My throat burned with every breath but I kept pushing through the pain. Each dance left me aching all over. My head was pounding, my skin felt sensitive and painful, and my throat hurt worse and worse with every passing minute, and yet, I kept pushing. I’m nervous to see how long I can push before this sickness gets the best of me.

The three of us laughed as we flipped to a new journal page and got ready to write.  Journal time is far and away our favorite part of class, so when the sub told us that she couldn’t find the prompt our teacher had left us, Taylor, Shelby, and I took it upon ourselves to come up with our own prompt. The prompt that we decided on was “what is your favorite color?” Soon enough we were sprawling away in cursive, trying our hardest to fill as many pages as we could on the topic. Time passed quickly and the hour slowly dwindled away. Despite the homework that we were now bound to have, the happiness and laughter that came out of it was well worth it

I quickly sat up in bed, realizing I had almost forgotten to write me slice again. Before this realization, I had been tossing and turning, unable to sleep. I skipped dance today due to my burning throat and desperate need of a nap. Unfortunately, that nap is now costing me a good night’s sleep. I let out a weak cough, praying that sleep would come soon.

I woke up with a burning throat and groaned. Of course I would get sick the week of St Patrick’s Day. I struggled to get ready for school, wanting nothing more than to just crawl back into bed. At school, each task seemed near impossible for my unhealthy body to complete. I forced myself through the day anyways, praying that some miracle would allow me to return to full health for the rest of the week.

We all crowded “back stage,” which in reality was a narrow staircase that ran alongside the area we were dancing, as the other girls danced on stage. We were packed body to body, whispering and giggling with friends and trying to avoid tripping over the countless shoes littering the floor. I was watching the dancers on stage when I heard something hit the floor followed by a series of frantic whispers. A girl had knocked over a folding chair back stage which, in turn, knocked over a water bottle. The water bottle spilled it’s contents across the stage. I grimaced as the water slowly seeped closer and closer to the dancers. Luckily the dance ended and the mess was quickly cleaned up. In the haste of the performance, everybody soon forgot about the accident and continued to dance.

I grinned at my friends nervously. “Alrighty I guess I’ll just go then,” I laughed. After taking a long shaky breath, I forced myself to start the step. With no music to guide me, it was just the rythym of my feet echoing through the small store. I quickly got through the first part of the step and my friends began to join into the step, adding to the beat. We stumbled through many parts of the dance; however, we didn’t let that stop us. Every time we messed up I just laughed a little and grinned even brighter. We powered through to the end without making any mistakes that we couldn’t recover from. My friends and I danced through the final step before walking off the small stage together. We laughed at our mistakes, tired, hot, and completely out of breath.

All day my brain was too tired to function and my stomach too uneasy to eat. As soon as I got home I turned to netflix, a long nap, and a bath to unwind.

After 5 hours of dance, bio homework that I don’t understand, and aching muscles that burn with every step, nothing sounds better than sleep. However, as I lie here in bed, so many little things distract me and prevent me from this much needed rest. I finally shut out the distractions and allow myself to shut down.

As I groggily dragged through my morning routine, it occurred to me that I had yet again forgotten to write my slice the day before. I mentally kicked myself, wondering why this year was proving so much more challenging than previous years. My busy schedule has been increasingly stressful, leaving little time to write. Last night I had tennis practice followed by a dance performance. By the time I got home, I was so focused on finishing my homework that writing my slice had completely slipped my mind. I sighed and continued to brush my hair, vowing to be better about writing for the rest of the month.

I had just began to drift off to sleep when I realized I had nearly forgotten yet again to write my slice. Forcing my eyes back open, I picked up my phone and thought back on the day. I began writing and quickly realized what a great day I had had. The entire day was filled with friendship and laughter. I had managed to find something to smile about in every class today thanks to my friends. Today brought me immense joy and that is really all I can ask for. I can’t imagine getting through the week without creating new memories with my friends every day.