One Bad Day(Cont'd)

I for one knew that I wasn't necessarily stubborn except when it came down to certain issues—health, for example. Mom always praised me for how calm, thoughtful and collected I was and encouraged the twins to emulate my attitude and occasionally, Nicholas. Dad who knew me too well stood against this, insinuating that Mom's notion was barely true.

I smiled at the memory as I hopped onto my rickety bicycle. The old contraption squeaked under my weight, a constant reminder that it wouldn't be able to support my weight much less anyone's weight soon. It had been in the family for years and eventually handed down to me. We've been through a lot together, me and this bike and I was proud of it.

I put on my favourite and only straw hat that dangled from a rope on one of the handle bars. I pedaled down the dusty main path which was flanked on both sides by bushes and little wisps of grass that spread out on the path, only looking trimmed when getting to a residence.

The wind whipped my braids upwards and downwards in a rhythmic manner, blowing into my shirt causing it to puff out and making me look like a balloon.

I would have pedaled faster if I didn't have to be cautious so as not to bump into people going about their businesses, occasionally waving at most that I knew and dodging vehicles. Majority were heading in my direction, chattering among themselves, some giving me weird looks which I couldn't quite decipher.

I didn't have many friends, well, who am I kidding—I didn't have any friends and my social life sucked. I mean, who would want to be friends with a girl who's got scars for a face? Fitting in was hard for me and I've got my scars to thank for that as my last attempt at making friends didn't end well for me. If anything, it got me severely pranked and I couldn't bear to relive it.

Jared—the one true friend I had, he accepted me not minding my flaws even though his other friends left him because he spoke to me and our friendship was tight. Eventually, he had to leave for the city with his family after his father found a job there. I remembered how I begged him not to leave, how bitterly I cried, but he reassured me, giving me his medallion as a parting gift.

Whilst I was engrossed in my thoughts, it hadn't come to my notice the medium sized rock that wasn't supposed to be there that blocked my path until it was too late.

The impact sent me flying high and honestly it was good while it lasted until gravity wrapped its cold and merciless spine chilling hands around me leaving me to land face-first into the dust. The world spun around me as I saw a crowd starting to gather. The pain was excruciating to say the least and that's when I heard it—their sardonic laughter.

They were the bane of my existence, all 17 of them and it seemed that their numbers kept increasing, their sole objective being one thing—to make my life miserable.

"Why me?"

Right now on the ground, writhing in pain, zoning out people's questions of feigned concern around me, I didn't know which hurt worse betwixt my aching body and their high screeches.

"Carina?" A familiar voice came through the crowd.

"Nicholas?"

He scooped me up in his arms.

"Carina, what happened? Are you okay?" His expression depicted genuine concern unlike the other Homo sapiens, who by the way, were now dispersing, some of them mumbling something about me being careless which I pretty much ignored.

But before I could utter a word he had already connected the dots as I saw his eyes flit to my trusted bicycle which was now lying haphazardly on the sandy earth next to the culprit boulder, and lastly, his eyes centered on the real perpetrators who undeniably were the ones who put the rock there. Their laughter had long faltered the moment he arrived, now replaced with dread and apprehensiveness as they started to cower backwards and retreat when he gave them a nasty look.

My eyes connected briefly with uncertain dark ones—Delilah was her name. She was one of my terrorists, a girl that at a point I was convinced that she was bona-fide but turned out she was working with the enemy. After having accomplished her mission, she didn't dare come near me, though I couldn't help but feel that a certain part of her actually wanted to be my friend.

Even as they were laughing she wasn't, she just stood there looking remorseful like she couldn't do anything about it. Well, she could stop sticking with them or better still she could actually stand up for me!

As my eyes connected with hers she once again gave me that stupid sympathic look before disappearing with them. They were all aware of what my big strong brother here could do so they had to scram.

Nicholas's hazel eyes glazed over in anger. I felt his body tense as a muscle ticked at his jaw, watching them on their retreat. They'd been doing this for sometime now and I thought I had grown used to it—somewhat but today they went too far. I considered myself lucky that I hadn't broken anything crucial, save for some slight barely noticeable bruises around my jaw, knee and arms.

Sliding my gaze back to Nicholas, the look he had on now closely resembled the one my dad had when he was livid about something. He looked so much like Dad—a younger version of him, Grandma would say, only that his hair was brown—a reddish brown. I closely suspected that this was the reason why he was her favourite grandchild. It was evident in the way she treated him—even a blind person could tell.

When his attention finally turned back to me, his expression not only mirrored anger but hurt, anguish and remorse too as though he felt my pain and more, when I had been the one to take the fall—literally, and I knew why.

He blamed himself for all of this, if he had not prompted us to play with fire, none of this would have happened. I'd be normal and have friends instead of being the object of ridicule, instead of being tortured like this.

I always tried to soothe him saying that none of this was his fault. We were just kids—immature, stupid, curious and besides what's done was done he couldn't go back into the past to change anything, we just had to leave with the consequences.

Consequences that the events of that day left us. It left us both scarred—mine was mostly physical but his cut a bit deeper like a knife to the heart. I knew he couldn't help feeling that way no matter how many times I tried to make him stop.

So, I squeezed his right arm encouragingly while mustering my most hopeful look.

* * *

* *

The big ball of florid orange—the sun, was starting to dip below the horizon, its rays now exponentially subdued as Mother and I slowly but surely made our way back home. She would stop to greet people and they would talk for sometime before moving on. I, on the other hand, just stood awkwardly, holding my bike that was loaded with supplies, waiting for her to finish while maintaining a calm demeanor or giving a stiff nod when acknowledged.

A green chiffon top with puffy sleeves and an floral azure skirt sheathed her 5'7 frame, her ginger mane which was in a fish tail flailed lazily in the evening breeze. I didn't miss the way she had been giving me this pensive look from time to time throughout today.

"Are you sure you're okay, sweetie?" She asked for the millionth time today. This was my loathed question all through that day.

Of course, her keen eyes didn't miss the slight limp in my steps. I had refrained from mentioning the awful occurrence from that morning to her. Even then, it was such a hassle dealing with Nicholas who insisted I come back home so he could look at my bruises but I stubbornly claimed that I was perfectly fine, telling him that there was no way I could do that and keep Mom waiting.

But the truth was, I didn't want her finding out about this 'cause, I didn't want the matter getting more attention than it should and I'd never be able to live it down. On the bright side, I've been getting away with the previous ones so that's why I made him agree that I'd be the one to tell her about it but I had no intention of doing such.

However, knowing Mother, she would find out sooner or later....

"Yes I am Mother, I just had a minor accident and fell down, it's nothing to worry about," that was my perpetual half-truth response. So technically I wasn't lying, I did fall down didn't I?

We arrived home just in time, on seeing us the twins bulldozed us with hugs, they did this not because they missed us as I had observed but because of the treats we unfailingly brought them each time.

"How was school, boys?" I ruffled their coppery hair playfully before going to retrieve the grocery bags.

"Boring as usual," was Kyle's response or was it Caleb. Ughhh!

It was hard differentiating or trying to differentiate between them to find out who exactly was who among the twins they were just so identical even after all these times and, honestly it was only Mom that could tell them apart, sometimes, she too didn't know who was who.

Their school was only an hour away from here. I also went there and now that I've graduated, going to college was then a dream of mine that seemed unrealizable considering our finances. Neither was I going to give up hope just yet.

"Is that so?" I shook my head in mock disbelief.

The both of them were no doubt pure war-mongers as young as they were, if there wasn't anything close to fighting or mild violence, that school day was passed as boring and unproductive for them.

They had also been suspended a few times more than once on the account of fighting and other types of mischief. The only reason they were still in that school was because of their outstanding performances in class.

"Oh lemme help you with that," offered Caleb or Kyle with his arms outstretched, mimicking a proper gentleman. Not! We both knew why he was doing this. The other one was turned away from us kicking at pebbles at his feet while Mom had already made her way inside.

I dipped low to his level while turning the other one to face me. Next, I glanced around cautiously before returning my attention back to them. One of their faces held worry, another held anticipation. Then I smiled conspiratorially, letting it turn crooked before I whispered;

"Did you two ever think that I had forgotten what you pulled on me this morning?" I said and paused for effect.

I watched amusedly as their faces grew mortified. They visibly gulped and blanched before exchanging looks and abruptly taking off, freeing themselves from my iron grasp. I let out a sinister laugh allowing it to echo behind them. I probably sounded like the bad guy in one of those crappy low-budget movies. But I'll catch them, that's for sure.

Just as I straightened myself to my full height, a sharp pain shot through my leg causing me to inhale sharply and bite my lower lip, remembering the Godforsaken events of that day that heralded this painful sensation.

Today was just not my day. No, not at all.