A Long Work Day (Part 1)

‘Scientist Find Proof Dragons Could be Living on Earth!’ I shake my head. Yeah, right. I have enough to be concerned with besides stupid fantasies. I rub my temples waiting for my children to wake up. They are supposed to wake up soon so we can leave in time for school. My heart pounds at it’s normal pace but to me it feels like it’s beating faster then usual. It’s no secret I’m dreading today. My husband and I have been living with each other for two weeks and today is shifting day as we like to refer to it. My two youngest and newest children, Sara and Haley, never understood why their step siblings, Kaleb and Moira, had to leave for two weeks each month. They might understand the concept but they don’t understand why. It has been hard every shifting week, Sara and Haley got upset when they didn’t have someone to do their make-up or someone to play video games with them or even to hang out with while they’re over there. I had hoped it would be easier now that we lived together but it has been diminishing every time this week when Haley or Sara brought it up.

Alarms echo down the hall prompting my head to start throbbing. Great. I slide off the stool to start the eggs. Moira is the first the come out of her room. She already has her red hair up in a tight ponytail. She’s wearing knee length shorts and long sleeved shirt. She sets her backpack against a stool as she slips onto it. I scrape the eggs onto the plate and pass it over to her. I take in the silence as the alarms quiet until they are gone. My headache starts to vanish but then small feet pound against the floor. I sigh and put on my best fake smile as I see the mess of an outfit the two are wearing. Sara has her hair in two loose braids that has so much out of control frizz. Haley…. poor Haley. Her hair is in a loose ponytail with the rubber band all the way down on the bottom of her hair. I shake my head and turn the two back around to go change into what I set out. I walk down the hall to dig through the closet for a hair brush. Today would be a lot easier if Jack was here. My husband inconveniently had to go on a work trip leaving me to deal with today on my own. I know he had to go but I wish he could have been here.

An alarm rings from all the way in the back of the hall. I grab a pink hair brush and slam the door. I almost forgot to make sure Kaleb was awake. I briskly walk down to the end of the hall and knock on the door.

“Hurry up or you won’t have time for breakfast!”

A thud sounds from the inside of the room. I sigh and turn around. Sara and Haley are sitting on one of the stools around the island. Picking up two plates of eggs, I walk over to them and set the plates down. I undo Sara’s braids much to her dismay. Once I convince her that I will redo them, she let’s me finish. I move on to Haley after words which provokes complaints from her about how the tangles hurt when they are being pulled out. When I finish, Kaleb comes stumbling down the hall. His red hair is in disarray but at least his clothing looks half way decent. I pick up a plate of eggs and pass it over to him. Turning back around, I look Haley and Sara over one last time.

“Okay! It’s time to get going.” The two girls slip off the stool grab their backpacks before saying their goodbyes to Kaleb and Moira.

They race out to the car. Walking over to Moira, I pat her on the back.

“The bus should be here soon and remember your father is picking you up to day.”

She nods. “Yes, I remember.”

I say my goodbyes and go out to the car. My headache comes back during the car ride my headache comes back in full force barely calming down after I drop Sara and Haley off. The little bit of relief doesn’t last long as the traffic is slow making me fifteen minutes late to work.

When I reach the large office building, I ride an elevator up to the 5th floor. Walking over to my desk, I see Kyle, our newest and most annoying intern, coming over with his weird coffee. Kyle believes that when you tell him what coffee you want what you really mean is some weird combination of everything on the menu. I sigh as he sets a cup of coffee on the desk. You know what I need, caffeine, and if this weird drink is going to give it to me then I’m going to drink it. As I pick it up, He pulls out a harp with a dragon design. Stopping, I look over the harp.

“Why do you have a harp?”

He shrugs. “No one said I couldn’t.”

I shake my head. I can’t deal with him right now. I take a sip of coffee taking in the grass taste of it. The caffeine soothes my headache so I drink more. He starts to mindlessly pull at the strings. I tip the cup over to get the very last drop. He stops strumming the cord.

As I go to set down my cup, the world starts to shake freezing my body. An earthquake! What do I do during an earthquake? My heart pounds against my chest as I slip under my desk. The earth stops shaking but my heart continues to pound. Looking out from under my desk, I look around. People are huddled under desks and tables. Most of them are shaking and looking around. Crawling out of my desk, I push my chair away from me. The building shakes and tilts to the side sending me to the floor.

My heart stops and my body freezes. Silence fills the room. The sound of loud breathing seeps into the room. The woman in front of me is staring wide eyed out the window. With my heart pounding in my ears, I slowly turn my head to look out the window. Out of one window is only black and out of the rest is bright blue scales with bits of red. Is….. It’s a dragon. My mouth hangs open as I stand perfectly still. I swallow hard. They said they had found dragon bones and even a nest of eggs in the news but I would have never thought there would be one here. The silence is broken by a shriek and that sends the rest of the room into panic.

(Thank you for reading to the end! If you have any suggestions or feed back please feel free to voice them in the comments below! I know I shouldn’t start a new series but this one’s only going to be a two parts. Now why did I decide to do a dragon story? Well, the fabulous Ricky just wrote for twelve days straight and she loves dragons so this story came into being! You can go check out the twelve part series she just finished or go check out her page in general. You can go to her blog through this link: https://rickyswritingcorner.wordpress.com/2018/12/26/on-the-first-day-of-christmas/.

Have a fabulous day!)