(A/N: Warning: racial prejudices that will start very early on that could continue at some other points and they will continue a lot in future chapters. If you're sensitive, please read at your own risk. I cannot sugarcoat this enough.
I do hope you guys enjoy this chapter nonetheless. Just, read delicately if you're really sensitive. That's all I have to say.)
V-Y-V-Y-V
The day always seems to go by a lot faster after lunch. At least, that's RY-N's opinion.
The final bell rang and he rushed out to the front of the school to wait for his sister. They went home together since they got out of school about the same time.
While waiting, he noticed Smokey's brother Dusty going up to his younger brother, who was with his Aerophibian classmate. He noticed that he was holding their little sister and figured that was the reason why his sister wasn't yet there.
"Hey, RY," he heard a familiar voice speak.
He looked and saw SK8-R. He grinned, "Hey, what's up?"
He shrugged, "Nothing. I'm about to head down to the track, wanna come?"
He shook his head, "Nah, I'm waiting for NTL-E to show up."
As if on cue, he heard his sister calling out to him, "RY-N? RY-N? I'm here."
"Speak of the devil," he uttered and waved to her, "Over here, NTL-E."
She spotted her brother and went over to them, "Did you apologize?"
He rolled his eyes, "Yes, I apologized."
"Great," she smiled softly. "Sorry I'm late, I had to talk to my pre-calculus teacher."
"That sounds like a hard class," he commented.
She laughed softly, "It is." She then noticed SK8-R standing next to him, "Hey, SK8."
He swallowed nervously and smiled, "Hi, uh, NTL-E."
It was no secret that the reason he was behaving this way was because his crush on her. She was aware of it, as were RY-N and ZK, but figured he would get over it as he gets older and matures. Besides, she's already in a relationship with a really great guy.
"We better get going," she told her brother.
"Okay," he replied. "See you tomorrow, SK8-R."
He was in a daydream-like state and snapped out of it when his friend talked to him, "Wha- oh, yeah, see you later." He took off in a hurry.
They were about to leave when a voice called out to them, "NTL-E!" It was Dusty.
He came up to them with Smokey, who was now holding their infant sister Mazey. She squirmed in his furry, toothpick arms as she constantly tried to hunch over.
"I looked around for you earlier," she told him.
"I had to leave early because Mazey's babysitter suddenly got sick again," he explained.
RY-N chuckled when he saw Smokey clenching his sister closer to him because she almost slipped out of his hands, "Looks like she's already ready to start running."
He grinned, "Yeah, she doesn't like to stay in place. She's very active."
"Did your friend go home?" he asked. "I saw him with you earlier."
He nodded, "Yeah, he left as soon as Dusty showed up."
"We better get home and put Mazey down for a nap," Dusty told his girlfriend.
"When can we get together?" she asked.
"How's this Friday?" he suggested.
"Sounds good," she responded.
"Great," he smiled and patted his brother on his back, "Come on, Smokes, let's go home."
She kissed him on the cheek before they could leave, "See you tomorrow and be sure to call me later."
He chuckled and nodded, "Will do."
They left and she looked at her boyfriend with loving eyes as they lost sight of them. They left themselves soon after losing sight of them.
The entire time that happened, SK8-R watched from behind a corner as they had their conversations and left for their respective homes. He narrowed his white eyes as they laughed and smiled like peas in a pod.
Kinecelerans and Citrakayah, laughing and smiling and having friendly conversations! Sickening; truly sickening.
But what was purely despicable was that NTL-E kissed the Citrakayah on the cheek! That's not supposed to happen! Kinecelerans and Citrakayah hate each other! Plain and simple.
He tightly clenched his clawed hands to the point where he almost penetrated his own skin. His visor lowered and covered his face to hide his glare from all of the other students and their parents.
When they left, he sped off in the direction of the track. He ran on the textured field at speeds so fast that it could have very well set it on fire. A fire that would burn hotter than his white-hot fury.
Dusty and Smokey arrived home and immediately put their sister down for a nap. Their parents were at work, so they decided to work on homework together, which is something they haven't done for a while.
Dusty is always so busy with NTL-E, taking care of Mazey, and all of his homework that he hardly has time to hang out with his little brother. Which is a shame, he loves to be around his only brother, but it was almost time for finals and he would be graduating that year from high school and moving on to college.
"Hey, Dust, can you help me with this?" Smokey asked, pointing to a picture in his workbook. Normally, he gets all or most of his homework done in class, but he had issues staying focused in his class that day.
He looked at what he was referring to, he saw that it was about the colorful meteorological phenomena known as rainbows. It sounds so simple, but it's actually very complicated. Fortunately for Smokey, his brother was a top-notch science student.
"Okay, so rainbows are caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets. That light is sunlight coming from a section of the sky directly opposite from the sun," he explained. "Got that?"
He nodded, "Yeah, I think so." He started to write down what he had just told him. "Thanks."
That was his way of saying that he was done with needing his brother's help, which he respected and got to work on his own stuff. After all, no one ever said that physics was easy, even if it is only high school level.
Smokey finished the remainder of his homework rather quickly, just in time for their sister to wake up crying. Unfortunately for him, his punishment for the night before was to be in charge of her. More specifically, he was in charge of changing her diaper.
He prayed that she was fussy because she was just a little hungry or wanted a little attention. Although, knowing his brother and how he likes to play jokes on him, he might have given her a little more of her favorite food. Dusty may be more mature than most of his classmates, but he sure wasn't above playing a prank for old time's sake.
He ran upstairs and went straight to Mazey's bedroom. She was in her crib squirming restlessly and wailing strongly.
He bent over the railing of the crib that went roughly up to his chest and picked her up. "Hi, little munchkin!"
She continued to cry in his arms as he tried to calm her down by rocking her, she wouldn't settle down. He tried again by resting her over his shoulder and patting and rubbing her back, to no avail.
There was only one other option other than the last thing he wanted it to be. He mentally prayed and crossed his fingers that it was not the latter of the two.
He sped back downstairs with her still in his arms and went straight to the refrigerator. He opened it and took out a bottle, he placed inside the microwave, closing the refrigerator in the process.
Once the bottle was warmed up, he went over to the sofa so that it would be easier to feed her. He removed her from his shoulder and cradled her in one arm, while he held the warm bottle in his free hand.
He shook the bottle slightly and she lit up when she saw it. He presented it to her, but she wouldn't take the nipple.
'Oh no, please don't tell me this means you have a dirty diaper!' he mentally begged. "Dust, she's not taking the bottle," he told him.
He smirked playfully, "Oh, I guess that means she has a messy diaper. You better hope that it's not full of poop." He glared at him and he just laughed.
He set her down on the couch and placed the bottle aside. He unbuttoned her powder pink onesie and checked her diaper. His eyes widened and smirked mischievously.
He carefully removed it and put a new one on her. He kept turning away from her, closing his eyes shut, and making disgusted sounds. Dusty saw this dramatic performance and laughed.
'Such a drama queen,' he thought amusingly.
He folded the soft material over and picked it up with two fingers, trying to keep it as far away from himself as possible. "Ew! Ew! Ew!" He started to prance around in a stilted manner while sticking his tongue out.
His brother laughed at this at first but then got a little worried when he got a little too close for comfort. "Whoa, whoa, be careful with that."
He plugged his nose, "I'm sorry, it's just so gross!"
He mentally smirked and made a move that looked like he was about to rush over to the trash can, but then 'accidentally' slipped and the diaper went flying. It landed on the table right in front of Dusty, who nearly fell out of his chair as he stood up.
Smokey covered his mouth to hide his laughter, "Oops!"
Dusty poked it with his pencil and moved it around. It opened itself and he saw that it was clean! It wasn't dirty at all!
"Gotcha! She's clean!" he was laughing his butt off at how well his prank went.
His brother was not amused, not in the slightest. "Smokey!" he roared.
He quickly went over to the sofa and picked up Mazey and the bottle. "Sorry, bro, I still have to figure out what's wrong with her!" He ran upstairs faster than a snapping turtle could snap its beak at a predator or prey.
Dusty threw away the diaper and got back to his work. He shook his head and sighed, he loves his younger brother but he stresses him out.
In their little sister's room, Smokey paced the entire room back and forth as patted Mazey on the back, trying to get her to go back to sleep. She was still a little fussy, but had calmed down significantly in comparison to how she was earlier.
She still refused her bottle and started to hit him in the face and shoulder. He then started to gently bounce her in his arms, but it did little to help.
As a last effort, he decided that there was only one other option. He would have to sing to her.
He decided to sing a song from a movie he saw years earlier that he vaguely remembered. He couldn't remember the exact lyrics, so he sang what he could remember.
"Run away, run away,
I'm running as fast as I can
Run away, run away
I'll never come back again
Run away, run away"
It was only about half the bridge of the song, but it was all he could remember off the top of his head. He couldn't even remember the title of the song.
Miraculously, she finally calmed down and was asleep on his shoulder. He carefully and gently pulled her off of him and set her down in her crib. He carefully and quickly left her room, quietly closing the door behind him.
Afterwards, he went to his own bedroom and made sure to close his door. He didn't really feel like going downstairs in case his brother was still angry with him.
The next day, Smokey woke up just before his parents left for work and went downstairs to see them before they could. He saw his father throwing away an open envelope and his mother was just finishing up cooking breakfast for everyone.
"Good morning," he rubbed his eyes to clear his sleepy vision.
"Good morning, son," Ash replied.
He grabbed one of the breakfast burritos his wife just finished wrapping. He placed it inside his coat pocket and grabbed his briefcase, which held his laptop, and slung it over his shoulder.
He went over to his wife and kissed her on the cheek, "Bye, honey." He left the apartment afterwards and sped off to work.
Dusty came downstairs just after he left and playfully punched his brother, "Morning, Smokes!"
"Dusty!" he shrieked. "What was that for?!"
"That was for that little prank yesterday," he grinned twistedly. "That was a good one. So good that I'll have to really up my game."
He laughed and started to playfully hit him, "Good luck with that!"
Truthfully, he was happy that his brother wasn't mad at him or acting like he should already have a job as a data entry. He started laughing too and hit back in the same playful manner.
Their mother laughed and looked at the clock, "Oh, I've got to get to work." She took one of the burritos and grabbed her purse. "Boys, get ready for school, I'm going to work. Breakfast is on the stove."
"Okay, Mom," they replied in unison.
"Make sure to take Mazey to my sister's apartment, not her babysitter's," she told them.
"Okay, Mom," they repeated in unison. She checked to see if she had everything and left once she was sure she did.
"Rock, paper, scissors for who has to take Mazey to auntie's place?" Smokey asked.
Dusty shook his head, "No, I'll take her, I'm going in that direction anyway."
"Okay, cool," he sped upstairs to get ready for school.
He ran into the bathroom to take a shower. He wouldn't exactly call it a 'quick shower' because for a Citrakayah there's no such thing. He's covered in fur from head to toe and all of it has to be thoroughly washed. He was thankful that he inherited his father's short fur instead of his mother's long fur.
After rinsing out all of the soap and bubbles, he grabbed a towel and gave himself a quick dry. He then grabbed a hair brush to smooth out his fur. It's always best to brush it while it's still damp so that it doesn't take a lot of time to get out any tangles.
Once it was smoothed out he dried off again and went to his room. He threw on khaki shorts and a black shirt with a sad face, a broken heart, and a storm cloud all done in red. It was the CD cover for the album "No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls" by Simple Plan, one of his favorite bands.
He then went back downstairs to eat breakfast. Dusty was already in the kitchen and eating a burrito, he was already dressed and ready to go.
"Hey, Smokes," he raised his breakfast at him, his mouth was full of it and slightly distorted his voice.
"Hey," he replied. He grabbed the last burrito and started eating it. He picked up the paper towel the burritos had been sitting on and threw it away.
He saw the envelope his father had held inside the trash can. Curiosity got the better of him and he picked it up to look at it. He looked at the paper inside and his heart stopped.
He dropped his half-eaten breakfast and sped upstairs in tears. "I'm not going to school!"
Dusty was wondering what could have made him so upset. He looked at the paper and saw the reason why.
V-Y-V-Y-V
(A/N: I have to admit, this is probably my favorite chapter so far. I added in so much of my childhood into this that it just gives me a wave of nostalgia.
The prank Smokey pulled off on Dusty is taken from the prank scene in the movie "Ice Age". I remember that movie so vividly because of that one scene.
The song Smokey sings to Mazey is "Don't Wanna Think About You" by Simple Plan. Simple Plan just happens to be one of my favorite bands too, some of my favorite songs are off the album "No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls".)