A/N: As the description says, a group of Boston based young offenders find themselves caught up in a freak lightning storm, and must deal with the consequences. Just a heads up, there is lots of very coarse language throughout, and a bit of NSFW happenings later on in the story.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!
"You guys are the lucky ones. You've been given another chance to prove to society that you don't deserve to be locked up," the probation worker explained to the 5 youths standing before him. He had a name, of course, but none of them cared to remember it.
One girl, the youngest of them with perfect blonde hair and makeup, stood with her arms crossed, not looking at any of the others. With her weight on one hip and her apparent great interest in the ground, it was clear that she wanted nothing to do with the other young adults in the group. Her name was Samantha, or Sam, as she preferred to be called. Only her parents called her Samantha.
The boy closest to her had dark brown hair and smoldering eyes, and he was very much aware of it. He was no stranger to using his looks to get what he wanted from the girls. An unhappy grimace was set on his face while he observed the probation worker. His name was Luca.
A girl with dyed auburn hair and long fake fingernails was standing slumped sideways, inspecting her nails. She would've preferred to be in jail than doing community service, and she could tell already that she and the prissy girl standing away from them would not get along. She went by Rachel, even though her first name was Abigail. She hated her name and the woman she was named after.
Rachel was very aware of the boy slouched beside her, who was paying no attention to the probation worker, and more than enough attention to her breasts. His name was Kevin and he had orange hair which he let grow shaggy and curly, and more freckles than Rachel had ever seen on a person. In his mind he was wondering if he could get the girl with the red hair to have sex with him, and how he could get out of actually doing community service.
The boy who stood out most, but wished he didn't, was trying his very best to look small and stay away from the group. It was a hard thing to do for someone with a tall, slender build, golden hair and shocking green eyes. He wanted nothing to do with any of them, only to get his community service done. His name was Ryan, and the others didn't learn it for 3 days.
"Maybe through helping your community, you'll all learn a little something about yourselves," the probation worker suggested. "So everybody get the paintbrushes and cans, your first job is to paint over the graffiti on the back wall of the community center."
"You look familiar," Rachel said to Sam, leaning over to rest on a dry part of the wall. Sam gave her a sidelong glance. Rachel had unzipped her gray jumpsuit to show off her cleavage, and a pack of cigarettes stuck out of her back pocket. The way she had one eyebrow cocked in some kind of smug curiosity annoyed Sam. She sneered at the older girl and dipped the rolling brush in the tray of paint.
"How could you?" she countered. Sam hoped the implied you're obviously a trashy slut and I'm a lady, our kinds don't mix so how could I know you? was clear, but Rachel seemed stupid, so it might have gone over her head.
"She's right," Luca spoke up. "I've seen you someplace before. And you've got the same last name as the mayor, Samantha Ford." He hadn't spoken earlier, and now that Sam heard his thick Boston accent, she felt her stomach drop. He would certainly know her. She shrugged, trying to play it cool.
"Yeah, I'm familiar with the mayor's last name," she said. "It's pretty common."
"More than familiar with it, I'd say," Kevin scoffed. The others stared at him, not knowing what he meant. "Have you idiots ever turned on the news?" The general consensus was no, but Ryan only shrugged, and Sam rolled her eyes. Kevin could tell that Sam knew that he knew exactly who she was. He laughed, enjoying this bit of power he already had over her.
"She's the mayor of Boston's daughter! She vandalized some apartment building. Isn't that right, princess?" Kevin teased.
"Go fuck yourself!" Sam spat while the others laughed.
"You're the mayor's daughter?" Ryan asked incredulously. Luca's jaw dropped in amused surprise.
"You sure screwed up," Luca snickered. Sam flipped him off.
"I didn't screw up. I just got caught. If anything, I'm the victim!" Sam protested hotly.
"What did you do?" Ryan asked. "Vandalized a building?"
"Graffiti... But what I do isn't vandalism, it's art! None of this shit," Sam argued, gesturing with her paint brush to the curse words and penises spray painted onto the side of the community center. "I don't belong here," Sam grumbled. Rachel snorted.
"Alright, princess," Kevin laughed. "Keep tellin' yourself that. You're young offender scum, just like the rest of us!" He spread his arms wide as if in welcome.
"Shut up," Sam spat. "And quit calling me princess."
"Oh, but we're in the presence of royalty," Kevin mocked, bending at the waist to bow to her. "I guess everybody shows their true colors eventually, right? You probably feel more comfortable in this trashy neighborhood than up in Beacon Hill. That's no place for a criminal-"
"Why don't you go fuck yourself, you stupid asshole!" Sam yelled suddenly, flinging her paintbrush at him. Kevin cackled, though the brush hit him square in the chest. Rachel, Luca, and Ryan laughed too, and Sam stomped away furiously. She didn't deal well with people ridiculing her. She never had. It was always her tendency to blow up and storm off. She knew that it only made matters worse, but what else was there for her to do? It's not like she could talk to the slut and douchebags and make them understand her feelings and how immature their teasing was. Between the horror of them all recognizing her and the frustration of their teasing, Sam felt hot tears prick the corners of her eyes.
"Hey!" the probation worker appeared around the corner. "Where-where is she going?" he asked them, eyebrows knit in confusion and frustration. "What did you say?" He gestured to Kevin and the paint spattered across him.
"I dunno, she said something about having to fuck your mom," Kevin snickered. The other two stared at him.
"That wasn't funny," Luca said, his lip curled slightly in annoyance. The probation worker sighed impatiently, and jogged off after Sam.
"Hey!" he called softly when he spotted her. Sam froze and looked over her shoulder. There were tears in her eyes. "Sam, you can't run off-"
"I know, I'm sorry," she sniffed. "I shouldn't have run off, I just... they're all so fucking stupid and just... bad."
The probation worker nodded and sighed. Sam stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jumpsuit and stared around. She stopped listening to what the probation worker was saying to her almost immediately. He was trying to console her, and explain that she couldn't just lose it at the other "young offenders". That this was a learning experience, and blah blah blah. The quickly darkening sky was far more interesting than whatever he was saying.
"Sorry, but do you see this?" she interrupted, pointing at the sky. His light eyes snapped up to look at the black cloud spreading across the sun, and his jaw fell in surprise. Lightning sparked across the sky like lattice work.
"We need to get inside. Let's get the others," he said urgently. They ran back to the group, and found them standing in a nervous circle, looking at the sky.
"What the fuck is going on with the clouds?" Rachel cried.
"This is wicked weird, you guys I've never seen this happen before..." Ryan said nervously.
"Are you an expert on weather?" Luca asked condescendingly.
"It's okay guys, Weatherman Tim is here to tell us that this shit is fucking weird," Kevin taunted Ryan. Just then thunder rolled through the sky and lightning struck down in several places. Hail began to pelt the pavement around them. It seemed that every second the hail grew larger, until chunks of ice the size of small cars crashed down from the clouds. Everybody screamed and began to run in different directions.
"Back! Back inside!" the probation worker commanded. Everyone turned their terrified running towards the entrance to the community center, trying frantically to dodge the massive pieces of ice raining down from the sky. Sam tripped over a root poking from the cement and she sprawled on the ground with a cry. Luca staggered to a slower pace, and helped her up to continue running, both only barely escaping being crushed.
And then the lightning struck. One long fork of pure electricity arced down from the sky and rocked through all 6 of them. The feeling of white hot energy coursing through them was something none of them would forget. And for each person the sensation was slightly different. Kevin felt as if a tiny sun was being pushed into his heart, the heat unbelievable. Rachel felt weightless, like she could vanish or fall through the asphalt they were running on. Sam's whole body seemed to be buzzing, like every cell was rearranging itself over and over. Ryan thought his head might explode from the pressure, and his tongue especially felt electric as he was zapped. Luca strangely felt more alive, more powerful, almost. He felt the lightning in his bones but it did not hurt like he expected it to. And the probation worker felt his heart tighten, his brain felt like it was being twisted in his skull, and a deep pulsating feeling erupted in his lower abdomen.
Of course overall it felt like one might expect being struck by lightning would feel like. But later that night at the bar or in their beds when they thought about the event, they would realize how strange it were unconscious for mere minutes. When the group was dragged back into the waking world by the sounds of car alarms, the storm had passed. Stray hail pellets and raindrops pattered the ground. The clouds looked far less menacing, and the lightning storm had ended.
"Fucking hell..." Kevin groaned, sitting up on his elbows.
"We were just struck by lightning," Ryan stuttered. "We should be dead. Why aren't we dead?"
"Way to make us feel better, dickhead," Rachel snapped, standing unsteadily.
"Is everybody okay?" the probation worker asked. Sam nodded, and rubbed her eyes. Luca jumped up, feeling incredibly jittery.
"Can-can we just take a break?" Kevin asked shakily. "To recover from what we've just been through? I don't feel up to painting anymore."
"You're just trying to weasel your way out of community service," the probation worker coughed.
"Hey but you know what they say?" Kevin pointed out. "Never tease a weasel. The weasel will not like it, and teasing isn't ni-"
"Shut the fuck up, you stupid fucking idiot!" Sam cut in. Everybody was surprised by her furious outburst, but after a moment, Rachel started laughing. Then Luca joined in, snickering quietly, and Ryan began to chuckle as well. Kevin fixed them all with an incredulous stare as the group fell into stupid laughter.
"We were just hit by lightning, and we all survived!" Rachel gasped between giggles.
"The chances of being hit by lightning is like 1 in 700,000 which is a greater chance than winning the lottery. I guess we're all pretty lucky," Ryan concluded.
"Yeah, well what's the chance of winning the lottery?" the probation worker asked dryly. Ryan thought for a moment.
"I think it's 1 in 13 million."
"Maybe tomorrow we'll win the lottery."