The Mirror Coal [Ryan Higa/ Ryden]

New Day

11:57am

I see her, down the street. She's waving. I don't know who she is, or maybe I do; my natural instincts tell me I should accost her. I think I know her... Maybe from Florida, or something. Everything's blurry; I see my street and the houses surrounding it, including mines. It's raining incredibly hard. She's from a far distance; so close, yet so far away. "Wait!..." I yell, I ran towards her, but just as I was close enough to almost tap her in the back, I WAKE UP.

Woah. I jolted awake to find my dog, Marley, laying right next to me. He loves when I pet him by the stomach. I had forgotten what time I initially went to bed... 4am? 5am? Who knows. Today, my parents wanted to unload everything, set up furniture, and most importantly, set up our rooms. The inflatable mattresses aren't the best to sleep on.

"Ryan!" yelled mom, who sounded frantic, "come help with unpacking, we need to return the trucks today!"

Reluctantly, I forced myself out of bed, got ready for the day, put on presentable clothes, and went downstairs. I decided to unload my boxes first, to place in my room. When I descended, all the bed frames and mattresses were already unloaded. All that was left was the brown cardboard boxes labeled with certain things. Trophies. Blankets. Albums. Wall decor. Ryan. Ryan's stuff.

After dad was done unpacking, he wanted me to explore the city, and by city, I'm pretty sure he meant the neighborhood, "Ryan, I want you to explore the city later on, get good feel of our new neighborhood. Henderson's quite small, but safe. I trust that you'll be fine as long as you have a cell phone. You could go to the park or something. I'll give you money. Maybe you'll meet some new friends." He smiled.

"Thanks dad... I'll go later when it gets cooler," Did I mention, it was hot as hell? "Plus, I still need to set up my room before I could do anything." I told him.

He gave me a thumbs up, and continued to help mom unload boxes while I unpacked them.

5:33pm

After about five hours of unloading and unpacking, we finally finished. I finished my room, and decorated it similar to what it used to be in Florida. My walls were painted dark grey, which saved us money and labor. It was just the perfect shade I wanted it to be. My room was filled with collections of action figures, trophies for basketball and baseball, old photos on the dresser, family portraits, academic accomplishments, and Naruto posters. My black bed/ bed frame stood in the middle of the room, with cubic shelves surrounding the headboard, leaving me with a lot of space on my left and right side.

It's time to explore. "Mom, dad, I'm leaving!" I yell. They were still busy packing, so I texted him instead.

I walked down the street towards a small park. A very small park. Well, this didn't seem like something worth exploring so I continued down the street till I reached the cross street, and turned left. I didn't know where to go, everywhere I looked I saw a gas station, McDonalds, or Starbucks. What a city of great diversity... At least there's Chipotle.

As I continued walking down the street, I saw a small coffee shack named Pecho's Coffee Shack, something different.

Upon entering the store, I immediately knew this would be my place to "chill" and relax at after school (besides my room). This room reminded me of my study place back in Florida, with the colorful walls, comfy couches, bean-bag chairs, board games, and deserts. It was also very quite surprisingly, with free wifi. I looked at the menu, and ordered a Vanilla-Chocolate latte. Sounds strange, doesn't it?

I knew it was going to get dark soon, so I headed North towards the park. The words-on-the-rocks read Anthem park. This was an immense park; full of landscape, volleyball courts, barbecue spots and tables almost everywhere, benches under Trees, loads of grassland, two playgrounds, a skate park, roller skating rink, and basketball court! Finally, for once, a basketball court was close to my house where I didn't have to drive to practice with friends. But wait, I don't have friends. Not here. There were some residents in the park, mainly couples, parents with kids, and skaters. The basketball court remained empty. I glanced over to my left at the bench, and double-taked. Did I really just see the girl I was dreaming of? I walked towards her direction. It seemed as if she had a piece of rock in her hand, with a...knife? I changed my mind and turned around. She didn't notice me, and in some ways, I'm glad she didn't. We were complete strangers to each other, and quite frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about seeing someone holding a rock and a knife.

I checked my time. 7:03pm. I looked at the sky and noticed it really was, getting dark. The sun was setting, which meant I had to get home. I would've stayed if I drove. I liked to watch the sunset... But I knew my parents would not be happy if I was not home soon. I left the Orange-purple blended sky, and made my way back home.

7:35pm.

After I walked home, my parents already made dinner. And by made, I mean bought. We had Chipotle, which is one of my favorites.

"How was your day exploring, Ryan?" Asked Dad.
I told him about my discovery of Pecho's Coffee Shack, and how intended to stay there to study. Mom thought I was enjoying Nevada as well since it had "everything" I needed out of convenience. The park. Basketball courts. The library down the street. A multi-general center. Anything. But she didn't realize, I was missing one thing. A friend.

I just smiled and nodded along as she kept exclaiming and mumbling about how great the city is. Dad agreed with her and added on. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

In a week, I start my summer courses at UNLV. Which means I really only have a week of summer left. A week of doing nothing.

12:20am

It was quite late. I'm going to bed now.But before I do so, I had one last thing to do. I went upstairs and climbed up the ladder to reach the roof. It was nice, and dark. The sky was full of stars. I stayed here for a while. This was pretty nice. It made me think about getting a telescope. I could see the planets pretty well with one. On a night so clear and peaceful, the possibilities of my imaginations are endless... Literally.

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End:
Again, this was really easy to describe in detail about the city of Henderson since I reside here!

Next chapter, Katie comes in! Hope you enjoyed it. :)

PS sorry if I didn't publish anything for a few days. I like to take my time and put in my best efforts on writing.

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