Chapter Text
If there is one way to describe the city of Elmore, it is normal. It had almost everything a major city had, but it was still relatively small compared to the neighboring towns. There were no great tourist destinations, no beach due to its landlocked nature, and the most entertaining spot to hang out was mainly the movie theaters.
But if there's one thing the city prides itself on, it is character; a diverse group of people lived in the area, and the entire town was peaceful. Well, it's mostly peaceful.
In the lower-income suburbs, there was a small house no different than pretty much any other in the neighborhood. It stood only two stories and blended in completely fine. It had a nice light blue coloring and was situated on a nice and quiet street. But to those who actually lived in this area, they knew this house was not unique because of its appearance but because of its inhabitants. However, just because it was special doesn't mean it was a good thing for them.
In the early morning hours, just as the sun crested over the hills, multiple alarms blared throughout the house.
As a loud alarm went off, Three children were roughly shaken from their deep sleep as the loud noise echoed throughout the room.
"No, no, shut up," a tired voice called out from the bottom bunk bed as the eldest of the Watterson siblings woke up.
This was Zach Watterson, One of the many reasons this house would be infamously known around the neighborhood. Ever since he could walk and talk, he's been getting into trouble. Much to the annoyance of many residents, he seemed to only take after his mother in physical appearance. With short black hair, he had slight Japanese features like his mother despite neither of them being entirely Japanese. He was also, much to his annoyance, known for being the town's biggest troublemaker.
Waking up on the opposite side of the room would be The second oldest of the Watterson siblings.
Darwin Watterson was well known around town not only for being far more morally superior to his brother but also for being joked about as being the son who was wanted. It was no secret to anyone that Darwin was adopted; their physical differences made that very clear as he was dark-skinned, unlike anybody else in the Watterson family. Luckily for his well-being, just because he was adopted, he never felt like he was any less of a family member. He was kind, sincere, and less likely to get in trouble, unlike his older brother.
The last of the siblings to wake up would be the youngest.
Anais was clearly the most well-behaved sibling; while they were all prone to their random fits of nonsense, she was the intellectual superior to her brothers in almost every way, despite the fact she was still not even in middle school like her brothers. Much to her horror, growing up, she shared more physical features with her dad, like her big cheeks; she always wore her hair and twin buns, and like her dad, she had blonde hair.
"Zach, turn off the alarm," Anais complained as she started sitting up on her bed.
"I'm trying," her older brother complained, mumbling as he still failed to reach his noodle arms to hit the alarm's snooze button.
"Then try harder," Darwin complained, still wholly wrapped by covers on the other end of the room.
Zach only sighed in frustration as he took the bold, in his opinion, steps to get out of bed, he grabbed the alarm, and slammed it onto the desk angrily as it shut off the noise. His two youngest siblings sighed in relief as they both snuggled into their beds, ready to continue sleeping. Smiling softly to himself, Zach slowly got to the sheets himself, but right as he laid his head down on the pillow, a loud slam was heard from his door as it opened quickly.
None of the children would have to look up to know who is currently at the door.
"Alright, kids, time to get ready for school," the mother said happily before she shut the door quickly. A few more seconds passed by as they all lay in bed, trying to avoid the inevitable. The door would soon open up again, with their mother peeking through, less than amused.
"I'm serious," she said in her usually angry voice as all the children got up quickly.
"And in this time, ladies and gentlemen, for the greatest dish in the Watterson family arsenal, yes, you know it, you love it. It's… cereal in a bowl." Zach announced this as if he were revealing some grand art piece as he sat two bowls before his two younger siblings. Both of them clap, playing along with the act.
Zach, now sitting down with them with his own bowl of cereal, enjoyed the average morning for the family. The three siblings sitting next to each other while on Zach's right was the mom, and on Anais's left was the dad.
Nicole Watterson was probably one of the toughest people anyone had ever met; despite her mild manner and appearance, usually wearing a nice dress uniform and barely having her hair cut longer than her sons, she was a skilled fighter since childhood and one of the hardest working people in town. With her being the only one with a job in the family, she basically kept up and lifted them up by herself. She was strict, but she could also be kind.
On the opposite side of the spectrum was Richard Watterson, or as he was more commonly known around town, the stay-at-home dad. Richard was a big man who was most definitely overweight. Everyone knew he was chronically lazy and chronically stupid, and he was a genuine mystery how he functioned. Even if the family genuinely agreed that most of those things were true, they still loved him. He was kind and a nice mix of Zach's troublemaking with Darwin's purity.
The breakfast, though, would be interrupted when the mother looked down at her watch surprised. "Oh gosh, I gotta get to work, quick kids. You better not miss the bus, or you will have to drive to school with your father."
After hearing the part about driving with their father, all the children started eating faster to avoid such a terrible punishment.
"Hey, I'm not that bad at driving, Richard," he said, flipping through a newspaper and adjusting his tie; he liked to wear a business outfit even though he never worked. It made him feel important, he said.
"Yes, well, tell that to the auto repair shop and our neighbor's mailbox," Nicole commented swiftly as she smiled, seeing the slight deflating of ego from her husband.
It wouldn't even be a few moments later until all siblings rushed out the door, ready for another day. In an abnormal stroke of luck, they wouldn't even have to wait that long before the old beat-up yellow school bus picked them all up.
"Sup dudes," the Bus driver Rocky greeted friendly; he had fiery orange hair and always wore the same few metal shirts. He's probably one of the coolest adults to work in the school system, in Zach's opinion, mainly because he doesn't teach anyone. Finally, boarding onto the school bus, they would be met with the standard fair of students on the bus. With his sister running ahead, usually more excited to sit in her own seat, the brothers sat down beside each other in an empty row, contemplating how the day of school would go.
"I'm going to fail," Zach said casually, leaning against the seat and looking out the window; he was more interested in the fact that it looked like it was going to storm all day than the fact he was most likely going to bomb another test.
"Oh, come on, you're not that bad at history." Darwin protested, leaning back like him, his large orange jacket partially getting in his face. Zach had no idea why he was such a fan of that particular jacket; he used to comment when they were kids it made him look like a giant goldfish.
"I guess maybe I can just cheat off Robert's notes again."
"Hey, you swore you would stop cheating off Robert; I don't know why you're always so mean to him."
"It‘s not mean cheating off someone else; it's an acknowledgment of skill," Zach complained to his brother. "Anyone should be honored to be cheated off of during a test; it just proves you're a real smarty pants. My only real issue now is trying to figure out how to cheat off someone who sits right beside me."
"Why don't you just cheat off Masami? She usually sits in front of you," Darwin said, eyeing the girl he mentioned who was sitting in the seat a few rows ahead of Them.
"Or why don't you just like not cheat at all?" a girl from the row beside Zach and Darwin spoke up. Looking quickly, they saw a short girl in a brown shirt and a black skirt; she wore a green jacket over it, and she was currently scowling at the brothers. Sitting beside her was a neat-looking boy in a light blue sweater vest.
"oh, chill out, Carmen. I'm not cheating off you this time because last time was so productive," Zach said sarcastically.
The girl seemed to boil at this as she stared him down, now angry.
"Hey, it's your fault for thinking I'm some kind of genius." She would only calm down slowly as the boy next to her slowly patted her on the shoulder; his name was Alan, but the less Zach thought about him, the better.
"Oh well, yes, I can tell you're not a genius now; oh, and by the way, Amsterdam is not in Germany," Zach called out rudely. Even though he was laughing, Darwin pushed him a bit, warning him to stop.
The only response he got was a growl as she looked forward to her seat, now trying to ignore him. Zach took this as a win as he smiled and looked back at the sky; he was still confused. He swore it would not rain today, but the dark, menacing cloud seemed to worry nobody else.
"Hey! Hey! Masami," Zach cried out to the front of the bus; this would obviously annoy many of the people on there, but they would go back to their own conversations quickly. Masami cringed in her seat as she looked back at him, annoyed.
"what do you want, Watterson." Much like Zach himself, Masami was Japanese, but while she was entirely Japanese, he was only partial; much like him, she had short black hair, but her eyes seemed to be soulless and grey compared to his. Both their mom were friends and enemies growing up, so they liked to pretend there was a small feud between them as a joke. But it was both accepted between the two of them that neither of them cared enough actually to have a rivalry.
"Is there any rain today"
"Why are you asking me," she said, clearly annoyed.
"Don't you want to be like a weather girl or something like that," he said, confused, looking at her like she was crazy.
This would get a reaction out of her as she turned back quickly, upset. "you mean a meteorologist idiot."
"what do meteors have to do with the weather." there were quite a few groans on the bus when they heard him say that, but he only looked confused at everyone like they were crazy.
"Man, you guys are weird," Zach said, leaning back into his seat and still waiting for his answer.
"if you really want to know, there were no predictions of rain today, but predictions could always be wrong. If I was Elmore's leading meteorologist, I would…"
"Bore us all the death," an annoying boy's voice came out beside her as across the bus, Tobias Wilson had spoken up. He was actually the closest thing Zach had to a rivalry. Depending on the day, he would be a friend or worst of enemy. Zach's little sister would only describe their interactions as a giant clash of egos that are both undeserved. He is slightly lighter-skinned than Darwin and constantly in rainbow-colored sports equipment, even though Zach was pretty sure he'd never participated in any of them.
Luckily for the bus goers, the ride would end relatively quickly, right before Masami could probably choke out Tobias, something she probably would do and not feel remorse about. Zach and his usually lazy self would slowly walk off the bus, making sure he would be the last one off as if the longer it took for him to get off school would somehow wait for him to start.
"Are you coming, dude?" Darwin said, excited to start another day of class; that was probably one of the strangest things in school, how some people can keep their optimism about it even when, in Zach's opinion, it objectively sucked.
"yeah, yeah, I'm not your babysitter. You can go on ahead without me." Zach said as he started to lean down to tie his shoes.
"OK," Darwin said, shrugging, "I gotta go meet up with the swim club anyway; I will say high to Penny for you," he yelled out as he ran away.
"wait, r-r-really," Zach said, looking up from his shoes for a second on the outside steps of the school. Yes, so far, this seemed like the average day for him. Soon, he would step through one of those three doors on the school's campus to start another day of intensively dull work. He was almost resigned to it at this point how dull his life was. His mom worked a tedious job, he lived in a boring town, and the only excitement in his life would be constantly messing with others.
Maybe life really was boring, he thought; he doesn't really know when it happened, but someday, he just felt all the optimism from him somewhat fade away to cynicism. He didn't feel bad about it; he actually enjoyed being cynical; he thought it far more funny than being an optimist like his younger brother. But even that became the new normal as it settled into nothing new. Weird, he felt like it was such a long time ago. He was super happy, but he really can't remember when it changed. It felt like he was optimistic in middle school, but he just barely started his time there. it couldn't have been that long ago; something didn't make sense.
What made even less sense was what the sky would shoot out instead of rain.
As the front of the school was abandoned entirely, with not a single car passing by or a soul walking up its steps, a single object fell from the sky. Zach wouldn't notice it until it was too late as right as he finished tying his shoe, a small object hit the back of his head. It didn't hurt at all. It was more just like a miserable thunk as a small plastic item dropped on the floor next to him. He, of course, looked up to see if someone threw something from a window. Maybe it was Jamie, one of the many bullies in the school, but this really felt too tame for her. No one was taking claim for throwing something at him; he looked down at the object, finally realizing it was a USB.
"OK," Zach said, interested as he held it up; oddly enough, it wasn't the normal black and silver colored USB. Heck, it looked strange even for the color ones he had seen. All over, it was a black and white design, but instead of zebra patterns, he would look confused as it looked like it was designed to look like TV static.
He looked around one more time before rotating it. There was a small piece of tape on the side with words scribbled in via Sharpie. It read.
T.A.W.O.G
There were no clues on the USB to tell him what the acronym meant, so now he's just left confused. He would take one more scan of the area to see life seemingly return. Cars drove by on the nearby street, and a few extra students were now entering the building.
Looking at the USB one more time, he shrugged to himself before taking it and putting it in his pocket. He has to check this out in the library later, anything to avoid studying.