RAINSTORM

Ch. 1

Rachel stares at her dead phone. It died fifteen minutes ago. Luckily, Rachel had called for help before the screen went blank.

But she wishes the battery had lasted at least until she had called her mom. Rachel can imagine her mother pacing in the living room now, worried at Rachel not being home yet in this weather.

Suddenly, from the corner of her eye Rachel sees movement - A walking human silhouette.

Rachel scratches her head, confused at the sight. She tilts her face to the left, then to the right. She's on her toes stretching to the side without stepping into the rain.

No matter what degree angle her vision is framed in, the boy crossing the road, covering himself with a leather jacket on one hand while carrying some kittens safely tucked into his other, really looks like her school's primo bad boy, Hector Sabith.

Over the plastic crates stacked across the road, Hector squats down and releases the kittens into one of the middle boxes. Rachel sees paws and a tail of an adult cat eagerly pull in the three kittens - The mother.

Hector moves the jacket from over his head to the top of the crates and adjusts its corners to stretch the leather and fully cover the top. Now drenching in the downpour, Hector looks at the reunited family, and smiles.

Rachel's mouth gapes as she gasps at the sight. Maybe that's not him, she thinks. A lightning from the heavens brightens the world around her, and in that brief moment she sees his face clearly.

It is Hector Sabith, smiling at kittens!

When Hector gets up to leave, Rachel quickly backtracks into the bus stop she's in, nearly tripping over her foot, afraid of getting caught. After a few seconds she peeks around the panel to check if he's still there. He's not.

Rachel scratches her head again. What did she just saw? she thinks. She doesn't know Hector personally, and has never even talked to him. But just as everyone else in their school, she knows a lot of alleged facts about him.

Like he's from a family that owns an uber rich business conglomerate but is also secretly a powerful mafia organization.

He's also an alleged playboy, and a ruthless fighter. There was once even a rumor he sent over ten boys from one of their neighboring schools to a hospital with serious injuries, and one of them fell into a coma.

Another rumor is that he has a gun in his car. And that he had an affair with Ms. Stella, the sexy English teacher. That he would break your arm if your arm even accidentally grazed him.

There are so many rumors about him that Rachel had lost track of them. She pulls her backpack to the front and takes out two umbrellas. One black. One yellow.

The yellow one is something she had to buy at a convenience store last month for emergency because she forgot to bring her usual umbrella. It's cheap and second-rate. Opening and closing it is a nuisance. She has been meaning to get rid of it.

She opens both the umbrellas, covers herself with the black one and steps onto the road which is basically a long puddle by now. She takes sloppy strides over to the crates.

She jams the yellow umbrella's handle into one of the gaps in the box. The new shelter is much better than the old one. Rachel takes off the jacket, and sees the kittens snuggled up against their mom, drinking milk.

Rachel returns to the dryness of the bus stop, and stares at the jacket she's holding. It's surprisingly very heavy. What is she supposed to do with it now? she thinks. She glances at the box with the kittens.