Lead Me Astray - Updated Every Monday

Chapter One ~ Frankie

I scribbled out a new line before peering at it in satisfaction. It was a good line. I added another as I tucked my blue and black curls behind my small right ear in annoyance. I hated things in my face but my curls didn't seem to give a damn.

I jotted down a few more lines to make the haiku complete then went to my daily planner to check off the fact that I'd finished my poem for the day. I actually really loved my planner. It had zero dates pre-entered and I had to write it in on my own. The outside hardcover was a peachy color with colored in smiley faces with the words Daily Planner emblazoned at the top.

Inside, nearly every front and back page looked the same. The header demanded me to have a great day in blue with white lettering and two smiley faces on either side. In a strip of blush, there was the space for the date and the day's focus.

Beneath that were two columns broken into sections. On the left was a three line Top Priorities checklist, a nine line To Do checklist, a six line space for Notes and a smaller four line space for the meals I'd eat labelled B, L, D and S with a tiny label for water with eight drops to fill in. Each section had a different color at the heading.

On the right column was a schedule from six in the morning to nine at night in one hour blocks. Under it was an All About Today section. It had prompts (Today I'm Grateful For..., Today's Accomplishments) and a small multiple choice question (How I Did Today... [Crushed It, I Did Ok, I Can Do Better]) followed quickly by another prompt (Things to Improve for Tomorrow).

I liked it because I'd had troubles using other planners in the past (middle school coming to mind vividly). Plus it was big, wide and opened 360°. I also had a clipboard notebook. It, unlike my planner, had dark themes. It was a dark blue and black with gold detailing, noticeably a big moon with plenty of stars and stardust falling.

It, too, was opened 360° but was a hard surface because of the clipboard front. It had a gold ribbon to close it and gold fixtures at the corners to make it look snazzy. It even had a gold pen holder attached. Inside was a pocket but also a rainbow of folders with pockets on both sides. In the back was a notepad that was replaceable.

I put a lot of notes in that one. Things to do with school or work or friends. Things that didn't necessarily go in my schedule. I also had a witch's spell-book. Of course I didn't believe in witchcraft but the book was fire. Outside was a soft pleather with the sun and moon and plenty of stars in a dark blueish purple with gold accents. Inside, the uneven pages were a light brown.

That was where I wrote all my creative endeavors. My songs, poems, ideas for stories. If it was creative and not physical art, it went in that book. It even had a "lock" on it. It was merely a knob sticking out on the front cover with a hoop and sword closure on the strap on the back cover.

In my humble opinion, it was sick.

Lastly I had a blush colored 360° closure notebook that had lots of greenery on the covers. Literally flowers and vines and leaves littered the two covers. It said NOTES big as day in green on a gold square. It also closed with a gold ribbon.

All four books were different sizes so I usually stacked them from clipboard notebook to Notes notebook. I kept them in my arms at nearly all times as my knapsack was full of school books.

I had four big course-books taking up room in there. My calculus III book with my blue notebook entwined carefully, my chemistry III book with my green notebook carefully entwined, my JROTC book with my red notebook carefully entwined with my handy booklet betwixt its pages and my history IV book with my orange notebook entwined carefully. Basically both front covers hugged.