Chapter Three

I must say you know your childhood is over when you fall asleep on the couch and wake up on the couch. I end up falling asleep on the couch and wake up there with a knitted blanket over me, Mom must have put it on me. I pick my head up and look around the living room, the only shoes by the door were mine and mom's. Dad must have spent the night at the lab. Mom is in the kitchen cooking. I can smell the pancakes and bacon. Like a zombie, I get from my resting place, the blanket slowly falls from my shoulders as I get closer to the kitchen.

I let out a groan when I see Mom standing there, singing to herself as she flaps a pancake. She was always a morning person, I am not. She does a small dance, placing a pancake on a plate. "Good morning, mom." I mumble

Mom looks over her shoulder with a smile. "Good morning, Sweetie." Her silvery voice is shoothing, even in the morning. I let out a sleepy moan as I look at her with half open eyes. I walk over to her, she turns to face me. I place my head on her chest. She chuckles softly as she pats the back of my head before hugging me. "My baby." She says, rocking us side to side. "How did you sleep?" She ask

I shrug. "I slept okay." I tell her.

"Good, I'm glad you slept well, baby." she let's me go.``Get two plates and set the table." She tells me and I do.

Taking two plates to the table, I help set the table. Mom brings the pancakes and the bacon. We take our seats and we eat. I look over at the shoes as I take a bit of bacon. "Dad didn't come home?"

Mom follows my glaces and sighs. "No, honey. He didn't" She turns back to her breakfast. "He called, They had somekind of break thought."

I do nothing but smile at mom. "Well, that's good. Do you know what the break though was?" I ask

She shakes her head. "No. Kyle? I have a meeting in my lab later today, are you going to be okay?"

I nod.

Mom got a call and had to leave as soon as she was done eating. I finish eating and clean up the mess. I do what any responsible teen with no friends would do -I do nothing- I go up to my room and wave my hand out to wake up Ivy.

"Good morning, Kyle." Ivy's voice chimes in as the words come up with what she says. "How may I help you?" she asks

"Transfer to bracelet, Ivy." I tell Ivy.

"Yes, Kyle." A loading circle pops up on the hologram and my silver bracelet. It takes only a few seconds for Ivy to download herself to the bracelet. "Transfer complete." her voice came from the bracelet.

There wasn't much to do. Like I said I was going to do nothing, maybe some research for homework. I don't know what to do with my life right now.

I plop onto the couch and sigh."Ivy, set the house alarm and lock the doors." I yawn.

"Okay." The small beep signal that the alarm is set.

I ended up falling back to sleep on the couch again and a ringing woke me up. I look around, confused, trying to figure out where it is coming from. The ringing noise is my bracelet, It's flashing blue. Someone is calling. "Ivy, anwser."

The small hologram of Mom showed up. "Kyle." She say happily. "Are things at the house okay?"

I look around for the time, 1:35pm, the time read on the wall. I nod to Mom's answer. "Yeah, Mom." I rub my eyes.

"Did I wake you up?" She asks.

"Yes." I sayblankly.

"Sorry, baby." Mom chuckles.

I couldn't help but to roll my eyes. She isn't sorry. "Yeah, Mom. Did you need anything?" I asks

She shook her head. "No, I might be late tonight. The meeting is running a bit over" Mom makes a face that she usually does when she is walking to leave work.

"Okay, Mom." I chuckle. "Have fun."

"Always." She rolls her eyes. "Bye, love you." She says before the light dies down.

After the call I fell back asleep for only an hour as I was -once again- woken by a ringing in my ear. I groan as I look at my wrist. The caller I.D reads Mr.Holland. I groan. It's a Saturday. Why is he calling me on the weekend? I groan as I answer the hologram call. Like it did with Mom's call a small Mr.Holland appeared. I look at him, not amused.

"Mr.Riggs, good afternoon." He says in a chipper voice. "How are you?"

"It is the weekend, Mr.Holland." I tell him.

"I am well informed." He nods.

"Why are you calling me?" I ask him to try as hard as I could not to be rude.

"The hoodies for Combat are in." Crossing his arms over his chest.

I nod, I don't care in the slightest.

"I was wondering if you would like the stop by the school to get one? I wouldn't be here for a few weeks and want to get the hoodies out as soon as I can." That isn't the best answer for him to call me on the weekend.

"Yeah, okay." I rubbed my face. "Give me an hour and I will be there." I tell him as I sit up all the way on the couch.

"Great, see you then." with that he hangs up.

I roll my eyes. I should call Mom and tell her, I will after a shower.

Getting up from the comfy couch I make my way into my room and grab my towel and go to the bathroom. With the water started, I strip to nothing and get in. The warm water feels so nice. I stand there for a while before washing myself. Grabbing the shampoo, putting a little into my hand I rubbed it onto my hair then rinse it out before getting the body wash.

Pulling a black tee shirt over my head, I have Ivy call Mom. Mom answers "Yes, Kyle?". She was clearly still in the meeting. .

"Coach called. New hoodies are in. He wants me to go get mine since he won't be here for the next few weeks." I explain to her.

Mom nods. "Okay, Be careful." She tells me before hanging up on her end.

Getting my old dark gray hoodie off the hook, I open the door to the cool breeze, walking out and locking the house before heading to the school.

Placing my earphone, in my ears, turning on the bluetooth so it connects to my bracelet. Soon old music hummed into my ears as I walk, turning out the world inside the wall. The beat of an old instrument called a drum could be heard in the background of all the others. The voice song words that mixed with the others sounds.

After zoning out, I end up at school sooner than usual and the sun was setting. Looking up at the large old building that I call hell, bring the bracelet up to my face. "Call Mr.Holland, Ivy." I tell her as the small forever spinning circle appeared.

"Calling Mr. Holland." Ivy said.

After a few seconds Mr.Holland answers "Kyle, come through the back, the door is already unlocked." He tells me as I make my way to the back of the building.

"Leaving the door unlocked. Is that safe? You never know if someone breaks in." I say in a sarcastic tone.

Mr.Holland rolls his eyes at me. "Just get in and come to the gym."

"You seem to be in a rush, Mr.Holland. Where are you going?" I ask, opening the back door and walking in.

"I'm going somewhere." He answers.

"Not much of an answer." I walk down the hallway. Being alone in the dim lit hallway, send chills down my spine. When alone, the cracking and the squeaking of floor boards can be heard easily. There are no loud students to cover it.

"Yes. I know that's why I gave it as my answer." That just made me want to know more about where he will be for the next three weeks.

"Whatever I'm here." I say before hanging up. I pull the double doors to the combat gym open. "Mr.Holland." I call out.

"In my office." His voice echoes in the gym.

Walking into his office, which has boxes of hoodies crowding it. There is an open box on his desk, black and silver hoodies hanging out and lay on his desk.

"What size are you?" he ask me as he picked up a hoodie and holds it up to me, which is to big.

"Large." I tell Halland. He raised a brow at me. "I like bigger hoodies. Sue me." Shaking his head, he looks through his pile of hoodies for a large and hands it to me.

"Okay, Kyle, you will be in charge of the class for the week." Holland says, pulling the hoodies back in the box.

It was my turn to give the look of disbelief. "Are you sure?" I asked. Let's face it, I'm not the more well liked in class and I know it, I don't like them either."

"Yes and if it makes you happy beat the shit out of them. They can't go running to mommy and daddy. It is combat class."

I like the idea of beating them until they cry. "Okay." I shrug. "Will you tell me where you are going?" I try again, but instead he looks at me a bit pissed off. "What? I'm just asking."

Mr.Holland pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "Kyle, I can't right now." He moves the picture on his desk a bit.

"Who is the boy?" I ask.

He looks at the picture with a soft smile. "That's a long story." He sighs.

Dropping the whole thing, I grab the hoodie "Okay, Mr.Holland have a good week." I tell him before leaving the gym.

Outside the only lights are from the street lights shining are spots along the road that lead away from school. You could see some stars in the sky. Thinking about calling mom to pick me up when I realiz my bracelet is dead. Great. Walking to the back again, but stopping when I am near the back door once again, something made me step back and hide.

Coming out the door seconds later was Mr.Holland. I thought about asking him for a ride but I realiz that he doesn't have his car. He looks around as if to see the coast was clear before moving on. Staying close to the shadows, he walks along as if he has done this time and time again.

The curiosity of where and what he was doing ate at me, making me want to follow him. "Curiosity killed the cat." My mother's voice popped into my head with the same proverb she used to say when I got into something when I was young. "But satisfaction brought it back." She would say with a smile. I slip on the hoodie Mr.Holland gave me and I decide to follow Mr.Holland.