Diversity

chapter 1 - envy

"Hurry up Erica, pick up the pace! We don't want to leave a bad first impression on them, do we?"
I shot a glance at myself in the mirror - I looked like I'd just gotten out of bed, which wasn't a complete lie. It was around 7 in the morning and we had a job interview to go to, I don't even have an explanation for why it was so early. My mom was anxiously running around, making sure everything was ready.

My sister was still in a deep sleep on her bed, she had her blanket covering her all the way up to her neck and she looked so peaceful - unlike my mom who was in a constant rush. It was still so early, so there was no need for her to get up. At that moment, I wanted to be in her place so I could just crawl back into bed and sleep for as long as I wanted - but unfortunately, I wasn't in her place and this was my reality.

I made my hair into a last-minute messy hairdo so that I could look at least half as horrible and it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but I had no time to fix anything else. Totally forgetting that my sister was still asleep, I slammed the door shut and ran downstairs as fast as possible. My mom was waiting for me, she was leaning on the wall with her hands on her hips. Her eyebrows were raised and she looked irritated.

"Finally! You took forever, my gosh.." she muttered. I rolled my eyes, then followed her to the door. I took a brief look inside my bag just in case I'd forgotten anything, a split second before my mom grabbed my left arm and pulled me towards the doorway. 

"Hey! What in the-?" I attempted to say, lowering my voice so I didn't have to listen to another lecture about how I should always think before speaking and be kind. Luckily my mom didn't notice - probably because she was in such a rush.

Here at the Amber Kingdom, kindness was valued more than anything. We were all taught at school and by our families to be kind and respect everyone at all costs. There were even a bunch of rules on what you should and shouldn't do when talking to an elderly person - which everyone found stupid at first, but we all got used to it eventually.

We drove to the job center as fast as possible - now that I think about it, I don't even know why we were rushing considering we weren't even close to being late. As we got out of the car, my mom held my hand tightly for whatever reason and we ran across the street. Looking up at the building in front of us, I was amazed by how huge it was. It was a white, modern-styled building surrounded by a square-shaped garden full of beautiful flowers and trees.

Since we were in fact quite early, a young woman who I assumed was some kind of secretary came up to us and pointed to a sign on the wall, which said 'waiting room'. My mom opened her mouth to say thank you, but the secretary had disappeared and was nowhere to be seen.

We found the room, walked inside and got ourselves a seat. There were a couple other people waiting with us, such as a middle-aged woman and a father holding his son's hand. I hoped that we wouldn't have to wait for too long, I didn't like waiting. I just wanted to get this over with and go home.

"I thought you said we'd be late." I whispered to my mom, in a teasing tone. She, however, didn't like what I said at all and threw a sharp glance at me, which meant something along the lines of 'be quiet' or 'you're embarrassing me'.

Over the years, I'd learnt to read my mom's body language - she would often give me these looks that could mean so many different things, and sometimes it'd be challenging to figure out but I had to, my mom just hated warning me in public.

It was silly, but I just went along with it because she was the type of mom you wouldn't want to mess with. She'd use her body language more so than ever when she was with me, but when my sister was here, she'd barely need them and I assumed that was because she counted on my sister for the job. My sister Melody, however, was nothing like my mom. She was the sweetest, most supportive, and most optimistic person I'd ever seen - if only my mom was the same.