Two Minutes Until Midnight

“Kyle, wake up! You’re going to be late for school” I open my eyes just a crack to see my sister standing in the doorway with her hand on the light switch.

“Summer is already over? I don’t want to go back to school already!” I sit up in bed, my sheets covering my naked body, and rub my eyes.

“I have to take your ass to school, so it is as much pain for me as it is for you. I don’t understand why you can’t ride the school bus.” My sister then walks out of my room, closing the door behind herself.

Kaylyn, my sister, is a year older than me. She’s 18 and just graduated from high school last year. It’s my time to shine as a senior, I’ll show everyone I can be just as smart as Kaylyn. The only problem is that I don’t have my license to drive myself. I’ve tried to get it multiple times but each time I always fail and get sent back to square one. So for my last year of high school I’ll have my sister take me and pick me up from school. If I ride the bus, people will find out that I don’t have my license and I’ll be toast. That’s like automatic bully material. I can hear them now, “oh Kyle doesn’t have his driver’s license, what a shame, I thought he was smart but turns out he’s just weird and an idiot.” My social standing in school is in an awful state if you couldn’t already tell.

I get out of bed and walk over to my dresser to put on my school uniform. It’s the most basic uniform you can get. It's a blue collared shirt with a black tie and a grey jacket. The pants are basic black dress pants. Like I said, basic and boring.

After throwing that stuff on, I head down the hallway and into the kitchen.

“Here catch!” My sister throws a piece of toast at me and I manage to catch it in my mouth.

“Ow HOT!!” I yell, dropping the bread out of my mouth and onto the floor. “Why didn’t you tell me you just made it, or at least tell me it’s hot!”

“I thought you were a little more observant than that, based on how I grabbed it out of the toaster when I threw it at you”

“ WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU THROW IT AT ME IF IT WAS THAT HOT IN THE FIRST PLACE?” Kaylyn giggles a little before completely ignoring the legitimacy of my question.

“ Well it’s too bad, but we need to get you to school… You can’t be late on your first day.” She sends an evil smirk my way, then walks from the toaster out the front door. I follow her out, grabbing my backpack along the way which is sitting next to the door on a bench.

“Are you really going to wear that?” I say to Kaylyn as I notice her oversized Pittsburgh Pirates shirt and the lack of pants she’s wearing.

“ Well what’s wrong with it?” She counters my question with another one of equal value.

“Probably the lack of PANTS!” I say with extra sarcasm. I know she probably has shorts underneath, but you can’t see it due to the large shirt.

“You want to see a lack of pants?” She stops in front of me, and pulls up her shirt revealing the black panties she has on.

“What the hell, Kaylyn!” I quickly look away, so I’m not labeled a pervert.

“ I just thought you needed to be teased a little bit before heading back to school, I know how boring school can be.” She says before walking over to her car and getting in. I soon follow, getting in the passenger seat.

What does she mean she knows how boring school can be, she was very popular when she was in school. I saw how many guys she talked to. She’s pretty and smart, we are complete polar opposites. She’s a little shorter than me. She has very long black hair that reaches halfway down her back. She has dark green eyes and a very pretty face. I’d rather spare the details of her body since you know she’s my sister and all. Yet again, I don’t want to be labeled a pervert.

Kaylyn starts the car and turns on the radio. “More and more rioters start to gather outside the White House today” The radio man starts talking about the terrible situation of the United States. It really sucks that no one can get along in this world. The recent skirmishes between the United States and Russia have been tearing the U.S. apart. Some of the states in the union have had talks of seceding, which might cause another Civil War to break out. Maybe even a coup d’etat will take place, overthrowing the largest democratic nation in the world. If that were to happen, then what would happen with all the nuclear bombs in the United States arsenal? They might be able to be used by people who can’t be trusted.

“The situation at the Capitol isn’t looking so good, but don’t worry, we’ll be okay out here” Kaylyn puts her two cents in, not realizing the threat of possible nuclear warfare. We live just outside of Pittsburgh so when she says “out here” we aren’t that far away from trouble.

Nothing else notable happens during the car ride. When we arrive at school, I grab my bag and hop out of the car. “Hey Kyle, don’t talk to too many ladies and don’t get a girlfriend without my permission” I ignored Kaylyn and walked towards the school.

A flood of students walk towards the main doors, everyone wearing the ugly school outfit. I’m glad I don’t stick out too much. I walk by myself to my homeroom, passing teachers and students alike. Friends reuniting in the hallway and couples holding hands, and I’m here all by myself. I walk into my homeroom, which is academic english aka the dumb kid english class.

“Excuse me, What’s your name?” The old lady standing at the door asks me.

“Kyle.. uh Kyle Atonal '' I say, not realizing that I’m partially whispering.

“It’s nice to meet you Kyle, I’m Mrs.Nancy.. You can take a seat anywhere in the class” She smiles as she puts a check mark next to my name on the clipboard she is holding.

I start to walk to the back row of seats and decide to sit in the farthest seat from the door, everyone who has already sat down stares at me as I pull my phone out and pretend to do something on it.

A few minutes later, a very pretty girl with short blonde hair walks into the class. She gets asked the same question by the teacher. She said her name is… shit I didn’t hear it. Oh well, not like I would ever talk to her. But, I can’t ignore how pretty she is. As she comes closer to me I get a glimpse of her brown eyes. They aren’t completely brown, they actually have a mix of brown, green, and blue in them. It takes me a few seconds to realize that she didn’t sit at the front or with anyone. Actually she came to the back row and SAT RIGHT NEXT TO ME. shi- I.. what do I do here? A very pretty girl decided to sit right next to me. Don’t freak out Kyle. Just pretend she doesn’t exist. Well I say that but I’m currently staring at her chest. She has really big boobs. Wait I shouldn’t say that, that’s way too creepy. They are at least double d’s.

“Do you need something?” She asks me. My eyes jolt from her chest to her face. I feel my face burn and I quickly look away without saying anything.

“I’ll move if you want to sit with some friends” I finally got enough courage to say something.

“No no you don’t have to. I’m actually new here. My name is Kiki” Even her voice is cute, but I can’t get over the name Kiki. Kiki is a pet name.

“My name is Kyle”

“Kyle and Kiki. Our names are very similar. Maybe we were meant for each other.” As she speaks, I feel my face get redder and redder. I’ve already run out of things to say.

I sit in awkward silence for a moment before the bell rings. Saved by the bell. Thank god. The loud speaker comes on and a man, presumably the principal, starts speaking. “Welcome back to school…” I don’t listen until he says something that catches my attention. “Due to recent events in the United States, our school will not be doing the pledge of allegiance before class starts”. So the news must be hiding something from the people. A few rioting people outside of the capitol would completely ban the pledge of allegiance. I’ll keep that in mind.

“Hello Class! It’s time to introduce ourselves. I go first-”

“Wait!” A male student stands up and interrupts the teacher. “We need to do the pledge of allegiance”

“Didn’t you hear the announcements?” The teacher asks.

“What could possibly be so bad that gets rid of the pledge of allegiance? As the son of a soldier, I believe that we need to do the pledge.It gives respect to every man and woman who have died for this country.” The same student responds to the teacher.

“That isn’t for us to discuss. We just need to follow the rules.” The teacher tries to calm the student down.

“You think we can just disrespect the millions of people who died for this country?” I’ll try to describe this student to the best of my abilities. He’s average height for a male. He has black hair and a buzz cut to go along with it. He looks like he works out too.

“What? This corrupt country? Who profits off of killing millions of people in pointless wars? Don’t you think all the stuff with Russia is really worth it? Instead of making the world a better place let’s just let millions of people fight each other with drones and explosives for what reason exactly? There isn’t a reason.” Another student with spiky black hair stands up and walks towards the other guy. It looks like a scene straight out of an anime.

“Those people are fighting for what they believe is right. It doesn’t matter what you think.” I’m not sure what to name these people to make this whole situation simpler to describe so I’m just going to call this guy Mr.Patriotic and the other one Mr.SpikyHair. Sounds like a shitty tumblr username but it works.

“ The United States government has failed its people, a coup must be performed to get it back on the right track. Long live the Revolution!” Mr.SpikyHair gets even closer to Mr.Patriotic and puts his right fist in the air.

“What you believe will just lead to more blood and chaos. Long live the Republic!” After Mr.Patriotic gets done speaking he punches Mr.SpikyHair right in the side of the head, sending him stumbling backwards. I think I know why they don’t want to do the pledge of allegiance. It would just lead to too many fights between supporters of this possible coup and supporters of the government as it is. But, what they didn’t account for was the fights even without playing the pledge of allegiance. Soon enough more and more students started joining the fight. Either shouting “Long live the Revolution” or “Long live the Republic”. The teacher tried to stop the fighting but it was already too late. Too many kids were throwing punches over their own ideals. It was all fine until a girl screamed. Everyone suddenly backed away from the fighting and in the middle of everyone was a boy who was bleeding everywhere. On top of him was a student with a knife muttering “Long Live the Revolution”.

After the school was evacuated and the students who were involved in the incident were arrested, school was called off for two weeks. As I sat outside, waiting for Kaylyn to pick me up, a male student sat next to me on the sidewalk. He has pretty blue eyes and blonde hair which is so long it covers his eyes.

“That was quite the show they put on. What a bunch of idiots. They involve themselves with the affairs of adults when they are still in school. I noticed that you didn’t take any sides. I’m glad to see I found someone with at least a little bit of intelligence” The blonde-haired kid talks as if he already knows me.

“Excuse me, but do I know you?” I ask him.

“Oh I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Zyair, meaning river. Rivers are used as a symbol of passing time in ancient cultures. I like to talk a lot. If you couldn’t already tell.” He turns to me and smiles, then reaches out his hand for a handshake. Why would he say that about rivers? Maybe to make him feel cooler? Probably.

“My name is Kyle. I don’t like to talk a lot. If you couldn’t already tell” I shake his hand as he laughs my insult off.

“ I think you and I will be great friends or the worst of enemies.” He says with a smirk on his face. “Well then I’ll be going now” He gets up and starts to walk away, but before walking too far he turns around and says “Don’t get a flat tire on the way home” and he continues walking. What does he mean by a flat tire? Like my sister’s car? He’s weird. Before I can day dream anymore Kaylyn pulls up.

“Get in weirdo!” She says as I stand up from the sidewalk and get in the car. “So what happened in school? Why are they letting out early on the first day of school?”

“They didn’t tell you?”

“All the school did was call me and say that it was letting out early. So spill the beans.” It’s very strange that they didn’t say anything about it.

“Well the unstable government is affecting even the students here. In the most simplest terms a few students started-” I get interrupted by loud dinging noise.

“ Shit, my flat tire light came on” My sister says as she pulls over on the side of the road. I get out of the car and start looking at the tires.

“Well it wasn’t lying. Your front right tire is definitely flat.” I say as I bend down to see a large slash in the tire. “We have to call someone”.

“I left my phone at home...you have yours right?” Kaylyn says as she squats down next to me, wearing the same shirt she was wearing earlier. She even has some shorts on now, so at least I won’t get flashed. Oh, and for that misunderstanding earlier, we aren’t actually blood related. My dad died when I was at a young age, leaving me and my mom to fend for ourselves. I won’t go through the entire story now, but we found Kaylyn wandering the streets when I was about 8 years old, making her 9 at the time. It wasn’t the smartest thing for my mom and I due to our lack of money. But, my mom still adopted Kaylyn. However, my mom died shortly after in a car crash when I was 12. My aunt took care of us until Kaylyn turned 16, then my aunt stopped caring. Just a quick summary of my childhood.

I pull out my phone and try to turn it on, a large red battery symbol pops up on it. “Shit mine just died.”

“Well I guess we’ll have to start walking.” She says after locking her car. “I’ll call a towing service as soon as we get home. Plus it’s only a 20 minute walk from here, so it isn’t that bad.”

After 10 minutes of walking in silence, Kaylyn stops and points over to the woods. “Let’s go exploring! Since this is the only time I can get you out of your room and outside.”

“I don’t want to go into the woods. There’s bugs and animals everywhere in there. Do you want to die?” I ask her.

“Come on!! It’ll be fun.” She takes my hand and darts into the woods.

After running for a minute or two we stop in a little valley.

“You know how I feel about you, Kyle.” Kaylyn says as she comes closer to me. I back up until I slam into a tree. She pins me against the tree and kisses me. Her soft lips intertwined with mine. Her chest is pressed against me. “I’ve always loved you.. When we first met, when I first met your mother. I knew you and I would get married. I know we are siblings, but it's only in name, not blood. So it’s okay.” Before I can push her off me and say no she kisses me again. She takes my jacket off and starts to undress herself.

“Wait! We can’t do this-” She kisses me again to interrupt my complaints. I push her off of me.

“You don’t love me?” She says as she approaches me again. “Fine. I’ll make you love me”.

“Leave me alone!” I start running away, and I’m long gone before she can say anything. I keep on running, trying to forget what just happened.

I stop at a very large tree for a breather, but before I can start running again I’m suddenly pinned to the ground. A sharp pain jolts through my body. I look down to see that a branch of this tree has impaled me, right through my belly, and stuck me to the ground. “You won’t die” I hear a female voice come from behind me. “It may hurt a lot, but it will be worth it.” She walks around me and squats down in front of me, patting my head. I feel myself drifting away, most likely from blood loss, but I can still see her. She’s a very beautiful woman with long green hair and bright green eyes. “You will be the one to save the world”. She grabs my hand as it lights up, when she lets go an image of a mountain is engraved into it. Before anything else can happen, everything turns black. Did I just die? Was that it? By a stupid ass branch? That’s awfully upsetting.