It's already evening and time to go. The uneasiness builds up inside of me when a couple of hostile growls kindle my hearing senses with caution. I stop for a second to tune in the current atmosphere of this territory as I draw a safe circle around me with my eyes.
I twitch my head skyward to see the trees weaving their branches above my head. These sounds must be escaping from the recycling containers that guard the gloomy pathway I have to scramble through after school.
Give me one hundred years, I still won't get used to it. The jitters don't stop disturbing me since the first day of my freshman year. In fact, after the horrifying stories of the local pranksters and freaks who enjoy seeing other people screech in fear, they have only intensified.
"Let's hope it's not Burrito," I mumble to myself, accidentally dipping my boot in a dirty puddle behind me as the puff of wind hoists some orange leaves from the ground and embroiders my grey cashmere coat with them.
On the Halloween night last year someone told that there is a bad spirit named Burrito that turns into a one-eyed cat who constantly searches for fresh shredded meat and when he can't find any, he becomes very sad and starts preying on simple humans passing by to rip off their skin.
I don't know how to throw this thought out of my mind because to me cats have always been evil. They just don't like me.
I look down to realize that the sole of my boot is peeling off. Blah. I don't really mourn over the spoiled shoes though. I should have already thrown them away two or three years ago. So like a lady of a special kind I keep on splashing my shoes in all the upcoming puddles knowing that I'll soon get new ones.
Shuffling my feet further, I notice the stray cats gathering from all the corners as if something paranormal indeed rules on them. At first two and then four. They multiply with every uncertain step I make.
Oh no... why did I do this? I forgot they told to not call his name out loud here.
These monsters hiss at me as they arch their backs, prepared to attack me any moment. One of them already sharpens his claws against the wood bench while others still examine me with their yellow eyes glimmering in the twilight.
Hold on! It's the same gang of cats that attacked me and my friends.
I throw my hands in the air.
"Dudes, calm down. I know we might have called you out by mistake at that time. But don't you think ten on one is slightly unfair?" I explain with motivation to persuade them, swishing my hands in a fluttery 'go away' motion which only teases them more.
I hurriedly unzip my bag as I get the idea that I need to coax them. I unfold the lunch package I barely touched today and carefully place my ransome on the side of the road after what I run away as fast as I can, feeling how the water soaks more and more through my shoe.
💫
"Uff. Finally home." I open the door with my key and the first thing I do is dropping my back against the wall to relish the soothing feeling. Wiggling out of my shoes is a blessing.
"Mom? Dad? Are you home?" I call out my parents as I lumber in the living room to face them lazily sitting on the couch and watching a fucked up to talk show on TV. As usually about some negativity in the world.
"Guess what is it that I have in my hands?" I flap and envelope from afar, peering from the open door. I give them a few seconds to guess before I just pass it in my mom's hands so she can read it aloud to the whole family while I flow away in the background, smirking proudly behind their backs.
"An invitation to the award event?" She reads, slightly concerned."When is it?"
"This Saturday," I say.
"Do you have anyone to go with you?" My dad grunts.
"Yes but. You won't come?" A scowl sets upon my face as I quench down a glass of water.
"Unfortunately. We were already invited to the birthday party and we won't be here this weekend. You are already a big girl, you can go with your friends." Dad mulls over the situation and my mom chimes in to support his thinking.
"Absolutely. What would grown-up people do among the teenagers anyway?" She muses, chomping on the popcorn.
Well, I don't know. Support their children for example...
I shrug.
Thankfully I have Venus to prepare me.
"What is that? What is that?" My younger brother appears from his room as usually he does when hears any new rustle. He swings his slim body over the couch and stares at the envelope that mom holds in her hands. Scraping his little stupid head he tries to show off as genius and read it out loud correctly but he anyway fails and quickly loses his curiosity, regaining it back in his tablet.
"Why are you staring?" He lisps a rude pretension at me in his sheepish voice."How is your lover doing? Did you kiss him already?" He snickers at his own mocking.
I always wondered what kind of an imp he is and from whom he managed to inherit those crackhead genes when everyone in our family is more or less sane.
"Oopsie. You have something on your new shirt. Mom will kill you when she finds out." I point a finger at him and his head drops in fear.
"Where?" He opens his mouth wide.
I grab the tablet from his hands in one motion and enjoy his face scrunching in a defeated expression full of heartwrenching longing for his best friend.
He with his tablet is like Spongebob and partik uniting. I can't let his sass rise up above the average level for a seven-year-old kid he is, so I'll fight him back even if I have to play the grouchy Squidward role.
Sucks to be him.
"I wish you find a boyfriend soon and marry him so you can leave the house." He wails out, making up some stuff from what he overheard at the grandmom's house the last time we visited her.
We are not talking him there anymore.
I roll my eyes at his explicit desire to get rid of me but I can't let him manipulate me by exploiting my weaknesses. He thumps on the chair, his arms folded together in an offended manner as he probably mumbles curses under his breath.
"I didn't have any gadgets when I was your age," I state, ruffling his hair with my hand which makes him shriek at my touch.
"Aha, I even have five girlfriends at my age and you still have no boyfriend." He boasts, aggravating our conflict which gives him no chance for mercy from my side.
"Girlfriends? Are you kidding me?" I snort at his little charade."They are with you only because of your tablet, calm down. But now you have no tablet so... let's see how many girlfriends you will have."
Facts are facts. He needed to know the truth earlier or later.
The imp dashes away to the living room in tears and I hear him snitching the complaints to my mom in the perfectly worked out angelic voice which makes everyone believe in his innocence blindly.
"Michael?" I shout from the kitchen in a serious tone. "You are adopted!"
I take out some plates to prepare for crafting my dinner (yes, everyone in our family cooks for themselves). Except for the little crackhead, of course.
Lucky.
He doesn't do anything all day and still demands food.
"Melanie, it's time to stop! What if he actually believes it one day? Do you want to traumatize your brother?" I hear the muffled yelps of my mom as she comforts my brother, but I just shake my head, acknowledging the power I have over the dim-witted imp himself.
I take a red marker from the drawer and circle a mark near this Saturday on the wall calendar.
A day when Melanie Fisher will get in history...