Altschemerz

“Did you know if you travel faster than light you can travel ahead in time?” A pair of green eyes, enlarged by some thick reading glasses peered over the edge of that morning’s newspaper, most likely looking up from a science fiction movie review or the most recent astrological discovery.
“Theoretically. You know it’s impossible to travel faster than light, Peridot.”
“It’s not necessarily impossible, it’s just not probable.”
Pearl rolled her eyes and poured herself a cup of coffee. She had been up less than ten minutes and was already being assaulted with her sister’s big, nerdy dreams. Pearl slouched into the chair across from Peridot holding her coffee like a precious stone and clinging to its warmth. She had about five minutes before she had to leave for school, but she still felt half asleep. She wish she were still asleep really. She had been having the most lovely dream…
“What are you blushing about, ya little clod?” Peridot teased as she got up and tossled Pearl’s hair, “Earth to Pearl!” She hit her over the head with the newspaper before casting it down on the table and waltzing to the bathroom.
“Leave me alone!” responded Pearl in her usual defensive manner before focusing on the paper in front of her. Every morning she glanced at the paper after Peridot’s thorough inspection. It always looked kind of the same. And she couldn’t help but wonder how much of it was actually true and how much was just a perception of the truth. Nothing ever caught her interest and she was beginning to wonder why she flipped through at all until -
“Rose.”
“Hm?” Peridot stuck her head out of the bathroom, toothbrush in mouth.
Pearl stared down at the paper, frozen still. It felt like eternity before her lungs figured out how to breathe again and then they went into hyper drive and she was breathing all right but no amount of oxygen could clear her head. It had been a year. A whole fucking year. It couldn’t be possible.
“Woah are you okay? Do I need to go grab your inhaler?”
Pearl took a deep breath, drained the rest of her coffee, and muttered, “I’m going to be late for school,” before running out of the apartment, paper in hand.
She didn’t go to her bus stop. She ran and she didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t have the mental capacity to decide where to go. Her feet slowed as her breathing turned into hysteric sobs and she collapsed to the curb. It had been so long since she had seen Rose Quartz, and there she was. The obituaries.

Where the fuck was Pearl. Amethyst didn’t have a chance on this english quiz without her. Not that Pearl knew that. No, if Pearl knew how much Amethyst cheated off of her she would flip shit. There must have been a really good reason for Pearl to be missing school. It might even be a first now that Amethyst thought of it. She slouched in her chair with a pout and blew an obnoxiously loud bubble. No one else in the class was nearly as fun to tease. She knew she should have chosen today to skip.