Eddie wakes up the same way as he does every day, with the sunlight shining on his face and a mouthful of his own hair. He blinks his eyes open and stretches out his arms, hitting Bill who is sleeping next to him.
Bill, his chameleon friend—his only friend, in fact—hisses and sticks his long tongue out at him.
"Good morning to you too, Bill," Eddie mutters, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Bill pays him no mind and turns purple in order to match the bed covers in an attempt to get Eddie to ignore him and let him get more sleep.
"Bill, you do this every day." Eddie gives him a nudge. "Wake up, we have to get our chores done before Ma returns. Today is the day. I'm asking the question and we need to make sure everything is perfect if we want her to even consider saying yes."
Bill rolls his big eyes but changes back to his usual color— light green with a red strike in his forehead— and jumps off the bed.
Eddie does the same and changes out of his sleeping clothes to his usual long sleeve shirt with a vest thrown on top and knee-length breeches, all of them purple with a pink accent, his two favorite colors. Then he follows Bill down the stairs into the central room of the tower that he calls his home, his long blond hair dragging behind him as he walks. Not that it bothers Eddie, he's used to it by now.
"Alright Bill, let's get to work," he says, hands on his hips. Bill copies his stance for a second before they both move to start on their chores.
It's the same as every day, they make the bed, they sweep the floors, mop and shine them until they're spotless, dust all surfaces and wash the clothes and put them away. But even after doing all of that, they are done before eight in the morning.
Eddie sighs, "What will we ever do now, Bill, it's still hours before Ma gets back."
Bill pretends to think it over and jumps on the window sill, motioning outside.
Eddie rolls his eyes, "You know we can't go outside, Bill, it's dangerous and scary." Bill grunts and crosses his arms. "Besides it's not so bad in here, we have fun, you and I." Eddie ignores Bill's scrunched up face, "Let's go, I'm sure we can find something fun to do."
So they read the books Eddie's mother, Sonia, got for him the last time she went on a trip. Eddie reads out loud while Bill enacts the characters' actions, making Eddie laugh over his dramatic expressions.
When they're done, Eddie adds a few new drawings to his gallery—the inner walls of the tower. After eighteen years of painting on them, he is having a hard time finding room. It doesn't matter that he can use his hair to swing from the ceiling and reach the higher spots of the tower, soon enough he will run out of space.
Afterward, Eddie and Bill occupy themselves with a series of activities they've been doing since Bill found his way to the tower Eddie and Sonia live in.
Eddie remembers that night as if it had happened yesterday. He remembers how surprised he was when he woke up to a loud thumping sound that broke the silence in the tower. Eddie had grabbed the closest thing to him—a frying pan—and left his room to find the source of the sound. His mother was always going off about murderers and thieves finding and hurting him and he wasn't taking any risks.
What he had found instead was a small, wounded chameleon that had somehow managed to make its way up the tower. He had heard Eddie singing while he brushed his hair, a task that would usually take an entire night, with how incredibly long his hair was, and hoped whoever that voice belonged to could help him.
The poor thing was bleeding from what looked like a snake bite wound. He was shaking and obviously in pain. Eddie knew he needed to help him or else he would die.
