the assignment

“I have lost my train my thought, here I go again.” I thought to myself. I tickled the tip of my high nose bridge, and snapped back to reality. Ms. Vaso was explaining our research assignment about dystopia, apparently it had to be 2,000 words, but I had no clue where to start.

“Class, please submit the assignment to the online portal by the first of July.” Ms. Vaso exclaimed to her ocean of students.

I rose my hand to clarify my thoughts, “Ms. Vaso, can you please go over the assignment one more time.”

She smiled and said “Absolutely Stella. The assignment is about a post-apocalyptic dystopia while living on Mars. Keep in mind, this is an astronomy class; make sure you incorporate some elements about the planets.”

Ms. Vaso loves talking about the planets, as she constantly blabbers about the sky - I thought

“Okay got it. But do the planets really affect and shape-shift us?” I asked her with great curiosity.

“Oh Stella!” Her goldfish eyes beamed right into my soul, with a laugh so loud, I am sure the aliens on Mars could hear.

“Stella let’s take the moon as an example. The idea that a full moon can stir up emotions, provoke bizarre behavior, and even cause physical illness isn't just a literary trope. It's a strongly held belief, even today. In fact, one study says that nearly 81 percent of mental health professionals believe the full moon can make people ill. So ill, that it can turn a soul moonstruck.” She explained.

“Not everyone wants to fall in love and become moonstruck or werewolves either.” Ace interrupted and coughed his two cents aloud. The ocean of students echoed a wave of giggles. I giggled quickly, yet rolled my eyes at his remarks.

“You wouldn’t know anything about love anyway.” I shouted across the room and told Ace.

“Yah, I know I shouldn’t love you.” he said.

The wave of students roared like the splashes of waters hitting against the rocks.

His remarks silenced my voice, as I continued to listen to Ms. Vaso.

The school bell rang and like a whirlpool, the chairs shifted, and everyone was running out the door. I saw Ms. Vaso wave bye to the class, as I was collecting my laptop and headed over to her desk for one last question.

I grabbed my backpack, and she greeted me with a smile by her desk.

“I think Ace has a crush on you.” She nudged.

“Teachers gotta stop telling girls that when a boys mean, it doesn’t mean he likes her.” I shrugged my shoulders and said.

“You’ll understand when you grow up Stella. Just listen to your heart and not to these silly boys.” she said.

I spotted a shiny object around Ms. Vaso’s neck. It was a sliver heart shaped locket with a green gemstone crystal placed in the center of the design.

“Your necklace is really pretty Ms.” I shyly exclaimed, as I mentally noted the craving to have such pretty things one day.

Her perfect pearl earrings complimented her necklace. When I grow up, I want to be just like her – I mentally noted again.

“Why thank you Stella, you are so kind.” she sweetly said.

“What’s the green crystal mean?” I asked her.

“It's prehnite, it’s a rear green gemstone that means unconditional love.” she said.

My eyes glowed as the necklace had a glow of a white swan, it was radiating pure beauty and love. Like how a true soul would crave their soulmate, I was craving that necklace.

“Stella, did you have another question?” she grounded me back to reality and clarified my reasoning to upon visiting her desk.

“Yes yes, what are dystopian tendencies?” I questioned.

“Now I’m not google Stella, but please read the assignment carefully. But dystopia is a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control.” Ms. Vaso explained, to make sure I somewhat understood the concepts.

“Alrightyyy, thanks a lot! I REALLY appreciate it!” I happily exclaimed with my happy puppy dog eyes and ran to catch the subway to head home. It was slightly raining, the grass smelt like cow shit. I saw the subway about to leave, and quickly ran to hop on. “Just in time.” I thought.

As I took a seat on the side red chair of the rush hour subway. Our city slowing started to reopen as we were in the midst of making history, my soul experienced a nuclear war, oh just kidding, my soul experienced a pandemic, all because of a highly contagious flu. We wore masks, and were always watched to assure our hands were sanitized. We had app’s on our phones to keep track where we were going, and if anyone around us were mutated with such a deadly virus. The subway was zooming through the cities underground tunnel, and we all sat 6 feet apart, in our own little bubbles, to keep everyone safe.

“Why is the assignment on dystopia, why can’t it be about Utopia? Why not happiness than destruction?” my soul pondered, as I starred at the ceiling of the yellow hooded subway. Life felt like a post apocalyptic dystopia. We were getting our lives back together after months of severe lockdown and fear of the unknown. But even the devil know’s, hell is just alternative to the mightest soul that does not forgive their sin’s in the present day light. Can we forgive ourselves for the time we lost, to create something new to whatever may be ahead?

I was glancing out the window and spotted a fine olive skin trophy’s reflection upon my eyes. It was Ace’s eyes, looking right at me, as I was looking at his reflection upon the window. I turned my head slightly to the left to see if he was watching me...

He was.

We locked eyes and starred at each other for one whole stop. My eyes started to burn because I was resisting to blink.

Why is his soul so hypnotic – my soul pondered.

I quickly looked away as the rush of passengers were getting off the subway. No words were exchanged, we let the eyes do the talking. I smiled to myself under my rose gold mask. His was black, as black as his heart. I hope I don’t fall in love with this boy, now that’s a post-apocalyptic dystopia towards my mental health. - I chuckled to myself, sigh – why I am so funny.

Think Stella think, my inner mind pondered. How do we deal with heartbreak, how do we deal with back pain? How do we bounce back from destruction, like a phoenix rising from its’ very own ashes? How do we generate the ability to become one all over again? I heard the monotoned subway lady announce my stop, as I quickly reassured all my belongings and got off.

And as I was walking, and suddenly froze and have a massive idea explode in my mind. In order to write about post apocalyptic dystopia, that means it is actually headed towards utopia. Let the dysfunction trigger destruction, leaving room for new creation. I felt like a thunder bolt jolted my mind with ideas, with great excitement, as I ran home and rushed to hop onto my laptop and get this assignment started! Oh Ms.Vaso is going to be soo excited reading my story! - I confidently motivated myself, as I started brainstorming my ideas in my deep meditative state.

I laid on my bedroom carpet floor, it was a soft beige colour with little rigids of carpet lining that tickled my skin as I started to focus on my breathing. I would take a deep breath in, pause – hold for 5 seconds, and relax into the galaxy that I was teleporting into. I had imagined I had landed on Mars. It’s the magical planet of hope to humans on Earth, to one day actually live here is an astronaut’s pondering thought. It consists of ancient volcanos, dry ice polar caps, and water.

My adventure crossed paths with Tyson, his soul was recovering from the volcano explosion in their city on Mars. He showed me many people had difficulty breathing, as the lava burnt their hosts alive. Their structures crumbled and their leaders burnt as a normal civilian in their community. My soul was exploring the great ice caps and the despair the city was left in. Yet there was a great time machine that fast forwarded the destruction into new creations. The lava had created new land for the civilians on Mars to build new structures on, and have new leaders educate their people on the importance of love and not money. To not fear disease, and use the natural waters as healing properties to soothe the mind, body, and, soul. I was watching everything transform, as I noticed my neck start to glow. It was the necklace from Ms.Vaso, the heart locket was open, shining love among the planet. The prehnite crystal was working its magic, it’s unconditional love to heal the world from dystopia.

Time was just an illusion as I was portal-ing my meditation back to reality. I felt like Albert Einstein, ureeka! As I got up from my meditation and opened my assignment on my laptop screen. My nails were typewriting on the keyboard like a piano's grand symphony, all my ideas were just pouring.

I saw words, and words, suddenly start to align as I continued to write about my imaginary adventure to Mars, and that boring topic of post apocalyptic dystopia. The word count was perfect and I made sure my spell check captured any errors! Hopefully I got everything right, oopsy if I missed something, I mean, Ms.Vaso can figure it out. I finished my assignment in an hour and printed it on fresh white sheets of paper. The page margins were perfect and the 1.5 spacings suited the assignments requirements perfectly. I signed and added the cover letter on top like a sweet cherry on a vanilla funnel cake dessert. Speaking of dessert, I’m getting hungry, let me grab a snack and head to bed.. I have got a big assignment to hand in tomorrow!

The next morning I got up extra early and took a very long shower to cleanse my wondering soul. I put on my favourite dusty rose sweater and slipped into my black jeans. I placed my assignment between my laptop and headed to class.

Ms.Vaso greeted everyone and we were assigned to our seats. “Have your assignment’s ready!” her soul voiced upon her ocean of students.

“Be prepared to read your stories to the class, everyone is going to take a turn.” she continued.

My eyes were stunned with great surprise …"Read aloud????” I thought, oh no this is going to be embarrassing. I wanted to teleport into my laptop screen and just disappear like a saved file that was saved under the wrong folder.

“Stella, let’s hear your story first.” She nodded with the class, as everyone’s eyes were on me. Including Ace’s, especially Ace’s.

Oh where are the paper bags in this generation when you need them … - I mentally thought.

“Well, alright.. “ I cleared my throat and grabbed the papers that I printed between the gaps of my shaking fingertips.

“Just breath” I told myself, as I read my story aloud.

Ms. Vaso was touched by my imagination and she walked over to my desk with her heart locket necklace in her hands. She was so impressed that she gifted me her locket.

“Your imagination is powerful, let it create utopia.” she smiled and said. “But one more thing Ms.Stella, the assignment was on post apocalyptic dystopia, not how to create utopia.” she said with her marking guidelines.

“But Ms.Vaso, to create utopia, is post apocalyptic dystopia.” I said.

I guess unconditional love wins after all.

The end.