“If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends. Make it last forever, friendship never ends.” Clara Kate’s alarm sang. She could not remember setting the alarm to WTF radio, but it was better than the hollow beep the alarm usually made. The Spice Girls disbanded for a reason, Clara Kate thought to herself as she shook off the cobwebs of sleep. She rolled to her side, finally ready to face the day. She glanced at the alarm. It was about 5:45. Why had her alarm rung an hour early? She was not too bothered by the glitch. The early wakeup call gave her a time to enjoy her coffee. Maybe she could even eat a decent breakfast for once. Clara Kate dressed quickly in her ugly puce scrubs. Packing leftover pizza in a plastic shopping bag, Clara Kate felt pleased to have something other than Ramen Noodles to eat for lunch. She could not afford to eat both breakfast and lunch out; she was on a budget after all.
With her lunch bag in hand, Clara Kate sprinted to the bus stop. She hoped to make the 6:00 A.M. bus. Clara Kate arrived at the bus stop two minutes before the bus pulled up to the curb. She boarded, taking a seat next to an old woman with white cat hair all over her black sweater. Today will go much smoother, Clara Kate thought to herself. Waking up an hour early did have its perks. The bus driver speeds along and soon enough Clara Kate steps off the bus near Sherwood Park Station. She still has a ways to walk to get to Casa de Waffle, but it is only 6:20 and the free waffle giveaway lasts until 7:15. Clara Kate turns the corner and gasps. There is a line stretching from Casa de Waffle all the way to Ray’s Liquor. Maybe today will not be as smooth as she once thought. Clara Kate finds the end of the line and stands, waiting impatiently. She can smell the inviting aroma of freshly baked waffles all the way back to where she is standing. All of a sudden, a damp, dense fog descends on the line. A chill runs down her back. Unable to see past the end of her nose, Clara Kate feels alone and isolated in a world of white. “Oww, get off of me!!” Clara Kate is not as alone as she once thought, humanity teems all around her. She can feel the body heat of others waiting anxiously in the line. It seems she ran into one of her fellow companions. Clara Kate spends the next twenty minutes feeling her way to Casa De Waffle, where she makes it just in time for the special. Watching the fog descend on the town gives Clara Kate a strange pleasure. It makes the old town look beautiful, as the white fog blankets the nearby buildings. The sunrises and the heat evaporates the fog, revealing the same old, dingy town. Clara Kate realizes that she too must return to reality. She glances at her watch and discovers she has five minutes to get to work. Ugh. Another day controlled by chaos. 
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