Guardians

⊲ Chapter 1.1 ⊳

"Come on Emily, you've gotta wake up. You have to be at school in thirty minutes!"

I could faintly hear my mom's voice from the other room over the sound of my alarm. My eyes felt puffy and tired and all I really wanted to do was stay under the warm covers and drift back to sleep. But I knew I couldn't do that. So, reluctantly, I started to get out of bed.

The morning sun filtering through my window made me squint as my eyes were not yet adjusted to the increase in light. While trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes I groggily reached over to my nightstand and turned off my alarm. I did not want to go to school but I knew I had to. So after getting out of bed I walked over to my closet and picked out clothes for the day: navy jeans, a pale blue t-shirt and my usual black leather jacket which was worn after so much use. I quickly slipped the clothes on and then darted down the hall to the bathroom.

The reflection that greeted me in the mirror showed my violet-dyed hair in a rat's nest, sticking out in many odd directions. I was unlucky when it came to having cooperative hair in the morning so it took me a solid eight minutes of tugging at knots that had formed in my sleep in order to fix it. After my hair was tamed and my make up was done, I rushed down the stairs.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, my mom—who was in the kitchen—saw me and announced, "I made you breakfast. It's right there on the counter," while pointing at the end of the kitchen island. "Sorry I'm not able to make you lunch today, I'm almost late for work. Here's some money for lunch at school" she said, handing me two, neatly folded ten dollar bills.

"S'okay mom. Thanks for breakfast" I replied, picking up the toasted bagel with cream cheese and then making my way to the front door. As I got to the door I stopped and turned back to my mom, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I'll be home a bit later today since I have an important club meeting" I said.

"Okay, what time do you think you'll be home?"

"I'm not exactly sure but it'll probably be sometime around 5:00 or 5:30pm I think"

"Alright, sounds good honey." And then glancing at her watch, she said, "Oh gosh, you really have to get going or you'll be late" and ushered me towards the door.

Picking up my school bag in the foyer I said "Alright, bye mom." and stepped outside.

"Bye sweetie, I'll see you later tonight!"

"Yup"

...

The walk from my house to my school was a relatively short stroll through the neighborhood. Today the weather outside was cold and cloudy, but it didn't particularly feel like it was going to rain. There was a faint chilly breeze in the air that made me regret not bringing another jacket.

Apartments lined the streets of my neighborhood. Most were small two-story complexes that had textured beige, white, or yellow walls with red tiled roofs. Many were also adorned with arch-shaped windows and modern style columns that added to the overall neo-mediterranean style of the buildings.

Sidewalks were lined with numerous species of trees and plants. Bright orange poppies stubbornly grew in every garden they could find and eucalyptus and oak trees cast assuming shadows over the sidewalk. I loved the sound the wind made in the trees and turned an ear to listen.

As I was stepping over a section of the sidewalk that had been pushed up by tree roots, I heard a snap of a twig behind me. Turning around I glanced warily for what could have made the noise but nothing was there. In fact, I didn't see a single soul on the entire street.

Looking back at the snapped branch on the ground, I felt a bit uneasy. Unable to find any other answer, I convinced myself that I must have been mistaken. The twig was probably already broken like that, I told myself, I must have misheard. However even after turning back around and continuing my walk to school, an unsettling feeling still stuck with me.