Juliena (chapter2)

“Smile it’ll be a beautiful day”

 At approximately 5:45 am Elena’s alarm fulfilled its continuous, endless, unacknowledged job; as that was the way Elena saw the world. She always hated Mondays, as they mark the beginning of the week, Sundays as they signaled Mondays, and Thursdays for no particular reason. To her, everything seemed like an endless cycle as her thought process went “you get up in the morning wondering if you even want to get up. You go down the stairs to find the same person dressed the same way drinking the same cup-of coffee as they contemplate on their previous night. You take an apple and out the door to the same bus route with the same driver to a school with the same teachers and ALWAYS the same type of people. The loudmouths, the Meeks, the gossipers, the preps, the fashionistas, the actors, the cheerleaders, the   &%* kissers (what’s without a little butt kissing?), the nice kids, the bad kids, the ones who don’t know whatever the &@$* they are doing, and the ones that you can’t help but wonder if they are psychedelics. You’re walking through them with a smile plastered on your face to the point where you wonder if it’ll break all the while you keep telling yourself ‘smile it’ll be a beautiful day’ just to keep fooling yourself for just one more day…… and yet you seem to go through the same process everyday just because it’s a cruel incessant destiny.” Mondays weren’t her favorite days, as these thoughts repeat every week on that same day, at the same hour, while doing the same things.

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Julia woke up that morning to her stereo blasting away at her eardrum. Pressing the button she sits in bed for a minute to catch her thoughts. Putting on her slippers she walked to the bathroom. On her bathroom mirror was a sticky note with the words “smile it’ll be a beautiful day”. After her morning rituals, Julia went downstairs to breakfast. She sat down at the dining table and watched as her breakfast turned into a twilight zone episode where she’d be stuck in the forties. Her mother came out of the kitchen in a dress and apron, with make-up on her face, and a smile that looked completely out of place as they did not reach her eyes. Pancakes were laid on the table with a small pitcher of syrup. Another plate of French toast was brought, with jam in a small container. She was silent as she watched the strangers in front of her. Her father was reading the newspaper, her brother blasting away at the PSP, and her mother with her out of place mask. Everyone was silent as they ate. Everyone that is but Julia, she picked away at her pancakes with her forks, wondering if today was today or if she was just in a freaky nightmare. The clock ticked and tacked away at each second which seemed to make her grow tense. She could not handle this for one more second. “Julia honey why aren’t you eating?” Julia looked up finally, gaining release, and looked into her mother’s eyes. “I’m just not hungry that’s all”. “Well you should eat, or you’d faint by lunch”. Julia sighed as she absent mindedly brought the food to her mouth. She chewed slowly as she analyzed her environment, and felt almost too relieved as she grabbed her book bag and bolted for the door when the school bus reached its stop outside her home.