Gen Two- Chapter One

No life can be perfect.

I know that now. I know it very well. The agonizing heartbreak and sense of loss I face everyday refuses to let me forget just how greatly my life has changed from those early days. Back then, I did believe my life was perfect. I suppose it was ideal in a way, but there was no way for it to remain like that for eternity. I cry sometimes when I think about the better half of my childhood. Those days feel more like an illusion and hopeful wishing spurred on by the cruelty of a tragic event I can no longer change than a reality that had once been. I wish more than anything to return to that time. Return to it, and prevent everything bad that has happened from happening.

Starting with the day that triggered it all and destroyed my world of perfection.

The funny thing was, I had no idea that day would be the one to alter my life so drastically. There was no sense of danger. There was no hint that any threat from consequences of actions being done away from my eyes would rear up to take something precious from us all. No, it just started off as an ordinary day. It was late morning on a lazy Saturday during summer vacation. Everyone was about doing their thing. I, myself, sat crossed legged on the floor with my hands covering my eyes. 

     "Ready, Ceri?"I spoke to the toddler before me.

She just giggled, leaning forward in anticipation. I made her wait for a good long while. Peeking through the tiniest gap between my fingers, I only sprung to action when I saw her lose her patience and begin to reach for my hands.

     "RAWR!" I roared loudly as I lunged at her.

Cerise, my only younger sibling, shrieked and squealed in amusement when I went at her. Only having been playing normal peek-a-boo with her up until then, she was in for a surprise when I tickled her with all my might. Her laughter rang throughout the whole first floor. The smile stuck on her face and sudden silence as she stared at me with waiting merriment for more to come when I stopped had me holding back my own laughter. I had hoped for a younger brother when my mom had been pregnant, but I was just glad I wasn't the youngest anymore. Cerise was an easy toddler to keep entertained too, so she was fun to play with.

     "Coal, I think I've found the best one."

His voice suddenly came to me through the open door of the bedroom to my left.

Cerise was content to toddle about on her own, so I was able to make my way into my parents' bedroom without dealing with a tantrum for stopping the game. I eagerly rushed to my dad's side as he showed me what he had found. My smile, however, faltered when I glanced at what he pointed to on the screen.

     "It's covered in stupid stickers." I pouted lightly.

     "Which can easily be taken off." my dad rolled his eyes in amused exasperation, for I had been very picky about what we were trying to do.

     "Won't that pull off the paint though?" I pointed out.

     "It needs a new paint job anyway. It'll look brand new once that's done. Honestly, this one is brand new anyway. There's nothing wrong with it like the other used ones of this model you want."

     "I suppose it will be fine then." I shrugged.

     "Fine is good enough for me. I'll put the order in." my dad said cheerfully.

There were only a few things I had to complain about back in the day. The first of the three "major" complaints about my life was how my parents refused to spoil my siblings and me with the vast amount of money they had. We were rich, but they always looked for ways to buy things at a cheaper or used price before even thinking about paying in full. My mom said it was a mentality my dad had gotten from his uncle. All in all though, I knew I should be happy with the bike my dad was ordering for me. I was getting a newer, top-of-the-line model instead of the old, rusty one my brothers had shared after all. The piece of junk had finally broken beyond repair.

     "Good lord, that smells delicious," my dad suddenly gushed when the scent of brunch wafted into the room, "Go check with you mother to see how much longer she's going to put me through this agony. I'm starving."

I darted towards the kitchen. I was starving too. One way my siblings and I and even my dad was spoiled was by my mom's cooking. I was able to recall back to when I was just a little older than Cerise. I remembered how my dad had been trying to convince my mom to finish her college education as he felt guilty that she hadn't, but she insisted that she was perfectly happy being a homemaker- staying at home all day, watching over us kids, overseeing the majority of the daily chores, and making sure all proper meals and snacks were served at their correct times. She even woke up early to make sure we had a hearty breakfast to eat before my siblings and I went to school and my dad to work. Saturdays were a brunch day since the rest of us usually slept in, but on this day we had ended up getting up earlier than normal. That left our stomachs growling, but my mom refused to change her carefully laid out meal plan.

     "Got the next one ready, Wisp?" I heard her ask as I approached where she was working.

Wisp was the lone person my mother allowed to help when everyone was hungry, for he was the only one who didn't swipe bits of food while cooking.

     "Yeah." my eldest brother confirmed.

The two of them were so into making the crepes that they barely noticed my presence. As a result, I ended up staring for longer than normal. Having been told I was pretty much a clone of my father in every way, even being all red like him, I found myself feeling guilty as well as I watched my mom cook. It wasn't that she was stuck in the house all day working. In fact, she was out doing stuff with her friends as often as she was inside. I had to wonder if she was happy having things be the way they were though. I knew she hadn't finished school because she was stupid. She was crazy smart. I went to her for homework help more than I went to my dad. That was why I couldn't help but to feel that she wasn't being entirely honest when she said she was content. Surely there had to be more that she wanted to do than take care of the rest of us.

I tried not to dwell too much on my thinking. Mom was humming away with the song playing on the radio nearby. She did look content and happy, and she appeared to be enjoying herself as she expertly flipped the crepe with more flair than was necessary.

Looking down at Cerise who toddled past me, she decided she wanted Wisp's attention now.

     "I want naners in mine!" she requested cheerfully when she was gathered in his arms.
     "You can have a banana," mom agreed before quietly mumbling to herself so Cerise couldn't hear, "Although I'll probably have to blend even that up."

Cerise had taken an accidental tumble a little while ago, resulting in her losing her first tooth earlier than she should have. A healing, small infection from the damage required that pretty much all her food be blended into a mush until the dentist said otherwise. Cerise loved goopy stuff and getting dirty, so she hadn't minded the change of style in her diet.

I watched Cerise giggle more as my brother bounced and tickled her similarly to how I had done. Well, to be technical, Wisp was my half brother. That was another thing that made me think my life couldn't have gotten better. Not only did I have good parents with lots of money and a massive house to live in, but I was thinly connected to the interesting past of my family that I loved to talk to people about. My parents didn't seem to think much of it anymore, but hearing of how they had been front and center at the event that re-sculpted the country was something I never tired of. Stuff such as the whole process of how government officials were elected had been overhauled to prevent the corruption that had seeped in before from seeping in again. Wisp was more connected to that story than I was, being the result of some of the corruption forced on my mother. It was a constant question on my mind as to who his biological father was, but mom and dad refused to say anything about it even though Wisp and the rest of us were sure that they knew the answer.

With both my mom and Wisp being albino, that made our family situation rather out of the ordinary. What made us really extraordinary was that there was actually three albinos in our house. Right on time, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. It was Prism and Desire; the twins my parents had had, and my other two siblings.

     "Well, I think it'll work." Prism said with stubborn determination.
     "Uh-huh." Desire, or Desi as she was more commonly called, merely said as she made her way along.

Prism Quartz Vivid, named after dad's famous retired movie star friend, was seven minutes older. Obviously I hadn't been there, but I had been told it had been a great shock to my parents when he had come out white. They had known my mom's chance for passing on her albinism was ridiculously high, but they hadn't been aware that my dad carried the gene as well. Desi, named after our paternal grandmother like I was named after our paternal grandfather, had come out with color. Like Cerise, she had our dad's red skin and hair and the green eyes our mom should have.

I didn't listen to their conversation, for I didn't care much about it. It didn't last much longer anyway. Prism had spotted me. He was the second major complaint I had about my life. Until I faced the actual problems that were soon impending, he was the antagonist in the story. I tried to slowly inch away as he got closer to keep myself out of reach, but I could never make it through a day without him bothering me.

     "Coal! Morning!" he said with fake cheer.

He wrapped his arm around my neck, yanked me closer, and ruffled my hair so hard it stung.

     "Urgh, get off!" I cried out gruffly, trying and failing to escape his grip.
     "Pris, it's too early in the morning for this. Let your brother be." mom requested firmly, giving him a look of warning.
     "Yes, yes." Prism acquiesced, letting me go but giving me a teasing shove the second mom turned away again.

I definitely didn't hate my brother, but I didn't like him most days. He was too rough, too obnoxious, and he got too much joy out of pestering me. What made it worse was that I was the only one he could go for. Wisp had a gentle aura about him like our mom did, but you never, ever got on his bad side. Prism had done that really badly once, and I had never seen someone throw a punch so hard. Then it wasn't like Prism would ever bother Desi. In fact, she was the one person Prism turned mushy around. He would randomly hug her or cuddle up against her on the couch. He was like that with Cerise in a way too, but he didn't like getting dirty so her usually sticky fingers had him passing the buck of carrying her to one of us instead. Prism was more high-maintenance about his appearance than a lot of girls are.

Having completely forgotten about asking my mom about brunch and its time of completion, dad made an appearance several seconds later. Thankfully, the food was all but done. The finishing touches were put on by the time the table was set. Conversation quieted as we all took more initiative in filling our growling stomachs, but the talking picked back up before too long. Yes, it was quite the typical morning in the Vivid household. The only tiny thing out of the ordinary was that mom ate slowly as if she wasn't interested in her food at all. I knew she had to take a lot of medicine to combat her poor immune system though. She had also been sick recently, so I figured maybe she was still feeling a little off. Other than that, brunch went off without a hitch.

Everyone spruced up a bit afterwards, for it was time to head out. Another thing that strengthened my perception that my life was perfect- our street was made up of houses owned by friends who had grown up together. There was Uncle Al, who my mom dated at one point, and his wife and their three daughters. Next to them was Uncle Frost and Aunt Sunflower and their son. While not technically my uncles and aunts, that was what the rest of my siblings and I called them as our families were so close. The adults lamented that the last member of their original six, Sunset, wasn't part of the little community they had made, but she lived in Tinseltown with her husband as she was a movie actress, something which apparently amused my mom and Aunt Sunflower greatly.

It was tradition that at least once a month my parents and their friends got themselves and all of us kids together at the park. I swear, sometimes though it felt like it was the adults who acted more like kids than us kids did. They would run around like crazed chickens when they played tag, they would spend a small fortune on water balloons to pelt each other with, and they would often take over the playground completely. On that particular day though, they all gathered up to just chat in a circle.

I laughed as I watched Uncle Al get up to his usual antics. He was my favorite of my mom's friends, which seemed to only strengthen the argument that I was a close copy of my dad. He and Uncle Al were the best of best friends. Anyway, Uncle Al was treating his wife I mentioned, Dahlia, like mom said he used to treat her when they dated. As in, he was hugging and flirting with her almost without shame as everyone else talked.

So, that was one group that quickly formed up. At the southern part of the park was the even older adults. Namely, good old Uncle Blaze and then Edenx2. The name repetition in our circle of family and friends was great enough with me being Coal Vivid II, Desi being named after our grandmother, and my cousin being named after his grandfather as well, but my Uncle Eden had gone ahead and married a woman whose name was also Eden. It was a confusing situation, so everyone mostly referred to my Aunt Eden as Deny, and old nickname of hers. She had been married once before. She had a son with her previous husband as well, but I rarely saw him as he lived with his dad.

I saw Wisp make his way to the north-west corner of the park. He was heading there to meet up with his normal group. My brother's main partner-in-crime was our cousin, Hunter. The two were born only weeks apart, which was why the two acted more like brothers. Hunter was pretty much the opposite of Wisp. Loud, overly energetic, daring, fearless, and a little bit crass. However, the two got along flawlessly. The third member of the group was Cyclone Spring. He was the adopted son of some more of my parents' friends, Sap and Purity. I liked him well enough, but I didn't know him all that well as I only saw him on the rare occasions Hunter brought him over to our house. Wisp and Hunter high-fived, but I frowned. Those three were missing the fourth member that completed their posse, and if Uncle Eden and Aunt Deny were around then he had to be here somewhere too...

Just as I thought that, I felt movement behind me. My instincts kicked as they sensed danger, but I had let him get far too close. I had barely been starting to turn around when the world unexpectedly rotated as he lifted me up in a ridiculous manner.

     "Let me go, Malachite!" I complained as I struggled against his grip.
     "Why would I want to do that, Lump?" he questioned back mischievously.
     "It's Coal!" I said for possibly the millionth time in my life.
     "Nah, you're still too tiny," Malachite teased with a wicked grin, "Nothing more than a mere lump of coal at the moment, so Lump you will remain."

Another determined wiggle had me free. Malachite liked to believe that he was pretty strong, but he was nowhere close to Hunter's level. He couldn't hold my weight for that long.

     "Asshole." I muttered under my breath as my stomach hurt some.
     "Careful. Your mommy's right over there. You shouldn't let her catch you saying that. Or maybe I should tell her. Don't want you growing up to be a potty mouth." Malachite warned, poking me once on the forehead with fervor.

I frowned deeper, but I wasn't really all that annoyed. The way Malachite treated me wasn't so different from how Prism acted, but I didn't mind Malachite's taunting like I minded my brother's. He was actually cool, for one. Unlike Prism, his actions backed up his words. In a way, you could say that Mal was the black sheep of the family. He wasn't really that bad, but he was definitely the most rebellious out of the rest of us. He was another one of my cousins, although not by blood. The Edens had adopted him several years back. He wasn't entirely happy with the situation though. He acted amicably with the people who were now supposed to be his parents, but Malachite had been unashamed in admitting that he had only used them to get out of the system. He had been in it for years as his mother was completely nonexistent and his dad practically beating him to death was the reason why he could barely remember anything before he woke up in that hospital room. Even though his dad had been arrested with proof of the crime, we all assumed it was Malachite's messed up memories that had him continuing to defend his father. He refused to accept that he had done such a thing, for he claimed that his father had been the most docile person in the world. He knew what it was like to be hit, so that's why he had vowed to never as so much swat Malachite's hand. Now matter how much definitive evidence Malachite had been shown to reveal the opposite, he had figuratively spit on it all.

     "I wouldn't have to swear if you didn't bother me. Your boyfriends are over there. Why don't you join them and leave me alone?" I demanded, folding my arms.
     "Aww. You're trying to insult my sexuality by making the insinuation that I'm not straight. How cute," Malachite cooed sarcastically, ruffling my hair, "You tried your best, so I'll leave you be little Lump. Just make sure you watch out for your girlfriend."

He departed swiftly before I could say another word. I wondered what he was getting at. It clicked in my brain before my body could react to the sudden chill and sense of horror that enveloped my chest. There was more movement behind me. I wanted to run away with all my might, but my dad would read me the riot act if I did that and made her cry again. Thus, I had no choice but to be nearly barreled over, feeling as if all the air had been beaten out of my lungs, as she glomped onto my back with unprecedented speed.

     "Coal, morning!" she cried happily into my ear way too loudly.
     "Morning, Mimosa." I greeted with the tiniest of smiles, doing a rather outstanding job at hiding the annoyance in my voice.
     "Mimi."
     "I like Mimosa better." I said.
     "Hmmm..." she pouted against my shoulder, but she wasn't one to argue against me.

Mimosa Charm was the third major complaint I had about my life.

Her unhealthy infatuation with me was downright infuriating at times, but what could I do? My parents, Uncle Al, and Aunt Lia had said so many times that she couldn't help it. Mimosa just wasn't right in the head. Not academically, as she kept up in our classes easily enough, but you could tell within minutes of meeting her that there was something off with her. Uncle Al had tried to explain her condition in depth to me once, but all the long medical terms went right over my head. I didn't care too much about them anyway, as it didn't change what I had to do. Which was, unfortunately, just to suck it up. Be patient, the adults always told me. I knew her parents did do their best in making sure she took all her medicine and controlled her behavior to the farthest extent that they could, but sometimes I wished I wasn't the one Mimosa had decided to declare the love of her life. I hadn't treated her more kindly than any other person had, nor had I gone out of my way to make her feel included. I acted like a normal friend and neighbor, and that was the extent I could handle with her.

     "Can...can you let me go now?" I asked what felt like an eternity later.
     "Not done yet." Mimosa giggled, clenching her arms around me tighter and squishing her face into my shoulder.

I sighed an imperceptible sigh, let my arms hang loose at my sides, and ignored the snickers I heard coming from Hunter, Cyclone, and Malachite's way.

I hoped Wisp would come rescue me as he often did, for he was the noble big brother type. Thankfully, I was put out of my misery much sooner by the person who was the best at controlling Mimosa. Her older identical twin sister, Hollyhock. We all just called her Holly though. She didn't share in her sister's ailment, so I got along with her a lot better.

     "C'mon, Mimi. Let the poor boy be." she said as she pulled Mimosa off by her back collar.
     "But-!" Mimosa whined, folding her arms and pouting before her expression suddenly morphed into a dreamy gaze of adoration as she looked my way, "I can't help it."
     "You are impossible." Holly shook her head, putting her hands on her hips but finding humor in the situation somehow as she smiled and laughed lightly.

Then she looked my way and saw that I wasn't pleased. I usually didn't grow so impatient with Mimosa so quickly, but, on the other hand, her usual greetings weren't as intrusive as her latest one.

     "Mimi, you have to remember what mom and dad told you. Respect other people. If they don't want to be touched, if they say no, then you have to follow that and not touch them." Holly chastised her sister more firmly.
     "But, Coal didn't say no." Mimosa mumbled.
     "Because he's too nice, and also because you went at him too quickly. You didn't give him a chance to say no in the first place."
     "Coal..." Mimosa glanced my way pitifully, pleading at me with her eyes.
     "I don't mind if you hug me occasionally, but...too much of a good thing is too much, you know?" I explained, not sure how to best phrase things- a common problem I ran into, "You should at least let me know if you want a hug. You kinda hurt me running into me like you did."
     "I'm sorry." she apologized, her eyes now looking slightly teary.

I sighed again, mentally this time. I didn't like making Mimosa cry, but sometimes it didn't matter what I did as she was just too emotional.

Changing the subject generally helped to calm her down, and, luckily, the rest of our group showed up right at the perfect moment.

     "It's going to be one of those kind of days, huh?" Midas noticed perceptively as he gauged the situation.

He was the son and lone child of Uncle Frost and Aunt Sunflower, and he was an interesting mix of both of their personalities. Or so the adults said. He was also interesting in the way that he was a triple Mixed. Midas had his father's blue hair, his mother's yellow skin, and also his mother's gray eyes. It was a fact he was rather proud of. Besides those with albinism, his certain characteristics had him as one of the rarest kinds of people. The more colors one had, the better. That was Midas' way of thinking. It was why he and I constantly made constant jabs at each other, as he proclaimed my being all red made me too stuffy despite me technically carrying green and even white on the inside. With both mom and dad having the albinism gene, it was safe to say even my colored siblings and I carried it as well. It was a mystery to us if we had inherited our mother's heightened rate of passing it down though.

Rosemary didn't say anything, but she gave me, Holly, and Mimosa a smile. She was the newest member of our group, being another child adopted by the Edens. Unlike Malachite, I had watched as she accepted her new family right away. She and Uncle Eden shared a similar sort of background. The child of an affair her mother had, Mary had been abandoned by her mother walking out on her husband when the stress of the affair broke them apart. That was when Mary's stepfather started to turn abusive, but she luckily got taken away before he could get too bad. She had spent two years in foster care before she and Uncle Eden shared some sort of special moment when they met at the Home she was temporarily moved to.

Another figure moved closer to Midas and Rosemary.

     "One of those kind of days?" he repeated in amused disbelief, "What are you talking about, Midas? It's always one of those kind of days."

That was Azure. Cyclone's younger brother, and Sap and Purity's biological son. He was the last member of our group.

     "What do you two mean? One of what kind of days?" Mimosa asked in unknowing innocence as she wiped her eyes dry.

She wasn't the best at picking up how her actions affected the rest of us. Sometimes we weren't sure if she was fully aware of her condition.

     "Ah, nothing. Don't worry about it." Azure said sympathetically, waving his hand dismissively.

Mimosa glanced towards me in order to follow my lead as she often did. I had learned very well from experience that the best choice was just to move on with our day.

     "Yeah, it's nothing," I agreed, "Why don't we go play in the arcade? Us having summer passes is no good if we don't use them. It's way too hot out here anyway."
     "Sounds good!" Rosemary was the first one to eagerly signal her support.

The others signaled their enthusiastic acceptance right afterwards. The six of us quickly retreated from the burning sun into the air-conditioned arcade. The place was relatively empty for once, so we were good to take over the place as we saw fit. Liking the more movement oriented games, I grabbed the first skeeball machine. Midas, sensing I already needed a break from Mimosa's clinginess, took the middle machine before she could make a beeline for it. She pouted as she hated before more than two feet away from me at any given time, but she perked up when some guilt began to sink in and I suggested we make the game a challenge for the highest score. Including her in some way in whatever I was doing was the easiest way to improve her mood. However, sometimes doing that would end up making her sad too.

     "Oh, no. Coal, I'm sorry." she suddenly said despondently and pointed to her machine when I looked at her in confusion, "I'm getting a better score than you."
     "That's what you're supposed to be doing." Midas told her.
     "But I don't want Coal to get upset."
     "Mimosa, you're allowed to beat me. It's more fun if I have to work harder for a higher score than if I get the victory handed to me. Promise." I told her, smiling now as my irritation had mostly faded away.

Mimosa beamed then and went back to playing. Realizing I was going to have to work harder in order to win, I tried to concentrate more intently on my rolls.

I soon had to turn my attention to my left though.

     "And you are allowed to hit those gnomes softer. Seriously, you're making that machine bounce around so much it feels like there's an earthquake happening." I friendly berated Holly.
     "Hey, I'm just making sure that I win my game." she shrugged competitively.
     "Like you even need to try. You pulled ridiculously far ahead of me within the first ten seconds. You could not hit another gnome for the entire round and still win." Rosemary pointed out to her in complacent defeat.
     "Nope. It's not satisfying unless I dominate as much as I can." Holly answered mischievously.
     "You're vicious, you know that?" Azure teased from across the room as he played the laser shooting game.
     "I'm a winner." Holly corrected boastfully.

I rolled my eyes at her and concentrated as best I could on aiming despite the ruckus she was making. Mimosa seriously gave me a run for my money. Midas was left in the dust, and I only beat Mimosa by a handful of points.

     "Yes! I won!" I cried exuberantly in my victory.

Midas gave me a joking push on the shoulder, and Mimosa beamed so brightly again that you would have thought she did win. Unfortunately, my merriment didn't last long as unexpected laughter rang out behind me.

     "You call that a victory? You didn't even get on the leaderboard." my dad teased.
     "Oh, shut up," I huffed in annoyance, "It's not like your name is on there either."
     "It used to be. I was number one too. I could have gotten a much higher score than what's on there now, but I felt so bad crushing all the little kiddies' hopes and dreams by making the top score an impossible one to beat."
     "Riiight..."
     "It's true. I bet you I can get the highest score in one try."
     "Go ahead and try then. If you don't, you have to buy me a motorcycle, a brand new one of my liking, when I get older."
     "What?" my dad looked at me in amused disbelief.
     "It can be repayment for crushing my fragile self-esteem by making fun of my victory. Something I'll tell mom of too if you lose." I taunted.
     "Yeah, sure. Whatever," dad let it roll off him as he moved past me to put more money into the machine, "Just to prove how sure I am of myself, I won't even require something from you when you lose. I think another blow to that poor self-esteem of yours when I bury your score into oblivion will be bad enough."

Even Holly and Rosemary let the last few seconds on their machines run out in order to join us other four in watching my dad prepare before the machine dropped the line of balls. My confidence that he was nothing more than over-confident was resolutely killed when he snatched the first ball, sent it up the ramp, and had it in the highest point drop before the second ball could reach the bottom of the station. All of our eyes went wide when he kept on doing that. Dad was so fast at sinking the balls in at the high point area that he was slowed down only by having to wait for the next ball to return. My score was passed with a vengeance before even a third of his time was up. I knew that him actually buying me a motorcycle if he lost wasn't a good chance to bet on itself, but if there was any chance for that happening then it was slipping away from me fast. Desperate, I whispered a plan into Azure's ear. He smirked along with me, and the two of us waited for the perfect moment.

It came when dad finally missed a few shots in a row. His pace slowed, and I tensed. After giving Azure the signal, I lunged for the two balls waiting the instant the third ball left dad's hand.

     "Coal!" he cried after me when I clutched them to my chest and ran left.

Azure was able to swipe the third and fourth ones when the fourth returned thanks to dad being distracted. Azure darted to the right. Not sure which way to go, dad settled on dashing past the rest of my friends roaring with laughter to come after me. I was already halfway out of the building.

Dad ranted at me some nonsense of me not being allowed to take the balls out of the arcade. It escaped his notice that I dropped them into the soil of the potted plant by the entrance when I ran out the door. I had a decent head start, but even with that and me being a relatively good runner I could not compete with those longer legs of his. His calls and the sounds of his hurried footsteps quickly got closer and closer to me. Realizing my hope of outrunning him was crushed, my mind whirred once more as I locked onto the only situation I could think of to possibly turn things around.

I'm sure dad must have thought that I was giving up when I slowed. However, I turned on my heel and launched myself at his leg. It was his turn to stumble and nearly fall over. I sat on his foot and clutched onto him with an iron grip.

     "Coal!" he rebuked again.

With one great effort, he was able to lift his leg rather high up. I was too heavy for him though, and he wasn't able to repeat the motion to try and shake me off.

     "What 'cha gonna do now, old man? You owe me a motorcycle!" I said victoriously to him
     "You meddled with the game. It doesn't count." dad retorted.
     "You didn't say I couldn't meddle."
     "It's obviously very greatly implied that you aren't allowed to meddle in bets like that!"
     "All you said was that you would get me a motorcycle if you didn't get the high score in one try. You should have been more specific if you didn't want me to get in your way."
     "Now, listen here-" dad began with a frown, but it was rapidly replaced with a suspicious smirk I didn't like in the slightest.

He had some sort of plan.

I didn't realize what it was until far too late. He shuffled along as I remained clutched to his leg. Not being able to see where we were going, I recognized at the last second that his goal was the fountain in front of the arcade building. That was when I jumped up to run away, but dad grabbed me under my arms and tossed me in. I hit the water harmlessly and suffered no wounds other than to my pride. Sputtering as I only just avoided letting my head go under, I sat in that shallow pool of water with a miserable pout. Dad simply stood over me with arms folded looking smugly satisfied.

     "Amaranth!"

He soon jumped in surprise and a hint of fear when mom's cry came from behind him. She was less impressed than I was, although I did have to admit the cool water felt nice against the burn of the sun. I wasn't in a great rush to get out.

     "I was just parenting." dad said sheepishly in response to mom's glare.
     "I only got him those new shoes yesterday." she said with a deep frown.
     "Oh, they'll dry," Uncle Blaze dismissed her as he came over to join the fun, "Besides, you gotta admit that this is a pretty funny sight."

I stuck my tongue out at him. Dad nodded and laughed, and jumped backwards cursing when I splashed a torrent of water at him when he tried to take my picture. His pants were soon soaked. Not content with the attack at all, he hurriedly placed himself half into the fountain as well so he could retaliate. The two of us were both fully drenched within seconds. Mom, who I swore still looked paler than normal, sighed and shook her head, but she watched with an exasperated smile at our antics afterwards while Uncle Blaze hadn't stopped laughing for one second.

Yup. It was a pretty normal morning for what would go on to be a horrible day.