Curious Georgia |✔

•1- Curiously Late•

  There's an obnoxious ringing that goes off. I'm not sure what it is, but if it doesn't stop, I swear to God I'm going to beat it with a bat.

  I turn on my bed to grab my phone. It's then that I realize my phone is ringing; it's Monday; it's time for me to get up. I groan and put my phone back on the side table and plop my head back into my pillows.

  "C'mon, honey, rise and shine! You have to get up, or you're going to be late for school!" my mom says. She walks over to my window and yanks the curtains apart, letting the bright sun fill my room with its light. I hiss at it.

  "Just let me sleep. School is overrated anyways," I mumble in my pillows. And as if she's the father of Greg Heffley, she picks up my blankets and shakes them. The cold air sends shivers up my spine, and now I'm fully awake.

  "You're walking to school, so you need to hurry up and get ready. Let's go, let's go, let's go!" she rants on.

  Lazily, I drag myself off my bed and walk to my closet to pick something out to wear, grab it, and then head for the bathroom to take a shower.

  I turn on "Can't Sleep Love" by Pentatonix and belt it out as I wash myself. Since there's no one else in the house to complain about how loud I am besides my mom, she bangs on the door and yells at me to quiet down. Of course, I'm feeling a little irritated by her antics this morning, so I just continue to yell the lyrics of the upbeat love song as if I didn't hear her.

  By the time I'm done in the bathroom, it's just about time for me to leave, so I grab an apple and head out of the door in my jeans and simple T-shirt. I have ten minutes to get to school, which is good considering that it only takes me five minutes to get there.

  I walk to school everyday, and the scenery never changes. It's always the same suburban neighborhood, the same quick walk to school. It can get boring. So, for the sake of me not losing my mind, I take a different way to school this time. It's a bundle of trees that I end up walking through. This is where I usually go to just sit and think. Not that there's much to think about. My life is pretty mellow.

  The leaves on all of the trees are turning a different shade now that it's October. I mean, they've been turning a different color since the middle of September, but now all of them have a different pigment, not a green leaf in sight.

  I go to the tree that I always sit in and climb it. And just to make sure no one heard me (I don't think anyone would really mind my presence, but still) I walk silently, making sure I don't step on any sticks or rustle any leaves. My movements are quick and easy, and I sit on the fifth branch from the top, as always. A small wind blows and I inhale deeply. I guess this was worth getting up from my warm bed.

  Even though this isn't my first time in these fit of trees on the side of the rode, I look around and take in my surroundings. Nothing has seemed to change since the last time I was here, which wasn't really too long ago. Then I see something move. Or someone. It is climbing up a tree not too far from mine, grunting as it makes its way up. Once it is satisfied with how far it's climbed, it sits down with a thud. I try to decipher its face and come to a decision that that someone is a guy. I'm not sure who, but he looked familiar. Maybe he goes to my school. Thinking of that, I glance at the time. My eyes widen. Class starts in two minutes! I'm not making it to school in two minutes! It takes me four minutes to get down from the tree without making a sound and breaking my neck! I conclude that I shouldn't worry about it. I'd just show up late and take whatever punishment my teacher decides to give to me.

*~*~*~*

  I make it to my first period eight minutes late. For some reason, Ms. Melotasy had leniency and told me not to be this late again. Soon after, a boy came in a few minutes after I did and really bit the dust. He got a detention. And because I can never keep my big mouth shut, I tell Ms. Melotasy how unfair it is to give him a detention since I was late too. So she gave me one as well.

  Lucky me.

  The day was terribly long and it only saddened me more when I realized my day wasn't even over yet. Today, I guess I just feel like being an idiotic rebel. I'll probably get a phone call to my mother or more detention, but I walk out of the school and head towards the trees.

  I climb again for the second time today, and take a nap. My ear buds are in my ears lightly playing Mozart. The melodic hum is disturbed before I have the chance to lay my head back on the bark behind me. The noise is coming from the same tree that a boy had climbed in this morning, and it's the same guy who climbed it.

  Call me creepy, but I stare at this guy the entire time he sits in the tree. Who is he? I almost call out his name, and I guess I should. But I don't. I just take this time to look at him and absorb his features as best as I can.

  From what I can tell, he has brown, curly hair, a soft but strong jawline, and kind eyes. The longer I look at him, the more I begin to realize it's the boy that was late at school this morning. I want to know more, but it'd be a little too weird if I told him I've been looking at him this entire time. After my semi-thorough search of the guy's face, I lean my head against the tree, put in my earbuds, and take a well deserved nap. And when I wake up, the boy is gone.