Unexpected

1

Ja'nae
Age: 7

I sat in the dewy grass, staring at a centipede crawling across my dark green Chuck Taylor's as another warm breeze crossed my body. Today was a hair day, I hate getting my hair done, mom braids too tight and she wants to cut it now. Daddy keeps yelling at her for trying to cut it because he likes my hair a lot.

Maybe when I grow up I won't have to get my hair cut because then mommy won't be the boss of me anymore, I'll be the boss.

"That's icky"

A voice intruded as I snapped out of my thoughts. I didn't even hear them. I turned up to look at another girl staring back at me. Her hair pulled back into four sectioned ponytails puffed out. She towered over me, obviously taller than the average 7-year-old. I looked down to see her outfit as she wore a loose red and blue striped t-shirt and a pair of black shorts that stopped mid-thigh. She also wore a pair of glittery sneakers.

"You don't talk much do you, anyways I'm Megan. But my family calls me Meg sometimes. What your name"

I fidgeted a bit, I never really talked to anyone else, having that there were no kids in my neighborhood and I was homeschooled.

" It's ja'nae" I responded my voice cracking a bit from not talking. I usually kept quiet, not many people noticed me at all. She rocked on her feet sounding out my name, her thick accent making it sound a bit weird as if was pronounced janay but it wasn't. It was jah-nae, but I didn't mind.

" Why are you out here?" She asked as she jumped into the air and tumbled down next to me. Her long legs adorned by light tints of green, probably from the grass or chalk.

" My parents are yelling again, my mommy wants to cut my hair". Megan leaned back a bit to see my hair. It was long and puffy, if it hadn't been so long I probably would've had an Afro by now, it reached all the way to my butt with little multicolored butterfly clips in it. 

" It's pretty, I wish I had hair as long as you. My mom always is snipping my ends saying that it will grow longer but it only grows a little bit. It's annoying. But she won't let me leave the house with a bunch'a split ends so I gotta listen. "

Her hair wasn't short, it reached just past her shoulders. I watched her talk intently, she was very talkative and it almost seemed as if she never had anything to not talk about. She went into detail about her home life. About how her dad wants there and that her mom raps a lot. My mother never rapped. But she did yell a lot, most of the time it was all in Spanish so I could only half understand her meticulous banter. Most of the time my dad yelled back, his heavy voice clashing harshly with my mother's as they screamed at each other for hours on end.

I kept listening, now watching the clouds pass by as the temperature would change a bit as each cloud would give us shade from the sun. I every now and then would look at Megan, she was exhilarating compared to anyone else I had met.

" come with me," she said abruptly yanking me up from the soft grass as she pulled me in an unknown direction. We eventually ended up at a small tunnel and landed up crawling through it to get to her mystery destination.

I breathed heavily as Megan seemed to not show any sign of exhaustion. I groaned as I felt my arm being pulled again as we suddenly started running through the small woods, the trees getting bigger as the grass seemed taller and much thicker. I winced as small sticks scraped against my legs as I tried to keep up with my taller companion. We came into a large Creek, the water gleaming as small flowers swayed in the wind.

" Come on" Megan urged, pulling me towards the clear water. I yelled a bit as I jumped over a large rock. Stumbling a bit I gathered my footing as Megan kept her hold on my hand.