Every Second Counts

Chapter 1

"Ryan, hurry up and finish your homework before you go out. It's due tomorrow, you know!"

"What the hell, mom? I'll be fine! Why have you been so pissy lately?"

"Don't swear at your mother! You know what, now you're not going to that party."

"Mom, no! I have to go! I already told Eric I would. And Emily. Emily Curtis is going. I have to get a chance to talk to her!"

"That's too bad. I guess now you'll just have to talk to her at school," Rebecca said to her son as she continued to wash the dishes.

"Oh my god!!! I hate you!" Ryan tried to storm up to his room.

"Where do you think you're going? You're gonna work on that down here where I can see you."

"Not helping your chances of me liking you," Ryan muttered as he pulled out his laptop and opened his family tree report.

"Stop being such a little shit and listen to me," Ryan's mom said as she hovered over him. "You know I love you, right? It's just that you can get so out of control sometimes. Do you hate me enough to not want my help with your paper there?" she gestured to the screen.

*mumbles*

"What?"

"No."

"Good. What do you have left to do?"

(In a different tab, Ryan could see multiple pictures of the party uploading to Facebook and Instagram)

"Ryan. What are you doing? Who is that?"

(jumps) "Mom! God! Do you have to be over my shoulder? And that's Emily. She could be your future daughter-in-law. And I'm missing it."

"Aww, I would be really sorry. If I cared right now. Get off of there. Now how much more do you have to type?"

"Um," (looks at report) "the stuff about Grandma. Your mom. Where did she come from?"

"Well," she started a she walked back into the kitchen, "your grandma and her family lived in Austria, but about a week before World War II started, my grandpa brought everyone over here. To America."

"No duh, Mom."

"Oh, hush. Anyway, well, it would've been your great-grandpa, he was afraid of having to be drafted into war. He did not want to fight on the German side. It's a good thing they got out, though, you know why?"

"Yeah, Mom, they were Jewish, I get it. Yada yada yada. I'm done now. Can I go to bed?" Ryan pleaded.

*checking his paper* "Hmm. Fine. But don't stay up too late, alright?"

"You got it, Mom."

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Upstairs (Ryan's POV)

I pretended to be asleep until my mom and dad turned off the lights in their bedroom down the hall. I got dressed for the party, which was luckily still going on. Although I almost woke up my dad while looking for my coat, there was a storm outside.

I snuck downstairs into the garage and started my car when I saw something in the grass. Thunder shaking the ground and lightning flashes still in the distance, I went to pick it up. When -