Maple Springs

Chapter Seven

The sunlight danced with the curtains that draped over the window on the far side of the room. A tv without a cable box sat in front of me against the wall, along with a DVD player was perched underneath in a small compartment.

My dad had a crazy imagination when it came to designing. Even though his heart was in architecture; he still enjoyed the love of decorating a home and building it from the ground up. The designs that man could come up with was insane.

My closet was covered by a white paneled wood with bi-fold doors attached that my dad had put together one night during a thunderstorm. Our power had been out, and we had candles set up around us, hoping not to catch the brand-new house on fire. I was only six years old at the time, but this moment was how I came to love the art of design.

My mom never really left the house unless she had to. She woke up at dawn every morning to watch her morning soap operas. "Hey honey, are you taking the car today?" She asked me as she pressed her lips to her coffee mug and lifted it slightly upward. "If that's alright with you," I replied.

"Of course," she answered before setting the mug down and bending over to rummage through her purse. She pulled out a set of keys and tossed them to me.

I caught them without hesitation and smiled at her. I ran back up to my room in order to get ready.

Light filled the room in a snap of the finer after turning on the switch next to my door.

The shower was steaming hot as if I wanted to boil myself alive. I normally took warm showers but I needed to clear my mind at this point. I stepped and wrapped myself with a towel from the rack next to the shower.

I strolled to my closet and picked out a pretty oversized olive green sweater that hung heavily over my shoulders. It also contained chevron patches that allowed it to lose the sweater title.

I slipped on a pair of cuffed denim shorts as the sweater fell back down slightly above the first button.

I finished the outfit off with a pair of tan sandals that seemed to be getting bigger every time I tried to wear them.

My hair looked beaten up even after the shower from the tossing and turning of last nights fiasco.

My mother was kind enough to not mention the nest she had saw before the shower. I tried it down with a blow-dryer and leaving it to do what it wanted to do.

The mascara wasn't working as well as it usually did and I wasn't going to add on to the mess with any more makeup.

I made it back downstairs and picked my bag off the floor where I had left it. "I'm leaving mom," I told her as I had realized she was really into her soap opera.

I don't even think she heard me at all.

I walked behind her and wrapped my arms around her neck. "I'm leaving mother," I said as she hugged me back. "Have a great day," she told me.

I turned on my heel and headed out of the door.

The car purred when I turned the engine over. I buckled my seat belt and threw my bag in the backseat.

The interior was a dark maroon along with the weird smell of cinnamon that lingered in the air. I looked up to notice the cinnamon refresher hanging from the rear view mirror.

The smell was starting to clog my airway and the amount of cinnamon could not have been healthy for a human being.

I rolled the windows down to release the chemicals that were burning my nose.

The drive to school was boring since the radio barely worked. Maple Springs was a town surrounded by trees and there was never any connection with the radio.

If the town were to be the first in a zombie apocalypse to be hit; nobody would ever know about from the other towns over until it was too late.

Maybe if I tried to handle one day without Oliver holding me on a leash and dragging me along. I hated feeling out of place here, even though apparently everybody knew my dad.

I walked through the front doors and traced my steps to my first period. The bell rang immediately as I walked in and everybody was already sitting in their seats.

I tried to pretend that I wasn't shy even though I was when it came to being in a crowd. I blame my parents for how shy I turned out since I never really went to public school until now.

I sat in the back next to a girl with long brown locks; dressed in a pink dress and matching flats. I wanted to scream at the amount of pink on her body but I would be a hypocrite if I complained any longer.

I never really understood why my mother encouraged me to take advanced statistics but it was way easier than I had thought it would be.

Mrs. Goldman turned to the entire class and said, "Pop quiz!" in an excited voice. The class groaned and complained as she handed out the test as she continued to say, "we signed up for this."

I never complained about any work out in front of me because I knew the grade would be a step up to getting closer to Rice.

As always, I finished first. I hated being seen as a class pet but I needed to get some sleep. I walked to the front of the class and turned in the paper.

Mrs. Goldman gave me a wide smile as I turned away. I sat back down in my chair and laid my head down. I couldn't stop thinking about that girls face yesterday.

She had looked at me as if I was going to kill her at any moment when I told her my last name was Schneider.

I was dreading going to the table today but I had nobody else to sit with. The bell rang and I grabbed my bag and started to walk out of the class before I noticed Oliver standing against the wall. He looked up at me and smiled.

I let out a sigh and tried to smile back. I turned to walk the other direction towards my second period. "Amaryllis, wait." He called out. I stopped and realized that I should just stop being ungrateful and accept his help.

I turned to look at him. "Are you alright? You look exhausted." He informed me. I nodded to his concerned look.

"I'm just not getting a lot of sleep," I said and tried to get out of the subject. Although, he wasn't letting me.

"Why?" He questioned. I shook my head and tried to walk away, but he grabbed my backpack and pulled me backward.

I looked at him as he thwarted me from my walk to class. "Oliver. Please, just let me go to class. I'll see you at lunch." I told him. I saw Grace walking up behind him with her hair in a braid; that laid over her shoulder. She wore a dress that was an atrocious shade of yellow, that looked somewhat like mustard mixed with the color of UTI piss.

"Hey, pumpkin, " Grace announced.