GuiTara

🎵~6

🎶I've been trying to keep up with all of these great expectations, so I keep on faking ~ Jon Bellion

●Tara Afua Henrie●

🎶Come on, vàmonos!

Everybody, let's go

Come on, let's get to...

I thought I was dreaming at first, but when the song grew louder and louder, I lifted my sleepy head up.

🎶Where are we going?

To school!

Where are we...

A Dora The Explorer alarm clock sat on my nightstand, blaring that ridiculous tune at six freaking a.m!

Pam must've taken the clock from Keke's room and set it up so she wouldn't have to come and wake me up with an air horn again. But when you've had a terrible night, waiting for sleep to come, and it finally does at four a.m, you just smack your distractions away.

That was precisely what happened to the alarm clock. Sorry, Dora.

Nuzzling my head back into the pillow, I lulled myself to sleep, only to be interrupted by my ringtone.

"Arrgghh." Stretching over to pick the phone up, a picture of Mama blowing out the candles on her sixtieth birthday cake glowed in my face, and I groaned once more. She had been calling me non-stop since yesterday, and I'd been doing everything I could to avoid them.

I hit ignore, but when she immediately called back, I knew she wasn't going to give up any moment from now. I could turn the phone off and turn it back on twelve hours later, and she would still be the first person to call. Let's just get it over with. "Hey, Mama."

"Tara Afua Henrie!" she yelled from the other side. "M'afrɛ wo saa. Na wo wɔ hen?" [I've been calling you several times. Where were you?] "I even called Pam, and her phone is switched off!"

"Sorry. We've been busy." I sat up in bed.

"Oh. Then I guess your first day at the restaurant went well."

"Errm... Yeah. Yeah, it did." My hands felt clammy all of a sudden.

"Really?" she sounded excited. "Tell me all about it. What happened?"

"Errm..." My brain froze. Spinning lies wasn't my best trait. Anytime I did, I would slip up somewhere, then the whole story would backfire on me later. But I also couldn't tell Mama the truth. If I told her about yesterday's terrible accident, she would be disappointed. This whole 'working for Pam' thing was her idea.

"T? Are you there?" Mama asked in a voice laced with concern.

"Yeah, yeah." I nervously cleared my throat and pushed myself to speak, "Work was... great, yeah. I... erm... I served a lot of customers and earned loads of tips. Pam was really impressed with my progress. I even served a famous Mexican celebrity... He... he really loved it."

He sure did, my subconscious chipped in, and I shoved the comment to the side.

"Aawww," Mama cooed. "I'm so glad to hear this, T. I was so worried you wouldn't be able to move on after the whole Cudjoe thing, but this is proof that you can, and you are moving on, and I'm so happy that you're not letting the past get the best of you."

Tiny sniffles came from the phone, and my subconscious chipped in again with a comment, Great. You made her cry.

"Please don't cry, Mama." I rubbed my temples.