“But do you really have to leave today, Mr. Monkey??” asked Vanessa, desperation flooding over her pale face.
Atop a beautiful six-legged horse that couldn’t quite decide what colour it wanted to be sat a monkey dressed in a wonderful bright purple generals coat, with golden epaulettes and decorated in shining medallions declaring heroic feats in battles past. They stood at a cliffs edge overlooking the once magnificent city of Dreams that had been ravaged by time and war.
“That’s PRINCE Monkey, my lady, and yes, I fear I must” he responded, slowly patting his unconventional stallion, who was now a pale shade of pink.
“But the war isn’t over, yet! We still have so much to do!” Vanessa shouted, pointing to the legion of men and women standing opposite of them. “All of these people need you! I need you!”
Prince Monkey directed his horse to the edge of the cliff, and looking to the orange sky of the new dawn, said “I’m sorry. But you must go the rest of this journey without me” before leaping off the cliff, his mount galloping through the air as if it was on an invisible path in the sky.
Vanessa stood there at the edge of the cliff for a moment, before her most trusted soldiers approached her and knelt. “Fear not my lady” said the leading man, “We can handle what comes next. But you need to go too.”
Turning around, Vanessa stared at the soldier in confusion.
“You’re going to be late!”
Vanessa woke up in her bed and immediately stared at the clock: 8:52 AM. “Shit!” she thought “Shit!” she said.
Hurrying out of bed and pulling open the drawers of her dresser she pulled out a random assortment of clothes that would be her outfit for today. Black jeans and a blue t-shirt she wore the day before? It would have to do. Whoever said that you couldn’t wear the same clothes two days in a row could stick a fork in a socket, for all she cared. Leaving her hair in a mess and grabbing her school bag from next to her bed she ran downstairs where she saw her sister in the kitchen enjoying her breakfast.
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“Why didn’t you wake me up?! I’m gonna be late for school!” Vanessa fired
Shocked by the gall of her, her sister fired back “You didn’t ASK me to wake you up! It’s not my fault!” making a point so excellent that Vanessa had no choice but to mumble something under her breath and let it go.
Hastily grabbing leftovers from the night before as lunch, she ran out the front door like a bat out of hell.
Vanessa lived within walking (or in this case, speed walking) distance from her school, and although she had gone that way nearly every day for the past 4 years, she still ran the directions through her head as she went, treating it as if it were a game. Going left from her house she would take another left on Sussex, then continuing down the street she would look out for the newly painted red fire hydrant on the corner of Surrey, where she would take a right, then finally left on a bike path not too far ahead between two tall hedges that would lead her to the street her school was situated on.
Bursting through the entrance of her school, she checked her phone: 9:12 AM, she still had 3 minutes to spare, and so she finally started slowing down. Heading to her class she met up with one of her friends, Zeke, who knew her so well that he was able to guess that from the looks of it, Vanessa had been awake for only about 20 minutes, and so generously offered her a granola bar which she rejected.
“You know me well enough to notice I’m sleep deprived without me having to say a word, but not well enough to remember that I can’t eat peanuts?” Vanessa asked facetiously
“Ohhh, right. Well that’s because I’m actually trying to plot your murder, and this would have been the perfect crime.” he answered, waving the granola bar at her.
“Ha. You’re funny. We should get to class now, murderer, or we’ll be late.” she said, slapping the granola bar away.
“Yeah, and whose fault would THAT be?” Zeke remarked sarcastically as they entered their class. Walking to their desks at the edge of the room, Vanessa took the window seat, a perfect place to daydream when class got boring, and Zeke took the seat directly in front of her.
“Okay! I swear I’m not usually like this, my alarm just didn’t go off! My mornings are pretty chaotic normally, but not, like, THIS chaotic.”
Right as Zeke was going to make another sarcastic remark, their teacher spoke up signalling the beginning of the class, and he turned around.
Vanessa swore that she tried to listen in class, and she did that day, if only a little, but it wasn’t long before she was looking out the window, already losing herself in the stories she conjured up in her vast imagination.