My eyes flash open as I bolt straight up in bed. I can feel my pulse pounding in my throat, my hands threaten to shake with the adrenaline that is coursing through my veins. Sweat drips down my neck and chest. Ugh, gross total boob sweat! I wipe the sweat away with my already damp t-shirt. Crap now I'm totally depressed, what a way to start the morning.
A dream I can't remember, and boob sweat. My only solution is to hide here from society and become a hermit. I wrap my comforter around my body, until only my head has freedom. I glance around my room haphazardly. There was once a time when my room was an inviting place for friends. Now, it's a bio-hazard zone. Clothes carpet the floor only specks of wood peek out through the gaps. The only thing that hints at cheer are the yellow walls of my room.
"Stella! Are you up yet?" Aunt Carol shouts from down stairs. I burrow further into my blankets. If I stay here long enough maybe she'll forget I'm here. My hopes are pulverized into oblivion as Aunt Carol bursts her way into my room.
"Up, up, up! You've been late two times this week young lady! Not today." Aunt Carol thumps the mass of blankets with her palm.
"Get Out of My Room!" I shout from within my sanctum. The sheets are ripped from my body, I grab the leading edge of the sheet at the last second. What a sight we must be the two of us in a desperate tug of war.
"Get up Stella."
"That's not my name. Ugh, how are you so strong!" If she wins, its school for me. If I win...well its still school but I won. Aunt Carol gives up releasing the blankets I fall back against the head board with a load thump.
"Oww, you don't need to be so rough."
"It's whatever I call you. Now get up Cindy is waiting for you downstairs."
"Shi-" Aunt Carol cuts me off with a piercing glare before she zips out of my room. Her feet thump down the stairs with the speed of spritily youth. How does she have so much energy? I fall back into my pillow a mournful sigh ekes without reserve.
Getting dressed was a chore in itself. All of my clothes were scattered across the floor of my room. Clean mixed with dirty. It was a literal nightmare. I choose my favorite go to outfit, plaid shirt, black tank, skinny jeans with original doc martins. They used to belong to my mom.
"Taia! Come on, let's go!" Cindy shouts from down stairs. I groan as I struggle to pull my hair up into a messy ponytail.
"Coming!" I shout back. Im down the stairs in a flash taking more steps than gravity would allow. At the last step I catch myself on the worn wooden bannister. The wood was warm and well cared for. I remember holding onto the large round ball as a kid spinning back and forth around the poll.
"Seriously, are you going to wear that? Again?" Cindy says without looking up from her phone. A girl to make her stereotype proud. Blonde, tall, preppy, and cheer captain.
"What's wrong with it?" I glance down at my ensemble and shrug.
"It's the second time you've worn it this week." Cindy cocks her hip while madly waving her phone around me as a pointer.
"It's tactical!" I slam my booted foot onto the bench that lined the hallway. For good measure I shake my butt towards Cindy.
"Yeah, yeah ok I get." Cindy rolls her eyes and slings her weighted bag over her shoulder. As she opens the front door she throws my all but empty messenger bag at my face.
"Oh, way to be Cynthia!" I say snidely.
"Don't call me that Stella..." Says Cindy as she flips her long blonde hair over her shoulders. Through the open door a breeze kicks up sending in the refreshing scent of spring. Cindy takes a deep breath spinning on her heels arms stretched out wide.
"You smell that!"
"Yeah smells like teen spirit." I snort at my joke while Cindy rolls her eyes brushing past me and out the door.
"You're so lame sometimes." Says Cindy. I stick my tongue out in response. "Gosh, grow up Taia. Hurry up, lets go." Cindy trots down the porch steps and down the side walk to the curb.
"Hey wait up!" I shout as I sling my feather-light bag over my shoulder. Out of habit I pat my back pocket for my phone. Check, everything accounted for. Just as I was about to bounce out of this hip-hop scene my path was obstructed by Aunt Carol, her hand she held a grease lined brown paper bag.
"Here's your lunch, Stella." I take the bag from her and mumble a thanks.
"And don't forget your appointment this afternoon with Dr. Cording."
"Ughh, yeah ok I'll remember."
"Have a good day at school!" Aunt Carol waves with a blissfully happy wave of a hand. I grunt my response as I trot down the porch steps to the sidewalk. Cindy is already twenty yards ahead of me. I glance back at my Aunt she's already lost in a Romance novel who knows when she'll resurface from it's captivating pages of Love & Loss. Blehhh-Total-Barf-Land.
Cindy walked ahead of me her head down she walked with a slight sway. In her hand she held her phone and scrolled through pictures. We walked in silence for a few minutes and would pause on occasion when Cindy would stop and hyper focus on her phone. Her fingers flashed across the screen and would hit send. I quickly caught up to Cindy and passed her. I glance over my shoulder back towards Cindy. She stuffed her phone into her back pocket only to pull it back out moments later.
"Hey Cindy?" I slow down my pace keeping in step with Cindy distracted gate.
"Yeah?" she says absentmindedly.
"How was your weekend at your Dad's?" I say tentatively. Cindy's parents divorced when we were in the 3rd grade. I remember she missed school for an entire week. When I saw her again she wasn't the same. I didn't know how to handle myself around her. I didn't know how to help my friend I just knew she was sad. Until one day a giant icy cold snowball slammed into my face. I remember when I wiped the snow away another snow ball took its place. I screamed at her to stop and pathetically threw a half formed attempt of a snowball back at her. I'll always remember what she said to me.
"My parents are the broken ones not me! Don't treat me like some freak!"
"I won't. I never will."
"Good, same here." And splat snow-ball to the face, and the way all good snow-ball fights end one of us ended up freezing and laugh-crying while on our way home. Last I heard Cindy's dad wanted her to move up north for college closer to him, her mom wanted the opposite.
"Uhmmm-"
"A crap storm?"
"Ha, yeah more or less." Cindy sighs while running her hands through her hair plastering the stray strands to her scalp.
"Have you figured out where you want to go yet? No stress or anything." Cindy's eyes widen. I imagine her thinking. No stress? Really? No shit sherlock. Okay, okay I added the no shit part.
"I don't know maybe State. They have a cool Forest Ecology program I'm thinking about."
"You're such a closet hippie." A sly grinch grin creeps across my face. I feel a fist slug my arm. Both of us laugh to ourselves and we continue our walk to school in content silence. I had this feeling that this sense of happy now would inevitably be ruined. I wonder how long until I screw things up.
YOU ARE READING
The Time Keeper Chronicles-Time Reborn
Science Fiction**The world was wrong. Somehow the sky had become the ground. The landscape of the Earth was wild; Tree limbs and roots grew in all directions twisting in my vision. My head hangs limp flopping back and forth like a bobble head doll. Behind us grew...
