“Can anyone tell me why geothermal energy is better than hydropower?” Professor Katz questioned the class. The students either had their heads down, taking notes or were stoically looking down at the professor from their elevated desks. Professor Katz slowly swept his gaze across the class, his neck creaking as his head swiveled, ignoring the eager hand waiting to be called on.

“Mr. Stedfaster!” Marlow jumped up, not expecting to be called on.

“What was the question?” A few snickers echoed through the quiet class as Professor Katz rolled his eyes.

“Mr. Stedfaster, why is geothermal energy better than hydropower energy?”

“Because geothermal power plants are a terrible short-term investment?” Which was met with another eye roll before Katz pointed at the raised hand.

“Because geothermal energy can run as long as there is heat in the earth’s core, unlike hydro energy, since it needs water to generate power.”

“Correct Cindy, since SpaceX is going to colonize Mars, why won’t they use geothermal too.”

“Professor Katz?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“It’s five to nine.” That straw broke the camel's back as hundreds of students simultaneously began to pack their bags.

“Oh, it is! Don’t forget finals are creeping up. I’ll see you all next week when we will go over some questions on the exam!” Katz shouted to the departing students.

Marlow weaved his way through the clustered hallway, filled with mindless chatter. But to Marlow, he had almost made his way to freedom. The doors to the parking lot were in sight; he had almost made it. Until he heard his name.

“Hey Mark, get over here!” Pablo called out, already waving Marlow over.

“It’s Marlow.”

“Sorry, I have a guy named Mark in another class. Listen, Alisa, Hannah, and I were thinking about putting together a study group for this final. Is that something you’d be interested in?” Butterflies flew rampant in Marlow’s tummy. Being called on twice in one day, he might as well have started digging his grave.

“I-I have already joined a study group.”

“Oh really? With who? Maybe we could partner up and have one big study party!”

“Oh yeah, let’s do that. My dad’s away for the weekend. We can do it at my place.” Hannah chipped in, already whipping out her phone.

“We already made plans. It’s a… close-knit group.”

“Ah…, sorry then, guess we’ll see you later.”

“You too.” Hannah chirped. Marlow steadily backed away from the group before he rejoined the flood of students exiting the building. Marlow attempted to commit the lie he’d just told to memory. He hoped that Pablo wouldn’t bring up the subject again the next time they met since all Marlow wanted to do was just go home.

Young adults rushed to their car as soon as they exited the building, attempting to evade the rain as much as possible. Marlow numbered amongst them. Fiddling with his keys as he booked it across the parking lot, he still managed to get completely soaked as he got in his car. It had been a downpour for a few weeks now. Some were thankful, most others less so.

Pulling out his phone to put on some funky tunes, he was greeted by some messages from his sister. He rolled his eyes, and he let out a small laugh.

“I’m home!” Marlow shouted, trying to be heard over the billion drops of rain and sudden deep rumble of thunder. He slammed the door behind him as he took off his coat. Then he grimaced at the puddle at his feet that grew exponentially as he shrugged off his jacket.

He looked around the living room for some of the towels they kept handy. Not finding any towels immediately, he grabbed one of the numerous throw blankets on the couch to dry the pool of water at his feet.

“Welcome home, Mar!” Joy replied from the kitchen. The sound of frying meat hit Marlow’s ears. Taking off his boots, he strolled into the kitchen and waved to his dad downstairs as he passed.

“How was class today, honey?” Mom asked, her back to him as she focused on the pots before her.

“Hi, mom! It was good. We learned about geothermal energy and how power plants convert it into electrical energy!”

Sitting down at the table, he bumped Joy’s outstretched fist. Then, before noticing she was tapping her phone, the classic sibling signaled to check his messages.

Joy- Do you think you can grab me a tiger’s blood slushie on your way back from that one place by Pat’s Pancakes?

Joy- I’ll pay you back.

Joy- please.

You have two missed calls from (Joy)

Joy- PICK UP!

You have six missed calls from (Joy)

Joy- PICK UP!!!

(New) Joy- Btw, Dad’s not in a good mood. Something about one of his co-workers going out of town without notice?

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Avoiding his sister's gaze, which bore into her like a lion watching a gazelle, he stared into the oven. He was trying to figure out what was cooking. Did it look like pizza? No, it's too lumpy to be that. Chicken? No, they still had leftovers from last night.

“Did you get the thing?” Joy inquired, her eyes stabbing holes into Marlow’s head to cut out the information.

“What thing?”

“It’s nothing, mom. Joy wondered if I could pick up something for her on my way home. What’s for dinner?”

“It better not be one of those shakes up at Pat’s that you always get. Those things spoil your appetite. Especially since I put my heart and soul into these roasted cheesy potatoes.”

“I... ugh… didn’t. I was too busy driving to look at my phone.”

“Good! Robert! Dinner’s ready.” Mom smiled, turning around to pull out tonight's meal. As she did, Marlow sent a quick text to his sister.

Marlow- It’s in my truck. U owe me four bucks.

Marlow- me*

He helped his sister clear and set the table and put his phone away. He was folding napkins as their father crested the stairs. They made it seem like they were waiting for him all along instead of just doing it at the last minute, as they had done for over a decade.

After waiting for Dad to sit down, we dug in. I filled the silence with small talk about plans for next week. I found out that Mom had signed Joy and Marlow up for a pottery seminar at the library - to help them ‘get to know’ more people and get out on the dating scene.

Much moaning and groaning later, they cleared the dishes, and the table was prepared for their nightly UNO game. After picking up his dealt cards from his father, Marlow smiled. He’d got one red reverse card, two sevens cards, a green and a blue, and four plus four cards.

“Everyone ready?” His dad uttered and got a nod from everyone at the table. Then, he flipped over the top card of the deck, revealing it to be a blue two. When it touched the table, his dad slammed a red two down.

Marlow tossed a red six onto the pile, passing the turn to Mom. As soon as it landed, Joy played a red seven. The instant she did, Marlow threw his blue seven onto the stack. Hoping that his father didn’t have any blues since he had just played one of the four sevens in the deck, and he was holding the other one.

Unfortunately, fate didn’t smile on him today or any day this week. Because the next thing he knew, his dad had played a plus two card. Then his mom played a plus two card. Her smug look as she played a draw four card and passed to his sister.

Joy turned to her younger brother, looking at him dead as she played another plus two draws on the pile. Meanwhile, Marlow chuckled as he passed the burden onto the next person by playing another draw four card.

To everyone’s surprise, Dad played another draw with two cards. Then, his mother did as well. Then his sister played the last draw of two cards. Much to everyone's chagrin, Marlow played a draw four card, passing the draw twenty pile onto his father.

“Well… shoot.”

That was all his dad said before the table broke out in laughter. After that, the rest of the game slid by, with Joy taking the win by getting into a skipping trade with their father, allowing her to downsize her hand size faster than Mom and Marlow.

Passing the reminder cards back to Dad, Joy took off, heading back to the living room and saying something about finishing an essay for one of her classes. On the other hand, Mom had taken off to put away leftovers. Leaving just Marlow and his dad.

“So, how are your classes?”

“I’m doing good, all A’s and B’s…” He got a particular look from his father. He tried to amend his statement: “Except I have a C in chemistry.”

“I’m not too worried about it. The professor in that class hasn’t finished grading all the assignments. He’s still grading stuff from the midterm.”

“This wouldn’t be the same professor with all those extra credit assignments. Right?” Marlow mentally panicked as his dad straightened the well-worn UNO cards.

“Well, every Wolverines' professor must have at least two extra credit assignments. And since this class is hard, the professor has been extremely lenient with his extra assignments.”

“Is that so? JOY!”

“YEAH!” Joy shouted back from the living room.

“YOU TOOK THE SAME CLASS MARLOW’S TAKING, YOU KNOW, GEOLOGY, RIGHT?”

“YEAH!”

“SO, ARE THERE A BUNCH OF EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENTS IN THAT CLASS?”

Marlow's heart sank. He could feel his blood being pumped through his body. His only saving grace was that his dad was too busy meticulously flipping every card around, so they faced the same way while standing right-side up.

“YEAH! REMEMBER, YOU HELPED ME SPELL-CHECK MY PAPER ON CARBON MONOXIDE!”

“Oh, that’s right.” Instantly, Marlow’s shoulder dropped. He felt relief as the weight of attention moved away from him.

“Have you checked up on the farm today? I know Joy checked on it this morning.” Then, just as quickly as it came, the feeling of peace left even faster. He’d forgotten to check up on the farm on his way home.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Well, do it before the roads get watered down again!” Mom replied, halting her progress. Then, to make her point, she pointed a fork at Marlow before making the shooing motion out the door.

Marlow grabbed his drenched jacket and caught a wink from his sister as he headed out the door. After starting his car, his windshield wipers began the tireless onslaught against the pouring rain. The clouded sky was so dense it snuffed out the sun, leaving streetlights, hologram boards, reflectors, and headlights to help guide Marlow to his destination.

After getting out of his neighborhood, Marlow flicked on his old radio and heard an ad that raved about the suddenly popular massively multiplayer online role-playing medieval fantasy game Eternium.

It had become so iconic over the past few months that it had essentially turned into the new Raid: Shadow Legends, except that the game looked good and looked like its trailer footage. Little-known streamers and gamers became overnight stars when they released their footage.

Of course, like any good thing, it cost an arm and a leg. So watching was the next best thing for most of the population. The most recent news was about the game-wide defeat of the Wolfman race.

Being the broke college student he was, he worked for minimum wage. It meant he’d probably be able to get his hands on it within the century. But for now, he was just trying to listen to some tunes on his way to the family farm.

But like most radios, they were in between songs. Talking about this new medical product or this bittersweet news story. Finally, he found a station that wasn’t on a commercial break. He leaned back in his seat and was present with a stop at the red light. Thunder rolled across, briefly illuminating the land sky before smothering it with darkness again. Directly ahead, Marlow thought he saw a cat between the yellow lines in the middle of the road. He waited for traffic to ease up.

Not wanting to hit the lost kitty, he lightly pressed his foot on the gas, getting a honk from the car behind him for his action. Driving past the intersection, his headlights revealed a gigantic cat. When the cat turned to face him, it looked like it had three eyes. Having to focus on the road, he averted his gaze.

As he passed it, he still could have sworn it had three eyes instead of the two usual eyes cats usually supported. Mentally pushing that mystery aside, he realized he was drifting and twisted his wheel to correct his course.

The rest of the trip sailed smoothly. Having pulled off the main road, Marlow took the long, bumpy, unpaved road to the barn. He figured the daily check shouldn’t take long and left his car on. But, of course, it’s not like anyone is out here anyway. They’d be soaked to the bone if they were out in this storm—time to check on the animals.