RAINSTORM

Ch. 2

Rachel stumbles and falls. "Get up, Rachel!" Mr. Jaffer shouts. Startled, Rachel gets up, takes a few hurried steps, comes in front of her own way, stumbles, and falls.

"Rachel!" Mr. Jaffer shouts. Rachel wants to stay on the ground and cry.

Her class' usual Physical Training teacher is on leave for a week. The assistant suddenly got sick as well. The school couldn't find a substitute on time, so they asked the football coach for help.

"Stop lying there on the ground. Get up and use your legs!" Coach Jaffer says.

Rachel can hear her friends laughing from the bench. It's not that Rachel doesn't want to use her legs. It's just that she's tired from all the falling and getting up she had to do.

She and their usual PT instructor, Ms. Wiley, had an understanding. Rachel never exercised, or participated in any of the activities. She spent her time during the class solving workbooks while the rest of her class played one of the sports.

But now, out of blue, their school's champion football team's coach has come to know of Rachel's existence and her athletic limitations.

Rachel sees a pair of shoes come stand next to where she has fallen. A shrieking whistle nearly tears off her eardrums. "I said, get up!" The coach's voice rings.

Sighing, Rachel pulls herself up.

"How did Ms. Wiley let you even pass in this class?" Jaffer says, "Now, run!"

As per her capacity, Rachel more or less jogs on the track, or maybe it's called power walk. She wouldn't know. But she finishes her lap.

While she's still panting like a dog in summer, Jaffer comes to her and tells her, "You're staying back for an hour after school for additional training." Rachel looks at him in utter shock and terror.

He says, "Mrs. Wiley shouldn't have passed you. Clearly you skipped your PT classes. If you don't want this to be reported, you need to complete the regimen just as everyone else in your class had. Don't be late for the after school training. It'll be on the football field."

Rachel wants to say no. That he can't do this to her. That she's an A grade student. The top of her class. She has won many science awards. Even some literary ones. She's... But she's still not done even catching her breath and Mr. Jaffer had already left.

Moira and Annie appear before their traumatized friend. "Oh, poor, Rachel. We feel sorry for you," her friends say not feeling sorry at all.

Rachel shakes her head. "Like hell I'm staying back by myself," she says. Her friends groan in unison, even though they had already decided they will stay back with her in school.

IN THE EVENING, after school hours, Moira hangs by the school's swimming pool with her boyfriend, Nelson, and Annie works on one of her pet projects in the photography club with a few other members who always stay back in the club room at this time.

Rachel stands at the edge of the vast expanse of the grass field that is the football pitch.

Before today she had only ever set foot near the rows of the audience seats in this part of the school, and seen the field from up in those rows. Today, however, the field seems much larger when she's standing this close to it.

Rachel sees the players in red jerseys and helmets run around on the pitch in a chaotic synchronization.

Mr. Jaffer notices Rachel. Rachel notices Mr. Jaffer.