Context: 15yro Xornoth in Mythland

***

"Shut up..." I grumbled to the alarm clock blaring by my bedside. I curled up beneath the covers, clamping my hands over my ears to try and block out the noise for just two more minutes so I could get a little more sleep.

When that didn't work, I slammed the heel of my hand into the ringing device, my palm throbbing after the contact.

But it wouldn't shut up.

"I said QUIET—" I snapped, scrambling blearily up and grabbing the alarm clock, throwing it hard against the opposite wall with a loud thud.

"Well, that was violent."

I glanced up groggily at the new, calm voice, propping myself up onto one of my elbows, rubbing my eyes with my knuckles.

The silhouette of a figure was imprinted against one of my bedroom walls, large antlers spiraling from their skull. Like a bodiless shadow. They were almost 2D, with very little depth to their features...but I could just barely see their lips curled into an amused smirk.

"Says you." I scoffed in return, stifling a yawn with the back of my hand.

"Touche." The shadowy form shrugged, disappearing for a moment as they slid along the ground, like an invisible person were striding across the room and stopping the dim sunlight from reaching the wooden floor.

Suddenly Exor was beside me, their head tilted as they glanced me up and down. 

Yes, Exor. God of all things evil or some shit like that. Sure, yeah, maybe they were sort of evil but hey they help me with my math homework so worth it. Plus, I can't really get rid of them which is weird but what can you do? As long as they continue keeping my grades up and giving me test answers, I couldn't care less.

Well, I suppose it's irritating when they lurk in the corner of my room while I'm trying to sleep but my insomniac ass hardly sleeps anyhow. And on the bright side, when I do sleep, they scare away my sleep paralysis demons. Or they are my sleep paralysis demons and decide once in a while not to torture me. I haven't figured that out yet.

"This is why you don't fall asleep half an hour before you need to wake up for school." They teased. See, proving my point.

Annoyance. That's all that came to mind as I saw their stupid face up close. I reached over to my nightstand, grabbing the first thing I came across (which happened to be my Pythagorean Theorem notebook), before launching it through their head.

The slightly malicious, playful expression on their face instantly dropped into an irritated one. "Rude." they huffed, backing off slightly.

I mocked their tone, throwing the blankets off and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. Stretching, I felt my back pop a few times. Probably from the uncomfortable position I had fallen asleep in, one of my knees draped over the headboard...how I fell asleep like that I have no idea.

Somehow, my alarm clock hadn't broken upon making contact with the wall, laying with a small dent in it on the floor. "Wonderful..." I grumbled, pushing myself to my feet. I still had to deal with that hell every morning.

I didn't bother picking it up off the floor. I was already a few minutes behind my morning schedule because of my attempts to snooze the damn thing.

I ran my hand against the wall, hitting the light switch as I did so, screwing my eyes shut to avoid getting blinded first thing by the yellow light that bathed the room.

School. Yay. Fun. All the sarcastic good words. 

Clothes— right— couldn't show up in pajamas unfortunately— well actually—

I grabbed a hoodie, throwing it over my head. I wore sweatpants to bed, was there really a reason to change out of them? No, no there wasn't. 

Now, time for my worst enemy...

Socks. 

I grabbed the fist-sized bundle from my nightstand where I had thrown them immediately after getting home the day before. I balanced on one leg, trying to force the sock over my foot without falling over.

That failed. 

"ACK—" 

I shrieked as I toppled over onto the shag rug, scrunching my shoulders up as the little loose pieces of yarn-y material practically stabbed into my neck. Itchy. I don't like itchy. I rolled over, lifting my leg into the air to try and get the sock over my heel.

"Having trouble?" Exor asked smugly, leaning down over me, shadow-y braid loosely hanging on their shoulder and dangling towards my face.

"Shut the fuck up." I grumbled, scraping the soles of my feet on the rug to try and simultaneously force the sock on and get rid of the feeling of the fabric on my skin. 

"Xander?" 

My head snapped up as the door to my room opened. I froze mid-scrape, staring at the woman in the doorway. It took me a moment to recognize my mom from the light coming from the hallway, hiding her face. "Uhh—" I started from the floor, glancing around the mess of a room for some sort of excuse despite the fact I hadn't been asked any questions yet. 

Well, yet being the key word here. "Who're you talking to?" She asked moments later, raising an eyebrow. She already seemed prepped for the day; brown hair tied back into a bun out of her eyes. 

My gaze flickered accusingly towards Exor who was still stood over me, glaring slightly at my mom. Little bitch couldn't even take the blame for the fact that I seemed insane. She didn't acknowledge them, per usual. I had come to the conclusion that I was the only one who could see the god a longggg time ago, which also convinced me that they lived perpetually in my head (heh, pErPEtUALLy. Fun word). Disturbing. 

Eh, it'll be fine. 

Wait shit I didn't answer her—

"I was talking? No I wasn't. You didn't hear anything." I said, blinking a singular time to show that I was telling the truth. Which I wasn't. Why I connected blinking and the truth I have no idea. Wait no, blinking was lying— or was it? Was blinking lying or was looking to the side lying? Or was both? Or was neither? Or was— I'm getting a little offtrack, aren't I? 

"Uh huh..." Mum began slowly, narrowing her eyes skeptically. "Well, it's nearly six fifteen and—"

"Oh shit it is??" I asked, snapping to attention (a rare occurrence) and up to my feet. 

The trolley came at six thirty— And I had to walk to the stop— Oh god was I screwed—

"Language." She scolded. "But yes, it is so you should proba—"

A mesh of random noises exploded from my mouth as I darted out of the room, just barely avoiding running straight into her and narrowly missing the doorframe, my socks half on. I nearly slipped on the tiles, which would have resulted in me falling flat on my face and knocking my teeth out. 

I snatched my bag off of the dining room table, stuffing crumpled pages of half-finished homework from the night before that I had "promised myself that I'd finish by waking up early today" into the front pocket. 

From the counter I grabbed an orange— before I immediately put it down. They made my teeth feel weird. So I grabbed a bag of chips instead. Potatoes were vegetables, they counted—

I also grabbed gum so that I could skip the brushing-my-teeth step that would have eaten up even more of my miniscule amount of time. 

"Xander, don't forget your inhaler." Mom called, tossing something through the air from down the hall. I nearly fumbled it, before stuffing it into the side pocket of my backpack meant for a water bottle. 

Did I bring a water bottle to school? No. It's called bubblers and dehydration.

"Thanks!" I called back, next scrambling for my shoes. The laces were undone, the backs still squished by my heel, but I had zero time to fix that. "Love you, see ya—" I said, giving mum a quick side hug, which earned me a noise of disgust from Exor still hanging around, and grabbing the extra set of keys from a hook by the door in case she and dad were out by the barn when I got back so I wouldn't get locked out. 

Before she could reply I was out the door, kicking it shut from behind me and jumping down the concrete steps leading up to the porch. 

Immediately after landing on the sidewalk however, I was absolutely whipped in the face. 

"OOPS!" A voice I very much recognized shouted, followed by a laugh that showed no regret. A newspaper fell to the ground, leaving my nose stinging.

I glared as Killian continued down the street, grinning at me from his bright red bicycle. Damn paper boy. "I HAVE SECOND PERIOD WITH YOU, YOU CAN'T HIDE!" I shouted after him, only for him to flip me off before his golden hair disappeared around the street corner. 

I grumbled to myself, leaning down to pick up the paper. Sure, my dad paid a few silver coins for these every month but I could probably get it back to him tonight before he even noticed I yoinked it. 

"Your nose is bleeding." Exor deadpanned, hands folded behind their back as their image played across one of the dying trees along the street. They seemed amused. "Maybe you should get your dad to teach you how to catch." 

This dude should be glad I can't beat their omnipresent translucent ass. 

"Yeah, no shit." I scoffed, brushing my nose with the back of my hand, seeing scarlet. "And don't remind me." 

"Well—" 

"OH GOD THE TROLLEY, RIGHT—" I started, cutting them off as I remembered. I bolted down the street, opposite the way Killian had been peddling. I swear if I missed it for the second time this month, I was going to murder something. Preferably myself. 

Shit, shit, shit, shit this was not good. 

I sprinted, nearly tripping several times on my loose shoelaces and onto the road. The rails the trolley rode on were clean, which meant it had most likely already rolled through here.

My chest burned by the time I had arrived at the stop...only to see the trolley already on its way several dozen feet down the street. Could I make it? Probably not. Was I going to try to? Hell yeah.

I continued running, ignoring Exor's antagonizing drawl about how I was going to fall flat on my face. The back of the cart was open, no walls— just a little further and I could jump onto the platform and catch a ride without anyone knowing I was there. 

Without a second thought I had thrown myself up, the inside of my feet scraping against the platform of the trolley raised a couple of feet off of the ground. I nearly screamed, reaching wildly for the metal poles holding the roof of the small vehicle up. I nearly lost my grip but thank god I didn't, or I would have fallen flat on the cobblestone road on my back. 

"HAH, YES!" I exclaimed triumphantly, pulling myself fully onto the trolley floor. 

"That wasn't nearly as entertaining as I thought it would be." Exor complained, draping themself along the railing that encircled the sides of the trolley platform. Railings even I didn't dare climb over to get inside of the actual trolley— I'd have to deal with standing on the few inch-wide edge on the outside of the railing. 

"Oh shut up." I said, hooking my arm around one of the supporting metal poles to stop myself from falling. My lungs were still constricted, breath coming in in a wheeze. I don't think I needed my inhaler this time— It would be a pain trying to reach it in my bag while also trying not to fall.

Instead I took the newspaper from my sweatpants' waistband where I had stuffed it while running, unfolding it. I needed something to do on the forty-minute trolley ride. 

Big bold words were spread across the top of the page.

ELVEN KING AND QUEEN ONCE AGAIN ABSENT FROM ANNUAL MEETING

For the third year in a row King Rohan and Queen Pandora have decided to remain unrepresented in the Annual Meeting held in Eastvale, The Grimlands, after the incident in the March of 10,006 where their only son, Prince Scott—

I didn't bother reading further. 

With a scowl I tore the paper down the middle (so much for bringing it back home to dad tonight), right in the center of the picture printed beneath the article. A picture of Rohan, Pandora and Scott at the meeting the day he had gotten punched and knocked out a few years previously. Or something like that.

Pompous brat probably deserved it. 

I let the shreds fall to the street, glaring at them as the trolley continued on, leaving them in the dust. 

I caught the smallest of smirks playing across Exor's face. They were watching me intently, eyes narrowed in both amusement and... hm. 

"What?" I snapped, turning my glare to the shadow of the god. 

"Oh...nothing." They grinned, eyebrows quirking upwards the slightest with their twisted smile. 

I rolled my eyes. They were always vague. Always. 

Whatever. I could already tell today was going to go to shit. 

***

'It'll be fine is Teen Xornoth's whole aesthetic- 

Unfortunately for Teen Xornoth, it was not fine 

It was in fact very horrendously not fine' -Digo

I FINALLY FINISHED IT

I STARTED THIS ONESHOT IN SEPTEMBER

I WROTE 75% OF IT YESTERDAY/TODAY 

SOB

PROCRASTINATION WAS AT A 12/10

BUT HEY, IT'S DONE

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

AND IF YOU WANNA SEE A PART TWO