Ok, so this is what I word-vomited today. I'm not really sure how it turned out...
Thoughts?
The day after Myka's timer was unveiled was…uneventful. The bandages on her wrist kept the TiMER from view, and it seemed as though the nurse had not told anyone, so thankfully Myka was not subjected to the usual questions, excited giggles and blatant staring from her classmates; she doesn't think she could've survived that. She certainly wasn't looking forward to the ridiculous applause that accompanies a public meeting. She was always embarrassed for the couple whenever she'd been a witness. Why can't people respect that it's a private moment? This was part of the growing list of reasons why she was petitioning to stay home the day her TiMER went off. No such luck, though. Pete had personally promised to break into her house (though, seeing her parents' excitement when she got her TiMER she has trouble believing they wouldn't let him in), drag her out of bed, and carry her to school kicking and screaming in her pajamas. She was not interested in testing the value of his word.
The few days dragged by, with little more on her mind than the seconds steadily ticking away on her TiMER. Myka is reading a book in a corner with her lunch, and, of course, Pete tries to convince her to be social "Tomorrow's the big day Mykes! You ready to meet the love of your life!?" Myka punches Pete in the arm, hard "Pete! Shut up!" They're in the crowded cafeteria of the high school, and Pete's exclamation turns a few heads. "Awww, come on Mykes. At least the waiting will be over." 0days 11hours 43minutes 21seconds At midnight tonight, her TiMER will stop, and what everyone else considers the best day of her life will commence. Though she was still dreading the moment, she did wish it would pass so she could stop this pointless worrying. She could barely focus on her classes, and homework might as well have been a nonexistent entity for the time she spent considering her studies. "Just, lets not talk about it, okay?" "Fine, you keep reading your book," he grabs it from the table in front of her, eliciting a cry from Myka, who immediately tries to take it back, "and I will go hit on the hot brunette over-" "Ha!" Myka manages to catch the book he's waving, teasingly, over her head. "Jeeze, Mykes. You would've thought you'd memorized this one by now from reading it so many times." "Well it's my favorite," she sniffs indignantly while dusting off the cover of her well-worn copy of The Time Machine. "You better hope your One cares as much about books as you do or we're going to have a problem."
Myka's parents were wise enough not to ask her about her breakdown and subsequent destruction of her perfect attendance record (and Pete loved that school was her greater concern), but apparently Pete had told them because Myka and her mother would not be having this argument otherwise. "Mom, I am not wearing…that," Myka gestures to the dress on her bed that her mother conveniently bought and wants her to wear tomorrow, for 'no reason in particular' "to school, or anywhere." "Myka, don't you want to look nice for your—for tomorrow " Myka glares "I didn't think there was anything wrong with the way I dress any other day, why is tomorrow any different?" Jeannie gives up the pretense that Pete had not told her. "You're meeting your One, you need to look…presentable." "Well, I think the TiMER is going to go off one way or another." "Just wear the dress and put on a little makeup, that's all I ask." "If I'm going to meet my One, shouldn't it be the way I normally am? Converse, jeans, T-Shirt?" This is why I didn't want the damn thing in the first place! Everyone knows the most intimate detail of my life, and somehow it becomes their problem. "But don't you want to make a good first impression?" And now the most personal moment of my life is going to be fabricated. "I just—look mom, I'm not looking forward to this anyway so can I at least dress comfortably?"
Myka lay in her bed staring absently at her left wrist. 3, 2, 1 the TiMER began to beep when it hit zero, as her alarm clock simultaneously struck midnight. Well, she thought, here goes nothing.
"Hey hey hey!" Myka groaned as she heard Pete from down the hallway, closing her locker to turn to meet him. "Woah! Mykes, you look smokin." Myka looked away, straightening her blue sundress "Shut it Pete, I'm getting enough 'looks' as it is you don't need to draw even more attention." And she was, anyone who'd noticed her in the hallway any other day did a double take as they noticed the change in attire. She'd given in regarding the dress, thinking it better than pulling her father and sister into the argument. She squirmed uncomfortably as they started walking down the hallway to the cafeteria for lunch trying to make the dress sit comfortably, making eye contact with no one. "Mykes, you do know you're going to meet him at some point today whether or not you walk with your head down all day," Pete laughs and Myka shrugs, feeling ridiculous. She doesn't understand why she's feeling shyabout all this. She doesn't want it to happen anyway, so why should it bother her? "Hey," he says turning her to face him "you're going to be fine." Myka offers him a thankful smile as they make their way into the crowded lunchroom, Pete steering her through the crowd, as she continues to keep her head down.
"I am telling you it was not my fault!"
"Perhaps not, but we ended up here regardless, and I most certainly was not responsible for sending our chemistry teacher to the hospital!"
"She was responsible, if anyone, for making the labels so utterly illegible."
"Either way my dear sister you were expelled and I was forced to move schools with you. Honestly I don't see why I am being punished for your behavioral discrepancies."
"My discrepancies? What, my curiosity? My genius intellect? My damnation of this blasted device I was subjected to?"
"How about your lack of respect for any rules, your promiscuity, which stuck you with said 'blasted device' I might add, and your refusal to function normally in society."
"I don't need to listen to this!" she huffed as she turned, attempting to storm away, which would have been successful were it not for the backpack lying at the foot of one of the tables. As it were, she fell over the bag, succeeding in spilling her lunch all over…
If Myka expected anything eventful to transpire that day, it would not have included being run over and covered in the slob the cafeteria passed as food. Myka heard an accented voice off to the right state "Exhibit A" but was unable to pay attention to anything past the stranger flailing in front of her attempting to regain balance and some sense of dignity while babbling an incoherent mix of "Oh my goodness I am so sorry!" "No, no it's fine." "I was not watching where I was going." "Really, it's okay, I have some extra clothes in my locker." The stranger began to look up, sweeping somewhat disheveled dark hair out of her face. "It was not my intention to-" Myka and the stranger made eye contact, and she was subsequently cut off by a loud, rather obnoxious, Myka thought, beeping.
Beeping coming from each of their left wrists...
And for her impressive intellect, Myka Bering could only form one coherent thought...
Crap.