Rose

The Rat Race

It was bright and early Monday morning but I still felt like crap. To make matters worse the two dickheads of St. Graham High School were continuously pushing each other in my direction. I tried to focus my attention on the breakfast sandwich the cafeteria ladies handed out to everyone this morning. The sausage egg and cheese looked appealing to the human eye, but the taste of it was yet to be determined. Before I could even manage the thought of taking a bite Mitchell and Kyle sat right in front of me. I directed my attention toward their taunting smiles, knowing that they were about to antagonize me with stupidity.

"Hey stream." Kyle said.

"It's River. You've known this since second grade."

Mitchell scoffed. "You don't look like a River, more like a...puddle."

They laughed at the terrible attempt at an insult. They certainly weren't the smartest guys around.

"Is that all." I focused my attention back on my sandwich. I was more annoyed than I was afraid. Mitchell and Kyle where ten times heavier than I was and if they wanted to could probably snap me in half like a twig. They were the two all stars of the football team. I didn't know what position though because I never cared enough about them or football no matter how many times they announced it on the intercom.

"Is that all? Ha! Who do you think you're talking to like that?" Kyle was shocked. Genuinely shocked. What an idiot.

Mitchell had stood up and cracked his knuckles. Kyle leaned in to whisper in my face.

"If you ever talk to Bee again I'm going to pulverize you do you understand me? Everyone is talking about how the nutcase of the school is talking to my girl and I don't need her to be your first victim when you shoot up the place."

"I'm not a nutca-" but before I could finish Mitchell slammed my face into my lunch tray letting the warm cheese of the messy breakfast sandwich stick to my entire face.

"Enjoy breakfast you fucking loser." Mitchell said as they both walked away chuckling to themselves.

I could hear others laughing at me. I quickly picked up my head and ran off to find the bathroom.

~

After I cleaned the cheese off my face I had soon realized that I was late for first period class. Truthfully I couldn't careless anymore.

As I was walking down the hall my mind wondered to distant times that were far out of reach. Because of my inability to actually pay attention to where I was going an office door swung open and smacked me in my face. Another facial assault. I fell over onto my butt. The person behind that door must've been hella angry.

"Oh my gosh!! I'm so sorry!!!"

I rubbed my face and my eyes met a familiar looking girl.

"I'm so so sorry! It's just that the door is heavy and I'm not the strongest so I need to use all my strength to push it open! Are you okay?? Do you need a nurse?? Oh my gosh you're not bleeding are you??!!"

There was something charming about her. Whether it be the rich chocolate look of her skin or her beautifully full lips tinted red to match the little red bow in her bun, I don't know but something about her was familiar. Warm.

"Oh my gosh you're deaf aren't you. Shoot! Uh I don't know American Sign Language. Uh hi! I'm Louise Carter. Are-you-okay?" She said it as if I couldn't understand her words.

It made me chuckle. "I speak English, and I'm not deaf." I hadn't smiled that genuinely in such a long time.

"Oh! Wow I'm such a dork. I'm sorry are you alright?"

"Yeah I am." I said still smiling. She was cute.

"Oh good, I was so worried. I've been hit with that door before and it knocked the breath right out of me! Well I guess because your a boy you might have more tolerance for things like that."

She sat back and relaxed a little more, putting together her thoughts. "You know statistically males have more body weight and strength than females so maybe that's why you were able to deal with it better."

"But those are just statistics, I mean I'm sure there are females who are much stronger than men as well and could do ten times more hard labor then men can. I don't know it's very possible I think." She looked up at me in the midst of her thought process.

"Oh! I'm so sorry I'm just rambling. Can you, um, stand?" She proceeded to get up and reached out for my hand.

I took it with gratitude. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Wait. You're name is River right? River Burr?"

That immediately made me nervous. There had been several rumors since the events of last year that made people fear me or think less of me.

"Um yeah..."

"Oh! I remember now we had wood shop together! You helped me sand that ,um, thing! What was it? A shoe?"

That's where I know her from, wood shop.
"It was a car made to look like a shoe."

"Right! We had to make race cars and I made a shoe and you made an ice cream truck!"

"Yeah and we all raced them." And Rose made a cat car and bet Mitchell and Kyle that her cat could beat their 'swag cars'. A rat race with the two rats she told me.

"Haha yeah that was fun!"

"Yeah, well um, it was nice catching up but I'm kinda late for class."

"Do you need a note?"

"I mean that'd be great but I don't think anyone will give me one for no reason."

She giggled. "Don't worry, I got you with the door and luckily for you I'm friends with most of the adults in this building."