September 30th, 5:02 AM-
Like clockwork, the shrill noise of an impatient whine sounded from beside the bed. A long snout tipped with a wet black nose began to scoot its way under the blonde girl's hand which hung limp off the side of the mattress. Slowly she stretched out her long, thin fingers, finding the pup's cheek and giving him a good scratching underneath the chin. Despite the wag of his tail the dog was still not satisfied, and his whining persisted until the girl sat up, removing her hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes. The dog's tail wagging became more enthusiastic and the collie hopped up, putting his big, dirty forepaws up on the bed.
"Hey! Abbot, shoo," Leighanne prodded sleepily, pushing the dog back off her handmade quilt and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, lowering her bare feet to the chilly hardwood floor. The crisp autumn air had begun to creep its way across the town, which while a welcome respite from the sweltering summer humidity only made getting up and doing the morning chores that much harder. It didn't help that the creaky old farm house didn't have sufficient central heating, only a few ancient radiators that had definitely seen better days and clanged angrily in protest at having been turned on.
Though she was a comically petite girl, the old stairs creaked under her weight as Leighanne made her way down the rickety staircase, Abbot thundering past her and prancing in excited circles at the bottom as he waited for the young girl to reach him. A pair of dirty old converse, a pair of well worn work shoes, and a pair of tiny boots sat in a line by the back door. Judging by what remained and what was missing, her parents were awake, but Logan and Lucas were still in bed. Figures. Pulling on her muddy boots and slipping her coat off the hanger, Leighanne stepped out into the crisp morning air and let out a stifled yawn. Time to feed the animals, with Abbot following closely on her heels to visit his favorite hooved friends.
First came the pigs. As soon as they heard the sound of their food being poured the chubby pink animals came barreling towards their trough, ears flopping as they ran and contented squeals punctuating each swine's arrival. They seemed to be doing well enough this morning, soft snorts continuing between bites though slightly stifled.
With a small smile, Leighanne headed to the horse stalls to give them their feed next. At the sound of the girl tugging the door open, Abbot brought his attention away from the pigs and trotted over as well. Inside there were three horses, two mares and a stallion. One of the mares, a rusty red color with a light blonde mane, poked her head over the door to her stable at the sound. As per usual, Leighanne gave special attention to her own pride and joy, giving the red coated beauty, Dixie, a thorough petting before feeding her, and then the other horses in quick succession.
Last came the goats. Even this early in the morning the kids were being rambunctious. This was terrific news to Abbot, who seemed to want nothing more than to play, the big fluffy collie leaping in circles around his little horned companions. Leighanne shooed him away once again, making sure they got fed and sitting down to give the mother a quick milking before crossing briskly across the land and back into the relative warmth of the house.
Her older brother Logan sat slumped over with his face in his hands at the kitchen table, his twin brother filling up Abbot's dish which the dog thanked him for with a lick of his fingers.
"You two are useless!" Leighanne griped, shrugging off her coat and plopping down onto the floor to strong arm her boots off her feet. "You never help out with anything around here."
"Hey, I fed your dog, didn't I?" Lucas retorted defensively, gesturing towards the fluffy, ravenous mutt with his long snout buried in his food bowl.
Leighanne gave her green eyes an exasperated roll. "Oh yeah, sure. That's like, the easiest job," she scolded. Shouldn't the older brothers be the ones doing more of the hard work? She was just a dainty little lady, after all. "And he's not my dog, he's our dog," she added, sticking her tongue out at Lucas as she crossed back to the stairs to shower and dress herself for the day.
September 30th, 6:13 AM-
By the time she finished showering and putting on her school uniform, a blue plaid skirt and plain black Mary Janes, Lucas had gone, but Logan remained in the same place she had left him. Figures, she thought, reaching up to pull her thin blonde hair into a pair of pigtails. Logan was undoubtedly the black sheep in the family, tending to stay out late and get himself into trouble only to regret it the next morning. Rifling through the cupboards and keeping a critical eye on her brother, she produced a box of Lucky Charms and a bowl, placing both on the kitchen table a little too loudly in an attempt to get his attention. The effort proved futile, and the young girl gave her older brother the best stink eye she could muster as she poured herself a bowl of rainbow marshmallow goodness.
"I heard you came back late last night," she remarked casually, pouring some milk over her sugary breakfast and beginning the task of separating the cereal pieces from the sweet marshmallowy treats interspersed. Her brother responded with a grunt, and kept his face hidden in the crook of his elbow so that all Leighanne could see was the top of his dark haired head.
"I thought you were looking for a day job, whatever happened to that? I doubt mom and dad are gonna keep funding your habits," she remarked once her cereal bowl was properly divided. He grunted again, this time reaching out his arm to move the cereal box between the two of them. So he didn't feel like talking this morning. Leighanne ate her cereal pieces in relative silence, gazing at the box between herself and her brother and briefly entertaining the notion that she may be part leprechaun. At only 5' tall and not getting any taller, it seemed as reasonable an explanation as any. Once she had a bowl of only marshmallows left, she loaded successive spoonfuls of the sugary bliss and ate them in bites big enough that it almost made her teeth hurt.
Satisfied that she had sufficiently wrung out as much familial interaction as she could with her brother, Leighanne stood and washed out her bowl in the sink, calling out a chipper 'goodbye' as she trotted out towards the shed and picking up her school things from beside the door as she left. Abbot awaited her just beyond the doorway, and she gave the pup a quick kiss on the head and a scratch deep into the thick scruff around his neck before straddling her bike, adjusting her bag and balancing her clarinet case carefully. Like some kind of circus act she tested out her balance situation cautiously for a moment before becoming more sure footed and peddling off towards school.
Willowcrest High School was a bit of a ways away, but the bike ride to and from school proved to be a therapeutic stint of alone time. That, and she had plenty of time to kill given how early she got up to do her chores around the house. Besides, she figured the exercise was good for her little bird legs that were a prime source of self-consciousness in the young teen.
Mama always said there was no shame in being little, but being reminded of it on such a frequent basis didn't help matters. Amongst her peers, the most notable of her features was her diminutive stature, and twig like build. Despite how obvious it was that she was by far the smallest in her class, each person who pointed it out spoke as though they were the first to notice and let her know. Each time, Leighanne forced a smile like it was news to her, and let them go on with their day as though they had made a witty observation.
She huffed and puffed as she neared the top of a large incline, her muscles straining to keep the bike moving forward. A little extra muscle mass from these rigorous bike rides would help her look more sturdy, she figured. Despite having all the determination in the world, the bike began to wobble and Leighanne quickly put her feet down before she toppled over completely. Crestfallen, the girl walked her bike to the top of the hill before hopping back on. School had started a few weeks ago, and she still had yet to make it to the top of the hill without walking.
In the past she had contemplated taking up a sport; her best friend Talia had always insisted she join cheerleading with her, but that seemed a little too adventurous for someone like Leighanne. She preferred to remain on solid ground, and right side up. Not only that, but cheerleading practice always ran at the same time as marching band practice, her one true love. That worked as her foolproof excuse every time the topic came up, but truth be told the band really was where her heart lie anyhow. Making music made Leighanne's heart soar, and being in the band was substantially less flashy than being a cheerleader. She loved the tight-knit group and the focus on the ensemble, rather than any one individual. Leighanne felt most comfortable when she could blend in, and in the band she could do just that. From up in the stadium seats, everyone looked tiny. She simply didn't fancy herself a standout kind of girl.
September 30th, 7:30 AM-
It was a completely different story when it came to school. Academia had always been something that came easily to the girl; her aptitude led her to skipping the third grade, which didn't do any favors when it came to her size relative to her peers. Middle school, a notoriously dreadful time for any young adult, didn't pose much of a threat to the bright young woman, leaving her plenty of time to dedicate to the emotional woes that came along with early teenage years.
At fourteen she was now in her first year of high school, which she planned to complete in record time. Her academic advisors assured her that if she kept up with the workload graduating as valedictorian would be no problem, and as long as she continued to apply herself through college she would graduate with any degree she wanted to pursue by the time she was twenty. Admittedly, the pressure affected the girl more than she let on, but her family could use all the help they could get, and that was before the cost of college tuition. With Lucas taking online courses the financial strain already made itself visible, even without Logan bumming money off the family to feed a multitude of habits. And here she was, worrying over student loans at the ripe young age of fourteen.
Her day started off with history, which just so happened to be her favorite subject. English didn't prove too stressful, and the sciences were interesting. She took French as a second language course, which she found engaging, and though she thought math to be a little bit dry, she appreciated its straightforward nature so she didn't mind it too much. Gym could be frustrating, but she forced herself to work hard despite the asinine drills they often had to complete.
Her cooking class however, proved damn near impossible for Leighanne to wrap her head around. Nothing she attempted to make ever quite turned out as it should have, and that was a best case scenario. The worst case scenario involved the entire school evacuating due to the smoke billowing out of her attempt at culinary achievement. Though all the students got to eat their creations after cooking them, Leighanne could rarely stomach more than a single bite of whatever she whipped up. Luckily, lunch was right after.
September 30th, 12:30 PM-
"Hey girlie! How was your morning?!"
The chipper greeting welcomed Leighanne into the cafeteria as a dark auburn haired girl waved her over. Talia Maybury had been Leighanne's best friend since the two were in fourth grade, and though they had grown up to be vastly different people the strength of their friendship hardly faltered. Walking through the lunch line Leighanne grabbed a cheese pizza and an apple, while Talia took a generous helping of french fries and three cookies to serve as her meal.
The pair always ate lunch together in the corner of the cafeteria by the windows, warm sunshine filtering in through the panes. Evidently today was someone's birthday, as Leighanne jumped slightly at the sudden chorus of song that erupted from one of the tables in the middle of the cafeteria. The middle tables housed the athletic girls, and a quick look over her shoulder confirmed they were the ones singing terribly off key but enthusiastically.
In the middle of the gaggle of singing jocks stood Chumani Havener looking thoroughly embarrassed and hushing everyone around her to no avail. Everyone knew Chumani, like some kind of high school celebrity. Leighanne knew she played multiple sports, though she could never remember which, and just assumed the friendly jock could manage anything thrown at her given she had won the school more trophies than any other individual.
Peeling her eyes away from the spectacle, Leighanne had only taken a single bit of her pizza when Talia leaned across the table with a shifty gaze over in the chorus' direction. Leighanne frowned slightly as she chewed, taking note that her friend had her gossip face on.
"I heard Chumani is having a big birthday party this weekend," she informed with hushed excitement, "I heard her parents are loaded, and they're paying for her and all her friends to go skydiving, how awesome is that?"
Leighanne smiled warily, looking back over to the star athlete who was shielding herself from a gaggle of friends trying to smother her with hugs. She had nice arms, very defined. All of her looked strong, sturdy. Hopefully by the end of the school year the culmination of all her bike rides up that damn hill would leave her having a body that looked something like that, but mini.
"I talk to her all the time, you know," Talia said with a smug grin, throwing her curly red hair back over her shoulder. "She has practice at the same time I have cheer, and we talk at the water fountain like, every day."
"Wow, that's pretty cool," Leighanne encouraged though with minimal enthusiasm, smiling slightly. "She's in my math class, but we don't ever really talk." Truth be told, the only time that had ever spoken was once when they had been placed in a group together to work on a problem set. She had been incredibly nice, but Leighanne couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by her, as though her reputation made her almost unapproachable.
"Do you think she is gonna ask me to come to her birthday party?" Talia asked, looking genuinely concerned. By the look on her face not being asked to this party just might destroy her. Talia had always been exceptionally self-conscious about her social reputation, not that Leighanne minded much. It was kind of endearing, in a way. Besides, she was a kind girl, so it was forgivable. That's why Leighanne smiled more genuinely this time, wrinkling the corners of her green eyes.
"I'm sure she will."
September 30th, 1:15 PM-
After lunch, Leighanne bid Talia goodbye and skipped off down the tiled halls towards the band room. There was something comfortably familial about the room that had become her home away from home, and that alone made the class one of her favorites. Before school had even started she spent a good chunk of time in the room for band camp, meeting new people and finding her place in this new school.
Leighanne took her seat next to the section leader for the rest of the clarinets, a strawberry blonde girl with cold blue eyes and a look of permanent dissatisfaction on her pale chubby face. That look of dissatisfaction seemed to intensify whenever Leighanne showed up, not that she let it phase her cheery attitude.
"Hey Nixie!" she chirped brightly, scooting up beside her with her clarinet in hand. The elder girl returned her greeting with a tight-lipped smile. Ever dissatisfied. Leighanne supposed that never being satisfied was one of the things that led her to being such a gifted clarinet player. She knew Nixie excelled in school as well, the two of them were often called for the same academic achievement awards. Nixie never appeared hostile or overtly competitive with Leighanne, but she never seemed particularly happy about it either. They were like friendly rivals, Leighanne mused as they began to play. Even if one party was substantially more friendly than the other.
September 30th, 2:30 PM-
The tolling of the school bell signaled the time for another speedy bike ride, and another valuable chunk of alone time. Not much passed through her mind today, besides wondering if Talia really would be invited to Chumani's party. If so, that'd be pretty neat. Leighanne was uncertain she'd have the guts to go skydiving for the same reasons that she was uncertain about doing cheerleading. Hurtling through the air seemed like something better suited for superheroes and thrill junkies, and Leighanne was neither of those things.
Much to her surprise, as she wheeled down the hill and coasted the rest of the way to her house, she found Logan already beginning to clean the stalls. Leighanne smiled fondly at the sight; clearly her pep talk that morning had done something. She hopped off her bike and set her backpack down inside, propping her clarinet case up against the bag for safe keeping. Taking the stairs two at a time she changed out of her uniform and into a t-shirt and a pair of shorts before running back down the stairs to get started on the afternoon's chores. The two spent some time cleaning the stalls together, though Logan remained about as talkative as he had been that morning. Leighanne didn't mind, the repetitive motions freed up her mind to work on other things, such as formulating the thesis for her history project.
Once afternoon chores were finished, only a brief window of time remained for her to complete the day's homework, so she grew accustomed to working quickly. Leighanne was never the type to sit down and focus all her attention on her homework, so instead she followed the usual motions. Getting a small snack, curling up in the living room in the cozy corner of the couch and flipping on the television for background noise as she wrote, calculated, and theorized away at the day's homework. She worked at blistering speeds, gathering up all her papers to put back in her bag by the time four o'clock rolled around. Bidding Logan, the only family member present in the house, goodbye, Leighanne flew back out the door and onto her bike. This time, her destination was the town recreation center where marching band practice was held.
September 30th, 4:30 PM-
Though band class won the title of Leighanne's favorite class, marching band practice won the honorable distinction as her favorite time of the day altogether. Something about belonging to a group of people working towards a common cause made her feel positively giddy, and it was rare to see her in anything less than soaring spirits once practice rolled around. Sure, any group of teenagers who spent prolonged time together would have their drama every once in a while, but Leighanne's chipper disposition acted like a sort of drama shield. That, and a little bit of willful ignorance to the darker goings on.
As such, she didn't notice the bickering amongst the flutists as they paused for a water break, instead taking a dare from one of the trumpets to chug as much water as she could in one gulp, despite the activity being ill advised by Nixie. Still, despite her protests the section leader did nothing to stop the younger girl from giving in to the chants of "chug, chug, chug!", craning her head back and bringing her gigantic bottle to her lips. She didn't last long before giving up, a healthy splash of water running down the front of her tee.
Off in the distance sounded the murmurs of deep rumbling, and Leighanne craned her head to the sky in an attempt to spot any thunder clouds rolling in, but saw nothing but vast empty sky turning darker as dusk approached.
Then the ground began to shake.
A few of the students yelped as everything around them began to rattle violently, worse than anything she could have imagined an earthquake to be.
"Everyone! Please move to the center of the field!" the director instructed, concern evident in his voice as he and the students struggled to even walk as the ground shifted beneath their feet. Everyone scrambled to get out away from the edges of the small football stadium, a few of the stadium lights bursting and groaning as though threatening to fall over.
Leighanne stumbled, falling to the ground with a hard thud and crawling the rest of her way to the group on her hands and knees. Plopping down beside her section leader, she pulled her legs up to her chest, looking about wide eyed. Something about this earthquake seemed unusual, and its strength only increased as the group sat huddled together. The stadium lights groaned again, and in a moment of panic Leighanne grabbed Nixie's hand and held her knees even closer to her chest.
Much to her surprise, Nixie squeezed her hand back.