𝙼𝚘𝚗 𝚌𝚘𝚎𝚞𝚛 𝚝❜𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝

1

My eyes scanned the paper, as my hands held the pencil, pausing every now and then. The earbuds I was wearing muffled any noise throughout my house. This, is what I get for leaving everything for the last minute.

Eyelids were heavy and my head rested on my hand as I wrote down formulas with the squished eye sight. Suddenly, the music traveling through my wires stopped, in tiredness, I picked up the phone, the time flashing through the screen.

I squinted at the sudden brightness, turning it down once my eyes adjusted to the light. 05:37. Realization hit me that my playlist had finished, if I could just turn back time and do my work when I got home from school, I would.

When have I ever woken up this early, never and never again. It was the teachers that assign homework after homework without a care of how students are gonna be able to finish them. Thankfully I understood each unit, so it wasn't such a big problem but I felt bad for those in my class that had to keep asking the teacher and others for help.

Almost done. 

My head was in jumbles, I couldn't think straight and there weren't many problems left. I strained to keep my eyes open, blinking harshly every time I realized that I was falling asleep. Tiredness grew to annoyance very quickly.

 I stood up, receiving a loud creak from my chair to which I hoped my mom wouldn't hear. I walked around my room, occasionally bumping clothes and crumbled up paper with messy writing written all over. I took in a sharp breath and drank a glass of water, but nothing helped. I needed to get this paper done, if not, only god knows what would happen. 

My math teacher, out of all teachers was the least empathetic. If you got one question wrong, she'd probably make a fool out of you, calling you out on not studying. 

To be honest, my grades were decent. There was nothing to look down upon and nothing to brag about. But in her class, it wasn't only my grades on the line but also my mentality. 

After a while of pacing back and forth and trying to get my head to work, I finally sat back down. There was less frustration build-up inside of me, so that may have been the help to finishing a few more problems. 

But of course as my eyes stared at the numbers, my head became blank...again. But this time, I didn't do anything to wake myself up, I let my head fall in to my arms as my hand let go of my pencil. The relief hit when I closed my eyes, letting darkness take over.

-

"Yeonjin! Get up! Why are you sleeping at your desk?" My mom's voice rang in my ear. For a few minutes I had no energy to answer so I just hoped she would leave me for a few more minutes "You're going to be late to school!" 

I jerked my head up at the words, my eyes widened a little but rested again. I looked over at my phone, the black screen wouldn't light up like it did a few hours ago. "What time is it?" I asked.

"You can figure that out for yourself, I told you to get up." Her words sent a pang of hurt to my heart but I didn't mind much. As per her instruction, I stood up. Looking around, my eyes rested on my school uniform laying neatly on the bed. I stretched, rubbing my eye to be a little more awake but only a mere amount of energy came to me.

I stumbled to the clothes, picking them up. My eyes darted to my mom who was still standing next to my chair. "A little privacy, mom?" I mumbled, receiving a eye roll.

"Privacy?" She scoffed, shaking her head as she turned around, walking away. "I give birth to you and you want privacy?"

There was nothing I could really say, but even if I did have something, I wouldn't have the opportunity to say it. My mom had this trait, passed down from her mom, which soon enough was passed down to me. Being able to talk back, but I suppose for my mom, it was more on the negative side. If she didn't agree with you, that trait would come in handy just to prove a point.

-

I grabbed a banana off the counter, as I slid on my backpack. The house was quiet and dark, with it being closer to winter than summer, morning light would shine much later. My blazer was wrinkled and so with  free hand, I pressed down on the folds, trying to make it look nicer. 

In my head, anxiety overcame me. Did I pack all my papers? Did I leave anything on my desk? That math problem, I still need to do it. 

But I couldn't turn back, a hand pushed me a little, I turned at the person even though I knew who it was. "Go." The lady said, sternly. "And I don't want another word out of you, I'd better not get any complaints about you acting up." She added the last bit as if I've gotten in trouble before. The thing was I hadn't but, who am I to say?

"I won't be home until 10 or so, but once I get home, I want to see food on the table. I can't be the only one doing things around here." 

"Okay."

I quietly walked out the door, shutting it in the process. Crows made their daily noises and cold air made me shiver in goosebumps. My bare neck was the most affected with the wind blowing every few minutes. 

Soon enough I was at the bus stop, my head was down low and it was awkward. There were two other people, a lady around my mom's age, maybe younger. And a boy, around my age, maybe older. The pavement was filled with small bumps, so with there being nothing to do, I just drew invisible pictures on the ground with my head.

By the time the bus had arrived, there was a bouquet of flowers and a stick figured guy giving to the stick figured girl. I'm not always this cheesy, no but it's the morning and I'd do anything to busy my mind. 

I was the one out of everyone to board the vehicle. And I made my way to my usual seat, as I sat down, my head had one question.

What day was it?

It was as if other passengers heard my question and the answer was heard soon enough. "Wait, what's today?" A girl asked her friend, it was quiet but I was close enough to hear them.

"You're so stupid, it's Thursday." The other girl responded, her eyes glued to her phone.

Thursday. The day we have that lab experiment.

My lab coat. 

I forgot it. 

Shit.