The Good, The Bad, and The Clinically Insane.

“Great green globs of greasy, grimy gopher guts!”

“For the love of God, Luke, shut up.”

“Mutilated monkey meat!”

“I am-“

“Dirty little birdie feet!”

“-Going to KILL you.”

It’s times like this I wish I had an alarm clock. Or a soundproof room, maybe. I never got to sleep in on the weekends; Luke and Kathy made sure of that. They fought like cats and dogs. If it weren’t for Luke’s startling blue hair, they could’ve been mistaken for brother and sister.

With a groan, I managed to pull myself out of bed. Padding over to the door and sidling out, I shuffled towards the kitchen. Luke, who was grinning mischeviously at the irritated blonde girl, paused to look at me. “I thought you were sleeping in this morning,” he said as I reached for a box of cereal.

”That’s funny, so did I,” I replied as I poured the corn flakes into a porcelain bowl.

“You jerk. You’re so loud,” Kathy scolded, whapping Luke on the head with a throw pillow. “Akari works hard. She should get to sleep once in a while.” Luke grabbed the pillow from her and tossed it back on the couch, sticking his tongue out at her. She responded with a roll of her green eyes, and then leaned her elbows against the marble countertop.

“Where’s everyone else?” I asked. “I’m usually the last one awake.”

“Everyone else” constituted a small crowd of several people: Chase, the chef who worked at the local inn; Maya, the daughter of that same Inn’s owners; Owen, the blacksmith’s apprentice; Gill, the Mayor’s son; Candace and Luna, the tailor’s granddaughters; and Julius, who…well, was just Julius. They all sport incredibly different personalities, and have incredibly different backgrounds. The only thing that links any of us together is the situation that we’re in.

Two seasons ago, a monstrous, devestating hurricane demolished a majority of the small island that we all call home. Hurricane Celeste wasn’t expected to wreak so much havoc, which is why none of the villagers took the initial threat very seriously. The storm was strong enough to do damage to a well-prepared town, and much more so to a town without so much as boards on their windows. Entire buildings flooded and collapsed, homes were destroyed, and everyone lost something that mattered to them.

With most of the residential areas completely devestated, there was nowhere to house those whose homes had been destroyed. Instead of building a lot of small, permanent shelters for individual families, a group of us decided to make one giant structure for the ten of us to live in. With the help of Luke’s dad, who was the local carpenter, we all contributed to the development of the group house.

It was no different than most other homes; just a little bigger. There were nine bedrooms total: Candace and her sister, Luna, shared the biggest one, and the rest of us had our own. There were three bathrooms, a kitchen, a gathering area, all the facilities that we could possibly need.

Since none of us have ever been exactly rich, and we didn’t really have the funds to pull off the house by ourself, Gill’s dad, Mayor Hamilton, had granted us the use of town funds to build the structure. In return, we all agreed to help rebuild the town. But it’s not as easy as picking up debreis and clearing paths. We have to help reconstruct and renovate nearly the entire island. Sunday is our only day off, and the one day that anyone really got to sleep in. That is, if Luke didn’t wake you up first…

“Somehow, they managed to tune Luke’s high-pitched voice out,” Kathy answered in reply to my previous question. “Lucky them,” she added.

“All right, all right,” Luke groaned. “I’m a pest. That’s established. Let’s move on with our lives, please!”

I grinned as I scooped a spoonful of cornflakes into my mouth. It didn’t take long for the grin to fall off my face. “Ugh!” I spat the mouthful into the sink, wiping my mouth with the sleeve of my pajamas. Grabbing the milk carton, I suppressed a gag. “This milk is expired,” I explained with a grimace on my face. I poured the slightly chunky liquid out in the sink as Kathy made a face.

“Who was supposed to go to the store and get groceries?” I demanded. Now that my tastebuds had been assaulted, I was fully awake, and peeved at that.

“Um…I think it was Maya’s turn.” Kathy’s face was turning a weird shade of green as she turned the faucet on, watching chunks of curdled milk drain away.

“Of course,” I muttered. Luke grabbed the milk carton from me and shot it into the recycling bin.

“Three points!” he cheered as it bounced in effortlessly.

“What’s going on?” A voice from behind us startled me. We turned around in unison to see a stocky blonde girl with wayward curls and bags under her eyes staring back at us sleepily.

“I just about choked on curdled milk, is all,” I said, sarcasm tinging my voice. “Maya, wasn’t it your turn to get groceries?”

”Oh, yeah. I was gonna go on Tuesday, but I forgot.” Maya shrugged, and opened the refrigerator door.

That, my dear friends, is why I don’t like Maya Cunningham. She doesn’t do squat around the house, and she makes excuses. She’s been known to lie like a dog, as well. If you asked Kathy why I didn’t like Maya, she would tell you something completely different. But Maya’s hanging all over Chase doesn’t bother me; her attitude does more than enough.

“Well, you should go today,” Luke reasoned. “After all, we’re all gonna get hungry eventually. Chase can only do so much with a head of wilting cabbage and curry, and if I have to eat another ‘meatloaf surprise’ dish again, I’m going to commit a very violent felony.”

“Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts…” Kathy singsonged at Luke, grinning evilly. He groaned and ducked his head.

“And I forgot my spoon.”