The Night I Fell In Love

Chapter 1

Josephine

Somebody up there hated me. No doubt about it, this had to be the worst day of my entire existence.

It started out okay, the sneaky way bad days usually do. The beautiful blue sky, the shining golden sunrise, and even the chirping birds outside were so deceiving. I woke up to the soft rays of sunlight filtering through the window in my bedroom. Of course, it just had to be a Monday, the first school day of the week. I was about to go into the shower at the end of the hallway when the sound of running water behind the closed door made me hesitate. That was probably my younger sister Joanna. At that moment, I knew I was going to be late for school. You see, Joanna had this irritating habit of spending an entire hour inside our one and only bathroom, leaving me by the door yelling threats and cursing ever so unladylike-ly, which I was very prone to doing.

So I had no other choice but to get some breakfast first. Stomping down into the hot kitchen in my pink bunny slippers, I half expected mom to be there, cooking up a gourmet meal. But as I said before, it was not going to be my day, so it came as no surprise that mom wasn't in the kitchen.

I walked back up the stairs and knocked on my parents' bedroom door, "mom, are you awake? It's Monday."

"I don't feel so well, Josie. You and Joan can whip up some cereal for breakfast, can you?" Mom's soft voice sounded through the door.

I tramped back into the kitchen and tried to scavenge what was left of my Krispy Krunch cereal in the cupboard and milk in the refrigerator. When Joanna came down, I was spooning cold cereal into my mouth.

"Mom's not feeling well so you'd better find something to eat," I said in between chews.

Joanna wrinkled her nose, her face resembling mine as I ate. We looked so much alike that people often mistook us as twins, with only a year setting us apart. We had the same wavy brown hair that we wore down our backs, blue eyes the shade of cornflowers, with a sprinkling of freckles dusting our nose. We even shared the same small dimple on the left corner of our lips when we smiled.

She sat down across from me, and I felt like I was staring into a mirror. She tossed her still wet hair and said, "fix me a sandwich and I'll pay you two bucks."

I shook my head, "no way. I let you use the bathroom first."

"You hadn't awakened from dreamland yet, so I figured I could use it before you got up, "Joanna stated matter-of-factly.

I finished my cereal and stood up to rinse my bowl, "I'm late. You can make your own breakfast for now."

I turned to leave just as she bargained, "three bucks."

I hesitated, glancing at the wall clock. I really needed money for my science projects. Unfortunately, time had become my enemy today. Sighing, I reluctantly said, "sorry, no time." Then I hurried through the bathroom and grabbed my clothes for the day, my favorite pink sweater and blue jeans with sneakers. Luckily Kennedy High School was only three blocks away from our home so I could make good time if I ran.

I was halfway through our front door, all ready to go, when Joanna stuck her head into the living room and stated calmly, "your shoes don't match."

Looking down at my feet, I saw I was wearing a green sneaker on my left foot and a white sneaker on my right. Cursing a full paragraph, I rushed upstairs again to change into my white sneakers then came back out. At least though Joanna warned me before I reached school. That would have been one for the yearbook.

Of course, the day was just starting. I tripped on the sidewalk and ruined my good jeans on the first block, got barked at and chased by a dog in the second, narrowly missing having my ankle chewed to a pulp, and it started drizzling by the time I reached the third block. And I stepped onto a puddle just before I crossed the street to our school. Nothing too drastic, just that irritating soggy squishy feeling of wet feet in sneakers that squeaked with every step.