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    Chapter 15

    tab "Rise and shine, Tim! New day, more things to do..." I blink, and look up. Tom's slapping me on my side, serving as my physical alarm clock.
    tab I sit up, and make a long, well earned stretch. I stare at the body tossed prints left on the sofa. When did I even fall asleep? I shake the thought away, and ask Tom yet another important question, with a yawn mixed in somewhere with it,
    tab "What time is it?"
    tab "5:30," Tom says, not bothering to comfirm it by looking at a clock or something. Me not being the most happy early bird, I'm a little upset at this news.
    tab "Five-thir--" Tom quickly interjects, making sure to calm the waves before the storm hits,
    tab "We need to get up early to eat before my mom or the...other me notices us. You...are hungry, right?" Hungry? The last time I ate...was at lunch in 2009...three years from today.
    tab Simply put: yesterday.
    tab "Yes," is my simple, immediate, and definite answer. Tom smiles, says nothing, but implies that I should follow him upstairs.
    tab Which...is easier said than done, seeing one of my legs is broken. My left leg is fine, though, so eagerly, I hip hop up the stairs on my one leg, and finally make it up the stairs, about two minutes after Tom.
    tab Is this what it's like to be old?
    tab Getting a bowl of Frosted Flakes cereal seems normal enough. And yet now there's the fact that I'm some sort time traveling secret agent who's leg got broken by another time traveling secret agent. And so I have to bunny hop around on one leg, and try not to get caught by the very people we're trying to save as we prowl around the kitchen cabinets at 5:30 a.m.
    tab Fun times!
    tab As I sit there at the table, I feel hungry...tired...almost regretful. I, again, wonder if me, a regular 15 year old kid from a regular high school who attends a regular track group, should be some superhero from the future. Is it all right that I'm doing this?
    tab "Hey! Tim!" I look up. Tom's already finished his toast. But it also helps that he has two working legs. "Thought you said you were hungry! You gonna finish that or not? Soggy cereal tastes...well, bad." I lift my spoon up, nod, and start slurping down my Frosted Flakes.
    tab "Hey! Tom! Wake up!" There are two Tom's. One's standing in front of me, so it doesn't take long for me to deduce that Tom's mother is waking up Tom the younger.
    tab Which means they'll both soon be downstairs.
    tab Crap. See, bad things happen when people wake up too early.
    tab Tom "the older" and I push back into a tight corner of the kitchen. I watch a wuick, new scene unfold as Tom the younger, five minutes later, is storming downstairs, with his bouncing bellied mom crashing down behind him.
    tab "You got all your homework?" No reply as Tom picks up his back pack in an exaggerated "I don't care about the world" style.
    tab "No breakfast?" Tom ignore her as he storms towards the door and thrusts it open.
    tab "Good bye, Tom! I love you!" The door slams behind Tom, and his mother is left with a short burst of air sending her hair flying. She stands there for a second, just looking at the door. I don't know what's going on in her head. Is she mad at Tom? Sad? Forgiving?
    tab She turns around, and walks toward the kitchen, fixing herself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. I look to Tom the older, who is in a temporary black out as far as I can tell with his blank face. He looks up at me, and snaps out of it, saying quickly,
    tab "We got to go. School's starting soon." And with one last glance at Tom's mother, staring blankly at her bowl of cereal, I hop into my wheel chair.
    tab And then I'm off. Again.