That realization was followed by what would have to follow...
That being...
A slow and laborious walk into his wardrobe yet once more.
"Oh boy... this is gonna suck." he thought.
Like an odd kind of gift-giver...
This Monday just gave some more...
And even still...
8:17 am.
Sports clothes.
A pair well washed and well prepared.
It was a matter of factly that the boy by the name of Maximillian Hunter just so happened to be a skateboarder...
And a good one at that.
And so, it may fall to reason that one such as him would have some sort of affinity for sports...
But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Nope.
This teenage boy...
Hated sports...
Ah, Mondays...
The gift that keeps on giving...
After all, even after today...
Sports was right there...
Scheduled...
Ready and waiting...
Every Monday.
Every Monday.
8:18 am.
He laboriously picked up his clothes and placed them in his backpack, making well sure that he was done.
And of it, it was then that his eyes turned around the room to see what else he may have been forgetting.
The way getting to school worked in the Hunter household...
Well, it was simple.
Wake up at 8 am.
Or basically, an hour before whichever or whatever school he was going to started...
And so Max would have quite a bit of time to get ready...
A good thing to be sure...
Mostly because...
It was more than plenty of time for one thing, seeing as Julianne Hunter tended towards homes not too far from her son's own school.
And even still, the boy by the name of Maximillian Hunter...
... was never really late for anything.
He could zip there if the need required it.
And thereof, was the teenager completely unbothered by the concept of being late.
However, as his mother had said and as he himself at some point understood...
... it was usually better to just do the human thing.
Yep.
That was and is the Hunter household law.
And following that law...
The teenage boy was about a few minutes late for breakfast...
Not that it mattered much...
And of that, there was one more thing left that he'd yet to pick up...
That being...
His phone.
It wasn't something he himself had grown to use for texting all that often...
Which would fully explain as to why the teenager paused a mere second before he picked it up...
That being...
Because an odd flood of emotions hit him just as he stretched his hand to pick it up.
After all, when was the last time that this teenage boy...
Had ever had people to text back on a Monday morning...
The simple answer being...
Never...
It was an odd sense of...
One could almost say elation...
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But also, it was an odd sense of dread...
And he knew full-well the reason for that dread.
He grabbed his phone and held it in his hand...
Turning it on...
Watching...
8:19 am.
It was right there.
By technicality, he was a bit late.
And even still, his mother would not allow him that freedom...
Simply going on and ahead...
To just go to school...
Without any sort of order.
That was just her.
And even so, just mothers.
It was then and there that the teenage boy elected to check his texts downstairs...
All the while, as he ate...
After all, he would be absolutely happy to hear from them.
That much...
Was just him.
With that, he turned his phone off, and immediately prepared to dash downstairs...
All the while at a terrific speed.
That was just the way his mornings went down.
And once he did get downstairs...
Max: Morning mom!
Julianne: Morning sweetie.
Julianne Hunter.
8:20 am.
She was already long done with all the preparations for his breakfast...
And was now relaxed upon the couch...
Catching up on some of the Monday morning news.
Max's eyes turned to the breakfast table...
On it, lay a plate of eggs, bacon and cucumber slices.
Say what one would about the Hunter family, but Julianne Hunter would never allow her son to eat unhealthily.
That was just her...
Like some sort of odd agreement every mother came to in some odd form of unison.
After all, she knew full-well that Max would not get out of shape because of that.
Julianne: (singsongy) Breakfast's ready.
That was just her.
Say what one would about Julianne Hunter, however...
She knew better than anyone...
Just how big her son's appetite was.
After all, she was his mother.
And even so, she expected nothing less from him but for him to speed to his meal as he always did.
Max: Thanks mom!
And that he did.
He dashed to the table and immediately yet somewhat uncertainly brought the fork and knife to his hands...
Ready to eat.
Julianne Hunter had long since educated her son on the ways and motifs in eating with a fork and knife...
And so this...
Was something that caught her eye.
This...
Uncertainty...
This...
Oddity.
It was not her son's ever present and fully present loathing of Mondays.
Nope.
Julianne Hunter knew that well.
No.
This was an entirely different feeling...
That much she could tell.
And of it, she kept her eyes on him, albeit somewhat discreetly...
Making sure to sneak a glance here and there.
8:21 am.
Breakfast time à la Julianne Hunter.
Eggs, bacon, cucumber and to top that off, a glass of orange juice.
This was somewhat commonplace in the Hunter household...
Largely being what Julianne Hunter would feed her son.
"The main point," she would say, "is to add meat."
Julianne Hunter had long since decided that a healthy amount of meat was necessary for her son's growth...
And...
As a result...
It was a true rarity that this woman would make him a meal that did not have this piece...
Not that Max ever found himself upset about this.
Nope.
He just enjoyed it as many others would.
And of that meal...
Julianne: Bon appetit... my little superhero.
Max: Moooooooom!
His flustered remark left the mother chuckling to herself.
Yep.
He was still her little boy.
That much was for sure...
And even still, Max did continue...
Max: Thanks for the meal...
And thereafter begin to dig in.
It was a fine piece...
Nothing Max wasn't used to already.
The eggs were fried. Just the way he liked them.
The bacon?
Same.
And even still, pleasantly salted.
As for that stack of cucumber slices, it was freshly cut...
And of the orange juice...
From a carton.
But Max was never one to lose sleep over something like that.
And of it, did he take his first bite...
But not without grabbing his phone...
And placing it next to his plate...
Right on the table.
It was then that it was all too obvious for the teen boy's mother.
Yep.
That was why.
He was anxious to talk to his friends...
And everything considered...
She simply smiled to herself and said in her mind....
"It's just nature taking its course."
After all, why would she imagine anything less?
Max hastily opened the chat with his left hand, while he himself took bites of the bacon with his fork.
Of all the things he could say...
This teenage boy did not dislike the taste of bacon.
8:22 am.
1 week.
In one week, this teenage boy's life was turned completely around.
First, he made friends...
A first...
Next, he sorta became a superhero, in a sense...
To say nothing of him learning of their powers...
And even so, they'd been in his house.
Heck, he'd been in Ken's house.
That was a first.
When was the last time such a thing had happened?
And even still, that was not the most interesting thing on his mind at the moment.
After all, what this teenage boy was looking at now...
Was the sole reason he had to actually look forward to the flames of torment that found themselves to be named Monday.
Max's hatred for this day could not be understated.
Even still, the teenage boy did have yet one thing to look at...
That being what his friends would have, or could have said.
After all, considering what had happened...
Yeah.
Max had quite an interesting set of feelings towards what had happened.
And of those feelings...
He looked to the chat...
And there it was...
Nothing.
Not a word.
It was an odd mixture of feelings...
To some degree, he was weirdly happy that that was the case...
But not because he didn't want to speak to them...
It was rather...
Max then and there turned his phone off and got back to eating...
Julianne also took note of this and simply silently sighed...
Julianne: (thinking: Ah, teenagers...)
It was obvious to her that there was nothing on that chat log.
But she wasn't worried...
After all, that was just how life worked sometimes...
She knew that plenty well.
And of that knowledge...
It was then that Maximillian Hunter got to seriously eating his meal...
To say that he was upset that no one had sent a text was one thing, sure...
But also...
8:23 am.
It was with that that his fork and knife, better than what one would expect from one his age, cut the eggs and bacon finely...
Before he ate them...
With about the same level of grace one would expect from the boy by the name of Maximillian Hunter.
It was...
... oddly beautiful.
And of this meal with a few sips of orange juice here and there, did he leave his mind upon one thing.
His friends.
What was about to happen in school was truly just a venomous snake on top of a venomous scorpion...
Sure...
But that wasn't and given this situation could never manage to be his main concern.
After all, Maximillian Hunter...
Had to see them today.
When he'd last seen them...
They were all happy...
Well, happy enough.
But that was not what his worries fell over.
It was simply this...
Or rather, put simply...
He knew what would have to happen.
Or, at the very least...
He expected the worst.
Julianne Hunter snuck a few more gazes in here and there. She could tell...
Her son was still bothered by what had happened that day.
She knew that much.
8:24 am.
Max was a characteristically fast eater.
The kind that would eat at a pace most people would refer to as...
Barbaric.
Not that he minded...
After all, would such a comment really ever get to him?
Even still, Max knew he had to get on his skateboard and head to school eventually...
And so he ate even faster than usual...
All the while bearing a somewhat worried look on his face.
The food was good though.
That much made the whole thing easier.
8:25 am.
And with that, he was quite almost done.
Just a strip of bacon left...
And an egg strip here and there.
With a few more bites...
He was done with it all.
Even the cucumber.