Author's note:

This story is also published on Wattpad. I am EmmaFultz on Wattpad. I am posting it on both platforms in order to help it reach a wider audience. Just thought I should post this in case someone happens upon it on the other platform, and gets worried. :)

Five POV

I stared down into my physics textbook, flipping one of the flimsy pages.

'Basic stuff,' I thought to myself. 'Too easy. '

It's been four years since my siblings and I returned to 2019 from Dallas. Four entire, mundane years. Two months ago, I turned 18 years old. Now it was snowy December, and I was studying up for the physics final I would be taking in the morning at the university. I didn't need to study. I didn't need these idiotic courses at all. I knew more about physics than my pea-brained professor could ever understand. But in this world, nobody believes you when you tell them you're really 62 years old. And nobody takes you seriously in your field unless you have the degree to bolster your name.

I finished an equation I was writing out on a pad of paper that Vanya had brought home from the store. The old heater in her apartment kicked on, rumbling to life and gushing warm air into the living room. It was near ten o'clock, and she'd be getting home soon from closing up the music shop.

Vanya and I had grown close over the past years. Seeing that I was too young to convince anyone to rent me my own apartment, I lived with her, sleeping on the couch night after night until it drove me insane. But she provided good company, and she was quiet. She never interrupted me when I worked. Vanya, without a doubt, is my favorite sister.

I heard her keys rattle in the door. Good, she was home.

'I brought you dinner.' , she said as she walked through the door, holding a box of Chinese takeout in my direction. 'From the place downtown.'

'Thanks sis.' I appreciated the gesture. I hadn't noticed how hungry I was until she mentioned food. For the longest time, I never had food readily available. Living in the apocalypse meant rummaging around, sometimes miles from my home, to find the smallest scraps of nourishment. And after time, the hunger pains just went away. I got used to going hungry, so food wasn't something I was used to dwelling on.

'You really should turn some more lights on, Five.' , Vanya said in a quiet tone as she pulled the string on a lamp next to my armchair. 'You're going to hurt your eyes trying to read in the dark.' Moving towards the kitchen, she stumbled over a pile of papers I had stacked in the floor, stumbling down to her knees.

'I find it quite humorous how the most powerful member of our family is still the biggest klutz I've ever encountered. And I've met a lot of people.' , I said, laughing slightly. She shook her head and smiled. She lifted one of the papers she had tripped over, and her nose crinkled up as she examined its contents.

'And I find it funny how the only member of our family who has the ability to breech the space-time continuum is taking an entry level physics course at a community college.' , she retorted. Well played.

'What can I say, you have to go through the man if you crave the respect of the people.' , I shot back. She made a single finger gun at me and gave an approving look. With that, the phone began to ring. Vanya straightened the pile of papers and then walked to the wall, grabbing the old fashioned thing and holding it up to her ear.

'Hello?'

I examined her face to see who the caller was.

'Klaus! Is it really you?' , she said in an elevated tone, her face lighting up. 'I didn't think you could get reception in Bali!'

Oh, Klaus. My most eccentric brother. After we got back, he was the first to get bored. He bought a scratch off ticket from a gas station, and with a surprising roll of fortune's wheel, he won ten million dollars all for himself. That human Ouija board then proceeded to ship himself off to Bali, buy a luxury house in the middle of the jungle, and start a medium service for the Indonesian people. They loved him, apparently. We'd received letters and packages about once a month, but this had been the first phone call in the last four years. I was shocked to hear it was him, obviously.

I watched as Vanya's face shifted from joyful, to shocked, and then back to joyful, but increased by a factor of ten. I tried for a moment to predict what he might be saying to her. Maybe he found a muscular Indonesian man. Perhaps, he adopted a pod of island dolphins and had trained them to sniff out cocaine. But it was Klaus. There was actually no telling.

'You're what?', Vanya asked, her voice bleeding through with surprise. Now I was getting particularly interested.

'You heard me, Vanny!', Klaus yelled back, loud enough for me to hear from the phone while sitting ten feet away. I let out a small laugh as his over-excitement caused her to thrust the phone away from her ear.

'Well, Klaus, that's great. Sorry if I sound strange. I'm just so shocked. None of us have seen you in four years.'

'When, exactly, will this be happening?', she questioned, still visibly excited. Vanya's mouth dropped open and I couldn't help but laugh out loud as I walked by her to get another cup of black coffee, still observing the call.

'Well, yeah. That's awesome. I... I just don't know what to say. I can't believe it.'

'Yeah, Klaus. See you soon.'

She hung up the phone on the wall and turned to me, resting her hands on her temples in a wide eyed expression.

'What'd jungle spirit boy have to say?', I questioned. She brought her hand down her face and wiped along the corners of her mouth, still in awe of something.

'He's coming home. He... he sold his house in Bali and gave the rest of his ten million dollars to the local tribes. He's coming home, and he's on a plane as we speak.'

Stupid move, but it didn't surprise me. If anyone could completely waste ten million dollars, it was Klaus. I nodded, not as shocked as Vanya was. She hastily began putting her coat back on, wrapping her neck in a wool knitted scarf.

'I'm going to tell the others.', she explained quickly, heading for the door.

'Why don't you just call them?'

'Because I want to see their faces when I tell them what he told me.'

'Is there some extra detail that I'm missing?'

She looked down at the ground and laughed nervously.

'He has a certain ... surprise. Told me not to tell you yet. He wants you to just see it. '

With that, she looked back up and sped out the door, trying to slam it behind her as quietly as possible. No way. Nope. She wouldn't do that to me.

'Wait! I'm intrigued! Come back!' , I shouted down the hall, looking both ways to find her. She must have ran. She was already out of sight. But I was too tired to chase after her, and this surprise might not even be worth my efforts.

I shook my head in confusion as I walked over to the pile of papers and books I had scattered over the floor. I don't know why I'd bothered so much. I would ace the exam without reading a single syllable from any of these amateur 'experts'. Useless, time wasted. I didn't usually misuse time like this.

Draining the last of my cup of coffee, I switched the lamp back off, taking off my t shirt and grabbing an old quilt to sleep with. I would be at the university at 9 am sharp in the morning. And after I finished with that meaningless task, I would hunt down my darling sister and squeeze this odd secret surprise out of her whether she liked it or not.