Exhausted

Chapter I

May, 1985, it's lunchtime in the cafeteria at school. I sit at my table looking upon my peers, they're laughing at silly jokes, and taking Polaroids of their latest wardrobe. I began to scour the area only to find myself comparing my self image to theirs. I get up from the lunch table and I head towards the trash can only to be tripped by Janelle, the popular bitch with her panties in a bunch, regularly. Loads of laughter fill the area as I peel food off of my baby blue shirt. I turned to Janelle only to find her smugly staring at me with a smirk on her face "oops, did you trip and fall?"

A weird feeling began rising inside of me. I started walking towards Janelle, eyes focused on only her. She's laughing, with her hands in the air, waving them jokingly, "Please don't hurt me, it wasn't my fault that you fell into your lunch!" Her entourage joined in the laughter, making me increase my speed towards her. Her eyes change as she looks up at me now that I stand not even two feet away with my fist balled. "What do you think you're going to do?"Her question enraged me, I wanted to rip her teeth out! "She's such a bitch!" I thought to myself. I looked at her, with tears building in my eyes. I gathered myself and drew them back in, I had to remember what I was taught, "don't show any weakness, cry on the inside like a winner" (words from my mother).

I'm wondering if these inside tears are worth holding in, or should I just lash out and give Janelle my version of a face lift! That personal comment to myself calmed me a bit. Slowly releasing my fist, I boldly stared her down and in a very strong but mellow voice, I said "I'll see you soon enough." She made it her business to stand up quickly as I walked away, IS THAT A THREAT!!!?" I turned to look at her slowly, smiled and kept walking. She screamed and kicked the chairs at the table. Her friends tried to calm her down only to find out how she really felt about them. "GET THE HELL OFF OF ME, I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY! WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? DOES SHE KNOW WHO I AM?! " hahaha... Can you say the best moment ever? I've never taken that route with her before so I felt victorious this day. Needless to say, the rest of my school day was amazing.

While walking home, I noticed a few boys sitting on the curb, smoking cigarettes, and chewing gum, while doing what boys do. I noticed my friend Jake, a very quirky, 16 year old kid, who's only interest in life is to eat, sleep, and chat it up with the boys. He was my only real friend. "Cali" he yelled, my name is California, I'm 16 years old, my parents named me after the place they fell in love and conceived me. That's both beautiful and gross at the same time. "Where are you going?" He yelled as he comes running towards me. He never cared about how anyone felt when it came to him being my friend. That's why he was my only real friend. "Hey, Jay! (My nickname for him) I'm going to Mr. Corvin's store, you want to come?" Nope! He says jokingly. We laugh and begin walking towards Mr. Corvin's store.

On the way, Jay's telling me some stories about his weekend and what he's been up to. I always enjoyed listening to his stories. It made the time past while heading to the store. We get to the store, open the door and the large bell above our heads rings loudly! Normally we'd get a "hey hey kids" from Mr. Corvin, but this time there was no greeting, actually there was no noise at all. So Jake and I began to walk towards the counter to see if we could call out for someone. "MR.C, YOU HERE?!" We yelled! Still, no response. Jay goes behind the counter, "what are you doing?" I said. "Looking for Mr. C, duh.", he replied. "Hey look, the door is open back here", Jake says while gesturing for me to come with him. "So what! Are you seriously that nosy?" "Yup" he replied. "Come on Cali!" "Ugh", My reaction to everything annoying, while leaning my head back, rolling my eyes, and stomping my right foot! We got closer to the door where we poked our heads in and Jake swung open the door to get a better look. "Really?" Why did you swing open the door like that?" "Just go in!," he says with an annoyed look on his face. "Mr. C, anybody, are you here?"

We noticed a shadow on the wall, very low to the floor. "Look!" Says Jake with wide eyes, while pointing his finger! "What do you think it is?" "I don't know and I don't want to find out, let's go!" "NO!" He replied while snatching away from me. "It might be Mr. C". "Or it might be something else!" I replied angrily, with shaking hands and sweaty palms." "We at least need to check it out", says Jake. "Ugh, okay, but if I die, I'm going to haunt you and your family Jay." We walked toward the shadow, poked our heads behind the meat slicing machine, only to notice Mr. C and his daughter, 17 year old Marie, very badly beaten, with blood everywhere. I began to shake even more, I grabbed Jake's hand and said "let's get out of here!!" Jay grabs me "NO, we have to tell someone about this, they could still be alive." We walked closer to the bodies to see if they were breathing, when we heard the back door open.

Shaken up, I began to sweat. I grabbed Jake's arm and whispered with a shaken voice, "somebody's coming!" Jake started walking backwards towards the entrance of the back of the store, where we came in. He was pushing me to go back towards the door, he looked terrified! "What's wrong with you?" I asked in a whispering tone. "Jake, what's wrong with you?!" His eyes were as big as golf balls! He never took his eyes off of whoever it was he saw or whatever he saw. I wouldn't know, because he was pushing me backwards so hard and so quickly that I couldn't understand what was going on. We made it to the entrance and ran out the front door as fast as we could because we knew that the bells from the door were going to give us away. As we are running like track stars down the street, through the alley, over some fences and onto a block that was familiar to us, we began to slow down. I asked Jake over and over again, "what was wrong with you back there? You look like you saw a ghost."

He kept staring at the ground while sitting on the curb and chucking rocks onto the ground. JAKE!!!!!! Startled, he turned to me quickly and yelled, "WHAT, WHAT DO YOU WANT??!!!" "Are you kidding me? We find Mr. C and Marie near death and bloody in the back of the store, and when the door opens, you turn into a freaking lunatic! What's wrong with you? Tell me what's wrong? !" "You wouldn't understand Cali, so just, just leave it alone okay?!" "No! No I won't leave it alone, you were afraid, and not the please get this spider off of me afraid, you were AFRAID, like for your life!!!!" "Talk to me, what did you see?" Jake got up and ran off. He just ran off, like really, who does that? We are suppose to be best friends. I guess now I know our limits. As I started walking home, I began thinking of the entire situation, going over every detail that I could remember.

The store, the open middle door to the meat section, the blood, the cuts, the way they were sitting, their eyes, Jake's passionate argument to save them, the look in Jake's eyes, the door opening, Jake's demeanor changing, the look in his eyes, and where he was staring. Wait! Where was he staring? Think Cali, think. The counter, the wall, the door, the floor where the door began opening. I GOT IT!!! There was a pair of brown boots with yellow shoestrings in them, but why would that scare Jay? I had to find out. I finally made it home. My mom was in the living room folding clothes while watching The Facts of Life, and dad was in the kitchen with the smaller black and white television, attempting to watch the game with his work jumper at his waist, while drinking lemonade. "Cali honey, go wash your hands and come have your dinner." "Kay mom!" I yelled out from my room while writing down all that I had seen today in my Gem and the Holograms notebook.

While at the kitchen table, I barely touched my food, because all I could think about was Jake. "Is he okay?" "Did he make it home?" "What or who did he see?" I wasn't letting this one go easily.