Always Looking Up

P.O.V - Third Person

[Night]

“Dad! Look up at the sky!” a little girl shouted in amazement

“Wow! Have you ever seen something as beautiful as the stars? I wonder what it would be like to be able to fly high up into the sky and live with the stars?” questioned the little girl.

The dad could care less about the stars or that his daughter was absolutely fascinated by them.

“Come on Luna! It’s getting late! You don’t want mom to worry about you.” Luna’s dad said in a very stern voice.

“As if you and mom would actually worry about me if I disappeared. If anything you would be happy.” Luna thought.

P.O.V - Luna

When I settled down in the car, I asked my dad,

“Dad? Can I ask you something?”

But of course, my so-called “father”, responded with the same thing, from every other time I try to ask my father something,

“Not now Luna!” he said, with anger lurking in his voice.

As my dad was driving home, I was really deep in my thoughts. But surprisingly, these thoughts just consisted of me replaying the same question in my head over and over again,

“Why does no one acknowledge the stars? Or even more importantly, why does no one lookup?”

Also, it may seem weird, but ask a kid, when I was in the car and I was in the car with dad, late at night, I would always look through the window and I would talk with the stars, telepathically of course. They were like the best friends I never had.

Anyways, when we got home, my whole body was trembling from fear.

“What if Mom gets mad at Dad for coming home so late? If she does … Dad will not be happy and will probably lecture me and possibly slap me if he gets really angry over it.”

As soon as Dad opened the door, I quickly dashed to my room, locked the door, and started to think about something.

My birthday was tomorrow and my parents haven’t even mentioned my birthday or even asked the classic question, 

“Are you excited about your birthday, sweetheart?” 

But my parents could care less that I was going to turn 11 years old.

As I changed into my pajamas and got into my bed, I made a last-minute decision and started to look out the window of my bedroom.

I looked up at the stars and asked them, 

“Will things always stay the same or will things be different after tomorrow?”

Then I realized there was a shooting star.

I didn’t believe that wishing on a shooting star would make my wish come true but I decided to wish something for the fun of it. Plus, I needed something to lighten up the mood. 

“I wish … to be loved by my parents … ”

"If that's even possible." I thought

As I headed to my bed, I felt a wave of emotion flood over me, and surprisingly, for the first time in a long time, I felt happy. I felt like tomorrow was going to be an amazing day, even if I knew that it probably wasn’t going to be any different from any other day.

~Time Skip~

[Morning]

UGHH

What time is it?

I looked over to my digital clock on my nightstand and I realized it was 12:45!

HOW DID I WAKE UP SO LATE! OMG! OMG! MOM’S GOING TO BE SO MAD! I’M SUPPOSED TO BE DOING CHORES AT THIS TIME!-

What a minute … Mom would’ve already woken me up. She would’ve never let me sleep in this late, even if it was the weekend.

But then I noticed there was a note on my nightstand.

“From Mom and Dad  <3”

“Huh? Mom and Dad would NEVER leave me a note, especially not with a heart next to it.”

I opened the note and to my surprise, there was a gift receipt in it.

As I started to read the note, there was a word that caught my eye … “gift”

“Huh? That’s strange? My parents never gave me a gift for my previous birthdays so why would they give me a gift this year?”

As I scanned the room to see if there were any gifts, I saw something wrapped in purple paper with a bunch of paper stars glued to it on my desk.

I jumped out of my bed and basically ran across the room to see if this was what I thought it was.

I started to slowly unfold all of the wrapping paper and the more I removed, the more obvious it became as to what this was. It was most definitely a gift but it wasn’t just some lousy gift you could find at a toy store, it was something I’ve secretly wanted for a very long time …  a telescope …

I was more than thrilled about this gift as I was about to use it around my room, I heard my room’s door creak.

I immediately looked at my door and made eye contact with my mom.

I was screaming on the inside because all these thoughts were going through my head, 

“OMG! WHAT IF THIS GIFT WAS FOR SOMEONE ELSE! WHAT IF MOM GETS MAD THAT I’M OPENING A GIFT INSTEAD OF VACUUMING THE HOUSE!”

But my thoughts were interrupted by my saying,

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Words couldn’t explain how shocked I was at this moment. Not only did I wake up VERY late, receive a note from my parents with a gift, but now my mom was saying happy birthday to me? What is going on here?

“Uh, Mom?”

“Yes, sweety?”

“Aren’t you mad that I woke up so late and that I haven’t started any of my daily chores?”

“What are you talking about? I always let you wake up this late on weekends and you don’t have daily chores, you get assigned chores when I need help. I guess you had a wild dream last night.”

“A dream? … it was all a dream?”

Then it hit me, everything was just a dream. But why did it feel so real? Even more importantly, why did it feel like this dream lasted for my whole life?

The more I tried to remember my actual memories, the more clear it became that I really did just dream all of that.

My thoughts were interrupted by my mom asking me, 

“So what are you waiting for, aren’t you going to use your telescope?” 

“You know what, I’ll just wait until it’s midnight so I can see the moon and stars.”

~Time Skip~

[Midnight on the Balcony]

OMG! The Stars look beautiful tonight! I can’t wait to use my telescope!

As I got my telescope ready, I was deep in my thoughts and after I looked through the telescope, I realized something as I continued to look up at the stars.

The reason why nobody acknowledges the stars is because they forget to look up.

But … I’ll always be the stars’ #1 fan because …

I’m always looking up.