Dreams That Do Not Matter (gmw fanfiction)

Girl Meets Hurricane

Verity's POV

"It came out of nowhere. The winds were blowing at 175 miles an hour. A category 5 hurricane. There is no category six. Who knows what a levee is?" Mr. Matthews asks our class.

Riley raises her hand, "It's like a hill or a dam that's supposed to keep water out."

"Supposed to. So, we build those protections to keep out the elements. But sometimes the storm is stronger than we are. Who knows anything about New Orleans geography?"

"It's below sea level," Farkle chimes in, "the floodwater goes down, right into the city."

"So, their homes are gone," Mr. Matthews concludes, "they have no power. And they live in a city where even geography tells them it's a sucker's bet to stay. What do they do?"

After long reluctance and a bit of persuading, Maya raises her hand, "They stayed and they believed things would get better. And they did. They got better. Because they had hope."

"New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the world. Even in devastation, they didn't miss a Mardi Gras." And now we get to the reason why this lesson was taught in the first place. "The clothes look nice, Maya. But it's the hope that looks great on you."

I feel like I want to scream. Of course, there is no way I can, but why? Why now? Why teach a lesson about hurricanes now of all times? When things in my life turned even worse than they already were so fast? And the reason Mr. Matthews even chose this topic is because Maya apparently learnt to have hope.

That's good for her. But what about the rest of us, the ones who are not as lucky as she is? Her storm may be over and all that is left is a bit of an aftermath and then the quiet after the storm. 

What about me and Missy? What about our lives? Our fierce storm started when we were four. And I've been waiting for years with no end for it to just pass, so we could learn to deal with the aftermath. But the thing is, when you wait for something for as long as I have, you start to lose hope. And you realize that maybe the thing you want to happen more than anything is the one thing that will never happen. When will it be our turn? When will this storm pass? Because lately, it's just gotten even more furious and I'm starting to feel like I'm running out of ways to fix things that keep constantly getting wrecked and keep both of us above the water surface. 

Losing one of your parents at such a young age is harsh, I realize, and unfortunately, many  people have had to go through that, something that never should have to happen. But everyone deals with it somehow, and often they eventually learn to be actually happy again. I can only imagine that maybe that would have been our case too. But we were alone. We needed our father and he turned his back to us when we were the most desperate.  

Now I have to keep mending the pieces of me that are broken beyond repair and try not to make that struggle visible. I'm not someone on whom you could see their hopelessness exactly clearly. But it has been so long since I felt real hope that maybe I have already forgotten what it feels like. 

Missy's POV

I choose to hide in the school library during the lunch break. Verity is in the old music room and I usually let her spend time alone there. It's sort of her place. It's a good thing that she's at least able to play  her songs again. That means that things have gotten a tiny bit better. At least that's something and I'm grateful for that. I let her be alone during moments like these because although we love each other more than anything and we are always there to support and make each other stronger, I know that from time to time, even she needs to have some alone time when she can be by herself. Because she rarely allows herself to be weak around me and I cannot imagine how hard it must be to keep that strong facade all the time. That's one of the things that we rather don't talk about although we know about them.