Long Live

"Julia, are you ready to leave?" I heard mother call from the kitchen. " I stumbled out of bed realizing that I was supposed to be in the car 5 minutes ago. I dragged myself to the dresser drawer. I fumbled around with several tee shirts and jeans until I found an outfit deemed suitable for the school day. I rolled on my skinny jeans and white cardigan. I grabbed my pocket book from the swivel chair next to my desk and sped out of my room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.

Mother was waiting, arms crossed, stern look on her face. She reached towards the counter and grabbed a dish filled with bacon, sausages, and slice of toast. "I'm a vegetarian". "Julia, stop. I don't have time for more of your animal rights protests. Eat your breakfast". "I've been a vegetarian since I was nine and I did it because I almost choked on a piece of chicken". "Same thing. Eat it or don't. I don't have time to sit around and make you some green salad. I need to be at a meeting in.... 5 minutes ago! Hurry up Julia or I'm making you walk".

I walked angrily towards the pantry to grab a granola bar. I stuff a Kashi bar into my pocket book and ventured on to the mud room to grab a pair of ratty old converse from the shoe rack. I threw them on hastily and and ran out of the room, back into the kitchen, out through the foyer, and down the brick pathway to the metallic, black BMW roaring in the driveway. Mother had her headset on. Her lips were moving at a rapid pace, her hands flailing around angrily. I jumped into the front seat. "Bill! I gotta go drop my kid at school". She paused waiting for some sort of answer to that. "Yeah, yeah Bill I know. Bye".

Mother hung up her phone, swerved dangerously fast out of the driveway, and drove out of our neighborhood. "Julia, you didn't forget about dance today after school again, did you"? I had forgotten about my class today. I thought about the black booty shorts and spandex top sitting on my nightstand, which were supposed to be in the gym bag resting on the back seat. "No mother".

She pulled up to the school, unlocked the door, and shooed me away as she picked her headset up. I waved goodbye, grabbed my pocketbook and gym bag, and walked away from the car. My best friend Abigale was waiting on a bench outside of the lobby doors. "We're gonna miss homeroom again Julia." "I know. I'm sorry. She didn't wake me." We ran through the gym doors, out the back of the locker rooms, and towards our lockers in the deserted, classroom-less hall of the school. We opened our neighboring lockers and pulled out matching french binders. "I forgot my dance outfit again", I said. " You can borrow." Abigale and I walked slowly to our French class. We got there first, sat down at a table together, and exchanged notes.

After a long, torturous day, Abigale and I left the school, and walked the half mile to On Pointe, our dance studio. We walked to the back of the studio and straight into our shared dressing room. She unzipped her large duffel and spilled its contents onto the oak floors. "You get first pick." Abigale separated the two, matching dance outfits from the rest of her items. I decided very quickly that I was not in the mood to wear cheetah print booty shorts and sparkly, silver sports bra, so I plucked a black, one long sleeve, spandex, cropped shirt, and black booty shorts out of the pile. Abigale sighed as she picked up the remaining clothing. As we changed in front of the wall-length mirror, we studied our petite bodies. I flicked my thick, bright red hair off my shoulder and pulled it into a high pony tail. Abigale quickly followed suit and pulled her deep brown hair up into a bun. We hustled out of the dressing room hallway and into Studio A. Elizabeth, a college student who danced here from time to time, had her back to us and her left leg high above her head while she leaned on the bar. She turned around after seeing us in the mirror. "Hey Jules, Abby." "Hi Elizabeth." Abigale and I said in unison. "Sadly, Miss Ella isn't here today ladies. So I'm going to help you guys go over your routines.Won't this be so much fun!" Elizabeth was one of those people who was always happy. You could've told her that her mother had just died and she would find some sort of optimistic view on it. She had an annoying squeaky voice and a very irritating laugh. This will most definitely not be fun.

After the other five girls arrived for class, we stretched and went over a ballet routine for a competition we were attending in Philadelphia in a week. Elizabeth let us out of class early. Abigale and I returned to our dressing room to change and collect our things.We picked up our bags and left the studio.

Abigale walked me home from dance most days because her house was a block further from the studio than mine. We half walked half ran home because a dark storm cloud appeared out of no where. When we were a block away from my house Abigale realized that she had forgotten her key at home. There was a crack of thunder and then all of a sudden it was pouring rain. "You can come to my house until your mom gets off from work!" I had to scream over the droplets thudding against the pavement. We ran onto the porch as I fumbled around in my purse looking for my key. I found it and unlocked the door. As we walked in, I expected the alarm to go off because my mother and father were both still at work. " Wait here." I directed Abigale. I walked up the stairs slowly, being careful not to make any noises. As I reached the top of the stairs, I heard a loud thud. I tiptoed over to my parents' room. The door was cracked open and the light was on. I peered through the crack.

My father and a blond woman were standing in the middle of the room in matching bathrobes. My father leaned in, obviously about to kiss the woman. Before he could, I burst through the door, causing it to slam against the wall. My father and the woman both looked up frightened. "Julia." My father said surprised. "You're supposed to be at dance." "You say that like it justifies this."

I stormed out of the room and ran back downstairs to Abigale. "What happened?" I didn't respond. I kept walking past her and back out the door. "Jules!" I heard Abigale scream. I didn't turn back. I kept running into the rain.