'God, it's like the damn thing is out to get me. For nothing says "good morning" quite like a heart attack, am I right?' Keyra thought after she managed to jump up five feet and clear off her bed and onto the floor beside it as the alarm continued to blare it's greeting to her, interrupting and demolishing her peaceful sleep. She sighed as she looked at the calendar. Another week of the hellhole the grownups liked to call school. She was in her second to last year of high school and she honestly had no idea what she wanted to be when she out of that cruel abomination. It seems like everyone around her already had their whole life planned out in front of them and for her, well, she didn't even know what she wanted for dinner. 'But that's okay, I still have about a year and a half to get all my priories sorted out, so no rush. I'm more of a live-in-the-moment girl anyways.' She thought to herself as she picked herself up off the cool, auburn hardwood floor.
She made her way to her drawer and threw on a snug sea-blue tank top with a light-weight white sweater, since open shoulders were forbidden in her high school and tight shorts to fit her semi-slim figure. Walking out of the small room, she made sure to lock it up, before taking the stairs, two at a time and grabbed her school bag and a big, bright, red apple from the huge kitchen counter fruit bowl. Dodging kids running around her heels, she continued on her way out the door.
But, just before she reached the entrance to the orphanage, a voice called her name. Turning, she found Mrs. Hope not balancing one, but four toddlers in her arms as she twirled around the few kids running around on foot. Just as she came in arm's length of Keyra, Autumn, one of the toddlers in her arms, decided it would be best to test the law of gravity. As Mrs. Hope let out a startled yelp of shock mixed with concern as the toddler completely let go of her arm, Keyra quickly made a wild grab for the child.
"Oh, whoa!" Keyra laughed as she nimbly caught the child before she could become very personal with the floor. Mrs. Hope immediately let out an audible sigh of relief.
"Oh, thanks, dear. You rascal, 'bout gave me a heart attack!" Keyra chuckled as Mrs. Hope scolded and tickled the toddler when Keyra gently handed her over to her caretaker. Adjusting her school bag over her shoulder, Keyra looked up to Mrs. Hope.
"What was it that you needed, Mrs. Hope?" She asked kindly. Mrs. Hope quickly grabbed a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to her.
"Could you possibly got to the store after school today and pick up the few things on that list for me, hon? If it's no trouble, of course, I know you have things to do after school," She added quickly.
"Oh, no, no problem at all, I'll get on it right after school hours!" Keyra settled the woman's worries fast.
"Oh, thanks so much, sweetie, you're a real lifesaver!" The caretaker smiled warmly at the fifteen-year-old and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before gently pushing her forward.
"Go now, don't want to be late for school, do ya?" Keyra shook her head, then waved before rushing through the doors.
Skipping along the sidewalk, softly singing, she made her way towards her area's high school as she started to sing her newly discovered and favorite song at that moment in time.
"Running through the parking lot, he chased me and he wouldn't stop. Tag, you're it. Tag, tag, you're it! Grabbed my hair and pushed me down, took the words right out my mouth. Tag, you're it, tag, tag, you're it!" Abruptly, Keyra got cut off as the sound of screeching tires filled the air and she whirled around, only to see a brown haired boy standing stock-still in the middle of the crosswalk in the street, seemingly frightened immobile as the black sedan, not a couple yards away, slammed on its brakes.
A choir of shocked and fearful cries broadcasted from both sides of the street and Keyra soon found herself moving without her mind even telling her to. She was the closest one to him, so it didn't take her long at all to come into contact with the kid, throwing them both to the far side of the street as the car screeched by, coming to a stop a few meters away down the road, not two seconds after she had tackled the young teenager. Breathing hard and fast, her blood still pumping, she turned to the juvenile off to her left, who still had his face plastered to the pavement.
"Hey, are you okay?" She asked in concern as she slowly made her way to her feet, moving towards the kid, aware of the painful scrapes and road-rash she had sustained from this little situation she had literally flung herself into.
"Oh, ow, owowowowow," He chanted as he pushed himself up to his hands and knees, but, before he could even open his mouth to answer, Keyra saw five other boys come running towards them, four sliding to stop next to the brown haired kid, who had managed to get his feet underneath him once more, the fifth running right by the lot of young adults, getting right into the driver's face, who had stumbled out of his car to also run up to the small group. They both had to skid to a stop, so not as to run straight into each other, but, before the poor man could even blink, the black haired and golden eyed teen shoved the older male back a few steps, growling in his face.
"What's your problem, you blind, son of a-!"
"That's enough, Ryley!" One of the adolescents surrounding Keyra and the teen called, his eyes still focused worriedly on the youth still on the pavement in front of him. He was a real adorable, dusty brown haired kid with red-brown eyes. He cut Ryley off before he could even begin to utter the curse word that was painfully notorious. Keyra was sure this Ryley character was gonna deck the man one in the face, but he just snarled, actually snarled, and turned to angrily make his way towards his company. The man sheepishly made his way to the group also, nervously looking in Ryley's direction, before coming up to Keyra.
"A-Are you two okay? I'm so, so terribly sorry about that, I only took my eyes off the road for a second-" Keyra made sure to cut him off with a smile, because the poor guy looked like he was about to have a panic attack at any second.
"It's okay, it's nothing a few Band-Aids can't take care of," She reassured him softly. Looking back to the teen who was getting fused over by his many buddies, she smirked as she continued, "He seems fine as well, just, you know, keep your eyes on the road at all times. It can only take a second, as you found out," She made sure to reprimand him gently, but firmly. He nodded his head so fast he reminded Keyra of one of those bobble-heads you can purchase at the store. Keyra smile, before her head shot up at the sound of sirens in the distance and she sighed.
This was gonna be a long day, she could already tell.