Seeing in Color

Four

Will

I've never understood why I always wake up with the sun.

I'm not a morning person, but I seem to wake up the moment the sun's light hits my window. Call me crazy, but I feel like we have a connection somehow.

I'm a little crazy, I know.

I woke up to the sun rising on the first day of school. I leaped out of bed and rushed into my clothes: a baby blue T-shirt with the purple logo of Sun Valley, Idaho, a pair of skinny dark grey jeans, and white sneakers with doodles of suns and lyrics to my favorite songs. I pulled on my white leather jacket and hurried out of my bedroom and down the stairs to the kitchen where the rest of the foster family was gathered.

"Mr. Chiron, could you please pass the syrup?" My foster brother Austin asked as he cut a slice off his pancake.

"Just a sec," The older man said as he poured some onto his own brown stack. My foster father had recently shaved off his beard and was dressed and ready for another day of work at the school, as if an entire summer hadn't passed. He wheeled himself from the counter of his enormous kitchen to the sprawling dining table where my foster siblings sat eating already. "Had to make sure I got some before you finished it off."

Austin looked at the bottle and raised an eyebrow. "It's not even a quarter empty."

"Exactly," Mr. Chiron Brummel nodded, a smirk on his face. "You young teenagers have quite the appetite." He waved his hand toward the three other kids at the table. Katie Gardner was silently spooning her whole-grain cereal into her mouth, Cecil Markowitz was busy building a Lego catapult while taking bites out his breakfast like the Flash, and Kayla was ignoring her pancakes and throwing random Legos at everyone seated at the table.

He spotted me placing a couple of pancakes onto a plate, and his smile widened. "Well, good morning to you! You're up a little late!"

"Sorry, I was up reading late last night and lost track of time," I sat down at the table next to Austin and dodged a Lego pirate.

"No need to apologize, everybody sleeps in from time to time," Mr. Chiron halted his wheelchair at the end of the long mahogany table, placing his plate next to his grape juice. "The bus will be here in half an hour."

My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket, and I pulled it out to see a text message.

Lou Ellen: Hey, meet me after my shift in five.

I answered back.

Why?

A few seconds later, someone else texted me, and I realized it was a group chat.

Bc we need to talk school and shit

I looked up from my screen and glared at Cecil, who sneaked his phone back into his jean pocket. Rolling my eyes, I responded.

Fine, but we better not be late for school. It's our first day.

I cleared my throat and slid my phone back into my jacket pocket. "Mr. Chiron, may Cecil and I leave early to pick up a friend?"

"Of course," Mr. Brummel nodded. "Just make sure to get to school on time. You don't want to be late for your first day!"

"Okay, bye!" Cecil leaped to his feet and swallowed the last bite of pancake off his plate. As we made our way around the table and towards the entryway, a strawberry smacked the back off Cecil's hair.

"Hey!" He turned and glared at Kayla, who slumped in her seat and smirked.

"Guess you're not the only trickster in the house!" She stuck out her tongue as we walked out the door.