Community Service. I can think of no bigger way to waste my own time. I myself don't even deserve the community service that I have been assigned to. You see my name is Regina Brooks and I don't think it's fair that I was dealt a shit hand.

I had walked to the community center with a face of determination. I would refuse to do any of the work that was expected of me. I would be a model of under achievement. I walked through the doors of the underwhelming building into the lobby. A large dark skinned man was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and holding a dirty orange jumpsuit. He seemed to scowl at me as I walked towards him.

"You Brooks?" He motioned towards me. I nodded quickly, everything I had wanted to say seemed to disappear from my head. I quickly grabbed the jumpsuit and headed to the change rooms.

I entered to see that it was coed. I recognized a guy who had been an up and coming runner. I'd heard that he had become a heroin addict and that's why he was here. He sure was fit for a druggie. He'd taken his shirt of and oh boy he had kept up. I probably looked really awkward just standing in the door way staring at a guy in his underwear so I walked up next to a locker besides a girl with dark blond hair that was scrapped back. If hair could talk hers would probably scream with pain. I turned and scanned the rest of the room. A boy with curly dark hair and a good looking face had a blank expression was turned to one side. To the right of the Chav besides me was a pretty dark skinned girl. She seemed to be trying to make the orange jumpsuit sexy which I believed to be impossible. There were two other boys in the room but neither made any impression on me. I quickly stripped and changed into my clothes.

I walked out of the dressing room only to see that we were leaving the building. I exited and stood next to the dark skinned girl who was chewing her gum quite loudly. I leaned against the rail overlooking the Lake. After all of us had turned and faced our probation worker he began speaking about the usual bull shit that he was paid to speak about. The curly hair boy turned out to be a smart ass and questioned him. one of the other boys, who wore one of those flat top caps was calling him out. The girl besides me pulled out her phone as soon as it rang.

"Look can I move to another group?" Heroin addict sighed, "This isn't going to work for me."

The chav turned to him and said " Do ya think your betta than os?" We all looked at her. That was the weirdest accent I've ever heard and my best friends Canadian.

"What is that accent?" Smart Ass asked. Then Druggie agreed " Is that for real?"

I felt a surge of sympathy, I was the one who had always who had been picked on for being a little bit chubby. Well according to the kids at my grade school I was Regina the cow. I still had weight problems today. I want obese but I sure wasn't skinny. I felt like I needed to stick up for her.

"That's just noise! How are we supposed to understand her?" Smart ass looked at the rest of inquisitively.

"Buddy," I snorted, "noone gives a fuck."

He looked at me with a smirk. I knew now that this person would make my life hell. He just had a look that says 'I will annoy the fuck out of you'.

"You worried that you're not getting enough of me chubs?" He chuckled. My face stilled. Did he think that that was the first time I had been called that? My life was one big joke against me. That was about the time that the probation worker lost it and broke us up. He forced us to introduce ourselves to each other, the druggie was Curtis, smart ass became Nathan, Chav became Kelly and the slightly annoying girl on her phone became Alisha. After Alisha I stopped paying attention to the last two. We were then given paint brushes and cans and told to paint the benches outside the community center. Within a few minutes of painting flat top boy had kicked over a paint can and stormed off. I was working on one bench with Kelly while Nathan worked on the other.

Nathan looked up at Kelly. "So I'm guessing Shoplifting? No?"

Kelly didn't look back at him when she replied by saying "Don't act like ya know me cause ya don't."

"I'm just making conversation," he gestured towards us. " this is our chance to network with other young offenders! We should be swapping tips and Brainstorming! Come on, what did ya do?"

Kelly gave in. "This girl called me a slag so I just got into a fight."

"Was this on the Jeremy Kyle show? Asked Nathan with a false sense of seriousness.

"No it was at Argos," Kelly replied with an eye roll.

"Oh Argos," he repeated. "You know what you shoulda done? You shoulda got one of them little pens they have and jabbed it into her eye!" Kelly just rolled her eyes again and went back to work.

Nathan then turned to me. "What about you chubs? Did ya dine and dash? Or is community service just for the exercise?"

Kelly slapped him upside the head. When she turned and looked at me I nodded and smiled. I knew that we would be friends. Nathan scowled at me. He then turned to the shy kid who had been painting with the 'Gangsta'.

"What about you weird kid? Don't take this the wrong way but you look like a panty sniffer. Ya know?" He then held up imaginary panties and sniffed them.

"I'm not a panty sniffer." The quiet boy said. "I'm not a pervert."

Nathan then took his brush and started to pretend to jack off with it. He grunted and moaned while everyone else, me included looked disgusted. He slowly walked towards the little guy.

Weird kid started shaking like he was about to burst with anger. "I tried to burn someone's house down!" I looked at Kelly with wide eyes.

I turned to him. "It's not a competition honey,"

"What didya do?" Kelly asked Nathan.

"Me? I was done for eating some pick 'n' mix." I snorted and looked up at him.

"Bollock's," Kelly shakes her head and goes back to painting.

The skies rumbled again. When I looked up I saw a storm fast approaching. It seemed to be coming at an astronomical rate.

Nathan also seemed to be looking at the rumbling storm clouds when he said, "What is going on with this weather?"

Our probation officer walked out to see that Gangsta kid's mess. He seemed quite appalled. "How'd that happen? I mean you've only been out here five minutes." He was exasperated, "Its painting benches. How'd you screw that up? You tell me cuz I've got no idea."

He seemed to be waiting for a response when a giant piece of hail fell from the sky. It smashed into a nearby car. I screamed and dropped my brush. How is it fair? I'm going to die during my community service. I then remembered that my best friend was outside right now. Charlie would be outside in his garden with his headphones in. he could be crushed to death and not even see it coming.

We all took steps away from the benches and the probation worker swore. "That's my car!"

Nathan laughed. "Classic!"

Then another fell not far from us and we all jumped in shock. Alisha pointed into the sky, "What is that?" I turned to see that the storm was now almost over head. The cloud appeared to only be fifty to sixty metres above the ground. Another hail meteor hit right beside the weird kid. The ground shook under my feet and I jumped away. That was when the probation officer started moving towards the building "Right, let's get everyone inside! Move!"

I started sprinting as fast as my thunder thighs would allow. The hail was really picking up, small ones pelted us as we ran while the bigger ones seemed to almost miniature earthquakes. It became very hard to see so I latched my hands on to Kelly's orange jumpsuit she ran towards the door with me jogging behind. When we got to the door our probation worker couldn't find his keys.

That was when I felt it. A huge shockwave moving through my body and I believed that it was the end. Next I felt my body hit the hard pavement. When I opened my eyes I was still there. I turned and looked at Kelly. Her eyes were wide. "I feel really weird," she said.

I didn't blame her, I felt as if my head was on fire. "Urgh I'm with ya there."

Curtis looks around and blinks. "That'll be the lightning,"

Our probation worker sits up looking quite strange. His eyes are strange. "Is everyone all right?" He clutched his head. Nathan took another jab at him. the probation worker then yelled, "WANKER!"

Nathan looked shocked, "Did he just call me a wanker?" I laughed at him. "Its been building up my friend, you deserve it." The other began snapping at the probation worker until he finally said, "Let's just call it a day."

We slowly got up and headed for the locker rooms.

I had texted my friend Charlie to pick me up from the building. The only people inside the change room were the two other girls and me. Kelly was brushing her hair while Alisha and I got changed.

Kelly turned and looked at Alisha with a glare, "Wha dya say?"

Alisha looked shocked, "I didn't say anything," and she hadn't. I was standing next to her I would have heard.

A few seconds later Kelly turned around again, "Wha?!"

Alisha stammered something then turned and left. I looked at Kelly with a small smile. I hope she's ok. I thought.

Kelly looked at me strangely, "I'll be fine."

I hadn't said that out loud had I? No, maybe it was just the look on my face. Yeah that must be it. I rushed out of the Locker room to see everyone dispersing. Well fuck it I'm out. I walked out of the front to see Charlie waiting in his shitty car. He smiled at me and honked the horn. I quickly jumped in the car.

"How was your day?" he began. I gave him a look and he sighed, "Straight to the bar then." I chuckled happily as we drove off.

"So you were struck by lightning today? Well that's interesting, I hadn't known that the storm was going till an ice brick took out my marigolds." Charlie sighed. He was an avid gardener and also my best friend in the entire world. We shared a house that he inherited from his old senile aunt. We lived off of his garden and my small amount of shifts at a local diner. Charlie had darkish hair that was short and blue eyes.

"Oh I'm so sorry about the flowers Charlie," I give his hand a squeeze, he gives me a whimsical smile.

"Don't worry darling, I only grew them for Auntie Mildred and you know how much of a bitch she could be. Always going on and on about her vaginal itch. She could possibly be why I'm so confused with my sexuality." He explained. I laughed and looked down, our drinks were empty.

"We'd better go, if you have more than one we have to walk home and I ain't doing that." We laughed and got up from our seats. Another day another couple of hours gained.