~One~

The day passed by slowly as I walked home from school. It was the middle of March, and a dull, cloudy day. The forecast called for rain around four this afternoon, and it was just now hitting 3:45. I sighed and hoped the rain would hold off until I got home, which was still twenty minutes away. I lived pretty far from school, but I refused to ride the bus or carpool with anyone. A few people had offered, but I couldn't afford to give them gas money, even though they said that it wouldn't have been necessary. I always hated feeling like a freeloader, but I just cannot afford stuff because of the debt. I could really only afford to pay the bills and get some food so I wouldn't starve. I hadn't gotten new cloths in over a year, and they were slowly getting smaller on me. My shoes were over two years old, but still hardly worn down. I only wore them to and from school, that way I wouldn't destroy them before I could afford new ones. Whenever I'm at home, I go around barefoot, even though my yard is filled with pointy objects like thorns and sharp rocks. I had learned to deal with the pain and just continued not to wear my shoes unless needed.

I would always be in debt. There was just no way out of it for me because every time I got close to getting out, I would end up owing more money from something I didn't remember. Of course, when I looked up the information, it turned out that I had always had something that kept me in my debt. I sighed as I continued to walk to my small house. The rent I had to pay on it was only $300, and the bills never went very high. That didn't really matter though. I had over $90,000 in my debt, and I could only pay about $500 each month because of everything else that needed to be paid for. I always had to have my phone in case of an emergency, and I always had to have the Internet to email my bosses and some other important people. It was a very hard life, but somehow I was managing to get by without causing very many problems. My landlord is a nice man who usually gives me an extra week to pay the rent on the placed. He was also kind enough to let me keep my Siberian husky, Rosa. His rules were usually no dogs on the property, but when he saw her, he changed his mind, only on the conditions that she was house trained and that I kept the yard cleaned up. I promised him that I would keep the yard clean, and I knew that she was house trained because I worked for six months to train her. She was a good dog and my best friend. Sometimes, it felt like she was my only friend, but I was always happy to have her.

When I was about ten minutes from home, the rain started. It wasn't a soft sprinkle either. Instead of the light rain I had hoped for, it was an ice-cold downpour. I jumped when the water hit my arms, and immediately took off running. It was raining so hard I could barely see anything. Within minutes, my clothing was completely soaked, even my socks from splashing through the water. My shoes weren't waterproof, so they eventually were filled with water. Still, I continued running through the rain, not wanting to stop for anything, but as soon as the thunder cracked, I screamed and fell onto the sidewalk, into a huge puddle of water. Thunderstorms were one of my biggest fears, even if they can't hurt me, the loud noise of the thunder freaks me out, especially when I am trying to sleep. My screaming always disturbs my dog, but she would always crawl into bed with me and lay on half of my body until I managed to calm myself down.

The thunder cracked again, and I quickly covered my ears as I tried to stand up. I managed to get to my knees, but getting to my feet took me about ten minutes. I was glad no one was around to see me like this. If they were, they'd probably be laughing at me and calling me names. Some of the really mean people call me names in my own language, which is Spanish. I know I should be able to just ignore them, but it is very difficult for me to do. I am a very sensitive person, who is easily offended, but I am not just a person, I am a nation, the country of Spain.

My name is Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, but I usually prefer to be called Toni. That's what I ask all of my teachers to call me, and they usually do. Only one of my teachers would rather call me Antonio, and that's my technology teacher, Mr. Collins. He always says that it is more professional to call someone by their full name instead of a nickname, so I just let him call me whatever he wants. He is a very strict teacher most of the time, but rarely assigns homework to his classes, mostly because he hates grading things. All of my other teachers give a lot of homework, but none of it is really hard for me, except for my math class. I was never very good at any kind of math, but I always felt awkward when I would ask for any help. I didn't like it when people turn to look at me every time I asked a question. I would always end up saying never mind, and then I would look back down at my desk and remain quiet until the end. Whenever class ended, I would always bolt out the door and vanish before the teacher could even ask me to stay after class for extra help on the assignments.

As I stood there in the rain, thinking about school, I suddenly heard a horn blaring at me. At first, I thought I was only dreaming, until I looked up and saw headlights coming right at me. I jerked back and fell onto the concrete, smacking my head really hard just as the car skidded to a stop, after running over my ankle with the back tire. I screamed again as the pain started to hit. I heard a car door slam shut just as the thunder cracked again. I threw my arms over my head to try and block out the loud noise, with very little results. I suddenly felt hands on my shoulders, and was carefully being shaken by someone. I could hear a voice speaking to me, but I couldn't make out what the person was saying to me. The thing that caused me to move was the thunder cracking again. My eyes flew open and I tried to jolt upwards to run but arms stopped me from moving very far. I couldn't see anything through the rain except the slight shape of a figure holding me down. I could only think bad thoughts about what was going to happen, but I was just hoping that the person would leave me alone. I tried to speak, but no words came out of my mouth, even though I knew what I wanted to say, I just couldn't get it out. I was pretty sure that I was in a puddle of water, and I was sure that I was soaking whoever was holding me down, but I couldn't stop thrashing around from fear.

Eventually, I ran out of energy and just sat there panting and shaking. I could hear hard breathing from whoever was still there with me, and I kind of felt bad for wearing him or her out. I had no idea how much time had gone by after my thrashing incidence. Usually whenever that happens, I'm being beaten up for something, or nothing. The stranger and I sat there in a long silence of just breathing and trying to regain energy. Soon, almost too soon I though, the figure finally spoke to me.

"Are you alright, monsieur?" The voice was pretty masculine, but at the same time kind of girly. I had ended up tilting my head to make sure I had heard him correctly. When he asked again, all I could do was nod, not knowing if he could see me or not. He must have because I felt him hauling me to my feet, only to cause me to shriek in pain when one of my ankles hit the ground. I immediately jumped off of it and thought I would end up falling back on the ground again, but the man didn't let me go down.

"W-what...happened…?" I asked softly, trying to hide the shaking of my voice. I heard a small sigh of relief as I felt myself being tugged in the direction of a car. I instantly started freaking out and trying to tug against his grip. I had no idea what was going on now. I felt as if I was almost being kidnapped, but I wasn't really a kid anymore. I'm 17 years old which is almost a full adult adult, but that didn't mean I couldn't get yanked off the streets by someone. I heard a car door open and felt myself get carefully placed into the car. It was warm in the car and the seats were really soft, as if they were made with some expensive fabric, but when I ran my hand across the seat, I could feel that it was a seat cover that I was sitting on. I suddenly felt the car start moving and I starting shaking. I hadn't been in a car since I was seven and it was kind of freaky after ten years. I remembered my mother getting in a car crash and ending up in the hospital for months. I had been in the car with her and had ended up with a broken arm and a fractured collarbone. I had only stayed in the hospital for a couple weeks, but didn't want to leave my mother when the hospital forced me to go home with my father. After about four months in the hospital, my mother died from a brain injury. After her funeral, I was never the same again. My father told me to man up and that I would forget about it eventually, but he was wrong. I never did, and ever since that day, I had refused to get in a car. Now that I was in one again, I kept having flashbacks of that dreadful day, and I could only hope that I wouldn't end up with a similar repeat from that day.

I jumped when the radio got turned up a little. The words of the song that was playing were in a completely different language. It wasn't English or Spanish, but something else that I couldn't exactly put my finger on since I don't know any other languages. I just tried to calm down as the car continued to move slowly down the road. The windshield wipers were moving back and forth at a slow pace, just enough so that the driver could see through the rain. The headlights were shining brightly on the road, causing it to look almost like ice. I sighed as I watched the road ahead of the car, hoping that there wouldn't be some idiot driving on the wrong side of the road, but also hoping that the person who was driving me was on the right side of the road. I couldn't see very well through the rain, even with the headlights, so there was no way for me to tell if the car was in the right lane of the two lane road.

I shivered a little, not knowing if it was just because I was cold or terrified. I looked down at my feet and saw that my shoes were wasted. The left one had been torn up from being ran over, but my right one didn't look too bad. Either way, there was no point in wearing a shoe without the other one to match it. I sighed and covered my face with my hands. There was just no way I could afford to get anything like shoes right now. The nearest store was about four miles away from my house, and without shoes to walk there in, there was no way I'd make it. Recently, I had been starting to feel different. I didn't know if it was normal or completely bad for me to be feeling this strange. I hadn't done anything stupid like drugs or drank any alcohol because of the fact that I couldn't afford it, and even if I could, I doubt I would do something like that.

I don't know how long the drive lasted, but finally, we had arrived at the hospital. I didn't even want to think about what this would cost me after I was done here. The thought of it just upset me once again. If the bills go to high for the hospital, I knew I'd never get out of debt. The hospital had always tried to help me out, but they couldn't do very much for me because they didn't want to get in trouble with the government or anyone else. I covered my face and tried to think of a way that I could escape from this person, but I knew if I ran, I would only do more damage to myself. I soon felt myself being drug out of the car. I shrieked a little and tried to squirm, but with no real results. I felt tears start to roll down my cheeks as I was drug into the hospital and up to the front desk. The stranger spoke again.

"Pardon me, Madame. Zis man is in need of some major 'elp. Please, 'urry if you can." He was clearly French. Just the way he spoke, I could tell. I heard the nurse say something quickly, but then found myself being drug away again and seated in a chair. The stranger must have sat down next to me because I could feel his arms still around my shoulders, in case I tried to run away again. I just sat there in silence and waited...waited to see what was in store for me here.