“You’re going to be late for school Brian” Shona called from the bottom of the stairs. “God what is it with this boy and his sleep” she mumbled to herself as she walked back to the kitchen. The wallpaper was beginning to peel off and the cupboard doors were uneven, all the mechanical devices had gone rusty and wouldn’t work unless you hit it or something. “This kitchen needs to be changed from head to toe” she groaned while trying to stick the bread in the toast machine, “I know love, but you know how things are at work right now” he said as he lifted his head from the Monday paper. “At the moment? For Christ sake Artemis, things have always been like this at your work, can’t you ask for a pay rise? You work a lot you know.” She suggested. It was true he did work hard, harder than all of the other workers actually. “You know I can’t, I asked for one last month, I can’t ask again that would just be down right rude.”
“She’s the one that’s rude the stingy thing” she replied, her voice getting louder and louder.
“hey cool it, I feel sorry for her you know, she’s got no one apart from her dog, every time I see her I realise how lucky I am to have you guys” he said as he walked up to hug her, just looking at her made him shiver all over. “Listen I’ll go wake Brian yeah, that would take one burden off your shoulder” he smiled and moved forward to kiss her.
“That certainly would” she said sarcastically, not returning his kiss. He moved to the stairs, took a deep breath and boomed “BRIAN ARE YOU UP YET!!!” as laud as he could,
“Yeah dad along with the rest of Manchester” Brian replied back. he hated Mondays, he hated getting up early, getting dressed early, having breakfast early, going to school early, basically anything that’s early, he hated it all. “I want to hear the five magic words Brian,” he heard his dad, much quieter this time “I’m...out...of...bed...dad” he tried to shout back at the same time trying to squeeze in to his trousers. It had been ages since he...