Introduction

A Chapter by Aries Mitchell

The door opened to my room and footsteps clicked against the hardwood floor. My mother shook me and whispered in my ear, "Perdita..."

Another shake.
"Pear, wake up. You're late."
I turned over and near smothered myself when my face hit down on the feather pillow.
"Mmm..?"
"Get your face out of the pillow. You know I can't understand a word you're saying."
Her voice was a little more agitated now, so I moved my head just so there was enough space to let my words escape.
"Late for what?"
"Did you forget you had school in the middle of September?"
CRAP. I threw the covers back with every ounce of strength I had. My mother was already downstairs by the time my feet hit the cold wood. I tried to run straight out of my bed, which was a bad idea, and came close to face planting. My hands grazed the ground and I got back up, only to find myself running into the closet door with a loud CLUNK!
"Ughh. This is so DUMB!", I yelled. I already took up my five absences for my first hour and if I used up another, I could kiss my AP credit goodbye.
I put on clothes paying no attention to the coordination of colors and booked it into the bathroom, put on deodorant, and snatched my make-up off the counter. Rushing back into my room, I picked up every paper within a 5 foot radius of me in case any important papers were laying around. I had attempted to do this in the past, later finding a sock in my backpack. But hey, it doesnt hurt to be safe.
I swung my backpack onto my arms and opened my bedroom door and immediately put my foot behind the door to keep it from slamming against the wall. I practically skipped four stairs at a time, which is quite a task when you have a 30 pound bag tagging along with you.
Mom was already ready in the car to take me. When I got in, she cut straight to the chase:
"Im sure you know by now that you will be having some chores awaiting your? presence when you get home?"
"Yessss."
"And you also better hope that you aren't counted absent. You are going to have to rush in there. Even if we DID get there near the time you need to be, you still have to actually get to the class too."
I rolled my eyes at the window. As if I already DIDN'T know this.
"Yes I know, Im going to rush, and I'll make it as long as you drive as fast as possible without getting pulled over."
Mom glanced over at me and raised her eyebrow. "I'm not going to speed just because you can't learn how to wake--"
"ITS NOT MY FAULT!! I keep telling you guys that my alarm clock DOESN'T work but you DONT believe me!"
She threw her hands up in the air and slammed back on the steering wheel. "Well I dont know WHAT to tell you Perdita, but it seems to me like it works every time your dad and I test it! It seems a little bit odd that it always stops working when YOU use it."
Which was true. I could never remember my alarm going off so I thought it was safe to assume that it really wasnt going off at all. But when my parents set the alarm for five minutes later to see if it went off, it worked. The chime on it sounded as new as it had sounded when it first came out of the box.
"Well anyways it doesnt matter, you still get chores regardless of if it really does work or not. Im still having to take you to school."
I sat there with my hands in my lap. Normally I would have clawed my palms to get some of the anger out but I just cut my nails yesterday. So all I could do was breathe. Which was hard.
I looked straight ahead and saw a navy blue Ford truck swerving a little bit in the opposite lane. Idiots.
"Hmmm..lets see. You can do dishes and...."
The truck seemed to swerve a little more as we got closer to passing them. "Mom...."
"Yep. You did dishes last night. But guess what? You get to do them aga--"
"MOM!"
I heard a loud scream. And then there was nothing...

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