The Battle Of Us And Them

Jessa

A sound. A continuous sound ringing in my ears, repeating itself until I have succumbed to it. I just kept running, the pounding of my footsteps on the sand mingling with the Sound. And then it was gone. Everything was gone.
Moaning, I rolled out from underneath my heavy comforter, my mind still attempting to comprehend what it dreamt. That was the fifth time in a week that the strange sound pierced my ears in a dream. The sound was like a violent alarm clock, but had a unique tone that made it seem more urgent, like it was trying to tell me that the world was about to explode. In all of these dreams is was doing various physical activities: running and swimming etc.
Meandering my way to the dresser, I dodged the clutter that was scattered across the floor of my bedroom. Half way there, my foot got stuck in an unknown sticky substance pooled on my purple hoodie.

"Kyle!" I screeched in surprise. "Cornstarch solution again? Try Caulobacter crescentus."
"Yeah, but Jess! Then you would not be able to drive me to school!" He laughed and threw a roll of paper towels at me from where he was leaning against my doorframe. Being 12 months older than me, Kyle acts like I am his live-in indentured servant and best friend. Our younger sibling, Jamie is like our unwanted growth that we can't surgically remove. He literally stalks us everywhere we go. Once, I found him with micro-binoculars in a bush at school watching me as I was going to lunch one day. I ended up yelling at him and sending him back to the elementary academy whence he came.
After cleaning my foot of the syrup, I proceeded to get ready for school. Walking out of my bedroom, I found my mother, already with breakfast on the table, the aroma of bacon filling the house. She glanced over at me from her spot in the kitchen.
"Eat." She nodded toward one of the four hot plates of bacon, eggs and toast sitting on the table. "Now. Or you'll be late."
Before I sat down, I turned toward the bedroom hallway and yelled "Ky! Make sure Jamie is up, and come eat."
A few minutes later, Kyle, with Jamie in toe, entered the dining room and took the seat on my right.
"Jam, do you have your library tablet? You know you left it last time and you had to sit in the hall." I asked him. Yesterday, he left the tablet at home and he couldn't use his digital ID to get in to the library, so the professors made him sit in the hallway alone.
"Yes, mother 2.0, I have my tablet." He said slightly sarcastically.
"Out! Everyone out! You are going to be late!" Mother entered the room picking up our bags and throwing them at our faces.

The car I drove to school was one of the only classic automobiles left in my neighborhood. Twenty five years ago, Jeremy Meyer experimented with spherical cars. They look like the old hamster balls, but seating and a steering wheel. He theorized that having spherical cars would reduce friction and make the cars go faster. Whether this theory is true, I had no idea, but people thought it looked cool or something and so Meyers manufactured them. So, while most everyone else in my town drove Meyers. I drove a 1967 Volkswagen bus with a motorized convertible top.

As Kyle helped load our stuff and get Jamie situated in the bus, I warmed up the car and scraped frost off of my with shield. Soon we were speeding away from our house, and were heading toward our respective schools.