Chapter 3: Jannah is read as Hannah

Today is Monday, but today's a different Monday because school is cancelled. I am supposed to attend class at 8 o'clock today, so I woke up early despite the scarce amount of sleep I had last night. I have been thinking about a lot of things lately. Like how am I going to survive school with a large amount of pressure of the people around me, Jay, the fake-maybe-not-so-fake virus thingy those two girls were talking about, and many more. Trust me, you don't wanna know the rest, my brain just can't handle that many things.

I just got a text message earlier today from the school admin saying that classes are suspended. I still don't understand why they cancelled class today. The weather is perfectly fine and there are no holidays, so why cancel school?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I don't have to listen to hours long boring lectures about things I won't be using when I'm in the real world, I'm just curious about why they'd cancelled classes all of a sudden without an explanation. I'm just a little sad because I should still be sleeping right now if it isn't for school. There's no school, so what's the point of waking up this early?

On the bright side, I'll have more time to prepare for Jannah's birthday party later tonight. But for now, time too sleep.

°°°

I woke up just in time to take brunch and I immediately took a bath right after. I am currently addicted in watching these Netflix shows, so maybe I'll do that while waiting for Jannah's text.

I stood up, and once again, I felt as if I'm gonna pass out, and turned on the television. Netflix time baby! I always stay in my room the whole day because the less human the interaction, the better. Plus, I am saving all my energy for this party later today.

I have this love-hate relationship with parties. I love that it has a wide variety of food and drinks, but I hate that people judge you when you eat a lot. I love how you can wear whatever you want and be yourself, but not too much, they'll also judge you for that. So it is very important to dress well in parties. Dress to impress, they say. I love how you can meet and interact with new people, but as the party goes on, the atmosphere is always going to be ruined by those drunk horny couples. They're everywhere, anywhere you look. At the table, behind the door, in the closet, even at a child's bedroom! They look like two parasites sucking on each other.

Did you know that the word "party" was used to refer to a body of people united in opposition to others? It came from the old French "partie" which means "divide into parts." The "party meaning social gathering" just came on the early 18th century. Technically, it means that people before the 18th century doesn't have parties, right? What do they do? Do they just hangout with themselves? Do they celebrate things alone? Do-

My self-conversation was interrupted by a text from Jannah.

"See ya later at 7pm"

I am invited to Jannah's birthday party. Like I said, I am not really fond of parties, but I still decided to come because I don't want to miss her birthday.

Jannah is my best friend since eight grade. And one thing I can tell about her is that she always hated her name. "Jannah" is just Hannah spelled with a "J". She always complained why her parent's decided to spell the name "Hannah" wrong. "Is my dad drunk when he wrote my name on the birth certificate?" Is the question she always asks me, and we always laugh at that thought.

I think her name is unique and beautiful, like mine. I always tell her that our names are somewhat related to each other. You see, mine is supposed to be Kelly, but spelled as Quelly. Many people tell me it's weird, but I learned to ignore them over the years.

I looked at the clock and it's already 15 minutes past 6 o'clock, the party starts at 7. Guess I watched too much Netflix. Well, time to get ready then.

Since this is the party of my favorite bestfriend, like I have another one. I wore my party dress, which is the only dress on my wardrobe. It's an above the knee, spaghetti strap, fitted black dress, with pretty little avocado patterns. I found it online, and the pretty shades of green on the avocados caught my eye so I bought it. Also, I decided to curl my long, jet-black hair and put on some make-up because I want to look fancy.

It took me more than an hour to get ready. Better late than never, right?

°°°

After minutes of prep talk to myself, I finally went in and knocked on the door.

"Hey! You're late." Jannah said with the most Squidward-sounding voice I ever heard and her arms crossed. And she almost looked like him pfft.

I was kidding. She is a pretty girl, but maybe a tad too short for an eighteen-year old human being. Despite her disappointing height, her personality and looks definitely stole the hearts of many men. She looks gorgeous today, wearing her sparkly, red, figure-hugging tube dress and high stilettos, her brown hair tied up on a messy bun. She looks like a sparkly hotdog, in a good way.

"Uh... Happy Birthday?" I said, handing her my present, a dainty gold flower necklace in a small pink box which I bought two weeks ago. It's actually a friendship necklace, I'm wearing mine now.

"Thanks! Come in, I have some new "friends" for you to meet." She said, emphasizing the word "friends," she knew I've been single my whole life. She always encouraged me to start dating, which I always declined. I hate the whole specie of men.

Jannah and I went inside, and it's already packed with human beings. The first thing you see when you come in is the large living room. My favorite thing in here is their very large and cozy couch, which is better than my own couch. Next to the living room is the kitchen on the left and the stairs to their bedrooms on the right. She immediately led me to the far side of the living room, where there is a long table filled with different delicious looking food, one of the main reasons I'm here ofcourse. On the wall facing the table, there is an array of golden balloon letters saying "Happy 18th Birthday Jannah," designed with different sizes of pink balloons. Their house is fairly big, considering that she is just living with her mom. Speaking of her mom...

"Where's mom? Came home from work yet?" I asked Jannah as she handed me my cup of eighteen-year-old-friendly alcoholic beverage.

Jannah's mom, Julie, is very nice. She treats me more like a daughter than my own mother does. I call her Mrs. Waldorf, but she always insists I call her mom. She always makes me feel welcome everytime Jannah and I have sleepovers. One little flaw about her is...

"She's not here. She told me she'll stay at the office for the night." I can sense the sudden sadness on her voice. Julie is workaholic. Being a doctor, most of her time is consumed at work. I seldom see her in their house because she always sleeps at her office. I admire Julie's strength and perseverance, raising a child alone is a very hard thing to do.

"Oh, too bad." I said as I take a large gulp on my drink. I don't know, I just feel a little edgy today. I tried my best to hide the excitement on my tone.

Jannah's mom has been very busy this past few weeks. She told me she'd take a leave to be with her daughter on her special day. So me, being the kind-hearted person that I am, kept it a secret from Jannah. Julie told me she has some things to fix at the hospital first before she gets here.

"I don't need your sympathy Quells. We're here to celebrate a birthday, not a funeral" Jannah said as she rolled her eyes at me.

"I know, so... Where are these "friends" you were talking about?"

I don't know, maybe I'm just in the mood to mingle with fellow human beings today. Or it's mainly just the alcohol doing things in my system.