A Life with the Akatsuki [ABANDONED]

The Misadventures of Nagareboshi: Chapter One

XChapter 1XXX My Freedom X 

Ooh, yeah…relaxation time, baby. I whisper in my head as I drop onto the leather of my living room couch and kick my backpack under the table. I can practically feel myself sinking into the comfortably-worn couch. Homework can wait until after I watch the newest Naruto Shippuden episode.

I am about to turn on the TV when the house phone begins to ring. Scowling, I set down the remote and pluck the phone from the receiver. “Moshi-moshi?” I ask.

“I would ask that you stop answering the phone that way, Felicity.” The voice of my mother says from the other end, most likely calling from her office at the law firm. I scowl, rubbing my forehead. “Anyway, I was calling to make sure you came home from school alright.”

“Just got home, Mom. You don’t need to check up on me every day, you know.” I reply as I pick up the remote once more and flip the TV on. However, I keep it muted so my mother cannot hear it. She would throw a fit if she knew I was watching a show before I finished my school work for the weekend. And lucky for me, it is Friday night. Which means a whole weekend of back-to-back Naruto episodes. My friends call me a nerd, but I prefer the proper title of otaku.

My mother sighs, “If I don’t check on you, how will I know if you made it home? Did your cousin drive you?”

“Of course. Lucy would never make me walk home.” I answer as I continue to flip channels. No point in going through my recordings if I can’t listen to them until my mother hangs up, which could be a while. I see no reason she needs to check up on me, her eighteen-year-old daughter. I am a senior in high school and if it was not for my mother’s overprotective streak, I would be driving myself places instead of having to rely on my cousin to drive me around.

There is a small voice on the other end of the phone and I cannot stop the smile from spreading across my face. I know the owner of that voice. Suddenly my mother talking again. “I will have to call you back later, honey. I need to meet a client.” My mother says before quickly hanging up.

Thank you, Auntie Linda.

My aunt, Lucy’s mother, always knows when my mother is pestering me too much. And as my mother’s partner, she can easily interrupt my mother when it gets to the point of annoyance by using work excuses. She probably does have a client to meet, but not for another twenty minutes or so. My aunt never lies, but she is great at using time exaggerations.

Content with the knowledge that my mother will not be calling back for another couple of hours, I switch over to my recording’s list and select the episode ‘Homecoming’. As my favorite episode, it is a ritual of mine to always start off the weekend with the first episode of either Naruto or Naruto Shippuden. Then I will usually watch the newest episode of the week, unless I feel like watching another one first. Or maybe another anime all together. I recently became interested in the anime known as Bleach.

I start the episode, only to watch the screen go black. Huh?

I look around, but the other lights are still on. Not a blackout, then. So why did the TV stop working? Before I can try anything, the TV blinks on. And it is as if the volume was turned up all the way, because the room is suddenly filled with crazy noises and shouts. My hands fly to me ears and I try to mute the sound with my elbow, but it does not work.

After a few seconds, the sound begins to audibly drop until it is normal again. But it does not end there. I press the button to turn off the TV, only to have everything turn off. It is as if all the lights in the room went out, which makes no sense since I know for a fact the windows were open and there was mid-afternoon light shining through them mere seconds ago. Maybe it is my eyes?