1. L.

She woke up at 3 a.m. again. The alarm of her mother’s calm always shook her awake in the wake of her father’s shouting. Now those shouts were echoes, but she lay with the stars in her eyes wide open, looking out at the stars in the stars in the stars in the twinkling sky, reminding her that fiery inferno is quite pretty from a distance, or that she is so small, or that shouting makes the stars blink in confusion, or that tears and stars are really just the same, after all.

She slept for two black and white hours with the stars and her tears sparkling. She awoke to a gray shadow world, three minutes before her alarm would have sounded. She brushed her hair, she brushed her teeth and subconsciously enjoyed the relief that the freshness brought, and she didn’t eat breakfast, completing all these tasks without thinking, just because this is what she did every sparkling gray morning.

Her walk to school was an equally rote task, though her mind was spinning with thoughts that were too nebulous to be physically manifested by a grammatical sentence.

hatred isn’t hatred when it was love in the past present future are an all-encompassing hatred isn’t real when it is hot yelling down my calm mother’s calm she said we would leave but he’ll have nothing not to hate when we’re gone

She didn’t know she thought these thoughts, but they were in her mind, swirling. She thought nothing of time as she stepped into class, fifteen minutes late. It wasn’t until her eyes focused on her teacher at the front of the room and her classmates at their desks that minutes mattered.

“Am I late?” she asked, timidly.

The teacher glanced at the clock, rolled her eyes, and muttered, “What kind of question is that? I don't want to hear any excuses. Sit down and get to work."

~~~

When she arrived home that afternoon, her father had left. For years he had shouted fire through her mother's tranquility. For years he had bemoaned her and her mother's worthlessness, berating them like dogs. For years her mother had promised they would leave. Today, he left, and that burned worst of all.