Kim's POV
"You guys want to come over today?" Jack asked.
"Sure!" We all replied. Jack's house was a common place to hang out due to the fact that the dojo isn't as, private.
"Hey Jack, do you have a covered patio?" Milton asked. That's a weird question…
"No, why?" Jack replied.
"Well, there is supposed to be a storm tonight and I want a front row seat!" Milton said.
"So you're not afraid of storms?" I asked him, hoping he somehow forgot that he is scared of storms.
"Well, I would be, but they are just so fascinating. Did you know lightning can strike within clouds, without even touching the ground?" Milton started.
"Oh, cool," I told him, looking away. Great! Milton isn't afraid of storms! I've never told anyone before, but storms freak me out. Maybe Milton is wrong, and there won't be a storm tonight after all, right? Whatever, I still want to hang out with Jack and it looks like this is the only way to do it!
"Kim, you okay?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" Why wouldn't I be fine? I thought sarcastically.
"Well, you were making some really weird faces and then you almost ran into the wall…" He told me. I looked at Milton and Jerry and they both nodded.
"I'm going to change!" I yelled before they could make any comments.
After I came out I noticed the guys still standing there, talking about something stupid I'm sure. "Where's Rudy?" I asked.
"We were just wondering that," Milton said.
I looked outside and saw the sky darkening. That's weird, either it's a lot later than I thought, or there's a st- no it can't be. "Jack, what time is it?" I asked trying to keep the worry out of my voice.
"4 o'clock Kim. Are you okay? You sound… different…" Jack said. Great he noticed. He started to walk over to me, probably to make sure I was fine.
"Yeah, I'm good, I was just wondering. Everything is perfectly fi-" Just then there was a flash of light. "What was that?" I said, crouching down slightly.
"I'm sure it was just lightening Kim," Milton said.
Just then there was a huge crack. I closed my eyes and tried not to scream. I stood back up and tried to play it off seeing as all the boys were gawking at me now.
When I thought I had them convinced, an even louder thunder sounded. Despite my efforts, I let out a scream as I covered my eyes. This caused me to lose my balance and I started to fall to the ground. Luckily Jack had moved close enough to catch me in his arms.
"Yo I think you forgot what the word okay means bro," Jerry laughed.
I made a move towards him when I felt Jack wrap his arms around my body even tighter. Then I heard yet another boom from outside. By instinct, I clutched the closest thing to me, which happened to be Jack.
"It's okay Kimmy, it's just a small storm," Jack told me. I knew he was making fun of me for being scared but just as I was about say something I heard the thunder again.
By now I was more annoyed at it than scared. Why couldn't I just be cool about it?
Jack helped me down to the bench but still held on to me in case I got scared again. I pushed him away and quickly stood up.
"I'm fine now. Let's just get started!" I said. Another lightning struck but unlike the others, it was immediately followed by thunder. This caused me to jump again.
"Kim, why don't we all just head over to my house early?" Jack suggested.
"Yeah but, look, Jack," I said motioning to the chaos outside.
"What?" He asked dumbly.
"You don't expect me to go outside, in that, do you?"
"Okay, Milton how long is this storm going to last?" Jack asked.
"Well, I'm not sure, but there should be a break soon before the real storm." He said.
"Real storm?!" I yelled.
"Calm down Kim, let's just wait out the storm here," Jack said.
I nodded in agreement and put my head back down.
Jack's POV
Kim put her head back down and I hugged her tighter. She continued to shutter after every thunderclap. After about 15 minutes I noticed she stopped moving. Aww, Kimmy fell asleep.
I watched Jerry and Milton practice for 45 minutes and Kim was still asleep, now on my lap. "Dude she so like you!" Jerry said, snapping a picture with his phone before I could say anything.
After an hour and a half, the rain slowed and thunder stopped. This may be our only window to get Kim out. I shook her gently and she stirred a little.
"You ready to go Kimmy?" I asked her.
"Yeah- what?" She said, sitting up and hair a little frazzled.
"It stopped raining. We can go now," I told her again.
I helped her stand and gave her her bag. She took it from me and looked back to wait until I was ready.
"Milton, Jerry, you coming?" I said.
"Yeah, dude! Finally!" Jerry said.
With that, we all walked out. It took about 15 minutes to get to my house, normally a 7-minute ride on my skateboard. I got to the door and saw a note from my mom,
I tried to call you and Rudy but I guess you are working really hard a practice ;) Anyways, I had a super last minute meeting in New York but I'll be back before Monday, hopefully, sooner. Call me when you get home, talk to you soon!
-Mom
I put the note on the counter with my bag. "You guys can go head down and pick a movie, I'll be right down," I told them.
After I called my mom I went down to the madhouse. Jerry and Milton were fighting over which movie to watch while Kim was fiddling with the remote. After a few more seconds, the Disney logo filled the screen.
"That's weird, the sound must be off," I heard her say. She grabbed the other remote and pressed a button. I looked at the screen and saw a little number in the corner go from 23 to 72. It must be on mute. I was just about to help when Jerry grabbed the remote.
"Dude I think it's on mute!" Jerry said pressing the button.
"NOO!" We all yelled, but it was too late. We covered our ears while Kim used her foot to press the mute button.
"Dude, what was that for?" Jerry said.
"WHAT?" Kim yelled.
"I said what was that for?" Jerry said again.
"TALK LOUDER!" She yelled again.
"I SAID-" I put my hand over his mouth before he could finish. Yelling most likely won't help Kim's hearing get any better.
"Kim can you hear me?" I asked her.
"What did you say Jack?" She said a little quieter.
"Milton, is there any way we can get Kim's hearing back?" I asked a little desperate.
"Well my guess is she is only suffering from a minor inner lobe compression depo-" I cut him off
"Dude we can't understand you can we fix it?" I asked.
"Sure, all we need to do is wait. She should get her hearing back within 30 minutes."
I tried to tell Kim but I ended up getting a whiteboard so we wouldn't have to yell.
"But I won't be able to hear the songs," she complained.
We were watching Beauty and the Beast which happened to be one of Kim's favorite movies. "Don't worry, the best songs are at the end." I wrote on the board.
"Let's just turn on subtitles for Kim," Milton said.
"Yeah let's get this party started yo!" Jerry added.
I grabbed the remote and fixed the volume so we could start the movie.
Pretty soon after we started the storm outside began again. Luckily Kim hadn't noticed yet. Then a loud thunder caused the room to vibrate slightly and we all looked at Kim.
"What was that?" She asked, not very concerned.
"NOTHING!" We all told her.
"Okay…" She said looking down.
After the movie ended I asked him how her hearing was. She said it was better, which surprised me, maybe the basement was too far for her to hear the storm.
"Do you guys want to do something?" I asked.
"We could watch another movie," Kim suggested.
"I think I've had my fill of romance for tonight…" Milton said, getting up.
"Come on, the movie wasn't that bad Milton."
"Oh it wasn't just the movie Kim," Jerry said, eyeing Jack and Kim.
"Do you guys want to go upstairs and play truth or dare?" Kim suggested.
"Sure!" I agreed. That was our go-to game. Milton and Jerry were first to go up, and I followed. Once I got to the top of the stairs I waited for Kim to come from behind me, but she never did. I looked back to see her half way up.
"Was that…thunder?" She asked, continuing to listen intently.
"Yeah, but it's no big deal Kim-" I tried to convince her.
"Why don't we play down here?" She took a step further down the stairs.
"Please Kim, you can't sit with me," I suggested.
"Oh thanks, just what I need!" She sarcastically stated.
I knew there was no way she would climb up on her own so I came down to her step and grabbed her with one arm. Because I was taller than her, her feet didn't touch the ground, so she couldn't escape my grasp.
"Jack put me down!" She kicked her legs to no avail. (Thank you lcsudduth3 for the correction)
I just ignored it and carried her to the couch where Milton and Jerry were sitting. They saw the struggling Kim and scooted to the floor. I sat down and set Kim right next to me. Jerry and Milton started to whisper and then laughed. I could tell it had to do with the fact that I had to carry Kim to get her upstairs.
"So who wants to start?" I said followed by a long pause.
"Okay fine Jerr-" thunderstruck once again and Kim screamed.
"It's just a little thunder, Kim!" Milton said.
"Are you alright?" I tried to comfort her.
"Yo, you good Kimmy?" Jerry said.
"Don't call me that!" She demanded.
I gave her a hug partly to comfort her, but mostly to keep her from doing anything to Jerry. We played truth or dare for about an hour before Milton said he had to go home, Jerry right behind.
"Are you ready to go Kim?" I asked her.
"Not in the storm!" She said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Okay… what if we call your mom?" I asked.
"She's not home."
"What if we run?"
"No."
"What if we take an umbrella?"
"There is no way I'm going out there Jac-" She jumped at the sound of a louder thunder.
"Can I just wait it out here?" She whined.
"Okay…" I told her.
More thunder sounded but Kim didn't move closer. I could see in her eyes that she was scared and held out my arms. At first, she didn't do anything. Then the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life struck, and even I had to shutter. At that Kim had backed into me and I wrapped my arms around her.
We sat down on the couch and I turned on the tv. We flipped through all the channels and found Aladdin on Disney channel. (I just realized what kind of inception I could have caused just now… oops) I fell asleep pretty early on but woke up when Kim left for the bathroom.
When she came back and sat down, the tv suddenly turned off. And all the lights.
"Kim? You still here?" I said feeling around.
"Yeah." She said.
"Stay here," I told her. I got up and using the occasional light from lightning and my amazing navigation skills, I found a flashlight in a kitchen drawer.
Using the light from the flashlight I found, I ran up to my room and grabbed a smaller one for Kim to use. I put it in my pocket and ran back downstairs. Instead of walking normally to Kim, I decided to have some fun.
I turned the light off and snuck up on Kim. When I was right in front of her I turned the light on and yelled, "Boo!"
"AHHH!" She screamed, bring in her knees up and closing her eyes.
"I'm sorry Kimmy, I was only joking," I said as I sat down next to her. I wrapped my arms around her and she looked at me with her big brown eyes.
She yawned and within 5 minutes she had fallen fast asleep. Wow, she must have been really tired.
Right after she fell asleep the power came back on. I grabbed the tv remote and turned the volume down really low so I wouldn't wake Kim up. About an hour and a half later, I slowly closed my eyes, with Kim still in my arms.