The Peaceful Pot

This is directed to teenagers, but more specifically to ones having a bad day. It's purpose is to show them that no matter how bad things seem now, they'll always get better if you work hard enough.




Tuesday February 24th, 2009

The mall was crowded, as per usual with teenagers taking a break from the grueling six hours of school (seven, if you included lunch). Squeezed between a group of glamorous teenagers and her own scruffy clothed parents at a jewellery store was Signe Kim. Korean-born (on her father's side) and Chinese-born (on her mother's side), Signe was your average fifteen year old trying to get by high school and find herself all at the same time. Some might say she was too average, dressed in her faded blue jeans, converse, and black winter coat. Her ebony hair, soft to the touch, cascaded over half of her face, shielding the nonexistent flaws she believed to be there.

"What about this one?" Signe heard her mother say, tapping the glass counter she leaned on to point to a shining crystal necklace. They were out shopping for her older sister's birthday present, the sister that was so incredibly successful and the daughter that her parents were so fantastically proud of. Signe glanced quickly at it, her eyes immediately darting to the tiny price tag tied to the end of the necklace. A little growl rumbled through her throat, and she could only roll her eyes and look away.

"Yeah, sure whatever." She replied, eyeing the group of girls beside her. They were giggling and gossiping and just being... girls. Signe growled quietly again and looked down to the necklace in the glass case. It was being taken out by the saleslady behind the counter and transported to the cashier on the other side of the store. Her parents were already paying for the expensive piece of jewellery with the nonexistent money in their savings account and giving it to the daughter who could probably buy it herself.

Feeling her blood boil beneath the surface of her skin, Signe pushed past the group of glitzy girls to exit the store, silently steaming at the fountain outside. The water was rippling gently against the stones, small coins resting at the bottom of the water. With an angry huff Signe threw a penny through the reflection of her face, making the waves temporarily rough and unsteady.

As the moody teenager walked away from the stone fountain, joining her parents at the entrance of the jewellery store, she never saw the rough waters slowly calm again into gentle, soothing waves, much like she would never realize the bubbling anger of her teenage life would slowly melt away into a pot of peaceful adulthood.