Audry Blue is just trying to get through high school alive and breathing armed with her books and lots of coffee in hand. Her older sister Cameron doesn't understand Audry and her fictional worlds, insisting that a social life is everything. As if h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I wake up to the sound of overly annoying pop music pounding down the hallway and through my bedroom door and walls like usual. I roll over with sleepy half-open eyes and try to read the time on my alarm clock, my eyes closing as soon as I open them for a split-second and I have to blink and rub them a few times before I can even attempt to open them again. The whole world is blurry and it takes me a minute before I realize that I'm blind and reach for my glasses on my nightstand. I slip them on, poking my eye in the process and blink again to finally clear my vision and everything becomes crisp in the low light of morning. The clock reads 6:59 a.m. and I bug my eyes in alarm. Who the heck blares their music as loud as possible at seven o'clock in the morning? Of course, that answer has time and time again been answered with one word being yelled at the top of my lungs, making our parents wish our rooms were farther away from theirs and that the walls were thicker.
"Cameron!" I scream and flop back down on my bed. I listen to the stupid music for a few seconds before I groan and pull the pillow over my face and try and block out the thumping of Cameron's stereo. It doesn't work. I sit up in bed and throw my pillow off my face and straighten my glasses. "Cameron, if you don't turn off that crappy music I swear I'll tell mom and dad that you left me in the car outside the club!" Somehow she's able to hear every single word I say through the loud music because a few seconds later, the volume gets turned down until I can barely hear any of the words that are being sung. I rest my head in my hands and can feel a major headache coming on. I hear footsteps in the hallway getting closer until Cameron opens my door and sticks her head in.
"Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed," she grumbles. "And keep your mouth shut about the club. They don't know about that. Plus, you left me there. I spent like an hour praying you weren't kidnapped or something."
"I wouldn't be so moody if I didn't have to wake up to a Brittany Spears concert at home," I reply sleepily. "It's seven in the morning for crying out loud."
"Kay, first of all, I wasn't even listening to her music. Second of all, loosen up a little."
"I'll loosen up once I can wake up for once in peace. At a reasonable hour preferably."
"Yeah, not gonna happen, squirt. It's too much fun torturing you. Now get up, your study date will be here soon. It'll give me time to sharpen the knives." Cameron leaves with the door hanging open a crack and I can hear her footsteps making her way back to her room.
"It's not a date!" I yell at her. "If anything it's a jail sentence," I mumble to myself as I flop back down on my bed hoping to buy as much time as possible before evil walks through the doorway to our house and I'll be forced to say nice things to it. I let out a breath and ten minutes later, I get up and change. Can't run from the inevitable forever, right? No matter how hard I try or attempt to pretend it's never going to happen, it's eventually going to happen whether I like it or not. Life is hilarious that way.
***
"So if we combine all the terms that have an exponent of X to the second power, what's the answer and how do we combine the other terms?" I ask slowly to ensure that I'm using my words in a way that doesn't sound confusing.
