Maxwell Fields and the Book of Nothing

Knock Knock

       Maxwell Fields jolted awake as his alarm clock began to chime. He closed his tired green eyes again and rolled over onto his side. He made sure to give the alarm clock's snooze button a few good whacks as he did so.
       Max groaned and managed to drag himself out of bed. Wonderful. Max thought to himself. More school. Whoop de doo. He stretched himself out and yawned. If only I could just go back to bed...
       Max groggily began to get himself ready. Once he had finished getting dressed and brushing the light brown mop of hair on his head, he made his way to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.
       It was only a few moments before a sudden KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK made Max drop his spoon to the floor. Max sighed and got up from the table, swallowing the mouthful of cereal he'd manage to shovel in.
       He opened the door to find a boy his age, with blue eyes as bright as the smile that never seemed to leave his face, and blonde hair that "floofed up" on one side, for lack of a better term.
       "Jake, you show up earlier and earlier everyday. Can't you just wake up at a normal time for once?" Max leaned himself against the door frame. Jake laughed. "No way! What fun would that  be?"
       Max shook his head, chuckling. "Are Derek and Aurora up yet?" Jake nodded. "Derek was already up playing video games, but Aurora wasn't quite ready to wake up and tried to slam my foot in the door." Max laughed again. "Sounds like everything's normal this morning."
       Jake always liked to knock on the doors of his three friends to make sure they were awake each school morning. Sometimes even on weekends. Max wondered how Jake never seemed to run out of energy and cheer. He must have a giant stash of energy drinks or something in his backpack to keep him going.
       Max started to walk back to his bowl of cereal. "Let me just finish this and I'll be right out." he said as he got out a new spoon. "Aight!" Jake said as he began to walk back down to the sidewalk.
       Max ate the rest of his breakfast and grabbed his backpack. He stepped out the door to see Derek and Aurora walking towards where Jake stood. Derek sported his usual spiked dark hair which made him look even taller than he already was. Because of this, some people thought he was older than his three friends, though he was 16 years old along with them. He wore yet another one of his t-shirts that had a logo from one of his favorite games emblazoned across the fabric.
Aurora marched down the sidewalk with an annoyed expression on her face, her brown hair laying flat against her back and shoulders. When she got to Jake, she punched him in the arm. Not too hard, just enough to let him know that she wasn't a fan of his wake up call. She certainly could've punched him hard if she wanted to; she could take down any of them without much trouble.
Jake put his hand on his arm and laughed a bit. "Hey!" he said. Aurora smirked. "Maybe if you wouldn't wake me up every morning, we wouldn't have this problem."
        Derek yawned. "The best way to avoid Jake waking you up is to not sleep at all." he said. He wasn't making a joke either. He was almost always up all night playing video games or working on his computer.
       Max walked up to the group. "Morning, all." he said, still partially tired. Aurora glanced him. "G'morning, nerd." Max shook his head and smiled. "Same to you."
       Jake patted his hands against his legs as he stood. The kid was almost always moving or doing something with his hands or feet. "Should we get going?" he said, gesturing towards school. Max nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
The four began walking to the bus stop. The only good part about Jake making us finish getting ready early is that we don't have to rush to catch the bus. Max was absorbed in his thoughts until Aurora nudged him. "Hey, Earth to Max." Max blinked and looked at her. "What?" Aurora shook her head. "Always zoning out. I asked if we were still planning to all hang out at your house on Saturday."
Max nodded. "Yeah." Aurora grinned. "Great. I'll get to cream you at video games on your own property." Max laughed. "Well-" Before Max could figure out a witty response, he tripped on his shoelaces. "Agh!" Max yelped and fell to the cement beneath him, landing on his shoulder. The others quickly helped him get up.
"You alright Max?" Jake asked, looking worried. "I'm fine." Max responded. Derek looked at Max. "I don't think you can say the same for your arm." Max looked down at his arm to see that a joint had been twisted and bent into the wrong direction. "Ech, not again." Max slid his backpack off and began trying to snap the joint back into place. "Is it okay?" Aurora asked as she watched Max readjust his arm. "Yeah" Max replied. "I need to get a new one soon anyway. This one's pretty old." Stupid prosthetic. He thought to himself.
       The four finally reached the bus stop. The bus arrived and they chose their seats. Max leaned back in his seat and sighed. Time for another stupid day of learning.