Running On Empty.

Running On Empty. The Prologue.

Prologue [11 years ago. Kindergarten.]

"You have the cooties! Rianne has the cooties!" Three boys chanted around me.

Hey! You can't say that," My five year old voice whined, my face turning into a raging red, matching my fiery hair.

"Rianna has the cooties! Rianna has the cooties!" A group of three boys sung as they eagerly ran in circles around me. My tears and nose ran freely as I fired back the worst word I could think of.

"Dick heads!" I screeched.

They all stopped immediately, eyes and mouths forming perfect O's.

"I'm telling!" The blonde headed boy screamed, dragging out the words. His baby blue eyes stared back in shock. The entourage of kindergarten bullies raced to the teacher's bench and relayed what had just happened while failing their arms and pointing in my direction where I was still standing.

Well, the next day, which was the second day of kindergarten; I had to sit on the wall during recess with a couple of other troubled kindergarteners. (Including an angelic looking girl with long, flowing blonde hair and the three bullies from yesterday.)

We whispered to each other, breaking the major and only rule of 'Silent Recess'.

A girl with blonde hair half down her back and brown eyes said to me, "What did you do?" Her delicate face pinched itself up into a grimace as she chewed on the ends of her bleach blonde hair.

"I said dick head," I replied.

She clapped her hands over her mouth and giggled.

"Ohh! I threw a crayon at Mrs. Davendork."

I then shyly giggled and said ".. Don't you mean DAVENPORT?"

"Yes, that," She said quickly, obviously annoyed at being corrected.

"My name's Rianne," I introduced myself like my mom had taught me.

"But isn't that a boy's name?!" She scrunched her nose and twitched it like a rabbit while flipping her straight hair into the air, letting the wind blow it into my face.

"My mommy told me it's doesn't matter!" I whined. "What's your name?"

"My... name is.. Paige." She said, while distracted by a stone she found. She threw it up high in the air and we heard it crash back to the ground a few seconds later, at the same time that we heard a chuckle from the same wall we were doomed to.

"What's so funny?" Paige hissed.

"Your mom named you after what's in a book!" He cackled with laughter. It was obvious that he found himself hilarious. I looked at him and noticed he was the blonde haired, light blue eyed kid that ratted me out yesterday.

"You're mean," Paige noted.

"What's wrong with being mean?" He honestly questioned.

Paige pondered that for a second. "...Well, because... it's.. uh, mean!" She stammered.

"But, your friend called me a dick head!" He retorted, jabbing a finger at me while getting dangerously close to my eye.

"UH UHH!" I screamed in his face.

"AHUHH!" He didn't back down.

The two other boys who accused me of having the cooties yesterday decided to speak up and walk over from their spot on the wall.

"Stop Levi! You're gonna get us in trouble." A kid with brown hair and hazel eyes complained.

"Leave me alone, Dylan!" The blonde boy, Levi, replied.

The other kid, who hadn't spoken yet, with freckles and black hair just stood there, staring at us.

"You're all dumb," he quietly said, barely loud enough for our ears to hear. We later found out he was Nate.

A teacher busted us for talking later. We were put on the wall for discussing and the next day while sitting recess out, we argued about whether dragon flys were baby dragons... and was put on the wall again... and again. Soon, our arguments turned into conversations. And soon, being on the wall together transformed from punishment into reward. We found ourselves misbehaving for those extra minutes together. And soon, those extra minutes together formed a friendship.

Well, fast forward eleven years and you'll find that were still going strong... more or less. Just thank god for my case of the cooties that landed me on the wall with Paige, Levi, Dylan and Nate.

The feisty, fabulous five, huh?