Chapter Three of Isolated! Hurrah!!!

Three

12:53 pm, December 3rd, 2099

   "Hello?"
   I hear the click of the key turning inside the lock, leading me inside to what will now be my house. It seems vacant, and from what I can see, it's not furnished. The dirty chandelier above my head seems precariously close to falling off the ceiling. I take a cautious step to the side.
   "Hello?" I call again, this time louder.
   "Hey!" comes the slightly-raspy reply. She's pretty, with a slender body, high cheekbones, and jet black hair that any girl my age would kill for. She wears her hair in a high, messy ponytail resting atop her head. Her fitted black sweatshirt looks comfortable with her loose gray sweatpants that taper at the knee. In that outfit, I wouldn't look cute, I'd look disheveled and messy. "I'm Annika," she says.
   I extend my hand. "Devin," I say with a grin. She ignores my outstretched hand so I rest it by my thigh in defeat. "I like your hair."
   "I like your eyes."
   "Thanks, my mother gave 'em to me."
   She pretends to ponder it for a bit, and then remarks, "I like you Devin. I just got her, like, ten minutes ago, but I can show you around if you'd like." I nod in reply. Annika's gait is strong and confident, while I stroll over very tediously, a shy walk. I follow her and don't say much.
   "Welcome to Chez Annika, mon ami!  Now this," she says with a rueful grin, "is where the party begins." Her unkempt room is full of scattered clothes on the floor, open drawers, little parcels laid out all over. "Your room is across the hall. Go explore!"
   I practically skip to my room. My room. In my new house! Well, it's still a Community House I share with Annika, but 50% mine nonetheless.
   My room is more or less my very own kingdom of isolation. It's the loneliest looking room I've ever seen. It's this depressing little bedroom with these dull grey-blue walls, a solemn twin bed, and an old wooden dresser with chipping paint. Annika runs up behind me and gives me plaintive eyes as if to say, sorry I got the bigger and better room? I tentatively shrug in response. I brace myself and enter the room to get a closer look. I slick back my boring brown hair and tighten my sleek ponytail. I'm not a very… flashy person, but even I have some raggedy old posters tacked up on my bedroom walls.
   Next Annika and I decide to look at the second level of the Community House.
   "So, Devin…"
   "Marcus. Devin Marcus. Um, yeah?"
   "The second level is this lanky old kitchen. There's not table to eat at and stuff, but I found a foldable one in the laundry room, which is on the other side of the second floor. Silverware's not too expensive, but we can buy plastic ones for now at the Market until we can afford real ones that are actually nice." There's a slight pause. "you know, my grandfather had eyes just like yours."
   "Really?" I nearly shriek. "I've never met another person with eyes like mine."
   "Nope. He didn't. Just wanted to see your reaction."
   I let out a weird snort-laugh just as we reach the second level. "That's an awfully weird prank," I smirk.
   "I guess I'm awfully weird, then," she chuckles in reply. "Lange, by the way. That's my last name."
   After I finish unpacking, Annika Lange and I talk for a while…
   Until I get an unexpected phone call.

Why Milliana's 3rd Adventure is Totally Rational

IN WHICH I FIND THE STORY OF "MILLIANA GOES OVERBOARD"

I was recently going through my drawers to clean out some of the old crap I have in there. I found a writers' notebook from second grade. Comedy. Freaking. GOLD.

DISCLAIMER:After reading this entry you WILL want to read Milliana's third adventure story…

Let me go through why this book/short story I wrote in second grade is 100% rational (in chronological order)...


1. Because a free birthday party for college students on the Intrepid in NYC is what everyone does.
2. Because 20 year olds still have birthday parties (without alcohol).
3. Because the Intrepid is so awfully guarded/railing-less that a girl can just fall off the boat.
4. Because instead of screaming your friend over to pull you back up onto the boat, you tell her to drop you into a life boat and float you away forever.
5. Because your friend will then just say "sure" and then walk away as you drop into the Hudson River.
6. Because from the Intrepid, the river obviously leads directly into the ocean.
7. Because when you go on the Intrepid, your dad packs you scuba gear and cheerios (?) assuming you'll fall off.
8. Because there will always be a shark on the North-East coast that will die from hitting a piece of coral.
9. Because there's always a desert island in the middle of the ocean.
10. Because a rich girl fell off her yacht and got stranded on that desert island, and no one went back to rescue her. Obviously! Why would they?
11. Because everyone's dad owns a helicopter.
12. Because Malissa is always spelled with an A instead of an E as the second letter.
13. Because Malissa will move in with you when you find her instead of going back to live with her parents.
14. Because you never know when you have two tickets to a Lady Gaga concert in New York.
15. Because while you may "go to college" in New York city you don't ACTUALLY attend this college.
16. Because you live in Seattle, go to college at the same time New York, and then go back just for an expensive Lady Gaga concert that you randomly have tickets to.
17. Because your dad with the last name Roberts was named Robert.


THIS COULD TOTALLY HAPPEN, RIGHT?
right.

Fluffy the Cat

Naturally, my childhood dream was to get a pet. In late spring during my sixth year on planet Earth, my parents and I had discussed getting a dog. I even took a poll among my classroom. Some of the names were very Beatles inspired. The names were Penny, Penny Lane, Lucy, and Molly. Molly was my favorite name, so when I saw that Penny was in the lead, I MAY HAVE added on about six votes to Molly's name.

Soon after the poll, my best friend Sarah told me something LIFE CHANGING (cue scary DUN DUN DUN Music)...

She would be getting a cat.

"We're going to the shelter after school!" Was the first thing I heard.
"The shelter was so cool! We saw this really fluffy cat... he was SO cute!!!!" spiraled my jealousy.
"Mommy and me are going back to the shelter today. We're getting that fluffy cat!!! What should I name him? Fluffy!" such a cute name, I thought.
And finally, the dreaded... "We got Fluffy!"

My jealousy was eating me alive. Sarah told me lots about her adorable cat fluffy. I longed to meet/own this cat. Then some depressing news came...
Fluffy had passed away.

I went home that day and told my Mom.
"Mommy, Sarah's new cat died," I said as I put my finished cup of milk in the sink.
"That's a shame," she replied. "Already? Didn't she just get him, like, three days ago, though?"
"That's what I asked. She told me that it was because they got him at a shelter when he was super-duper old."
"Oh," Mom said, and went upstairs to do some work.

My mother used to not work Thursdays and Fridays, so sometimes she picked me up from Kindergarten at the end of the day. Not long after the Unfortunate Passing, she saw Sarah at Pickup Time. "I'm sorry about Fluffy, Sarah," Mom said. A puzzled look formed on Sarah's face. "Fluffy? Oh! Fluffy."

Yup. Turns out Sarah made up Fluffy.
And now we are still friends!!! MIND BLOWN! It was a great injustice though. Sarah, I will now throw eggs at Monica's ugly green car.

-In memory of Fluffy

Chapter Two of Isolated!

Okay so you know that story/book I was writing that I showed the first chapter for? Okay, here is the second. Haven't been able to work on this a lot, so it's quite a bit short. Whatevs.

Two

7:33 PM, December 2nd, 2099

"So, what's your job?"

  "What do you mean, what's my job, Ma?"

  "Devin, honey, you didn't take the test yet?  Oh, Alexander, it was so different back in the fifties. Do you remember? We could just apply for one! That Google job was amazing."

  My mother is an amazingly nice and warm woman. She has green eyes that shimmer in the light and are accentuated whenever she wears a green blouse. Tonight she is wearing a turquoise long-sleeved top with some black slacks and boots. Every time she laughs, she looks young and rejuvenated. Her laugh lines look like laugh lines, not wrinkles, as they usually do on most women her age.

  "Yes, Talia, but it was very hard to get into," my father smiles. He also has a similar aura- a similar feel to his laugh- to my mother. A warm one. He has thinly wired rectangular glasses and short brown hair. He scoops up some potatoes and string beans and dumps them on his plate.

 " A what test?" I say, an anxious look plastered on my face, worry lines forming on my forehead.

 "Just your applications test, that's all."

 My stomach drops. "I just had my presentation at the town Redemption Office. Why didn't they explain it?"

 "I'm not sure. Might've been just a small glitch." I gulp at that response, a feverish heat engulfing my body. The Realmkeepers know no glitches.

  Dad plays with his potatoes with his fork, swiveling them around with the metal tongs on the shiny plate. I shove mine into my mouth. The silence is filled with awkwardness, making everybody fidget in their seats. How could I not have taken this so-called "application test?" Either it really was a glitch, or there's something seriously wrong with me. I hope it’s not the latter…

  I angstily change the subject, desperately trying to fill the gaps of the awkward silence. Mom is in the kitchen, wiping off some dishes. She returns to the table and politely sits down. Her hair, that she usually wears down on her shoulders, is pulled back into a loose chignon that sits on the top of her head. She adjusts her glasses. “So, um… I’m moving in to my Community House tomorrow,” I say.

  “Oh! I almost forgot to ask you about that! Do you know who your roommate is?” Dad says. He’s pretty shy, but he’s completely generous, so whenever he speaks, it’s usually something nice he has to say.

  “I’m not really supposed to know who it is yet, I guess? I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter, anyway, since I’ll meet her tomorrow.”

  “I hope she’s nice, Dev.” Mom lays her napkin down on her lap and serves herself a little bit of string beans. She is sitting in a silence so intense it doesn’t seem silent. I can see the tears making her eyes glossy.

  “Mom?”

 “Talia?”

  She lets out a slight chuckle, and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m- um- I’m just going to miss you, a lot, Devin.”

  “Oh, Mom. You’ll see me plenty.”

  We wait there for a second.

  “And I’m gonna miss you, too.”

  We eat the rest of our dinner quietly, but a pleasant aura still remains. Tomorrow, I leave to start a new life for myself. But just because I am doesn’t mean I leave my family. It just means there’s a further distance between us. And that’s okay, I guess.

  “I don’t know why you’ll miss me so much. I’m not exactly what you’d call charismatic,” I joke, giving a rueful grin to let my parents know I am being sarcastic. The chuckle in response is half-hearted and teary.

  We eat the rest of dinner in silence.