Pride rock, as she stood on the top of the mountain, she saw it; a huge pointy rock pointed at someplace at the east where the sun rose. Pride lands, the name of the land where the big pointy rock was rooted. The rock was coming to her. She believed it was moving. The rock was far away, but it still felt like it was coming to her. Or was she moving to it? She was going to the big pointy rock!

Beep. Beep. Beep.

What was that? She sauntered away from near the mountain edge, where she was standing, toward the forest; her meerkat ears were up and attentive now, her gaze was sharp and watchful, scanning the forest cautiously for where the beeping tone was coming from. Stopping at a spot she believed was probably the middle of the forest, she didn't hear the sound of the beeping anymore, and she guessed the beeping had stopped; although the beeping tone still felt strange to her and she was overly curious. However, she believed she saw something as she looked up ahead; it was a figure on top of firm rock. When she slowly walked up to the firm rock and looked at the figure closely, she saw it was a meerkat, and it looked like her.

The meerkat stared back at her intently, and she felt like its eyes were peering deep into the depth of her soul. She didn't know why the meerkat was staring at her like that, nevertheless, she was going to gape at it too; big brown eyes-to-big brown eyes.

"…Claudia," the meerkat called her name and she froze. How did it know her name? And its voice sounded familiar.

"Claudia!" It called loudly this time as the forest began to shake. What was going on?

"…Claudia!" the meerkat called her name again as everywhere and everything turned dark and blank.

Claudia woke up to see a face staring and hovering over her. Was she dead? No, it was just her mom; her mom had shaken her awake. 'What's she doing here? God. It's morning,' Claudia said inwardly. She rubbed her eyes childishly and blinked at her mom a few times.

"Would you get up already?!" her mom yelled. "Had a weird dream again?" How could her mom change her voice from mad to relaxed so naturally? Claudia was amazed. And, of course, yes. Claudia had a weird dream again, and this time she was the meerkat, Timon, from Disney's popular cartoon, Lion King!

"No," Claudia answered. Her mom chuckled at her response, and Claudia knew what she was thinking about. Her mom was thinking about the funny dreams Claudia has had before that Claudia told her about, anyhow, Claudia was nine then and now she was seventeen.

"Are you sure?" her mom asked, and Claudia rolled her eyes fondly at her. What exactly did her mom want to hear? That Claudia was a meerkat in her dream this time? Or that Claudia had a staring competition with a meerkat? However, if Claudia told her mom about the dream, her mom would probably laugh until her tummy bursts. Her mom knew she loved fantasizing and wishing to be with a mythical being. What a big mistake. Claudia shouldn't have told her mom about her absurd dreams and wishes, though they weren't absurd to Claudia but to normies. Her mom poked fun at her about her fantasies almost all the time, and it irked her, but sometimes she shared her mom's laughter. Yet, Claudia felt concerned that she recalled all of her dreams vividly. Wasn't that strange? Mmm, maybe not.

"Yes, mom," Claudia replied. Her mom chuckled and left the room. 'Ugh! Gosh, I'm late for school again!', Claudia yelled inwardly as she rose sluggishly from her bed and walked towards the bathroom and also wasted a couple of minutes doing something related to nothing before entering inside. The bathroom wasn't even far, Claudia was just so lazy; if her mom hadn't woken her up, she would've still been in bed; that was how lazy she was. But who didn't love to relax? And maybe Claudia was just a sloth.

Brrr. The cold water hit Claudia's skin and she shivered; she should've used hot water but, sometimes, she just loved to challenge herself. Besides, the cold water didn't bother Claudia that much because she often imagined herself taking a shower with her imaginary boyfriend — the life of a single human who believed 2D guys were better than real life, breathing guys.

Claudia came out of the bathroom, telling her imaginary boyfriend from over my shoulder to 'hurry up and get out of the bathroom or else'. But, of course, she didn't say that out loud; she visualized, in her mind, having conversations with her imaginary boyfriend, how her imaginary boyfriend looked, and how her imaginary boyfriend reacted to her; so, technically, Claudia was just dating herself, and she's had four dates with herself. Claudia felt the second-hand embarrassment of her weirdness and how it slapped her hard in the face. Yep, it slapped hard, but it was okay.

Claudia wore her black jeans and a black t-shirt which had the why don't we band boys drawn on the front of it and white converse. Too boring? She didn't care; she just liked to be comfortable and, also, she was dating one of the band boys, but he just didn't know it yet. Claudia moved to her mirror to work on her hair. Should she let it down or put it up in a bun? She chose the latter. Claudia's hair could take quite a while for her to style because it was thick, super long, wavy, and natural; her arms would hurt real bad after trying to shape it into a perfect style, however, it was always so easy for Claudia's mom to style her hair and Claudia's — mothers and their superpowers, very uncanny. Claudia had wondered whether she'd have the 'mom's superpower' too if she ever became a mom; she had imagined her first child telling the second child, 'Don't worry, mom's coming to our rescue'; the thought of it made her smile.

Claudia stared at the mirror for a while after she finished tying her hair. 'Welp, nothing's changed', she said inwardly. She still looked the same. 'Do it,' something whispered to Claudia and she wanted to listen. Turning her back to the mirror and looking at it from over her shoulder, Claudia started to twerk. She learned how to twerk yesterday and now for some unusual reason, she was twerking in front of her mirror. What was wrong with her? She was late for school! But, hey, she was good at it.

"I believe you've got a stage name for that dance." Claudia heard her mom's voice and she jolted, stopping her dance session. What was her mom doing here? And why did she have to enter her room right now? Claudia was very flustered.

"Why didn't you knock, mom?!" Claudia said, pouting, and her mom said,

"You know you're tardy, right? Or do you want me to whip your ass before you realize that?" Claudia sighed and exited the room, pondering whether nobody understood anything about privacy, besides, she didn't want to get her ass whipped. She headed downstairs, thankful that it wasn't her troublesome older brother, Max, that walked into her room; he never knocks on her door and just barges into her room like it's his room. Claudia would always scream at Max to knock but he'd clap back at her saying, 'It's not like you're hiding any real-life boys in here, weeb!' as if he had a real-life girlfriend. Max was just a pain in the ass, Claudia's ass.

Arriving at the kitchen, Claudia saw Max sitting next to the kitchen counter. Max had just had breakfast, and his empty plate was still on top of the kitchen counter; he was lazy as fuck to put the dishes in the sink even though he was literally in the kitchen. 'Yeah, you just keep using that phone, bit— Hmm, I could just slap the phone down his hand…,' Claudia thought as she walked past Max but didn't do anything because Max would kill her, and she wasn't ready to die yet or anytime soon; she still had many dreams waiting to be fulfilled, and dying wasn't one of them.

"Hey, sprout," Claudia's dad said as Claudia strolled into the living room. Sprout was the nickname Claudia's dad had always called Claudia since she was little. Sometimes, Claudia would think her dad had forgotten her actual name and just called her the nickname instead; her dad merely called her Claudia unless he was mad at her.

"Hey, dad," Claudia greeted. Her dad was watching National Geographic Wild, for short, NatGeo Wild; he loved animals and loved to learn and know about them. 'He'd make a great animal specialist or zoologist,' Claudia thought.

"You know you're late for school, right? You're gonna get punished," her dad said. Claudia sighed because he was right. She was going to get detention and probably more homework, plus, it was 8:30 AM; she was so very late.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Claudia said, and her dad patted her head. She ate in silence as her dad watched the TV. She couldn't concentrate only on eating so she watched the TV too. On the National Geographic channel that was voice-overed, the unseen narrator was talking about snakes, cobras, if Claudia were to be specific on what she was watching. Thereon, the narrator moved to a different species called Komodo dragons, and something made Claudia think that they breathed fire, but they didn't; she blamed that thought on fairytales. What a shame, Claudia would've gotten one as a pet, hypothetically speaking; Claudia's mom would freak if Claudia was to have the creature, although it would've been hilarious how she'd warn Claudia to keep that beast away from her, and she would've probably killed the creature herself if Claudia wasn't around. Yeah, Claudia's mom was tough that way and Claudia admired it; her mom was like the second toughest person she knew, the first was her mom's mother. Like mother, like daughter; Claudia believed she was more like the father — calm, amusing, and a little introverted, while Max was like the mother — hotheaded, stubborn, and extroverted. Still, Claudia loved both of her parents and didn't have anyone as a favorite, though she favored her dad a little more than her mom.

After eating, Claudia tossed her plate in the sink. 'Bye-bye tasty pancakes, you're in the right place now,' she sang. Leaving the kitchen, Claudia stepped on Max's foot and he groaned loudly, chasing after Claudia, but he didn't catch her; she was as fast a hare. Inhale. Exhale. Claudia was breathing heavily now. 'Nothing like a good run in the morning, aye?', Claudia thought, still panting heavily. Yet, the chase wasn't supposed to make Claudia pant that heavy, she needed to exercise more or maybe not because she hated to exercise. Before Claudia embarked on her trek to school, she glimpsed at her bent-over panting brother from over my shoulder and he bestowed to her the middle finger which meant 'fuck you'. Claudia wasn't the type to back down very easily and she proved that by offering Max back with two of her middle fingers sticking up in the air. You ask for trouble, you earn a double. That's right, Claudia was troublesome too. The old lady that passed by glanced at Claudia and Max, shaking her head in amusement as she kept walking; she was probably reminiscing the good and bad old days of when she was a teenager or probably amazed by the behavior of most teenagers today.

Greenwich high school — the name of Claudia's school. Claudia just had to glance at her school's name written in capital letters on the well-bricked low wall today. Ahe sure had made a lot of memories here in the school; mostly memories of her and her best friend, Darby. Darby was the only friend Claudia had in the school. Yup, she wasn't so much of a social butterfly, but she was an ambivert, an otaku ambivert! Claudia had always imagined a dramatic effect anytime she said she was an otaku. Anyway, why didn't Claudia socialize a lot? Hmm, because she was weird and preferred to be in her head most of the time.

Claudia strolled to her locker and opened it to get her textbooks. "Hi," she said, waving at someone.

Claudia thought everyone was weird. She shut her locker, remembering the weird guy from her class nicknamed 'bigfoot Tony'; he had huge feet and liked to pick the dirt off his nose and then eat it, talk about nasty; it was disgusting and extremely weird. Very bizarre. Claudia wished she had never sat next to him in biology class that day, the guy grossed her out and she had nightmares; nightmares about giant boogers roaming the planet.

Regardless of the fun and exciting moments, high school was very annoying, and Claudia could testify to that.

"Claudia, you lazy bones! You're lucky the principal hasn't come out of his office yet," Darby let out as she strode over to Claudia so they could walk together to class, it was 9:15 AM. Claudia shook her head at Darby's comment because Darby talked like she hadn't come late either.

"Look who's talking," Claudia said, and Darby rolled her eyes.

They arrived at the classroom and a teacher walked out as they entered and took their seats. 'Thank goodness, he didn't say anything to us,' Claudia said inwardly, and it was obvious Darby was saying the same thing in her mind because they glanced at each other before looking away. But the teacher that just walked out of the class looked overwrought; he was probably getting punished every night by his pregnant wife. Claudia could imagine the teacher's wife waking him up in the middle of the night asking for some fried chicken, or frozen turkey, or wild boar. 'That'd be very frustrating as hell,' Claudia thought. After a while, a female teacher stepped into the class; it was a couple of minutes after 9:30, she came in at 9:36. However, the teacher's lecture was supposed to start at 9:30. Some teachers weren't just happy today and Claudia wondered why.

Initially, school started at 8:30 AM, but Claudia arrived at school at 9:15 AM. She missed the first lesson, Math, and it was the overwrought teacher that walked out of the class, when she and Darby came in, that taught the subject; and now it was the English period. What was with the late coming to school today? Was late coming always a thing on Mondays? Claudia didn't know for sure, she was always tardy; Claudia almost laughed to herself at the thought of being among the goats instead of the sheep, but she noticed someone was sitting at a desk next to hers. As if it was avoidable, Claudia and the person shared awkward eye contact before she looked away flustered — the awkward moment when you stared at somebody that was already staring at you was super duper awkward! Especially for introverts and very shy individuals, and perhaps a few extroverts and ambiverts — Claudia knew that much and was always a victim of it.

During recess, Claudia departed to the library. There was a book she hadn't finished reading yet, and it was about vampires. Yeah, she loved fantasies and fairytales, sue her. Scanning the fantasy section, she saw the book she was looking for; it was titled, Vampire prince; her eyes darted to the book next to it titled, The lion's den. 'Mmm, maybe later,' Claudia thought. Sitting on one of the library's sofas, Claudia surrendered her attention, focus, senses, and eyes to the book. As the book kept going and Claudia kept reading, Claudia placed her hand on the side of the sofa. In the novel she was reading, the prince had finally admitted he loved his maid, but the maid didn't know he was a vampire. Turning over another page, Claudia felt something hard under her palm and squeezed whatever she felt with her eyes still glued to the book — reading that the prince was going to bite his maid intrigued her but when she heard a moan, she froze. Claudia turned her head to see a boy smiling weirdly at her. Why was he smiling? Claudia looked down at where her hand was placed, she wanted to scream but remembered she was in a library. Claudia's hand was on the crotch of the boy! She removed her hand rapidly from the boy's nasty section and stood up to leave, and the boy spoke as she was leaving, 'Can we finish this later?'

'Ugh! That was so embarrassing!', Claudia thought. And to think the boy enjoyed it, Claudia betted that he masturbated a lot. The boy was a freaking pervert, and the look Claudia saw on the boy's face before leaving was going to haunt her in her dreams tonight, a nightmare about… Claudia shuddered, she didn't want to think about it.

"What happened?" Darby asked as Claudia took her seat in class.

"You don't wanna know," Claudia replied.

Classes were to proceed after the bell rings. The school was to end at 3:15 PM. Claudia groaned exasperatedly and rested her face down on the smooth surface of her desk, and Darby rubbed her back. Darby was so helpful. Claudia took a mental note to always look to see if someone was sitting on a sofa before she sat, and if the person looked weird or like a pervert, she'd sit somewhere else.

"See ya!" Claudia said to Darby as she sauntered away from the school's premises; Claudia and Darby were supposed to walk home together, but Darby received detention again. Typical. Darby was stubborn and funny; one time, she nicknamed one of the school teachers 'Mr. Big booty' because he had a big butt. Claudia always smiled whenever she recalled the memory.

"Claudia! We've got a really big booty problem!" Darby had said to Claudia, then, when Mr. Big booty gave her, only, a lot of homework because she was making a crack.

"Who's that? Who's making a crack?" Mr. Big booty had asked, and the whole of the class roared with laughter because his butt knocked over some books from his desk as he turned to face them; it was hilarious how he looked. Anyway, that silly and memorable minute was a year ago because Mr. Big booty resigned; the poor man couldn't put up with the student's nonsense anymore, thanks to class B — Claudia's class.

Crossing a coffee shop on Hillside road, Claudia glanced at her left side and something caught her attention, it was a necklace. Stopping in her tracks, she crossed the road over to the left sidewalk to approach the seller of the necklace that was sitting on a bench. The seller's jewelry stand was next to a pawn shop.

"Hi, good evening," Claudia greeted. "How much for that necklace?" She pointed at the necklace as she spoke. The seller looked at the necklace and said,

"Three dollars." Claudia almost exclaimed in surprise. 'Thank God, it's cheap. I'm broke as fuck', she said inwardly. What did Claudia use all of her money for? Well, some otome games were very expensive to play, and this was a lesson to teach her to learn how to save.

"Thank you," Claudia said and turned to leave after a while of admiring the new necklace positioned on her neck and pretending not to hear the silly deal the seller had made. The seller had sold a gold necklace for five dollars! Claudia didn't know if it was real gold but, still, she thought the seller made a huge mistake.

"I'll give you ten dollars," the buyer had said, checking out the necklace; it was a beautiful necklace, and Claudia believed the buyer thought so too.

"Five," the seller had told the buyer, and Claudia wondered if the seller was crazy. Maybe the buyer was the seller's friend or something, either way, Claudia believed he was being unusual. Didn't sellers tend to increase the prices of a commodity just to attain more money from the customers even though, sometimes, the product is useless?

"Deal," the buyer had accepted, and they shook hands as if they had agreed on some huge business contract; that was Claudia's cue to leave the crazy fellows.

The two men made Claudia recall that one time a man said he was selling air and that they were breathing in fake air. 'Come fetch your real air here! For just five thousand dollars!' the man had declared on the busy streets. Claudia and her mom were heading to the grocery store at that juncture. Claudia's mom called the man a freak and Claudia giggled; Claudia was six years old then, and the man was being funny.

Claudia walked down the street that led to her house, Fairfield Road. Her school wasn't that far from her house, it was at 10 Hillside Road. It took Claudia eighteen minutes, 0.9 miles, on foot to get to Fairfield Road, three minutes if she had taken a car, and an hour if she had walked with Darby because they'd always laugh, discuss, and joke on their way back home especially if they were walking with a couple of friends. Claudia's mom seldom cared for Claudia coming home late because she knew that sometimes Claudia walked with friends, acquaintances, in Claudia's perspective. Plus, her mom just needed her to be more sociable. It wasn't as if Claudia was unsociable or anything, but that was just her mother's way of saying, 'Get your head outta the clouds for a sec'. Or her mom would've just teased the hell out of her instead. Besides, Claudia and those friends weren't that close.

Darby's house was a few strolls, on the left, from Claudia's house. Claudia's house was on the right. As usual, the estate was quiet and peaceful; only the sounds of cars moving in and out of the estate could be heard. Claudia cherished the serenity of the estate, but, occasionally, she wondered if people lived in the estate. Although kids came out to play outside of their houses now and then, she couldn't help but assume they were ghosts because of the eeriness of silence in the estate sometimes. Claudia saw her mom outside on the balcony and waved her hands at her, her mom waved back, grinning. Her mom loved it when she was back home, however, Claudia thought her mom should've gotten used to her not being around the house because, soon, she'll be done with high school and going to college; she had just this term to finish.