Counting Stars

Chapter 12

➹ Chapter 12➹

Alex

I rub my sleepy eyes for the millionth time this morning. The shower I took when I woke up definitely didn't do the trick. I am starting to hate Myth-o-magic gatherings. The only thing cheering me up is the fact that Calvin's sleepy, too.

Whenever he lacks sleep, Calvin gets grumpy and does stupid things. The other thing my brother values most apart from Aven is sleep. He takes forever to wake up when he oversleeps. My favorite part is doing various things to get him out of bed. This morning, I spilled ice cold water on him. He'll be too tired to get me back for it.

"You kids shouldn't have stayed up late," Mom moves around the kitchen, preparing our breakfast.

"I'm sorry, Mom, but we got carried away," I apologize to her. I don't like lying to Mom but it's the only way to get us to the finals.

Calvin only replies with a grunt. His arms are folded on the table and his head is rested on top of them. His hair is messy and I saw a while ago that he has eye bags.

"Well, you better not sleep in class." Mom lays our plates in front of us, with our breakfast: bacon and eggs.

"Yes, mom." I say, while scooping up some food into my mouth. Mom isn't strict but not too carefree either. She cares for us and actually pays attention to what's going on in our lives. She gives us enough freedom, too. She's working as a teacher to support us but I don't think that's enough. We have some inherited savings from my grandparents but when we reached the top six, Calvin and I decided to win two cash prizes for our family.

Our mom and dad are divorced. My dad doesn't contact us anymore. The last I heard from him, he has a family now. I think Mom's really strong to let him go. She's still smiling while supporting two of her kids without a husband. I don't even want to think about my other brother.

After breakfast and persuading Calvin to get his face out of his food, I grab my backpack. I wait for Calvin to follow me before I head out the door.

"I'm going to fall asleep in class again," Calvin mutters from beside me while we walk to the bus stop.

"Then I'm not going to wait for you if you get detention." I roll my eyes. "I heard you doing something else in your room. Were you still playing?"

He half-shrugs, "I need to earn some XP. I just leveled up last night."

I frown, "Calvin, you shouldn't be losing sleep for this."

He waves it off, "I'm going to be fine." But I grab him by the arm before he runs into the bust stop pole.

"See what I mean?" I wave my arms around, ignoring the other people around.

Sleepy Calvin remains stubborn. He grunts again and hops first into the bus. I follow him.

I have a fair number of friends, but I don't exactly have one permanent best friend. I hang out with some groups every now and then but I prefer to be with myself. Calvin's got a group of friends, though. But they have their own rides.

Calvin doesn't sit beside me like the usual. I choose not to bother him. He's going to catch some sleep in the bus. I sit in the end of the bus, where it's empty.

I scoot towards the window as the bus pulls into another stop. I do nothing in bus rides except sometimes listen to music. But now, I want to think about the finals. Vade swore to beat me, but I'll do better than him. Other than Aven, Vade and I are the popular ones in the top six. It's because of our serious rivalry, I guess.