HIS FAVORITE GINGER ✓

FOUR.

SIMILARLY TO 90% OF ALL teenagers on planet Earth, Alejandro isn't a morning person. There's this bitter feeling that makes him want to shed blood when he wakes up to morn. Then his limbs become heavily ossified and glues to the bed, like it's night paralysis except he's allowed to snuggle the sheets more. The early morning sun rays seeps through his eyelid, he groans at this and even louder when someone shakes the remaining bits of sleep from his body.

"Morning sweetheart." A shrill feminine voice grates the air surrounding Alejandro's sleeping figure to dust. He clenches his face harder into the pillow.

"I hate school." It comes out as muffled gibberish but it's audible nonetheless. He gets no reply after a while and he's almost grateful. Today must be his lucky day. Maybe he picked up a four-leaf clover in sleep.

Suddenly, he feels something warm, wet, wide and wiggly on crawling on and in his back; water, lots of it. Alejandro peeks a peeved eye to see a ginger in a skimpy silk nightdress holding a pail.

"First of all, you are going to dry those sheets, today."

"Good morning to you too." Alejandro just ignores the thought of lashing out at her. At least, his paralysis is gone. He sits up on his bed and rubs his eyes groggily. "And if I may ask, why are you in my room?"

"You can't ask because I'm your mother and I can come to your room anytime I want. Since you didn't come downstairs early, I came to check on you." She firmly states, still putting on that oh-so-familiar motherly rise-and-shine smile that Alejandro just wants to wipe off her face. It even gets more annoying with his wet pyjamas nipping at his neck.

"Um, thanks?" Alejandro isn't used to talking with Freya, he rarely sees her in months. She and her new spouse are always on one business trip or the other. He doesn't give a shit though, he rarely even notices her absence. Alejandro isn't like some spoilt brats out there who hungers for their parents' attention to the extent where sickening angst becomes their oxygen.

"How are you feeling today?"

Alejandro lets out a large sigh. Ever since he'd been diagnosed of diabetes type A, his parents has been a little too overprotective - a lot actually, despite their absence from home. Now that they heard I blacked out during class, their monitoring powers has been on overload. They hog him like he's an already cracked Fabergé egg and is going to break any second. Freya brings him his bitter coffee and that awful ginseng tea every morning and has banned ice cream and late-night texts and calls - who does he even want to call in the night anyways.

"I told you I'm totally fine mom. See, I slept like a baby." He subtly swats her hands from checking his eyes and feeling his face like preparing yeasted dough.

"Probably a little too much." She teases, slapping his face and retreating from the room. "And don't forget to dry those sheets or you're so dead."

Alejandro lunges for his favorite Rolex lying on his bed. He rubs his eyes to make sure he is reading the obscure chronograph correctly; 6:40.

Alejandro's life is a reflected form of the word 'typical'. It could've been much more promising if not for Freya's instilling "independence and responsibility" and he has to do chores like every normal kids despite the fact they are suffocatingly well-heeled. After twenty minutes of washing machine music, he's back to his room, stripping to his Plants vs Zombies boxers. He doesn't even bother to heat the water as he showers all his grogginess down the drain. Alejandro loathes being late and lives for laziness. Nolan and Kara are to be blamed. They'd forced him to stay up till late, skyping about random shit and RPG-ing online.