My Storm Chaser and Me

2

"Missy, I'll need a bucket if you don't mind." I ask.

"Sure thing, Hails." Missy responds cheerfully.

I'm lucking I got a shift with the girls this Saturday. He doesn't often let us work the same shifts because he doesn't want us fooling around, but every now and then he'll let us work together.

Missy passes me the bucket and I scoop this weird slop mixture that I don't even question anymore. It's much more gross when you know what it is. 

"Ya know, Hails, you should've seen the look on Camilla's face when Jason got struck out at the game today. She looked so embarrassed cause she was doing her yelling and cheering. No wonder she got cut from the cheer team." My best friend, Jaime, says, laughing at the memory. 

"I bet. That girl is has a set of lungs. But not in a good way." Missy laughs, picturing the scene.

I'm sitting here, just wondering how David did today. I know he hates baseball, but Cam made me swear not to tell anyone. I glance at the clock. 5 minute still the end of our shift.

" I think it's time to pack up, we have 5 minutes." I say, interrupting the silence.

"Good idea Hails." Jamie says, standing up from her stool.

We pack the barn up, say goodbye to our favourites, and lock up. We all hop in my dad's old pickup truck, which he gave me when he bought a new one.

"You wanna hang at the house?" I ask the girls.

"Mom wants me home for 7." Missy says. "Maybe some other time."

"Jaime?" 

"Gotta pick Haven up from practice." She says.

"No problem." I say, pulling into Missy's drive first. "Bye Missy, see you!"

"Bye y'all!" She waves.

The drive is silent, until we get to Jaime's house.

"You still got a thing for Weather boy?" She asks with a smirk. 

"You pinky promised!" I cried. Last year, after I drunkenly told her that I liked Weather boy,  I made her pinky promise me she will never bring it up again.

"Alright! I'm just curious." She said, opening the door and laughing.

"Bye Jaime."

"Bye Hails." 

I drive back to my house, with the radio playing and the wind blowing through the windows. I just wish I could stay here forever. 

But, every moment has to end. It ended as I pulled up into the driveway and Daddy's weather van is in the driveway. A surge of excitement courses through me, and I quickly hop out to see inside the van.

Daddy's in there, typing away at a computer. I don't really care about that, I just care about the tornado watch. I see some high winds across the northeast of the state of Oklahoma. Coming straight for us.

"Is this anything?" I ask my dad. 

"We are expecting a F2 tornado at best. F1 is the likely scenario here." He says, walking over and kissing the top of my head.

"Thanks Daddy." I say exciting the van. 

I run into the house, shouting a quick hello to Mum. I run so fast to the start of my way to track tornadoes. I don't what to call it. Song #1. It's my big idea, and I've been working on it for months.

I quickly open my phone and tap on the number that I've wanted to call for a while.

"Hello?"

"Dav, F1 coming in, possible F2, setting my new thing up for launch. Wanna join?" I say hurriedly.

"Hell yeah. 12:00 at mine." He sounds groggy. I hope I didn't wake him up.

"Done." I hang up and put some extra clothes and flashlight with batteries in my bag. I run downstairs to raid the pantry. I grab a bag of chips and some crackers. Shoving those in my bag I throw on a sports bra, my hoodie, and black shorts. Throwing on my cowboy hat, I glance at the time. 

11:52.

I'm going to be late if I don't start hauling Song#1 into the truck. 

I roll it on my cart and carry it down the stairs. It's time like these that I thank God for  the barn work, or else I wouldn't be able to carry this damn thing down the stairs.

I also thank God that Mum is outside. Or else this would've been very difficult to explain to her.

I just have to get past Dad's van.

I can do this.

I go as fast as I can without making any noise. So far so good. I get to my truck, and haul it onto its side. Tonight one of those nights where I have a lot of luck.

"Daddy?" I call, walking back into my van. "I'm going for a sleepover at Jaime's!" 

"Okay, be safe!" Daddy yells back.

"I will, love you!" I say, walking back down the driveway.

Omw, I text Dav.

K, he respond within the matter of seconds.

I turn on the radio and drive across my street, Hillfield Drive. He lives just down the street, but I need my weather machine and his. 

Here. I type, not wanting to go to the front door. 

Also of the sudden there's a knock on my window, with a smiling Dav and a beautiful tornado predictor. Hopefully this works. 

I open my car door and open the tailgate for him so he can put Delilah in there. Yes, he named his weather machine. Most people do. 

"Ready for this?" I say, as we buckle our seat belts. 

"I'm pumped. I've been waiting for good weather for a while now." He says, looking over with a smile. One I haven't seen on him in a while.

"Well you're lucky because spring is just around the corner which means Tornado season is almost here! I've been updating Song #1 and I was hoping I can finish the updates before the next huge tornado." I'm rambling aren't I? "How's Delilah?"

"Amazing. She's been waiting for the action too." He suddenly puts his attention to the radio, which is playing Cowgirls by Morgan Wallen. He suddenly is singing the words, holding his fist near his face to mimic a microphone.

"Long live cowgirls!

Never gonna settle on down girls

 Leave you lonely in a ghost town world

Where the sun don't rise

Rodeo for one night"

Dav is so off pitch that I can't help myself from giggling. His singing really sucks.

"Never become a singer." I tell him after he's finished.

"What!" He scoffs, "I'm better than this Morgan Wallen guy."

"Keep telling yourself that, buddy." I laugh.

We drive in silence for a little while, making our way through the backroads to another town called Lawton. 

"There she is!" Dav exclaims. He gets out of the car, and runs towards the tornado. 

I snap of photo of him standing in front the tornado. For research purposes. Obviously.

"That is a text book F2."I say walking behind Dav.

"Beautiful." He mutters.

Suddenly, the winds roar and the tornado space picks up.

And it's heading straight for us.