Forest City 4 Chapter 2 -Change-

    The sound of police sirens woke me up, my phone had stopped playing music and died. I sighed and shook the hair out of my eyes. I hadn't even changed out of my clothes last night. I quickly put on a pair of old black jeans with a hole at one of the knees, what a familiar memory. I definitely couldn't forget the time that I had been running home, due to me being up past curfew. I had tripped and skinned my knee on the pavement, I was at least two blocks away and Hazel was luckily driving home from work and picked me up and brought me home. My dad yelled at me for the whole night, all I remember was that I had torn a hole in my jeans and got blood on the carpet. Which reminded me of another anecdote. It isn't really that funny, but...

    "Cobalt! Breakfast is ready!" dad called down from the kitchen.

    Crap! I have to get dressed! I glanced at my alarm clock, 10:12 AM... dad let me sleep in, he never lets me sleep in, usually he wakes me up at the crack of dawn to do chores. I put on a relatively clean shirt that I grabbed from my messy drawer. All of my clothes was untidy and probably had holes or stains from the many fights I had gotten in, either that or it was spray paint.

    I ruffled my hair a little, I never cared too much what it looked like, I began to hobble down the stairs, I was tired, but I'd never wake up at such a time like that. I finally reached the bottom of the steps and closed my eyes, Ready to start the day Cobalt?

    "Cobalt, I did your laundry, I hope you don't mind," dad spoke from inside the kitchen, unlike Hazel's kitchen, ours was a light brown and green color scheme, everything looked like what you would find in a house out in the country.

    I just shook my head and leaned my head down onto my hand and asked, "Why'd you let me sleep in today?'

    "Thought you needed the rest," dad spoke, he drank another sip at his coffee and glanced around at today's newspaper.

    I glanced at the front of the paper as well it read, "Teenager hospitalized after being found on the side of the road."

    I asked, "Hey, dad, did you read about the teenager."

    "I have not," he replied, his eyes peered over the paper to get a good look at me, I could almost read his expression, It wasn't you was it, he glanced back down quickly and turned the paper to the front. It took him a little while to fully grasp what the situation was about, I had a feeling I knew exactly what it was about.

    I grabbed a piece of toast off of the plate dad had set down on the table.

    Dad joked, "For once a fight that doesn't involve you in it," he laughed a bit.

    I kept my straight face, he was acting stranger than usual. I wanted to know what was wrong, but I didn't want to bother him.

    Dad replied, "It says here that Tora Panthero was punched in the jaw which has permanently disfigured his face."

    I winced and replied quickly, "Wasn't me," I shoved a piece of toast in my mouth and quickly changed the subject, "So, found a job you're interested in?"

    Dad kept adding kindling to the fire, "Caspian Cervinae is the leading suspect of the fight called to anonymous witnesses." 

    "Bet you can guess who those witnesses are," I snickered.

    Dad raised an eyebrow, "Midge and Bonnie?"

    I tossed a piece of toast at him and shouted, "Bingo!"

    That's when dad did something I had never expected he would do, he smiled at me for what seemed like forever. Maybe he is changing.