Cavity

This day sucks, was the only thought in Trina’s head as she plodded into the old McDonald’s in Easterly Heights.  She grouchily waited in line to order a drink.  That’s all she wanted- just one, medium drink.  But, the half dozen people in front of her insisted on ordering something very large or very specific that had to be specifically made.  Trina could distinguish three separate groups of people and they all resembled rabbits, their over-sized teeth protruding, eager to devour the grease laden meal ahead.

Finally getting her overpriced drink from a clerk she had to speak Spanish to, she found the most out of the way corner she could and claimed the cleanest table.  She pulled over a chair from another table and dropped her book bag, purse, hat, and scarf into it.  Crossing her arms, she stared out the window, the drink untouched. 

Her ride hadn’t met her after school and her cell phone had died.  McDonald’s was the closest warm place with a phone she could use.  But, the money grubbing machine had eaten her quarter and nobody working there would let her borrow their phone.  She was stuck there until her sister finally realized that she was there.  To make matters better, she had a cavity and the cold outside just hurt it more.

She did have homework she could do; her calendar for her yearly planner needed to be filled out with all the assignments for the quarter.  She pulled the small, green, zippered folder out of her backpack along with her biology syllabus.  But, the dates on the calendar didn’t match up with what the syllabus said.  She pulled out the small paper that had come in the packet of re-fills and looked at the year on it- 2003.  She had written in all of the dates on that calendar for the last year!  And it was in red pen too.  A little more digging in her backpack produced another pen, and she began crossing out and redoing all the dates.  By the time she reached March, she was so frustrated and angry with herself that she was messing up the weekend dates.  Putting it away, she moved on to studying.

After finding her Spanish folder in the bag, she began to study for Monday’s quiz.

Despite having chosen to sit around a corner and behind a display of McFlurry cups, Trina was not left alone.  People were walking past, commenting on how dirty the tables were, but brushing one off and sitting down anyway for a loud conversation.

She sipped her Sprite, the cold sugar making her tooth throb even more.  She had a dentist appointment for the cavity next week, but that didn’t help now.  She took another drink.

Yeah, this day sucks.

Some stupid song about a Spanish heart was playing and two little sirens posing as twin brothers ran in and out of the tables.  When they reached hers, one smiled and pushed her drink over, spilling the sickeningly sweet contents right onto her homework and her lap. 

“You little brat!”  Jumping up, Trina grabbed the empty cup and started separating the papers.

He stuck his tongue out at her and ran off.

Where was that kid’s mother?

They kept chasing each other and screaming.

Trina grabbed all the wet papers and crammed them into a giant spit wad, then hurled it at the kids.

She grabbed her stuff and hid in the bathroom before she did anything else.

They were out of paper towels.

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