Sarah’s POV:

The radiant light hit my face through the swaying curtains and I groaned in frustration. Stretching my hands and legs, I turned to my right, letting the shining sunlight strike my back. I kept my eyes shut for a while, trying to go into a deep sleep but couldn’t. Finally, I got up on the bed and looked at my window, placing my hand in front of my face to hinder that light, directly dashing against my eyes. I got up from the bed and walked towards the window to look outside. It was a beautiful morning. I loved how the weather was changing to all sunny and warm.

“Sarah…” Mom’s voice came from downstairs.

“Yes, mom...?” I asked loudly.

“Come downstairs… I have made this amazing breakfast for you, honey” She said excitedly and I raised my eye brow up in confusion.

“What’s the occasion today? And why hasn’t mom left for work yet?” I asked myself while thinking deep about this sudden change in mom’s behavior.

“Okay, mom, coming down in a few minutes” I said out loud and walked into the bathroom while smiling.

After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I walked out of the bathroom, still in my night suit and headed out of the room to have that amazing breakfast.

Climbing down the stairs, I saw mom setting up some plates on the table and as she looked up at me, she began to rub her hands, waiting for me to reach her.

“What’s the occasion, mom?” I asked her sarcastically.

“Come on, Sarah… Can’t I make you a good breakfast just like that?” She asked me resentfully.

“Okay, mom, sorry. What did you make? It smells good” I said to her while looking towards the kitchen to find out.

“Oh pancakes…” She replied excitedly and walked over to the kitchen to return with a dish in her hand with beautiful round pancakes on it, topped with cream and butter.

“Oh, that looks good too” I said while adoring them and sat down on the chair.

“You haven’t even changed your clothes, Sarah” Mom complained.

“Mom… My summer break is about to end in a week. Let me roam about the house in my pajamas” I said lazily and began to eat the pancakes. “They taste so good” I said with a mouthful of pancakes.

“Thanks, honey…” She said rubbing her hands again and sitting down opposite to me.

“But mom… Why are you still at home? Do you have an off today?” I asked her.

“No, um… I took an off today” She replied hesitantly.

“Why? Is everything okay?” I asked her anxiously.

“Yeah, everything is fine, honey… I – I just want to talk to you about something” She said nervously and I stopped then and there. The pancakes couldn’t go down my throat and I looked up at her with a smile.

“So there is something…” I said and nodded.

“Sarah…” Mom started and then added after taking a deep breath, “I really wanted to do this for you… Don’t take me wrong…”

“Okay, mom… I am not taking you wrong…” I said and quickly placed the fork down on the plate and crossed my arms, resting them on the table. “Tell me, what is it?” I asked further.

“Um, Sarah, you see…” She started and then stopped, taking a deep breath in nervousness.

“What is it, mom? Why are you hesitating so much?” I asked her in confusion.

“Actually… It is something that you might not agree for. It – it would be difficult for you to understand but…” She couldn’t complete and looked down, thinking something.

“Mom, just tell me what is it? I’ll decide if I will understand that or not” I said to her and she nodded while drawing the strands of her blonde hair away from the face to the back of her ear.

“Okay, okay um…” She started again when suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

“Sarah…” It was Eloise voice from the outside. “Open the door, Sar…” She added loudly.

“Oh, this girl…” Mom said, placing her hand on her forehead.

“What happened?” I asked and stood up from the chair to open the door to her. As I swung it open, she entered into the house hastily and looked at me from up to down.

“What is happening?” I asked her anxiously.

“What are you…” She stopped and then turned to mom to add, “Oh hello, Mrs. Thompson…” Before mom could reply to her she turned back to me and added in frustration, “What are you doing like that?”

“What?” I asked her.

She looked at me with an annoyed face and then added while taking a few steps back, “Can you look at my green T - shirt and recall what I am talking about?”

I began to look at her grassy green T – shirt which was paired with blue jeans while thinking deep about what she was saying when suddenly something hit my mind.

“Oh, oh my god…” I said and threw my head in my hand while adding, “I totally forgot”

“Yes you did while I reminded you about this last night only” Eloise said resentfully.

“El, I am so sorry… I forgot about it completely…” I said regretfully.

“What is happening?” Mom asked anxiously while walking towards us.

“Mom, I forgot to tell you too… There’s this protest we have to be a part of” I told her.

“What protest?” She asked me and looked at Eloise.

“There’s this industrialist who is trying to build a factory on the Tress Road and he has ordered to cut down all the trees in that area… So many schools have decided to bring their students ahead for a protest to stop this industrialist to do this terrible thing. We can’t let him be this destructive, you know…” Eloise told her.

“Okay, that’s good but – but why do you girls have to go there? Let the other students be a part of this protest” Mom said, resting her one hand on her waist and the other on the table.

“Mom… That’s so unfair… We are going…” I said to her resentfully.

“But honey… This industrialist might harm the protesters. You know once there was a protest in our neighboring town and there was this shelling of tear gas… It was so terrible, you know… I can’t let you girls go, I am sorry…” Mom said.

“Mom please… you don’t need to worry about us. I promise if something like that will happen then we’ll leave the protest at once…” I said to her.

“Yes, Mrs. Thompson and every student from our school is going… We’ll be the only ones to back off. We can’t be the odd ones out, you know…” Eloise said.

“Right… And we are doing all this for a good cause and so we will go…” I said to her.

“Fine… But stay safe, both of you” Mom said and I nodded.

Turning to Eloise, I started, “You just wait here and I’ll be back in ten minutes, I promise”

“Okay, hurry…” Eloise started and as I began to climb up the stairs, she added from behind, “Gene has already reached there. She must be waiting for us”

“Okay, I’ll be quick” I said out loud and hurried to my room.

After exactly ten minutes, I got ready in a bottle green T – shirt and skinny blue jeans and hopping into my sneakers, I quickly climbed down the stairs to see Eloise sitting on chair and eating pancakes.

“El, we need to go right?” I asked her bitterly.

“Sarah, don’t be like that. Let her eat” Mom said to me and I walked over to Eloise and grabbed her from her elbow while she stuffed her mouth with pancake.

“Come on…” I said to her and we ran out of the house.

“Take care…” Mom said loudly from behind while we hit the road to be on our way to the protest location.

“Oh I forgot to ask…” Eloise started while we were walking. “Why was your mom still at home today? Didn’t she go to work?”

“Nope…” I said and then realized that mom was going to tell me something but I couldn’t listen to her. “Actually she wanted to talk to me about something but then you came and – and she couldn’t tell me” I added while wondering what she wanted to talk about.

“What was it about?” Eloise asked curiously.

“I don’t know… Before she could tell me, you banged on the door” I said to her and rolled my eyes while she chuckled.

Walking for about fifteen minutes, we reached the location and saw hundreds of students already there.

“How will we find Gene here? There are so many people here” I said out loud as some students walked past us with posters and banners in their hand.

“We will… She told me that she is waiting towards the left, near a tree” Eloise said.

“Okay then let’s go towards the left” I suggested and she nodded. “We’ll need to cross through these students walking forward” I said to her and she walked ahead to cross through them. As we turned to the left and walked forward, I dodged some people, avoiding a collision with them but unfortunately, one collision did occur. I bumped into someone so strong and sturdy that I moved back a little and when I came back to my senses, I looked up and saw a guy standing in front of me and my mouth dropped open…