The Waters

Water

Raindrops pattered against the windows of the room.

The room was a box with cream-coloured walls and a polished wooden door on one side. The two tall windows on the wall opposite the door – save for a sliver of light at the bottom of the curtains – were completely dark.

On the window-sill, an alarm clock lay, the time flashing slowly. Directly underneath the windows was a single bed, with grey sheets and a single grey pillow.

A 'modern' white acrylic desk sat on the left side of the window, housing a computer monitor, a desk lamp, a maroon school book and an ink pen. Opposite the desk was a dark wooden chest of drawers. A single lime t-shirt hung out of the side.

The digital alarm clock flashed from 5:59am to 6:00am and the radio activated, introducing the darkened room to the radio host.

"Good morning, everyone!"

A short jingle played and the host got right into the news.

"Today's news is the same over again, more showers, with colds as low as zero degrees, going into minus two, and a chance of hailstones. The motorway to the west of..." the radio host was interrupted by the groan of a fourteen year-old boy, with short copper hair and a few fibres of facial hair. He had bags under his eyes and he grunted, struggling to wake up.

"And now we have a great song for you, Radio Ga Ga by the legendary rock band Queen!" the host whizzed as the boy finally awoke, and stood up, wobbling slightly.

The instrumental, an arpeggio of broken synthesisers and electronic drums performed as the boy got dressed in boxer pants, smart jet-black trousers, a recently ironed white shirt, and a striped tie. He finished doing up the tie as the singing began.

The boy slipped on black socks and shoes, and picked up a black backpack with crimson-red outlines.

"Oh, hang on," he muttered as he swiped the maroon school book off of his desk and threw it in his bag, zipping it up afterwards. The book read;

Property of Daniel Farley

Daniel Farley sighed, as he realised that he still had one hour and fifty minutes until he had to leave for school.

He strolled back over to his desk, and powered on the computer. Daniel gripped the mouse with his right hand, and hovered his left hand over the keyboard. The desktop loaded the background, a picture of him and his friends at a recent school trip. He clicked a single shortcut on the side of the computer. The video game booted up and he clicked 'Competitive'.

Daniel played the game with clear experience, scraping his mouse against the blank mouse-pad. He shot three enemies, and whispered an obscenity as he was blown up.

Daniel hissed "Yes!", as he had single-handedly won the match. He closed down the game, and shut off the computer. He gripped the bag tightly, and whipped it over his shoulder.

He swiped his slightly outdated smartphone out of one of the bag's miscellaneous compartments, and checked the phone. It read:

07:33
Wednesday 9th March, 2016
Welcome, Dan.

Daniel sighed, and dropped the bag to the ground. He strolled to the wooden door, and turned the handle. Once the door was marginally open, he shouted out of it.

"Reuben!" he shouted out of the door, into the corridor.

"Yeah? What's up?" his brother shouted back at him.

"Are you ready to go?" Dan said. Reuben replied by tumbling out of his bedroom into the hallway, heaving his bag, full to the brim with books. "I still think that you need to take some books out. That looks too heavy."