The Calm

Chapter 6

= Zahara =

"Brandon, please hurry and come down so that you can eat before we leave!" Anna yells this upstairs for the fifth time. "Leslie, go check on your brother." Leslie hops out of the chair holding her piece of toast and runs up stairs.

"Get out of my room!"

"Momma said come get you! Get off of me Brandon! Let me go!" I hop out of my chair and run upstairs. When I look in the door, Brandon is twisting Leslie's arm behind her back.

"Didn't I tell you to get out? God!" He starts walking her to the door but stops when he sees me.

"What is wrong with you?!" I push him off and he lets go and falls back onto his bed. Leslie stands behind me rubbing her arm. "Your mom wants you downstairs for breakfast, you coming or no?" He picks himself up off the bed and though he towers over me by a few inches I am not afraid of him.

"You are not the boss of me, and you never will be."

"Who cares? All I asked was a simple question."

"What's going on here?" We both look at the door to see his mom standing in the doorway looking worried. I step back and step out of the room.

"He says he does not feel well. I'll be in the car." I walk past her and downstairs. I grab my backpack from off the couch and head towards the car outside. I sit there in silence for a while, but then the back door opens and Leslie climbs into her seat. She kneels on the back seat so that she can look at me.

"Thank you Zara." I smile at the name she calls me. I guess she forgot how to pronounce my real name because that is what she has been calling me since the second day I have been here.

"No problem kid. Any time he is bullying you, just call me, okay?" She nods her head and smiles at me.

"Okay!" Her mom comes from out of the house, without Brandon thankfully, and opens the other door to the back seat.

"Leslie, please sit down and buckle up." Anna places a few things on the seat before she closes the door and goes to the driver's seat.

"Momma, can Zara come to my soccer game tomorrow?" Leslie asks her mom this and her mom glances back at her in the mirror.

"Did you ask her if she would like to come sweetie?" Leslie immediately twists around in her seat belt trying to look at me.

"Zara, do you want to watch me play?" Before I can answer she starts convincing me to come. "I promise I don't suck, and I practice really hard. One time I get hit in the head, but that was only because somebody kicked the ball without thinking first an---" I start laughing and I have to stop her before she turns blue in the face.

"I would love to come watch you play, Leslie."

"Yaaaayyyy! Mommy she said yes! Can she come now?" Her mom laughs and nods her head.

"Yes Leslie. Come on, let me walk you up to your building." We are parked outside of her school and Leslie climbs out of the car.

"I want Zara to walk me, please please please?!" She gives me puppy dog eyes and I climb over the seat and slide out of the car behind her. I grab her hand and make her wait before we cross the street. "Do you play soccer?"

"I know how to play, but I don't play on a team."

"Does your school have a soccer team?" The picture of the soccer try-outs poster flashes through my head that I saw two days ago. I never join sports teams at my school.

"Yea, but--"

"You should join! Then I can go see you play!" We finally reach the door and I open it, letting her walk in first.