ADDA, come help me in the kitchen!
Adda's mum shouted while stirring up the roasted pork meat.
But, mum, I was gonn- going to play football!
Adda replied, letting go without a sound the round pommel door at the entrance of the house that had gained multiple scratches from the pass of the years. She was wearing long loose blue jeans and red sports shoes, ready to go out.
Don't talk back to me, and stop with that nonsense! You should start learning how to cook properly, you hear me? Which men would want a woman who cannot feed her own family?
Adda repressed a roll of eyes. It was always that same talk. Without more hesitation, she headed to the stoves, with heavy and sharp steps, and did as her blonde mother ordered. The tall girl cut, frustrated, a green pepper while overthinking how her plans to go out to relieve some stress and, if lucky, see her new friend were thrown down. The feelings and thoughts accumulated into a big and chaotic mass that threatened to explode at any given time, then, the knife slipped.
Ouch!
Like a resort, the young girl flinched and contorted her face into a smirk of pain while waving her injured hand around in the air. A tiny scarlet blotch of blood shining in the artificial light of the room. Once she calmed down, she put her bleeding finger under the dull water of the kitchen metallic faucet to clean it. After she had finished, she was left staring at her limp like It was some type of cosmic mystery that the human mind could not comprehend. It didn't burn, not as she remembered when she fell on the grass and brushed her knee. It was more like a punch, like a black eye sort of feeling.
Adda, stop getting distracted with every fly you see, you're only slowing down the process. At this rate I will have to do It all by myself!!!
I cut myself.
Adda explained.
Then don't. Get out of the kitchen, you're only being a burden instead of helping as you should!
At any other moment Adda would have complained after the harsh words her mother had let go, but this time It was her only opportunity of getting out of the house, so she took It without any say.
Fast as she could, she ran out of the wooden house with the white and blue ball under her right arm, and didn't stop until the cars made her. After a long walk, she arrived at the big and fertile park where she was a commoner and began the search for her peers. Oddly enough, they were nowhere to be seen, and for a second, Adda feared they had already left, hopeless against the lack of a ball to initiate the game with.
No.
She reminded herself.
I've seen them stay here for longer than 3 hours just staring at the nothingness and sitting on a bench multiple days, there's no way they couldn't handle a one hour tarry.
She continued her progressively more uncertain search for playmates, until a familiar face caught her leaf-green eyes. Quickly, she ran faster than the wind to reach her friend.
Hey, Tania!
She shouted, waving her slim left hand.
The alluded girl turned her head to the side when a loud and jolly voice reached her attention. Once she recognized her friend, a soft smile formed on her rounded face. Soon, Adda and her were standing next to each other.
It's nice to see you!
Adda greated.
Yeah, uh, are you alone? I mean, why are you carrying that ball around if ya're not playing with anyone?
With a slight drop of her thin eyebrows, Adda doubted the meaning of that question, but, happy as she was to have her by her side, she took It the best way she could convince herself of.
It's nothing. I just couldn't find the boys I usually play with so...er.
Well, then why dontcha' join me walking? I'm curious to know where you at, like, do you live near here?
With a brighter smile, the pale girl followed Tania in a peaceful stroll while talking about her life. There wasn't anything interesting she thought she could share with her, since the only good parts of her life settled back when she was a child and she spent time with her old best friend playing or sitting on the grass, sometimes braiding their long locks into thin trees. Tania also ran low on interesting stories. The only subjects the black girl had spoken about were that her home was located far away from there, and about her horrible public school she was signed in, not only because of the old embittered teachers that ruled the center without any visible attempt to motivate the students to learn, but also due to the paleolithic behavior half of her classmates presented on a daily basis, subject that made her feel like she was on a zoo exposition, placed by accident with the chimpanzees.
Actually, I should apologize to the chimpanzees. They are quite smarter and more well-behaved than my classmates. I swear they are just...
Adda started laughing out loud, amused by Tania's speech, and the contagious laugh spread quickly to the narrator too.
Together, they arrived at the confines of the park, an unexpected destination for Adda, who had never visited that side of the park. They stood there, an awkward silence flying in the air.
Well, I think it's time for me to go home.
Finally spoke Tania, who dedicated a conformist smile to her friend while approaching her thick black eyebrows one to each other, suffocating Adda's fears of not getting on with her. If It wasn't for those words, she wouldn't have had the courage to make an offering.
Could I accompany you home?
Tania's sight was clawed on her while her mind contemplated the question- too much for the pale girl's taste-. However, before she could take It back, her friend agreed, but not without warning her about the long distance that separated the place from their location and the inconvenience of the time It was at that moment. It was getting late, and Adda would have to return alone at night.
_______________