| HOW WAS THE FIRST DAY? |

| Chapter Two | Dawn Dickinson

Dawn Dickinsons POV:

TW: Use of Slurs, Strong Themes

( If you want a different experience while reading this play 'The World Caves in' by Matt Maltese)

The alarm clock goes off, signalling to wake up. It's five in the morning, a few hours before she has to leave for school. She does this so she can have a nice bubble bath before school. She gets up from her bed and takes off her face mask. Dawn has short light brown hair and always has eyeliner on. She also has down syndrome. She is average height with eyes you just want to stare into. A smile which she only got to see which would light up a room.

She walks over to her bathroom and pours herself a bath. She sprinkles some bubble liquid that smells like roses, which was her favourite. She stopped the water and jumped in. She opened her Spotify playlist on her phone titled "bath time vibes", it was mainly Into the Woods and lots of Ariana Grande. She lay there and submerged herself under the bubbles. Looking up at the bubbles as if they were clouds. She liked doing this because it gave her an escape from her harsh reality.

The world she submerged herself in was the only safe space she had. A world where anyone can be themselves and nothing bad happens. She used this world as a place to be herself. She liked to push people away in fear of abandonment like her mother did shortly after her birth. How people have treated her because before even people got to know her she was shunned. From birth she was seen as different. She came up for air. She decided it was time to get ready for school. 

She proceeded to do the most elaborate skin air routine even though she had no form of acne on her face. She wanted to fit in with the popular girls. She wanted to be what society had labelled 'normal girls.'  At her old school she tried so hard to fit in. She tried so hard that the girls took over her in that situation. They manipulated her and they would pin her against the wall and draw the most awful things on her face and arms. Words if I wrote I would not be able to live with myself. She eventually left the school out of fear and was moving to a new school. She now pushed everyone away including her father that loved her very much. He works in real estate. He really wanted what was best for Dawn. 

She finished her routine and it was around 6:15, she opened her closet and picked out a crop top with a drawn on cat, some high waisted sweatpants, and her adidas shoes. She put her butterfly clips in her hair, remembering to pack her safety mechanism in her bag. What is her safety mechanism? It was a gun. She stole it from her father incase anything bad happened to her that she could fend for herself. She put the last clip in and shoved the gun into her bag. 

She walked into the kitchen where her father greeted her. She greeted him. He always makes her a special breakfast ( it was usually pancakes but she pretended to act surprised every-time as she loved him.) IT WAS PANCAKES! She gobbled them up and took her bag and waited for her father. She drove with him as the last time she took a drivers test she flipped off the instructor. Her father arrived and they set off. As they drove they listened to Perfume Genius. They didn't talk as they had their own secret language. Silence.

After the long drive to school they had finally arrived. She hopped out and her dad gave her a kiss on the cheek. She said she hated it but secretly enjoyed the only form of love she received. She watched her dad drive away. As she walked she noticed the stares, the stares of disgust, confusion as to why and how she was smart enough to even be going here. She had to constituently remind herself that she was better than everyone else there. She was the superior. She was stopped a few times and asked if she was at the right school. They told her that she was....... Honestly, if she thought of it she might breakdown. She noticed a tall young man wearing a red jacket that one of those popular football players would wear walk past, he smiled and continued walking, she had never felt this form of kindness. 

She followed him, slowly as to not freak him out. She noticed him going  up a flight of stairs which she followed. He walked into a room labelled Grade 11 Orientation Room. . This was coincidentally her grade as-well. She waited a few minutes before entering as to not look stalkerish. She entered through the door noticing his deep state of euphoria. Trying not to disturb him. She failed and accidentally awoke him. He wasn't upset, he just smiled. She sat down and realised one of her butterfly clips were missing, she looked in her bag. The gun at the top of the pile of books inside. She noticed that he noticed the gun. She quickly closed her bag.

They sat in silence until a boy who ran quite feminine entered the room. He found my butterfly clip and told me the most bizarre, out of context sentence I had ever heard. "We are going to die, specifically sacrificed." My heart dropped.