9 days prior:

  It was warm under the cozy woolen blanket. I didn't want to come out nor did I want to face the problems of the outside world. Problems...yea, I had a lot of them. All of which were self inflicted.

  No, I didn't want to think about it. At least not right now.

  "Mara!" That was the voice of my grandma calling from the kitchen. This is probably the 4th or 5th time she was trying to wake me up.

  "I am up," I yelled back, only to fall back into my bed.

  "Maaaarraa!" This time it was much louder.

  I pulled one arm from under the blanket in search of my phone.

  "Ugh," begrudgingly I turned to the side in order to have a better reach. My grandma continued calling my name, but I had no energy to even open my eyes. Plus, I found it annoying how I still couldn't find my phone.

  "MARA!!!!" Standing in front of my door, she was about to knock when...

  "Bang!!" I fell. My grandma wouldn't be able to see me, now that I was hidden behind my bed.

  My head was hurting so much. Not because of the fall, but rather due to immense sleep deprivation. I pressed the knuckle of my thumb in between my brows. This could have been due to the placebo effect, yet I felt my headache lessens.

  Moving my one remaining foot in bed down to the floor, slowly I rolled to one side and crumbled a piece of woolen blanket under my head. An intense ray of light was pointed directly at my face, urging me to wake up. I really didn't want to. Instead, I curled by head towards my knees; thus, avoiding the pesky light. Honestly, even this wooden floor was very comfortable to sleep on. My eyelids flattered, allowing me to catch glimpses of my surrounding. I saw rows of rectangular boards of hickory, each a slightly different shade of golden. Some boards had dark brown swirls, but every single one of them had unique grain patterns. This flooring added to the soft feel of the pastel bedroom. The light blue color, reminiscent of clear summer sky, was continually lulling me to sleep. I was about to return to my dream, but fate had different plans for me.

  The white door leading to my room squeaked and soon after, the grey haired figure walked in. She was determined to wake me up. With my grandma here, I had no choice but get up.

  Today was Saturday, which meant it was time to go to work. Lazily, I stretched my arms and got up from the floor. The woolen blanket continued partially hanging from the side of the bed. Seeing this my grandma walked over to make my bed.

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  My grandma was always so nice to me and took care of all my possible needs. "Sorry for being such a horrible granddaughter," I thought. Only to be interrupted by some stupid crow tapping on my window. I gestured it to get out of here. Not that I was expecting it to understand. There was definitely something wrong with that crow. It was following me for days now. Thankfully, except that minor annoyance, I found it relaxing how birds were singing. Everything about this morning was the definition of peace and tranquility. Today seemed like the day that I could finally do that thing I have been procrastinating on.

  "Shoot," I opened my computer. It was already 8:14 am, which meant that if I didn't leave that very second, I would have been late.

  I ran toward the closet to get dressed. Of course my work scrubs weren't there, where I was supposed to put them. Looking around I found the pants I needed, under the standing desk near my closet. I changed as fast as I could and rushed out. I really hoped I had at least brushed my teeth that day, but one thing was certain. Based on the mess I left behind, there might very well been a tornado passing through the path on my way out to work. Thankfully that worked out, somehow.

  The work was boring. Nothing particularly exciting happened. I was happy with myself through. I managed to get to work only 1 minute late. To someone for whom being 30 minutes late is the norm, this was an accomplishment. That, however, was my one and only achievement of the day. This was the day I proved to be more harm than good when it came to work.

  The day started with my coworkers chattering and bantering with each other. I wanted to join and be a part of that atmosphere, but something was stopping me. Not knowing how to, I continued working as they talked happily. They were like family. Even now, our manager was lightly lecturing Brandon, one of my coworkers, calling him her middle child that always messes up. Unlike them, I wasn't part of that family.

  I want to... no I need to be helpful that is the only way I can justify being useful to them. But I constantly mess up. That was especially true today.

  The vein was very easy and donor was so nice. She said her boyfriend thought I was pretty. That was probably what threw me off. Long story short, I blew her vein and caused a hematoma to form on her arm. It wasn't intentional. Maybe, it was the compliment she gave me. I had this psychological tendency of trying to prove how horrible and hateful I was, by messing up whenever somebody complimented me.

  They said I can easily get the hardest sticks, yeah right. In this family I am the ghost. I should have at least tried to be the one who predicted what needed to be done and did it before being told to. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The day went badly since it ended with me messing up. If only there was one more person to stick. I needed to end on a good note. "What if I am too scared to do well next time..."

  Guess that it just wasn't meant to be. Feeling disappointed, I walked out from the plasma donation center, which was my workplace. I was used to it by now, but that odd crow was following me again. He flew towards me the moment I came out, causing me to sprint to my car.

  "Hold on," I heard, before closing the door.

  I didn't pay any attention to it back then, but it was peculiar to hear that male voice in a place with nobody in sight except me and that crow. I shifted my gaze upwards, only to find that feathered oddity looking straight into my eyes. The bird was now sitting on the fence in front of my car. He; however, was the least of my worries that day. With so much on my mind, I took out a notepad.

  "Dear diary," I wrote. Today was March 30th, 2024.