On a Sunday morning, Hector was on his laptop doing homework.

But while he sat on the living room couch, his sister—Sofia—was pacing up and down the room.

“This is like the third time she’s asked!” Sofia said, as she continued to walk back and forth. “No, this might be the forth….or was it the fifth? Argh! It’s too many either way!”

Hector stayed silent, and continued to type on his laptop.

“There’s no way I’m sharing my homework with her after what happened last time. She’ll just end up sharing it with other people, and I’ll get in trouble again!”

Hector had heard this complaint of her’s one too many times. To him, each venting session he had to listen to was always about the same things, or just a different variation of the same things.

Today, it was about a girl in Sofia’s friend group. She would often ask for help with their school homework. But the problem was, the teacher could always tell if someone had simply copied from another. So Sofia would always tell her not to show anyone else, and not to just copy it completely.

“Then why don’t you just stop giving her your work.”

“If she asks again, just tell her no.”

These were some of Hector’s initial responses to his sister, as he felt they were practical and easy solutions to her problem. However, he soon learnt such opinions weren't welcomed and that Sofia for some reason didn’t care about acquiring a ‘solution’.

“Urgh, that smell!” Sofia said as she held her nose. “What is that cat eating? Her litter doesn’t usually smell that bad!”

Their cat then walked into the room, and rubbed itself against Sofia’s leg.

It then looked up and meowed at her.

“Who’s a stinky little cat. You are a stinky little cat,” she said as she knelt down and petted it. “I…I can’t get mad at you, can I? You’re just too cute for that.”

She then went into the room it came out from.

After a few seconds—and the sound of a flushing toilet—Sofia came running back into the living room, with her fingers pinching her nose.

“Wow. That smelt so much worse up close.”

Hector then watched as she walked up to the TV. A cartoon was currently playing, which was what they usually put on when they woke up early on a weekend.

“Why do they keep repeating the same episodes?” she said. “It’s like they think we have the memory of a goldfish. But even a goldfish would remember that THEY PUT ON THIS SAME EPISODE YESTERDAY!”

Sofia clenched her fists. “I’m so tired of this. Everything is so annoying today!”

With her voice becoming louder, Hector happened to briefly glance at the date on his laptop.

“Oh. It’s that time of the month,” he quietly said.

A few seconds later, Hector noticed the room had gotten surprisingly quiet. The silence was pure bliss, until he realised why exactly it had happened.

He lifted his eye’s from his laptop, and saw a very angry sister looking at him.

“You…You didn’t just say that,” Sofia said. “I..I can’t believe you just said that!”

It was then Hector realised he had just spoken out loud.

“Isn’t that why you’re so upset today?” he asked. “It’s usually around this time you act like this.”

Sofia’s mouth laid wide open, as she seemed shocked that he had just doubled down. But her mouth soon closed, as she then stormed out of the room.

Hector sighed. Like usual, his sister was now also mad at him. It was of course a common occurrence, and was one he was used to.

After a minute or two—Sofia came back, but this time with some socks on. She then walked to the front door without looking at Hector.

“Where are you going?” Hector asked, as she then began to put her shoes on.

She didn’t answer, and proceeded to open the door. Hector put his laptop to the side and followed her.

“What are you doing?” he said, as he watched her walk outside.

Sofia turned round, but this time with tears in her eyes. “I’ve told you before not to say things like that to me. Why do I have to hear my own brother say something so mean to me!”

“I didn’t even say anything that bad,” he replied. “You were clearly acting more emotional than usual—”

“Stop!” she shouted. “You can’t just say something like that and expect me to be fine with it. I’m not a robot like you Hector!”

Sofia then turned round to walk off, but as she did—they both noticed a bus had stopped nearby on the opposite side of the road.

On it, was a pink haired girl staring straight at them. She however seemed to notice they were also looking at her, which caused her to promptly look away.

As the bus then drove away, Hector realised Sofia had walked off.

“Where are you going!?” he shouted.

She however didn’t respond and continued to walk on.

“Whatever,” he said to himself.

It was exhausting for him to always have such a dramatic person around him, even if it was his own sister. There was no point in trying to rectify the problem so soon, as waiting it out worked most of the time. This decision was usually fuelled by a certain belief of his.

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Trying to understand people’s emotions was pointless.

He then headed back inside the house.

On the couch, was the cat—sitting where he had sat.

“Move,” Hector said, as he pushed it off.

After sitting down, he noticed some of the words he had written had been deleted.

“Why’s the cat have to touch everything…”

Before going back on it, he grabbed the remote and put on the news.

“I can watch this now that she isn’t here.”

As the news started to play, Hector went back onto his laptop. Some time then passed, as he used the TV for background noise instead of solely focusing on it. But the news started to talk about a topic that caught his attention.

“A great divide between the different groups of society seem to be increasing everyday. The conflict of differing opinions and beliefs are now beginning to enter a dangerous stage. From aggressive vocal protests—to violent riots, it feels like humanity is beginning to eat itself.”

“Even groups which promote good causes, such as animal or humanitarian charities are leaning toward more extreme methods of achieving their goals. It’s hard to believe things have—”

But Hector grabbed the remote, and switched the channel back to the previous one.

There was no need for him to hear other’s opinions on the state of society. Hector already felt that whatever conflict was happening in the world—was because of overly emotional people that just couldn’t think rationally.

“You won’t get away with this, Evil Bill!”

Hector turned down the volume on the TV.

Sofia was right. I’m sure I saw this episode yesterday.

Some more time passed as Hector continued to do homework on his laptop. When afternoon arrived, his pocket began to vibrate.

After pulling out his phone, he saw that someone had sent a message in a group chat a few boys in school had created.

“Anyone done the homework?”

“No, not yet.”

“Yo Hector. I see you’re online. You done it?”

Hector started to type.

“I’m doing it right now.”

More people also began to type. At that moment, Hector knew what they were about to say.

“Can you help me with it?”

“Yeah me too.”

“Hector my boy, why not send what you’ve done so fa—”

But Hector exited the chat and put his phone on silent.

I don’t think so.

Unlike Sofia, he had already learnt not to make the mistake of having other’s copy his homework. Especially the boys in his class, as they would just copy it without changing a single word. In Hector’s world, if something like that happened once—then he’d make sure it didn’t happen twice.

Suddenly, Hector’s attention fell to a nearby window. On it, was the cat eating a plant in a pot.

“Hey. Get down from there!” Hector said.

But it didn’t listen, and ripped one of the leaves off. It then chewed on it a little, and attempted to rip a second one off.

Hector however grabbed a nearby cushion, and threw it at the cat. It jumped away before it got hit, causing the plant to be hit instead. With even more leaves scattered now, the cat ran into the other room.

Grandma can’t get upset at me for that, she’s the one who brought that cat here…

Moments like these were why Hector disliked animals even more than people. Even though humans had their problems, one could still attempt to talk with them. Animals on the other hand, there was no talking. People could pretend all they wanted, but Hector knew animals would never truly understand a single word you say.

“Oh hello there sweety. I’ve left you lot’s of food okay?”

From the room the cat ran into came a voice.

It was his grandmother.

“I’m going shopping,” she said as she walked into the living room. “Where’s Sofia? She usually wants to come.”

“She went somewhere in the morning.”

“She did? That’s odd.”

“I can come with you if you want.”

“No no. I’m not buying much, so I can manage on my own—”

She then looked over at the window.

“Oh no, what happened to my plant?”

“It was the cat,” Hector replied.

“Not again Bella. I will have to get a new one.”

Hector sighed. “Another one? Really?”

“Don’t sulk Hector. The plants aren’t troubling you are they?”

Hector thought about it for a moment. From his emotional sister, to a cat that does whatever it wanted, a plant was certainly the most bearable thing there.

“I guess,” he replied.

She then opened the door. “I know you don’t like to do it, so I’ve already given Bella some food. Okay, I’ll see you later now.”

When she left, Hector decided to take a quick break. As he sat up and took a moments pause, the absence of Sofia started to become more obvious. Some guilt then began to creep in, as he was expecting for her to have come back already.

She..she’s just being over-dramatic like usual. I didn’t do anything wrong. The truth shouldn’t be wrong…

Soon, he had decided to leave his homework for later. There was some chores he needed to do, and now was a good time for a distraction.

By the time he knew it, evening had arrived—with only his grandmother coming back a few hours prior. There was still no sign of Sofia, who had been out since their argument in the morning.

“Your foods ready,” his grandmother said, as she had just finished preparing dinner.

As they both sat at the table, she looked at the empty third seat.

“Did Sofia reply to the message I told you to send?” she asked.

“Yes. But she just said she’s fine.”

“So she didn’t say where she went?”

“No.”

“Maybe she went out with her friends—”

The front door suddenly opened, and Sofia walked in.

“Oh! Sofia there you are,” the grandmother said.

Sofia took off her shoes, and went straight to the table. After hugging her grandmother, she took her plate and went to the kitchen counter to get some food.

“Thank’s for dinner,” she said, as she walked away with a full plate. “I’m going to eat in my room.”

“Sofia wai—”

But she already left before the grandmother could finish calling out to her.

Even after all that time, Hector could see she was still mad. Not once did she look at him.

“I see. You two had a fight again didn’t you?” the grandmother said.

Hector didn’t respond and continued to eat.

“What did you fight about?”

But Hector didn’t respond.

“Hector…”

“Fine,” he said.

He then told her what had happened in the morning.

“Hector dear. Can you not see why a girl would be offended by something like that?” she said.

“But it was just the truth,” he replied.

“Even so, I’m sure she just didn’t want her brother invalidating her feelings. I’m sure you must understand that much at least.”

“Everyone is just being dramatic.”

The grandmother sighed. “You’re a smart boy, just like your father. But even he understands you can’t solve everything with just what’s up here.”

She had pointed at her head, and then at her chest. “Sometimes, the solution can only be found in here.”

There was a silence.

“Maybe some things just can’t be solved then,” Hector replied as he then got up. “Thank you for the food.”

As he walked past her to put his plate away, she grabbed his arm.

“I know you care about your sister Hector. And because she cares about you too, there’s usually an easy fix for a fight like this. All it can take is just offering an apology, even if you feel you were right.”

Apologise for doing nothing wrong? What a joke.

He didn’t respond, and simply went to wash his plate.

After dinner, night soon came and Hector prepared to go to bed. He went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, but accidentally ran into Sofia as she was coming out.

She looked at him, as if waiting for him to say something.

“I can’t brush my teeth if you’re in my way,” he said.

Sofia frowned angrily and walked past him—bumping him to the side while doing so.

“So annoying,” he quietly said.

After brushing his teeth, Hector went to his room and onto his bed. He decided to look at his phone, and saw everyone in the group chat was still begging for him to send his work. But he of course didn’t, and they stayed up trying to get it done.

Hector realised he only had a few more minutes worth of homework to finish, so decided to get it done then.

Eventually he finished—turned off his laptop plus the lights—and quietly laid in bed until he fell asleep.

But, a strange smell began to linger over his nose.

The stench seemed to get stronger with time, prompting him to open his eye’s even if he was dreaming. He woke up on his back, but saw the unexpected.

In front of him, was the source of the bad smell—as something was staring at him from above.

It was a fox.