Chapter 6: Gen 4
“Where’s my birthday boy?” Ash’s mother said while bringing in the cake. It didn’t have a candle of course, rather a dim warm light stick. Fifteen of them. “Have you been up all night?”
Ash was hunched over his little desk in their quarters, red-eyed and tired. He was scrolling on his pad, reading about chemicals. “Mom! I told you I have to study for the Scout exam. I’ve got no time for this.”
His mother frowned. “Come on, surely you can spare five minutes and celebrate. You never get the birthdays back you know, you look away, poof, they’re gone.”
“What time is it? Gotta go, bye,” Ash said and threw his stuff into his bag. He stormed out the room. As he ran away down the corridor, he yelled, “Is it chocolate?”
“Yes!” his mother yelled back, putting the cake down. “Yo
