Damian dragged his body out of bed. His mind spinning as he recalled the events of the previous day.

So I got expelled, I have superpowers, and I almost died at training. Well at least I don’t have school today.

He walked to the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge searching for something to eat. He couldn’t find anything so he looked in the freezer.

Icecream it is then…

He put the tub on the bench and started scooping large blobs into a bowl with a soup ladle. He placed the tub back into the freezer, and then walked back to the bench to grab his icecream, noticing a piece of paper with a list of things on it.

Wait, why is there a list of chores. Seriously, mum.

Damian rolled his eyes seeing that, and sat down to eat. As soon as he finished, he strolled back into his room and switched on his console. The monitor lit up instantly and he flicked over to play his favorite first person shooter. As the game began to load. He went back down to the kitchen and found a pack of Pringles and some chocolate, took them to his room, and got straight back into playing, snacking in between games. He glanced at the clock after winning an online game.

Seriously, its’ three o’clock and I haven’t even done anything. I’d better do the chores because mum will notice if they’re not done, I’ll leave the school for later.

Damian began to work the chores as fast as he could, and just managed to finish them before having to run out the door to make it to gym on time.

Damian started the session feeling good, but as it went on longer he started to feel sick, and he couldn’t focus at all.

At one point he was feeling so sick he lay down flat on his back on the floor, and his coach walked over and said, “Damian, What you eat?”

He knew straight away that was the reason, but he didn’t really know what to say, “I ….. I ate chips, chocolate, and icecream,” he said.

Olga replied, “now you feel sick, next time eat food.”

“Okay” said Damian, and he pushed through the agony as every moment felt like torture, even though he was operating so far below where he usually would be.

As Jackson said goodbye to him he told him, “What would be a really good idea would be to use this time to think through your life, to find the good and the bad parts, to dream about what’s possible. I’m sure you know that most people don’t even start touching the boundary of what’s humanly possible.”

Damian nodded his head as he walked out of the gym.

Whatever, he’s fun to be around but he talks way too much.

Still feeling sick he trudged on home, but by the time he’d arrived he started to feel better again. As soon as he got home he showered and jumped straight back into his gaming, locking the bedroom door and putting on headphones so his mum would have no idea what was going on. When he felt his eyes begin to close, he checked the time and realized that it was three am in the morning.

I don’t really have a reason to go to bed… Wait the orb, its been a day, so according to the dream I had, I should be able to get back in to the Dreamscape. Let’s see what happens.

He grabbed the orb from his dresser, and fell into bed. Clutching the orb tightly, he drifted off into a restless sleep.

Damian woke well past ten the next morning, still feeling exhausted, but disappointed that he didn’t have any dreams in the Dreamscape. He was confused.

Was that just a crazy dream I had, and this orb is exactly what it looks like, a solid metal ball. Or maybe it’s real, but it’s on a timer, or maybe it’s broken. It could be because I got woken up last time.

Staggering out of his room, he went to the kitchen. He found some food in the fridge, and ate it while he headed back to his room to spend more time gaming. As it drew nearer to one o’clock, he began to get bored of gaming, so he switched over to watching Netflix while eating his lunch.

When he looked at the time next, he realized that he had to do the chores now, or his mum would realize that he hadn’t done them. So he grabbed the broom and swept the house quickly not even bothering to do the corners because he knew that mum wouldn’t notice.

Seriously, I won’t have time to go to parkour tonight. I guess I’ll just go on Thursday.

He smiled as he looked at the clock. It only took him an hour as he did the quickest, dodgiest cleaning ever seen, and then had some chips to relax afterward. He jumped back on his console and was still playing when his mum came in at eight pm. He went out and ate dinner, and the returned to his room and played for hours, before finally going to bed.

He sat on the corner of his bed staring at the orb, hoping that the dream he had the other day wasn’t just something he dreamed up in his head.

I really just want to see Dad again.

As morning rolled around again, he rubbed his bleary eyes and he realized that he didn’t dream in the Dreamscape again. Frustration filled him as he grabbed the orb, ready to hurl it onto the floor, but pulled himself back as he realized that wouldn’t help anything and would probably damage it. He checked out the outside of the sphere, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He gave up and started binge watching some anime. He got about ten episodes through Dragon Ball Z before he started to feel really hungry and wandered out of his room to find some food.

He realized that his mum hadn’t left any chores to do around the house today. So to celebrate he grabbed some chocolate, and some crackers from the cupboard and went back to his room. He just sat there and watched for the rest of the day.

After finishing Episode 20, he glanced at the time and leaped up. He had to run to gym so he wouldn’t be late. Arriving at the gym, out of breath, sweaty, tired, and ready to go home, he began warm-up with almost no energy. Olga was not impressed when he arrived. His training session went much the same as Monday’s, and by the end his team were done with it. As training was finishing up, Jackson walked over to Damian and said, “if you don’t pull yourself together, and put in the work, there’s no way we will qualify for nationals. We are all depending on you, but you’re the one who has to want to make the change. You control your decisions and choices, we can’t force you, you have to want it.”

Damian walked home exhausted, but went straight to bed. He decided he would make a change the next day.

He woke up the normal time he would for school did the chores, and did a tiny bit of his school, but then quickly got distracted by Tiktok. He ate better, but still felt a bit lethargic in the afternoon but he forced himself to walk to the gym for a makeup class.

The next day he pushed himself to his limits all day, with school, training, and eating right.

Jackson came over as he was leaving, “Great job Dame, you killed it tonight, we’re all proud of you for making a decision and following through.”

Damian smiled as he headed out into the fading sunlight.

This hurts but it feels so good. We even trained slightly longer than usual.