Colours That You're Not Meant to Notice [Pokemon]

[1]

Kieran awoke with a slight crick in his neck. The kind you couldn't get rid of by tilting your head side to side or anything, unfortunately. Instead, it was going to be the kind that would probably stick around for the rest of the day.

He sighed and stood up from his position, sitting on the side of his bed. Kieran knew today would probably be quite bad... at least, at first. Then he realized he was starting his first day at Blueberry Academy.

For the first time, after a whole summer of misery, Kieran would get to learn about his favourite thing(s). Pokémon. He smiled to himself despite his neck pain and ran downstairs. As usual, his parents were gone for work, and the only person around was his sister.

He couldn't say he exactly appreciated her company normally. It was primarily her making his summer so miserable, after all, but family is family, Kieran guessed. "Kieran, there you are! You're so damn lazy, waking up this late!" Carmine said, grabbing the air as she usually did when upset.

"It's only six-thirty," Kieran croaked out, having not noticed how dry his throat was. He went to the cupboard where they stored empty jars for use as cheap glasses and took one out. Soon after retrieving his "glass," he turned on the nearby tap and started to fill it with water.

"Six-thirty, shmix-thirty, you need to be more attentive to when you wake up! Get an alarm on your X-transciever or something!" Carmine further badgered.

Kieran growled, "Just get off my back!" His eyes suddenly went wide, and he realized what he had done. He turned off the tap, placing his glass in the sink temporarily, as he turned around and raised his hands in front of him.

"Kiki. Did you just talk back to me?" Carmine asked slowly.

"I-I didn't mean to, sis, I just wasn't—OOF!" Kieran was cut off mid-sentence by a sock to the stomach. He held his midsection in pain, leaning forward.

Carmine slapped the back of Kieran's head, too, making him lean his head down, facing the floor. "Do NOT talk back to me."

After a reply of a groan from Kieran, his sister moved away towards the breadbox. "I'm making us toast for today. You woke up too late, so I can't make anything nice."

Kieran raised his head to look at Carmine, who was next to the toaster. He angrily glared at her. At least she'd be in a totally different class than him. He wouldn't have to deal with her for the rest of the school year... probably.

Gritting his teeth, Kieran retrieved his water from the sink, walked to the table, and sat in a chair.

After breakfast, Carmine returned to her usual nagging. "Alright, Kiki, hurry up and get your bags, we're going to school! Be quick about it, come on!"

"I am, I am," Kieran said, trying not to get angry again, lest he incur his sister's wrath. He hurried to his room and picked up the two bags he was bringing with him. One full of hygiene items, the other full of school supplies. According to the school, they'd have uniforms provided to them, so Kieran figured he wouldn't need to bring a change of clothes. He packed one pair of underwear, though, just in case.

He muttered to himself as he and his sister went to the marine subway station in the south part of Nuvema town. "Wowzers... dorms... I'm gonna be living all on my own..."

They boarded the subway, travel thankfully being free in their region, and Kieran held in his excitement. He had to, after all, too fearful of his sister.

"Can't believe you were accepted too, Kiki. I'm seriously shocked. You must be a better trainer than you let on," Carmine said to her little brother.

It was rare that Carmine would compliment Kieran, but it always felt disingenuous to him for obvious reasons. He looked around the subway. Nuvema town may have modernized a slight bit, but it still wasn't exactly giant in population. The tube today was pretty barren. Probably because today was a morning that it would be running to the school instead of the usual destination of Aspertia City.