American Honey

five

Prompt 22: In which a character has to sit in the back seat while another character is learning to drive

Prompt 1: In which a character has to deliver a passionate speech on something he/she knows nothing about

       "Well, shit. What do I do now?" Annah paced around her room, trying to figure out what to do. She sighed and began to get ready. Once she was done, she grabbed her book bag and headed to the kitchen. Her brother was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal. Her mom and dad were nowhere to be found. "They left early?" She guessed, going to fridge to get out the gallon of milk. 

"No shit, Sherlock."

Annah mocked her brother and he mocked her back. She poured the cinnamon toast crunch and milk into a yellow cereal bowl, then settled down at the table. She opened her book bag and took out a sheet of paper. She unlocked her phone and chose to do the essay on Pompeii. 

"What're you doing?"

"None of your beeswax, shrimp." Annah glanced at Jamie, who was in the middle of rolling his eyes. "Fine, but mom's gonna start making you do your homework in the living room if she finds out, and we wouldn't want that to get out. Would we?" He raised his eyebrows. 

"What do you want, twerp? Are you trying to blackmail me?" She glowered at him. He nodded slowly. "Maaaaaybe. All I know is that I need fifty bucks and that you don't want to do your homework in the living room." He got up and placed his bowl in the sink.

Annah groaned and told him to wait before she dashed off to her room. She grabbed her wallet and took out two twenties and a ten. She ran back to her brother and slipped the money to him. She grinned as he counted then nodded at her.

"So you won't tell mom about it?"

"Tell mom about what?" He smirked and picked up his bookbag. He walked out the door into a gloomy, grey-clouded day and went off to school.

        Annah sat back down at the kitchen table and finished her now soggy cereal as she attempted to work on her essay. She just wrote down all the interesting things that she could find, but it wasn't much and she had to leave.

She had no choice but to do the essay off hand. Hopefully Ms. Atlas forgot that she promised Annah would go first.

        Ms. Atlas didn't forget. 

Annah knew she couldn't stall this time, but it wouldn't hurt to kill a few minutes before she made a complete fool of her self. She could also gather her thoughts together as she made her way up to the front. She pushed the podium to the front like she had yesterday and stood behind it. 

"Hello fellow students of Marlsgate's Strong Future Academy, to day I should be reading you an essay about a Roman city. Instead, I am going to talk to you about the well-know fallen Roman city of Pompeii." Her heart pounded in her ears like a drum. It was going faster and faster, harder and harder and she swore everyone could hear it. Her drumming heart was hurting her chest.

"Pompeii was a dazzeling Roman city, and if not for the way it died, it would most likely be just a forgotten city. But no, it is not a city that we fail to remember. It's a town that was buried beneath ashes and consumed by pumice. No on can walk on it's narrow streets today and not think about it's tragic history. Pompeii today is a beautiful place, and it was probably more breathtaking before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in, 78? No, 79 AD." 

She mentally slapped herself for her mistake and continued on with what she already knew, but only making it sound more intelligent. Annah hopped Ms. Atlas didn't catch on.