Thunder and Storm

The Gift

       SALLY      

"Here." Riven handed me a small wrapped box. "Happy birthday, Sally." He smiled, displaying his crooked teeth.

"Thanks, Riv." My fingers fiddled with the pink-colored wrapping paper, the words happy birthday written all over it in cursive. It was neatly wrapped with not a single tape out of place just like everything about Riven.

"You know you didn't have to get me a gift." I put the box in my dress pocket.

"What kind of a best friend would I be if I didn't get you a gift on your birthday?" He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling with something akin to mischief.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I hope you didn't put something abominable in here like a dead frog or something."

"A dead frog?" His thick brows wrinkled in a frown. "Why would I gift you a dead frog?"

"I was joking, Riv. Quit being so uptight all the time." I teased.

"Says the girl who's deathly afraid of her own shadow,” he retorted and stuck his tongue out at me childishly.

I gasped. "I am not!"

"Yeah, that explains why you clam up like a hermit crab every time you see Petra walk by," he whispered and I swallowed.

"That's different, she's mean."

"Well clamming up will not make her stop being mean to you." He looked serious now, his blue eyes boring into mine.

"I know that. It's just, she's intimidating." I looked down at my lap, picking at the lint on my dress. The dress was old and I'd worn it to school a lot of times. Even though Petra always made fun of me for it, I still found myself wearing it. It was comfortable.

Riven just shook his head at me and took out his phone. A sign that he was done talking to me. He always got annoyed every time I let Petra bully me. Despite Riven not being the coolest kid in school– he always dressed like an old professor– he was never bullied or picked on for his strong personality but I was the opposite. I just hated confrontations. I get anxious during confrontations and babble like a fish out of water. It was embarrassing and it only made things worse for me. It was best not to say anything.

I looked out the window at the scenery. It was fall. The leaves on the trees were turning brown and dropping off, some orange, some a light yellow. I wound down the window a little and tried to breathe in the air of autumn but it tickled my nose and I twitched.

Most of the shops around were still closed. Some had not been opened for a long time. The world might've moved on but the aftermath of the ACID virus was still evident in Hollister. The ACID virus named aptly for the way it operated. It eats one up from the inside till there was nothing left. Not a lot of people lived here anymore; everyone had moved to the bigger and more populated cities with better job opportunities.

Dried leaves rustled on the street as the wind picked up. Mrs. Hawthorne parked the car in front of the school and we both got down from the car.

"Bye, Mrs. Hawthorne. Thanks for the ride." Mrs. Hawthorne was a nice lady with a diminutive size and a chubby figure like a garden gnome. She was nice to everyone in the neighborhood and always shared brownies with all the kids at church on Sundays.

She chuckled. "You always thank me even though I pick you up every day," she said and a slight blush crept up on my cheeks. I bent my head, using my hair as a shield.

"Bye, Sally. Happy birthday by the way."

"Thanks, Mrs. Hawthorne."

"Bye, Riven. Have a great day.” She waved as she started to pull away.

"Bye, Mom.” Riven waved back as she drove off.

I fastened my backpack on my shoulders and turned to face the school. San Benito High School.

"Try not to be a pushover today, Sally," Riven teased but he looked serious. He looked like a teenage version of young Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory with the way he was dressed.

"Don't worry. Petra won't stand a chance against me today."

He nodded as we walked into the school. "And remember, if you need my help I'm just one scream away,” he said and I chuckled.

He escorted me to my locker and walked away to his. I won't be seeing him until the end of the day. The only class we would be having together was Drama, and I hated Drama class. I didn’t know why I’d picked it as an elective. What was fun about sitting through the reading of some boring lines and analyzing said lines in order to figure out the playwright's message. Like why go through all that trouble to pass a message across?

I picked out my books for the day and closed my locker. I glanced at Riven's locker to find him gone. I sighed. So much for being a scream away. He never stayed long in the hallways.

Maybe I shouldn't too. If I stayed out of crowded places, I might be able to avoid Petra today.  The bell rang and I turned to head to my first class only to be splashed in the face with cold smoothie. The thick liquid trickled down my face to my dress and my hair. I knew I should've packed it up today.

"Oops!" Petra smiled, dropping the plastic cup on the floor.

"Petra." I smiled nervously, wiping away the smoothie from my face. It was a pineapple and coconut smoothie. I hated pineapples. "I did–didn't see you there."

"Of course you didn't," She rolled her eyes. “We all know how blind you are." Her cronies, Bella and Stella, snickered and I looked down at my shoes.

"I like what you did with your hair, but it looks better now." I looked up at her to find her with a satisfied smirk. From her tone, if I didn't know any better, I'd say she was jealous of my hair. But that couldn't be possible. I had nothing for her to be jealous of. She had pin-straight black hair that flowed down to her back, blue eyes, and a slim figure, while I had curly red hair that was uncommon among people of my skin tone, green eyes and I was two sizes bigger than she. She was the lead cheerleader, the most popular girl in school, and the prettiest. And I was the weird girl with the strange hair color. An outcast. I was the girl no one wanted to be associated with. Not to mention, she was dating the cutest boy in school too. They were most likely going to be voted homecoming king and queen this year just like they were last year.

"Th–Thanks for fixing my hair. I’ll... I’ll leave now." I tried to sidestep her and she stuck out her heel-clad foot, tripping me.

Being my clumsy self, I fell, hitting the tiles hard. My books scattered on the floor, making a few students who were watching the show snicker. The pain that jolted up my arms made me tear up. It was all too much. I never did anything to her and she always found an excuse to make me look bad. Anger boiled in me and I pushed myself up, facing her.

"Why do you hate me so much? I never did anything to you." I shouted at her. My chest heaved as I breathed. Tears were starting to fall down my face. Not right now, please. I clenched my hands and bit down on my lower lip to stem the flow.

She sneered at me, her eyes flashing with hatred. "I hate black people, especially fat ugly nitwits like you that's why. You people disgust me.” She spat in my face and swiveled around, flipping her hair. She sashayed away with her cronies behind her.

The hall erupted in laughter; everyone was praising her. Tears trickled down my face, mixing with the smoothie, and I wiped off the spittle on my cheek. I bent down to pick up my books so no one would see me crying but it didn't matter. They already did. The students laughed and whispered as they walked past me.

"That was epic!"

"Did you see the look on her face? She fucking cried." A boy laughed and I picked up my books faster, rushing out of the hall.

As I dashed away with tears flying, my eyes caught that of a blonde boy leaning on his locker with his arms folded on his chest. Cameron Downing. He looked at me with a displeased frown on his face and his fists clenched beside him, the only one not laughing at what a pathetic excuse I was.

I ran into the restroom and locked the door behind me. I wished I was like my mom or like Riven and I had slapped her across the face, because that's what I felt like doing. Grabbing her by the hair and bashing her face in the wall. She hated black people? This wasn’t the 1890s anymore. She was just a bitter toad who loved to pick on people.

I placed my books angrily on the sink and my vision flickered. I gasped, blinking. For a second there, I thought I saw something.