Dividing by Zero

Lara woke up sweating. It was 4:36 in the morning, and a bad dream had caused her to be jarred out of her sleep. It was also ridiculously hot in her father’s apartment, so she reached up to her left and threw open the window.

It was hot outside too, so Lara simply sighed and fell back against her pillow. Lara despised being hot. She tried to get comfortable so she could go back to sleep for a couple of hours, but she hated sleeping without something covering her body, and sleeping with the blanket was too hot.

After about twenty minutes of tossing and turning, Lara finally gave up and got out of the bed.

She crept down the hallway past her father’s room and into the living room, wincing as the floorboards creaked beneath her with every step. Her father had been in the army for four years, which as a result, had left him with bionic hearing and the ability to wake up at the smallest noise.

Lara stopped before continuing to the adjoining kitchen, and hearing nothing from her dad’s room, resumed her quest for an ice cold bottle of vanilla frappucino from the fridge.

She settled down in front of the TV, making sure it was as low as possible with her still being able to hear it. She flicked through the DVR, landing on an old rerun of Family Guy, which wasn’t ideal, but at 4:45 in the morning, you don’t get much better.

At around 5:10, as the episode was close to ending, Lara heard her dad stir, and then get up and head in to the living room. “Lara, what are you doing up this early?”

She shrugged and stood up. “Sorry, Daddy, I didn’t mean to wake you up. I woke up because of a nightmare, and then I couldn’t fall back asleep because of the heat.”

Her dad nodded, and then looked her up and down, his cheeks turning slightly red. She looked down at herself and blushed. “Oh!” She was only wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of pink lace underwear. She had kicked off her shorts before she had gotten into bed the night before, already overheated.

Instead of running off to change, she simply smirked and looked pointedly at her father, who was wearing a pair of boxers and nothing more. He looked down at himself and turned a deep red before clearing his throat and saying, “Oh yeah, uh, I’ll be right back.”

Following his lead, Lara and her father both headed back to their respective rooms and threw on something decent before returning to the living room and settling down on the couch.

“You could have turned on your air conditioner, you know,” Lara’s dad said to her, which earned him an eye roll from her.

“If Family Guy at volume level 2 wakes you up from down the hall, I doubt you would have slept through my loud-ass air conditioner right next door.

He laughed lightly and ruffled her hair. “Suppose you’ve got me on that one.”

Lara pecked her dad on the cheek. “I should probably go take a shower.”

“Alright, I’ll make some pancakes if you want. We’ve got time, seeing as how you don’t have to be at school for another two and a half hours,” her dad replied, getting up to head in to the kitchen.

“Yeah, again, I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. This way I get to spend more time with my little pumpkin pie!” he responded, grinning.

She rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless before slipping in to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth quickly before wiggling out of her pajamas and turning the shower on, as hot as it would go. Lara loved scalding hot showers, and her pale skin was usually tomato red when she came out.

Unfortunately, when she got in, it was even hotter than usual, and since the apartment was already almost eighty degrees, it was simply uncomfortable. She turned it down slightly, but it was still intensely hot, and she fiddled with it for a while before giving up and settling with a lukewarm shower. It irritated her, but she washed her hair and body quickly, so that she could get out as fast as possible.

Once she was out, she headed down the hall to her room, smiling at the delicious smell of pancakes that was filling the apartment. She rifled through her drawers, deciding on a pair of dark blue booty shorts and a cream colored tank top. Fuck the dress code, she thought. It’s too damn hot for finger-length shorts. She slipped in to some flip flops and threw her hair up in to a messy bun to let it dry somewhat before she took a blow dryer to it.

She started to walk in to the living room just as her father yelled out, “Breakfast time!”, which only made her walk faster to get to the table.

They sat down at the dining table which was in a section of the living room near the kitchen. She glanced at the clock- 6:00. An hour and forty-five minutes until she needed to leave for school.

She scooped up two pancakes and deposited them on her plate before drowning them in syrup. She handed the syrup off to her dad and dug in, smiling in bliss- it had been weeks since her dad had made his “world famous” homemade pancakes.

After blow-drying her hair, putting some light grey eyeliner on (that was basically the extent of the makeup she used), and wasting time by watching T.V. for a while, Lara was (reluctantly) on her way to school.

When she got there, she was the first one of her friends, which annoyed her. She hated being by herself, she thought it made her look like a loser. She texted Danielle impatiently, trying to make it look like she was actually doing something.

After a few minutes of crossing her arms and scowling, Danielle finally appeared, smiling as usual, which put a semi-smile on Lara’s face. Danielle walked up and Lara said hi, followed by her heat rant, before Brooke walked up. They chatted for a while, during which Lara just got more and more irritated, until finally Erin walked up.

Unfortunately for Lara, Erin wasn’t really on her side either, so Lara just stewed until they were able to go in to the school building.

Lara and Danielle broke off from Brooke and Erin to go to their lockers, and Lara’s face finally adopted a hint of a smile. She loved Danielle, she really did, because Danielle was one of the most genuinely nice people she had ever met, and when she was with her, she couldn’t help but be happy.

They chatted minimally about the weekend, and then they discussed who’s house their Friday night sleepover would be at. They decided on Lara’s since Lara would be at her mom’s house, which was always stocked full of snacks, and she had a couch in her room for an extra person to sleep on.

They parted ways at the first B wing hallway, where Danielle kept going straight to her locker and Lara headed left to hers.

After she was done at her locker she headed up to chemistry, her first class of the day, collapsed in to her seat, and simply sat staring out the window until the lesson was already halfway over.