After Earth's Fall | ✔ UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION

~*~

Nila tosses and turns in her cocoon, the loud sound of flowing water from her parent's bathroom awakening her from her peaceful sleep. She groans, smothering herself with her immensely comfortable pillow and immersing herself in the bedsheets. That's when she opens her eyes.

A sense of dread comes over her but she can't exactly pinpoint why. She turns onto her side, smooshing her face against her pillow and lays still for a few moments. Nila blinks a few times and yawns, then looks over at the large holographic image of the day's schedule on the wall. The floating, neon-blue schedule shows the time in big, bold numbers at the very top, with everyone's jobs for the day in a table below. The first person's name at the very top, as usual, is her own. She still has ten minutes until the alarm screams at her to get up and get at it. There is something peaceful about the stillness, letting her tired muscles relax even if it is just for a short period of time. She may as well admit it to herself; she has grown tired of training, no, exhausted. It has been ten years at this point.

Perhaps she made a mistake raising her hand in Mrs Muchannons class ten years ago. In that instant, it was something she really wanted to do. However, as time has passed her mother has gotten pushier and pushier and for some reason, all that has done has made Nila lose the passion she had for it. Why should she do it if it isn't for herself? Although, she also doesn't entirely know what else she would do if that wish were fulfilled. Her future on Mars seems bleak otherwise. Nila furrows her eyebrows and shuts her eyes for a few more moments of rest.

The stupid thing of it all is how she is so close to the finish line. Most people would kill to live out every Martian's dream - see Earth, hear it, feel it and fulfill a greater purpose. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Like her mother says, she just has to keep forging ahead.

' You can do this,' she gives herself words of encouragement and braces herself for that annoying, robotic lady's voice.

"Nila, your training commences in approximately fifteen minutes." At that, Nila does a double-take at the clock. That wasn't the announcement she was expecting.

Of course, she had read it wrong. Her alarm had first rung forty minutes ago which means she was supposed to have got up and got at it forty minutes ago.

"Gah!" is all that she can manage to get out.

Like a feline, she shoots up out of her bed and flings the sheets off her body. Zooming across her bedroom to a gleaming full-length mirror, she stands in front of it, feet together, back straight, head high in her light grey, star-speckled nightdress. Wiping her beloved, slightly wrinkled pyjamas down, she accesses the damage she has to repair from oversleeping.

"Hair knotty as usual," she groans, earning the attention of her mother who had woken up far earlier than her schedule as habitual.

"Are you nearly ready to go pumpkin?" her voice resonates from the open dining area, no doubt sitting at the circular glass table with a mug of coffee.

"Um," Nila starts, a scowl on her face. "Yes, mother."

She's going to be late and she cannot afford to be late if she wants to make a good impression on her trainers. Nila loudly scurries into her bathroom, waking up her father in the process.

"What in the world is all this racket about?" Jared complains in his groggy morning voice.

"She's done it again," Nila's mother replies, all-knowing with a hint of disappointment.

Frantically, she studies herself in the bathroom mirror. Her short, shoulder-length brown hair is like a bird's nest on top of her head. Wild, unmaintained and a little sparse on the edges. She grabs a brush from the marble bathroom countertop and rakes it through her hair, eventually tying it up into a miniature ponytail. In annoyance, Nila pokes at the rebellious short bits that stick out like sore thumbs at the top, but she doesn't have time to meddle over perfection. She urgently squirts some toothpaste onto her toothbrush and goes to town on those pearly whites of hers.