"Another day, another ..." A knock came from his door.
"Wake up, dufus, breakfast's ready; we're running late," a teenage female voice came from the other side of the door.
"Did she just call me a dufus? She comes up with different ones every day at this point." He glanced over at his desk, clustered with different peripherals. Getting up, looking all appalled at the fact that he's slept just two hours in three days.
An eighteen-year-old boy by day, a grey hat hacker at night, taking on odd jobs from the black market just so he won't put excess pressure on his now single mother. A smart boy who loved keeping his smartness limited, never loved outshining himself, literally a shadow to his sister's fame, backing her up from behind. Mundane to the outside, mysterious to the closer circle.
After thirty minutes of upgrading from dragging his feet to freshening, and dressing up to grabbing a toast slice from the counter while looking at his junior sister with friendly disgust, they were finally ready.
"Zane!" his mom called out before he followed his sister outside.
"Be careful out there."
"I would, Mom. I'm always careful."
"Hey, luggerhead! let's go." Lily, his younger sister, yelled from ten meters away.
"Does this bird brain realize I'm two years older?" He muttered.
The trip to the bus station was quite a walk; they lived in an estate, and three streets away from the station. Two streets later, a familiar voice called out to Zane.
"Ei yo, Ghost!"
"This dude just casually dumped the name on me," Zane said as he saw the silhouette of his best friend, Marcus, approaching.
He got to them, and they continued their walk, conering onto the final street, that's when he started, Marcus, Zane's best friend.
"You ready for today, buddy?"
"Today?"
"Don't tell me you forgot, man," he gave him the look of disappointment.
"Uhm, I just remembered," Zane said, looking away in shame, patting the back of his head.
"She'll be there, you know," Marcus said, trying to entice him.
"Ouu," Lily said in a teasing way, constantly raising her eyebrows and smirking at her brother.
"Fine, I'll come. But Lily's not coming."
"Wh-" she was about to query. One look at his eyes and she accepted.
As soon as they got to the station, Lily was swept away by her friends and admirers, quite the popular parody. The bus came, they hopped on, and they left. Within a few minutes, the huge grey building came into sight through the fog, a grand sight.
Classes were lethargic, as always, on the first day of the session. Some demon-spawned teachers started with a 'quiz'; some started with the boring orientation and their dos and don'ts.
Finally, the last bell, time to go home- or not; the squad of six was going to watch a movie, some sad ass one at that.
"You ready?" Marcus asked.
"Yes, besides I see just you, me, Sam, Noah, and Danielle, where's-"
"She cancelled, next time, buddy."
After hanging out for a few hours, the movie was about to begin, they got to the movies, took their seats, and began. Halfway through the two-hour movie, he felt something similar to a brain freeze, and then it intensified; he placed his fingers on his temples and massaged them a bit.
"You good, bro?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, I am.. Just need some air."
The pain got worse as he stood up. He stumbled upon the corridor and hurried to the exit. He leaned against the wall before collapsing onto the wet floor caused by the drizzle, ushering in the heavy rain.
He slowly opened his eyes, just to see something insane. He was in a place, similar to space... How he got there, we do not know, neither does he...
"What in the name of Father Abraham's geese!"