Dirt Poor

FIFTEEN - Training

After Syre and his friends left me, I violently shivered my entire way to the bus stop and then onto work. The jacket was completely destroyed by the flames that licked its way near my flesh. I was surprised that Syre even stopped when he did. He always seemed to enjoy my fear, so I was shocked when he didn't let the fire consume the entirety of me.

While I have plans and want so badly to get out of this place, I couldn't help but think that maybe he should've just let it destroy me and not just the jacket. I had to toss my coat into a garbage bin along the way-there was no point in keeping it. It made me a little sad and slightly angry. It was easy for Syre to drop whatever money he wanted on a coat, but I had to wait until Wednesday and ask the food shelf at the church if they had any coats that would fit me. The thing about the church is that it all relied on donations and volunteers. And they didn't always have the most donations or volunteers that could spend the time.

It was hit or miss meaning I wasn't sure if or when I would be able to get another jacket and winter was knocking on mother nature's figurative door. I would have to do something, even if it meant picking up an extra shift, but if I did then I would have to get permission from my father first to use any of the extra money. That was fine with me as long as I didn't have to run the risk of frostbite or possible hypothermia. Or just being freezing cold in general. It wasn't too much to ask for...right?

Once I had finally arrived at work, I had Brandon pestering me with questions about why my clothes were soaked and where my jacket was. I couldn't exactly tell him the truth so I told him that I wasn't watching where I was walking and tripped off of the curb of the sidewalk and fell into a puddle. Whether or not he believed it was beyond me, I didn't have time to dwell and I certainly didn't want him finding out what exactly happened.

Syre knew that too. He knew that I wouldn't go run my mouth to anyone about what he did because he knew that I knew that it would only get worse. He knew that nothing would ever come of it and he used that to his advantage to get away with anything and everything. I didn't take his threats lightly, but I didn't and couldn't control what Vance or any of his friends do. I'm positive that Syre was inwardly irate about what Tristan did to him. And while I deeply appreciate how Tristan intervened part of me wishes that he hadn't.

Tristan didn't understand how it was sort of like a snowball effect. Yes, he stopped Syre in that moment, but what Tristan or any of the others didn't know is how worse it would be when they weren't around.

And they couldn't always be around.

And that's what scared me.

But it didn't matter. We were done with our project and we didn't need to interact with one another again. I was hoping that everything would go back to normal now that we were done. The novelty of it all should be wearing off and will hopefully deter Tristan or anyone else from stepping in.

In fact, we were in class and finishing up the presentations from each group. And while I wanted to get it out of the way, we had to wait until today to present. We ended up being the second to last and I breathed a sigh of relief when our video finished playing. Mr. Norton gave us some accolades before moving on to the last group that needed to present.

"Alrighty," Mr. Norton began with a small devious smile on his face. "Now that you have studied an ancient civilization and understand the differences between the civilization then versus now, you will now take on part two of this project-" he was met with steady groans from the class.

My heart was too busy falling into the pit of my stomach for me to entertain the action of groaning. Like a car battery being jumpstarted, my heart went into overdrive, beating at a pace that could match a competing runner. I was certain that the rest of the class could hear it knocking around its cage within my chest. I rubbed my suddenly clammy hands on the maroon corduroy pants I was wearing.