Cloud Chasers

fifteen | a million miles away [pt. one]

The next morning, Joyce woke up to the sound of hip hop music blasted outside her room.

"What the hell?" she mumbled as she sat up. There were a lot of not-so-nice things she could say about Kuni, but loud was never one until now.

Kuni had always been unbelievably quiet during the whole day, so to hear that noise early in the morning was rather strange.

Joyce got up and stretched. The more she heard the beats of the music, the more it irritated her.

She went out into the hallway, the music got even louder as she opened the door. She approached Kuni's room to make sure it was coming from there and knocked harshly. "Kuni, do you mind?" she shouted.

"What?" Kuni's muffled voice answered from inside, slightly lowering the volume.

Joyce shook her head and decided to have breakfast. Still yawning, she sat at the kitchen table with her usual box of Froot Loops, when she stared at it and squinted.

"What...?" Her eyebrows shot up.

She rushed back up and rummaged through the garbage until she found another box of Froot Loops. A chill went through her. Both boxes said "Fruit Loops", which didn't make sense.

She'd had that box in front of her for almost all of her twenty years. It couldn't have just changed overnight. She googled "Froot Loops" on her phone and gulped at the results.

"Did you mean: Fruit Loops?"

No, that didn't make sense. She scrolled through the images. They all said "Fruit Loops". What happened? She couldn't understand, so she decided to call her dad.

"Yes, I'm fine, Dad. Listen, you remember my favorite cereals?" she asked, walking back and forth in the kitchen.

"Yeah, Froot Loops. Why?" he said.

"How do you spell that?"

"What?"

"Froot Loops, come on, Dad. Spell it out."

He hummed. "F-R-U-I-T-L-O—"

"No!" she interrupted him. "It's F-R-double O-T. What the hell are you talking about?"

"You sure? Wait, I have a box right here," he said. "Nope, it's how I spelled it. No double O's here."

She groaned. "Dad, you've bought me those cereals for years. How can you not remember the name correctly?"

"Look, Joyce. I know it's hard for you to believe this. But you might just remember it wrong," he said carefully.

"Shut up, Dad. No." She shook her head. "I distinctly remember the double O's made with actual Froot Loops."

"Yeah, it's that way in the "Loops" part. Not in the upper part," he said.

She sighed. "Alright, Dad. Thanks a lot. Talk to you later." She hung up.

She ran her hand through her hair in distress. What did it matter anyway? She wondered to herself, it's just a name, after all. But that was not the point. She knew she didn't remember it wrong. This couldn't be a memory error. She'd had that box in front of her every morning for years and years, no way the name could just change overnight.

As she reflected, the hip hop noise stopped and Kuni came out of her room, into the kitchen. "What's up, Joyce?" she said to her.

Joyce cleared her throat and glanced at her, brows furrowed. Kuni was wearing oversized sweatshirt and joggers. She looked so odd. She didn't remember ever seeing her like that. "Hey," she spoke to her regardless, "do you, by any chance, remember these cereals' name to be different?"