Bloom

Day 6: Birthday Climb

Today is Sammy's birthday! We are going to climb up the mountain, have a picnic, sing happy birthday, and have a party! Sammy was also going to ask Hugo to be their boyfriend! It was going to be AMAZING!

*Brush! Brush! Brush!* And the other way. *Scrub! Scrub! Scrub!* And up and down. *Scribbly scrubbly bubbly scribbly!* And... DONE! Two rows of sparklingly white and clean teeth!

We stared into the mirror at our pearly teeth. We noticed, however, that our face looked slightly different... but we couldn't tell what. Our white headband was in place, and our glasses were firmly on our face. What is it??? What is it?????? What if my friends notice? What if they think it's funny and laugh about it, and I don't know what's going on!? We glanced into the reflection again. Whatever, it's probably nothing. Maybe. Hopefully.

We emerged from the bathroom, closing it slowly, careful to not slam it. We walked down the hallway. Oh no. Our white pony toy was broken on the floor, shattered into gnawed up pieces. I can fix you. It's fine. It's okay. You'll be okay. You'll be okay.

"ARE YOU DONE BRUSHING YOUR TEETH YET!?" Oh woops, we forgot that Sammy and Jenny are still waiting for us! We ran downstairs to the door and put our cute little shoes on. 'Wait' we thought to ourself. 'We haven't got a present for Sammy! Oh no!'

What things does Sam like? We ran that thought through our head over and over... What things does Sam like!? "You've been brushing your teeth for a while now, are you okay in there?" Jenny concernedly shouted, somehow yet unsurprisingly, gently. 'Sammy likes food!' We thought. And we knew exactly where to get food, the kitchen!

The kitchen was a place for food. We walked down the corridor and turned a corner and walked down the corridor until we came to a doorway with a door agape. Through the doorway was darkness – unevenly lit, animated gloom and shadow; it was hard to see into it, yet we still peered in. We leaned and held onto the frame of the door for support, yet the frame of the door wanted not to. The room stank. There was a squarish and dotty flicker of blue light, that seemed only to radiate onto whatever was closest. There were small empty packets and boxes of stuff on the floor, cans too.

Then we heard it – a grumbling.

Nononononononono.

We leaned in, trying desperately for the door handle. We leaned in and leaned in and we... "Oof!" we hit the ground and now the dark was all around us. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!" It grumbled louder. We scrambled to our feet and grasped for the door handle and threw the door inwards as we fell back into the corridor.

There was an eerie silence as we got to our feet again, but our footsteps as we continued to the kitchen got rid of the silence as the air was filled with noise again. *Tippity tap! Tippity tap!* as we skipped along the corridor. *Tippity tap!*

We made it to the kitchen. There was no door in the way – just a hole. We stepped in, and as we did, an imprint was left on the dusty tiled floor, reverberating a tap. 'Where to get food from first?' We asked ourself. We had already emptied the crooked cupboards of the sweets. There was nothing in the fruit bowl either, not after that one time we disastrously tried to make our own smoothie with Jen! (It tasted very strange) Our stomach roared longingly at the thought of food.

The fridge. There might be stuff in the fridge but... We glared at the fridge, and it glared back at us, wearing the chains that Father had shackled it down with. Not again... Our stomach screamed and writhed. I can free you. We ripped away the assortment of mean sticky notes from the fridge door and began to tug as hard as we could on the chains. But as we tugged, our fingers sored.