Rachel’s Day

(A Write Club Duel)
by Aquillae
Copyright 9/2000

words used: semicolon, luffa, camero, brick, badminton, oatmeal, proverb, Rachel, rictus

At six forty-five the alarm went off. At six forty-six the snooze button was pressed. At six fifty-one the alarm went off again. At six fifty-two the snooze button was slapped. At six fifty-seven the alarm went off again. At six fifty-seven the clock was hit with a Styrofoam brick. The alarm clock shrugged off the assault and continued to perform its duty in life - to aggravate.

At seven o’clock Mrs. Patty Preston entered her daughter’s room. "Come on. Time to get up, Miss sleepy eyes." It was the customary greeting she had used with her daughter since the third grade, when Rachel first began to show a disinterest in getting up early for school.

Rachel lifted her head slowly up from the pillow, gazed around at her mother in her morning dress and curlers, blinked a few times, then plopped her head back down on the pillow were she was certain it belonged.

"Come now, Rachel," her mother sat on the bed and shook Rachel’s shoulder, "You don’t want to be late for school, do you?"

Rachel mumbled a reply into the pillow.

Mrs. Preston, a veteran mother with four children already graduated from high school, knew what she had to do to force the issue. Without saying a word, she quietly stood up, walked to the foot of the bed, and took hold of the covers. In a quick movement that would have made a matador envious she pulled the blankets off the bed.

"Mother!" Rachel screamed as she leapt forward for the blankets to cover her naked body.

Her mission accomplished, Mrs. Preston tossed the blankets back to her daughter. As she walked to the door, she commented, "If you hurry your oatmeal may still be hot." In the hallway she glanced back to make sure Rachel hadn’t gone back to bed.

Rachel sat on her bed with the blankets pulled up over her shoulders.

Mrs. Preston smiled. "Well, that will teach you to lay in bed too long."

*---------*

At quarter to eight Rachel pulled into the student parking lot. She drove over to the last isle in the lot, traditionally reserved for the seniors. Bypassing several open slots, she came at last to the parking spot she had used since the beginning of the school year.

Parked in her spot was a cherry red camero.

Furious at the intrusion into her private reserved spot Rachel pulled her car into the open space next to the infringing vehicle. A malicious thought passed across her mind as she prepared to open the door. She knew a little dent as payment for the intrusion would be mean, but the deciding force that halted her from swinging the door open hard was the realization that given her recent luck she would probably be caught by some freshman doing it.

As she reached to open the door, a thick mop of blonde curls fell in through the open window.

"Hey, girl!" Cindy Adams greeted her classmate with a pop of her gum.

"Hey, yourself." Rachel grabbed her books and purse and exited her car. "Listen Cindy, I’m sorry about poaching your spot. But some jockstrap took mine."

"Sure. No sweat." The two walked toward the side doors, "I got a ride with Kevin."

"You actually got him to drive all the way up the mountain to pick you up?"

"Who said anything about him coming to my house to pick me up this morning?" Cindy smiled as she opened the door.

Rachel grabbed her by the shoulder to stop her. "No. No way. You didn’t. Did you? God, you did!"

Cindy’s sweet innocent smile was Rachel’s only reply.

*---------*

"What’s that you’re doing?"

"Studying," Rachel replied.

"Looks more like cheating."

"And how would you know, Miss A-plus?" Rachel punctuated the sentence by sticking her tongue out at Amy Lynn, the senior class nerdette.

Rachel ignored the girl and went back to writing down the vocabulary words for Mr. Henderson’s English class.

"Okay, give me the next one."

"Let’s see. Verbose. Adjective. Means wordy," Cindy read off the word and definition as she also marked her hand with the words.

"Next."

"Okay, ah."

"Come on. We’re running out of time. Lunch period’s almost over." Rachel was getting desperate. With only fifteen minutes left the two would be cheaters had managed to copy down just seven of the twenty-five vocabulary words that were going to be on the test. "Next word!"

"Rictus. Noun."

"What’s the definition?"

Cindy scrunched her forehead as she re-read the definition. She read it again. But it still didn’t make any sense to her.

"The expanse of the open mouth," Amy Lynn remarked.

The two girls looked up at her.

"You know, Rachel. Like when you’re trying to stuff Richard’s dick down your throat." Pleased with her remark, Amy Lynn turned and skipped away.

"That little bitch," said Rachel, finally finding her thoughts after the surprise of hearing Amy Lynn say the word ‘dick’.

"Forget about her," urged Cindy, "write."

*---------*

At just after six, Rachel arrived home tied and exhausted. Two solid hours of badminton. What was she thinking? Her arms were sore. Every muscle in her body ached. All she wanted now was a long hot bath, a cold drink, and her pillow.

Walking through the kitchen, she made a stop at the refrigerator for the cold drink. She grabbed the bottle of Dr. Pepper and poured herself a glass. As she was putting the bottle back, she noticed the Styrofoam container on the second shelf. She pulled it out and opened it. It was her brother’s left over Chinese take-out from last night. She picked through it, but wasn’t really interested in it. She had lost most of her appetite running around with a chili dog in her stomach.

She placed the container back in the refrigerator and closed the door.

As she turned to make her way toward the steps, she saw the one remaining fortune cookie on the window sill. She grabbed it, and headed upstairs.

Soaking in the warm bubbly water, Rachel opened the cookie and read the proverb. She laughed.

Reaching over the side of the tub, she lifted the towel and picked up her luffa. She settled back down into the warmth of the bathtub. With her left foot she turned the hot water on just a little more. She brought the luffa into the tub and slowly began to slide it down between her thighs.

*---------*

Wrapped in her bathrobe, Rachel sat huddled in her chair in front of her computer reading the days emails. There were a few jokes from Billy, a long letter from her email pal in Canada, and one from Cindy with an urgent marker next to it.

She opened Cindy’s letter and read it. It was a detailed account of what had happened the night before at Kevin’s house.

Rachel opened a message to reply to Cindy’s, and quickly began to type. She paused for a few moments to think of something to write next.

"A semicolon really doesn’t fit there, dear."

"Mother!" Rachel covered the screen with her right arm.

"I’m just trying to help." Mrs. Preston dropped the clothes on the bed and walked out of the room.

The End