It was what you would call a “normal” day at Charlie's house. Charlie was a 13-year-old boy, with curly brown hair, a loose face, and a bright personality. He was chilling on the small white couch, covered with stains that were once present. He was working on his Sudoku while snuggling with a small West Highland White Terrier he named “Toby” after thinking about it for a few months. Toby had short hair that was messy and everywhere. Toby was sleeping, resting his head on Charlie’s arm. Charlie was in a black NASA t-shirt and partially ripped jeans. 

Now, despite Charlie chilling on the couch, there was chaos in the background. Not only does Charlie have a sister and a cat and a dog, but rather that they were crammed in a small farmhouse near the edge of Melom, California. The outside of the house was painted with a grand red and outlined with white supports. A large brick chimney was looming over the house right in the center, sort of like a design fail. The large, black, glossy roof was weathered down to what was then a long black tile. It was as if it was just one large piece of wood, painted black and then dropped onto the house. The family had a large, gravel driveway, leading out to a small white mailbox. 

“CHARLIE!!!” a voice ripped through the house, obvious that it was coming from the high-pitched voice of Sadie, Charlie’s sister.

“What is it?” Charlie replied in a sleepy tone, but still trying to add a bit of energy to it.

“I need to... PLAY WITH YOU!!!” Sadie replied, screaming at the top of her lungs that the small Westie jumped up and started to sprint around the house.

“Not now…” Charlie replied, getting up to chase after Tony.

“But… CHARLIEEEEEEE…” Sadie moaned, her voice starting to collapse in on itself.

“Sadie, I played with you yesterday for two hours and made you an ice cream sundae. You really owe me something after all this time.” Charlie spat back at Sadie. “Also, I need to prepare for the big thing at school tomorrow.”

“You mean the dance?” Sadie blurted out, looking at Charlie with a disapproving look.

“Yeah, look, this is my first big school event. If I can finally have a good day at school then that would be amazing. So I need to rest so I have the energy to dance for three hours and party like a champ.” Charlie replied, going slow but expressing how much he wanted to be left alone.

“But Charlie-” Sadie started.

“No.” Charlie blurted out before she could finish her sentence.

“Fine…” Sadie darted back at Charlie, “I guess I’ll go play with Lucy.” Sadie added on mockingly.

“Nobody likes that musty old cat, the eyes are like a freak show waiting to happen.” 

Lucy was a small black cat, with two different colored eyes. The right one blue and the left one yellow. It was sort of like someone’s soul was trapped inside that cat, always getting into mischief and having a sort of devilish life to people. Obviously, Sadie didn’t care much about that and always hugged Lucy, keeping her in her arms almost all the time.

Charlie ran around the couch a few times, trying to catch Toby. Charlie jumped forward and grabbed Toby by the behind and tugged him in. Charlie stumbled up while Toby wiggled around. 

“Wow…” Charlie moaned towards Toby. Toby barked at Charlie twice and hoped out of Charlie’s arms. “I don’t really care at this point…” Charlie added on leaning back towards the couch. Charlie walked back over to the couch to find a small selfie of what he called “the gang”.

It was right by D & D’s Ice Cream Parlor, with all the colorful and wacky decorations spread around. Two large glass windows served as the doors, with little handles stuck on them to swing it open with ease. Rainbow wires, doodles, and wacky images surrounded the local parlor. Then, you have the gang, and how the picture was amazing.

In the far left of the selfie was Kate, with her long orange hair pulled tightly into a bun and dotted freckles made her, well, herself. She was diffidently the fashion diva of the group and was wearing something that was so unique nobody really knows what it’s called. But it kinda looked like a dress. Next to her was Ian, full of his messy brown hair and goofy personality. He was voted class clown two years in a row because of his wide selection of shenanigans. Ian had his right arm extended to Charlie, right in the middle of it all. Charlie was busy looking at Mary, with cookies and cream ice cream on her face, splattered on than none other than Ian. Mary has long blonde hair and a semi-stern face. She was still smiling and laughing though, just a bit annoyed with Ian for the ice cream thing, just giving him a “seriously” look. And in the far right was Mateo. He was sort of quiet, but when he gets comfortable he’s just like one of them. In this photo, he was smiling, just posing for the selfie. His arm was extended forward so he could snap the selfie.

Charlie gazed at this photo for a few moments, and then took his phone out of his pocket.

“Well, it’s time for bed…” Charlie said in an emotionless voice, talking to himself. Charlie laid down on the couch, tired from Sadie constantly nagging at him all day. He slowly closed his eyes and began to think.

Tomorrow will be a great day, he thought. I’ll have a normal day at the dance, win the raffle, and nothing will go wrong.

Boy, how he was mistaken about that...