THE YOUNG GIRL approached the dirty window of her bedroom, hoping to see the bright sun bathing the grass outside of the house, but, yet again, It was raining. Adda closed her emerald eyes disappointed and pressed her lips, annoyed, letting a soft grunt come out of her mouth.
Shit.
She complained. The girl tucked her pink bed sheets, searching for her wacky and small phone that was barely holding in one piece, until she felt It under her thin hand and switched It on.
Fuck, I'm gonna go crazy if I don't get out of this house!!!
She thought, desperate, as she started swiping up on Tik Tok with her left hand, while running her right hand's fingers down her soft but tousled ginger hair as a soothing mechanism to combat the stress of being locked in her home, secluded by the bad weather.
After sometime, she threw her phone near the other end of the individual bed, bored and stressed out.
Adda, sweety, since you're not going to play outside today you should help around the house. I've seen the fridge has some sort of liquid and it's starting to smell. Maybe you could...
Before her mother could finish that sentence, the red haired girl jumped out of the bed and opened her pine room door.
Adda! Be more careful! How can you be so brute??!!
Scolded her mother, with a face of contempt that her child was already used to.
Mum! I did nothing! You called me-
Don't talk back like I'm one of your friends! Behave like the woman you are!
Interrupted her mother, vexed, frowning her canny brows.
Adda sighed and, with a surly expression, made her way to the kitchen; until she stood up in front of the white and tall refrigerator. Before she could begin the inspection of the mysterious liquid her mother had warned about, she heard another complaint from behind her back.
I'm NOT liking your attitude!
If you keep doing like this, I'm not gonna let you play with the boys. They are a bad influence on you!
Adda clenched her fists in rage, but said nothing. No matter how many times she told her mother she didn't mean to upset her, or that her friends had nothing to do with her behavior, her mother never listened, so instead she remained silent.
Understood???!!!
Shouted her mother, making Adda flinch.
Yes, mother.
She replied, hoping that will end the argument. Luckily, this time It did. Her mother walked away stomping her black shoes on the ground and the teenager girl was left alone to solve the fridge problem.
Once her mother was nowhere to be heard or seen, Adda relaxed her body posture and opened the fridge, just to get doused with a sticky pinkish drink that carried a sweet aroma. She stood still, looking down on her light t-shirt, that now smelled like berries. She decided to ignore the weat sensation of the fabric adhering to her soft skin and searched for the causant, spotting nearly right away a strawberry and milk brick half-opened and almost emptied. The liquid that was flooding the fridge had splattered on the light caramel old floor made of dull ceramic.
Shit.
Complained to herself, as she knew she would have to clean all that mess before her mother came to see if she had finished the task. Frantically, Adda took the kitchen paper roll and started unleashing it with grace to clean the fridge, until she realized it was better to use one of the draps her mother used to wash the plates. She swinged across the room, lighter than the wind, to grab a moist green drap, fearing her mother would appear at the door in any given second and berate her for the mess she had occasioned.
Once the problem was solved, she left the kitchen silently and ran to her room in order to change her clothes without being noticed. And once she had a clean yellow shirt on, she tiptoed to the laundry, praying that her mother wouldn't ask her anything related to the incident or comment on her renewed attire. She didn't want to get in trouble again.
Weird.
She said to herself, as she crossed the deserted living room back to her bedroom without encountering her mom. Then, she realized her mother was busy playing with her little blonde brother. And a shy smile reached her face before returning to the privacy of her room.
She spent the rest of the evening listening to music and looking through the window, lost in her thoughts.
• • •
Let's see the lions!!!
Cheered Ben, Adda's younger brother.
Sure, but later don't run away if they scare you, okay?
The sister teased him.
Then, Adda took the lead to the lion's place, holding the happy kid by his lilliputian chunky hand delicately.
Even if she had been forced to go with her brother to the zoo, she was actually having a good time watching his little brother so happy and entertained. It made her recall some good old memories of herself when she was younger. Until-
Besides, I don't have anything better to do than this...
She told herself.
I hope this afternoon I can play football with my friends. This stupid time has been a nightmare!
But like magic words needed to cast a spell, all of the sudden, cold drops of water started to fall from the sky, which was now cloudy and gloomy.
Not again.
She rolled her eyes and stopped walking without warning. Ben pushed unintentionally her sister's hand before realizing that they were not moving. Then, he looked back at her with confusion in his blue-sea eyes and the teenage girl clenched down to his height to look him in the eyes before speaking.
Sorry, Ben, but the weather seems a bit off so we have to go home.
Her soft tone was not enough to convince him, and, as she expected, the five-year-old child frowned and tilted his head a bit, his eyes filled with rage.
NOO!!!
He sprouted, with his free hand closed in a fist.
I want to see the lions!!!
He continued with a hoarse tiny voice, as he tried to make her sister walk again. Adda was caught by surprise, but managed to regain the balance before falling to the zoo's moody path.
But it's raining. We have to go home.
She replied, patiently.
I don't care, I want to see the lions!!!
She sighed and quickly thought of an argument to convince the child, before the rain drenched them down.
We can go another day to watch the lions, but now we need to go, or mum will get angry at us for getting dirty.
Hmmm!
Said Ben, expressing his discomfort about the idea.
Adda stood up as soon as she heard him respond, and started walking in the opposite direction they had planned to go, quickly, with his brother close to her.
Shortly after, It was raining heavily and Adda searched for a place to refuge. She found it under the porch of the souvenir shop and looked up in the sky, wondering when it would clear up.
A few minutes later, she noticed there was another girl there, hiding from the bad weather. She was a little shorter than her and had her mobile case covered with black stickers such as a musical note and a rose.
The cover seemed very pretty but the ginger girl's emerald eyes were drawn in the beauty of that girl's features. Her frizzy dark hair, her rounded nose, her beefy and glossy lips, her brown skin, and... She caught herself admiring the pronounced curves the black girl had with a bit of embarrassment.
Why do I keep staring at her? Do I wanna be like her or-?
She thought to herself, but rapidly dismissed that nonsense of a doubt. When she looked at her again, her eyes met with the other girl and a jolt of shyness made her heartbeat skip. She panicked.
Should I say "Hi"? If I keep staring at her like this she will think I'm weird!!!
But before she could make her mind, an energetic voice reached her ears.
When will this stop?!
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