Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) Muggle Music: Show Tunes: Task #7: "Racing Against the Clock" (The Pajama Game): Write about being late.
Character: Dominique Weaseley
Word Count: 857
She's late; it's a universal truth by now. And yet the barista still chooses to take her time readying her order, in fact she's whistling a tune as she works.
Dominique can't suppress the impatient scowl from forming any longer and taps her foot heavily onto the wooden floor.
But honestly it's not her fault she's late.
No, Dominique has a routine that works: her alarm wakes her up promptly at 7am and she hops into the shower before both Louis and Victoire, who prefers to sleep in. She's knocked her bathroom routine down to 30 minutes, sharing a bathroom at school with 5 girls makes one speedy.
Dominique had picked her clothes out from the night before and had laid them on her window seat along with her trusty converse sneakers.
A quick comb through her hair to rid it of knots, before nimble fingers create a taut French braid in her long hair which she ends with an elastic. For her last birthday Louis had gifted her a pack of multi colored neon elastics, her choice for the day – neon green. One last critical scan in the mirror before leaving her room at 7:50am, and just as Victoire shuts the bathroom door behind her, Dominique slips down the stairs towards the kitchen.
But today the bathroom is occupied and she politely for all of 2 seconds gently knocks on the door before rage consumes her and she pummels the door with her fist. Just as she opens her mouth to scream, strong arms physically hauls her away from the door and slams her into the adjacent wall.
"Are you crazy?!" Louis howls at his sister, annoyance clearly displayed on his face. Despite being 2 and a half years her brother's senior, Louis is the same exact height as her or maybe he's just half an inch taller.
Just as Dominique pushes his hands away and moves to shove her brother, her mother appears in her doorway.
"Dominique!" Fleur chastises her daughter sharply making both teens shrink ever so slightly.
"Do you not see Louis standing right here?" Dominique scoffs quietly but under her mother's bitter stare she returns to her room.
"Morning daddy." Dominique greets the sole occupant of the kitchen, perched at the table with a mug of coffee and the Daily Prophet.
"Morning love. Slept alright?" Bill questions his middle child apprehensively; instantly picking up on her irritable attitude.
"I did." Dominique answers curtly crossing over to the family Espresso machine quickly.
Some brilliant wizard had thought to model the muggle Espresso machine for wizards without electricity and Dominique believes it is the best advancement of the century.
But at 7:56 am Dominique's day take a big left turn, the Espresso machine was broken. How? She's not quite sure, but sure enough in overly dramatic Dominique fashion she had stormed out of the room and into the floo in pursuit of her soothing hot beverage like a raving mad woman.
It's 8:00 am when Dominique arrives at the Leaky Cauldron barely containing her decorum, plenty of time to dart for her caffeine fix yet she stops and rocks on the balls of her feet, chewing her bottom lip.
Now that's she paying for her coffee she has the options of an old fashion Muggle Espresso or try the new Coffee Whiz in Diagon Alley, she can get a puff of focus and a calming draught drizzle.
Decision made she bolts out of the Leaky Cauldron and into the busy streets of Muggle London it only takes her 5 minutes to sprint to the end of the street to the Corner Coffee Cafe, her sigh of relief is choked back once she sees the many persons in line.
A quick glance at the wall clock shows 8:08am, squaring her shoulders she charges to the back of the line, crossing her fingers.
Resolve made, she absolutely refuses to spare another glance at the wall clock which she blames on the strong coffee bean scent assaulting her nostrils. The long wait made bearable by this rich scent, lulling her into complacency for the first 5 minutes.
But as the line moves up painfully slowly Dominique becomes increasingly antsy, switching from rocking on the balls of her feet and tapping her foot incessantly.
When the barista finally hands over her Cortado, Dominique simply melts and finally graces the barista with a wide smile one normally sees on an addict, in fact all of the jitters and stress fade away as her hand wraps around the warm cup before taking a sip.
Glimpsing at the wall clock just before exiting reading 8:45am, she shrugs. Yep she's late; it's a universal truth by now. The polite 5 minutes grace period one is given has also disappeared but with caffeine flowing through her system she's nonchalant and carefree.
Uncle George will understand, by now perfect Victoire has already relayed to him that their Espresso machine is broken; they know where she went. And besides if she continues at this pace, her father will give up and head into work prolonging her scolding for this evening when he can care less.