My Day In The Glass Of The Machine

Everything was planned weeks in advance. Everyone knew what to do and where to stand. The lights were dimmed and the room grew increasingly silent. No one was in open view. The line of sights had been broken and everyone waited. Their hearts beginning to race as the seconds began to feel like minutes, minutes felt like hours. Your own heart felt like it was beating against your chest with a thousand forces. The sweat dripping from your brow. But none of this was from fear or pressure. It was excitement. Taking a breath that, to you, sounded like the groan as if someone just read the most boring speech and a random individual requested it to be read again because they had fallen asleep at part of it. Then it that’s when the true moment came. The sound of the tumblers of the door clicked and turned before stopping short. Metallic jingling was echoed through the wall as you assumed keys were being used to unlock it. The door opened in a normal fashion and in the next second the lights flicked on. This was your que to strike!!! “SURPRISE!!!” The sound of birthday horns and confetti bursts from everyone in hiding. The guest of honor undoubtedly shocked if not surprised so many people got into their room when the door was locked, but that info could wait till another time. Everyone got together and congratulated them on their wonderous day. Then that’s when it happened. “So what kind of cake did yall get?” The rooms festive cheers and

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you hear what I said?” The girl walked slowly, dragging her feet as she left.

My fifteenth birthday was fast approaching, and this day was brought to me through patience. I waited this long, held the memory that happened all those years ago. so why wait any longer to to tell her? To remind her? Because I would not allow my dedication to be spent on a cheap occurrence. That would invite recklessness, and recklessness leads to ignorance, killing the discipline it took to remember for all these years. We were here, my mother took me to red lobster for my birthday. We were left to our seats; Then, knowing the time right, “My fifteenth birthday is fast approaching” slyness lining my voice. My mother’s face was twisted between recognition and horror and my grin fast followed, she knew.

Her words caused her mind to fly back in time to Grandma’s last Birthday, when her cat had clawed the table clothes to shreds and when it caught on her paw she ran, causing the cake to fall and splatter all over grandma’s 400 dollar dress. Then she had a memory she didn’t remember.

“I’m going to press the button.” Delaney said nervously. While Delaney pressed the button the robot talked and scared the girls.

Anger surged through Genie’s heart at her mother’s monotone words. She swore she turned a dark purple at the very thought. Faster than she could contain herself the words bubbled to the surface and spilled out of her mouth. “I am following the instructions! So I do not need your help.” She spun around, waving the whisk. Only too late did she realize she had gotten some of the orange pulp on her mother’s face.

As Evan sipped his beer, a kid caught his eye over by the video games. He was standing in front of one of those race car simulators that Evan couldn’t quite make out the name of, but that’s not what had his attention. It was the way that the kid was looking at the other boy playing the game right next to him that had caught Evan’s attention. He watched as the boy periodically glanced down at the dollar that was partially hanging out of the other kid’s pocket—all while pretending to play the racecar game that flashed Insert money across the

"I want to know what's wrong with you!" Arthur answered, his patience beginning to wear

Lydee nearly threw her gloves at me, flushed with fear at my onset of humor. Having held a beating heart between the confines of my fingers—crusted with black tar, spewing curses… this moment seemed rather, well… silly. “Fine, dear mother-ish. What game is that?” I amused the levity.

Alex blew out a relieved breath, packed up the set, and opened the door. Once inside, she pulled out her cell phone. She called her best friend, who was waiting outside, acting as a lookout. “Paige, are you there? I made it into the office.” She kept her voice low, barely above a

You know everyone has that special someone in their life that shapes them and for me it is my cousin. Since that one day back when I lived in a small apartment made with brown bricks referred to as the “jungle”. Everyone lived in the jungle because it was affordable and there was lots of stores that were walking distance. My entire family lived there which made it special because we were always together, but it was more special l having Janet by my side. All I ever saw was her crawling up the stairs to get to my apartment, saliva drooping down from those chubby cheeks and her bright hazel eyes. As a child I didn’t know she was my cousin but she was always with me. Whenever we played,we always fought with each other over little things like dolls or who would get to hug my grandma first when she came over. I would always laugh at her when I heard her crying because it made me feel like I had done something better than her. We still managed to have our good moments though. It felt as we’d been attached since birth because of how close we were. As months passed and I gained more knowledge, you’d think we would get along more but we didn’t. I thought of her as a spoiled brat, every week I would go down to visit her. She would appear all ecstatic trying to greet me at her door with a bunch of Bratz dolls because she would get new ones every week. She’d basically get everything that she wanted and it would make me so mad because my parents never bought me toys. I would only get the

The morning sunshine seeped through the cracks between my shutters, lighting up my room. I could hear the clock ticking and the rays of sunlight bouncing off of my eyelids. I barely got any sleep last night because I was ecstatic that tomorrow was, my birthday! I jumped up out of bed, how could I have forgotten that it was my birthday? Suddenly all of my drowsiness turned it into excitement and I jumped up, throwing the red gradient quilt off of my bed. I slowly walked out of my room, making very little noise, checking to see if anyone else was awake. I peeked through the intricate staircase railings and tried to spot anyone downstairs, no one was in sight. I tiptoed down the cream coloured stairs, reached the bottom and got startled when my mom yelled, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”, her voice bouncing off the walls of house. A grin so big spread across my face, I couldn’t believe I was turning four years old!

"Happy Birthday", my mom screamed out and scared me the morning of June 9. But it was surprising and nice of her since she wished me before anyone else. It was my eighteen birthday and it was my day. While looking out the big windows in my room, I thought to myself, I will do what satisfies me today, but wasn't quite sure what? I didn’t receive any calls from my friends, or other relatives. Nobody was home either besides my mom with whom I can’t make plans because she got her own work to do. It depressed me because it seemed like this was going to be one boring eighteen birthday.

“Hello Sophia!” My mom said back to me, looking up from her computer while she was sitting on the couch. “I wanted to let you know that me and your dad have planned something very special and fun to do tonight!”

Just as I thought I was finished opening presents, my mother comes from the kitchen and says “I have one more surprise for you too”. Then she rolls in two brand new bikes from the kitchen. My sister starts screaming, jumping up and down saying “OMG thanks mom you’re the best I love you so much.” My heart starts going a mile a minute and I start to smile harder than I ever had before, because this is my first bike