Factory Reset

Chapter One: Home is Where the Heart Is

The air was colder than the day before, a nice eighty degrees. The sun was high in the sky, no clouds and very bright. Mason enjoyed the warmth that summer brought, enjoyed the green grass from the winter before, and enjoyed the freedom that it brought.

His little sister Hannah jumped around like the over excitable rabbit that she was, her bright white and black fur gleaming in the summer sun while she ran into the sprinklers around their property.

His slightly younger sister Monika was against the oak bench that his family had bought several years prior, texting on her phone. His parents, Sabrina and John, happily playing with Hannah in the warm puddles of mud and water.

It was calming, nice. Perfect. Mason stretched, pulling his arm over his head in an arch. His head swiveled as his parents called him and his sister over, apparently Hannah wanted to start swimming in the lake beside their house.

Monica instantly started to complain, "Come on, she doesn't even know how to swim! Can't Mason just get a float or something?" Monica asked, throwing her arm towards Mason and nearly smacking him in the chest.

Sabrina's eyes gave a pleading look to Mason, adding, "It would be nice..." John looked at her and sighed, picking up the now muddy Hannah, her floppy ears almost completely covered with mud and her entire body dripping wet.

"I can go. Let him enjoy his day." John stated, looking warmly at the giggling Hannah, "How about we go and get your pretty pink party floatie?" Mason smiled gratefully, knowing that his father wasn't the first person he expected to volunteer to take care of the little ball of energy.

Mason himself giggled lightly as he heard Hannah's response, "No! Only blue!"

Sabrina clicked her tongue, grabbing her phone from the picnic basket placed near enough to the sprinklers to see everything, scanning through her notes for what the day entailed, "It would be nice to get some drinks." His mother tried to coerce him into going back into the house.

Mason sighed, starting to make his way back to his home.

They lived in the more rural area of California, about where all the country hics that didn't, or couldn't move too, Texas went. Large rolling green hills in the winter and gleaming golden hills in the summer. They could only enjoy the greenness just before the rain stopped and summer fully set in.

Their house was two-story, courtesy to their grandparents who had bought the property before it got too expensive, and renovated what was needed. It was painted in a light beige color on the outside and had several patches of roses and other flowers as decoration.

But the inside was always cool and relaxed, Mason even visibly sighing as he entered the first corridor. The walls were painted a nice crimson red, the floors a carpeted white, and the ceiling a competent beige.

Most of the walls were covered up by his family's portraits, which followed the stereotypes of being rabbits, an overabundance of kids and cousins, third cousins and twice removed cousins, an odd aunt or five, and a handful of uncles.

Mason trudged through the corridor leading to the mess hall and the kitchen, brushing his hand along the many decorative pieces of furniture that the family never used and just collected dust because they all preferred to eat in their respective rooms.

He skimmed through one of the cabinets above the chopping board and window to the backside of the house, where there was a small lake created by his grandmother, and where his father was currently having a tough time keeping track of where Hannah was.

He finally found what he was looking for, a small cast-iron plate that he could put the large pitcher of Pepsi, and twenty small sized cups of lemonade as well as the pitcher for it. Hannah practically demanded they make lemonade since she saw it on the television several days back.

Content with what he got, he proceeded to balance the plate with his arm and his chest, maneuvering through the corridor and back outside the house and back to his parents.

His mother was a white jackrabbit, a country girl that had lived in the rural areas all her life either farming or, well, really it was just farming. At that moment she was wearing a sunny blue and yellow dress, and was currently telling off Mason's little sister, Monica.

Monica had certainly taken over for their dad, who his mother often called a city-slicker. His father worked for a company selling and buying robotics, and his main job was the coding and manufacturing of said robotics.

However the company was small, and the robots they produced were mostly used for small tasks that people could get bored of. Self-washing machines, automatic paper shredder, voice-controlled volume controller, the list goes on and on.

Mason calmly placed the plate of drinks down as he eavesdrops on what happened, "Can you stop texting your boyfriend for ten minutes and please help me get the umbrella set up?" Sabrina asked, struggling with one of the poles.

Monica, for her part, looked guilty that she didn't want to help, but it wasn't enough to get her motivated to get her hands dirty, "I'll help you mom." Mason said, giving his little sister a dirty look as he walked over, who just returned with a wet raspberry.

After struggling with, and nearly breaking, the umbrella stand, it was finally set up. Sure, the once sparkling metal poles were now muddy beyond belief, and maybe the umbrella would need several hours soaking in an extra-mud-removing pool to get rid of all the dried mud, but they managed.

Sabrina smiled and took in a deep breath, her huge ears flopping to her back as she enjoyed the moment, "Thanks sweetie." she told him, giving him a bump with her thigh and nearly knocking him into one of the plastic tables, "Sorry!"

Mason just smiled warmly, gripping the table and plastic chair with dear life, "It's fine mom." His mom smiled back and began to fan herself with her hand, already getting rather hot even for her, "I know I probably shouldn't be askin' this, but could you grab the extension cable and grab like, five fans please? I just can't stand this heat."

Mason heard his sister tsk, "And you call yourself a country-girl..." She muttered.

Despite that remark, Mason smiled at his mother and nodded and began his way back to his house and waved at his sister who had somehow managed to get away from his dad, who was trailing right behind them.

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Never mind with the writers block thing, I guess I just got inspired by chance. 

Now hear me out, I'm not gonna stick to a thousand word chapter for the entire thing, this is just for the first, and maybe the next two, chapters because It's incredibly early on and there is nothing to build off of.

So, yeah, thanks for reading, and you the next chapter in about two days, again. but this time, it'll actually be two days.

Anyways, thanks yawl!

~ Candle