The Earth After Rebirth

Saanvi rolled her eyes. She liked wearing her glasses at home. She\'d wear contacts anywhere else though. As advanced as their technology was, they still hadn\'t been able to cure bad eyesight.

He invited them in, and quickly called Hiro, to tell him that Saanvi was in his house. 6 minutes later, the door bell rang, he opened it while laughing.

He ran all the way! 6 minutes when it should have taken him 10!

"For your sake you better hope this isn\'t a prank, I\'ll smack you!" Hiro entered, as he was about to close the door, Yuri showed up as well with Isao.

\'Okay, full house.\'

He walked into the lounge, Isla had already introduced herself to his family. And was actually telling them that he was class president. It slipped his mind, his mom gave him an ice cold look.

"The girls in class say they voted for him because he was handsome! Unreal!" Hiro said shaking his head.

"He never even bothered to tell us."

"Slipped my mind I swear!" He prayed that his friends didn\'t let slip about his and Isaac\'s situation.

"But of course my baby boy is very handsome. Now that he has money, girls will flock to him no doubt!" Freya said, ignoring his son all the same.

"Ma! Dad, your wife is doing it again. Please do something!"

Sekani was taking a break from working, on Kiro\'s orders. He simply shrugged in defeat. And mumbled \'take it like a man.\'

Kiro ushered his guests to the home theatre before he was embarrassed any further. While texting Nikolai, telling him they\'re at his house and he gave him his address, in case he wanted to come there.

"Don\'t you want a new phone?" Freya asked astounded that her son didn\'t buy himself a new phone.

"The one I have works just fine."

"But when we bought that one, it was the cheapest one. I\'m sure it\'s not that great." She complained.

"That\'s why I\'m keeping it Ma. If it dies, I\'ll buy a new one."

Kiro was the sentimental type through and through, he didn\'t like to admit it but he was. This phone was very special to him, his parents bought it for him when they had nothing. It was more valuable than the most expensive phone in Sanctauri.

Freya smiled and shook her head. She knew her son, but not to this extent. She felt emotional and just wanted to hug him but didn\'t want to embarrass him, so Kiro hugged her first.

She didn\'t let go so easily though, which made Kiro regret taking the initiative to hug her first.

"Oh by the way mum, if there\'s a Nikolai and Felix at the gate, please let them in."

He was finally let go and so he entered the home theatre. The screen stretched from one corner of the wall to another. The chairs were plentiful enough. They were also leather and very comfortable to sit on.

"So, what do you guys want to watch?" Kiro looked around and his eyes fell on Yuri.

"Old films!" Hiro quickly said. He was a great fan of old films, he thought they were genius.

"Yeah old films are great." Saanvi agreed.

"But don\'t they have a super bad resolution, 32k was it?" Ishaan countered.

"It\'s still watchable." Isla countered.

"Isn\'t Yuri too young to hang with us?" He whispered to Hiro.

"She is, but I don\'t know. She\'s quite stubborn, she\'ll turn 14 next month but she seems to think she\'s already at academy level." He whispered back.

This was totally unplanned. But the first row had Yuri and Ishaan but seated far apart, the third row had Hiro and Saanvi who were closer to each other, the last row had Kiro and Isla.

Kiro put on a film, its genre was horror, he quickly went to get snacks, when he passed them around he noticed that Loki had snuck in.

He was seated at the front next to Yuri. Kiro sighed but didn\'t say anything. Everybody had to share with whoever they were sitting with.

What was unbelievable about all this was the fact that, Hiro was actually talking to Saanvi. His ears, even from all the darkness, were red.

Kiro looked at him with eyes full of pride, \'my boy has grown so much.\'

The film was pretty violent. At one point, Isla was so frightened she unknowingly held Kiro\'s hand tightly. He looked at her, she looked at him.

Kiro swallowed and nodded. So she didn\'t let go of his hand, until the light announced the end of the movie. There was no longer a chair between them, Isla had occupied it.

"More movies!" Loki yelled from the front.

"Your brother is really cute." Isla chuckled.

They were very different from each other, not just looks their personalities as well. Kiro looked more like his father and acted like a bit of both from the impression she got meeting them. Loki looked more like his mother and acted well, like none she\'d ever seen.

"He\'s the perfect example of a kid from the slums, rebellious and all."

His phone rang and it was Nikolai.

"We\'re at your gate."

"Then enter?"

A couple of minutes later they were here. Felix looked as tired as always but also quite relaxed.

\'Does he even sleep?\'

They seated themselves on the second row, his mum came in bringing more snacks for them. This was the paradise Kiro hoped for, for his family. He wanted to freeze this moment forever.

They watched 2 films back to back, one action and one romance. Kiro wasn\'t a fan of films so he was already burnt out from watching so much in a short amount of time.

They were walking out of the theatre when Nikolai gave him a dirty look.

"Hey, I know I know, but there\'s still a lot to be done around here. We have 2 weeks out there\'s still plenty of time, it\'s my birthday in 3 days and—"

"What?" They all said at the same time.

"Leader why didn\'t you say so?"

"Ki, how could you hide this from us?"

They made it out like it was a huge deal. Kiro didn\'t see what the big deal was, it was just a birthday. Then he remembered that they were from completely different worlds.

While kids from the lower treat birthdays like they\'re just another day, upper kids throw the biggest of parties.

Especially when one was turning 17. Kiro stood there embarrassed, Loki had his eyebrow raised. The kids from the slums were all dumbfounded at the others excitement.