[center][h1][color=98FB98]Quan Nguyen[/color][/h1][/center]

Meticulous fingers danced across the glowing keyboard as each press clacked the keys in a mechanical sound, followed by the scrolling and clicking of a mouse.

[b]"Jesus, Quan, can that thing be any louder?"[/b]

Quan's hand wiped against his eyelids as the monitor lit up the dim room, his shadow drawn against the wall behind him. He shifted his head slightly to the right, seeing Ryan pull the blanket over his head and shift against the wall. Running a hand through his hair, Quan turned back to the monitor and skimmed over the numbers at the corner of his desktop — [i]8:33 AM, 12/26/15.[/i] He still had over a week until his winter recess would come to an end, and he would have to return to the bedlam of the classroom.

Ryan had been given another day off — the automobile shop he worked at was closed for "some British thing", his brother said. Normally, Dan, his other older brother who served in the military, would have also been home for the holidays, but he had called a month in advance to tell them that his unit was going to Mexico for something; it was the last call they got from him. Quan scrolled through the forum he frequented that devoted itself to "shedding light on the information hidden from the general public by the government", drumming his finger against the mouse through the music playing through his headphones.

All throughout the forum, there were only articles and pictures that pertained to the global H1N1 outbreak; soldiers and police armed to the teeth, backed by tanks and other military vehicles, lining the streets of some foreign country, bodies of victims in blood-stained clinics, and the like. People flocked the threads and discuss all of the rumors as the most prominent phrases are "zombie apocalypse" and "H1N1 coming back to life".

Quan bit the side of his mouth as his door swung open in a loud manner, and his mother trudged inside. As he quickly closed out of the browser, she walked over to the window and threw the curtains to the side, the morning sun causing Quan to recoil from its sheer brightness.

[b]"Brush your teeth and go downstairs,"[/b] she looked between him and Dan, his brother groaning from underneath the covers through his hangover. [b]"And you,"[/b] she focused her eyes directly onto Quan, stomping by his table as she reached and turned off his monitor, also making sure to remove his headphones. [b]"Get off the computer! It's all I see you do."[/b]

Quan glared at the surface of the table, breathing heavily through his noise. [color=98FB98][b]"Yes, Mom,"[/b][/color] he replied in quiet Vietnamese. It was strange how the language always made it seem like the speaker was angry, much like Spanish. He heard Dan grumble from the corner of the room as he rose from his chair, walking back to his bed that stood opposite of his brother's bed and tidying up the covers.

After doing so, Quan saw that Dan was still in bed. [color=98FB98][b]"Come on,"[/b][/color] he nudged the form underneath the blanket. [color=98FB98][b]"Mom's gonna be pissed if we don't come down now."[/b][/color]

[b]"Later. I'm not hungry,"[/b] his brother complained.

Quan sighed, scratching his back as he left the room and entered the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. Feeling that it was too much effort to make himself look presentable, he left his hair in its state and quietly climbed down the stairs to the dining room table.