RAINSTORM

Ch. 6

It's been a week since Rachel was unwittingly caught and released by her school's football coach for her non existent physical health knowledge.

She never asked how the boys fared in their tests. Since no one came and yelled at her for being a terrible tutor, she believes the tests must've gone well.

Rachel happily hums inside her shiny new but secondhand car while the sky is weeping around her.

She believes her parents finally got her a car only because they didn't want her getting anymore lifts from Agatha. Even so she's happy. Rachel wanted a car ever since Moira got hers.

At the red light Rachel turns her head and looks up at the sky through the windshield. A couple more shades darker and the sky would be black.

She wonders if the school is really open today. But she never got a message from the institution about any holiday due to heavy rainfall. And her friends are coming, too.

But more importantly she wants to use every excuse she could to drive the car even though half of her allowance has already been burned away by the sky high priced fuel.

Rachel has started thinking about getting a part-time job in the weekends to pay the price of owning and using a vehicle.

Rachel checks her phone. Still no message from her school.

Sudden loud knocks on the passenger side's window causes her to jump. She sees Hector's hunched frame, with his head covered by his arm holding up his leather jacket. He points down at the door lock. She unlocks it.

Hector gets in quickly with a swift thanks that Rachel doesn't hear. He swats away the water on his hair. Then takes off his jacket and gives it a jiggle.

Rachel's heart hurts at the sight of her car's carpet getting wet. But more importantly, why is he here? She thinks.

Hector takes out his phone and wipes the screen with the heel of his palm and calls Tate. "Hey man, my bike broke down. I got a lift but I'll still be late. Where are you guys?"

That's when Rachel realizes the traffic hasn't moved at all. Either the light has stopped working or something clogged the traffic flow at the front. With how little her eyes can perceive through the dense rain, she won't be surprised if it was an accident.

A brief moment of awkward silence later, that Rachel suffered alone, the cars on the road start slowly crawling forward.

Near the turn a cop with his uniform and cap covered in plastic bends down at Rachel's window. She rolls it down just enough to hear him.

"Where are you going?" He asks.

"To Norman High."

"Take the 41st," the man says and steps away from the car.

Rachel carefully takes a left turn for a more extensive route.

While driving her car slowly, narrowing her eyes at her rain-veiled pathway, Rachel thinks about the 'Baader-Meinhof' phenomenon she once read in a science magazine.

It's also known as 'Frequency Illusion' where after becoming aware of something for the first time, you feel like you keep encountering the same thing frequently afterward.

Rachel wonders if that's what happening between her and Hector. Somehow after noticing him that day, with the kittens, she seems to be seeing him unusually more often.

Right now Rachel doesn't dare turn to her side and look at him, but she can feel his presence like a force field. But she knows he's not looking anywhere but at his phone since the sound of his keypresses roll around inside her car. Tap. Tap. Tap.