gloves | vinnie hacker

14.

"Class, we will be taking our monthly exam today, please put away all devices. I will be handing out the exams shortly." My teacher speaks out to the class, slowly pacing back and forth at the very front of the class. I comply, slipping my phone into the mesh side pocket of my backpack and beginning on my test.

The questions were almost too easy, and I zoomed by them with little to no effort. When I finished, I stood up and headed over to hand my packet to the nice woman. She began grading it as I waited patiently to recieve my grade, but as I watched her doing so, she did not look very pleased. She hands me the packet back, a big fat red-inked 46 scribbled at the too corner, I could quite literally feel my heart drop to my stomach.

I had failed my first exam... ever.

"I'll be having retakes on thursday after school, please make sure you study, Naomi. I know you're a bright girl." Ms. Conway said, a small smile eminating from her lips which I returned before heading back to my seat. I sighed, dropping into my seat. I never fail anything, and when I finally do, it's floral design? I mean come on, I mean I'm no florist or anything but how hard could this really be? It's literally about playing with flowers.

Finally, the day had dwindled down closer to 8th period. I was actually really excited to go today, cheer always somehow made my day slightly better and I very much needed that at the moment. We were practicing stunts today, trying to get the timing just right to go along with the music.

"Run it one last time ladies!" Coach Russell hollered.

The music booms out of the built in speakers in the gym, all of us collectively moving sync to the beat of the music. Making sure to keep count in my head so that I'm not off beat. The music changes to a more electric sounding tune, signalling the tumbling to begin. I start to mentally prepare myself for the stunt show. As the middle top flyer, I always feel like there's a lot of pressure on me to stay tight and firm all the time.

My backspot starts the counts, as I place my hand on both of my bases shoulders to balance myself before we did a basket toss. I step into their setup, before they shot me into the air, going along with the counts. My hair whips up, as I'm in the air,  and everything goes quiet for a second. I can't hear anything not even the music erupting from the speakers. It all happens so quickly, and I'm missing the feeling almost as fast its gone. I land back in their arms into a cradle before going straight back into it for a simple liberty. I move my arms into a high V with a big smile plastered on my face.

We go to dismount since everyone was getting pretty tired and Coach Russell seemed to be in a good mood. I crouch slightly, trying to find my balance back onto floor. I step out, losing my footing wver so slightly and twisting my ankle to the side. I yelped in pain in the moment, it hurt but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some icy hot and an ankle brace.

"You okay?" Jada asked, a curly-haired girl that was in my stunt group.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I gave her a tiny slightly awkward smile. I let out a deep breath as we all headed to the lockeroom, a slight limp to my walk because of the twisted ankle. Great. Another thing to add to my list of bad things that happened to me today.

After school, I headed home to get dressed for work before heading out to my car. I climbed in, setting my backpack in the passenger seat. I brought it so that I could study during my downtime. I started my car, pulling out of my driveway and over to the small yet familiar ice cream shop.

My shift was the usual, not too busy, as me and Gabe took turns serving the customers that strolled in. It wasn't that busy today since it was a Wednesday and school had already started for everyone. Gabe and I spent the evening mostly messing around rather than doing our actual jobs, but it was fun. That was really the whole reason why I liked working here, I loved my coworkers they made the job more bearable. My ankle was still hurting, in fact, the pain got a little worse than it was when I first got it. As the night came to an end, we quickly wiped down everything getting ready to lock up and finally leave.

When we were done turning off all of the lights, Gabe made sure to set up the alarm while I waited at the door for him to exit so that I could lock it. He finally trudged out, his dark hair mostly tucked into the backwards pink hat on his head. He had his backpack slung comfortably on his left shoulder, the same as I usually did, but today I had left my backpack at home. I shut and locked the door of the shop, looking at the time on my smart watch. 10:05.

I wave goodbye to Gabe as he pulls out of the parking spot next to mine and exits the parking lot. I slide into the driver's seat to do the same. I insert the  key into the ignition, turning it and expecting to hear the engine rowring back at me in response, yet the only noise heard was the sputtering coming from under the hood of my car.

You cannot be serious right now.

I turn my key in the ignition a couple of more time hoping that this is all some kind of sick joke my car is playing on me. Eventually I give up on trying to get my car starting, sighing in response because there's really not much I can do. I grab my phone, checking how much charge I had left before hurriedly trying to call Cherry or Colton to come pick me up.

The phone rings continuously for both of them but no one picks up. My phone's battery life was only on one percent and I had no time to waste. I try to call Jade and I was hoping and praying that she would answer, and to my relief, she actually did.

"Hello?" She speaks, and I just about almost burst into tears at how relieved I am to hear her voice.

"Jade! Hi could you please pick me u-"

The line cuts off.

My phone had died, in my hands, in the driver's seat of my broken down car, at my shitty ice cream job. I just about wanted to throw myself off a cliff just for fun. I was honestly ready for this day end and be put in the rearview forever. Things had gone south for me one too many times, I was sick of it.

I had no way of gettting home, no way of calling someone to come pick me up, and no money on me to pay for a taxi since my backpack was at home along with my purse. So naturally, I did the only thing I could do in this situation. I walked. And as my feet took step after wobbly step towards my house, I began to laugh to myself, it was hilarious really. Thinking, how could this day possibly get any worse?

And then it started to rain. And I wasn't laughing anymore after that.

At this point, I had given up on everything, atleast for today. I just wanted to get home and shower, and knock out on my bed without a single care in the world.

So here I was, limping my way through the damp streets, trying to get home, completely drenched in rainwater and my will to live waning as the minutes passed. I know I didn't have a reason to complain since I'm very lucky to have a moderately good life, but for all of this to happen in one day, it felt a little bit like overkill. A couple of cars pass me on my way to my house, some honking at me for whatever reason. I have literally never felt more humiliated in my entire life, even all those times I had made a complete fool of myself in front of Vinnie didn't amount to this.

Suddenly, a pair of bright headlights shines brightly approaches from down the street. I ignored it, figuring it was just another car that would splash me with more water and honk at me. As the vehicle passed me, it slowed down, allowing me to get a better look at it. A sleek black Charger with the windows tinted unmentionably way too dark.

The car window rolls down, and my night had officially reached maximum unfortunate-tude, this was just the cherry on top. His brown eyes meet mine, and that smirk that is practically sewed onto his face at this point, is still going strong. I literally want to melt away into a puddle and drain into the city drainage pipes.

"Need a ride?"

-

word count : 2347

HAHAHAHAHHAHA

wrote like this whole chapter today kind of proud of it tbh

lmk what yall think 😆

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