one.

"You've got to promise me, Sage, you won't tell."

   Sage looked up from her paper at her squatty, rather pretty, friend, whose deep brown eyes were looking at her intently. They kind of reminded her of a cow's eyes, not that Dayna looks anything like a cow. They're just really big and brown. 

"Yeah, yeah, I promise. I won't tell." she said, not really knowing what she agreed to not tell. Dayna comes with drama. Sage discovered this when she got into college. Drama is Dayna's middle name. Every week she'd come in with some knew boy and how she thinks he's "the one." What is the one anymore? All of this crazy view of "the one" kinda drives one insane after awhile. 

Sage looked at the clock on the kitchen wall of her apartment and realized it was time for class. She ran into her messy room and grabbed all of her books and glanced in the mirror at herself to make sure that she wasn't too horrible looking. "You never know who you can run into" she thought to herself. Sage's six foot-one inch person stared back at her. She glanced at her slightly auburn-ish hair, adjusted her bra, then got really close to the mirror and looked at her poors. "Dang poors, no matter how much money I put into you you still like to explode into violent volcanoes of puss." Then she ran out of the third floor apartment and started on her way up the giant stares to class. 

Walking to class was always a calming thing for her. It was then where she could think of whatever she wanted and imagine whatever she wanted. It was usually her thinking of some sort of relationship that she wished existed, mainly because that's what happens when you go to a school where everybody and anybody is either married, engaged, or dating. Kinda annoying. She would always remind herself though that she doesn't want to get married, after she daydreams, there's so much more to do with life still...

A tall man walks behind her and steps on the back of her shoe. Everything goes flying including her tall, lanky self. He stops picks up her books, and gives her his hand. She looks at him. The guy who helped her is extremely good looking! She grabs his hand and he glances at her, mumbles an apology, and still holding her books, walks her to class. 

She walks into the building and the mysterious man vanishes in to thin air with the bell. Sage sighs, and walks into the basement classroom. She takes a seat in the second to last row of the florescent lit room and settles in. Her teacher's lisp sticks out and that's the only thing that she listens to. Then his mouth slowly starts to disappear until all that's left is the "ssss"--or "ththththth" in his case--his eyes slowly get closer and closer until he only has one and the white board fads behind him into nothing-ness. He is now just a floating head. A floating "thyclopth" head. 

"Brriiinggg!" The bell rings again and she walks out of the windowless classroom past her balding teacher and back into the jam-packed, body-odor, hallway. 

"I really need to pay more attention..."She said to herself. 

Walking back down the stairs to her apartments, she decides that she doesn't want to daydream anymore. It gets in the way, and is completely unreal. So, she counts. She would count how many steps it takes between each overgrown crack in the sidewalk. Her long legs stride in beat to the blasting radios passing by on the street below and she has to have three steps between each individual crack. Three. It had to be three, or at least each foot had to have the equal chance of being first to step into the concrete square. "Squares," she'd think, "they're so easy...why can't everything be that equal and easy, does that make me a square? Am I boring like a square? Ok...no more thinking! I'm tired of thinking...that's all I ever do..."

She walks up the two flights of stairs making sure that her feet got the same chance of being the first to step on the first step. "I'm really obsessive-compulsive...should I have this looked at? I'll talk to Wade tomorrow..." 

Everything she'd think of would end in an ellipse. Nothing was concrete, everything just faded into a series of three dots...

She walked into her apartment and flung herself on the couch, backpack full of books and all, and reached for the remote in the middle of the living room floor. Dayna walks in glares at her and says "don't you ever do anything productive with yourself?"

Sage tunes her out, once again, and turns into zombie mode. Some sort of rerun of a  basketball game is going on. "Basketball is good and mindless," she says to herself. Television and movies are the only things that keep her from thinking. They allow her to glance into the imagination of other people. She doesn't have to think, just watch. Nice and simple.

Her backpack slowly gets wiggled out of, without disturbing her position, and finds its way on the floor with a thud, along with her size ten shoes. She adjusts herself more into the crevice of the couch and gazes, glassy eyed at the screen full of noise, yelling, and little people running back and forth with the burnt-orange ball.

The time flies by as she becomes more and more zombie-like. Just a nothing. Dayna walks in and out, complaining about something, but nobody is or wants to pay attention. A commercial for some sort of beer came on along with a violent ring from her cell phone. She groaned as she pulled herself up from her position to grab her phone from across the room. 

"mmm-ello?" She managed to get out.

"Sage, what are you doing tonight?"

She closed her eyes, furrowed her eyebrows and opened her eyes again. "What?" She said.

"What are you doing tonight?" 

"Oh, I don't know yet, why?"

"Eh, it's just a Friday night and I thought you'd like to do something."

"Is it really Friday already? Oh, yeah...I guess it is...Uh, sure. What did you have in mind?"

"Well I was gonna go to this new place out on 9th street, it's supposed to be pretty good."

The deeply foreign accented voice kept explaining about this new hip place and she just kept thinking "I like hip, maybe it'd be good if I get out. I like to get dressed up every once in awhile...but these dang zits..."

"So, what do you say?"

"Ok. That'd be fun, I've been a little too boring lately."

The voice chuckled low and soft while saying, "ok. I'll pick you up at around 8?"

"Sounds good."

The soft click from the other side of the call commences and her mind starts up again. "Did I just get asked on a date? Huh. That's interesting..."

Wednesday Rain

The strangely consistent drizzling continues throughout the afternoon. I walk to class with my snake skin print umbrella and look at all of the other students in their different colored coats and umbrellas. 

Rain always makes me relaxed, and want to just curl up in my down comforter all day with a movie and hot chocolate. That's actually probably what I'll do the rest of the day. It's Wednesday and I don't have swim practice this afternoon so I can do that. Wednesdays are always weird days to me because I only have a morning of lifting those iron things that people call "weights" and a small amount of yardage, and because I don't have to swim in the afternoon I want to look a little bit more human. Which doesn't make any sense to me though because I don't really see anyone all day unless I go to the library, but I don't really have to because I caught up with everything. So I dress up for myself and my self esteem. Either that or it's because I think maybe some random guy will see me and ask me out...HAHAHA yeah right.

The other athletes in "study hall" are just kind of sitting there. Trying to study, but at the same time resisting the urge to talk to each other. It doesn't work very well though. The constant jabbering never dies down.

I should know. I do the exact same thing every time I come in. It's like the thought that you're trying not to say just builds and builds until it explodes and everyone around hears your "all important thought" when it really doesn't matter. People really don't get much done. Not at all. They're really all just on facebook trying to delve into each others lives. 

The rain is still going and going. The sidewalks aren't as crowded as they are when the rain isn't there. The hundreds of little puddles splash my jeans as I walk home in the rain with my snake skin print umbrella.  

Morning time

This story is kinda boring...sorry. I just don't have any weird story on top of my mind. So I wrote how my morning has been. Minus the pee soaked toilet seat that I sat on, I guess that's what happens when you have a 2 year-old potty training little brother.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of my family moving about the house. Like always. It was the first day of school, for them anyway, I don't start for another week. My little sister was going to be a sophomore at the high school down the street that I had the unfortunate event of graduating from, my mom was going into her tenth year of teaching at the same high school, and my little brother was going to kindergarten. That was the weirdest thing. Teddy and kindergarten. He's only 3! Wait...no I guess he's 5, but it seems like he should still be 3.

Anyway, I looked at my phone/alarm clock to see what time it was and it was 7:02. I was kind of annoyed. I stayed up until 12:40 last night watching t.v. and then later than that because I'm trying to get over this weird summer cold and I couldn't stop coughing. But, I got up anyway to see Teddy off. I didn't have my contacts or glasses on, so I couldn't see anything. My mouth was coated with some sort of goo from my cough, but I figured I was going to go back to sleep anyway, so I don't have to brush my teeth. Just yet. It was Teddy's first day of school, I could sacrifice my comfort. I don't think he really knew what was going on, but I found him on the couch watching some sort of cartoon on PBS. He had his motorcycle shirt on with his basketball short and his socks pulled up as high as they'll go underneath his Transformer Velcro strapped shoes. His hair was pushed to the side, like he always does. I think he copies how my dad does his hair, which makes Teddy look like a really short old man. Teddy takes after the Morgan side of the family like I do, so we look very similar. It makes me reminisce of the old days when the hardest time you faced was going to a new school and worrying if you'll find friends.

Then I went back to sleep until 10. Which is awesome, once school starts I can't sleep in that long. 6 am practices every morning!

Then I woke up, I walked into the bright teal bathroom that my sister and I painted this summer and squinted at myself through my sleepy blurry vision, and put in my contacts. My face was still kinda peely from my chemical peel. I guess no swimming for me today! I brushed all that gunk from my mouth and washed my face. I grabbed some Fruit loops, turned on the t.v. just for some background noise, and sat down with my laptop. My sister's annoying little chihuahua-thing came up and sat by me, begging for some of my food. Ugh, he's such an annoying little rat dog, but he is a snuggley dog. I guess I can deal with it. So, I cracked my toes and settled into my giant comfy couch and got ready for a nice long session with my facebook, hotmail, and blog with PBS kids going in the background. Mostly because I'm too lazy to find the elusive remote.

Disappear...

The sun beat down on my head. It was hot outside. Very hot. I put my hand on top of my dark hair that was pulled back into a pony-braid; the top of my head was probably hot enough to cook an egg. The hard and cracked ground I've been walking on for about 6 hours now was probably hot enough to cook a well-done steak. "Man I'm hungry," I thought simultaneously with my stomach, "when was the last time I'd eaten?" I had eaten about 4 hours ago when I passed the small village. I'm starting to get more familiar with this alien terrain: dirt, dirt, a dried weed, and more dirt.

I'm looking forward to camping tonight. My pack is getting heavy. I have my small one person tent, my gallon water bottle, and a couple of dried astronaut food packs. Although the desert is really hot and everything is really brown, there's some sort of beauty about it. It's starting to turn into evening and the sun is slowly setting. The colors that were missing from the desert light up the sky. Orange, pink, blue, and a touch of green streak across the sky. The clouds seem to interrupt the color and put some sort of color that I can't really put a name to. It's like a dark pinkish green. Then the colors slowly drop to the horizon and mix with the cooling desert floor making it look like a pool of water standing in a nameless shape on the ground.

I think it's about time to start preparing for camp. I'll need some twigs to keep away the creepy little animals that are out and about at night. So I pick up random dried out weeds, making sure that they are especially dry. This is where I'm going to stop for the night. I take my pack off of my back, the cool night air gently kisses the spot where it's been sitting all day allowing my back to gather sweat. I pulled out my little tent that doubles as a cot, and started my fire with my flint. It's little, but it'll keep me safe enough. It's about time to sleep, I need to get up a little before dawn. I crawl into my tent after I've had my meal, and start to drift off to sleep.

I haven't been able to sleep well at night since he was taken. It's unsettling. The screams keep ringing in my head, and pictures flash across my eye lids of him. So beautiful, so young. Why him? I need to find him and find out why.

The race.

This is in honor of the Olympics! I've never been, but this is what I think it'd be like.

Breathe...just breathe....in. out. in. out. It's going to be fine. You'll be ok.

The crowd is getting louder. I know, just breathe. I'm getting more nervous.

Just breathe!

Ok, ok, ok.

Now, open your eyes. It's almost time.

Almost time? What? It couldn't be.

Yeah, it is. This is something you've been waiting for all your life. Just breathe. Ok. See? It's not that bad.

I guess you're right. It's kind of exhilarating. I'm gettin' pumped now! Listen to that! They're chanting my name! I'm SO ready now!

Good. see, I told you.

Now what am I swimming again?

Oh geez..how did we make it here again? You're swimming the 50 free. Remember?

Oh yeah. I remember now. I like this race! It's over nice and fast.

Yeah, but you have to go fast too.

I know what to do. You don't have to tell me everything. Now go away for awhile so I can breathe.

If only I could...

Breathe...breathe...breathe...in. out. in. out.

Now wave....ok. We're good.

"Swimmers, take your mark...." beep!








Look, it's almost over. One more stroke.

Listen to that roar? What did we do? Oh.

Conform to the MAN

The sunlight danced across the floor as it played through the blinds. The cat was startled by the sudden movement and moved over to play in it. Soon enough the feline became tired and fell asleep in the warm light. I haven't ever been too fond of cats, but for some reason this one I've taken a liking to. He doesn't have a name. I just call him cat. He's kind of a free wonderer. All he needs is food and water and kitty litter and he just does his own thing. I guess that's why I kind of admire him. He doesn't have to conform to anybody. In fact, the only reason I have him, I guess, is because I conformed to the man. Either that or it might be the fact that ever since they took over we've only been allowed to have a few things at a time to make things "more fair." Which doesn't make any since at all. We recieve a new outfit once a month; we get an apartment with one bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom; once we reach a certain age and we aren't married, we can get either a dog or a cat. I was never a dog person either.

Before they took over, things were different. Much different. I was only around two, so I can't really remember much. From what they've told us, life was chaotic. Chaos...there is a word that I wonder about sometimes. The most chaos I've seen is when a storm came and there wasn't enough food to go around. That didn't last long though. We're watched everywhere we go. It's kind of like that one book 1984, I guess. They take out a lot of pages now. Anything that puts the idea of being original into the citizen's heads.

Even our food is made for us. Every month we go to the grocery and receive boxes for each family for however days there are in the month. They're usually placed in order too. Anything that is different from anyone else causes chaos. At least that's what I've been taught. I'd like to do something different for once though. Chaos sounds like fun. Wait a second, there's a knock at the door. I'll be right back...

Stormy Night

Here's my first. I know it's not perfect, but that's part of the reason I'm doing this blog, to make it better. "Practice doesn't necessarily make perfect...perfect practice makes better." Tell me what you think!

The thunder clapped loudly as she sat in her sad excuse of a room.

She had just moved here.

All of the boxes were scattered randomly across the room cascading eerie shapes on the bleached walls every time lightning struck. While she sat, she couldn't help but think that this move was a bad idea.

The thunder clapped again, which startled her. Then a noise. This wasn't any normal noise. It sounded like some sort of unearthly call from the very depths of hell. It was some sort of moan. She walked through the living room and to the front door. The sound got nearer and nearer as she walked forward. She slowly opened the door. It was too dark to tell what it was. Everything was pitch black. Just then a wet creature bolted through the crack in the door. Sopping wet. Whew, she thought, just the cat.

She stumbled across the unfamiliar living room to her new room, and jumped into bed. KABOOM! She has always hated thunderstorms. She pulled her multicolored afghan over her head. Lightning, followed by thunder, yet again. She closed her eyes and kept saying to herself everything was going to be ok, but was it?

All the sounds in the small apartment were amplified now. She laid there quietly while the storm blustered on around her. Just as she was about to fall asleep, a strange screech echoed in the empty room. Her eyes shot open. It's nothing...it's nothing...it's nothing. Her hot breath stifled her, but she refused to take the blanket off of her head. The screeching continued.

CRASH! She shot up straight. Her window had broken, and a tree limb waved creepily in her room, and the wind and rain blew in. Well, crap... She closed the blinds as much as they would go over her window, grabbed her pillow and blanket, and walked into the living room. Throwing her pillow on the couch, she wrapped her blanket around her and flung herself on the couch. Every little movement she made made the leather couch squeak loudly. Frustrated, she looked out straight into the dark room and waited for sleep.

A pair of eyes stared back at her. Glowing.