Kaz woke up bright and early the next morning, as he usually did on weekends. He always hated sleeping in during the weekends because in his mind, that meant he was wasting what little time off he usually had. Turning over to pick up his smartphone, the time indicated 7:53 AM. Yawning lightly, he pulled himself out of bed, eyes half open, and walked over to the kitchen to make himself a bowl of cereal.

After eating breakfast by himself due to the rest of his family being asleep, Kaz walked back to his room and turned on the lights for it. Knowing that he wouldn't have much time before he would need to head off for his morning SAT prep class, he got himself changed into his Vineyard Vines shirt, his signature Supreme hoodie, and a pair of grey sweatpants. SInce he hadn't unpacked his backpack from yesterday, he was all ready to go to his class in an hour. Deciding to play some more PS3, not tired out from yesterday's session in the slightest, he booted the console up. His dad poked his head into his door saying good morning and Kaz returned the greeting to him, and then looked through his game collection to play.

A thought popped up in his head as he remembered about what he had read last night on r/Spyro. A smirk appeared on his face as he pulled out from the bottom of the pile "The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon" and replaced his Need For Speed disc from yesterday with the new one. Navigating through the menu of the game after sitting through the intro loading scene, he decided to start a new game, as he had already completed it once before. Thus, the first moments of the game started as the music from the game brought up some nostalgia within him.

Eventually, Kaz was able to get through the first 45 minutes of the game, essentially relearning the game controls and physics after not playing the game in so long. Saving the game and turning off his console and tv, he got up to signify his dad that he was leaving for his class. He grabbed his backpack and the keys from his desk and headed outside to the family's car, a Lexus, and put his backpack in the trunk before sliding into the driver's seat (He had just passed his driving test a week before). He turned on the car, before driving out of his street onto the main road to his class location, a 20 minute drive away at the local community college.

Soon, Kaz rolled into the parking lot of College of San Mateo. Shutting his car off and grabbing his keys, and pulled his backpack from the trunk and walked over to the entrance of one of the smaller buildings of the campus. Humming a tune to himself, he entered the building, before reaching his class and mentally preparing himself for his mind-numbing two hour class.

Finally, Kaz was finished. The end of that class couldn't have come soon enough once the teacher started lecturing about different types of argumentative essays the class would need to know. Granted, the teacher wasn't bad by any means, but it was just so boring!

As the rest of the students filed out of the classroom, Kaz's phone started ringing in his pocket. Pulling out the phone, he saw that it was his dad calling him, and slid the answer button.

"Hey dad, why you calling me?"

"Kaz, your mother and I are going out for groceries at Whole Foods right now, so we won't be back for a little bit."

"Ah ok, alright then. Leave the back door open for me please."

"Already did. Is there anything you'd like us to get you?"

"Uh yeah sure I guess. Can you get some Fiji water for me please. Also, one of those dark chocolate bars they have near the registers."

"Will do. Love you. Bye."

"Yep, you too dad."

Sliding his phone back into his pocket, he got into his car and drove off back to his house. Luckily, he didn't have anything planned for the rest of the day, and probably wouldn't start his school homework until tomorrow.

Pulling into the driveway of his house and shutting off the car, Kaz got out and grabbed his backpack from the trunk, the distinct lack of the family's SUV apparent. He mumbled about having to fix himself some sort of sandwich for lunch again while his parents were gone, getting food ironically. He locked the doors of the Lexus, and headed to the driveway gate, which he would need to open and get through in order to reach the backdoor. Pushing it open easily thanks to the broken lock, he walked down the side of his house, admiring some of the plants that his mom had planted earlier that week. Walking along his small backyard (thanks Bay Area property values) he climbed up the small set of stairs to the back door.

However, just before he opened the door, Kaz noticed something odd. His reflection, it seemed as if it was outlined by some sort of shine. Looking down on himself, he patted himself down, yet failed to see anything around him.

Looking behind him, he raised an eyebrow. It appeared as if the fountain that was in the middle of the backyard was giving off some sort of light from the bottom pool.

"There's no way I wouldn't have noticed that walking in" he thought to himself. Dropping his backpack on the steps, he walked back down the stairs and through the grass, before stepping on the gravel that surrounded the fountain and peering down.

A small crystal, or as what Kaz could best describe as, rested at the bottom of the pool, emitting a bright light that made Kaz have to squint.

"Man, what the hell is this thing" he said to himself. The so called "crystal" was a clearish yellow in color, and was about 6 inches tall by 4 inches wide. It seemed to pulse with energy rhythmically, which Kaz could not seem to figure out why.

"I don't even...I mean wha...aw what ever" Kaz said as he couldn't seem to figure how this crystal got into his fountain without him noticing. Deciding to throw caution with the wind, he rolled up one of his hoodie sleeves, before slowly dipping his hand into the water, and touched the shiny crystal.

No flash, no bang, no howl of wind, just a crystal pulsating light in his hands. Lifting it out of the water, Kaz had to squint to get a direct look at it. He could barely make out the fountain water below the crystal, and deemed that there wasn't anything inside of it. The jagged edges of it were sharp but not painful to him though.

Taking the Crystal into his house, alongside picking up his backpack from the steps, he entered the door and headed to his room. Placing his backpack on the side of his desk, he placed the Crystal on one of his shelves which housed all sorts of collectibles he had, mostly action figures from when he was younger, and some diecast cars. He grabbed a pair of sunglasses from his closet and put them on, before heading back to examine the crystal, hopefully more clearly now.

To Kaz, nothing really looked off about the Crystal, if you ignored the fact that it was still flashing rhythmically with no interior source of the production of light. In fact, if the crystal wasn't flashing, and was a normal color (think diamond), Kaz could've probably sold it for a hefty price. He decided to ask his parents if they knew anything about this crystal he had found, and decided to kill sometime by browsing more reddit on his laptop after making himself a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich.

Around an hour after Kaz had arrived home, he heard the unlocking of the front door and his dad yelling a hello to him and asking him to help him and his mom with the rest of the bags, which he obliged to. Soon after they finished, Kaz asked his parents if they knew anything about the Crystal he found.

"You mean in the fountain?" Kaz's mother replied to him with a perplexed face, currently folding clothes.

"Yeah, I saw a bright light behind me all of a sudden and there it was."

"Well, why don't you show us it" his dad chimed in.

So Kaz went to his room, and warned his parents to shield their eyes before bringing the Crystal in front of them.

"Wow, i've never seen that before" his father said in slight shock.

"Yeah, I have no idea why it flashed like that, or how it even go there" Kaz replied.

"Well, maybe you should ask the science teacher at school about it, because I have no clue why its like that either."

"I guess so" he replied. After handing it to his parents to hold for a few moments, he took it back to his room and set it back on the shelf again.

The rest of Kaz's day was fairly easy, as he had expected. His father had to head off to meet a friend of his in San Jose, a 30 minute drive south, while his mother had been organizing most of the family spendings and savings, with Kaz helping her occasionally. He had wanted to head into accounting as a career, and prided himself in his skills of saving his own money well. The rest of the time though was spent between reading a book of his for school, surfing more reddit, and trying to find answers on the crystal that he had found earlier that day, which has so far failed to turn up any answers.

He and his parents had a dinner of steak, fries, and peas, before he wished them goodnight. He then took a quick shower and then changed into his nightly clothes once again. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to sleep with the Crystal emitting a bright light like that, he got up to cover it with a small towel.

"Wait a minute.." Kaz says, staring at the crystal.

As he looks at the Crystal, it no longer flashes. Instead, while still producing light, is less dull and now constant instead on and off rhythmically.

"Ok, this is starting to get creepy" Kaz states as a shudder passes through his body. Taking the crystal from the shelf to see why it has undertaken this change, he accidentally loses his grip on it as the Crystal significantly brightens once he picks it up.

"Oh shit" Kaz says as the Crystal hits the ground.

A dull thunk emanates in the room. With a sigh of relief, Kaz realizes nothing has happened to it, and goes to pick it up again. As he is just about to grab, the crystal then starts shaking.

"What the fuuu…?" Kaz says, slowly backing away from it as it starts to shake more vigorously.

In a split-second, Kaz's vision his suddenly blinded with light and a shattering sound of some sort is heard. The light then dies down as the room fills with mist, causing Kaz to cough as he weakly opens his eyes, trying to figure how in the holy hell a crystal can cause all this.

The mist eventually dissipates after a few moments and Kaz looks down at where the Crystal (supposedly) is.

"..."

"Nani?"

Blah blah blah cliffhanger I know I know but I had a hard time coming up with a for a Crystal to cause this much trouble while still somewhat respecting the laws of physics. I feel like overall though, being familiar with the setting I write in, since I kinda live in the next town over from the main character, Is helping me visualize my story easily, which in turn helps me focus on the characters and plot some more. Again, thanks for reading, and make sure to add any comments of support or concern or recommendations for me, thanks!