With the opening tones of Sting’s “Every Little Thing She
Does Is Magic”, Melinda groaned and buried her head under the pillow, feeling
around the top of her bedside table for the phone. She pulled it under the
pillow and tapped the snooze button. A few minutes later, it sounded again.
This time, she groaned and turned it off, rolling over and opening one eye to
balefully glare at the interruptor of her dream about Justin Scott.
She tapped the weather app and ordered Sunny and 65. In the style
app, she chose “Perfect school outfit” and left it to the smartphone and closet
to figure that out. She used the House Settings app to heat her bathroom floor
and start the hot water. Uh-oh, credit denied?
A flick of her fingers closed the app, and she jumped into the
karma credit app. Darn, she should have washed the dishes last night. Household
chores were easy credits. How had she dropped so low since yesterday? Oh, yeah,
there was that teasing Billy. He had it coming—she was pretty sure he would be
down a few credits this morning too. But she was the big sister, and she had to
set a good example. So she got docked for both the teasing and the bad example.
That wasn’t fair! She groaned again and rolled out of bed. It always took
longer to heat the water when she had to run it manually.
While she dressed, Melinda built up some good karma by
blowing the leaves off the driveway into a neat pile, and growing Mrs. Calder’s
daffodils next door so they’d be blooming when she left for work later this
morning. That earned her enough for “Perfect hair” in the Style app, thank
goodness.
Downstairs, her mother’s phone already had Favorite
Breakfasts cooking, so Melinda set the table for a couple more credits. She was
debating offering to do the laundry when Billy bounded downstairs and gave her
and their mother hugs. Darn, he got the credits.
On the way to school, Melinda kept an eye out for untended
lawns and flowerbeds. She almost exclaimed aloud when she caught sight of Mr.
Jackson’s unwashed car, but darn if Jeffrey Gleason got it before she did. She
glowered at him, but changed it to a cheerful thought before she lost any
credit.
All the kids with smartphones turned them in at the front
desk before heading into school. Melinda hovered at the back of the line to
check her texts one more time and to see if she had enough credits for Easy As
today. Darn it, she would have to think of something really nice to do for
someone before the Math test on Friday!
Dogs in house:
|
Houdini
|
Music:
|
Bach: Sonata I in E Flat Major BWV 525: III. Allegro
|
February word count:
|
No comments:
Post a Comment