I know who you are -Mac Coyle

Hell day

Hell day, those two words suit the morning after Halloween so well. My name is Julia Lopez and I am a paper girl. My alarm blares it's irritating sound and I have to drag myself out of bed to begin my paper route. I've never been found of the dark mornings, but to be quite honest it's nice to get out of this cage for a while. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents, at least I try to, however it's nice to be somewhere where I don't have to be their "perfect Christian daughter" the whole time. And when I step outside those doors at 4:00 a.m every morning it's my only chance to actually breath and be more...myself I guess, whoever that may be.

I quickly throw my messy brown hair in a low bun and get dressed into my baggy Levi's and Nike track jacket, making sure to slip on my reebok sneakers on my may out. I'm careful not to wake my mom up. She says this is a "boys job" and I should be doing something more useful with my time, whereas my dad would probably kick my ass for this outfit I'm wearing, seeing as it doesn't fit his perfect standards for his perfect little daughter and her perfect little life where everything just has to be FUCKING PERFECT! Shaking my anger off my shoulders I make my way out the door with my newspaper filled bag slung over my shoulder. Even if it is 'fuck you O'clock', early in the morning, I feel peace as the cold air hits my face and as I cycle further away from my house, the more weight is lifted off my shoulders.

I'm about a quarter way done my route for today and everything's gone pretty well, considering it's hell day and all. That is until I'm taking my shortcut through the tunnel bypass and I run into Wally Becker and his minions, harassing a girl I know to be KJ Brandman, the rich girl on the block. "Hey pervs, leave her the fuck alone". Wally walks up to me, I think he's supposed to be dressed up as Freddie Kruger but the tinfoil on his fingers look as intimidating as kitten claws. As the rest of his buddies whip their heads in my direction. The thought suddenly occurs to me that I am extremely out matched. God dammit Julia why couldn't have you just kept your mouth shut? "Ahhh look what we have here! Wanted to join the fun?" Wally's voice makes my face scrunch up in disgust. He keeps getting closer and closer and I try my best for him not to notice my shaking hands as I shoot a worried glance at KJ, who's being held back by one of Wally's goons. "Look I'll just take my friend KJ here, and we'll leave you guys to jerk off together okay?" In a split second I'm pressed up against the tunnel wall with Wally's arm across my chest, his eyes furious. "What you tryna say Lopez!?!" From the pressure of Wally's arm on my chest and his wild eyes glaring into mine, words don't leave my mouth. "I think your little Christian ass should look in the mirror" my eyes begin to water at his words. "you dirty little fa-" "Hey! Cool costumes dick breath" I look to my right to see a group of girls, two of them I know as Tiffany Quilkin and Erin Tieng, however the one in the front with the short brown hair, I don't know the name but she looks familiar. "What'd you just call me?" Ass wipe Kruger loosens his grip on me, allowing me to take a shaky breath. "You heard me asshole, now let preppy and Mary here go and we won't kick your sorry asses" Mary? Who the fuck is marry? Does she mean me? That bitc-. Wally and his crew just erupt in laughter. Suddenly I hear a lighter flick open and a fire work suddenly flys between me and Wally's face, giving us all the chance to get the hell out of dodge. "See you losers!"

We reach a clearing at the side of the road, next to the baseball field. We all drop our bikes and relish in our victory. "That was amazing! Did you guys see Wally's face? He was pissing in his pants!" Tiffany laughs as the girl with the fireworks mocks Wally's scared face and we all erupt in laughter. "Bunch of limp dicks, they have two beers and they think they're so tough". As the laughter dies down Kj speaks up. "Thanks for the backup by the way" I tuck a few pieces of my wispy hair behind my ear before speaking up " yeah what you did back there was really cool, thanks...um..." "Mac" she replies throwing her head back slightly. "Julia, Julia Lopez" I say giving her a grateful smile. "Oh so your Mac?" Erin chimes in. "Yeah...so?" Erin looks away shyly. "Oh look I've got a fan" we all begin to laugh again. "So um...your the first paper boy around her who wasn't...you know..." "A boy?" Erin nods. "Yeah job pays half what it used to do that's probably why they got chicks doing this shit now" "sexist bastards" I can't help but mumble. "Woah! You say your prayers with that mouth Mary?" Mac looks at me surprised and slightly impressed. "I said my name was Julia" I glare at her. Max begins to walk up to me "oh yeah I know. Your family are those bible loving dorks who live near the park right?" I've only know this girl a few minutes and she's already testing my patience. "Don't talk about my family or beliefs like that, you don't know anything" my face begins to become hot with anger. "I know what you people are like. Closed minded, lowlifes who have their heads stuck up their asses" just as I'm about to retaliate Max turns her attention to kj. I tune out their conversation and get lost in my hotheaded thoughts. Who does this girl think she is? Closed minded? I mean I know my parents can be judgemental but I always thought they still loved people....even if they were different....even if I was different.... I snap out of my thoughts as Mac waves her hand in front of my face rather irritated. "Hello! Did you not hear me? I said new girl and Mary your with me" "my name is Julia" I sighed as I got into my bike ready to get this route finished so I can go home and forget about this whole morning. "Alright BigMac" Tiffany says getting onto her bike. "Ha ha BigMac" I snigger. "Shut it" Mac says taking off without me.

We all cycle down the lamppost lit street. "Why are these old dorks still dressing up?" Tiffany asks "I grew out of trick or treating when I was eight....it's a school night for peats sake". A few seconds later I hear the familiar screech of tires. "It's hell day bitches!!" A guy in a skeleton mask shouts out the window. I hold up both my middle fingers to flip the guy off and I notice Mac doing the same. "Well, what was your last costume?" Kj speaks up. "Before you decided to devote yourself fully to the honour roll" "astronaut" Tif says "you?" "I was Wayne Gretzky...what were you Julia?". I hesitated. Well this is gonna be embarrassing. " um....I was a teletubby" I can feel my cheeks heat up. "Of fucking course you were" I look over to Mac who has a smirk on her face. "And what were you Mac?" I ask, her smirk drops. "A care bear" she mumbled. "A what sorry? I couldn't quite hear you" "I was a care bear". We all begin to giggle while Mac becomes more irritated. I love pushing her buttons. "Awww how sweet, you were definitely grumpy bear weren't you?" "Oh shut it tubby! I was fuckin four!" "Is that a yes?" I say trying to get under her skin. "I said shut it!" Mac says reaching over and pushing my shoulder, between my bad balance and Mac's push I end up falling to the floor. Hard. "Fuck!" Mac shouts, as I pull my ripped sleeve up to see my grazed elbow. Mac jumps off her bike and kneels down next to me trying to take a look at my arm. "Get the fuck off me!" I say as the other girls stand and watch, Erin still a bit behind. "look I'm sorry okay, it was an accident" I look up from my elbow to talk back but I suddenly notice how close our faces are. Our eyes lock and I get this weird feeling and I just can't look away. Our eye contact breaks when we hear Erin scream.

Everyone hurry's over shouting at the attacker. I stay on the floor lost in my thoughts. Why did I feel that way when Mac looked at me? No! No that's weird she's a girl, it's not right! Right? That's what the bible says. I shake my thoughts away as I jump up to go help Erin. " I bet it was Wally" "that asshole" I added, helping Kj get Erin up. "I think Mrs Carson down the street is usually up by now, we should call the cops" Kj suggests. "Piggies in this town aren't gonna do shit". "Mac's right" I add. Mac looks at me surprised that I am agreeing with her. "For once" I add, as Mac rolls her eyes and I make a face at her. "So what? We just take it?" Tif asks. "I'm so sick of being messed with this morning" Erin says and I look at her pitifully. "Well I'm not scared of Wally Becker and his buddies" Mac says. "Me either" Kj adds. I stay silent, clutching my cross necklace. Not gonna lie, after today and what he said. I kinda was scared. Suddenly static plays out on Tif's walkie and I can hear some random dude shouting numbers. Mac grabs the walkie off Tif "Hey assclowns! If you can hear this, get ready, cause we're coming to get our shit back". Mac turns, grabs her bike and begins striding in the direction the boys went. I stay still as everyone begins to walk ahead of Mac. Surprisingly Mac's the one that turns around, I obviously have a worried look plastered all over my face. "Come on Julia, make them shitfaces pay for what they said"I'm taken back by Mac's change in tone and softened face but I try to hide it as I get on my bike and follow the others. Wait did she just call me Julia?