Chapter Five: The Roadblock
"Life's not always easy. Unimportant things will stand in the way of your master plan, but with His help, you will be told the way to His master plan." -Anonymous
Patricia woke up the next morning to the sound of Nina's alarm clock screaming "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" across the room. "Nina," she groaned, "I don't know why you need that dumb thing so loud! I can barely hear myself think!" Nina rolled her eyes at her friend and blamed her grumpiness on PMS and continued to get herself ready for school.
Nina shook KT awake a few minutes later and Patricia rolled back over in bed with a big "humpf" and covered her head with the covers. "Patricia, just because you can't see light under there doesn't mean that you can stay in bed," KT said.
"She hasn't even had breakfast this morning and she's already 'Miss Happy Sunshine'. Can't I just have two minutes of peace?" Patricia shouted through her covers.
KT mumbled, "Wow! I can't even say that someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed since she's not even up yet." Nina stifled a laugh and Patricia groaned.
She finally crawled out of bed and smoothed down her hair. "I don't get the point," Patricia said. "The only thing we're getting up for is to have teachers with bad breath and b.o. lecture us all day about mitosis. I don't see why it's necessary to go through this torture day in and day out! It's madness I tell you!"
"Seriously, Patricia! What got you in such a bad mood this morning?" Nina asked.
"I didn't sleep well last night," she responded. "No matter what, I just couldn't fall asleep."
Just then Willow walked in and said, "You know, there's a lot of natural remedies for trouble sleeping. It's actually a pretty common symptom. A lot of people suffer from mild insomnia. I could give you some oils or…"
Patricia interrupted, "I didn't order any hippie, flower child medicine today. Actually, I probably never will… so, bye Willow." She said the last part with a huge, fake smile on her face, hoping that she would get the, not so subtle, hint.
"Willow," KT said, "Patricia didn't mean…"
"Oh, yes I did!" Patricia shouted.
"She's just a little… cranky this morning," Nina said after finding the right words to describe her friend's crabbiness.
"You're darn right I am!" Patricia shouted. Patricia didn't know why, but all of her feelings started coming out. It's like her mind and her mouth weren't connected and it didn't care that Willow was there either. "I'm probably the worst Knowledgeable One in the history of the world and I don't know any of my powers! I can barely think because my mind is so filled with crap! I just need to get this stuff down because everyone's counting on me! I'm just so blocked…" Patricia threw herself on the bed. Why was she saying all of this stuff?!
Nina went over to try to tell Patricia that it was going to be okay and Willow said, "I know you don't like my, you called it hippie flower child medicine, but you should try meditating. It really centers yourself and you would be surprised how much clearer whatever you're going through will be once you start."
Patricia looked at Willow and for a second everyone in the room thought that Patricia was going to bite her head off, but Patricia gave Willow a hug and said, "Thanks Willow. You're a great…" she paused because Willow wasn't technically her friend, "acquaintance."
Willow smiled and said, "Wow, Patricia! That's the nicest thing that you've ever said to me." She then skipped out of the room, happier than she'd been in a long time.
Nina smiled at KT and Patricia and said, "I think you guys have your next task. I'll cover for you guys and you two just work on this meditation thing." Nina skipped out of the room and didn't give a second thought to Patricia's peculiar behavior.
Nina walked into the kitchen and saw Trudy and said, "Patricia is having… girl problems this morning. You know, very emotional, cramps and she said that our day would be much better if she wasn't such a… well she said 'PMS-y teenage cranky goth girl' but I'm just going to say a big pain in the butt. And KT said that she would stay to keep Patricia company because she also has that extra credit assignment from Mr. Homes to work on and can do that while Patricia's doing, whatever she's going to due."
"Ok dearie," Trudy said, "Did she take an Advil?" Nina nodded. "Then I'll just leave them to it."
Patricia was sitting on the floor with her eyes closed as KT said, "Just clear your mind. Let all of those worries slip away. It's just you and your center peace…" KT's words slipped away as Patricia grew more and more distant to all that held her back. The darkness faded and a bright vision opened up before her; she had broken her first roadblock.