1.
Juniper

“Get up, will you?”
I felt a jab to my left shoulder blade. The rusted springs underneath my mattress creaked as I flopped onto my stomach. Boy, what I wouldn’t do for a new one. Or maybe even a big enough bed where my feet didn’t hang off the edge, for that matter. Too bad that’s never going to happen. Not with the budget my family was given by the Paramount this year. I guess you could consider me lucky enough to even have a bed.
“Come on, I need help at the Grind today,” another punch but to my lower back this time. “You know I don’t like going there alone on days like these.” There was a slight tug on my arm. Those pudgy fingers could only come from one person.
“Kai what did I tell you about waking me up?” There was a slight sting in my voice. “You know I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.” And that was no exaggeration. Every night for the past week I have been woken up in the dead of night by some strange thumping noise. The deafening racket is impossible to ignore and I have absolutely no idea where it’s coming from. Whatever or whomever is the owner to this noise, in my opinion however; is incredibly rude for making such a disturbance in the middle of the night. Not to mention the fact that nobody else seems to hear it, which makes it double as frustrating.
“Well sorry! But jeeze I’ve been trying to get you up for like twenty minutes now!” It took a while for Benny’s words to sink in. Suddenly I realized.
S***.
“What time is it?” I shot strait up.
Paying no attention to my brother’s answer, I tumbled out of bed. My feet sprung to the floor. “I’m going to be late for Instruction!” I spastically grabbed my not-so-clean uniform off of the floor. “Kai get out, I need to get dressed.”
Crossing my arms, I waited for him to get up. What puzzled me was that I received no reaction from him whatsoever.
“Jun, didn’t you hear me? The clocks are off.”
My eyes darted to the alarm clock on my dresser. The clocks were off. Looking outside I could tell that the sun wasn’t turned on yet either. Not that it would be. And that could only mean one thing.
Now I was awake.