“When are you going to stop defending her?!” a rough, manly voice yells from downstairs. It was my Dad again, arguing with my Mom. It feels like a daily routine lately. It woke me up earlier than what I wanted to be when I rolled over to face my clock and notice it said 7:32 AM. I didn’t have to be at school till 9 AM, which pissed me off a little.

 

“I wish they’d stop…” I mumble as I reluctantly rolled out of bed.

 

I walked over to my dresser and shuffled around for something to wear. I turned to the side while looking and noticed I still had the outfits that Random gave me the night I slept over sitting on my desk. I’ve been meaning to give them back but never found the time. And now it felt like I’d never find the time, with her being all of a sudden angry at me. But I wasn’t exactly being friendly myself. But I had my reasons for… I sighed, casting off the thought.

Pulling on my vanilla colored skirt and dark brown T-shirt I walked over to the mirror and looked at my hair. It looked frizzy, like a balloon was rubbed against my head. I grabbed my brush off the side table and began running it through, which it didn’t like. I had to tug a little to really get it to go through, which hurt each time I went through it. “Ow!” I shriek before it finally starts to agree with me; the brush easily flowing through my now semi-organized hair.

After I place the brush back on the side table, I head downstairs and prepare for an earful, more from my Dad than my Mom. But to my surprise that’s not quite what I got.

 

“Good morning, dear,” my Mom greets me with a smile, peering around my Dad.

 

My Dad, however, turns towards me then heads over to the door, grabbing his keys off the hook on the wall. A loud slam follows and soon after the roar of the car engine comes to life and then slowly fades into the distance.

 

“I’m sorry for waking you up early dear,” she apologizes. “You’re father just started arguing with me when I ignored his questions. He was mostly yelling to himself, because I didn’t respond to him.”

 

I pulled up a chair at the table and sat down, grabbing a knife and toast as I did, and began spreading butter over it.

 

“It’s oaky,” I tell her, even though I would’ve liked to sleep in more, but I didn’t say that aloud. “Dad’s Dad… I don’t want to run the family business, but he’s never going to see it that way.” I take a bite of the toast.

 

My Mom starred down at her orange juice after my comment. I wish there was a way to make it so my Dad saw things from my side, but it felt impossible some days. What I was doing was no different from what he was doing from a business perspective. I just think he didn’t like the fact that I was running something other than what he wanted. Even my Mom didn’t quite understand why he was so upset. She says he wasn’t always like this, but ever since I’ve told them both what I’ve wanted to do, he’s had this air of anger around him.

 

After we finished eating breakfast, Mom and I talked for about an hour before I had to go to school and meet up with Aurora. I told her for the most part that school was going well, even though I was lying about how Random and I were doing. I didn’t tell her we were fighting but that we decided to do different things and that was keeping us both busy. I did however enjoy telling her how Aurora and I were doing with our stall. She was pleased to hear me making progress and really happy about what I wanted to do with my life, even if my Dad never came around. Someday I’d have to show him that what he wanted and what I wanted were two different things.

 

I waved goodbye to my Mom and then made tracks for school. It was 8:30 AM and it was only a 20 minute walk, so I’d be a little early. So I decided to stop and get a hot chocolate. It was cloudy outside since the rain yesterday, and it still felt a little chilly, so something to warm me up sounded like a nice idea.

 

“Ah, Cocoa, welcome!”

 

I was greeted by the store owner as soon as I entered.

 

“Hey, Dan, one large Mint special,” I tell him as I take a seat on one of the stools in front of the counter. “Just grabbing a hot chocolate and killing some time before I got to meet Aurora at school.”

 

The drink tasted great against my throat, not too hot or too minty, but just right. I would have added a little more chocolate myself. I then sat it down and began telling Dan about the school and how I was doing. He was shocked I wasn’t working with Random, but I told him we decided to do different things at the last minute. It was more lies, but there was nothing I could do.

He told me they had new ideas for hot chocolates and I even gave him some of my own; he usually trusted my judgment, as I came here almost every day. It was an idea for a cherry swirl melt, with a hint of crème. His smile widened when I mentioned the crème and I knew he’d use that one.

After finishing my hot chocolate, I toss it in the trash, wave to Dan and continue to school.

 

When I entered through the doors today, the school was finally complete in setting up; the walls had more decorations, more of the rooms that were previous closed now were open, people pouring in and out of them. Even the stalls looked more finalized, like a finished business plan put into motion for the public. It just caught me by surprise how much more organized we were today than yesterday, but that’s how initial set up always is.

After taking everything in, I headed straight to the business stall. Aurora was already there, hands on her hips staring at me as I drew closer.

 

“Morning,” I casually say to her.

 

“Morning,” she replies, although in a certain distracted voice.

 

I decided to shrug it off and walked past her toward my usual seat. As I got things set up, I could feel Aurora’s lingering glare on the back of my neck. I couldn’t tell what was bothering her, but what I could tell was that she was about to possibly yell at me, probably for talking to Random yesterday.

 

“So,” she starts and I pause what I’m doing, “I saw you talking with Random yesterday. What did you tell her?”

 

 I was half tempted to tell her nothing, but I knew she wouldn’t just take that.

 

When I first met Aurora, I became her friend despite what Random said. But now I think I’ve gotten myself in something I don’t want any part of. She’s kept me from speaking openly to Random-or kindly I might add-and now she wants me as her closest friend instead. Why though I had no idea.

 

“I was just asking her why she didn’t take the AI stall, that’s all.” It was the truth, so maybe she’d get off my back. I wasn’t that lucky.

“Remember what we talked about,” she reminds me, slowly walking closer behind me. “You’re my friend now, Cocoa, or did you forget that? There’s lots of work to do today, and I don’t want to see you slacking off now.”

 

I grit my teeth as she turned around, wanting to curse her out, but I held back and continued shuffling papers around. It was hard working with her now, not at all how I thought it would be, not at all how it was before... She was cold, thoughtless and didn’t care whose bad side she got on. Did someone turn off her emotions? Is what I often questioned myself on.

 

Around noon we started to slow down. Less people came over asking for information or wanting to see how certain things were ran. I was happy to oblige to those who were there, anything to get Aurora away from me.

As I talked with the student however, I noticed Random with Cody again, heading over toward the auditorium. I wanted to follow after them, partly because I wanted see what was in there, and partly to see what Random was up to.

 

I turned and noticed that the student I was talking to was the last student in line; Aurora was taking care of the other. After I finished talking to them, I turned toward Aurora and asked if I could walk around for a bit, having sat in that chair for 3 hours. She of course questioned where I was going, and I gave her the excuse I needed to stretch, that my butt was seriously sore. I left that last part out. She agreed than waved her hand dismissively. I would have taken it as an insult, as she didn’t look at me once, but didn’t quite care as I follow after Random and Cody, hoping not to lose them.

 

As I walked down the hallway toward the room with the spinning wheel, I brushed shoulders with a few other students. Apparently this thing was a big deal; a line was stretching away from the doors. I had to explain to the others in line that I wasn’t in the line; how hard was it to get into a place when you weren’t in line! Some of them cursed at me for cutting but I brushed past them anyway and stumbled toward the back wall. After regaining my balance, I turn around and take in the whole room.

 

A giant yellow, blue, and white wheel stood on the stage with a long row of what I guess to be tables, covered with blue table cloths to make it appear as one long row. The chairs were taken out of the room and hundreds of students stood where they were, holding and waving what appeared to be tickets. Three men were standing behind the tables; one controlling the wheel and the other two shouting out numbers and letters. My guess is they were for the tickets the students held.

The roar of the crowd was loud with each call, like waves crashing against a shore, as groups of students clustered together near the front of the stage, each one of them eying the wheel as it spun. When it stopped on XY12, one of the students let out a loud whoop and ran up to one of the men. The man then disappeared into the back and came back out with a cheap looking Tablet. I couldn’t exactly tell what they were all giving away, as another person ran up and got a giant penguin plush. Everyone seemed to leave through the other exit as soon as they got something, probably to allow others a chance to get something. Above the wheel on the stage was a banner that read, “Miracle Wheel of luck and misfortune”.

 

The roar crowd died down as more prizes were given out. That’s when my head clears enough and I remember what I originally came in here for. Looking throughout the crowd I did my best to pick out Random from everyone within. You’d think a girl with red hair would be easy find, but the crowd was so thick I had to push closer toward the front to even be able to glimpse her.

 

She was standing at the far right hand side of the stage, but Cody was nowhere to be seen. Then, like magic, he appeared beside her, holding ticket in his hand. The wheel was spun once more and the combination X52T showed up and Cody kissed Random on the cheek. I don’t know why, but I felt a pang of jealousy when he did. As I watched, they were handed a small plush animal. I couldn’t quite tell what it was from this distance. Then Random pointed toward the other side of the auditorium and darted off, Cody following her.

 

I didn’t know what to make of the situation. I was jealous Cody got to spend time with her, and I should have been happy she was happy. But I just couldn’t bring myself to be; a giant wall was blocking me from that point, a wall of sadness.

I decided to leave the auditorium, pushing back through the crowd as I did so. This time they weren’t too angry to let me pass. As I approached Aurora, she was messing with a stack of papers. I took my seat and slumped on my desk, almost as if all my energy had been drained.

 

“I wish I was with Random,” I mumble to myself.

 

“Cocoa,” Aurora calls over, and I know I didn’t feel like dealing with her.

 

“What?” I ask, as calmly as I can.

 

“You were gone for quite some time; did you talk to you-know-who?”

 

“No,” I said as I abruptly stood, “I didn’t. I’m going home Aurora, I’m not feeling in the mood to work anymore today.”

 

I didn’t know what I was expecting, talking back to Aurora. But it was the truth; after seeing Random with Cody, I didn’t want to be here anymore. I wanted to go home, have a shower, and just forget today. To my surprise, she let me go.

 

“You can go,” she said dismissively. “You’ll just help me with something two days from now, at my house.”

 

I knew there had to be a catch. Aurora didn’t just let you go without tying you down somehow. But what could she possibly want my help with? I guess if it was business related, I could help. But anything that dealt with most technology was Random department. I decided not to give it any more thought and agreed to do it, not knowing what I would be doing. She then waved her hand and returned to the stack of papers. I took that as my cue to leave and headed back through the school doors, ready to just be done with the day.