Negative Zero

The Beginning of The End

It was hard for her. She was growing up in a small town right outside of the big city, three older siblings and two younger. She was never the brightest one in the class, she left that job to Joss, her best friend. Joss looked like she could have been a model, long dark hair and tan skin made her emerald eyes stand out even more. She could have sworn that Joss had done something to herself, the three years Avery had moved to Southern California. When Avery had left Joss wasn't popular at all, she was short and chubby, she had a bob cut that reminded Avery of Dora the explorer, and never fit in. Avery felt safe with her and they were both dealing with bullies together, they had each others backs and that had always been the way it was. Avery was short and looked very under-feed, while in reality she had plenty of food, she has messy light brown hair that goes a little bit past her shoulders and amber eyes that looked odd with her pale ghostly skin. She looked almost... hollow.

Its not like Joss was mean to her once she got back, she was just different. And Avery didn't like different. When she was younger she had very few friends, she had good grades and never really got in trouble. Until the day her dad left. She was only five at the time. Now ten years later she can barely remember him. But what reminds her is her older siblings. When he left them they had nothing. No hope. No money. Her oldest sibling became depressed and began to rely on drugs. Her name was Cam. On Avery's tenth birthday, there was no party, balloons, only dead dreams. Its not like her mother forgot, but Cam had gotten into some trouble and was sent to jail overnight. We had to give up all the money in our house just to bail her out. I remember my mother searching the  house, breaking open piggy banks, with black tears running down her face, wondering where she went wrong. That's when it changed for me. From that moment on any change seemed to have a bad side.

Thinking of these moments Avery's eyes began to tear up. She quickly wiped them away and glanced quickly around the class, making sure nobody saw. But as usual nobody noticed her. She looked down at her desk, looking at the pencil marks and rude things that people had written. She knows that if she tried to erase them the teacher would think she was writing on the desks and send her to ISS. That's just the way that things worked around here. That's the way things would always be, at least she hoped. 

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I bet you don't realize the satisfying sound bubbles make when they pop. If you blow bubbles outside, the surrounding noises will be distracting, but when your home alone on a Friday night and have a bubble wand just laying on the ground in your room, 95% of the time your tempted to act like a 5 year old again and blow away. While all the bubbles you blew are hitting the floor or your desk, or maybe just randomly popping in mid-air there is no noise to distract you. 

She was in her room blowing bubbles, she didn't realize that a storm had started up outside. You would think that a teenager living in Southern California, for gods sake, where even if you've never been you probably know how freaking dry it is there, would realize something like this. After about 5 minutes the storm really started to pick up. Don't worry she's realized it now. Avery looks over to the window, pulling up of course the wrong string. Finally she gets the blinds open and looks out into her now flooded back yard. "Damn..." she mumbles to herself, "I think I should put the cover on the pool now..." Avery tiptoes downstairs even though nobody's home to yell at her. She unlocks the door to the back and carefully steps outside pulling her sweatshirt tighter around her, wishing she had put on her rain jacket before she had left the house.