Combustion (Book 1: The Spark)

CHAPTER 2 - Just Another Day

The alarm went off at 5:30am. Amelia's hand crawled out of the comforter to hit 'snooze' on her iPhone. She didn't get the best night's sleep. Sakura decided to run around in the middle of the night chasing who-knows-what. "Ugh, five more minutes!" Was this the kind of day she was going to have?

5:39am and the alarm goes off again. This time her hand came flying out from under the covers and slammed on the iPhone. "I said five more minutes!" Amelia rolled back under her comforter. Days like these were few and far between, and she was quite thankful for that. She quickly drifted back to sleep completely unaware that, in her fit of sleep-induced crankiness, she'd actually hit 'stop' instead of 'snooze.'

Amelia's phone vibrated softly. So softly, in fact, that it didn't rouse her from her sleep. It wasn't until her phone vibrated itself off the night stand and crashed to the floor that she was startled awake. "What in the actual..." She slowly realized that she'd slept through her alarms and various phone calls. "Motherf..." she muttered to herself as she picked up her phone only to see a cracked screen and the time reading 11:24am. She had 13 missed calls from work and 6 voicemails. "How in the world did I sleep through all of that? How has this day gone to crap already?"

She quickly raced to her closet, pulling out the first pair of slacks and shirt she laid her hands on. Amelia hastily filled Sakura's bowl with food, spilling a large amount on the floor. "Why didn't you wake me, you crazy cat?" Her usually calm and understated demeanor had completely washed away with her unexpectedly contemptible morning. As she rushed out the door, bed sheets still marked her face, she caught her hip on the kitchen counter, triggering a pathetic yelp. With no other choice but to push through the throbbing pain, Amelia popped on her shoes and rushed out the door, her hand rubbing the sore spot on her side.

Having ran into work more than four hours late, the last thing Amelia wanted to do was face her boss' ire. Much to her chagrin, she wasn't going to dodge that bullet so easily.

"Where in the hell have you been?" blared Vonda. "I know you've always been a punctual employee, but you picked the wrong day to take your sweet time getting in."

"Vonda, please forgive me. My alarm was shut..." Vonda quickly cut her off.

"No excuses. Three people have already called in sick today, and not so much as a phone call or a text from you? I don't even care that you weren't answering your phone. You're covering the overfill today, and I couldn't care less how late you have to stay to get these cases covered," she insisted.

How could Vonda be so... so... mean? After all, it wasn't her fault three people were out sick. She'd been working as diligently as possible since she started almost a year before. In fact, she felt she worked much harder than many other of the social workers. She was never late, she always stayed late, did extra work, and for what? So she could get chewed out for her first and only transgression? Amelia gathered all of the patience and zen she could muster, and through gritted teeth replied with a "yes, Vonda."

Still seething from the encounter, Amelia went to her cubicle only to find mounds of paperwork and files. For a moment, she wondered how many trees had to die so that this pile could end up in front of her. She was in for a long day, and it seemed like it would bleed into her night. With every turn of a page her mood sank deeper and deeper into the pits. She got into this line of work to help people who were just like her. She didn't want them to fall through the cracks like so many before. However, today she felt hopeless. Every case was more depressing than the last. and it was beginning to get to her. True, she was considered an agreeable, albeit forgettable, person by her peers, but she also had her moments when she needed to vent.

But to whom? She spent all of her adult life trying to control everything: "classes, work, study: repeat" became "work, work, sleep; repeat." All these years trying to control her life, how did she never notice it just passing her by? Needless to say,  Amelia didn't need another reason to feel depressed that day, but she couldn't shake that feeling. Its persistence - its nagging presence - plagued her mind like smog. She needed to get out of her own head. She needed to get out of the office.

Amelia figured she was already in trouble with Vonda, so what if she went all out today? Without another thought she grabbed her coat and walked out the door. This definitely wasn't just another day.

"'Man, do I need a drink!"