When The Full Moon Rises

Chapter 3

It was even darker in the garage, the only light leaking through the small windows on the slide-open garage doors. I had to feel my way around, probably looking like a crippled old lady the way I was hobbling around. After stubbing my toe twice, knocking my head, and tripping countless times, I finally found the wall where I opened the kickstand on my bike and let it stand near it. I was going to be so sore tomorrow.

I limped back to the other door that opened into the house, flipping a button on the wall that slide the garage doors back into place on my way inside. It had been such a long day. And I still couldn’t get over the situation with Sebastian. I had never met a guy that rude. I mean, yeah he was insanely gorgeous, but looks aren’t everything.

Mom seemed satisfied when she saw that I had done what she had asked and that I was heading to bed. But from her sudden horrified expression, I was guessing I hadn’t met her expectations completely.

“Sunny! What is on the bottom of your shoes!” she exclaimed, glaring at the yellow tracks I had led all across the white carpet. I glanced down warily. When the heck had I stepped in something yellow?

“That’s going to take forever to come out!” she exclaimed, looking like she was about to faint. I rolled my eyes. My mom was always quick to jump to conclusions and worst case scenerios.

I carefully backtracked and went back out to the garage, yanking my sneakers off when I was off the carpet. Mom seemed to relax a little after that, but she still eyed me specutively.

“What?” I asked, mystified. I’d done what she wanted. What did she want now?

“I want you to go back out into the garage, get the carpet cleaner, and clean this mess up,” she said, turning and striding off towards the kitchen.

“But, Mom! That’s gonna take forever! It’s almost eleven!” I complained to her back.

“Well, maybe that will teach you to check what’s on the bottom of your shoes every once in a while.”

I walked back to garage, grumbling to myself again. That made two people that had used up my quota of patience for the day. Being smarter than before, I turned on the lights so I could see. I quickly located the carpet cleaner, which looked more like a boxy vacuum cleaner, and took it into the house.

After plugging it in, I spent the next three hours going over the same spots with the cleaner. But it just wasn’t coming off. What the heck did I step in? When I got as much off as much as I could, leaving only a faint yellow stain that was still really visible on the white carpet, I decided to call it a night. I would have to into town tomorrow and find a stronger cleaner.

I didn’t have time to take a shower as I would have liked to, so once I got to my room, I simply changed into my pajamas, throwing my dirty clothes into the dirty clothes hamper, after removing my money from my pants pocket, and walked into the bathroom down the hall. With my teeth brushed, my hair brushed, my contacts out, and my business done, I stumbled back to my room, sleep already starting to seap into my system.

I barely made it to the bed before I collapsed from exhaustion. Stupid Sebastian. Stupid chores. Stupid babysitting. All of these things had kept me from doing what I had intended. Now I would have to go out with my friends completely blind, without anything I could say or do that I had already practiced. I rolled on my side, failing to find comfort, and turned back to where I was, staring up at the white ceiling.

I may have dozed a little, but I didn’t find the sleep I wanted. The kind of sleep that knocked me out till one in the afternoon. But I couldn’t even keep my eyes closed for more than five minutes. I sat up in frustration. Whenever I had a tiring day, then stayed up late at night, I could never fall asleep. It was so annoying. As if I didn’t need another thing to annoy me.

And I thought I was actually tired. I mean I was. I was dead tired. But not sleepy, which was the key word in this situation. I wasn’t my normal self. I was way overly irritated and annoyed. And my sleeping cycles were probably going to be permantly altered at the rate of which my life was going; with babysitting this hour, going to a party the next, and then cleaning the bathroom before going to bed. What an amazing life I had. And with the examples I was giving in my head, it actually sounded possible that I would be doing those things tomorrow.

By the time another long, agony-filled hour had passed, I was still no where near sleep. and it was close to three in the morning now. I didn’t see how laying here like a statue was helping anything, so I got up and went downstairs for a midnight snack. I munched on a few chocolate chip cookies, drained a glass of milk, and went back up to my room, all the while feeling like a secret ninja as I roamed around the house by myself in the dark.

After experiencing what I had today, I half expected my room to have some slight alteration, of any kind. But it was still the same as when I had left it. The same lavendar walls, matching the lavender bedspread. The same dresser pushed against the wall. the same desk/vanity mirror against the back wall, next to the big french-style windows that over looked the front lawn. From the top floor, you could see square into the city.

I leaned against the window, staring up at the midnight sky, wondering how I was ever going to manage the next day. The moon was full in the sky, bleaching out the stars on all sides. I felt comfort in that. Looking up at a full moon always made me feel special, like I was the only one seeing it. Maybe that sounded self-centered, but it was true. I loved the feeling.

I don’t know how long I stood perched at the window. I watched the sky turn differnt colors. From black, to inky purple, and then to dark gray, dawn on the horizon. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before, but as my eyes raked over our front yard, they landed on a figure standing under the shade of a big maple tree, making it hard to see whoever it was. And then, the figure stooped down, picked something up, and hurled it at my window.