The High 5

Chapter 2: Sunny-Side Up

The sun rose early around six a.m., and it was about an hour later that Sun woke up, too. He sighed when it dawned on him that no one had set an alarm last night, again. But still, it was better this way, in its own way. Alarms were just inanimate objects — no soul or heart. They were, in all ways, incapable of caring about how you felt when they woke you up.

But since birth, Sun had possessed a strange ability to always wake up shortly after the sun had risen. With his unique power, he took the opportunity to fill in whenever an alarm clock wasn't set to do its job. His kind but forceful nudges manage to peacefully pull his friends from their slumber, and leave them with a lot less negativity when having to start the day.

Sun woke Aivie last. He usually always left her last because he suspected that there was more on her mind that she would ever let on, and so he deduced that a few more moments of rest would do her some good.

"I want you to know that I didn't set an alarm on purpose. So you can't blame me for this morning's fault," Aivie groaned.

"Error 404, logic not found. And what have I told you about too much honesty not being a good thing," Sun retorted.

"The truth will set you free, don't you know?" Aivie caught a whiff of something in the air. "Oh, yum! Did you already make breakfast, Sunny? Ah, you're a much better investment than some dang alarm clock. I've been sure of this for years now."

Sun started to smell the air as well. A faint scent of bacon was slipping into the room. "Nope. I'm not that remarkable. I think there's an intruder in your kitchen."

"Oh, well I hope they at least made enough bacon." Sun offered his hand to help her out of bed, and she gladly took it. Rion led the groggy charge out of Aivie's bedroom and downstairs to the massive kitchen. What they saw wasn't totally unexpected.

Serena Daye was scooping up a banana oat pancake from the frying pan when she saw the Five walk in. Her long, straight hair was just as blonde as her son's, and she had a tiny round-ish birthmark on her left cheek. She winked at them and said nothing as she took the pan to the sink and started on the dishes.

"You seriously broke in?" Sun asked his mother in disbelief. The other four aimlessly drifted to the kitchen table where a heap of freshly made food was waiting to be devoured.

"It's not breaking in if a key was under a potted plant, and a person who lives here told me about it. That's what I'll tell the police if you call them on me," Serena replied.

Sun sighed in defeat as he went to join the four at the table. "We're seniors now. Making our own breakfast can't be such an obstacle course for us. That's all I'm saying."

"You say too much sometimes," Serena said. She craned her head away from the sink to look at the Five. "I thought about letting you all make your own breakfast, I really did. But then I remembered late last night that the five of you, whether combined or separate, have the cooking abilities of a newborn. Look Sunbeam, I'm a mom. Been yours for a long time. I've been something like one to the rest of you four for some time too. Being a mom is my first job, and I'm never gonna have a problem with that. So, I'm gonna keep making you breakfast, anytime you're around. All you have to do is go to school, play sports, go on a date, figure out what you want to do in your life -- in no particular order I guess. Now just eat."

"Though it wouldn't be bad if that first date finally happened before we graduated. That's all I'm saying," Colette added. Aivie and Mace raised a praiseworthy hand in agreement.

"Bleh," Sun croaked. He grabbed a fork and picked a few pancakes onto his plate, then reached for a bowl of vanilla yogurt and dipped a piece in before plunging it into his mouth.