"Good morning everyone. I am Dr. Leinman, your English teacher. This class is whatever you want to make it. You can procrastinate and suffer writing a five page paper the night before a due date–which I can always tell. Or, you can do the work, find some sort of courage, and have an easy semester. The choice is yours..."
My teacher's voice begins to fade away as boredom creeps in. The first day of the semester, syllabus day, is always the most taxing. Between teachers giving the same lecture about doing the work or suffering the consequences, and the whole "I used to be a student just like you" speech.
"I feel like they give every teacher the same monologue to read off of," some kid snickered.
I look over at the random person who decided to speak out. His blue eyes peered into mine. Was he talking to me?
"Honestly, you might be onto something," I roll my eyes looking back at my teacher.
"I'm Michael," he introduces, whispering.
"Kaitlyn," I say, still facing forward.
The bell finally rings to release us from this cell.
I grab my bag and make my way out of the classroom.
"Hey Kaitlyn, wait up!"
I turn around to see Michael jogging to catch up to me. I give him a questioning look as he approaches me. His tall frame towers over me. He is a little cute.
"What's your schedule, maybe we have some other classes to suffer together?" He smiles.
He pulls out his folded schedule and hands it to me. I unfold it and see that we also have math and history together.
"I guess we're walking to math together," I say, handing his schedule back.
"I guess I'll just have to guess your schedule then," he smirks.
"I guess so," I remark, walking towards the math hallway.
****
(Kaitlyn)
The rest of the school day went by in a boring, uneventful blur.
I got off the bus—yes, I still take the bus despite being a senior—and headed toward my house.
I shoved my hands into my large hoodie pocket and felt the envelope. The invite, I almost forgot about it. I tear it open—despite telling myself I would throw it away—and pull the folded letter out.
"Kaitlyn,
I know you're not the partygoer, but you're invited to the last annual Halloween costume party by yours truly. Take a chance and live a little for our senior year! I promise you won't regret it. This Saturday at 7 pm, be there!
Mike
Addy: 100 Hilgroove Valley"
Live a little? That's hilarious. I seem to be living a little too much, according to my parents. But, I can't lie, I really am considering going to this stupid party.
I grab the out of my pocket to unlock the front door. I walk in and plop down on the couch. I immediately text Henry about the letter.
Me: "You're gonna hate me"
Henry: "Why what happened already"
Me: "I read the invite and... O_O"
Henry: "Hold on"
Henry immediately starts face-timing me.
I laugh aloud and answer, "Hello."
"Don't tell me you're actually thinking of going," Henry scoffs.
"Well, I am. I want to know what's the hype around his party."
"Why don't you just ask someone who's gone?"
"Oh come on, it's not the same. Besides, don't you wanna be my plus one?" I smirk.
"This is a horrible idea," Henry sighs, "But fine whatever, I'll come."
"Yay! This is gonna be fun, now we gotta decide on a costume."
"Do we have to dress up?"
I laugh at his reaction, "Duh, it's a costume party."
Henry sighs again, "Alright."
"We can match! Like mustard and ketchup?"
Henry chuckles.
I continue, "Or Peach and Mario, or—"
"Let's go with that, simple."
"Sweet! We can go tomorrow and—"
My doorbell rings.
"Hold on, someone's at the door."
I hop off the couch and head towards the door. I peep through the window, a delivery guy.
"Hello," I greet as I open the door.
"Hi, I just need you to sign here."
"Oh, okay," I grab the pen and sign.
I look down at the name on the package: "Kaitlyn."
"Thank you, ma'am," He hands me a small box and starts heading toward the FedEx truck.
"Of course," I say, closing the door.
"Dude I just got a package," I tell Henry grabbing a pair of scissors from the kitchen.
"Open it."
"Yep, already am," I say, cutting through the tapes.
I opened the folds, and a small ring box sat inside.
"What's this?" I question, inspecting the box.
"What?" Henry asks.
"It's a ring box," I answered, opening it.
A small folded piece of paper covered where the ring would be. I grab it unfolding it.
"A ring box?"
"Yeah, weird right? There's a note, but no ring. That's odd," I say, puzzled.
"What does it say?"
"Lemme see...it just says 'one day.' What?" I furrow my eyebrows.
"That's weird, why would someone send you that?"
"I have no clue. Well, I'm going to return it to the sender. It must be a mistake. I don't have any suitors," I laugh.
"Are you sure? Seems like you do, who knows, it could be me," Henry jokes.
"Funny. Anyways, I'm going to take my nap now," I say, grabbing the blanket off the la-z boy.
He chuckles, "Of course, I shouldn't disrupt your scheduled naps."
"Exactly," I grin.
"Alright, I'll see you around."
"Alright, see ya," I hang up.
I switch on some music and slowly drift to sleep.
^^^
I wake up on the couch from my power nap. I turn over my phone to check the time, 7:45pm. Where is everyone? They should have been home by now. I turn on the living room lights to brighten the room. I see a sticky note left on the side island countertop.
"We saw you fast asleep on the couch and decided not to disturb your peace. We're at Robbie's for dinner tonight. We'll order you something for dinner."
I laugh at the thought of them debating whether or not to wake me up. I can imagine my dad telling my stepmom that I'm not a baby and to wake me up. While my stepmom tries to empathize with me needing the rest.
My phone dings. I checked to see that I received a text from an unknown number:
"Your data usage this month has exceeded..."
I roll my eyes. I need to upgrade my data.
Today is Wednesday, and the Halloween party is this Saturday, so I need to go costume shopping really quickly–especially if we want it to look like we put in a little effort.
The ring box next to the invitation letter caught my eye. There's no way that was a mistake. I had to sign, and it had my full name on the sheet. But why would someone send me a random empty ring box? The little note is what's offsetting too:
One day.
The front door opens, and I jump at the sudden noise. My dad walks through the door, keys in hand.
"Well look at who decided to finally join society," he jokes.
"I had a long, grueling 8 hour school day, what can I say," I smile.
"What a hard life!"
My stepmom walks through the door with food in her hands. She hands me the bag and smiles.
"Thanks," I quickly opened the bag, ready to eat.
"How was school?" She asks.
"It was alright. I got invited to a Halloween party–"
"Awesome, are you going to go?" Dad chimes in.
"Yeah I'm gonna bring Henry as my plus one. We're going as Mario and Peach," I answer.
"That sounds fun sweetheart," My stepmom says.
I nod, putting a fork of food in my mouth.
"Welp, I have a ton of homework to do before my trip on Halloween weekend," my step sister finally chimes in.
"That doesn't sound so fun sweetheart," My stepmom laughs.
"Yeah, high school sucks!"
"It gets worse," I snort.
"Oh come on, that's the last thing I want to hear right now!"
"You'll get over it," I smirk.
"Maybe you can help her with her homework, hmm?" My stepmom suggests.
"Yeah no, I have my own crap to worry about."
"Since when do you do homework?" Sarah asks sarcastically.
"Since when were you always this irritating? Figure out your homework like a big girl."
"Shut up! You're just mad my gpa is better than your freshman gpa."
"The semester isn't over yet, genius."
"Whatever. I don't want your dumb help anyways."
"Good for you."
"Yeah, good for me."
I shake my head. Freshmen.
She scoffs and heads upstairs. My stepmom gives me a disapproving look.
"What? She'll get over it," I shrug.
"Just be nicer to your sister. You know she's a perfectionist."
"Yeah, yeah."
They put their leftovers in the fridge and head upstairs after saying goodnight to me. I pull out my phone to scroll through Pinterest for Peach costume ideas; I actually want to put in effort this year.
// KikADot \\