Rainbows and Raindrops

Chapter 1:The Party

Hi, my name is Jewelle Kryzelle Santos, or you could simply call me Zellie. I am 16 years old and a pure Filipina but was raised here in the United States. And this is the story of my typical teenage life.

Well, not exactly.

See, both my parents died before my 5th birthday. My mom died of a drive-by shooting incident when I was 2, and my dad died both of a heart ailment and brain malfunction two years later.

I did not know of any other relatives because I actually celebrated Christmas, New Years' Day and other celebrations with my parents, and nobody showed up at both their wakes except my friends and their parents.

I was almost, yeah, almost sent to an orphanage by the authorities, but then luckily my best friend stepped in. Her name is Martina Samantha Ibañez. She was a kind-hearted Spanish-American girl who lived independently with her older brother in a quaint tidy house as they had, like me, had no parents. So, she adopted me for a daughter and a sister.

Years passed, I celebrated each and every birthday with them. As I grew,Martina became my second parent and best friend. We both shared everything, from clothes and shoes to the tiresome abuses of her brother, Brandon Edward Ibañez, a particularly known man for being abusive towards people and a celebrity addict, and those celebrities were particularly women.

So today, I was on-line and a friend dm-ed me that she hosting a party. In no time, Martina and I agreed to go to that friend's house.

The friend we're talking about is Tarah Maurice Smith, she is an extravagant shopaholic but she was also known for being generous, as she loves donating whatever she could to a lot of orphanages, organizations and street children.

But as we're always heading towards the door (as I had predicted) we were stopped in our tracks by none other than Brandon.

"Where the heck do you intend to go?"he asked.

We breathed heavily as we slowly faced him.

"Out.To Tarah's.", Martina bravely said.
"Tarah's? Why?"he asked, grasping both my hand and Martina's. "You surely don't want to risk being beaten, don't you? And you're both in make-up!!! Why, you think you're as pretty as my beautiful Rinna Stars? Or Jennifer Linsens?"

"She's hosting a party. We're going. At least there, we'd have a better chance of dinner and we'd be confident that we won't die of abuse and hunger there ." I scoffed roughly as I jerked my hand away from his grasp.

I should have picked my words more carefully, but I guess I can't recall them back anymore.
And I guess it'll be quite fun to see him angry.

Okay, I'm only joking. The truth, in fact,you would be shuddering at the first word he yells when he's like that.

"THAT'S IT! YOU ARE NOT GOING! MARTINA! YOU AND YOUR LITTLE, BRATTY PIG ARE NOT GETTING ANY DINNER TONIGHT! AND NOT EVEN A CRUMB OF BREAD OR A DROP OF WATER! DO YOU HEAR ME? NOW GO UP TO YOUR ROOM, YOU TWO. GOT IT?" he yelled, yanking us away from the door.

We had no other choice but to obey. I took a long look at him, I could see he is growing irate and he shot a glowering look back at me.

As Martina banged the door, she said, "I'm sorry we couldn't go, Zellie. And I am even sorry my brother called you a pig."
I laughed as I tried twisting my legs in a pretzel-like configuration, somehow like yoga, "Are you crazy? Your brother's name-calling is like almost half my life!"
"That's the point, Zellie , he treats you like you're not human! It's unfair! It makes me angry to the square root of 1000!"she yelled, as if trying to make Brandon hear all these commotion.

"100."I jokingly said.

"Well, that's okay, I completely understand that. And I believe we still can go."I further added, winking and unveiling a small back window that had a ladder and led us to the backyard and was surrounded by curtains.

"The emergency exit...You outta your mind, Kryzelle?!" she shrieked.

"Our last resort; you're not coming, are you?"I whispered as I prepared to creep silently the exit. I wriggled my eyebrows in perfect ecstasy.

Just then, we heard a small click of the doorknob.

"See, first we couldn't go to the party, second we're sent here, and third we're locked from the inside out. Well?" I sighed.

She shrugged.

"Oh dear, don't play the innocent games with me, Zellie. I'll have you owe me your allowance by the time we get back to school if I get punched and beaten. Wait for me to get properly dressed, since this skirt is too short. I'm coming."she said gravely.

"Deal!"I laughed. That's just one thing I like about being her adopted sister.

So we crept towards the backyard and went to Tarah's house using the detour.

At the party, we were instantly welcomed by Tarah and another close friend, Kyle Browns, who was an African-American.

"Hey!! Over here,where were you? Where have you been hiding? Tarah's tried calling you twenty times and we got no answer."Kyle said worriedly.

"Oh, the usual. But as you know, like always we found a way to escape. "I said, casually pulling out my phone to see that, yeah, she did call me 20 times, and I missed all of them.

"Ah,that's why. Okay, enjoy, and there's the jacket hanger near the kitchen. You can put your overcoats there."Tarah said.

"Oh right,this is life!!!"Martina and I yelled.

We danced and partied all night.We played every kind of music genre and even played games like Truth or Dare and Uno until we just noticed it is already almost midnight, so we hurriedly slipped on our overcoats and immediately said goodbye to Tarah,Kyle and of course to all the people there.

By then, we headed home, it was pitch black inside the house. Not even the floodlights were on.

Until...

"WHERE have you been??? You went to that stupid party,didn't you, you little bratty punks! Didn't you know I was only looking after your safety!", Brandon said furiously as he turned on a lamplight and was sitting on a over-sized couch (I believe he's copying it from a movie).

Oh, so you were looking after our safety, huh.I didn't know you had a small piece of heart in there, I silently thought as I tried not to laugh.

Martina was already flinching hard.

"What if something bad happens to you? Who's gonna take all the blame,huh? ME!"Brandon shrieked.

We froze there, silent, in hopes he might not do anything.

"You ain't speaking, huh? Who still thought of goin' there and disobeyed?! Who?!"He shrieked angrily.

Finally, I guess I had no choice so I piped up,"I did."

"Zellie, no! You didn't, I did." Martina lied.
"Yes,Martina,I crazily opened the exit, remember? I wasn't thinking. Brandon, you can punish me as you wished."

So he did. I got beaten and punched and kicked before I knew it. And he cursed at me all the while to top it off.

"Martina, this is what you both get the next time you disobey! Got it?"I heard him say angrily.

Through my hurt eyes, I saw Martina trying her best to nod as she saw me trying to feel okay throughout this punishment.

In the darkness as I felt succumbing to unconsciousness because I felt so weak, I only heard Martina crying out, "Kryzelle!!! NO!!!!"