a minute or two, imagining how great it'd be to have a nice, steaming mug of coffee with me right now. Sadly, that wouldn't happen. Couldn't blow money on petty things like that.

I walked into the tiny cafe on the corner of the block, eyes skimming the red and white decor. The young woman at the counter glanced up at me, stared at my still-swaying tail for a moment, then went back to cleaning the counter, although I could see her glance up at me every once in a while.

I simply shook my head to myself, then found a vaccent booth by the large glass window at the front of the shop and sat in it. When I sat, my hands strayed to the pockets of my camoflauge shorts. I felt inside them with two fingers, but only found lint.

"Damn the luck." I muttered to myself. Must have left my money in my othe rpair of shorts. Ah well, I could survive without food for a few days. But still...

My eyes moved down to my stomach, where my left hand was rested. I feld my stomach grumble, both from inside and through my hand.

With a small sigh, I gurned slightly in my seat, got comfortable, and stared blankly out the glass window, waiting patiently for night to fall. Night... The one time I could actually get stuff done... Earn money.. get food..