“a bird must have protection”.

Meet the Ross family

When Kiara came out of the bathroom, she took a double take, looked out the window and saw that it was still dark outside.

“I could’ve sworn that it was morning. What time is it anyway?” She turns towards her alarm clock sitting on her desk and it read “two-thirty-am”.

“What?!? I know it isn’t two-thirty in the morning! I know I saw the sun shining and the clear blue sky. I wasn’t still dreaming…was I?”

The thought of her sleep walking came to mind, but that wouldn’t explain what she had seen. Kiara dismissed the idea and went back to sleep.

            Finally, when it was five o’clock in the morning, her alarm went off. Kiara was never a morning person much like Kaosa, but she knew that she had to get up to make sure everyone else will. She’s tossing and turning in her bed, mumbling something to herself. When she finally hears the alarm clock through her fit of tantrum, she kicks the covers to the bottom of her bed, sits up and growls out “Uggg!” As she sits up in the bed, she is huffing and puffing and lightly sweating.  She puts her hand on her forehead.

“Hot. Hot? Why do I feel so hot when I wake up in the morning?” This isn’t the first time she had woken up like this.

“It isn’t even that hot in the house because the central air is on, unless… one of them broke it again.”

           

            In the past, Kuri has broken the control panel for the central air…in the middle of July no less; the hottest month of the year, every year. For the whole week we had to sleep and eat in the basement. Don’t worry though; the basement had a small kitchen, big sixty inch TV, three couches, a computer, laundry room and a full bath. Most importantly the basement is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Kuri was about six years old and she was trying to see what would happen if she pressed a bunch of buttons, not knowing the function of each. Curious kids, what do we do with them?

            Kiara walks to her door and checked the thermostat. It reads “sixty degrees Fahrenheit”. The same temperature it is outside.

“It is pretty moderate, so why am I so hot?”

She sleeps in a t-shirt, one of mine actually and underwear, so I don’t know why she is so hot. Kiara is very frustrated and so am I. She re-checked the thermostat to make sure she wasn’t dreaming again and then the clock. She decided that both are accurate and once again goes to the bathroom to get ready for long day at work.

           

            The Ross, my last name of course, family’s home consists of four bedrooms, one of which is a master bedroom with a walk-in closet, master bathroom and an oh-so-lovely balcony. There are two and a half other bathrooms, all cluttered with hair and feminine products, make-up and clean and dirty laundry. The laundry room was even filled like clothes, clothes in the wash waiting to be put in the dryer, clothes in the dryer waiting to be put into drawers and closets. The rest of this gigantic house has a spacious living room, family room, dinning room, study and kitchen. The kitchen is a big eat-in luxury kitchen with a twelve eye stove, two ovens built into the wall, plenty of cabinet and counter space, two refrigerators, and an island in the middle of it all that seats six. A family office was across from our master bedroom, well the kids couldn’t use it they used the study. That was mine and Kiara’s sanctuary.

            In our bedroom, the north wall directly across from the door is her new queen size bed lies with a nightstand on each side near to headboard. Above the bed is a painting an artist did of her old home, the manor in the farmlands. On the west wall is a two-paned window that was almost the length of the wall with a window seat for two. In front of that are a table with family pictures, new and old, and a vase holding a dozen roses not fully bloomed yet. On the east wall is a vanity and dresser. The vanity is occupies by make-up and feminine products, much like the bathrooms, and the dresser is filled with Kiara’s clothes. Only two of the eight hold my clothes and she never emptied out my drawers. Above the door on the south wall is a sixty inch flat screen TV with surround sound and has the capability of changing the picture from 2D to 3D. In the corner of the west and south wall is my old work corner because she took up most of the room in our personal office. Everything in that corner is right where I left it, although she really needs to dust it. In my corner I had my 8,000 dollar computer, a lamp that changed colors every minute, a filing-cabinet and above my desk was a bookshelf. My books vary in genres, action, sci-fi, adventure, horror, drama, romantic, fantasy, and history books. I also kept my poetry books next to my mangas, which were the closet in reach. Finally, in the middle of the room is the loveseat with a coffee table on top of a rug. Magazines were spread across the table neatly and the remote sat there so it wouldn’t get lost. The walls of our room are plastered with old paintings and drawings our children did in school over the years. If this sounds like a lot of stuff to you in one bedroom, don’t get me started on our kid’s rooms.

           

            It took her forty minutes to get ready, but even then she still had to make breakfast. It was six o’clock and her children were hungry.  Each and every one of them got some big appetites. She headed downstairs to the kitchen were she expected our two lazy older children would be waiting to be served.

            She sees Kuri, our youngest, looking out the window in the living room.

“Kuri, why are you up? You don’t have to go to school until nine.” Kiara waited for a reply, but she must have been half-asleep or half-awake because after a few seconds her head hit the window.

“Kuri!” Kiara runs over to her.

“Kuri, Kuri, wake up.” She was shaking her vigorously.

“You have to wake up.” But that wasn’t working so she tried a different approach.

“You better wake up or you’ll miss…Triad Revolution 21:00!” Which you can guess is her favorite show that she never misses.

“Oh no, I can’t miss that! I need to know if Leon will torture Lucas by expressing his love for Reina!” Kiara gave her the what-the hell-are-you-talking-about look.

“Well that woke you up.”

Kuri picked up her glasses that fell off her face onto the windowsill. “Yeah, yeah. Did I sleep walk down here?”

“I’m guessing so, unless your sister bought you down here to freak me out.”

“I wouldn’t put it passed her”.

“I wouldn’t either.”

“Well I’m going back upstairs, night.” Kuri slid off the couch and walked up the stairs to her room; she still has two more hours to sleep. Kiara went over to the window to see if she cracked it, but the window is fine.

“That girl is something else.” She started heading towards the kitchen again.

           

            Kuri is only nine years old, so she is in the fourth grade, but she is very mature for her age. She is probably the only one in the house that is level-headed and has the most common sense; well Kayasu is pretty good with the common sense. She has short brown hair with bangs cut right above her eyebrows and the rest of her hair is cut evenly aligning with her jaw.  Her eyes are a deep blue, like her mother’s, that look even darker when she wears her glasses. She and the rest of my kids have to wear uniforms, but she decks her out with her favorite accessory, cat-shaped accessories. She has a cat-shaped bag, cat-head earrings, a cat necklace, and a key charm bracelet that has all her favorite cat species. Kuri is four-feet eight inches and is still growing.

           

            In the kitchen, Kiara finds Kaosa and Kayasu fighting over the cereal and milk; maybe she doesn’t have to make breakfast after all.

“Give me it!” Kaosa demanded.

“No. Besides don’t you have to eat healthy for volleyball? Go eat raw eggs or something”.

Kaosa gives him the death glare and snatches the cereal box out of his hand; she’s always been a little stronger than her brother.

“Ha!” She poured the cereal in her bowl and got the milk.

“I was about to make breakfast, but I guess I don’t have to now.” Kiara went to one of the cabinets and got her special cereal out. No one was allowed to look, smell, touch and don’t even think about tasting it because she knows how much should be in the box and if it was less than expected, her whole week would be off balance. She pulled it out the cabinet and shook the box.

“Who ate some of my Honeoye Pops?” Kiara said calmly. Kaosa and Kayasu looked at each other at the same time and said, “He-she did it!”

Kiara knew who did it because Kaosa would always stray away from her volleyball diet.

“Mmm, hmm.” She closed the cabinet, got her cereal bowl, which was actually a soup bowl, and made her breakfast. When the three of them went to sit down to eat breakfast together she noticed what Kaosa was wearing.

           

            Kaosa, being the middle child and only fifteen, has her face plastered make-up, the long-lasting type. Don’t ask me how I know that but I do. She wears her uniform, a white buttoned down shirt with a red plaid skirt and tall white socks in black shoes. The white shirt that was suppose to be fully buttoned is unbuttoned a little to show her cleavage. Her skirt is rolled up so the bottom is above her knees and now it is midway up her thighs. Instead of wearing flat shoes, she found some with some heel to them. Her hair was always tied back into a long ponytail that reached her hips; her hair is black like mine and she has bangs that cover her forehead. Lastly, she wears her beloved purple necklace and earring set that matches her eyes. She is five feet five inches and is done growing.

“What the hell do you have on?” Kiara asked implying no response, but Kaosa being Kaosa, she had to reply.

“I just spiced up my outfit a little bit, that’s all”. She replied with a nervous smile.

“Go upstairs and fix your clothes. Do it before your brother leaves you.”

“But,”

“Now!”

Kaosa got up from the table and stomped up the stairs.

“Why is she so difficult?” Kiara said while turning towards Kayasu.

“I don’t know, she’s your daughter.”

           

            Kayasu was the oldest and being seventeen years old he drove himself and his sister to school. He is five feet eight inches, almost as tall as me but he’s three inches shy. His eyes are also silver like mine and his hair is black like mine also but he has red tips on his short spiky hair. He too has altered his uniform. He left the top three buttons on his shirt unbuttoned, but he has another shirt underneath. He cut his sleeves up to his shoulders but the rest of his uniform was salvaged. Under his left eye, he tattooed and up-side down triangle and on his right cheek a curved upside down triangle. Maybe he was replicating the scars on my face, who knows but he just recently had them done. He may look like one of those “weird” kids, but he is very shy and very smart.

           

            When Kaosa finally fixed her clothing and dulled down her make-up, she and her brother went to school. Now Kiara just had to wait until Kuri goes to school so she can go to work. Kiara’s job is being a leading member in the Stardusk Council in which she is suppose to be at work by seven, but since I died, she has to make sure Kuri gets to school. Since she is the right-hand women of the president of Stardusk Town, her hours are not that flexible but someone usually covers for her until she gets to work.

           

            You may be wondering what my wife looks like. Well, she is five feet six inches and has long brown hair that goes midway down her back. Her bangs, one large strand on each side of her head, go to her shoulders while the rest of her bangs are cut evenly above eyebrows. Her eyes are a deep blue that in the dark look black and in the light look like a sky blue. I used to tell her, “It depends on your mood.” She has a beauty mark on the far side of her left eye and another one on the right side of her lips. She wears a black suit with high heels, the ones Kaosa was trying to wear to school.

           

            While she waited for Kuri to get up, she went to the fridge and got one of her special strawberry yogurts, a can of soda and packed them into the workbag. It was eight-fifteen, and there was no sound of movement going on above her.

“What is that girl doing? I know she still isn’t sleeping.” Kiara ran upstairs to find a sleeping Kuri. She tried shaking her awake; setting off her alarm clock that never went off and slapped her a couple times, but Kuri wouldn’t budge.

“Ok, it looks like I have to resort to more drastic measures.” She went downstairs, got two pots out the cabinet with lids and a bucket of ice water. She returned to Kuri’s room and started banging the pots and lids together, screaming, “Wake up! Wake up!” She even tried the line about missing her favorite show, but even that didn’t awake her from her deep slumber. When did she become such a heavy sleeper?

            In her final attempt she took the bucket of ice water and poured half of it onto her body because that’s all it took to wake her up.

“Ahhhh!!! That’s cold!! Very, very cold!!”

Kiara was relieved that she got her to wake up; she wouldn’t know what to do next if she didn’t. 

“What was that for? I could get like hypothermia or something.”

“Well if you stay in those wet clothes you will. Now, go get ready for school. It’s already eight-thirty, so you have fifteen minutes to get dressed.”

“Are you serious? Ok, Kuri, lets get moving!” Kuri constantly talks to herself to encourage and motivate herself. Kiara waited in the car until the bus arrived, then she was able to get to work on time.

 

            At school, Kayasu is feeling unmotivated because he is taking classes that are hard for most but easy for him. He doesn’t need any of these classes to graduate either. He is graduating top of his class and doesn’t have real homework so he finds it pointless to go to school everyday this year. He really hates going to school this year because some stupid freshmen are always setting off stink bombs in the hallways, someone is getting into a fight and food fights are common. Let’s just say the high school has more violence than the streets of the town do.

            He goes to his locker and gets the supplies he need for the entire day; a pen, notebook, folder and a calculator, which is more like a mini-computer and pocket-sized. The only thing he looked forward to was his forensics class which he had with one of his best friends from the sixth grade, Miyami Sakari.

           

            Miyami is a little shorter than Kayasu. She is 5’6” and of course seventeen years old. She has bright purple eyes. Her hair is a dark blue, very unusual with bangs that swoop to either side of her head, tucked behind her ears while the rest of her hair is tied back into low-side ponytail resting on the brown skin of her right shoulder. Unlike most kids, she wore her uniform normally and her life was like her uniform. She has a mom, a dad and an older brother who’s in his third year of college. Like Kayasu she is top of her class, filling the second slot but top female.

           

            A person would think the two smartest students of their class and best friends for seven years would be dating each other, but unfortunately for Kayasu, she is going out with someone completely under most people’s level. This someone was a boy named Jion Yong-sun. He is a scumbag. He smokes, he drinks, had a drug addition to meth until his parents put him in rehab but some argue that he still does drugs. The sad thing about it is that Miyami knows nothing of this because the whole rehab thing happened before he moved to Stardusk Town form Alexia and all the other stuff he hides so well.  So on the surface he looks like a normal teenage boy, but Kayasu has always gets bad vibes from him ever since he moved here. Jion had maroon eyes, short black hair that is spiked downwards and pale skin.

            When forensics class started, Kayasu took his seat next to Miyami because they are lab partners, while Jion sat next to a girl named Nala who was his partner. Kayasu doesn’t like that Nala girl either because she is very flirtatious; he sees that Miyami has no clue of this. Kayasu knows he has to keep his eye on the both of them; he doesn’t want to see Miyami get hurt.

“Kayasu, what are you looking at?” Miyami tried looking from his perspective.

“Oh. Nothing, just thinking about something…never mind me.” Kayasu changes the subject. “So what are we doing today?”

“Well, today we are learning about genes, or shall I say reviewing them.”

“Yeah, we learned this stuff in the eighth grade as well as last year too.”

“Yup. Chromosomes too and how the male’s sperm decides the gender of the baby. I just wanna get onto the good stuff, like analyzing DNA and solving crime scenes!”

“Wow, your excited, aren’t ya?”

“You’re not?!”

“I am too, but I guess we have to get through this boring stuff first.” They opened their textbooks and began to read chapter three.