*Alarm

Sharod went to sleep a few hours after midnight, paired with an eventful day, which made him quite exhausted. He slept through the night until the sunlight had shone through the curtain of his room, but Sharod still snored as the sun brighten his room. Suddenly, the blaring sound of his phone alarm immediately arose from his slumber. Sharod, with less than a quarter of his consciousness, fumbled around his bed, searching for his phone alarm to no avail.

Hahahahahahahahaha

The sound of laughter could be heard suddenly inside his mind. It was a burst of mocking laughter. It was echoing in his mind like a manly, but with a high-volume voice. This disturbs his sleep so much that he immediately arose from his groggy state. He raised his upper body with his arm and looked around his room with half-closed eyes. He noticed no one was inside his room at this moment. He frowned, but the laugh has also stopped the moment he realized that no one was in the room.

Did I really go crazy because of yesterday's event? This voice, the one I keep hearing where did it come from?. Sharod got up from his bed and immediately searched up his room again with a soberer mind.

He went to below his bed, his study desk, his wardrobe, and his bedside table. Nothing, he found none that could let out the sound he was hearing since last night. Weird.

Then he heard his phone alarm again. So, he went to his phone which was on his study desk. He turns off the alarm and checks the time. 06:45, whilst the latest time for a student to arrive at his school is 07.15

“WHAT?!.” He let out a panic yelled as he realized that he was obviously almost late. Why didn’t Rebecca wake me up? Oh right I was the one who said that I’m going to be more discipline in my scheduling and told her to not wake me up. Shit

The high school which Sharod went to, has a strict rule for rule breaker. It was one of the good school which Sharod could get in with his grade from Middle school. It was famous for being a school of generation from the Kas family, the most prominent family in the city that dabbled in craftsmanship.

The rule was made a bit lax, but the consequence was severe if you broke it. You would be fine and no one would bother you if you don’t break the rule except if you disturb the walking bomb that’s it, Ms.Maya. However, if you did broke the rule then it would affect your grade directly. That’s also why it was possible for Ms. Maya's harassment to reach the point of dropping people.

For Sharod that wanted to maintain his oath that’s it to be a good student for Rebecca and having a red record would ruin it greatly. He couldn’t ask the teacher he has good relation at the moment because of Ms. Maya's mark on him. That would involve them toward his problem. That’s why he hated to be involved with Ms.Maya

His face turned pale as he looked around his room for his school stuff. He obviously hadn’t readied his stuff yet and he also has to pedal his bicycle to school.

“I’m screwed, am I?.” said him dejectedly.

He acted fast as he took out his uniform and change into it without showering. He only used deodorant. He packed his stuff into his school bag. He looked around his room once more and then looked at his artifact storage drawer that sat on the study desk. Nothing was in there, not a single thing was left inside the drawer that was once full of myriad artifacts. Damn, Lisa took them all.

His shoulder hung low and his mouth opened in a big O shape.

He initially wanted to test some of the artifacts there to prove that the thing that passed inside his mind was really magical properties of the artifact. The genie lamp really opened his eye that fantastical things do exist. His attempt at driving the ghost possessing Lisa with the artifact he possesses also because of that. That’s why last night was a reckless attempt as he never did believe his ability at first.

He immediately returned to pack his thing. He then looked at his study desk, he realized that weirdly, the lamp that he got from Jeniffer was still there, and the sealed sphere was still there too. That’s a relief, but why? Did Lisa miss them or she didn’t see them?.

He took his bag, put the lamp on his back, and ran out of his room in hurry. He went to the kitchen and there, sitting on the dinner table calmly while eating Rebecca’s food was Lisa. She stood there, wearing a black leather jacket and blue jeans. Her cold attitude when she was upset was there. Guess she is back to herself, but I don’t know if that is for the better. He smiled wryly from seeing her. Rebecca also already sitting beside her eating her own made breakfast.

“Morning Sharod.” Rebecca greeted him with a smile while Lisa just glanced at him and returned to finish her breakfast.

“Morning.” Sharod took his seat and immediately wolfed his portion of the breakfast.

Lisa watched with a side look, while Rebecca watched with wide eyes as Sharod readily gulped his breakfast like a man that never seen food before. Sharod was in hurry to get to school while he also felt awkward sitting with his sister for too long because of a lot of reasons. He just felt guilty, shame, and a little frustrated.

“Sharod… Sharod… SHAROD!” Rebecca yelled loudly as Sharod ignored Rebecca's calling. Sharod was focused on finishing his breakfast because first, he was late, and second because he was rather awkward at dealing with his sister at the moment. But Rebecca's yelling finally made him stop and turned his attention to Rebecca with his mouth still full of food.

“Slow down, you will choke and upset your stomach if you eat that quick. If you worry about being late, Lisa will take you to school. So, slow down and chew your food properly, alright?.” Concern and affection clearly radiated from Rebecca's tone and voice.

Sharod nodded and began eating properly. Lisa just silently listen to Rebecca talking.

“By the way, Sharod, Last night I heard some noise in the middle of the night, what were you doing?.” Rebecca continued eating normally while secretly glancing at Sharod. She remembering last night when she has woken up by heavy growling and screaming from Sharod room. She returned to sleep immediately after the sound disappeared. She didn’t investigate because she needed to sleep for the day that night so she was curious what had happened last night.

Lisa flinched a little from Rebecca's question, she remembered the situation when she woke up this morning. But she quickly hid it and focused on her food. Sharod also flinched a bit but covered it up well enough. “Nothing, it was just me screaming in frustration because I lost in an online game with Jusbi.”

Jusbi Kas is Sharod best friend and Rebecca also know it. But Rebecca seemed to not be convinced enough. She narrowed her eyes to Sharod's answer. She knew that Sharod rarely decided to game until late night since start of highschool. She also noticed Lisa flinch earlier. Both of those things made her suspicious. She about to question him further, but he suddenly stood up with his plate

“Done!... Sorry, aunt, I must be off as I already late for school.” Sharod put his dishes at the sink and just about ran out of the house. Rebecca about to stand, but Lisa beat her to it as she also finished her breakfast. She got up and looked at Sharod.

She put her dishes in the sink too. Then she strode her way toward the front door.

“Let’s go Shary!.” She called from the front door toward the silent Sharod. He just shrugged his shoulder and walked toward her. Rebecca just smiled helplessly as she looked at the sibling pair went out.

They went to the garage beside the house. Lisa opened the garage gate and inside was her beloved bike which she bought with her own hard work money. It was a black bike which has a strong engine. She loved this bike, she always take care of it and put it in maintenance regularly. She didn’t put any excessive modification into it though, but she claimed that the engine was improved quite a bit.

She went to grab the helmet on it and turn it up. The engine roared like an awakened lion.

“What with you standing there? Hurry and get on.” Lisa grinned widely toward Sharod that was standing at the garage entrance. He resigned and walked behind her. He grabbed the extra helmet and get on the bike. Lisa smiled even wider as she put her visor on and pull the gas. The bike roar once again as it took off the garage.

The bike went immediately into high speed as it drove on the suburban road. The wind blow fiercely on his face and the sensation of lightness overwhelmed him as he felt like he about to fly off to the distance so he grabbed the bike tightly. Lisa just smirked as she just enjoyed the ride while Sharod holding for his dear life.

Lisa was really wild when drive her beloved bike. She would pull the gas to the max whenever possible. She would slip to every crack on the traffic and take the quickest route to her destination even if the road wasn’t even normal. Many drivers would screamed at her as she cut through her way on the road. She would just laugh at them whenever it happened while Sharod just quietly apologize inside his heart.

This time wasn’t any different as she drove wildly as always. Cutting every vehicle she passed. Fortunately, she was really good at driving so she wouldn’t cause accidents while driving this way. Of course, it wasn’t like this the first time she went like this and their dad would take care of her mistake by then. She wouldn’t learned to drive safely though and she only learned to do it better as time went on.

 “Hey, Shary how are you these days?.” She yelled at Sharod while driving.

“Wha?.” The wind was blowing quite loudly so Sharod also yelled.

“I said, How are you these days?.” She yelled more loudly.

“Good, everything went as normal.”

“Good then, I heard you had a girlfriend is that true?.”

“Well… yeah.”

“Very good, then you better stopped your weird habit of collecting creepy stuff.”

Sharod’s heart skipped a little when he heard that. He hung his head low as he realized that she obviously talking about his stuff. She always found a way to stop Sharod from collecting artifacts whenever possible and his girlfriend was a good reason to warn him.

For reason unknown to him, she really has passionate hatred toward artifact. He managed to keep a portion of his artifact was because of the combined effort of his stubborn attitude of keeping them and Rebecca's persuasion. Unbeknownst to her of course that his girlfriend has become his source of artifact collection. He wouldn’t tell her though.

“Okay.” That was all Sharod could say.

“Very good. I had confiscated your storage of artifacts and will keep them off your hand for a while.” She yelled again with more force this time.

Sharod only hung his head low as he know that nothing he said will change her mind. He only felt sad, angry, and lost. “Keep them safe please.”

“Tsk, You are always like that, always love those disaster bringers. Wake up Shary, those things only brought problems for you.” She frowned from his answer as she yelled through the loud wind.

No, they are genuine magical items! Those are a useful item that could help other if needed. He thought inside his head as he remembered how he saved her with his collection.

“Also… You better forget what happened last night.” She said with a voice barely audible to Sharod. Sharod realized what she means and nodded. Inside his heart though he was a bit elated about having something to tease her about. Good to know that you are also bothered by this.

Finally, they arrived at his highschool, the Decislivin highschool one. The gate was about to be closed by the discipline committee. He got down from the bike, gave the helmet to Lisa, and take off running. Lisa just looked at Sharod back for a bit then took off with her bike.

Sharod ran through like there is no tomorrow. Then as he near the gate, he noticed another student running from the opposite direction from him. It was a tall man, with blonde hair, and a gallant look. He ran like a mighty warrior as he tried to reach the gate before closing.

“Hey Sharod!.” The man with the school uniform yelled while raising his hand with wide smile.

“Hey Jus!.” Sharod greeted cheerily. They then ran together toward the gate that they barely go through before closing. The student on duty just shook his head disapprovingly at both of them.

They arrived at the hallway to the class. They were in the same class so the path they took also the same. They took a few deep breath from running at full speed earlier than they walked along the hall. The hall was a full of student talking outside, mostly it was female student that like to hung out with other class student before first bell rang.

Sharod and Jusbi walked toward their class while chatting a bit.

“It’s rare for you to be Late, I thought you are aiming to be an honor student!. You know, the whole redemption thing you want for your aunt.” Jusbi laughed out loud as he looked at Sharod. He looked mocking Sharod because Sharod had the record of not being late since the start of high school, while he was famous for always barely made it to school like this day.

He walked with straight posture along with his tall and gallant look made other student make way for him. They step aside as they don’t want to bump into him. Some of the girl looked at him with annoyed look while some do look a bit… love struck. Jusbi could be said a handsome man and popular with woman, but he didn’t really cared about anything other than his hobby and his family.

“Huuh… it was complicated. A lot of thing happened yesterday. It tires me to the point that I woke up late this morning…. Good thing is that I took another step with Jeniffer would you know~.” Sharod smiled brightly as his he jumped a little in his step making him bump his shoulder with girl beside him. He looked at her and apologized immediately with toothy smile. The girl looked at his face and backed away with an awkward smile.

Jusbi laughed much louder as he witness this. “ Congrate to you!... Though, you are really open about these huh. Other peoples I know usually act all bashful when talking about these kind of thin… anyway, heard your problem with Ms.Maya, My condolence. Don’t worry if she ever thinks about expelling you, my family will deal with that. Just butt your head with her all you want.”

He said with nonchalant tone and an absolute confident look. It was obvious if you looked from what family he came. He was the eldest son of the head of the Kas family, the most prominent family in the Decislivin city. His family surely has much connection to higher up.

“Don’t be. It was my fault this time… I’m tired of talking about this topic. I just hope it won’t affect anything in my school life.” His shoulder fell down as he felt anxious about it.

Then they talked about random stuff. Jusbi was talking non-stop about his family new item which he claimed would make his family raise high, but Sharod didn't knew rise in what kind. He talked that his family finally would be making some achievement. Sharod knew that Jusbi’s Kas family in the Decislivin town was just subsidiary from a more massive clan. He always talked about being the best craftsman so his family would rise in stature.

Sharod would just smiled and listen calmly. He didn’t really understand how huge family intrigue would be like and he also didn’t want to know either. All the thing he heard from Jusbi about his family sounded really… uncomfortable. Scheme and betrayal sometime came up from his mouth nonchalantly.

The only thing that seem good about the Kas family was the line of production they ran. Sharod was interested in it very much. He was curious about some product Jusbi said in passing. It seems the product has more than what it let out by him. Of course, Jusbi would gloss over saying that it was the family’s secret.

Finally, the first bell rang as they reached their class.