Broken Glasses [Ongoing]

Chapter Nine: Blasphemy!

"Look inside my heart and find a perilous ravine.

Carved within the beauty, the darkness in between.

Standing in the balance of complete and incomplete.

I identify the echo of what is and what will be."

[Song: "Creature" - half•alive ]

(After researching about the song, it's actually a metaphor of Christianity. I'm not Christian but it's a beautiful song. I wanted to inform you just in case you would appreciate knowing beforehand if you decide to listen to the song.)

RECAP:

Our four characters are now suspended for a week after their fight with Raymond and his goons. Having met some parents (and one secretary), the four also got invited to Naomi's home for a dinner party.

Bennett and Naomi are planning on meeting up to work on their group research project and "talk". But there is one errand that has to be taken care of first.

Trigger Warning: A brief discussion about religion (in case you're uncomfortable reading about religion. It will not be the only discussion of it and is not a holistic view/perspective/commentary of religion because it will be built up later in the story). Also, a conversation with a racist.

~

I can't go back to sleep.

Humans spend one-third of their lives sleeping. Koalas sleep 18-22 hours a day. Doing some math to make it comparable... 24 hours a day and 365 days a year... average lifespan of a koala is about 15 years... then koalas spend about eight-tenths of their life sleeping- give or take.

Why can't I be a koala?

It's seven in the morning on a Sunday and my biological clock won't let me go to sleep. The night before, I triple checked to make sure I didn't have any alarms that would accidentally wake me up like it was a school day. However, the effort was to no avail seeing that I'm wide awake. My mind tells me I'm tired but my body is being a bit of a stubborn brat. In conclusion, my circadian rhythms are not cooperating with me.

I squeezed my eyes shut before covering my eyes with my hands.

Sleep. Please body. Sleep. I beg of you. At least give me this. I got suspended for a week. I should be able to catch up on sleep.

I opened my eyes to glare at the ceiling.

"I hate you," I muttered to myself, to nothing, to everything.

Eventually, I willed myself to sit up from my bed. I stared blankly at nothing as I waited for my mind to accept the fact I'm not going back to sleep. I put my face in my hands and let out a heavy sigh.

Finding myself at my desk, I opened up my laptop. Cracking my knuckles and rolling my shoulder, I told myself, "Let's try to do some work today."

I decided to first organize and schedule out all of my work I have to do to make up for missing a week's worth of school. The suspension didn't sit well with me and was probably worse for my parents. For them to not regret accepting the transfers as my friends, I had to work hard and not let this week be the reason my grades slip. After outlining a decent work plan based on my classes' syllabus and schedules, I spent the next few hours studying physics through work problems.

When I was about to move onto another problem, I set my pencil down. Is this how I'm going to spend my one-week suspension? It seemed too depressing, even for me.