WOLF BESIDE THE PRINCE Prince Xander s Inner Journey

Definition; Awakening

/əˈweɪkənɪŋ/ coming into existence or awareness.

Kiera's POV

The sun God must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed today. The weather wasn't hot, it was searing, burning everything within sight. I wiped my brows for the upteenth time, trudging slowly towards home and succor from the punishing heat. I was thirsty and weak, not only from the bag of coals disguised as a backpack I was logging around, but because the hotter the sun got, the more it sapped what little energy I had left. I had walked this route a thousand times to and from school but it had never seemed as endless as it did today. What a perfect end to a truly terrible day. No one was meaner than a highschool cheerleader, especially when said cheerleader decided that you wanted to steal her boyfriend because you were his partner in chemistry class and then said cheerleader and her group of meanies decide to warn you by dumping dishwater-complete with rotten fruits-over you right after gym class. Now in the blazing heat, I was humiliated, tired and stinky. The smell emanating from my body was enough to make me retch. I couldn't risk taking a shower in school because my uniform had gone missing-surprise, surprise- and all I had left was the ruined gym clothes. I didn't put it past Tamara and her friends not to steal my gym clothes and leave me butt naked in the girls bathroom. Hence, my two miles walk of shame, looking like a sewer monster. The surburbs I lived in was semi quiet but cars passed every now and then and children played outside their homes. Everyone I passed stopped what they were doing to stare at me as I walked by. I ducked my head down and prayed for the ground to open up and swallow me.

What seemed like endless hours later, my blue two story house came in to view. There was no car in the driveway. Father wasn't home-thankfully-but mother would be home. She was always home, except when she went to the supermarket once a week for groceries or to church on Sundays. I unlocked the door and emitted a sigh of relief as the air conditioner on full blast welcomed me into it's cooling presence. I trudged into the kitchen before stopping at the counter and rested my weary body against it.

"Honey, is that you? Ugh...what is that smell?" My mother made a strange hacking sound as she got a whiff of the smell I'd dragged in with me.

"I'm the smell mother." I replied dully. I let my bag fall from her shoulders carelessly. It gave a small smack as it fell splat on the counter.

"Oh dear. What happened? Did you roll around in the gutter?" Mum wondered, her eyes wide as saucers.

"No mum. Tamara and her friends gave me a dishwater shower." At least I thought it was dishwater. There was spaghetti and several rotten fruits in the water and it smelled awful. I really hoped it was dishwater and not something else.