Thaw Fickle Buskin

Slight Chance of Rain

She came into town like a thunderstorm.

When she sat down in our seventh grade class, a huge grin plastered on her face and her sky-blue eyes scanning the room, everyone knew she was something different. There was electricity around her. Your hair stood on end whenever she looked at you. There was something deep inside her that was rumbling, thundering, echoing through the quiet lives of the people who live here.

But she waited for someone to come explore her world. She waited for years, but no one ever came. Her static smile became a dull frown and her icy eyes turned foggy. She began to live in a world different from ours. Her own reality. She barely spoke her charged words anymore; instead, she would simply listen to this place that trapped all of us.

She walked down the street with her denim jacket. Even though her face has grown older and her hair now toppled around her shoulders, people still knew who she was. After years of settlement here, she was still the new girl. The one no one really understood. Where were her parents? Whose house was she living in now? Was she dangerous? No one could really say for her. And really, I don't think they cared enough to find out.

Her Converse led her into a little coffee shop. Her only friend, a small cat with a chewed-off ear, greeted her warmly. The fog in her eyes cleared a little as she stooped down to pet it, her heart heavy with loneliness. But when she smiled...the rain stopped. The clouds lifted. The entire world would watch to see her smile send a shockwave through the whole town.

But this story isn't about her. Actually, it's about me. The mere narrator, the bridge between this girl and you. I'm nowhere near as captivating as her, but I exist nonetheless. I'm still a girl living in this small town. I still pet this cat whenever I go past. I still feel her electricity whenever I pass her in the hallway. But unlike the rest of the town, I want to see her smile. I want to see Kanoa Mahi'ai, the local outcast, beam a rainbow with her laugh.

But I guess that's not my problem.

I tell myself this as I walked down the street, kicking up leaves as they fall in an orange cascade from the trees above. The air was cold in my lungs and goosebumps formed on the skin beneath my sweater. I looked down and realized I was wearing all black. I really wasn't that edgy, but I just ended up wearing dark colors anyway. It contrasted with the warm town. The buildings were made of mahogany and other warm woods. The paint was chipping on all the storefronts, but the majority of it was covered in yellowing vines. Some people walked by me without acknowledgement.

There was some yelling from up ahead, but I tried not to pay any attention to it. It was probably some kids shouting gleefully as they jumped into a pile of leaves. The cat from the coffee shop strode lazily into the dying sunlight and purred to itself. It plopped onto its back and fell to its side. I laughed at it and walked quietly around it, trying not to disturb its happy state.

But at the unsettling sound of another scream, I stumbled and listened attentively. I became a little more suspicious when I saw a group of boys standing on the corner, all looking around shiftily. I crept forward a couple feet before a couple of them noticed me.

Together, they made a semi-circle so I couldn't go forward. "Step off," one of them growled.

"Uh, sorry? I'm just passing through," I said uneasily. I tried to step in between them, but they didn't move. "Guys, really, I just want to go home."

The screaming was a bit closer this time. I could tell that it wasn't children. It sounded frightened. I heard a faint shouting and some whimpering. The boys looked at each other warily and then turned their attention towards me.

The biggest one, a boy I recognized as Zacc, stepped towards me. "Leave. Right now."

Just then, there was a shout from someone around the corner: "GUYS, I NEED A LITTLE HELP WITH THIS TWINK."