Paranoid. Insomniac.

Chapter 13: Busy? For You? Never.

*KATARINA

*BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP*

I groan, turning my alarm off after snoozing a few times. I blink the blurriness from my eyes and check the time on my phone: 8:40. 8:40?! I stumble out of bed, dropping my shorts and grabbing a random pair of sweatpants on the floor. I do a quick sniff test on the bar T-shirt I'm wearing that my mom gave me years ago. Clean. I put on my slides, grab my backpack, keys, and phone and run out the door. I got ready in less than two minutes, meaning I have three minutes to run to my bus stop before the bus leaves.

I run to the bus stop, having to stop twice because my slides kept flying off, but I manage to catch it. I did make traffic wait like ten seconds so I can run up, but I succeeded. Phew. I already know this is going to be a bad day.

I have a monthly bad day every month for as long as I could remember. Maybe it's bad luck, maybe my bad mood ruins my day, I don't know. But I know how it feels. And all I can hope for is that I haven't lost my mind by the time I come home.

We get to school and neither Stella nor Annie are at the front, waiting for me. I see Savannah, however and decide to talk with her and her friends. The second she sees me she starts ranting,

"Kat you're not gonna believe it!"

"The Stella and Annie are probably ditching school without me?" I chuckle, knowing that's something they'd do spontaneously. I wouldn't ditch school but they should've at least told me if they were going to.

"The homecoming dance... is cancelled!"

"What?" I react. Her friends complain to each other about it. "Why?"

"Okay- well- not entirely cancelled. But we're having it at Durman with the Durman kids," She rolls her eyes.

"Jeez, you can't say that it's cancelled, Savannah. People freak out when you say it like that," I sigh, "But I get what you're saying. It's total bullshit. Why aren't they doing it here?"

"Something about the janitors going on strike if we have hoco."

That doesn't seem like too big of a problem at first glance but every time there's a party or a game, us Roscow kids leave the school a pigsty. I'm surprised the janitors haven't all quit yet. Especially after the last few football games. Everyone's so excited and chaotic because the homecoming game is soon. I just hope it's not too cold so I don't freeze to death on those bleachers.

Savannah rants about other things like how Derek's being a pain, as per usual. He's so annoying. I don't know how she dates him. Her words are cut off by the five-minute bell which is when we go our separate ways.

Just like I predicted, my day continues to suck. At lunch, a fight started as I was walking to my table. Not only did one of the guys bump into me- hard enough that my shoulder still hurts over an hour later- but they caused me to spill my tray onto my feet. Since I was wearing slides, I had to go to the bathroom and wash PASTA off my feet. So disgusting. And even more embarrassing that girls were giving me dirty looks. Like, mind your business! It's not like you'd walk around with tomato sauce-covered toes the rest of the day. Those were my only two options. The final straw was on the bus ride home...

A girl who's always on my bus walks on with her friend. They laugh, talking about whatever drama in their friend group. I realize the only empty seat is behind me so I'll have to hear the peaceful sound of yelling for the next ten minutes. They sit down behind me and start talking. I try to ignore them and send a quick text to Dominik:

princess <3
I'm not coming in to work today.

He immediately responds:

angel :)
I was just about to ask where you were.
Is everything okay?