Dawn's POV
I sit in my old, creaking chair with my ankles crossed on my desk, and finish off the last problem on my maths homework. I turn around to see Jesse passed out on my bed, giving a small smile at how peaceful he looked.
I lay down beside him. Jim isn't home yet, so I took this as an opportunity to relax a little.
I look at the time.
4:30.
Letting out a content sigh, I close my eyes.
I giggle as daddy spins us around in circles, one arm holding me and the other holding my hand out.
At the end of the song, he dipped me, making me giggle more.
"Alright you two, time for bed," mommy says as she laughs.
"Awh, one more dance?" I plead, wanting to dance with daddy more.
"Sorry, hun, you have school and he has work," she says.
Daddy puts me down, but kisses my cheek.
I smile, kissing his back.
"I love you, Raine Drop, but she's the boss," he says with fake seriousness.
Mommy slaps his shoulder, but laughs then looks at me with a smile.
"Come one, honey, time for bed."
I open my eyes, and stare at the ceiling. With a sad sigh, I get up from bed and stretch before going down stairs to start dinner.
I quietly sang as I cooked up some teriyaki chicken and rice. I heard the song on the radio, and it was pretty catchy, so I settled for that one.
(A/N: the song at the top)
"Tell me baby, tell me slowly," I put the bag of rice on the pot of water.
"All the things you couldn't show me," I took out some raw chicken, and started cutting it, "tell me one more time before I leave."
I put the chicken on a pan, stirring from time to time so it wouldn't stick.
"Now I see you never knew me, look at you, you look right through me," I move to the fridge and get out some teriyaki sauce, "tell me one more time before I go."
Stir the chicken some more.
"I don't believe you when you say you love me most and tell me I'm the only one," I fix up the rice, "and I can't feel you when you're touching me and telling me that this time you want all of me," I mix every thing together, and was to focused on all I was doing I didn't hear the door open or close.
I sing a little louder, and put a little more into it, "and you don't hear me when I tell you that it's all or nothing, all or nothing, baby please," I keep stirring, "let go of me."
I finished his dinner, and clean up my mess. When I'm done I go back upstairs and take a shower.
Ryders POV
《earlier that day》
I sit outside with TJ as the bell rang, indicating that third period had started. We've been sitting and walking around all morning, not bothering with going to class.
"Wait, wait, wait," TJ says as he tries to compose his laughter, "so she's not his cousin?"
"No," I try to answer seriously, but completely failed as I started laughing with him.
After a little bit longer of the two of us laughing until we couldn't breath, we sat in a comfortable silence.
"So why are you skipping your classes?" He asks.
"What do you mean? We skip all the time," I question, not understanding why he's asking.
"No," he says, "we used to skip all the time," he looks at me with a smirk, "but that was before you made friends with Dawn, so why have you suddenly decided to skip today?"
Dammit.
I don't say anything. I stare at the empty football field in front of us, trying to think of an excuse.
When I couldn't come up with anything good, I decided to just be honest.
"I'm avoiding her."
"Why?" He asks, looking over at me.
I was beyond shocked when I found out that she could talk; who wouldn't be? But I wonder why she tells everyone she can't, and goes through that entire act. The whole thing seems like so much to keep up with. And even though she knows I know, she still tells me that she's a mute. It pissed me off. Not only that, something has happened to her involving her father. Something bad. And I want to know what.
"Just stuff," I say as I stare at the sky, avoiding his gaze.
"Dude, if you haven't noticed, she tries to avoid you," he snorts, "every day."
"Your point?" I ask, a little attitude slipping out.
"My point is that there's no need to skip your classes to avoid her. Just let her avoid you instead of fucking with her when she does." He snickers.
I roll my eyes, although I know he's right. We sit in silence and stare at the football field.
《Lunch》
We were all cutting up and having fun while we ate our lunch. Haley hasn't been sitting with us ever since Becca scared the hell out of her by threatening her with a spoon, so we've been enjoying lunch a lot more.
Every now and then I would look at Dawn. She sat facing the cafeteria instead of the window, which was surprising, as she usually ignores everyone and faces the window.
I noticed that her hair wasn't in her face, showing her slightly bruised eye that she's been trying to keep hidden. Why'd she stop?
She looked around at everyone, observing. When she looked to the left, I could see her whole eye, so I looked away before I could get angry again.
"What's going on between you two?" Jenny asks.
"Who?" I question back, though I knew who she was talking about.
"Dawn," she says, "Why aren't you over there being a pain in her ass today?"
The table laughs but I roll my eyes.
"Nothing," I answer.
She furrows her brows and stares at me, then says, "I'm going to talk to her."
She gets up and walks over to Dawn, who was now drawing. We watched for a second, then Dawn looks over, so we stop.
We make small talk while we waited for Jenny. When she came back, she had a paper in her hand.
"She didn't want to talk much," she shows us the small answers Dawn wrote.
Seeing the 'I'm mute' in her cursive hand writing irritated me a little.
"But," Jenny says the word a little loudly, "she drew this."
She turns the paper over and my chin immediately hit the floor.
She drew me.
"Wow," Becca whispers.
"That's amazing, dude!" Beau adds.
I just stare, not knowing what to think.
This must have taken her a while. There's so much detail- from my hair, to my nose, to the slight stubble I get when I don't shave. It's amazing.
"Where'd she go?" TJ asks.
We turn our heads to her table to see that she's gone.
Jenny hands me the paper and I put it in my bag. She's amazing at drawing, as well as playing the piano. It makes me wonder what else she can do. Her other talents.
When lunch ends, we all go our separate ways.
When Automotive Engineering comes, I go and work on some things but I ended up just talking to my friend Shawn the whole time. I keep avoiding Dawn, and try my hardest to refrain from looking at her.
When I do look at her, though, I remember her being able to talk and get mad, then give a cold glare.
I did the same in music. I stayed with my friends while she sat in the back. I looked at her a few times to see that she had ear phones in and a piece of paper.
I smile a little.
She's always drawing something.
The class ends, and I go to my car. Dawn and I are supposed to work on the project, but I'm supposed to be avoiding her, so I'm not sure how this is going to play out.
I looked for her to see her and Jesse walking off the campus. I guess she got the message.
I shrug, and get in my car.
I felt a tinge of guilt for the way I've treated her today, but I ignore it.
When I get home, I change into some gym shorts and a black t-shirt. I throw on a black hoodie and converse, then get in my car.
When I get to my destination, I park far away from the place, not wanting my car to be stolen or anything.
As I walk into the old, run down building, screams and the smell of sweat and alcohol hits me. I look in the ring to see two giants fighting. On hits the other in the face, making him fall to the blood covered floor. He doesn't get up.
The crowd erupts into cheers, and the fighter that won collected him money.
I sign up for the next fight and wait my turn. I watch the fight going on now.
I do illegal fighting every now and then. It's just something I do for fun or when I need to blow off some steam. I know I have absolutely no reason to be here, but I know how to fight, so why waste my skills?
I was introduced to fighting by my dad. Him being a lawyer and all, he knew he would have some enemies. He wanted me to know self defense in case I ever needed to use it.
I was introduced to the illegal street fighting by one of his co-worker's son. They ended up having to move a couple of years ago, so he isn't around anymore.
Soon enough, it was my turn to fight. I climb into the ring, and observe my opponent. He's bigger than me in height and build. I'll be faster than him. I get a good look at him, checking for any weaknesses, and see that he leans to the left... something's wrong with his right leg.
"You've got to be kidding me," he snorts, "I'm fighting a kid?"
I give a small laugh and shrug, not really answering. Out of all the years I've been doing this, I've never been put on my ass.
Well... I take that back, Dawn pushed me to my ass at the movies that one day, but that's besides the point.
The bell rings, and we get in our fighting stances.