Akumal

An Icy Suprise

Present

 

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Today was a new day, I thought as a awoke.  I was going to attempt to like it here, because there was no point in wishing to go home.  It just plain wasn’t going to happen, no matter how much I wanted it to.  I sat up in my very pink bed, rubbed the crust from my eyes and hopped up.  I brushed my knotted rat’s nest, which was some excuse for hair, and pulled from one of drawers that I had stuffed clothes into my absolute favorite top: a cropped blue and white striped top made out of a super comfy material.  I put on shorts with various rips and ragged edges and breathed in deeply, plastering a smile on my face.  I wasn’t sure whether or not it was real.

 

I made my bed, a process I didn’t enjoy but still did.  It despised doing it even more because the bed was against a wall, but it could have been worse.  It could have been a bunk bed.

 

Once I had finished, I calmly strode out of my bedroom, heading towards the lit kitchen.  When I reached it, my heart dropped.  Aaron and Bryce.  Why were they still here?  

 

One was on the counter,a box of cereal in his hands.  The other was kneeling on the kitchen tiles, the edge of a bowl clenched in his teeth.  The one on the counter was pouring the cereal downwards, the other attempting to catch it in the bowl.  

 

I took the box and the bowl away and set them on the far counter.  I looked at the mess they had made on the floor.  “Really?” I said, exasperated already.  Then I remembered: don’t get stressed out, trying to enjoy myself here.  I put a smile back on my face and grabbed a bagel package from atop the fridge.  Popping one in the toaster, I turned back to the fridge, humming an old song we used to sing at campfires in Hawaii.  I pulled some cinnamon cream cheese from it and grabbed a knife for spreading.  In just a few minutes, I had a warm, delicious breakfast and I went to sit down in the dining room.  I could feel the boy’s eyes on my back.  Yes, I was aware I was acting different.

 

I saw out of corner of my eye two faces peering out from the kitchen, staring at me as I ate, trying to be all happy like. They must think I’m going insane.

 

I was about halfway done when grandma entered the dining room, sitting in the chair to my left.  I turned to her and spoke first: “I was thinking more blue-green.”

 

She looked at me confused.  “For what, may I ask?”

 

I took another bite.  “My room.  Aquamarine is such a pretty color.”

Now she smiled, realizing I was trying to make progress here.  “Well what do you say we redo your entire room the way you like it today?”

 

Duh, that’s what I was getting at.  “Ok, sounds great.”  I stood to throw my plate away.

 

“Let’s go right now.”

 

Now?  I was confused.  The store wouldn’t be open this early.  I cocked my eyebrow.

 

“I have something I want to show you.”

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We drove in silence, still too tired to have a vivid conversation.  I wondered to myself what she was doing.  What could possibly be so special that it couldn’t wait another two hours?

 

I was so lost in my thoughts of what it could be that I didn’t even realize that the car was in park.  The sound of the driver’s door smacked me to attention.  I got out of the car.  In front of me were two buildings:  McDermott Pool, as one was labeled, and the other an unlabeled building.  At first I thought she was crazy, and that we were going swimming when we didn’t even have swimsuits, but she began walking towards the other building.

 

My curiosity rose as we made our way to the door.  “If my watch is right,” she said.  “They should be open.”  She yanked on the door and walked inside.  What could possibly be open at seven am on a Monday morning?

 

And then I saw it.  

 

The soon as my feet were through the doorframe, I was astounded.  

 

Ice.  An ice rink, in fact.  Believe it or not, I had never seen one in real life.  Ok, maybe that wasn’t that hard to believe.  I had, after all, lived in Hawaii my whole life.

I was going ice skating for the first time in my life.