The Journal

Chapter Two - An Absent Pasta

At 5:30 AM, Alex's alarm clock rang, waking the boy up with a jolt. Today's a new day, Alex thought. Pasta will be at school today... please?

Alex slipped on a pair of black jeans, and a white t-shirt. Knock knock. His father, Christopher Bentley, was at the door.

"Yoohoo!" Christopher said.

"'Sup, dad?" said Alex.

"Almost time for school. Bye!"

Alex was unphased. His dad was just like that. Childish, immature, you name it. That was his dad. And he loved him for it.

After the breif interaction, Alex put on his backpack, slipped on his shoes, and headed to the kitchen.

Sitting at the table was his younger sister, Sarah Bentley, eating a bowl of cereal. Along with every bite, the metal spoon clinked her teeth, angering her brother.

"Dude, stop it." Alex said.

"Stop what?" Sarah replied.

"Clinking your spoon on your teeth," Alex said, mildly infuriated now. "You're 12 years old; It's time to act like it."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you're old enough to know that that is repulsive."

"What is repulsive?"

"Clinking your spoon on your teeth!"

Their father then entered the room, alerted by Alex raising his voice.

"What's going on?" Christopher asked.

"Sarah's clinking her spoon on her teeth when she knows it's disgusting!" Alex said, nearly on the verge of tears at this point.

"Aww, a minor inconvenience. Woe is me." his father mocked.

"Really?" Alex said, annoyed.

"I think it's time baby Alex learned to suck it up," Chris replied. "Don't you think so, Sarah?"

"Yup!" Sarah said cheerfully.

"Come on, we all know she's your favorite. Can you please just tell her to stop?"

"Yeah yeah, go eat a granola bar. The bus is almost here."

"Uh—uh—" Alex stuttered.

"Can't go to school on an empty stomach."

"Fine."

Alex grabbed a blueberry granola bar from the pantry, ate it in two bites, and threw the wrapper away.

Honk honk!

The bus had arrived.

"Oh shit! Alex, go!" Chris yelled.

"Ahhh!" Alex screamed as he tore out the front door.

Thankfully, Alex's bus driver liked him, so she didn't drive away immediately after honking. Alex speed-walked up to the bus and stepped inside.

"Morning, Calliope!" Alex said to the driver.

"Mornin', Alex." she said back.

Alex quickly got to his seat and opened his phone to the MyJournal app.

MyJournal Entry #8
Okay, this is gonna be a short one, but I just have to say that Sarah seems to be putting in extra effort in pissing me off lately. It's like she sees what really gets me mad, and then does it three times worse. I swear to god that she put effort into clinking her spoon on her teeth with every single bite of cereal. I just got on the bus, so she probably went back to eating it normally, now that I'm guarunteed to not come into the kitchen. Alex out 🤙

Alex put his phone into his pocket and sat peacefully all the way to school.

After departing the safe walls of Calliope's bus, Alex had to brace himself for any of the bullying that he may face on this Friday morning. He would brace himself for the afternoon too, but he had time to do that later since he had a study hall that spilled into the 12:00 hour.

His first class of that day was History, his favorite class. He really wished it was his last class of the day, just so he could start the weekend on a high note. But he was okay with it being first period, because that meant he would start the day with Pasta—if Pasta even showed up.

Alex's history teacher, Mr. Moore walked in right after the bell rang.

"Okay class, it's time to learn!" Mr. Moore said sarcastically.

A few of Alex's classmates gave a pathetic "Yay" and Mr. Moore picked up a file of papers.

"But first: role call." the teacher said.

Mr. Moore began to call out students' names, and after calling Alex's, since it was one of the first, Alex sneakily looked around the classroom to see if Pasta was there. Nope. After the quick observation, Alex zoned out, knowing the day wouldn't be as fun without Pasta.

Without the jokes they would make in breakout groups, how would Alex survive first period? None of his friends were in that class, so he had to make due with the first 55 minutes of the day bored out of his mind.