Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Guess Who’s Back (Part 9)

As Don lay in his bed, looking at the prompts, he thought to himself, 'It's not bad, I guess. I wonder if there is a system store like in those novels I used to read.'

He then thought, 'System, store!' hoping something would pop up, but nothing happened. Letting out a sigh, he muttered, "Of course, it's never that easy."

He then shifted his focus to the current objective listed in the prompt, which stated he still hadn't completed the quest regarding creating an avatar. 'I should try and call Donald tomorrow to arrange that,' he thought.

Just as he reached that conclusion, the prompt vanished, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He proceeded to get up from the bed and quickly undressed while reflecting on the day's events.

A lot had happened in such a short amount of time, but he felt he had handled most of the scenarios quite well. Now, he just needed to keep up the same pace going forward. With that in mind, Don let out a tired yawn and walked to his bed, falling asleep completely exhausted from the day's events.

———

The following morning, as Don was sound asleep, he was woken not by an alarm but by the sound of his phone ringing quite loudly.

He let out a muffled groan and muttered, "Five more minutes," but the ringing continued. Reluctantly, he rose from bed and turned his attention to the dresser where he had left his phone.

Letting out a yawn and stretching his arms, he sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the phone. Looking at the caller ID, he saw it read "COR friend," and he immediately picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Predator, sorry if I caught you at a bad time."

Don simply sighed when he heard what he was being addressed as again but didn't let it bother him and quickly replied, "No, not really. I just happened to wake up late today."

"Oh, I understand that," the friend replied before explaining, "The reason I'm calling is I wanted to ask if we could reschedule our meeting for Friday. Some family stuff came up, and I won't be free until then. I'm really sorry if it's an inconvenience."

For Don, who had completely forgotten the event altogether, it wasn't at all an inconvenience. "Oh, don't worry about it. We can meet whenever you're available. And by the way, could you just call me Don from now on instead of Predator?"

"Oh, is that your real name?" the friend asked.

Don immediately answered, "Yes. No point hiding it since we stay in the same city and practically go to the same school."

The friend on the other side, still speaking in a somewhat hoarse voice, let out a laugh and agreed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. It is kind of silly using it. In that case, you can call me Tori."

"Great," Don replied. "So, talk to you later, Tori."

"Alright, goodbye, Don," Tori replied before the call ended.

Once the call was over, Don placed the phone back on the dresser and stood up from his bed before stretching out once again, thinking, 'Wow, that's one less thing I have to do today.'

He then made his way over to the dresser to put on some plain black pants and a clean black long-sleeved T-shirt. After dressing up, he walked out of his room and into the hallway, immediately looking both ways but seeing nothing unusual.

"I wonder what everyone's up to," Don thought as he began making his way toward the bathroom to freshen up. Not wanting to land himself in an awkward position, he made sure to knock but got no answer.

So, he turned the handle, and it unlocked, allowing him to proceed inside. Once inside, he quickly took a piss, washed his face, and brushed his teeth before exiting the bathroom and heading downstairs.

Only then could he hear some light humming coming from the kitchen. "I'm a gothie girl, in a gothieee world." The tune was unfamiliar to him, making him a bit perplexed, but he followed the voice and peeped into the kitchen where he found Samantha happily standing in front of the stove, cooking what looked to be pancakes.

She also looked like she had woken up not long ago, as she was still wearing her night outfit composed of silky light blue shorts with a matching top. She also wore comfy house slippers with bunny ears on them. She seemed particularly happy as she did this, a bright smile on her face.

"Well, looks like she's finally calmed down," Don thought before deciding to reveal himself. "Looks like you slept well," he suddenly commented, causing Samantha to let out a surprised yelp before pulling away from the stove.

"Oh, Donnie!" Upon realizing it was Don, Samantha placed her hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief before asking him in a worried tone, "How long have you been standing there?"

Don gave her a smile before replying, "Long enough to know that you can sing."

Samantha immediately felt embarrassment wash over her as she lowered her hand and awkwardly held the spatula in her hands. "Sorry if I woke you up. I'm just so used to being in the kitchen alone that it's a habit of mine to sing every now and then." Searᴄh the NôᴠeFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Don walked into the kitchen and peeked at what she was cooking before asking, "So when did you become a gothie girl?"

"Oh, heavens, Donnie, please!" Samantha felt like she was about to die of embarrassment as she lowered her head again, her cheeks taking on a slight rosy blush.

"I'm just kidding. You should actually sing more often if it makes you happy. In fact, maybe we should go to karaoke sometime."

"Oh, heavens, no. I couldn't. I'm way too old for that. Maybe you should take your sister."

Don simply laughed it off and replied, "If we went together, some people might think you're my older sister."

Samantha couldn't stop herself from letting out a laugh as she gave Don a small slap on his shoulder. "I wish! Now, if you're done making fun of your poor old mom, why don't you make yourself comfortable? I'll bring you breakfast since we both managed to sleep in."

"Where are Summer and Aunt Amanda?" Don asked as he leaned on the counter and picked an apple from the fruit basket at its center.

"Your aunt went back to the farm early so she could check on her precious chickens, and Summer's in school. Speaking of, when do you guys start classes?"

"Well, she's embraced the mom role pretty quickly on me," Don thought before taking a bite of the apple and chuckling as he replied, "Our classes always start a week after registration, so Monday, I assume. I'll let you know once I get solid confirmation."

"How about you? Dodging work?"

Samantha paused in cooking and looked at Don with narrowed eyes, trying her best not to laugh. "If you must know, I've decided to take leave so I can help you better settle in. Now, go get comfortable. You're being a distraction in here. Shoo, shoo," Samantha said to him as she pointed at him with a spatula.

Don simply raised his hands in defeat, one holding the apple, and began walking away. "Fine, I'll just be in the living room."

"Good," Samantha replied. As Don walked away, she paused cooking once again to just look at his figure leaving with a smile on her face.