Bubble

Chapter 1: "Earth"

Emma 

It was dark—darker than it ever had been before. I squinted as my eyes struggled to see through the thick haze of smog that surrounded me. The air stung at my unprotected face, bringing moisture to my tear ducts as if I was cutting onions. 

It was definitely worse than it had been a few months ago, the last time I had been in this part of the city. Everyone else seemed to think so too; there were hardly any pedestrians on the street other than myself, making it feel like a ghost town. I didn't blame them—it was becoming dangerous to be outside, even with a filter. Mum had made me promise that I wouldn't walk home anymore, but my brother Austin had gotten a detention and couldn't give me a ride, which wasn't exactly a rare occurrence. He had a habit of playing the big brother role and attempted to "put people in their place" a little too often for the principal's liking.

I noticed the diminishing light again and glanced down at my watch. 3:30. The days were down to about seven hours of light now; we had lost another half hour over the summer, and it was still September. A few street lights came on, illuminating a foggy halo of air around them. I picked up my pace a bit, wanting to be home before dark.

I heard the electric hum of a car engine behind me, and scooted over in case the driver couldn't see where he was going. The horn sounded, catching my attention, and I looked over to find my brother's car idling next to me. The electro-magnets disengaged, and it descended to a gentle stop by the curb, the passenger opening. I ran over and quickly scrambled in, relieved that I wouldn't have to come up with a story to tell mum about why Austin and I were arriving home at different times.

I pulled my breathing filter down from over my nose after shutting the door behind me. "Hey," I panted, breathing heavily from jogging on the sidewalk.

"Hey," Austin returned my greeting as he pulled the car away from the curb and began zooming through the deserted streets.

"How was detention?" A small smirk formed on my face.

"Not bad, actually," he said nonchalantly, "Mrs. Duncan fell asleep again so Damon and I drew a beard on her face with whipped cream."

I choked out a sound that was something between a surprised cough and a laugh. Apparently he wanted to get suspended. Again.

"Kidding!" Austin chirped, throwing me a devious smile as I shot him a glare. "No, but really," he continued in all seriousness, "I swear they make the clocks move ten times slower in those classrooms!"

I rolled my eyes. "And what did you do to end up there this time?"

"I find it funny that you always assume that I did something."  He pretended to be offended, placing a hand over his heart.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, okay. So I might have kindly told Joshua Aker to go stick his head in some not-so-nice places. And then he may have kindly given me a fat lip in return and blamed me for the fight."

I groaned. I had specifically told Austin to leave him alone. Even after what he had said to me the week before. Josh was a black belt in karate or something. I chuckled a bit at his knack for getting himself into trouble. "You're and idiot, you know that?"

“Correction—I'm a lovable idiot," he said, smiling like a little kid and batting his eyelashes. He was so full of himself.

I punched him in the shoulder. "Just drive, doofus."

***

"So, want to split up homework?" Austin asked as we walked through the door of our apartment. He plopped down on the couch and gave me a hopeful glance, which I quickly shot down.