Daughter of the Gods

I'll Take One Order of Normal

 The urge to slam my head against the desk grew as my homework dragged on and on without an ending in sight. Mom would be home in less than an hour, promising me dinner out if I finished my homework or took out a good chunk of it. My heart and stomach completely agreed with that plan. My motivation did not. Out of the seven assignments I had to complete, 2 were done, the third no where near, and my leg was shaking too much for focus to be a real possibility. I had been working for an hour and a half.

The reading assignments weren't helping my dyslexic tendencies and my frustration only worsened the ADHD. I groaned before pulling my head phones out of my bag and closed all of the distracting pages I had open on my laptop. Time for a reset. I pulled my laptop onto my lap and continuing to take notes for my stupid World History class. After a few minutes of reading the same paragraph continuously and still not grasping the information, I took another stab at listening to sounds.

The playlist was my Back-Up Playlist. No songs, no words, just sounds. Nature sounds, like crickets, owls, animals, water falls. The sound of thunderstorms and wedding bells. It typically helped my focus, splitting my brain in two directions to help with the focus. It hadn't worked earlier, though. Maybe it was time for a second take.

This time, zen. With my ears distracted, my brain could focus. It was easier to sit still and work through the swimming words.

I jumped out of my skin when Mom grabbed my headphones.

"Kenze!"

Reflexes had me throwing my laptop onto the couch as I toppled onto the floor, my notes scattering around me.

Mom laughed above her, her mouth covered by a tan hand to smother her laughter.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I can see that. You looked pretty focused. How much did you get done?" She asked.

"More than I thought. I have most of my math done, I need a little bit of help, and my social studies, I have almost 3 paragraphs done. I'm gonna have Mrs. K look it over tomorrow and help me at lunch. I have no science, some read and response questions for English, but we have time to work on it tomorrow. Even by my standards, it's more than usual." I replied and there was pride in the words. Productive hours were few and far between, but having one always felt good.

"Yes it is. So, where shall we go?" She asked.

"Really?" I  couldn't help but squeal. "Chili's! Where Matt works!" I squealed again, struggling to recall the last time we ate out, just the two of us. I quickly saved my work and closed the computer, before throwing on shoes and a jacket and following Mom out the door.

Looking back on it, I should've savored that normal with her. The simplicity of doing homework and celebrating at Chili's and bantering with her about my homework. But your life changes when you see 3 kids murder a seven-headed beast in Central Park.