Michael woke up that day like he would wake up on any other- very reluctantly. He was quite a deep sleeper, he loved sleeping. So it usually always took his mother all she could do to wake him up every day. "Wake up Michael, you're gonna miss the bus!" she shouted from outside his room. Michael had barely heard what his mother said and mumbled, "Its okay mom, I'll walk," and tried to go back to sleep. This infuriated his mother so much that she then stormed into the room screaming "THE SCHOOL IS 10 MILES AWAY MICHAEL COLOUR. YOU. CANNOT. WALK. THAT. FAR." and threw the curtains open. Michael groaned as the sunlight hit his face. He sat up and looked around at his room after putting his glasses on. It was just as messy as it always was with books and clothes strewn across everywhere. He smiled to himself. Thats just how he liked it. "Get up Michael, or I'm cleaning your room," his mom threatened. Michael quickly shot up from his bed. "I'm up mom, what do you mean?" he said as fast as he could. His mom smiled and said, "Good. Now, get ready for school. I'll clean your room if you end up missing the bus."

Michael groaned again. He loved his mom but his room was his room. No one could touch his room, not even to clean it. He didnt have anything *confidential* or anything to hide, he just didnt like anyone touching his stuff at all. It always felt like *something was wrong* if they did. Therefore, he surrendered to his moms threats of tidiness and dejectedly walked over to where the bathroom was waiting. The bathroom was only the size of a small corridor and it felt even smaller inside. The developer of the apartment Michael's family lived in somehow had managed to cram a sink, a toilet and a shower in it when he built the place, leaving little to no room for people to actually use said objects. However, Michael was used to it. He grew up inside this small little apartment and the city was all he knew. He was no stranger to being confined in small places. He crawled over to the sink and wetted his toothbrush. Then he put a small bit of toothpaste on it and started brushing his teeth.

As he was brushing his teeth, his thoughts turned to the day ahead of him. He supposed it would be like any other day in school; 8 hours of sheer boredom with nothing to do when suddenly he remembered that it was the last day of school before the summer vacation started. "Ughhh," he groaned as he hit himself in the face with some cold water from the sink. How could he have forgotten? Summer vacation meant 2 months of absolute freedom! He chided himself in his mind over and over for not remembering that as he took off his pajamas. He also remembered that he and his two best friends Ben and David were supposed to hang out together after school in his house that day. He had not made any preparations or prepared any activities to do for when they were gonna hang out. He frantically started to try and think of something to do together. Sorting through the clothes in his wardrobe, he thought to himself, "Well, we could actually go outside and climb a tree or something" but quickly remembered the fact that they were nerds who could barely climb a ladder let alone climb a tree. After choosing a suitable red flannel shirt and jeans to wear and what felt like an eternity of brainstorming, he finally decided they would instead head over to their local game store first and buy some new games so they weren't completely empty handed on activities. He thought to himself again, "That is definitely easier than climbing a tree." He threw his pajamas onto the floor, put on the shirt and jeans and headed to the kitchen.

"Good morning, mom" he said as he entered, "What's for breakfast?" "Oh, it's finally morning, huh?" Came his mother's reply from across the kitchen. Michael's mother Sally Colour was working away at the stove with a spatula. She was wearing her usual mom-clothes; a blue cardigan and some gray sweatpants. She was the person who generally kept the apartment together and prevented it from burning down. "Yes mom, its 7:30 am, of course its the morning," smirked Michael. "Tell your father that." He turned to face his parents' bedroom where he saw his father still fast asleep and smiled to himself. His father was a man with an unmatched passion for sleeping. That was most probably where Michael had gotten his love of sleep from. "What's for breakfast?" Michael repeated. "Your favourite, egg on toast," his mom replied. Michael groaned for the 4th time this morning, egg on toast was his least favourite breakfast. In fact, he didnt like eggs at all and his mom knew that. He looked up to see his mom watching him with a big smirk planted on her face. "Thought I'd make something special for the last day of school before the summer vacation starts," she grinned. "You're evil, mom" Michael frowned as he dug into the unpleasant fare set infont of him knowing that any argument would be fruitless.

As Michael suffered through his breakfast, his thoughts turned to his two best friends Ben and David. He had known both of them from 1st grade in school. They had met after the three of them had been held in during recess due to writing profanities on their desks. Ben had wrote "Hell", David "Poop" and Michael "Dam". He chuckled to himself, what were the odds that all of them had been doing the same thing on the same day and that they would all face the same punishment and become bestfriends? Astronomical probably, almost like it was their fate. It seemed like whoever was writing their story decided for them to be bestfriends for whatever reason. The three of them had basically grown up together and shared a very close bond. For Michael, as an only child, they were like the brothers he never had and he was grateful for that. He valued their friendship very much. That's why it really killed him inside when he forgot that it was the last day before the summer vacation that morning. Its been a long time tradition of theirs to spend the whole day together on the last day of school. Every year, it was upto one of them to plan something to do and they'd do that all day long and have a blast. Last year it was Ben's turn and he decided that they should play Lasertag. It was the most fun Michael had had in his life. This year it was upto him to plan something and he had completely forgotten about it. He cursed his poor memory and let out a groan.

"You've been groaning a lot this morning, what's wrong?" His mother asked with a worried look. "Did I put too many eggs on the toast?" Michael smiled a bit, "Nah, its nothing. The existence of eggs is never okay," he said. She narrowed her eyes at Michael and said, "Thats what they all say." "About the eggs? Yes," Michael replied. She smacked his hand with the spatula in her hand and said, "You're very funny, Michael." "Ouch!" Michael cursed out loud, "You don't have to be so violent to tell me that." "You're hopeless," she replied rolling her eyes. Michael smiled, "Anyways, can we go to the Gamestop on the corner of the 31st avenue after school? You know, last day of school and all," he explained. "Yeah sure, just be safe, okay?" She answered. Michael grinned, "Always."

Suddenly the clock set on the wall of the kitchen started to buzz. "Its 8 o'clock, the bus should be here any moment now," his mother said. "Ah! There it is now," exclaimed Michael as they heard a loud honk coming from the street. "Better get going then," he added. "Yes yes, off with you," his mom replied, dismissing him. "Goodbye mom!" Shouted Michael as he grabbed his schoolbag and opened the front door. "Goodbye! Be safe and love you!" His mother replied. Turning back to face her, Michael smiled and groaned again, yelling "Love you too!" back before he closed the front door. He then started walking towards their school bus waiting on the other side of the road.

Their school bus was a big yellow bus just like any other school bus. The only way you could know which school it belonged to was if you read the big white letters on the side of the bus spelling out the name of the school- "Liberty High School". The door of the bus opened as Michael carefully crossed the street and walked up to it. Inside it Michael saw the school bus driver Perry sitting on the driver's seat. Perry turned to him and said, "Good morning, Michael." Michael smiled and nodded, "Good morning," as he climbed up the small steps of the bus. Looking over the rest of the bus, he saw that it was fairly empty except for a few people here and there. Ben and David weren't there, both their families had cars and would drive them to school. So Michael walked over to one of the empty seats beside the window near the back of the bus. He threw his bag onto to the overhead compartment and sank into the seat. He looked outside through the window and fixed his gaze on the treeline beside the road. Thinking of how it was the last day of school, he quietly told himself, "Everything's gonna change after today."

If only had he known how true that would turn out to be then.