Another Day

Daya

Daya had not fainted when the strange man had reached to grab her like she thought she would. But in her fear she had blacked out briefly, so she went still and closed her eyes, unsure of what to do. The man checked to see if she was breathing after he scooped her up. She felt him

carefully swipe her hair from her face with shaking hands. She wasn't really sure why he was shaking, when she was the one who was scared.

He began walking toward what sounded like a car running. She couldn't let herself get in that car. Her eyes snapped open and she registered the shock on his face before they both heard the pattering of shoes from behind him, followed by the crack of something hitting him over the head.

Daya fell from the man's arms as she watched a familiar-looking boy repeatedly thrash the man with a large branch. When the boy paused a second to look at Daya, the man shoved him back and launched himself into his truck next to the curb. The sound of screeching tires filled the air.

As the man drove off, the boy ran to her, "Daya? Daya! Daya, are you okay?!"

She looked at him blearily. He definitely was one of the white kids from her class. She just couldn't remember his name. David? Matthew? Christopher? It didn't matter.

"What happened?" she asked, not so much unaware of what had taken place, but still processing it.

"Some guy was...here...he was taking you somewhere? Did you...?" he kept freezing up like he was unsure how to complete the thought. He was flustered and out of breath. She could see he was worked up. She wondered for a second if she should be concerned that she wasn't as worked up.

Daya picked herself unsteadily up off the ground and brushed at her clothes like there was anything to be done about the dirt smudged into them.

"You're in my class, right?" she asked. "What's your name? What are you doing here?"

It was obviously the wrong thing to say and she supposed it could have sounded accusatory, but she was unsure what to say about what had transpired. For some reason, she was embarrassed by it.

The boy looked confused at first, then dejected, and finally his face flushed as he said, "Why are you so friggin' weird? This is why you don't have any friends!"

Daya startled at his redirection, but regained some of her cool composure from before she was mauled by the older man. She worked up a scowl and crossed her arms haughtily. Her armour on, she said, "I didn't ask for this."

"You never do, do you? You're always frowning and giving attitude and never smiling at anyone." He looked shocked at his own words.

Daya didn't know how to respond to this boy who thought he knew her, so she didn't. This seemed to infuriate him more, the energy from his earlier thrashing redirected at her. "You don't like anyone and you eat smelly foods and you're just a...you're just an ungrateful bitch." He was breathing a little harder at the end, like the force and speed of his words were too much for him.