At the tail end of a particurly traumatic summer, I woke up with a weird pain in my face. I went on one of my most frequees, 3WMB, and looked up my symptoms. It stood for What’s Wrong With My Body, a website for learning about every disease imaginable. I had a page bookmarked earlier in the year about my thing. The website politely told me that m that the sharp pains I was feeling could be fatal.
They knew I was a i as long as I could remember. Stel was ooo, so they figured I’d have the same i sign as her, long fah that I couldn’t decide looked more like vampire teeth or werewolf teeth. In frade, I received a very informative book in You Are Not a Vampire: It’s Close (Kinda) Being a i But it’s Different, and the less informative sequel You Are Also Not a Werewolf: While as a i You Teically You Share Beast Like Qualities Simir to Werewolves, but There are Also Numerous Differences Which are Detailed Within. They had a time map they’d regurly update with their predis on when my i sign would show up. The map was saying any day now. Which I thought would make me feel better, but after reading some horror stories about i dying immediately upon their official awakening or whatever, I was in a haze of anxiousness.
Looking up all the possible reasons I could immily meet my demise had bee part of my m routine. My usual step after looking up i fang arrival on 3WMB was to worry about it for an hour, then actually get up a ready. I had a busy day, so I cut my lie in bed worry time in half and split it with my worry over breakfast time.
I was also practig not thinking about my particurly traumatic summer and why it articurly traumati trying not to think about it, I felt the whispering thoughts start to creep in. I hoped shouting “PIZZA” in my head over and over would drown those out. I headed to the kit to swipe some leftover pizza from dihe night before. I uned the foil around the leftover fridge pizza and tossed it in the microwave as the pain hit again. It was like a sharp pain around my jaw. It seemed to get worse the more I ate. I was at a crossroads of worry; think about the jaw pain or think about the particurly traumatic summer. The pizza had betrayed me by not blog out either.
My sister Stel was still asleep after I finished breakfast, so I could begin my busy pn for the day without her making fun of me. Or pying that stupid twangy radio station she pyed every m as soon as she woke up. Full of pizza and worry, I started my practice run of high ss. I figured if I could just make it through this m routine regurly, I would be OK to start school.
Step one, brush hair. I had a very specific brush pattern to keep my hair in check. It went brush, double brush, brush, double brush, triple brush, double brush. I had practiced long enough to brush my hair the exact way Raina Starlight had hers. With bedhead thhly defeated I felt like I could be the new princess of Staverius Academy. I don’t know if princess of Staverius Academy was a thing, but Stel went there, and she said she won it, but I wasn’t sure if she was joking or just lying or something. She also said Staverius had a zoo past its boiler room that only had pink cougars and I’m pretty sure that one was a lie.
Step two, brush teeth. Brushih did not go as well. While yes, I did have my Sparkly Diamond Sunbeam Raspberry toothpaste that looked like it was made by an ented uni dentist, my teeth fred every stroke of the toothbrush. I decided to practiiforms instead of practig mood dental hygiene if it was gonna hurt that bad. Feeling good in my new uniform would help me fight against the growing worry of my face hurting really weirdly every few minutes.
The looming thought of summer was like a jerk in the bay mental room yelling out spoilers of a movie I was looking forward to. Like of course I could try to block out the spoiler, but now my imagination was going, having me w how the character dies that just got screamed at me. But instead of an annoying spoiler to something I wao see, the mental jerk in the back er was whispering thoughts and ideas that could have led me to think about the things I didn’t want to think about.
I had been saving the unboxing of my uniforms for today, so I’d have something to look forward to. I opehe box and saw lots and lots of gray fabric. Gray…could be fi could maybe make my hair clips or nails pop more if I went full colorful with them? I wouldn’t know unless I tried them on, so I got to work tearing off the pstic around each part. The jacket looked like a prison outfit if prisoners o hold like forty things in individual pockets. I would have been fih like four pockets. in button-down shirt. Also gray. The same shade of gray too, for some reason, like they were the default clothes color and they fot to uncheck default. I said cloth and figured that was the skirt. A skirt could save this, right? I unfurled it like a treasured fg but no. Not a skirt. It was an official Staverius Oils and Soils Removal Rag. And to cap things off, the uniform had pants. The same shade of gray. Thirty pockets. They were more pocket than pant. In the box, there were about five more sets and they were all the same thing. To add insult to injury, there was a the bottom of the box that said “Staverius Academy frowns upon any accessories, such as hair clips, wristbands, neckces, earrings, and painted nails.”
Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad oried them all on. I got dressed thinking it was a far cry from the good-looking skirt/shirt/accessories bo from the brochures Staverius Academy had given me, and it got me off my m readiness game. Not even like a for real m readiness mind you, but a prete ready in the m on a day where I didn’t even have to be anywhere. I could have slept in. Even my Raina Starlight poster above my bed looked disappointed in me.
I flopped bato my bed uhe Raina poster. Raina Starlight was my hero. There were a bunch of stories and movies and shows about her going on adventures and stuff, she was the coolest person I’d ever heard about, and bonus, she was a i too. If I could even be a little like her at Staverius, maybe the gray, gray, gray, gray, and pockets uniform wouldn’t be so bad. Also she pyed the best character in the best TV show, Tower of Hate and Love.
I made it. I made it a whole m without directly thinking about Jeans. In realizing that moment of false triumph, I did start thinking about Jeans. Not the pants, because unless it was a really REALLY bad pair, the pants wouldn’t make me instantly start bawling. It was the farthest I made it int a routine m the st few months without g thinking about her, but that felt like a hollow victory when I had to bury my head under pillows just to not see the spots I thought I had scrubbed of memories of her.
How could I possibly start at a new school like this? I was riding at light speed tetting brahe weird g girl my first day of css.
“But summer ended. It raihe day it ended. And I was alone again.”
A drop of water nded on my nose. I looked up at the ceiling to see if there was a leak. Then my ceiling started raining. I sat up in the instant indoor downpour, which then vanished like all the water had evaporated. I felt as foggy as my room looked for a sed. Was this real? This was a dream, right?
I stood up and tried to think of ways I could tell something was a dream. The pain in my mouth fred, worse than it had ever fred. Then a giant bolt of electricity ran through my hands and I naturally freaked out and fell over awkwardly. I was on the ground with my hands c my mouth. I could feel the crag lightning stop as my room cleared up. I instinctively touched my too the sharp eye teeth. In just an instant they’d grown out.
