The CANONICALS

Wacky Wednesday.

David woke up uncomfortably. It was the middle of the night, which meant some people should be asleep. Yet he could hear half of the units or staff from where he was. That-be-it awake or asleep, it didn't matter.

He could hear it all.

A ball hitting a paddle from Aster's room, the static humming noise from Ben's room, Jade and Zee whispering each other from the room just next door, someone muttering in their sleep from up in Kelvin's room, a very low bassline from Cormac's room and very loud snoring from Tanner's room.

David quickly squeezed the pillow tighter around his head, trying to drown out the sound as much as possible as he groaned loudly.

He didn't look great the next morning.

He bursted out of his room and made a Bee-line to the kitchen, to find Zee and Jade already in there, Jade with a cup of coffee, pouring creamer into it, and Zee with a cup of tea.

"Coffee," David hissed. "Black."

"Woah there, what's got you in a bad mood?" Zee asked, chuckling.

"Shut it, checker-boy!" David exclaimed, an obvious jab to the black and white, checkered armband that Zee wore every day.

"Hey!" Zee exclaimed. "It's a fashion statement! But seriously, why are you so sour today?"

David simply glared at Zee as he waited for Jade to finish pouring him his black coffee. Jade finished and quickly handed it to David, who downed it in one gulp. He let out a satisfied sigh.

"I'm a bit curious also," Jade stated, leaning back on the counter as her hand trailed off to find the sugar packets. "You're so agitated every morning, what's that all about?"

"You're an insomniac, aren't you?" David asked, crossing his arms. "How do you deal with being exhausted every morning?"

"I usually have around three cans of tea or a cup of coffee nearby just for that," Jade stated. "Five hour energy if I really need it. So I don't get all drowsy."

David groaned, "So you're just content with not getting any sleep."

"I mean, I did go into a coma for like a day last week, remember?" Jade mentioned. "That whole ripping-Wispy-from-my-mind stuff made me hella exhausted."

"Damn kids," David commented, grumbling as he walked away.

He could hear Zee and Jade commenting and laughing quietly amongst themselves about him as he walked away. He stormed to his room and pushed the door open, full force, only to see Aster trying to rip his Coca-Cola tapestry off of the wall. David yelled at him and Aster shrieked before skedaddling away. David continued grumbling until he slipped down onto his bed, angry and exhausted.

It was up to a flip of the coin how David felt on days: he would either be really angry or relatively happy. No inbetween. And today, it seemed, would be one of the former.

David cursed as he let his head fall backwards onto the bed. He felt around on his scraggly hair, his hands grazing past the two ears. Most days he wished he could just rip them off. He had no recollection of how he became this thing, yet he wanted more than anything to be normal.

Normal soul, normal thoughts; none of it mattered if he didn't have a normal face and normal appearance.

He groaned, "Curse you, whatever forces did this to me." For all he knew, this was what he had been his entire life. He was just spawned right into the world with all the knowledge of anything he'd known already in his head.

"Nobody here could ever walk a day in my shoes," David hissed, irritated.

Zee stared at the ceiling as did Jade on the bed only a few feet away from her. He sighed, pulling out his phone to mindlessly scroll and hopefully find something to keep him occupied while he couldn't sleep.