gloves | vinnie hacker

14.

Naomi Montana.

As the rain poured down, the small droplets continued pittering and pattering on my neck and back, drenching my pink uniformed shirt.  As I walked home, the sound my feet sloshing into my beat up white Vans made me cringe yet I couldn't seem to stop stepping in puddles and mud. I wanted to scream at anything and everything. My jeans were awkwardly sticking to my thighs and hips and I knew that I'd definitely be chafing down there later on, which only pissed me off even more.

My hair was still in it's ponytail from work, the hat that I was forced me to wear was also on my head for the sole reason that it shielded most of my face from the water.

Today was nothing short of horrible.

Too many bad things had happened, and I didn't know how to react. I felt overwhelmed, as if I was a computer that got Mcdonald's sprite spilt all over it and was now malfunctioning in the worst way possible.

It all began this morning, when I woke up and realized I was exactly thirty four minutes late for school because of my environmental systems project that I had spent all night working on.

Knowing how strict my parents are, I knew I needed to get ready as fast as physically possible so that I wouldn't completely miss my first period. Slipping on a pair of comfortable pink cloth shorts, matching them with a black cotton shirt with a design that matched my shorts. I tugged on a pair of white crew socks and slipping on my signature platform airforces. I didn't have the energy nor time to even try to brush the knots out of my hair this morning, so I grabbed a simple black hair tie to tame my hair into. Sadly, that planned failed when the hair tie burst as I was trying to tie up my black locks. I huff, grabbing a replacement and tying it back up.

When I got to school, I rushed over to the front office and while the nice woman scribbled out a tardy pass for me, I stared at the model I had built from scratch less than a few hours ago. I observed it, making sure all the small figurines were secured onto the cardbord, and pulling at any stray strings that had been left over from the hot glue gun. The woman hands me the electric blue slip and I began to walk to my first period.

The day was already off to a bad start at this point, and I knew the scolding awaiting me when my parents got back from their business trips was definitely not going to make it any better.

I opened the door to my classroom, shooting the teacher an apologetic look almost as soon as I stepped foot in there. Luckily, she didn't look so mad, and only guestured for me to take my assigned seat.

The rest of my classes leading up to floral design were mainly me doing my work, occasionally engaging in conversation with the other people that shared the table with me. The occasional tapping of my pencil was probably the only noise in this class, but I wouldn't really know, my headphones were plugged in and turned on full blast. I tapped my foot along to the song playing in my ears, realixing my shoe was untied. I decided I'd tie it later since I didn't want to get out of my seat.

As I walked to floral design, my shoe remained untied. I felt like a small kindergardener that had left their shorlaces untied at recess and had woodchucks stuck to them. Finally, I decided I would stop and crouch to tie them. Except the boy behind me had stepped on one of my laces, resulting in me tripping and falling face first into the ground.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to trip you I swear." The boy gives me an apologetic look, I sigh as my body stays in its position on the floor. A couple people that were near me when I fell were giggling to themselves, but I couldn't blame them, because if it the roles were reversed, I'd definitely be laughing quietly to myself.

Trying to recuperate from that minor yet aggravatingly embarassing moment, I scramble to get back on my feet and continue to walk to my class.

When I took my seat, I sat patiently on my phone waiting for class to start and for Vinnie to inevitably pop up and take his seat next to mine, but surprisingly, he never showed. It was odd, he was always in class, it was rare that he just didn't show up. Maybe he caught a virus or something?