Midnight Storms
I struggled to get out of bed. The pitter patter of rain always has made me sleepy.
"Come on Davy!" my mom said in a cheerful tone, "Wake up or you'll be late for school!."
I slowly rose out of my bed and headed straight for the bathroom. 'Gosh, my hair is a mess.' I thought. A few pats here and a few pats there and it was perfect. My hair was pretty low maintenance. I strapped on my signature goggles that I was given four years ago, grabbed a cereal bar, and headed out the door.
School was only about four blocks away, but it seemed longer in this drizzle. My phone called to me from my pocket; a text message.
From Mom:
If you would have stayed I would have driven you to school so you did not have 2 walk in the rain.
'Oh wow, I'm smart.' I thought. I decided to text back.
'Sry mom. I'll be good thanks.'
She sent back an "ok" and a smiley face.
I continued to walk through the drizzle. It's a funny thing what rain does to a person. Your mind tends to wander into realms that you'd rather not have it go to. Half of you wants to hide under a rock and never come out; the other half wants to explore this uncharted, almost alluring territory. This time I felt like just leaving it be. My mind would probably just wander back to my recent breakup with Yolei. Oh damn, I just did. See what rain does to you?
My foot splashing into a puddle was just enough to snap me out of my trance, only to have me walk into a pole. Yes, a pole. 'How smooth Davis.' I thought. Thank goodness no one saw.
"Good job." I heard Kari laugh.
'Damn.' I scolded myself. 'I couldn't have done that somewhere else?' Kari walked up to me.
"Davis, that gave me a good laugh." she chuckled.
"Glad I could entertain you?" I replied, sarcasm running rampant in my voice.
Kari's boyfriend T.K. walked up to her and gave her a hug.
"Hey Kari."" he said with an unexplainable look of love on her face. He loved her so much and everyone, including her, knew it. She had mixed feelings, she told me on day. She liked him a lot, but wasn't quite ready to show it, publicly anyway.
"Hey T.K." she smiled.
The five minute warning bell rang for school and the two almost lovebirds set on ahead. I walked slowly behind them and of course, I being the graceful person I was, fell face-first into a cold, unforgiving, muddy puddle.
The first class of the day was P.E. and boy was I happy to be able to change out of my wet, and quite sticky clothes. My newly dried gym clothes and I walked out of the locker room along with many other boys my age.
The normal routine of push-ups, running laps, and basketball commenced without a hitch. When the class was done however, I was kind of stuck; no clothes to wear, some smelly, some soggy. Both were quite unappealing.
My older friend Tai came up behind me and handed me a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt.
"Kari told me about your puddle mishap." he smiled. 'She saw that? Oh great.' I thought. "These are extra clothes I had just in case."
I gladly put on the new clothes. They smelled just like him. It was nice.
"The great art of giving consists in this: the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated."
-Baltasar Gracian