The day the Air turned purple

Jillian:

As I peeled open my eyes in the morning's dreariness, I noticed an unsettling fog clouding the street. Great, I thought, A fog was never a good omen. Especially not on Korban Day. Today was going to be either a relief from my agony, or another year of torture. Hill always said it meant bad luck, and although there was no direct evidence that it was, bad things happened on days with fog.

That should have been my first warning.

But I got dressed and slipped on my usual daily attire, a simple faded gray tunic and a pair of construction pants. I didn't have enough money to afford fancy clothes like all the other kids, mostly because Hill worked full time building things for the benefit of others. He was a skilled and knowledgeable engineer, but in this world, people who weren't from this country were all considered immigrants. What once used to be just a term to describe my status in this country has now become an insult. I only hear it from people that Hill calls white trash. Before Hill dragged me here to the depressed and criminal-infested LA, I made a name for myself back in Greece. I was very skilled with writing, and I even helped Hill out sometimes by fixing cracks but mostly painting walls.

But in this country, that is considered something called child labor and is illegal. That's why work got so much harder for Hill when we moved. I checked the time: 5:57. I wasn't leaving for another hour, so I might as well make the most of it. Hill was still asleep in his room. I peeked in on him, revealing a sad and lonely looking man broken by the world. He was never the same after she died. I think that's the real reason why we moved. Not because of opportunities or because of dangers that America didn't possess or any of that crap, but because our hometown reminded him too much of her.

I was very suddenly overcome with anger because it wasn't my fault she died, and it wasn't my fault that she didn't have the decency to tell us she was sick before she went. but I couldn't help but feel a sharp pain of sympathy for Hill. He was taking care of me by himself now. I guess he's just lucky I got over my tween phase as a middle schooler before she went. Otherwise, our relationship would have been even more fleeting than it already is; at least we tolerate each other.

I chuckled bitterly to myself as I walked to the kitchen. I realize now that I do that a lot- the sarcastic, bright-side thing. I also realized that I deeply depended on Mom, and he just isn't her. This aggravates me because I never liked to be dependent. She taught me, though. She taught me that people cannot be trusted because as soon as you open up your heart to them or start to depend on them, they will leave you forever. and they won't have the decency or humanity to even tell you goodbye.

Maybe that's why it was foggy that day, because it was supposed to remind me of her. It was foggy the day she went, too. Perhaps the universe is trying to send me a message, a really idiotic one at that. She was a meteriologist, but soon her studies led to some strange voodoo and soon she was taking signs from the weather, but I guess she was too focused on the weather and not focused enough on medical care, that she realized too late that the weather wouldn't save her.

I mindlessly poured the mixture of prepared pancake batter into a pan and as I flipped it I thought about her. how she would despise the way we were eating right now because it was so unhealthy and how she would despise how Hill stayed in bed. I thought about him again. He looked so pained sleeping without her. I think I would do good in a nursing home, with the amount of time I spend taking care of Hill. I shake my head and scorn myself for the thought. Hill is doing the best he can, but I find it hard to accept him as my parent sometimes. Soon I came to the realization that I was going to be late because I spent too much time obsessing over my careless father. I left a plate out for Hill because I knew he'd be getting up soon. As I gathered my belongings I reminded myself that I needed to run a list of errands after school today so I would be driving the car.

This was one of the only advantages of my distant parent, he barely cared what I did as long as I didn't cause him any severe damage. Besides, he usually took the truck and drove with his buddies to the construction site anyways.

This, of course, was usually after he invited them in for a drink after forgetting that we couldn't afford liquor anymore. It angered me so that he refused to move on, to accept that we needed to change our daily routine. As I stepped outside, the cold air hit me with a sharp sting that pricked at my skin as I walked.

My fingers found my cracked old phone inside of my pants pocket and I pulled it out. I took a deep breath and called the only person who I could.

“Hello?” he said, sounding tired and groggy

The wind was really blowing today, and I wondered if this meant that we'd have another storm.

“Hi Brandon” I mentally thanked nature that it was slowly sinking California. This place was for everybodies and nobodies, and nobody's. Everybody else had the good sense to stay away from California unless they were visiting. I got into the car. “I need your help,” I said, struggling not to cry.

“Anything love” As I drove past the desolated and depletedhomes of my neighbors I thought about how we would probably all be dead by the time California really did sink. Probably all from the California wildfires.

“I want to get picked today.” I just let it out, not wanting to stall. I stepped on the gas more, and wouldn't want to get caught in the morning rush hour. There was just staticky silence for a few minutes and then he spoke.

“Okay” he said in a rough voice. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to get the other girls to hate me, that way they will all pick me for Korban Day.” I said through my bubbling tears. Brandon knew it was no use trying to stop me, I could tell. He also knew that if I didn’t get picked this year I would just keep trying.

“I will” he said “I love you” I hated early mornings, especially early Monday mornings. They made me feel like this was a hopeless pattern of endless torture and routine. Fortunately, I had the decency to accept that we must have done something bad if we were suffering.

Eliza:

Today was so like not necessary. Korban Day so old-fashioned and terrible. I also feel like, it’s some weird kind of population control but it’s also kinda fun. But I won’t get picked because like, it’s me! And it shouldn't even apply to people like me because I am rich and better, and people need me to survive, so you know I don't follow the rules. But I’m not like, allowed to say that because, you know, like they would call me a traitor to tradition or all that crap.

My phone suddenly buzzed; Lindsay had gotten my text from 5 minutes ago. She was like answering already. Can you believe it?

Brandon TOTES likes u, I bet he’ll ask u out today-also btw maybe you could ask him to ask me!

Amateur, I thought, only an idiot would use ‘totes’ in a sentence. Also, this was like the perfect chance to out her about liking Brandon. This was going to be great! I immediately screenshotted it and sent it to Amelia. Amelia is like this girl who is always hanging around me and it’s like so annoying. Almost on cue, she responded with

OMG! Lamo! What an idiot! it's obvi that L is too fat to ever be on B’s level!\

Amelia was good at like, talking smack about other people but she was also annoying because of her stupid habit to use exclamation points in everything, like, who even does that?! I texted her back.

RIGHT?! I was crying when I got L’s text. I didn't really have anything else to say to Amelia because my entire idea of texting her was just to spread the information about L. I could already tell today was going to be a like a good kind of Korban day! With this drama about Lindsay I could stir up some suspicion about Brandon liking her back and then everyone will be in on it. I love how my brain works. We pulled into the school parking lot and I got out of the car. Anyways, being popular is like one of the most exhausting things you can do. Especially because on Korban day, you have to like place bets on who they're going to pick, and then you put in who you want to get picked, which is always like the best thing ever because it's really fun and people really reveal their true colors you know? And then they reveal who had the most entries! As I walked into school, I could see Amelia running up to me like a little gazelle out of the corner of my eye. She was like, so dumb and like, so eager to be friends with me, and it's honestly like kinda growing on me.

“Hiiii” she said.

“Hey Ami,” I said. I call Amelia Ami cause like her real name is just like you boring and too generic and I like, do not like stuff that is generic, so. But like, now that I think about it- I think the entirety of Amelia is just so generic and so not cool, and I might want to stop being friends with her. Soon I was like anticipating the betting that started Korban day. I saw Brandon from across the hallway and he gave me a once-over. “Seems like Brandon is in a mood today,” I said to Amelia “Do you think he'll still ask me out?” She seemed a little indecisive and I was like so sure that she would be on my side like, you're my friend girl that's what you're supposed to do!

“Well, he is pretty tensed up for…Korban day.” She leaned in and whispered Korban day as if it was like, I don’t know, some kind of curse. Like, girl, it's not that big of a deal. It's just like a tradition that if we were to break, like the ancestors would get mad, and it's like something we do every year. And it's basically a Holiday anyways, so like, I don't know what she's so worried about. As if she like sensed my dislike or something, Amelia quickly blurted, “but he's so into you that he's obviously going to ask you! Just wait and see!”

“Yeah, okay” I didn't feel like putting up with Amelia right now. I had a life to ruin. I quickly pulled out my phone and began rapidly texting Brandon.

OML ur going to FREAK when I tell u what I just heard!

…What?

His response was kind of dry, which upset me but only a little.

Do u know Lindsay Hiltred from our ELA class?

Yeah

I don’t really know what to think of THAT.

Well she has a BIG ♥️ on u!

Oh

Okay now I’m getting worried.

YEAH

Wow

Oh never mind he’s fine.

IKR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

🤯

Yeah we’re good.

I smiled to myself, satisfied with the product of my skills. I had the ability to make anybody believe what I wanted them to believe if it was written in words. also, I was telling the truth. Like it's not like I was spreading false rumors or anything. Everybody would find out anyways so I wasn’t like making anything awkward. I mean, what kind of person would I be if I didn’t tell people the truth? Like, that's all it really is you know? Suddenly, I saw Jillian shuffling in. I didn’t like really know what her deal was because she was always like you know in the back and like not really doing anything and basically just sitting there and being useless. But out of nowhere, I saw her go up to Brandon. And then in my head, I was like SHE DID NOOOOOT! Like, Girl Code anybody?! Brandon was my man and everybody in the school knew it. so like, I didn't really know what her deal was but this was like SO not cool. I quickly snapped a photo while nobody else was looking. I immediately showed it to Amelia because like she was standing right there anyways.

“OMG! That is going to be so tea!” she squealed

“Yeah” I agreed cuz like, it was. And I also knew that like a bunch of girls really really liked Brandon so like if I added Jillian about talking to him to my current dramas, then I'd have like this really nice cycle of drama going around! And I feel like that could like really help distract people from like, you know, the gory part of today. Almost immediately I started getting a bunch of comments on my post about how dirty Jillian was and how everybody knew she was bad news. and then people started writing stuff like you know, I think it should be her today or she needs to pay and like, I didn't really know Jilian that well- but it seemed to me that like most girls were so obsessed with Brandon that they couldn't help but hate Jillian for talking to him. I felt a very deep sense of relief in that moment because like, if I had been seen you know telling Brandon that like I have a crush on him and he'd been like oh yeah I have a crush on you too then all the girls would hate me. and I really didn't want to get picked so like better her than me.

“Students! Please report to the gymnasium for your voting session to begin!” My principal, Mrs.Wufgrad announced over the loudspeaker. Like, she was being so nervous about it and the teachers weren't even required to participate! I mean, like, they were but no teachers really ever got picked except for that one year when the gym teacher pushed too many girls past the breaking point and like ended up totally humiliating one of them. Cuz like, she got her period in the middle of class. But like, it never happened again so I don't know what they're all so nervous about. We all filed in and I sandwiched myself behind Brandon and in front of Amelia. While Amelia was like talking my ear off the entire time, Brandon seemed extremely quiet.

“So, what did Jillian ask you?” I asked Brandon cutting off Amelia's rant about some girl in her Algebra class.

“Oh, nothing important. Just her dad is getting laid off because my dad is firing him and she wanted to ask me if there was a way to let him keep his job.” He seemed very serious, which was like so weird for him.

“So who are you going to vote for?” I asked, I didn't want to be like an outlier who voted for someone else because that was what the uncool people did. Not me obvi!

“Probably her, I mean she's just a spare random body. No one really needs her.”

“Yeah right?!” I was only a little nervous though because like I already knew I would probably just vote for Jillian since no one really cared about her and everybody was probably voting for her anyways. It wouldn't matter anyways, soon her burned flesh would stink up the halls and like, they keep the body up which is like so gross. Ugh. Happy Korban day I guess?

Jillian:

It’s time

Mrs. Wufgrad:

“And our winner is…………Eliza Landred?!”

Eliza:

Finally, I regret nothing.