Life Lost and Found

24: When it Rains

Friday, February 20
8:00 a.m.

Madeline awoke in a funk. She must have slept in a bad position, because she had a headache and was just plain angry. When the alarm on her phone went off, she gave it a solid whack to shut it up, then pushed it off the desk.

When she was dressed and ready, she went to the kitchen to grab a bagel. There were two left in her box, plain and sesame. Neither were favorites. She smeared some cream cheese on the plain, grabbed her backpack, and headed out into a foggy, rain-drenched day. She usually liked the fog and the way it made everything so formless and ethereal. But today it was annoying.

She stood at the bus stop, chewing on her bagel under the security of her umbrella. She had stopped riding her bike a couple months ago after her school clothes had become too nice for that kind of thing. That, and one of the pedals had fallen off. The socket was stripped, and now she would have to replace the entire freaking crank arm.

Yeah, these were great things to be thinking about right now. Very uplifting.

She took an angry bite of her breakfast, but she didn't hold onto it firmly enough, and it slipped from her fingers and landed in a massive puddle in the street.

"Oh. Great. Fabulous. Fabigreatulous!" Why do I do that? Make up all these stupid words!

She huffed angrily and looked back at the house. She wouldn't have another chance to eat before lunch, and while she wasn't feeling particularly hungry right now, she would only become grouchier if she didn't eat. She checked her phone for the time, then hustled back inside to grab the other bagel. In her haste to open it, she incorrectly entered the garage door code several times before she got it right. She stomped inside, grabbed the last bagel, and trudged back out.

"You're getting the carpet all wet!" Megan whined from her usual place on the couch. Madeline slammed the door shut.

She saw the bus coming and sped up, choosing to cut across the lawn.

But her rain boots slipped on the wet grass, and she fell forward with a yelp. She managed to save her bagel, but her umbrella took most of the fall, and the stem bent in half.

"Are you kidding me?" she shouted, and muttered a few curses in addition. She picked herself up and hurried for the bus. She was mere seconds too late to catch it—but she was right on time for a car to splash her with water as it tried to hurry around the bus. Also, she dropped her bagel.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

Madeline wiped her face off and stood there, soaking—without breakfast, umbrella, clean hair, or dry clothes—and shaking with rage. Her cheek twitched in anger, her face turned red, and a thousand curses boiled beneath her lips. Seething, she stomped angrily down the sidewalk toward the university.

●●●

Naturally, she was late for class by some margin. Though it was history, after all—Ancient Civilizations to be specific—so she didn't really mind. She slipped through the back door of the lecture hall and took a seat.

Most of her teachers didn't call people out for being late—but they weren't Dr. Atkinson. "Well, well, if it isn't Ms. Parker! So glad you could join us! You do know that class begins on the hour and not the half?"

Madeline willed her cheeks to a normal color. "Yes, sir," she muttered.

Dr. Atkinson gave her a disapproving look and returned to his lecture—of which Madeline did not hear a word. She bent over her notebook, scrawling out her inner monologue with quick, rough strokes, and which included, but was not limited to, the following: