A loud BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT came from Jay's pocket.
Everyone: "JAY!!!"
Jay scrambled. "SORRY SORRY SORRY IT'S MY ALARM!! I DIDN'T TURN IT OFF I—"
Ella: "THEN TURN IT OFF BEFORE I TURN YOU OFF."
Jay fumbled with his phone.
The alarm grew louder.
BZZZ BZZ BZBZBZBZBZBZ—
Lia groaned like a dying walrus.
Ion threw a shoe.
It hit Cindy instead.
Cindy: "OW??"
Ion: "SORRY WRONG TARGET!"
Finally, Jay turned it off.
Silence again.
For ten seconds.
Then—
Grandma Lora's neon drink kicked in.
She shot up like a rocket.
"LET'S CLEAN THE ENTIRE HOUSE!"
Everyone screamed.
"No Grandma NO—"
"VACUUM TIME!" she cheered.
She grabbed the vacuum.
Turned it to MAX POWER.
The vacuum roared like a dragon preparing for war.
Jay covered his ears.
Lia rolled off the couch.
Mayo curled into a ball.
Daniel yelled into a pillow.
Ion accepted death.
Mira screamed in five languages.
Kit lost the will to live.
Cindy prayed to four different religions.
Lexi danced to the vacuum rhythm.
Grandma vacuumed with the energy of a caffeinated tornado.
Final Moment of Defeat
When she finally finished, the house was sparkling.
The group, however, looked worse.
Ella stood in the center of the room like a broken protagonist.
"I give up," she whispered.
Jay nodded. "Sleep is a myth."
Lia added, "Like unicorns."
Ion sighed. "Or Lorenzo's cooking."
"HEY!" Lorenzo shouted from another room.
Aries stretched. "So… breakfast?"
"NOOOO!" everyone screamed.
Grandma Lora smiled sweetly.
"I'll make pancakes."
Everyone froze.
Jay whispered, "We're gonna die"
Grandma hummed happily in the kitchen, flipping pancakes with the confidence of someone who absolutely should not be flipping pancakes.
Jay watched her from behind the couch.
"I feel like one pancake is going to explode."
Lia nodded. "Or run away."
Ion peeked in. "Or gain consciousness and attack us."
Aries rubbed his face. "I'm too tired for sentient pancakes."
Freya raised a shaky hand. "Okay… whatever happens next… nobody panic. We survive. We adapt. We—"
BOOM.
A small fireball puffed out from the kitchen.
Rory yelled, "GRANDMA WHAT DID YOU PUT IN THERE?!"
"Just the energy drink!" she yelled back cheerfully.
Everyone screamed simultaneously.
The Fire That Technically Wasn't a Fire
They rushed into the kitchen to find:
The stove smoking
The pan sizzling
A pancake stuck to the ceiling
Grandma fanning the smoke with a newspaper
Lexi taking selfies
Cindy crouching behind the fridge
Lorenzo holding a fire extinguisher like a confused Minecraft player
Jay pointed at the ceiling.
"WHY IS IT UP THERE??"
Grandma shrugged. "It wanted freedom."
Ion whispered, "Grandma is more dangerous than the panther."
Ella grabbed the extinguisher. "MOVE."
She sprayed, slipped, and nearly flattened Rory, who screamed like a toddler.
The pancake fell from the ceiling like a defeated soldier.
Lia picked it up with two fingers.
"It's… crunchy."
Jay: "It's a weapon."
Cindy: "It's a biohazard."
Lexi: "It's art."
Aries sighed. "Okay. No more cooking. No explosions. No caffeine. No fire. We are DONE."
The Attempt at Cleaning Up
They spent the next 20 minutes cleaning the kitchen:
Lorenzo kept trying to taste the burnt pancake
Mira vacuumed aggressively
Ion pretended to supervise
Jay lay flat on the floor, giving up on life
Lia complained to the universe
Cindy sprayed air freshener directly into Rory's face by accident
"WHY??" Rory coughed dramatically.
"My hands slipped!"
"No they didn't!"
"OKAY BUT YOUR FACE WAS ANNOYING ME!"
Ella finally clapped her hands.
"ENOUGH. We are ending the day. We have all experienced too much. We all smell like smoke. No more disasters. Everyone—shower, eat something normal, and we SLEEP."
Everyone nodded.
This was the moment.
Peace.
Sanity.
Nighttime calm.
Or so they thought.
Everyone finally started relaxing.
People stretched, yawned, and prepared to crawl to their rooms like exhausted soldiers returning from battle. Ella even smiled — a miracle after the day they had.
"Okay," she said. "Nothing else. No noise. No drama. No accidents. We end the day peacefully."
Life heard her… and laughed.
Because just as they were walking away, a sound echoed through the house:
"BEEEEEEEP—BEEEEP—BEEEEEEP—"
Everyone froze.
Lia blinked. "Is that… the smoke alarm?"
Jay nearly cried. "BUT NOTHING IS EVEN BURNING!"
Aries rushed into the kitchen. "Why is it going off?!"
Ion looked up at the ceiling.
"Oh my god… look."
Everyone followed his gaze.
Right above the stove, the smoke detector was blinking red.
And sticking out of the side of it…
Was a spoon.
A literal metal spoon.
Ella screamed, "WHO PUT A SPOON IN THE SMOKE DETECTOR?!"
Lorenzo raised his hand very slowly.
"I… lost it while cooking earlier…"
Jay: "HOW DO YOU LOSE A SPOON IN THE CEILING?!"
Lorenzo shrugged. "Gravity works differently around me."
Mira slapped her forehead. "That explains too much."
The alarm continued:
BEEEEEEP! BEEEEP! BEEEEP!
Grandma stomped in with earplugs and yelled,
"WHO IS MAKING THIS HORRIBLE DEMON SOUND?!"
"It's the smoke alarm!" Cindy shouted back.
"WHY?"
"LORENZO PUT A SPOON IN IT!"
"WHY?!"
"WE DON'T KNOW!"
Grandma muttered something in three different languages and grabbed a broom.
She poked the smoke detector.
Nothing happened.
She poked it harder.
Still nothing.
Then she whacked it with the force of a grandmother who survived three wars.
THE SMOKE DETECTOR FELL OFF THE CEILING.
And hit Ion on the shoulder.
Ion: "OW—WHY ME?!"
The alarm rolled across the floor, screaming louder, vibrating violently like it was possessed.
Ella jumped on it.
Jay sat on top of her.
Aries sat on top of Jay.
Cindy sat on top of Aries.
They formed a human pancake.
The alarm finally died.
Silence.
Beautiful, blessed silence.
Everyone lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling, defeated.
Rory whispered, "Is today over?"
Ella panted. "Yes. PLEASE. Let it be over."
Grandma Lora nodded. "Everyone to bed. Before something else explodes."
No one argued.
They crawled, limped, or dragged themselves to their rooms.
Lia fell asleep the moment she touched her pillow.
Jay passed out mid-step.
Ion muttered "I hate spoons" and face-planted.
Cindy burrowed into blankets.
Aries didn't even make it to the bed.
Mira slept with a broom for protection.
Lexi knocked out mid-sentence.
Rory recorded himself falling asleep.
Lorenzo wrote "SORRY" on the wall with sticky notes and also passed out.
Grandma Lora stood guard over the kitchen like a tired dragon.
Finally…
The house went quiet.
For real this time.
The day ended in absolute stupidity, disaster, and teamwork—
But at least it ended.
Tomorrow would be chaotic too…
But that was tomorrow's problem