Chapter 7 Aanya

Chapter 7 Aanya

            I wake up to the wailing sound of my alarm clock as it beeps relentlessly. I turn onto my back and reach my arm across my nightstand to retrieve my phone. I hold it up in front of me and look to see if I have any new messages or notifications. I open up my messages and see that Mom texted an hour ago at 5:45 saying, I have to go to work early today I have a few things I have to get ready for my lesson. Make sure Brooklyn gets ready for school and is on time for the bus. I’ll be home an hour after you get home. Love you sweetie.
            I lock my phone again and look up at the ceiling. “School,” I think to myself. “What day is it?” I whisper. I push the button on the top of my phone and read the date, Thursday, May 1, 2014. “One more day until Friday,” I whisper again, answering my own question.

            I put my phone back on my nightstand and promptly hop out of bed. I open the door and go downstairs to get myself a bowl of cereal. After eating the chocolaty cereal I drink the milk out of the bowl and look at the clock, 6:55, “Time to wake up Brooklyn,” I conclude. I walk upstairs and instead of going to the right towards my bedroom I go to the left and knock on Brooklyn’s door. “Time to get up!” I yell through the door.

            I hear moaning and Brooklyn replies, “Five more minutes.”

            “How ‘bout five more seconds.”

            “That’s like a whole two thousand seconds off.”

            “What?” I mouth outside the door. “Just get up and get ready, I don’t need to deal with you being late.”

            I walk away back toward my bedroom and into the bathroom. I throw quick curls into my hair and put on a little make-up. I walk back into my bedroom to get dressed in a green blouse and a pair of pre-ripped capri’s. I stuff last night’s homework into my backpack and go to my closet to find my brown flats.

            After rummaging through my shoes for a good five minutes I utter, “Where are they?” I search under my bed until it finally occurs to me, “That’s right; they’re in the living room. I didn’t put them back into my bedroom after wearing them three days ago.”

            I hop back downstairs and slip on the brown flats I’d been looking for.

            “Brooklyn!” I call. “It’s 7:23 we need to head down to the bus stop!”

            “Just a minute!” I hear her call back.

A few minutes later Brooklyn finally walks back downstairs and I say, “What took you so long? The bus comes in five minutes.”

            We head out the door towards the bus stops, “Brooklyn, you slow poke, can you walk any faster?”

            “I’m going as fast as I can Aanya. Maybe you’re just walking too fast.”

            “I’m walking fast because you’re going to make us late, so walk faster.”

            “I don’t want to.”

            “Brooklyn do it.”

            “I told you I don’t want to.”

            “Brooklyn!”

            “Fine, I’m walking.”

            We get to the bust stop just in time to see the bus close its doors and drive away.

            “Great,” I say, “We missed it.”

            “I didn’t,” she brags. “My bus is right there.”           

            “You little-”

            “Good luck getting to school Aanya.”

            I sit on the curb and pull out my phone, “Maybe Mom can come get me,” I say to myself. As I scroll through my contact list a little bar shows up on top of my phone screen showing me I have a text from Harry. I gently tap it and wait for it to take me to my messages where I read, Sorry I’m not on the bus, I kind of missed. See you at school. I quickly reply back saying, I missed the bus too. Can you come and pick me up. I wait hopefully for a few seconds for an answer back. Suddenly a little white bubble pops up with an answer, Sure. I take a deep breath and let it out. “Well at least now I have a ride,” I say conversing with myself.

            I wait for Harry and his mom to come pick me up by standing on the edge of the sidewalk. Not too much later I see a black SUV approaching toward me. I stand closer to the sidewalk as it pulls up next to me. The back door opens and Harry is there to greet me.

            “Hello Miss Tanner.”

            “How many times do I have to tell You Harrison Jacobs to just call me Aanya.”

            “Very well, Aanya,” he says, extending my name in a very dramatic voice. “Just get in the car.”

            “Hi Aanya,” a woman calls from the driver’s seat.

            “Hi Mrs. Jacobs,” I reply.

            “How are you?”
            “I’m doing well.”

            “Good, good. How’s your mom?”

            “She’s good too.”

            “I’m glad. Buckle up and we can leave.”

            I sit in the next to Harry in the middle row and put my seat belt on. “So how did you miss the bus?” Harry asks.

            “It was all Brooklyn’s fault,” I reply. “She took forever to get downstairs, not to mention she’s also an incredibly slow walker. How we ever make it on time is beyond me.”

            “Of course, it’s always Brooklyn’s fault.”

            “Well I guess I could’ve woke her up sooner, and made sure got up when I asked her to.”

            “Continue,” he says starring at me and nodding his head, pretending to be interested. I hit him in the arm.

            “You are so stupid. Stop acting like you’re a psychologist and tell me why you’re late, how about that,” I say sarcastically.

            “Well let’s see, where do I begin? I was sleeping like a baby awaiting my alarm clock’s beeping to disturb my slumber,” he says painting pictures with his hands in a theatrical way. “And then suddenly,” he continues, “Mom comes storming in yelling, ‘Harrison Bacon Jacobs,”

“Bacon?” I ask quizzically.

“Yes, Bacon,” he says pausing his story to look at me.

“Actually it’s Benjamin,” his mom interrupts.

“She’s crazy,” Harry whispers to me.

“I heard that,” Mrs. Jacobs states.

“Anyways,” Harry says, snapping back into character. “I say, ‘What Mom? What is it I did so terribly wrong?’ and she says ‘It’s 7:30, why aren’t you awake yet?’ and I say ‘Oh no! My alarm clock has deceived me with its manipulating buttons and times.’” Harry puts his hands down and looks at me. “Long story short, my alarm clock was set for 7:00pm not 7:00am.”

“I see,” I respond, except this time I’m the psychologist.

            I come home to an empty house around 3:20. I walk straight through the house, through the sliding glass door and out into the backyard. Where I live it is common to have a few trees in ones backyard, but our house is different, I have a miniature forest. I stand outside looking directly in front of me at a grove of trees framing a boulder with a large hole cut out on the side. I dash to the rock and go through the hole to a cave just big enough for five people to hide in.

            I sit down inside the little cave I just entered and pull out my homework. I enjoy coming out here to do homework, it’s peaceful and it helps me think better. Brooklyn yelling every five seconds isn’t exactly what I call a “healthy learning environment.”        

            I like doing my homework in order of classes. So first I do geometry, and then I move on to chemistry, and then finally history. I always having reading for English but I can always work on that right before I go to bed. I lean my head against the wall of the cave and look out into the grove of trees. It was the middle of spring so there were flowers sprouting and leaves making reappearance on trees. “What time is it?” I think to myself. As soon as I’m about to pull out my phone and check I hear my mom yell, “Aanya come inside, it’s time for dinner.”      

            I grab my backpack and rush back inside to eat my evening meal. I enter through the sliding glass door closing it behind me. I look at the table to see what I will be indulging myself with tonight, and to my surprise it’s lasagna, my favorite.

            “Yes! Thanks Mom!” I shout, a large smile stretching across my face.

            “You’re welcome sweetie. But don’t forget you have to have some salad.”

            “Of course,” I say, taking my seat at the dinner table.

            I ate at least four helpings tonight. Mom hates making lasagna; she thinks it’s too much work, so it’s rare that I actually get it. I get into my pajamas and sit in my bed. I’ve finished all my homework, and I relaxed by reading the assigned chapters in To Kill a Mockingbird after dinner. I plug my phone in to charge, turn off my reading light and roll over, ready to be whisked off to sleep. I must say, today has been a good day. 

***

            “Next thing I know he’s all the sudden in stoichiometry. How do you go from electron configurations, to stoichiometry?” Harry asks.

            “You’re kidding me right? In our class he stayed on subject. Must be because you’re his ‘guinea pig’ class,” I respond with enthusiasm.

            “Man, I hate guinea pigs.”

            “You hate guinea pigs, or you hate being a guinea pig?”

            “Both”

            “Makes sense,” I say.

            “And you’ll never guess what else he did today,” he begins, until the bus stops.

            “This is my stop, so maybe you can call me and we can continue this conversation later,” I say.

            “No, I think I’ll just get off with you. After all it is Friday, what everyone normally does doesn’t apply.”

            “Alright,” I contemplate as we get off the bus together.

            We step off the bus and Harry continues saying, “He also got so off track he started talking about how people thought the earth was flat.”

            “How do you even get that far?” I laugh.     

            “I don’t even know. It wasn’t related to the lesson at all.”

            “So, tell all about it.”

            “All about what?”

            “About how people thought the earth was flat.”

            “I’m not sure how to explain it.”

            “Just explain it the way Mr. Lee did.”

            “Honestly I wasn’t paying attention.”

            “Of course you weren’t,” I dramatize throwing my hands in the air.

            Harry and I get to my house and I start to walk inside until he grabs my hand and pulls me back. He stands across from me and holds both my hands in his. “Aanya,” he begins, “I like you. Like, a lot.” He looks directly at me, leans forward and kisses me gently on the cheek. I look back into his brown eyes and don’t say a word. He drops my hands and says, “I’ll see you at school on Monday.” He walks off in the direction of his house and I just stand in disbelief, right where he left me.