*21 Years Before*
My Hello Kitty alarm clock wakes me up at the crack of dawn. Don't ask my six year old self why I got it when I would get tired if it later in life. As a six year old we want all the rainbows in the world. It still works, the only reason why I haven't replaced it yet. And at the point in life as long as it still worked it was good enough for me.
In every single teenage book or movie the girl's hair is always a giant tangled mess that takes an eternity to comb and make it look decent. I am one of the lucky few who only has to brush a few times before it's all good. My brown-black wavy hair barely reaches my shoulders thanks to a ridiculous thought from me that it was a more flattering hairstyle at two am a few months ago. I put a baseball cap on it to hide the hairs that always stick straight up after I change into a light brown shirt and black overalls with the legs cut off mid shin (once again, something else I thought would be flattering on me but wasn't. I got to the ultimate point of screw it by seinor year, an art I had mastered. Screw this, screw that, screw it all. It was actually quite an impressive feat.).
Like usual my parents were already gone. My Dad worked for a construction company in Alberta while my Mom had to get to her bakery in order to make donuts for the day. When she came home for the night she would always smell like vanilla sugary goodness of the bakery. I saw my Mom when I went to her bakery in the morning and had breakfast there before taking the bus to school. For dinner my Dad usually orders takeout if I don't make us chicken nuggets or fish sticks from the freezer. While it wasn't the ideal life I was for the most part content with it.
The year was 1998 and the yearly disease called senioritis was in full swing for most students after winter break. It's the time where finals for my school were taking place and where we were furiously working our butts off in order to possibly get into our dream college and prepare the freezer of Ben and Jerry's in case of rejection. Where couples are debating breaking up or making long-distance work for them. By this point many students know what their major for college will be and some even know what they want to do for the rest of their life. Would you be shocked if my answer to the latest was no?
Truth be told I wasn't sure about sending in an application to college would even be worth it. Yes, I was smart enough to go to a state one but it wasn't like I was mind-blowing. Besides, money was already stretched thin enough and I didn't want my parents worrying. There are more ways to learn than just going to college for a degree you might not even use later in life.
As I walk into Powers, the name of Mom's bakery, I subconsciously smile. The bakery was quaint but had character to it. My Mom had grew up in Savannah, Georgia and wanted to give the bakery the same amount of character she believed the town held. She had painted on the walls herself a realistic sunset with hues of purple and orange and pink and painted a tree with Spanish Moss hanging off of it. On another wall there was a steamboat that would always chug down the river with steam comming out the engine. There were windows on another wall but where there wasn't glass was some of the city's most historic houses. On the final wall behind the counter was painted a simple pale orange with a picture of my Mom when she first opened the place and her childhood home in Savannah. I never understood why she would want to leave a place like Savannah but I knew when I shouldn't pry and I respected her space.
"I'd like the medium bag of donuts holes and a large cup of coffee to go please." I tell Forbes, the main cashier. He had been working at the bakery for as long as I could remember.
"All of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." Forbes tells me. He's an unmarried man with a brown beard who only shaves in the summer. Ever since I was a child he has been giving me quotes of the day he reads in his books of quotes. Yesterday was Don't judge someone on their mistakes but rather on how they fix them and the day before that was When one chapter ends there's always another, even if you have to write it yourself. Over time it has been something I've looked forward to and brings a bit of joy into my day.
YOU ARE READING
Bigger Than My Fantasies ✔️
Short Story"you can be bigger than your fantasies." Lisalotte Powers. Many people know her name but not many know her story of how she was a social outcast in high school who one day rose through the ranks and became the creator of one of the most well known...
