Chapter One

The sunset is an interesting thing. Sometimes it's bold, exciting, and you would walk to the end of the block even if your block is a mile long and it's almost below freezing. You would walk, just to see it. Sometimes, the clouds get in the way, creating pink stripes across the sky, fading slowly into a dull grey, then blue, then black. And sometimes, it sits in the sky, subtle, and waits for you to notice how incredible even the smallest sunset is. And then, of course, there's the time when your boss thinks it's so interesting that he makes you write a fifteen-page essay all about it so that the interns at your office understand the concept of the light, bending off clouds. The first three sunsets were certainly Alicia's favorite.

Alicia sat in the freezing lounge chairs on her porch. She stared up at the sky, making a small sketch of the clouds, grumbling internally. Why can't the interns just do this themselves? They went to school, they should know how sunsets work. She finished the last details on the mountain, then went inside to grab her Prismacolors. Dark purple, light cerulean, glossy black, coral pink... she rustled out the note from her parents again, smiling as she recited the words. She slipped it away.

Standing up, the floor creaked, old hardwood bending and straining to maintain next to the polished new boards. Alicia let it creak under her slippers as she padded over to her bedroom, turning on her bedlight.

Alicia crawled into bed, making sure her throw blanket was the one on top of her, as it was the most comfortable. She leaned over, the bed screeching its disapproval, and grabbed an extra three pillows. She tucked them in separate places around her, then took out her computer and started typing the essay. She could finish coloring in the morning. She finished the last page, then scrolled through Instagram, Facebook... and fell asleep staring at a picture of an Aroura Borealis.