Night and Day

Anataisia screamed as her alarm went off - twenty minutes late. She flung herself at the wall, in only satin pyjama shorts and a black tank top, and reached for the back of her door, where her all-black housecoat with a hood was hanging. She yanked it on, then skimpered quickly over her creaky wooden floor boards to the window, where she pulled shut her blinds. Sighing, Anastaisia flipped on the light switch as she sank to her bed, so as to not be left in total darkness. There she lay in silence until her phone binged with a text message from her best friend.

Summer: ANA. I have called you like fifteen times. Did the sun get you? CALL ME WHEN YOU GET THIS MESSAGE.

Chuckling slightly, Anastaisia typed a quick reply, the listened as the sound of her phone ringing after she dialed her friend’s number. Summer answered immediately. 

“You’re alive!” Her robotic-sounding voice filled what used to be the silence of Ana’s lonely top-floor bedroom. In real life, Summer’s voice sounded anything but robotic: it was fluid and smooth. She was practically the complete opposite of Anastaisia - she couldn’t live without the daylight in the morning! People always assumed she was an angel with her ong wavy blond hair, blue eyes, angled figure, long legs, clear skin, and bright clothing choices. She was also the school’s ‘good girl’: she had good grades, good style, good attitude, good friends, and overall a good life. Anastaisia, however, was not made based off of the same prototype.

She was the freaky, vampire/goth kid who was mostly and honestly dead inside. She was always covered in dark clothing, with no skin showing, scare her face (which was smudged with dark eyeshadow and purple lipstick), and her hands, with her nails painted black. Ocasionally, you could catch a glimpse of her feet (when they weren’t covered by a floor-length skirt), but they were covered with dark clumps. Anastaisia wasn’t a vampire, no, and she didn’t worship the devil like some of the hallway gossip of her grade assumed. She was just allergic to the sun. 

Well, that was what she told everyone. Everyone other than Summer, of course. The truth is, she was scared of it, scared that if people saw her in non-artificiel light, they would see her inner evil side. Something she kept hidden. From everyone. Even Anastaisia. 

“Well, I dunno about that.” Ana grimaced as she placed her phone back on her bedside table, with Summer on speaker phone. “Mr. Mars just sent us the notification of our finals next week.” Summer groaned. 

“Sister, how long have you been awake? Three minutes ago he sent the email that confirmed that the exams were actually moved to today, right after lunch.”

“Same thing.” Summer laughed on the other end of the phone, her voice cracking through the distance, as Ana began to get dressed. They continued talking, until Ana heard a voice from three floors down. “Okay, well my ‘father’ is calling, so I’ll see you at school, okay?” They said their respective goodbyes, the Ana ran down the multiple flights of stairs and spun into the kitchen. After checking to make sure all the blinds were closed, she shrugged her house coat off to reveal an oversized tee shirt (so over sized that the sleeves looked like they were as long as her arms) with green and purple graffiti, which she had cut, so it didn’t fall to her knees, and black jeans. Clumps that matched her shirt, and her black hair hanging down her face, curtain bangs not yet brushed. And there, sitting at the old, wooden kitchen table, covered in spider webs, was her dad, aka, the world’s most evil being ever to exist. 

“Hey, Whisper,” he croaked, sounding hungover (probably from one of his weird spells/concoctions) using the childhood nickname he had given his daughter after a length of silence she had gone through. Anastaisia grumbled in return, pulled a face at her father’s bowl of (frog feet?) cereal, and moved to the fridge to find something somewhat decent to eat. The refrigerator was empty, except for the container of a rotten sandwich, and a mouldy orange that should have been thrown out three months earlier. Something in the back corner, marked ‘EP’, caught her attention. It looked somewhat edible, so she grabbed a spoon and took a bite. Ick. Edible? Maybe not. Groaning again, Ana pulled out her phone and shot Summer a quick text that told her friend to bring her a muffin to eat for breakfast. 

She waved sarcastically at her father, before walking outside to her bus stop and cringing because of the sun. Summer would have her muffin by first period, she reminded herself as her stomach growled. But then, she saw a new, cropped head of blond hair. 

“Hey.” the blond said, without showing her face, as she walked over to Ana. She looked exactly like Summer, but Ana knew her friend would never cut and straighten her gorgeous hair. So, Anasataisia backed away quickly without answering. Summer turned to face her, frowning. “What, can’t you recognize me, your best friend?” she extended a hand, and Ana took the muffin greedily, no thanks. Summer shot her a look. 

“So, what do you think of the hair cut?” She said, moitioned to her face. The blond mop was straightened, highlighted, and angled slightly to the front. And it was short. Very short. Biting into the muffin, Anastaisia replied without thinking, 

“I hate it.” Tears came to Summer’s eyes, and she turned away from Ana. 

“I thought you’d say that.” She wiped a strat tear and boarded the bus without looking back. Anastaisia felt guilty, and wondered what had gotten into her.

Normally, I am nice enough to hide my mean side. What is - OOOHHH. She remembered the soup she had eaten before leaving the house, the one marked ‘EP’. Evil Potion. She was going full-on evil mode, and there was nothing she could do about it until the next day. So all she could hope for was to stay far enough away from other people. 

However, karma has a good way of biting people in the butts for things they have done, and once Ana got on the bus, she could no longer contain herself. She swore at the bus driver, then walked to the back of the bus, where the littlest kids sat. She looked at the kindergarteners and decided to start there. One by one, she insulted them to the point of tears, picking out the flaws in their clothes, hair, nails, and attitudes. Then, she moved onto the first graders, a similar process ensuing. Everyone else was too shocked to do anything. Everyone, except Summer. 

“You fool!” She screamed standing to her feet, not wobbling on her six inch heels. As confident and as sassy as ever., she fought every insult sent in her way and in the direction of the other students, until Anastaisia had nothing left to do but stare at what used to be her best friend showing her. Suddenly scared, she shrunk down in her seat, and Summer walked over, and using the united power of Angelisim, she banished Ana to the sky. However, what she was unaware of, was that with this spell, she too, would be banished. 

So now, whenever the old classmates look up at the sky in the day, they could swear they could still see Summer’s bright face, and at night, Anastaisia betrayed grimace as the clouds cover the moon - the sole source of good left in her.