The First Day of a New Life

My eyes strain awake as I hear my alarm going off next to me. It's 8 in the morning and while I could definitely use more sleep, I didn't do all that work yesterday just to not show up to class and miss turning in my paper. Also, yes, Dr. Powell is one of those professors that expects work to be turned in on physical paper at the start of class, and yes, it's super annoying. Despite not feeling fully rested, I sit up in bed and turn my alarm off. When I do, I see the remote, just where I left it the previous night. So it wasn't a dream.

Seeing the remote actually helps wake me up a bit, as there's some level of excitement at the thought of using it again. I know I said I would be more considerate with who I used it on, but just having the option to use it gets my heart pumping.

I get up and prepare for the day. I get dressed, make sure I have everything I need in my bag, and even do a bit of stretching to make sure I'm fully awake. After I'm ready to go, I slip the remote in one pocket and my phone in the other. As I unplug my phone, I realize something else that I haven't considered yet: do I need to charge the Random Remote? I haven't noticed any place to put batteries or a charger (which is good since I definitely wasn't sold a charger). Will the remote die at some point? I guess if it can do magic, it's not a huge stretch for it to be powered by magic. Well, unless it becomes an issue later, I won't worry about it.

I head downstairs to find Julia eating breakfast in the dining room by herself. It's not too surprising that she's by herself since Mom and Michelle both have to leave for work earlier than we go to class. She's eating a bowl of cereal and has a glass of orange juice beside her. The cereal box and juice container are both siting in front of her, and across the table from her is an empty bowl and glass, both of which she clearly put out for me. I take a seat in front of them and start pouring myself some breakfast.

"Thanks, Sis," I say, which causes her to look up and smile.

"Of course! I'm just happy you got here before I finished," she responds with her classic chipper attitude.

The two of us chat about various things as we eat. Since we didn't talk much yesterday, Julia does her best to make up for that lost time. As we get close to the end of our meals, the conversation dies down. After a moment, I notice that Julia looks like she's thinking about something.

"What's up? Something on your mind?"

"It's nothing. It's just... have you noticed anything weird going on recently?"

I nearly **** on my cereal when I hear those words. Does she know something about what I've been doing? It hasn't even been a whole day! How could she have already found out already?! I try to calm myself down. I shouldn't jump to conclusions. For now, I should just play it safe and see what she means.

"I don't think so. Why?"

Julia pauses to think once again before she says anything.

"It's probably nothing. I just thought Mom was acting weird this morning. You were the last one to talk to her last night so I was wondering if you noticed anything weird then."

Stay calm, Matt. Mom has off-days all the time. You still need more information.

"I didn't notice anything last time I talked to her. What did she do?"

"You know how Mom is always scrambling to get stuff done in the morning so she can leave as quickly as possible?"

I nod, curious to see where this is going.

"Well, this morning she seemed... is 'hesitant' the right word? I don't know. She didn't seem like she was trying as hard as usual to get to work. Almost like she didn't want to leave for some reason..."

Huh. Not exactly what I expected to hear. It must be related to that attribute Mom got. There was probably some part of her that didn't want to leave me. Interesting that Julia didn't mention anything about Michelle acting weird, but I guess Michelle's attribute only affects her when she is around me or talking about me. Luckily, it doesn't sound like anything too crazy, so I should be able to smooth this over.

"It's hard to know what goes on in Mom's mind sometimes. You know how she is. Any little thing happens and she's suddenly all out of whack." That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's a believable enough explanation.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's probably fine. I know I tend to overly worry sometimes," Julia say, seemingly satisfied with my answer.

I breath a sigh of relief as Julia seems to put the issue out of her mind. But this is a good lesson. I'll have to be careful in the future. It's still unclear how aware a person is of the changes the remote makes to them, but it seems like other people keep their normal awareness. That could definitely be an issue if Julia keeps noticing things like this.

My train off thought ends when I notice the current time and realize I have to get going.

"Don't stress yourself out too much, Julia. Anyway, I have to go. Wouldn't want to be late for history."

"No, you definitely wouldn't. I still have a bit before I have to head out myself, so I'll see you later. Love you."

"Love you too," I say while giving my sister a quick hug. A few minutes later, I'm out the door and on my way to the bus stop.

As I get on the bus, I shake off that little scare. The day is just starting and there are way too many possibilities to let something so minor get me down.