Enigmatic Circumstances

Chapter One

"Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behavior, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition." -Yuval Noah Harari
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The house was quiet at night.
After everyone had adjusted to the time zone, their sleep schedule started to match up due to how exhausting the day could be. Of course California had to be the exemption. The copious amounts of caffeine he drinks in the day tends to only worsen his insomnia.

As the western state started to lose hope in getting one good night of sleep, he left his room to get a drink of water. It was too late to take Benadryl to try to make him sleep unless he wanted to be out most of tomorrow too, and he was pretty sure Florida was planning something with Loui again.

It was honestly much nicer to be in this house while everyone was asleep, no mocking, pranks, or reminders of his chronic loneliness.

California tried to connect with the other states, but whenever he would talk to them, he would be set off on a tangent and they would think that he was being pretentious and tell him to shut up.

Suddenly he heard the sound of someone walking down the stairs. Great, this is my only time to myself, and someone just had to be awake.

Texas walked into the kitchen. When he spotted California, he seemed very surprised to see another person awake.
"Oh, California, why are you up at 4:00 am?"

"I could be asking you the same question," California said with a glare, "I have insomnia so I am normally up, but you are not"

"Uh... yeah, I don't know why, but I just couldn't seem to fall asleep," Texas said awkwardly.

At this moment California took note of how the Texan looked. His bed head and pajamas actually didn't look half bad. If this were anybody else, he might even consider calling Texas attractive.

However, something about Texas's attitude threw seemed off. He seemed unnaturally nervous. Like something about being here, alone with Cali, made him uncomfortable. Whatever, California was going to wait around to find out why. The only enjoyable thing about being up at this hour was the time he got to himself and that clearly was not going to happen.

"Alright, well you might want to try to get some sleep, I think Florida is planning something, and it is not fun dealing with him without sleep if you are not used to it," California says before departing to his room.
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What the fuck was that? The Texan thought to himself after the Western state left. California actually looked pretty nice when he wasn't in the full hipster get up and acting morally superior to everyone. 

He wasn't supposed to be cute! This is the state that is the next worst place to Oklahoma. Why is Texas feeling like this, it doesn't make sense?! Ever since Florida made that stupid kissing comment during the last meeting, his emotions have been all over the place.

This must be something caused by the exhaustion of being up for the whole night. God he needed to get some sleep.
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Like most mornings, California woke up absolutely exhausted. Constantly getting only about 4 hours of sleep a night was not helping his energy level. At least he was used to it. 

And right on schedule he could hear the sound of Florida running and shouting from he assumed DC. Something is probably broken again, hopefully it wasn't glass again. California decided to go out and see what caused all of the commotion today.

 Surprisingly, there didn't seem to be anything broken when he came to the source of the shouting. However, there was a certain fed tripping over himself yelling something about how tying a person's shoelaces together is childish and stupid. 

"Hey California! I need to talk to you about something once I am done with this!" Florida yelled while running past him. That is never a good sign. God, he was going to need a lot of coffee.

California headed to the kitchen to fuel his caffeine addiction and prepare himself for whatever disaster Florida had planned. Once he got there he saw Texas sitting, looking absolutely miserable and tired. He was leaning on the table pretty much half asleep. He suddenly jerked awake, red with embarrassment, when California started making coffee. 

"Oh... hi," Texas said with a nervousness that sounded very foreign to California.

"Hey, I see that you are not dealing well with the lack of sleep," California joked.

"Yeah... I think I might die," Texas grumbles.

California laughed at the dramatics the southerner was expressing. Texas looked away and started blushing from what California assumed was more embarrassment.

At that moment, Florida ran into the kitchen, "California, I need to talk..." Florida takes a look at California, then a glance at Texas, and back California, "Actually, I have different idea for today, never mind." Florida ran back to go get a different person to involve in his most likely illegal scheme.

That is not good sign, but either way it means California has the free time to just go back to his room and read for the rest of the day.

"Alright, I am not sure what that was about, but Texas, make sure you either get some caffeine or a nap because you look like you are about to pass out," California said before grabbing his coffee and heading back to his room.