Star

The Crummy Life of Astara Knight

Queens, New York: 1983

Astara woke up to the sound of her Wonder Woman alarm clock beeping annoyingly. She took one look at the clock and groaned: It was 7:00. School started at 7:15 which meant she'd overslept, again. Throwing a pillow at her clock to shut it up, she ran to the bathroom and hurriedly brushed her teeth.

After making sure her breath was minty fresh, she grabbed a pair jean shorts from under her bed and a red t-shirt off the floor. She a grabbed her brush and quickly ran it through her blonde hair. Sloppily tying her sneakers, she bounded down her the stairs to the kitchen.

Usually she wasn't careless. Who was she kidding, she was always careless, only not this careless. She'd woken up late for the past few days and she was sure it had something to do with the weird dreams she'd been having.

The dreams showed a once beautiful land burning to the ground. It showed centaurs and unicorns dying. A teenage boy was holding up some kind of portal or gate. But the most terrifying thing was a man with violent purple eyes reaching his hand out to her and softly calling her name:

Astara, Astara Knight, ASTARA KNIGHT

Astara quickly shook the image from her mind and grabbed a PopTart off her dad's plate, not bothering to ask if he was going to eat it. She knew she was being rude, that was the point, maybe if she was rude her dad might yell at her. Or at the very least look at her.

Astara sighed as her dad just got up and moved to the couch. He and her mother never spoke to her, heck they never even would look at her. As far as Astara was concerned, they didn't even know she existed. In fact, the only time she remembered them speaking to her was when she was three. She barely tried to get their attention anymore but sometimes she was so lonely she just had to try.

But Mr Knight never looked her way so Astara decided to take her brown sugar PopTart on the go. She walked to the door, grabbed her backpack full of books, and picked up her skateboard.

"Goodbye! I'm leaving for school! Not that you care! I love ya too." She yelled mumbling the last part. But still, there was no response.

She zoomed down the streets on her skateboard. Occasionally she ran into a person or two, earning shouts like: "Watch it kid!" or "Can't you see I'm walking here!". But she didn't have time to apologize, if she got one more tardy she'd get detention, again.

The schools big red doors were visible now. She sped up, determined to make it. The principal, Mrs Harmond, stood in front of the open doors looking around for any remaining students. She looked straight at Astara, smiled, and went inside and started to close the doors.

You've got to be kidding me! Astara thought.

She could not believe that Mrs Harmond actually wanted her to be late! Actually take that back, she could believe that. She wasn't exactly the best student in the 8th grade. Mrs Harmond was closing the doors slowly, as if trying to rub in the fact that Astara would be late.

Don't close, don't close, I can NOT have detention again so for goodness sake DONT CLOSE!

And weirdly, as if hearing her thoughts, the big red doors flew open and Mrs Harmond was thrown back. Which gave Astara enough time to zoom through the doors and crash into the lockers.

"I made it! I am NOT late! And on a second note, OW!" Astara practically shouted rubbing her nose.

Mrs Harmond picked herself off the ground and brushed off her pantsuit. "Miss Knight! How many times...one minute to the bell...detention! Detention at once!"