The Morning

Chapter 1

The morning rose to an orange theme, as Leo awoke from his slumber. As he raised himself from the squeaking bed, he paused for a moment. Gaining conscious, while trying to refocus his mind for the day. He turned his head and saw the dawn broke. He awoke a little too early, for his taste. His mouth dry, and his head still hanging high from the sleep, Leo pushed his skinny self off the bed.

He wasn't particularly glad about the day at all. In fact, he had longed abhorred the day since almost twelve hours ago. Reluctant to move out of bed, he amassed all the strength he had in him, just so he could stand up only to fall back onto his bed with a thud. He shut his eyes once again, and in hopes of being able to sleep the day off. But he couldn't. Almost immediately, his phone rang across the dusty room.

"Not now..." Leo groaned. Of all the times phones have to ring, it would always be when you're at most vulnerable. Always while you're doing something that’s most important to you. Never when you’re just sitting there, doing nothing, figuring out a solution to our boredom state. Leo thought, as he ignored the phone and drifted himself back to sleep. He cancelled out the noise in his head and tried to get more shut eye. Eventually, his seemingly epic Battle of Will was lost, when he couldn't stand the ringing phone anymore for the third time already. Forcing himself out of bed, he zombie-walked to his phone, half-heartedly picking it up.

“What..?”

“You ready, bro?” an enthusiastic voice burst into the receiving end of his phone.

“No. I’m not actually.” Leo replied, his voice sounding bored.

“Aww, you’re gonna feel so wrong after we’re done. It’s going to be so much fun. So many awesome, and I mean AWESOME stuff to see and do man. So, see you at 10, at Macks, right?” Andy said. For some reason, he being so enthusiastic over the phone did not appealed to Leo at all.

“Yeah, yeah. Fine.” Leo reluctantly said.

“Oh yeah, don’t forget that disc bro. I really need it, ASAP. K, see ya.” Andy said and hung up.

Andy had been Leo’s best friend ever since he entered Secondary School. He had more friends, but Andy had always been the one he’s very close to. But for all the years of knowing him, he could not understand why the heck he would be so excited over a trip to a local Farm. It’s just a farm. Where animals and people live, helping each other, apparently. But nonetheless, a farm. What’s so special about it? It’s not like as if they were going to the Louvre Museum in Paris, or the Sydney Opera House, or SeaWorld. Leo couldn’t care much for that anyways. He dragged himself to the closet, picked up a fresh towel and hastily made his way to the bathroom, realizing that his urge to pee is now none other than his highest priority of the day, besides the farm.


***

All morning Leo spent his time packing his backpack. He grabbed an extra bottle of water from the kitchen and threw it in. Placed his Nikon D300 Digital SLR camera snuggly into a special compartment of his bag, and even decided to bring a book which he probably won’t ever bother to read. He debated whether he would rather bring along his Playstation Portable or Mp3 player, but eventually decided on the latter, on the count that he’d rather have music blasting through his ears to get through the day in one piece. He checked and rechecked his belongings to ensure nothing was left behind. Like that time when he went out camping for a week, and he left his entertainment devices at home. He barely made out of the forest sane.

Now here’s the thing with Leo. He’s you’re typical City boy. Obsessed with gadgets of the latest kind and surviving in the comfort zone that is the 21st century. So perhaps that might explain his disdain of going to a farm, where he would have to leave the realm of his own comfort zone.

He left home alone, as his parents had already left for work earlier. The walk to the bus stop was fairly short, and he waited for almost 10 minutes for the bus. He placed his headset on his head and hooked it to his ears, as it was designed for. Switched on his Zune Player and saw that Rise Against was the last thing he listened to. Feeling lazy to look for another band, he just pressed play and let the heavy punk riffs of Rise Against blast his ears.

That’s how we’ll know, this is not a test!
We’ll know, this is cardiac arrest!

The song played. That was the only part of the song Leo could grasp, since it was catchy enough to memorize. The rest of the song was a garbling mix of screaming, screeching guitars and pounding drums. He didn’t care. He actually liked it, for the tunes made him feel much away from his apathetic self.