Fridge Magnet Fate

Amelia clambered out of bed, pulling on her clothes. She choose a grey shirt over her faded jeans and scrappy trainers. Her family had always been poor- living off hardly anything. She slowly stepped down the stairs; each and every one creaked, into the kitchen.

The lettered magnets on the fridge still held up the sheet of paper that recoded her fate, next to the photos of her archery championship win. Amelia pulled a photo down, the one that she saw being taken every night in her dreams. That was the last time Amelia remembered being truly happy.

Her smiling freckled face under her choppy hazel hair, her grey - pale blue sky eyes alight with joy. Amelia sighed, hearing it aloud- her hearing shifted; sometimes she could hear fine, others she couldn't hear someone shouting in her face. Right now her hearing was about a 9- she had a scale, 0 being completely deaf.

She put bread into the ancient toaster, I'm being serious- this toaster has been around since before the dawn of mankind- aliens forgot to take it with them back home to mars, then she went to grab her coat and bag off her piano in the living room.

Amelia loved her piano- she had taught herself how to play. Her uncle had left it to her when he died years ago; no-one in the family had got around to selling it. She wrote her own songs as well as playing her favourite song over and over

She wondered why her toast wasn't done yet, she should have heard the toaster pop. Oh crap… She opened the piano lid, and pressed the highest note- to the sound of nothing. Nothing at all- not even a muffled sound.

Her condition was getting worse, she had done the tests every day- even when the FAYZ started and the records showed that the times she could hear were getting shorter and less frequent.

Tears fell from her eyes; the ear surgery her family could only just afford had been scheduled for today- the date was printed on the sheet on the fridge. She had been suppressing it for days- hoping the FAYZ would end and her hearing would be saved, if she didn't have the surgery she would be permanently death.

She grabbed the toast and rubbed the tears away as she ran to Day Care for her shift.