Thaw Fickle Buskin

Evening Forecast

I watched out my window as the orange leaves became soaked with the dismal afternoon rain. An open book lay on the table with words that meant nothing to me. My shirt hung loosely around me, still soaked from being caught in the rain. The teacher was monotonously talking about the wonders of Willa Cather and how she paved the way for all female artists after her.

All night I worried about the boy and Kanoa. It was killing me how cowardly I was. Neither one came to school that day, just adding to my worry. But the worst part of all was that it didn't seem like anyone even noticed they were gone. Kanoa's seat across the room was already taken up by another student so they could be closer to their friend. What if something bad happened?

I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I jumped and turned around quickly, attracting the attention of the students around me. They gave me annoyed looks before returning to their notes. I looked behind me and saw Hadlee, my best friend since preschool. Her hair was always messy, a pile of brown piled on her round face. Her freckles almost masked the concern on her face.

"Dude, you're really jumpy today," she whispered, eyeing the teacher. "You okay?"

I nodded quickly, then slower when I realized that might be a little suspicious. "Totally. A-okay. Chill."

Hadlee's eyes fell in disbelief. "Girl. I know you're uptight, but you act like you've got something up your--"

The announcement bell disrupted the room. The teacher stopped writing on the whiteboard and stared up at the speakers, clearly annoyed. Everyone else eagerly listened to the raspy voice booming into the classroom.

"All students are released due to tornado warnings. Please drive safely and find somewhere to wait out the oncoming weather. We will see you on Monday."

Hadlee's nose scrunched up. "Huh? Why would they let us go outside? Isn't that the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do during a tornado warning?"

"I'm just confused how there's a tornado at all," I said.

The wind had picked up considerably, making the loose hinges of the windows slam up and down. Hadlee and I picked up our things and walked into the hallway, where students were cheering and talking excitedly about how they could start partying early. It was Friday, after all, and everyone knew that the students of Etaim High were absolute drunks. We rolled our eyes as we passed the jocks, who were openly picking who was buying the booze that week.

When Hadlee and I were at our lockers, a thought came into my mind. "Hey Lee, you know that new kid?"

She thought about it. "You mean the trans one?

My eyes widened. Tranny. That's what Griffin had called him. My stomach twisted with empathy. "Uh, yeah. You know anything about him?"

Hadlee slammed her locker shut and slung her backpack around her shoulder. "Some people said that he was kicked out of his parents house...so now he's here. That's all I really know."

I sighed. I was hoping she would know something--anything--more about him. Maybe that could give me hint as to where to find him. But for the time being, all I could do was follow Hadlee out of the school and pretend that I wasn't acutely aware of students piling into trucks to go to the nearest party spot.

The sky was abnormally dark for this time of year. Usually the skies stay pretty light with the rare thunderstorm, but they never turned this purple. The entire atmosphere was filtered with the dark shade. Tornadoes were almost unheard of here because of the lush and mountainous terrain. A horrible chill ran down my spine and down through my feet. Leaves crashed against my calves and continued to tumble into the chain link fence surrounding the school.