Colors of Life

Light as a Feather – Sierra Kish

Sierra Kish

Colors of Life

— Blue —

“Beep, Beep, Beep,” my alarm sounds, bright and early at 4:30 am. As I slip on my clothes for the day, I hear my mom yell from downstairs, “Liam, are you up?”. I am exhausted and dreading the mile walk this morning as part of my trek to school because I was up extra late carrying crates for Mom at the store. As I step outside, the icy breeze chills my bones through my thin hand-me-down blue jacket. This jacket barely does anything for me. Before my dad died, he told me he loved this jacket and said the blue color represented the freedom that we would one day have. He said we would be free from work and be able to do what we want. But that doesn’t matter now, because he is gone. As I walk, I try not to think about the aching soreness in my legs and arms. Instead, I focus on the walk, because I have to keep my pace if I want to catch the bus. Once I come to the bus station, I reach into my pocket only to realize that, once again, I don’t have a quarter. “Great,” I sigh. This would be the third week in a row I didn’t have any money to pay for the bus. My mom’s store had not been doing as well as she hoped, and we are currently low on cash. Luckily, the bus driver didn’t notice me slip in, he was too busy trying to direct someone. It seems like only seconds before I am walking down the stairs to the subway station. My mom lets me borrow her subway card in the morning to get to school, and she uses it later at night to run errands. Once I am on the subway, I try to doze off, but a baby is crying and the sound rings sharply in my ears. By the time the subway reaches my stop, I can barely keep my eyes open, but I am on a tight schedule and may even have to jog to reach Mr. Barlowe’s homeroom. He is a stickler for being on time, and I can’t afford another tardy. 

As I go to put my backpack in my locker, I see Noah hanging out with his friends. If only I had a life like his. People don’t understand hunger until they skip four meals. People don’t know exhaustion until they’ve lifted 500 crates and gotten five hours of sleep. But most importantly, people don’t know loneliness until they’ve sat at lunch alone for three years. After that, school flies by pretty fast, and then I start my trek back home. 

Once I get home, I am ready to lay in bed and sleep for a hundred years, but I have to start my homework. About an hour later, I grab my backpack and start walking to the store. Luckily, the store is pretty close to home. When I get there, there is a stack of crates that seems to reach the moon. I can’t complain though, because I know that if I do, I will only make my mom feel bad. Instead, I just smile at my mom and get to work. Finally, after what seems like forever, it’s 10:30 pm and I get to go home. However, this walk always takes longer because I need to be careful. I don’t live in the nicest neighborhood, and there is a lot of crime, so I mostly take back roads to stay out of danger’s way. As I walk inside, I immediately start getting ready for bed. But most importantly, no matter how tired I am, I always go say goodnight to my sister. Everything I do is for her. I want to be able to give her the life I always wanted.

— Purple —

“I’m waking up, I’m waking up,” I say as I roll out of bed. It’s 6:31 am and my alarm has only been going off for a minute. Every day it’s something like, “Noah, do your homework! Noah, eat your dinner!” and today it was “Noah, wake up, you’re gonna be late!”. My parents are super strict about this kinda of stuff. In fact, they’re strict about everything. I know they just want what’s best for me, but whether they know what’s best for me is the real question. As I lace up my Jordans, the smell of French Toast wafts into my room. “Ugh,” I say. This would be the third time Margaret, our live-in housekeeper, would make French Toast. It’s always either a little burnt or undercooked. After I finish the mediocre breakfast, I hop in my EQS SUV Maybach Mercedes, my brand-new birthday gift that came wrapped in a purple bow. I learned in History class that purple represents power and wealth, both of which my family has. However, I see purple as fake, because it’s not a primary color, but instead a mutt of red and blue. Yes, it’s a nice car, but I miss having my parents drive me to school. Quoting my mom, “You can’t get anywhere if you don’t know how to drive.” So here I am, driving to school.

As I arrive at school, I am almost dog-piled on by my ‘friends.’ Well, yes, they’re my friends, but sometimes I wonder if I was poor if they would still be there for me. But that doesn’t matter, because I’m not poor. Have you ever had the feeling that regardless of how many people you are surrounded by, you are still alone? Whether it be friends or girlfriends. Currently, I am single, but I have dated many girls. I have dated everyone in the “popular” friend group except for Annalise, but I have no desire to date her. She is different from the rest of them. She’s not interested in me, and I’m not interested in her. I look down at my phone to see my schedule for the day. “Dang it” I mumble. I have all of my bad classes except for one. But that is the case almost every day because I am failing or nearly failing every class except History. That class I have an A+ in. I love History. But what cool kid likes History? 

I barely make it through school and then it’s time to go back home for tutoring. I used to try my best during my tutoring sessions, but no matter how hard I worked, I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I stopped trying. My parents, however, don’t know this, and I don’t plan on them finding out. They are always pushing me to do my best, but I got pushed off the cliff about three years ago, in Freshman year. Finally, it’s time for bed. I know it’s kinda lame, but I always have my mom come say goodnight to me. If I had my dad come say goodnight, he would try to sneak in something that would only cause me to worry for the rest of the night about impressing him. Goodnight with my mom is like my one breather, my one pause in my world where I can break free from the chains of my parents’ pressure.

— Yellow —

  5:30 am. That’s when my mental clock goes off. I don’t even need an alarm clock anymore. My body has been trained, because the faster I get out of the house, the better. If I hurry, I can usually be out before 6:00 am, when my parents wake up. It’s unbearable to listen to them fight only to pretend I don’t exist. I wish they were the kind of parents who cared and would yell up the stairs, “Annalise, come downstairs, I’ve made breakfast”. But that is never going to happen, so I eat the free breakfast offered at school. It may not be the coolest thing to do, but it’s better than eating at home. 

My red Honda is always the first in the school parking lot, excluding the teachers. I walk in and sure enough, I am the first student to arrive. The school doesn’t technically start serving breakfast until 6:20 am, but I am always early and the lunch ladies don’t make me sit in the car and wait. After breakfast, I head into the hallway and am greeted by my usual fan club, today complimenting me on my yellow scrunchie. When I think of yellow, I think of happiness and sunshine, which is what everyone sees in me. That’s what I want them to see. All that seems to matter at this school is how cool and popular you are, and if you are good at sports. I happen to be pretty athletic and good at basketball so I guess that makes me popular. But I have found friends, real friends, that don’t seem to care about that too much. My first class is Physics. Even though my friends are loyal, they all are always alternating being my lab partners because they want to sit next to Noah. I just don’t get the hype. He seems nice, but he is not smart by any means, and he rotates through girls faster than he can do math (which isn’t saying much). I have no desire to date him or be his lab partner. 

After school is over, I head over to basketball practice. Our school team is not very good, but I enjoy it, even more than that I enjoy being out of my house. Since it is not Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, I don’t have club practice. Instead, I stay after school to practice and shoot hoops until the janitors make me leave. Usually, they let me stay until they have to lock up, but the school hired a new janitor and he forces me to leave earlier, by 9:00 pm. So, recently I have been going to the park downtown and practicing until I can barely keep my eyes open. I guess basketball is like an outlet for me, where I can clear my head and leave my problems behind me. Once I get home, I finish my homework as quickly as possible before going to bed. My parents may not care that I exist, but I do, and I can fall asleep happily knowing that I will always have my friends and basketball.

— Teal —

The alarm sounds, loud, and everyone rushes into the gym. As students from all four grades file into the gym, they are told this is a tornado drill. Since the gym is in the basement, it is the safest place to go. As we all file in, we are randomly being shoved into spots, and it is complete chaos. No one knows where to go or what to do, and eventually, Principal Pikins just yells for everyone to sit and quiet down. Then, teachers went around forming groups based on where we were standing so they could count us up. This is not the most effective way to do things, but if it means that we don’t have to go back to class, they can take as long as they want. No one ends up in groups with people they knew, but they figured that if they were stuck here, they might as well start a conversation. In one of the groups, Noah starts talking and says, “Hey, aren’t you guys Liam and Annalise?”. “Yeah,” I reply. The group starts talking, and before we know it, the alarm sounds again and we have to return to class. As we’re standing up, Liam says,“We should hang out more often. How about lunch?” Everyone else agrees and parts their separate ways. 

They all come from different worlds: rich, ordinary, poor; smart, average, dumb; blue, purple, and yellow. However, there is one thing they have in common, they aren’t where they want to be in life. Alone, blue, purple, and yellow are ordinary, but combined they make teal. This new color represents renovation and how these three can assist each other to make their lives what they’ve always wanted them to be. These “colors of life” can help paint the picture of their futures.