Chapter 1
Déjà vu
My alarm clock is screeching but I can't seem to move and make it stop.
Why can't it just shut up! I think. Then like power of will it stopped. How odd, did I set it to do that? Can it even do that? I sit up out of curiosity and I intend on getting out of bed but I can't. It's like my body is stuck to the bed. I look around my room like I'm looking at it for the first time, everything just seems different. I shake it off and just get up, power of will. I move towards my window and open my curtains, a beam of sunshine so bright and warm burst through and illuminates my room, turning my walls into a warm orange color. My outlook on the day is suddenly brighter and I move into the bathroom.
As I get dressed I look into my full length mirror, the one that's shaped like waves and I'm suddenly reminded of the time when Lacey and I tried to hang out in 7th grade. We hadn't talked in a while since Danny and my mother thought it would be good for me to interact with old friends. I think her exact words were "You can't just stay up in your room for the rest of your life, interact with someone other than Riley for once, and inanimate objects don't count." I tried, we tried, but I guess what held us both together as friends was Danny, and he's gone. That snaps me out of my trip down memory lane. I hear a jingling and look down to find Riley wagging his tail at my feet, I bend down to pet him and see the scuff on my boots. I get up and look back into the mirror, just plain old me in my baggy t-shirt and skinny jeans. I've changed but yet again who hasn't, everyone around me has. I grab my bag from the chair by my closet and head downstairs, Riley at my feet, I walk into the kitchen grab a piece of toast and head out to wait for the bus to take me to school. I can't believe I'm almost 17 and still have no car.
I get off the bus and walk across the quad to school and as I pass by all the cliques that define high school social lives, I'm suddenly not morose about my feelings toward my peers. I walk straight to my locker and find Rico at the foot of it reading some book.
"What you got there, Rico?" I say all ironically because I don't really care.
"A book I was recommended" he looks up at me and gets up. "Well good morning Ms. Sunshine, what's with you today Jo?" he leans on the locker.
"Nothing, I just don't feel perpetually upset today" I smile as I grab my first period books.
"That's a change" he looks down at his phone. "Suddenly, adverb, quickly and unexpected"
I close my locker and looks over at Rico, "what?"
"SAT word of the day" he flashes his phone at me with one eyebrow raised.
I raise mine back. "Okay..."
"You know, just like you today" says Rico.
Suddenly and unexpected I think, quite a coincidence.