RUN - Mars Express

Chapter 1

Translations to the words in Spanish are provided below. This story takes place in 2018. 

Serafina woke up with her head throbbing. She had slept with a ponytail on, and this tended to cause her headaches. She grabbed her glasses and put them on. They had scratches all over the lenses, but she didn't mind it too much. She opened the curtains to her bright pink room. Serafina liked the color pink, but she would've much rather had it be green, or blue, or maybe even brown. Pink was a color for little kids, and Serafina was already fourteen. At this point, she felt more like a grown woman than a child. "Serafina, wake up mi amor!" her mother shouted from downstairs. Serafina went to the bathroom and put her contact lenses on quickly. She liked her face a lot more with her contact lenses. "Coming!" she shouted back. She walked out of the bathroom, only to be met by her father holding an Uruguayan flag. "Do you like it? We're going to hang it up outside to annoy the racist vecinos," he said. Serafina chuckled. "Great idea". Serafina's neighbors were, to sugar-coat it, not so nice to people that were different from them. Serafina never really understood why. I mean, her parents always invited the neighbors to cookouts and treated them with kindness. Being Uruguayan didn't change whether they were good people or not. Nevertheless, the neighbors had a problem with Serafina's family; the Garcias. 

Seri, as her parents liked to call her, went downstairs and began serving herself some toast. She liked simple breakfasts, but would always put jam on the toast to get her energy pumping. "Seri, finish the tostadas quick! We're going to be late," her mother said hurriedly. Seri gulped down what was left of her toast and ran upstairs to get her backpack. As she was running back down, she remembered she forgot her school ID. "Shit!" she thought. She bolted back upstairs and grabbed one of the two IDs on the corridor table. She had to check whether it was her's or her brother's, or else she wouldn't be allowed in school. She read it quickly. 

Serafina Garcia

Bob Miller Middle School

Date of Birth: 2004/07/29

Date of renewal: 2019/08/31

"I have to get this renewed next year," she thought before running down the stairs once again and slamming the front door closed as she sprinted out of the house. She got into the car where her mother and younger brother were waiting. "What took you so long?" her brother Javier asked. "ID," Serafina muttered, trying to catch her breath. She felt like she had run a whole marathon. Her mother started the car and Serafina felt the engine turn on. Their car's engine was functional, but it would roar loudly when it was turned on. Serafina took out her phone and began looking through her text messages. She knew lots of people in school, but she didn't actually like them that much. She texted back all of the people who texted her and turned off her phone. She was exhausted, so she decided to nap for a while. She leaned against the car window and closed her eyes. She felt herself slowly drifting away into a deep sleep, almost as if she was being lifted up by angels. She was so tired that the car window began to feel more like a pillow than a piece of glass. Her brain blocked out the sounds around her, and she began to dream. She dreamt of a world where everyone used book pages as money and, depending on how good the story was, that was the value of the book page. She dreamt of colors swirling around a dull, grey place and giving people hope for a better tomorrow. She dreamt of her future and how she aspired to change the world herself. She dreamt of her neighbors tasting the food her father made at their cookouts, and beginning to love her culture. She dreamt that every drawing she made would come to life, so she could draw as many friends as she liked. She dreamt and dreamt and dreamt until she was abruptly woken up by her mother. 

"Estamos a few blocks away from the school. Agarra your things," her mother said. Serafina rubbed her eyes. "That was a good nap," she thought. She reached out into the back of the car. She stretched her arm as much as possible and grabbed her backpack. "This is heavier than I remember," she muttered. When she pulled the backpack to the front, she saw it was her brother's, not hers. "Toma," she told her brother, shoving it into his arms. "Ey, stop that!" her brother exclaimed. "I didn't do anything!" Serafina exclaimed back. "You shoved it into my arms!". "Sorry?" Serafina answered sarcastically. She began reaching for her bag this time. She grabbed it by one of the pieces of yarn that she had attached to it. She like attaching pieces of yarn to her belongings because they reminded her of her grandmother's love for crochet. She brought her backpack onto her lap and opened one of the pockets. She put her phone inside and zipped the pocket back up. She proceeded to readjust the pieces of yarn that she had pulled a few seconds earlier. They were all really beautiful colors, and Serafina hated to mess up something so unique and deeply meaningful to her and her family. She then put her backpack right beside her as she saw her mother turning a corner and stopping at a red light. They were only one more block away from school. Serafina was waiting for the red light to turn green when she felt a strong force propelled her to the side of the car and make her hit her window, shattering it into millions of pieces. Her head began to throb, even more than it did that morning when she had woken up. 

And then everything went black. 

~~~~~

Thank you for reading and please boost this story in any way you can (ex: comment, vote). 

Remember that you are loved, and you matter. 

Translations are provided below.

Feel free to ask me any questions about anything!

Translations: 

Mi amor: My love

Vecinos: Neighbors

Tostadas: Toast

Estamos: We are

Agarra: Grab

Toma: Take this