Sadie's Last Days on Earth Page #2

"matter" matter,

but high school is my world.

This is everyone's world

here, and one hallway whisper

and it could all end

any day too.

You better run

if you wanna make class.

Brennan and I thought we'd be

best friends forever.

She's always been the bold one.

Brennan!

Why are we running?

You stole all those?

We have to take them back!

- No, they used to be five

cents and now the same candies

are ten cents.

You bought them, I did the math.

- But we're gonna be in so much

trouble!

- Not if we don't get caught.

Come on!

I was always the anxious one.

- Today, we start

the rest of our lives.

If I don't get a locker

in the yellow hall,

I will die.

Don't worry, you look amazing.

- You see, the

thing about anxiety is it just

makes you more anxious.

It's a vicious festering cycle.

- We should probably just

get our schedules first.

- Okay.

Your chest gets tighter,

your stomach twistier,

your head smushier.

- This is it, Sadie,

we're sophomores now,

and you're coming with me

to this party this weekend.

- I already have so much reading

to do.

- Oh, I read, I get good grades,

but I also made out

with Paul last weekend!

Everyone saw. I got, like,

seven new followers on Sunday.

Come on!

Come have some fun!

- I have fun!

- Because we're not

minor niners anymore.

We could be great.

- We always have been great.

- B!

- Roberta banana!

Come on.

Well, I'm gonna be great.

You find new interests,

and disinterests.

- Hey.

Who?

I think that's out of

my cool range.

Plus, I'm kinda busy

with that bedroom Reno.

It's not a joke, Bren!

Why don't you come over

tomorrow and check it out?

Well, maybe's better than no.

Yeah.

'Kay, bye.

Different languages, and the

words have been put through

Google translate so many

times that their meaning

is completely lost.

So maybe right now,

Brennan doesn't want

anything to do with me.

But there's still

a lot to accomplish.

Ms. nickel,

my teacher I eat lunch

at the park near school with,

is showing me how to knit.

I'm supposed to call her Connie.

- Surprised you came to

me to learn how to knit.

Nothing says "Connie" like

boring, scratchy wool.

I like Connie,

but she makes me think

that maybe it's better

I don't grow up in this world.

She's engaged.

They both have good jobs,

but she seems lonely at school.

And her lunches are more

depressing than mine.

I've mastered everything

from Cornish game hens

to creme brle.

I figure being skilled

with a blowtorch

is a double whammy.

I also explored

survivalist cuisine.

I even skipped a class,

by an accidental sleep-in.

I hate this rickety bridge.

I'm gonna be home a bit late.

I got detention.

- Wow, that's great, so normal.

- What's normal?

- Sadie, sort of.

Maybe she'll even use

our abandoned pool.

- Yeah, so when

a 9.9 earthquake hits,

I can instantly drown.

- Chlorine's bad for your hair,

anyway, honey.

- Thanks, mom.

Well, this was very rewarding

family time,

but I gotta go.

See ya later.

But on the Richter scale

of my list,

I've barely felt a tremble.

I haven't gone to a party.

I don't venture anywhere

unnecessary.

- Sadie, I'm spinning at

mod night this weekend,

you've got to come,

you lonesome dove.

- 11 days to the Armageddon,

it's my last weekend

to get everything organized.

- Oh, don't be such a potato!

Say, do you cool cats

wanna twist your hips

this weekend?

- Is this gonna be, like,

weird music my dad listens to?

- Possibly.

- Okay, well, I'll, uh, make

sure to check my calendar.

- Blimey, as if your

doomsday paraphernalia

wasn't perfectly in check.

Alright, well your name's

at the door as always.

Nope, definitely haven't

kissed a boy.

- Toodle-pip.

Say, have you heard...

- And I don't

have my best friend back.

Hi.

- Hey, Sadie.

Not an obvious stain, which

is worse because people stare

trying to figure out if

it is, in fact, a stain.

Lighting?

- Bummer.

- But worse than the stain

is the smell.

I smell like brine.

- And on top of that,

or maybe that is on top of this,

Calvin and I,

I think we're done.

- You think?

- Well, we broke up,

but it's not instantaneous.

- No, it's like, a wavering

Jenga tower, kind of.

We don't carefully

dismantle what we built.

We'll both just be left

with heaps of rubble.

- Maybe you can try and

slide a piece or two back in.

- We'll try.

We always try.

Update me on the list.

- I've gotten nowhere on

the personal side of things.

- Sadie, I told you that you

have to try...

- I know, I know, but as much

as I'd like to have fun

and participate in my

adolescence, the mere thought

of it makes me nauseous.

Like I'll screw up,

or it'll screw me up.

- Now, I am no certified

guidance counselor or anything,

but I think that's

a normal feeling to have.

- But for me, it's debilitating.

I'm sure getting wasted

and blotto is a hoot, but...

- no one's gonna get wasted

with you if you say "hoot".

- But that loss of control

feels like it'll crush me.

I think if I can just

get Brennan back,

then I can at least get my

proverbial foot in the door.

We were so close forever,

but then my usual anxiety

morphed into this, and I

guess we drifted apart.

- I think maybe

you drifted away.

- Yeah.

But she turned

into someone else, too.

I just wish I could fix it.

Or that we could start

a new game of Jenga

and not remove a single piece.

- Maybe it's

a different game now.

- Jack, just barely made it.

- Please, make use

of your time here.

- So, whatcha get busted for?

- Skipped.

- Oh, bad-ass.

- Mm, no, I slept in.

You?

- Well, I painted the inside

of my locker hunter green.

- Why would you do that?

- Well, I wasn't gonna

paint it chartreuse.

- I saw you with

Brennan Chartrin today, right?

- Uh, yeah.

- So, are you, like,

in that clique now?

- In that clique now?

This isn't a lunchroom

movie scene,

that's not really a thing.

Aren't you, or were,

best friends?

- Yeah, but stuff happened.

- Like what kind of stuff?

I'm prying, go on.

- I did this project

about natural disasters, and...

it consumed me.

The end.

So now I wear this vest

every day,

I guess I was always,

air-quotes, prone to anxiety.

- Well, I like the vest.

It's very vintage-y.

- Fashion.

It's where I keep my

field supplies, you know?

Flashlight, iodine tablets,

reflective blanket,

whistle, the basics.

- So, the 21st, huh?

It's all gonna be over.

Why worry now?

- Because it's happening now!

Natural disasters went up

150 per year in the '80s

and now it's up to 370.

It's like the planet's

warming up to bat!

I don't wanna get caught

off-guard before the big one.

Then there's the aflockalypse,

the fish dying...

- so, how does it work?

- Well, the winter solstice happens

on December 21st, like, once a...

- no, no, I mean like, your

life, how does it work now?

- I go to school.

But I spend as little time

in the building as possible.

I wait outside

until the last moment

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