"Perry, time to get up, the bus won't wait," Aunt Rhonda called from downstairs. "Get washed and come get some breakfast."
Perry dragged himself out of his bed and into the bathroom. His birthday was in early September, so sometimes it came before school started, sometimes literally on the first day of school, but this year it had been conveniently on the Saturday before school started, and since it was his 16th birthday, it had been a BLAST. In fact, the party had lasted several days, if you counted the outings with friends, the all-night Saturday night game and movie fest, the Sunday 'family dinner', and the Monday trip to the go-kart track... a BLAST of a weekend. People turned up to wish him happy birthday whom he hadn't seen in years - like his great-aunt Jolene, who had come to the Sunday dinner, and told him she'd arranged her business travels specifically to come celebrate with him.
She'd also left him with several presents, one of which he'd opened immediately, and the other two he wasn't supposed to open until Columbus Day and Thanksgiving! Weird, but she'd made him promise, and since the first present had been so wonderful...
"Perry!" Aunt Rhonda called again, and he snapped out of his daydream and into his 40 inch cargo shorts and XL polo. Before hurrying downstairs, he checked that Great-Aunt Jolene's present was still on his wrist - a bracelet of heavy gold links, with a small panel for his name. She'd given him a small bag of additional links - "in case your wrist gets bigger" - but that he kept hidden. The bracelet made him feel good, even it did seem an odd present for a guy. Aunt Rhonda had pointed out some famous men who wore such bracelets, and Perry was won over.
He gobbled down his breakfast in record time - taking an extra piece of toast - and walked out of the house to the bus stop eating an extra apple. In his backpack was a large lunch, but NO gym clothes - in grade 11 gym class was suddenly optional, and Perry had opted OUT! He was strong, but tubby, and never athletic, and gym class had alternated between boring and painful. Math, chemistry, even history was better than gym.
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