7AM.

  BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-

  Alex slammed his hand onto the snooze button of his alarm clock. Throwing his blanket off, he groggily sat up from his bed, fingering the gunk out of his eyes and looking across the room to see his supersuit and bag on the floor by the door. There was no going back to sleep, he had school today. Hopping off his bed, Alex walked over to the supersuit and bag, opened his closet, and shoved them in the same hidden spot he’d grabbed them from last night. Didn't need anyone wandering in and finding it haphazardly, even if he had enjoyed last night. Alex rifled through his closet, finding a wool sweater and some khaki pants. He put on the outfit and left his room, stopping briefly to brush his teeth and wash his face. When suddenly…

  BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…

  He went back into his room to turn off the alarm clock he’d only snoozed.

  Finding his way downstairs, Alex walked out into the living room, walking into the kitchen. He opened the fridge, and looked through its cold air for something to eat. He ended up pulling out a carton of orange juice and grabbed a cup, pouring himself a drink before putting the carton back. He then opened the pantry, found the loaf of rye bread, and put two slices in the toaster, setting the knob straight up. He then went back into the pantry and found the bottle of honey. “When you’re done with that, could I have some?” Alex heard, looking over his shoulder to see his dziadzio sitting at the table, sipping his tea while reading the Tribune. He had his flat cap on, a sweater similar to Alex’s, still wore pajama pants. He was wearing his reading glasses, and his metal cane was propped up against the table at his side.

  “You can have it right now, I’m just waiting for the toast to be done.” Alex answered, walking over and putting the honey bottle next to him.

  “Thank you, Alex.” His dziadzio answered in his old Slavic accent, popping off the cap and dabbing a globule of honey onto a small spoon, which he then swirled into his mug. The honey now infused into the tea, dziadzio took a sip, inhaled deeply, and sighed, “Ah, much better.”

  “Dad already leave for work?” Alex asked, grabbing the honey bottle and walking back to check on his toast.

  “Tak, said he should be home for dinner.” dziadzio answered, “Getting ready for school, Alex?”

  “Yeah,” Alex answered.

  “Starting off the week strong?” dziadzio asked.

  “Yeah,” Alex answered, just as the toast popped up. He fished the two slices from the toaster, and grabbed a butter knife. Pouring honey on each slice, he then used the knife to spread it evenly on each slice.

  “I’ll be going to the store around 9,” dziadzio told him, “Will you still be coming after school to help?”

  “Of course dziadzio.” Alex answered, since that was his job.

  “Weekend was good?” dziadzio asked.

  Alex thought about how to respond for a moment, before answering, “It was fine.”

  Another set of footsteps came down the stairs, his mother.

  “Hi honey, you having a good morning so far?” She asked walking into the kitchen, kissing Alex on the cheek.

  “I’m good mom.” Alex answered, unable to stop himself from smiling.

  “I’m gonna help Uncle Matt open up, I’ll drop you off at school.” She said, walking over to dziadzio. “Good morning, tata.” She greeted.

  “Good morning, kochanieńka.” dziadzio answered, looking up to kiss his daughter on the cheek.

  “You want me to come back to drive you to the store at 9?” His mom asked his dziadzio.

  “That would be very nice.” His dziadzio answered, taking another sip of his tea.

  “You can eat in the car, Alex. Come on.” His mom said as he was halfway through the first slice. She was at the door, keys and briefcase in hand.

  “Yeah,” Alex said after swallowing. He grabbed the plate and walked to the door with his mom.

  As he passed his dziadzio, he saw the headline of the paper his dziadzio was reading: MUTANT RIGHTS ACTIVIST MURDERED IN RIVER NORTH. Alex paused as he read the headline. dziadzio shook the paper and said, “No need to worry about the news, go learn something.”

  “Alright, Alex said, walking away, “I’ll see you work dziadzio.” He called back, waving goodbye as he grabbed his backpack from where it was sitting under the coat rack, and walked out the door with his mother.

  Alex walked out to the car, getting into the passenger’s seat as his mom started the engine and began driving to his high school.

  “You saw the headline?” His mom asked, having clocked onto his lingering over dziadzio’s newspaper.

  “Yeah,” Alex answered, finishing the first piece of toast.

  “Shame what happened,” His mom commented, changing lanes.

  “You think they’ll figure out who did this?” Alex asked his mom.

  “Oh, I’m sure they’ll find him eventually.” His mom answered, pausing at a traffic light. Wanting to shift the topic from something so morbid, she asked Alex, “So Alex, you feel ready for school this week?”

  “As ready as I can be.” Alex weakly answered.

  “Any big tests coming up?” She asked, the red light finally changing to green.

  “Not for this week.” Alex answered, vaguely remembering what his teachers had said on Friday about this week.

  “That’s good.” His mom answered. Alex then looked down at the pate he’d taken from home and began working on the second piece of honey-rye toast. He also realized he’d forgotten to grab the orange juice he’d poured for himself. Then again, he could probably get something to drink at lunch.

  His mom pulled up to the sidewalk that led into a long walkway up to Alex’s school: William Howard Taft High School.

  “Alright, we’re here, you got everything you need?” His mom asked, doing one final check before sending him off.

  “Yes,” He simply responded, as he’d already put everything into his bag before “going to bed.”

  “Alright then. Your Aunt Dory or I will pick you up later and take you to work.” His mom said, unlocking the passenger’s seat. Alex stepped out, grabbing his backpack and grabbing the door to close it.

  “Have a great day, sweetie, I love you.”

  “I love you too, mom.” Alex responded.

  “I’ll see you later.” She called out. He then closed the door and watched her drive off for a brief moment before walking up to his high school’s front doors.

  8:00AM, time for class.

  Alex walked into his first class, algebra, and stared ahead as the class waited for the teacher to show up. Once the teacher showed up, he pulled out a blue pen from his backpack and blue composite notebook scribbly labeled “Mathnstuff.” He opened it up, rested his hand on the page, and wrote the date, “10/13/2014,” before staring at the white board and occasionally taking down notes. He didn’t particularly like algebra, but he knew not paying attention would be costly. He’d gotten a C on the first test of the year, and had to make up for it.

  After a 90 minute long math class that was not worth writing home about, Alex walked out into the crowding hallways to find his locker. Going up to the second floor, he found his locker, 0503, and opened it up. He opened up his backpack and pulled out the heavy algebra textbook and dropped it at the bottom of the locker, pulling out the literature book he needed for English class.

  Another 90 minute class in English, and again Alex felt bored as the teacher slogged through their reading of the 12th chapter of S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders.” While the teacher was turned away writing on the board, he discreetly checked his phone for any messages from Kat. He’d been thinking about her the whole class, the outsider he’d prefer focusing on rather than a group of greasers whose names he could barely remember. He just knew one of them was named after… horses?

  No messages from Kat, no texts, no missed calls. He hoped she was doing alright. She said she’d find somewhere to stay the night, but Alex wasn’t sure she had. That headline got him anxious about her being out there on her own. Maybe he should try finding her, or finding her number. She’d be in a phone book, right?

  After class, he checked his phone for the time: 11:20AM, lunch.

  He got in line at the cafeteria, grabbing a tray off the stack. Once he was at the front of the line, he just pointed to the things he wanted to the cafeteria workers, giving them a smile as a slice of pizza somewhere between hot and warm, a scoop of pulverized mashed potatoes, and a carton of chocolate dairy drink was given over.

  He found an isolated seat at the end of the table to eat at, next to a wall. He started taking a stab, literally, at the potatoes when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out as he took a bite of potatoes, it was Kat.

  “Hey Alex, it’s Kat. Just wanted to make sure this was the right number.”

  He smiled, and replied,

  “Yep, right number. You doing alright?”

  “I’m ok.”

  “You manage to find somewhere to stay for the night?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where are you right now?”

  “Northbrook, didn’t feel like sticking around Deerfield.”

  “Hey, did you see the headline? Someone murdered a mutants rights activist in River North.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “That’s awful!”

  “Just glad we’re not anywhere near that.”

  “Its scary.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You gonna try finding out who did it? Being a superhero and all?”

  “I don’t think I’m qualified for something like that. Gonna stick around Jefferson Park for a while before I even try to make it to downtown at night.”

  “Oh yeah, that would be hard.”

  “Still, gonna keep an eye on the story. Hopefully this is a one time occurrence.”

  “Good thinking Sherlock.”

  He chuckled out loud at that one.

  “Well, if the news is making you feel unsafe, you know where to find me.”

  “Thank, a lot.”

  “Hey, I’m eating lunch right now. TTYL.”

  “K, ??.”

  Alex moved on to his pizza, spending the rest of the lunch period with a small smile. He saved Kat’s number in his contacts.

  The next period was gym, crap.

  He went into the locker room, one of the most uncomfortable places in the school, to change. He grabbed the clean uniform in his gym locker and found an empty bathroom stall to change. It wasn’t what he was supposed to do, but he wasn’t about to let a dozen teenage boys see him in his underwear.

  Once he got changed into a gym uniform, that ironically was as breathable as a plastic bag, he reapplied some deodorant and went out into the gym. Lucky for him, the coach was a portly man in his fifties who always came to class like he’d just lost a bet and had to teach this class as a result. So he didn’t even try to give them something to do, just let them take supplies out of the sports closet and do whatever for the next 90 minutes. Alex just walked around the gym, alone with his thoughts and watching the other kids play basketball or volleyball, each sport often dominated by one gender.

  After the ninety minutes of lazily passing the time at gym class, Alex had one more class: World History. He was paying attention for this one, more interested about this than anything else today. Today was on Ancient Mesoamerica, which was mostly looking at pictures of big stone heads and listening about R-rated mythology. Very metal, very interesting. But given it was the last class before school ended, Alex still was one of the first out the door.

  Going to his locker, Alex dropped off his textbooks at the bottom of the locker and double checked what he’d need to do for homework. Since he didn’t need anything for homework tonight from the locker, he closed it and made it to the exit. Walking up to the circle drive, he found the red minivan being driven by his Aunt Dorothy. But he and his cousins always called her Aunt Dory, like the fish.

  “Hiya Alex, how was school?” She asked warmly, turning down the volume of the radio.

  “Eh, ok.” Alex answered, getting into the passenger’s seat.

  “Hi Alex,” He heard from the backseat. He turned to see his younger cousin Jake sitting in his car seat, fresh out of elementary school.

  “Hey Jake,” Alex said cheerfully to the kid as Aunt Dory pulled out of the school. Jake then pulled out a blue card from his pocket, the upper left corner covered with a small brown smudge.

  “Alex look, I traded Mason. He gave me his Tyrantrum for my candy bar at lunch.”

  “Oh very nice,” He complimented, “Can I see?”

  “Yeah yeah.” Jake flipped around the card and gave it to Alex so he could see the Pokemon on the front. “Oh yeah, this is very good,” Alex complimented, despite Pokemon not being an area of great interest. He gave the slightly greasy card back to Jake, who slid it back into his pocket.

  “Does high schoolers play Poekmon?” Jake asked Alex with a big grin.

  “Yeah, a few of them.” Alex answered.

  “If I come to school with you, I wanna find someone and kick their butt!” Jake announced proudly.

  “With Pokemon?” Alex clarified.

  “Yeah, I’m really good.” Jake answered.

  “I bet you are.” Alex affirmed.

  Aunt Dory then pulled into a parking spot in a strip mall and unlocked the doors. Alex looked out the window to see the white lettering outside the building they’d be going into: “Duszynski’s.”

  “Alright, I’m gonna get Jake into daycare, then I’ll come help your mom behind the counter.” Aunt Dory explained, grabbing Jake out of his car seat.

  “Alex, are you going to work with jajo?” Jake asked as they walked across the parking lot to the sidewalk.

  “Yes Jake,” Alex answered softly.

  “Do you ever want to take money out of the money slots?” Jake asked, referring to a register in a roundabout way.

  “No, that would be stealing.” Alex responded calmly.

  “I would take some of the smaller dollars and go to the Walmart and buy all the Pokemon cards.” Jake explained like he was describing a masterful heist.

  “How would you buy all the cards with only the small bills?” Alex asked, humoring him.

  “I ask nicely.” Jake said sincerely, make Alex chuckle.

  “Ok Jakey, time for daycare.” Dory said to her son, tugging his hand towards the daycare next to the shop.

  “Ok mama, bye bye Alex.” Jake called out, waving his hand by rotating his whole arm rapidly.

  “Bye Jake, I’ll see you after work.” Alex returned, walking into the shop.

  He went behind the counter at his right and walked past the pastry displays to a back door into the back area of the shop. He found the sink and washed his hands, then put on an apron and hair net, which coincidentally were stored under a copy of the A rating sign from the food inspector. He walked back to the register, finding dziadzio frying potato pancakes on a pan, a portable radio playing WFMT.

  “Cze?? Alex, school good?” dziadzio asked, momentarily looking away from the pan.

  “Eh, same old same old.” Alex answered, stopping to talk for a bit, “You enjoy the rest of your morning.”

  “Oh yes, very much. And my afternoon is even better.” His dziadzio answered while flipping one of the golden brown pancakes, “Always better when I’m here.”

  “Good to hear, I’m gonna get back to the register.” Alex politely concluded.

  “Okay,” His dziadzio answered, returning to his work.

  Alex got back to the register, setting himself up for the next customer who’d eventually come. He liked working here, kept him close to his family and gave him people to talk to. And there were a lot of people who’d come in here, mostly Polish or Polish-American, some of whom had been getting their groceries here since dziadzio had bought the store from it’s previous owner in the early 60’s.

  The bell over the door rang as his Aunt Dory came in to help his mom by the deli. “Hiya Alex,” She quickly greeted, walking behind him.

  He watched as a couple in their 50’s walked around a corner and pulled out a piece of waxed paper and grabbed two baguettes from the container next to the bread shelves. The couple put them into a paper bag from next to the containers and walked up to Alex.

  “Cze?? Alex.” The man greeted as he put their basket up to Alex.

  “Witam Mr. Smakowski, Jak si? masz?” Alex asked as he began scanning items.

  “Dobrze, dobrze, a u Ciebie?” Mr. Smakowski continued, watching the screen show how much they’d owed.

  “Nie jest tak ?le.” Alex answered, opening a plastic bag up and putting items in, heavier and more sturdy ones at the bottom, “Co z tob?, Mrs. Smakowski?”

  “W?a?nie odebrali?my nasz? córk? ze stacji kolejowej.” She revealed, a warm smile on her face.

  “Ona idzie do UIC, prawda?” Alex asked, seeking confirmation of his assumption.

  “Tak, przyjdzie ?wi?towa? swoje urodziny.” Mr. Smakowski explained, a hint of pride in his voice.

  “Jak mi?o. 19, prawda?” Alex asked.

  “Tak, kupi?em jej wczoraj ciasto.” Mr. Smakowski answered.

  “Alex, czy przyjrza?e? si? ju? uniwersytetom?” Mrs. Smakowski asked.

  “Nie, jestem dopiero na drugim roku.” Alex corrected, in his head dreading the day he’d have to figure that out.

  Alex finished scanning their items and pressed a few buttons on the screen. “$32.57 prosz?.” Alex announced as he finished bagging their groceries. Mr. Smakowski pulled out his wallet and grabbed his credit card, putting it into the card reader and inputting his pin number. Just as Alex finished bagging their groceries, their receipts printed. Alex took the receipts and put them into one of their bags with a bottle of ginger ale. Mr. and Mrs. Smakowski grabbed the bags from the counter and left the basket on the counter.

  “Mi?ego dnia, Alex.” Mrs. Smakowski offered as they left.

  “Ty te?. Z?ó? ode mnie ?yczenia urodzinowe swojej córce.” Alex offered back.

  Even though he was anxious about having to eventually go to college, he wondered what UIC was like. The Smakowski’s daughter, Julia, seemed very excited when she first got accepted last year. He figured she’d be willing to help him with getting in if he ever tried. Or maybe just help him in general with applying for colleges.

  The afternoon continued as Alex fell into his usual rhythm of scanning items, making small talk with their customers, and finishing their purchases. Many were returning customers, fathers and mothers, grandparents, young adults. Some were teens like him picking up something to eat from the counter his Uncle Matt worked. Some had kids who would try to add a Prince Polo bar to their parent’s order.

  Around the end of his shift, when few customers remained, Alex felt a vibration from his pocket. But this time it was long and rhythmic. He pulled his phone from his pocket and saw the called ID: Kat.

  “Kat, hey, what’s going on?” Alex asked, trying to sound casual.

  “Hey Alex, do you have a moment?” Kat asked.

  “Of course, everything alright?” Alex asked, bracing for anything.

  “Everything’s fine, it’s just… can we talk tonight?” She asked, seeming upset.

  “Like, on the phone?” Alex assumed.

  “In person. Like last night?” Kat suggested.

  Alex thought about it. Did he need to do anything for school tonight? “Of course, where did you want to meet up?”

  “Can you make it to the shopping mall on the corner of Willow and Waukegan?” She asks, anxious.

  “Yeah, I can get there,” Alex confirmed, picking up on her tone, “Kat, is everything alright?”

  “Its-it’s-it’s fine.” She stuttered.

  “Did something happen?” Alex asked, trying to keep his voice from being too loud.

  “I-I just need someone to talk to.” She finally answered.

  “Alright. Well I do-I don’t know when I’ll be able to get there. But I can let you know when I’m on my way.” Alex offered.

  “Alright, that’s be nice.”

  “Alright, see you then.” Alex finished, hanging up the phone.

  He looked at the clock, 5:30PM, and began to get ready to go home by cleaning up the register and the counter. As he did, he heard the tap of his dziadzio’s cane on the floor. “Kim jest ta szcz??ciara?” He asked with a rising tone.

  “Jaka kobieta?” Alex asked, trying to play it cool.

  “Ta, do której w?a?nie dzwoni?e?.” His dziadzio clarified.

  “To tylko kole?anka z klasy, dziadzio.” Alex fibbed, hoping he’d believe it.

  “Hm, dobra, dobra, zachowaj to w tajemnicy.” He didn’t.

  “Nie ma w tym ?adnej tajemnicy, to po prostu znajomy ze szko?y.” Alex doubled down, hoping he’d drop it.

  “Tak, masz racj?, ?tylko przyjació?ka”.” He wasn’t.

  “Dziadzio!” Alex finally exclaimed in embarrassment.

  “?artuj?, ?artuj?.” His dziadzio joked, walking away to get ready to go.

  His mother walked over from the back of the store and handed Alex the keys to her car. “Alex, go wait by the car, I’m gonna help dziadzio get ready to go home.”

  “Thank you mom.” Alex said, grateful to be given permission to escape this scene.

  Alex walked out of the store, pressing the lock button on his mom’s keys to hear the distinctive HNK HNK of the car locking to find where it was. Surely enough, it was close to the shop. He walked over, unlocked the passenger’s seat, and sat in it with the door open for about half an hour before his mother and dziadzio came walking out. When he saw them, he got out of the passenger’s seat and into the backseat, letting dziadzio take the passenger’s seat. As his mother got in and drove back to their house, he just hoped dziadzio wouldn’t bring up his call with Kat at dinner.

  Getting home, they noticed an extra car in the driveway, owned by Alex’s father. Opening the door, they found him at the kitchen table. Tall, still in his suit and tie, briefcase on the kitchen counter. He was setting out plastic take-out bowls, napkins, and forks. Once he noticed them, he turned to face them. “Hey,” he simply said.

  “Hi honey, how was work?” Alex’s mother asked, walking over to kiss her husband.

  “Oh not too bad, starting to work on the Peterbilt liable case.” He explained, “Hope you guys were in the mood for Noodles n Company. I drove past it on my way home, figured you guys’d be tired and just want something warm and easy.”

  “I was craving some comfort food.” His mom confirmed, sitting down next to her husband. Alex’s dziadzio and him sat down too, Alex sitting across from his father. His dziadzio sat at the end, between his mother and an empty seat that was next to Alex. The family began to eat, his father had basil pesto cavatappi, his mom had Japanese pan noodles, his grandfather had Wisconsin Mac n cheese, and so did Alex.

  “So Alex, how was school?” His father asked in between bites.

  “It was good.” Alex plainly answered, focusing on the perfectly creamy and cheesy macaroni.

  “Anything notable?” His father pressed, taking another bite.

  “Not really, just a normal day.” Alex answered.

  “Anything happening this week you gotta prepare for?” His dad pressed.

  “Just some assignments to turn in.” Alex answered.

  “Any news with algebra?” His dad asked.

  “Nothing major yet.” Alex answered.

  “Well keep paying attention, we don’t want a repeat of the last test.” His dad warned. Alex just nodded.

  “Phillip, did you read the Tribune today?” His dziadzio asked his dad.

  “Yes, very sad.” His dad answered, “And wasn’t even a mutant, just an advocate.”

  “Lesser men would call him a traitor.” His dziadzio concluded.

  “I bet it’s one of those men who got her.” His dad suggested.

  “Her?” Alex asked, worried.

  “Yeah, in fact I think my firm was part of a case she was in,” His dad remembered, “And the way they found her was brutal, she was-”

  “PHIL, dinner.” His wife curtly reminded him.

  “Right, right, sorry.” His dad apologized.

  “So Alex, I saw you talking to the Smakowskis today,” His mom pivoted, “Anything new with them?”

  “Julia’s back from UIC.” Alex revealed.

  “Ah, Julia. How nice!” His dziadzio exclaimed.

  “Yeah, she’s visiting for her birthday.” Alex explained.

  “I should send them something. The Smakowskis have been good friends.” His dziadzio said with a thoughtful face, “Perhaps some p?czki.”

  “Alex, maybe you can ask her about helping you apply for college.” His dad spoke up again.

  “Maybe,” Alex said non-committally.

  “What was she studying?” His mom asked aloud.

  “I think engineering.” His dad answered.

  “Smart girl.” His mom responded.

  Alex then finished his food, standing up and grabbing his bowl and fork.

  “Got somewhere to be?” His dad asked, noting how fast he’d gotten up.

  “No, I just, just got some homework I need to do.” Alex answered, partially correct.

  “Alright, just leave your fork in the dishwasher, you can put the bowl back in the to-go bag.” His mom instructed, and Alex did just that.

  He then made his way upstairs, but homework wouldn’t be the only thing he worked on