7:59 am.
The Stone Residence.
Occupants: 3 and a dog.
Identities: Mr. Gordon Stone,
Mrs. Frida Stone
and, of course, the boy by the name of Kenneth Stone.
It is an odd thing being, well, endowed with Ken's very unique gift.
The time was, well...
About 1 minute before he often woke up.
That was the time.
7:59 am.
And as for Ken...
Well, it is a pretty weird thing.
The fact of the matter was... that he was utterly and fully awake.
It is a strange thing...
Having his...
"Gift"
After all, while his eyes were closed, his "eyes" were fully open.
8:00 am.
The phone alarm started to ring...
That much was obviously going to happen.
Why wouldn't it?
But for the boy by the name of Kenneth Stone... that much was fully unnecessary.
It was a strange relationship he held with his phone.
For whatever reason it had become more like an accessory and less like what most teens would use.
For example, because of his bionics, his own brain could easily set up an alarm for him.
That was just one of the many perks of being the boy by the name of Kenneth Stone.
And because of that, well...
Even as he did open his eyes up, he wasn't moved or bothered.
Nope.
He'd known better and better...
That that was just the way things were.
After all, if his phone didn't have an alarm sounding...
This teenage boy had a simple mission every school day.
Get to school.
And that... was surprisingly easy, after all, he had help.
Voice: Rise and shine!
That would be his father...
The man by the name of Gordon Stone.
A fit, athletic and tall man...
Much more imposing than what most people would imagine of a travelling businessman living in the suburbs.
And that was that... to say nothing of his surprisingly jolly personality.
After all, it was for that that he was most well known for.
Ken turned his phone alarm off...
Sat up, stretched slightly, and then pondered for only a moment...
What was next?
8:01 am.
It wasn't as though he couldn't have woken up earlier...
After all, it was pretty obviously something he could do.
But that remained unnecessary.
He looked in the direction of the door.
In his ears, he could hear it...
Murmurs...
Those coming from his mother.
He knew what it was probably about.
"Your suit is ready."
"I'll have breakfast done in a jiff."
Or some kissy kissy stuff that he wouldn't want to be a part of.
That was just them...
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And of it, it was no big deal.
The Stone household had a modus operandi to its dealings.
It was pretty simple.
The first of them all to leave the room was most always his mother, Frida Stone.
The reason?
To get breakfast ready.
That was the first step.
In a few minutes he'd hear her walking downstairs...
Her footsteps, to be precise.
And as for his father, well...
He'd stay in the room...
Doing...
Well, he was never exactly sure, but he was indeed doing something...
And that left, yep.
The showers.
It had long since been decided that the Stone family's son would always be the first to have a shower.
At least on school days...
That was the deal.
He pulled himself out of bed as he always would.
Somewhat sluggishly.
Say what one would about the boy by the name of Kenneth Stone, but school?
Honestly...
He was never its biggest fan.
Being bionic came with some interesting perks...
8:03 am.
Like timing himself...
He could guess how long he'd have to wait before something happened.
For example, getting his towel and heading to the shower took about a minute or two.
And taking a shower?
Invariably 2 to 5 minutes...
Depending on a lot of things...
Even still, based on how things go, how long it would take to get to school...
And also, he never actually needed to check on his phone's text messages.
After all, he could access all his chats mentally.
And so, as he took a shower, he could see...
Who spoke and who did not.
8:04 am.
And of it...
Radio silence.
Good.
As a matter of fact, that check wasn't even necessary...
Or rather, it just wasn't.
Because Ken could access them...
Any day, any week, any month, any moment...
Anything...
That was the life of the boy by the name of Kenneth Stone...
The boy who could see anything if he even so chose to...
Read anything if he ever wanted to...
Heck, he could even start an international incident if he really wanted to.
But, luckily for the planet, Kenneth Stone lacked such interests.
8:06 am.
A mediocrely fast shower...
That was fine.
He preferred it...
Quick, crisp showers...
And came out of it, walking by the hallway, only to meet his father on the way.
Clad in a single white shirt and black pants...
Gordon: Morning son!
He was walking as he always would...
With a jolly step behind his back...
And, as a matter of factly, he raised his hand, for a reason Ken had grown oh-so used to.
Ken: Morning, dad.
And of it, he high-fived his son.
It was a loud smacking sound that rose from it.
That was just him.
And he wasted no time in immediately moving on downstairs...
Without skipping a beat...
That was his dad...
Kenneth Stone had grown all too used to that.
However, he would be lying if he said he minded it.
And as for him, he nonchalantly walked right back to his room to get dressed.
This, by far, was the least stressful stretch of his Monday mornings...
Getting dressed...
That was actually the easy part.
And of it, Ken always settled for the simplest of clothes.
A white shirt, blue pants or khakis...
And also, a green jacket.
That was his get-up.
Not too flashy, but also, comfortable enough.
8:08 am.
The Stone household's next agenda was almost always this.
Breakfast.
And of that breakfast, a family breakfast.
He knew this well.
Gordon Stone would always come down stairs to eat with his family...
His mother would microwave/prepare whatever she had planned for them that breakfast...
And as for Ken, well...
He and he himself would simply get downstairs to join them.
At this he sighed...
8:09 am.
Finding his clothes in his wardrobe was never a big deal.
The fact of the matter was this...
His mother and himself had always managed to keep his room looking tidy...
Not that they worked together, or that his mother cleaned up after him, but rather...
That Kenneth Stone simply wasn't an especially messy guy.
After all, his room, even without his own mother's intervention, was cleaner than most his age.
But, every once in a while, she would pop in, organize some clothes, do some folding, and et cetera.
That was just part and parcel of being Frida Stone's son...
Not that Ken especially minded it.
And of it, he easily found his clothes hanged up in the wardrobe.
Exactly his style...
8:10 am.
And with that, he was completely dressed up.
Clean clothes...
Clean body...
Clean smile...
Yes, he did actually take some time to look himself in the mirror...
His room just so happened to have a big one not too far from his bed.
And after that, he picked up his phone, all the while dealing with anything else that needed sorting out.
The phone was just an accessory.
A toy.
Kinda like how some people carry things just for the sake of it.
After all, what could his phone do that he couldn't, other than, well, be a phone?
He could hack into it, play games on his phone without even touching it...
Heck, he could blow it up if need be.
That...
... was the very life lived by the phone owned by the boy by the name of Kenneth Stone.
A strange existence.
And of that, he went on to the next part of his agenda...
His books...
And of them, he gathered the ones he knew he'd need pretty quickly.
Ken: (thinking: Maths, Biology and Chemistry.)
That was no big deal.
He gathered them all up, placed them in his bag...
8:11 am.
... and went downstairs.
This was where the real start of his morning began.
Frida: Morning sweetie!
He was just about downstairs when he heard her call...
Ken: Morning!
It was his mother.
She was a chirpy woman... quite a bit shorter than her husband.
In fact, she was about her son's height then...
Actually, a bit shorter...
But, perhaps opposites don't attract, because Ken knew his mother for her utterly chirpy behavior.
Frida: I've almost got breakfast ready!
Ken: Ok.
He would then get ready to join them, seating himself at the diner table...
And, of course, her husband was right there...
His father...
Waiting on her on the table.
Gordon: Mmmh! Mmmh! Mmmh! And it smells good!
Frida: Oh, you!
The scent smelled of eggs...
Omelet to be precise, to say nothing of the scent of tea in the air, already prepared.
It was black tea, sure.
But as for Ken, his mother had made him hot chocolate.
That was just her.
And of it, Ken would then take a seat down next to his father.
The dining table was round and about average-sized.
The kind of table that would seat about six people.
There was a kind of wisdom in buying it.
Space enough that they wouldn't be apart if they all sat down.
And also, room for a guest...
Plenty, in fact...
And of it, no member of the family was not seated next to another.
An odd kind of beauty.
Ken sat down, as his father immediately started...
Gordon: You ready for school, son?
This was an easy question.
Ken: Yes.
Gordon: That's good. You do know what's going on today, right?
Ken: Yep.
It wasn't something Ken was looking forward to at all.
And honestly, his father never asked because he assumed he'd forgotten.
Nope.
Say what one would about Gordon Stone, but that man had full faith in his son's intellect.
Gordon: Good! Now don't forget your sports shoes.
Ken: I haven't.
He'd already packed them into his backpack.
This guy was prepared.
8:14 am.
Frida Stone finally arose from the kitchen.
Two omelets at hand...
And a smile on her face.
The omelets were huge...
The kind that took about five eggs to eat.
And she came in just as Gordon was about to do what all dads do...
Eventually...
The legendary, Chronicles Of The Father.
It's a series of dastardly tales...
One of a man conquering all...
To become a beast.
Every dad does this...
Every...
