Hey ya'll. Here's part of a story I started to write. I've looked over it a few times and frankly I'm not sure what to think. Mostly that's just because I'm the one who wrote it so it's hard to judge the actual quality of it. Please help? Critique it for me? Make comments/suggestions anything like that? Enjoy! D

Bring On The Rain

Rain pounded down outside the window, pooling up and flooding the sidewalk. Booming thunder sounded as a bolt of lightning struck a tree nearby, rolling and grumbling deeply to the point where you could feel it vibrating in your chest. Savannah, who had been staring blankly out the window, jumped at the sudden noise only to hear the frantic voice of the principal alerting the students that they were under a tornado warning.

Worried voices began to rise above the noise of the rain as the teacher instructed them to go out into the hall and take position. Savannah sighed, ignored the teacher and stared back outside while all the other students rushed past her desk to the hall.

Loud thunder sounded again as a particularly strong gust of wind toppled over a large sign outside. Savannah watched intently, calmly ignoring the panic around her. Her teacher soon appeared at her side, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her out of the desk. She glared up at Mr. Thomas while he shot her an incredulous, how-on-earth-are-you-not-worried-at-all look and ushered her out into the hallway.

Kids lined either side of the small hallway, ducked down upon their knees with their hands covering their lowered heads. Savannah sighed again as the teacher pushed her down to the floor next to some random guy. She assumed the “tornado” position along with the other students but didn’t seem nearly as concerned as everyone else. In fact, she even closed her eyes as if in a light day-dream.

She had always been like that. Always calm in the midst of panic, always very passive. Most of the students who had attempted to talk to her found that she was very hard to approach. She didn’t talk a lot and she tended not to show any emotion. For that reason, many kids just avoided her altogether… which was fine with her. She didn’t particularly feel the need to have a friend who would probably just hurt her in the end. That’s how it always seemed to happen, anyway.

Everyone she seemed to meet or even just run into lately only had one thing on their mind. And it wasn’t her friendship. Eventually she just got used to it, finding that blocking the feelings helped her cope. She just ignored those people and pressed on with her life. But sometimes doing so wasn’t so easy, and it was in those times that she had to resort to other means of emotional release. Lately it’d been getting worse, though, and school was her only real refuge. The kids at school didn’t take any interest in her whatsoever. She never felt threatened there.

So for the moment Savannah just relaxed and allowed herself to drift off into sleep. The storm didn’t concern her at all; in fact, she actually enjoyed watching the rain and hearing the thunder. It calmed her down. It made her start to believe life wasn’t as bad as she sometimes thought it was.

The boy crouched down beside Savannah looked over at her when she sat, eyeing her curiously. She looked so peaceful… so calm and beautiful in an everyday kind of way. In the five years he’d been attending the school, Brandon couldn’t recall ever really seeing her. He’d passed her in the hall sometimes, maybe even shared a class or two, but he’d never really payed that much attention to the silent girl wearing black. After all, who wanted to be with someone who always looked so… emotionless? Brandon shook his head, pulling his eyes away from the girl and listened once again to the storm.

The rain continued to pound against the roof and the minutes ticked past slowly. What was once an apprehensive fear soon became fidgety annoyance as the students became more and more restless. The storm had seemed to lighten up but they weren’t allowed to move until the all-clear was sent. A few of the teachers, who had been carefully patrolling the halls, could feel the restlessness of the kids and talked amongst themselves regarding the storm.

Eventually, though, the intercom sounded and the principal’s voice announced that the tornado warning had ceased and students were to resume their regular schedule. A low groan was heard as students realized they had to go back to class, but they filed slowly into their appointed classes nonetheless. Savannah stayed seated on the floor, enjoying her brief nap.

The boy beside her stood up however and when he realized that she hadn’t moved, he reached down and tapped her shoulder. “Hey… we’re going back into class now…” he said but she didn’t move. He huffed in slight annoyance and reached down to pull her up by her arm. The minute his hand made contact with her skin though, her bright green eyes were wide open and she jerked her arm away from his reach, pulling herself to her feet. She looked at him accusingly, holding her arm protectively, and he looked at her with a confused expression.

“Let’s go,” Mr. Thomas said impatiently from the doorway. He motioned for the two of them to return to the classroom. Savannah and Brandon locked eyes for just a few minutes before Savannah turned without a word and went back to her desk, laying her head down in her arms while Brandon was left watching her with a slightly hurt, yet slightly curious look on his face.

The bell to get out of class rang just a few minutes later and soon both students were lost in the rush of the crowds. It wasn’t until after school that Brandon caught sight of the strange girl again. She was walking slowly down the covered sidewalk, hugging a book close to herself and seemingly lost in thought. It was still sprinkling outside, but the thunder and the lightning had long-since subsided.

“I’ll catch you guys later,” Brandon said to his friends as he broke away from them to catch up with the girl. “Hey, strange girl, wait up!” he called from behind her as he attempted to make pace beside her. She looked over at him with a hint of surprise, but the look didn’t last very long and she stared at the sidewalk ahead of them.

“You don’t talk very much, do you?” Brandon noted, trying to make conversation. Savannah looked over at him out of the corner of her eyes and shrugged silently. Okay, that probably wasn’t the best way to start a conversation with someone… he admitted to himself. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “That probably bothers you when people say stuff like that… Um, my name is Brandon,” he introduced himself.

“Savannah,” she said in return, nodding slightly in recognition of him. He nodded as well and they both fell silent, continuing to walk slowly down the sidewalk away from school. The covering over the sidewalk had ended and now they were walking in the sprinkling rain. Brandon shivered as the cold drops fell on his bare arms, then look over to see Savannah trying her hardest not to make it seem like the rain bothered her. It obviously did though because she had ducked her head down and had drawn her arms as close to her body as possible. Brandon chuckled and retrieved his jacket from his backpack, handing it out for her to take, but she refused, shaking her head no.

“No thanks, I’m fine.” She said with a faint, forced smile upon her face. Brandon rolled his eyes at this and then wrapped his jacket around her shoulders.

“Take it, you look cold.”

This time a slightly less forced smile was on her face and she huddled under the jacket thankfully. Looking up, Brandon realized he was already to his house and he waved goodbye to her. “See you tomorrow, Savannah,” he smiled, walking up his driveway.

She looked up all of a sudden, “Hey! Do you want your jacket back?” Brandon just shook his head.

“Naw, it’s alright, just keep it until tomorrow. See you later!”

“Bye,” Savannah said back quietly. She continued on her way, turning over the thought of someone actually trying to make conversation with her in her mind. Unknowingly, she had the faintest smile tugging at the edges of her lips when she drew the jacket closer to her for warmth.

The next morning, Brandon woke up coughing and had a headache. He moaned and rolled over in his bed, deciding instantly that he wasn’t going to school. The rain yesterday apparently hadn’t done him much good. He coughed for a few minutes, his eyes watering up, before slowly peeking through his blinds. Surprisingly enough, it was still drizzling outside. He watched out the window for a few moments before the effort made him drop his head back down to his pillow and he rolled over and fell into a restless sleep.

Around two in the afternoon he woke up with his stomach growling. He reluctantly drug himself out of bed and winced as his head pounded in complaint. Nonetheless, fifteen minutes later he was seated lazily on the couch, munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and sipping some mountain dew. He had just managed to get the sandwich down when he heard a ruckus outside. Figuring it was just the next door neighbors arguing again or something he ignored it and took his plate back into the kitchen. But when he went to retrieve his mountain dew from the coffee table, he heard the noise again, coming from outside. He scrunched his brow and looked out the window to see Savannah, still wrapped in his jacket, surrounded by a group of guys that didn’t even look school-aged, more like they were in their mid-twenties.

They were laughing among themselves, taking turns pushing Savannah lightly – testily. Savannah had her head down and was attempting to walk around three guys but they blocked her path. One of them reached out and tugged on the jacket she was wearing and she pulled away defensively, without a word. She stared down at the ground and tried again to walk past the guys, but one of them reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her to him. She tried to struggle away but the guy was stronger than she was and the three of them just laughed at her attempt.

Brandon’s face turned red in anger that they would harass someone like that and he ran outside without a second thought.

“Hey, let go of her!” He called, coming up behind one of the guys and throwing a heated punch in the guy’s face. His fist landed solidly and the guy fell back, more from surprise than from hurt, but that was all Brandon needed. Brandon reached for Savannah’s arm and pulled her away from the man holding her.

“Do you have a problem, kid?” The third guy asked, challenging him. Brandon pushed Savannah towards the house and turned back to answer.

“Pick on someone your own size, old pervs.” The three men’s faces hardened instantly and they started towards Brandon, but fortunately a police car had just pulled onto the street. The officer stopped beside the group and rolled down his window, figuring something was up by the look on everyone’s faces.

“Is there a problem here, gentlemen?” he asked, looking curiously from the three men to Brandon and then to Savannah who was standing on the porch.

The three men stared hard at Brandon and then glanced at Savannah before turning back to the officer. “No… we were just leaving. Thank you, officer.”

Brandon watched as they turned and walked off and the police officer looked to the two kids. “Be careful out here, now, you hear?”

Brandon nodded and the police officer drove away slowly. Brandon walked back to his house, watching Savannah carefully. She had her head down and didn’t look up at him when he asked if she was alright.

“Hey, why don’t you come in for a few minutes and hang out? I’ve got nothing to do…” he offered when she didn’t answer.

Savannah looked up at him with a strange look in her eyes, a look that left Brandon scrambling to place it. It wasn’t sorrow or fear… or sadness… what was it? Pain? They didn’t hurt her, did they?

Getting uncomfortable, Savannah quickly dropped her head, breaking the look off and nodded her head. “Could I use your bathroom, please?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Brandon said quietly, opening the door for her to go in the house. “It’s right down the hall, to the right.” She disappeared down the hall and Brandon sighed and plopped down on the couch. Idiots. What kind of jerks pick on innocent highschool girls? He found himself wishing he had a gun and when he finally pulled himself from his thoughts he looked at his watch. It had been seven minutes already and Savannah hadn’t come out of the bathroom yet. Maybe that was normal for girls, though, he wasn’t quite sure… but it wouldn’t hurt to check on her, right? Right.

He walked down the hallway, coughing a few times from his cold, only to see the light in the bathroom on. He knocked softly on the door. “Savannah? Are you alright?”

There were a few moments of silence and Brandon was beginning to think she wouldn’t answer, but he heard her unlock the door and then pull it open slowly. Her eyes were pink like she’d been crying but she meet his gaze strongly and walked past him towards the living room, leaving Brandon looking after her in shock. Had she been crying?

“Did they hurt you?” he asked, grabbing her arm to stop her.

“Ah!” she cried out involuntarily in pain, jerking her arm away from his grip out of reflex. Tears sprung to her eyes as she fell back against the wall instantly, breathing heavily and holding her arms gingerly.

Brandon’s eyes went wide and he quickly took back his hand. “I’m sorry!” he stumbled, totally and utterly confused at her reaction. He’d barely touched her…

A visible shiver of pain coursed through Savannah’s body and she slid down to the floor, attempting to hold back the tears as she took in a few sharp, deep breaths. She sat there for a moment, head raised up and eyes closed trying to fight back the pain and blink away the tears… trying not to cry.

After the initial shock of Savannah’s scream faded away, Brandon knelt down in front of her silently. There was something wrong with this girl… normal people don’t freak whenever you touched them. Everyone has their problems… Something was wrong and he was determined to find out what. He gently took one of her hands in his own and slowly pushed up the sleeve of his jacket that she was wearing. A fine, smooth cut was revealed, bleeding rather profusely. He stared down at it in shock, not expecting to have seen that. Savannah quickly came to and retracted her hand from his grasp, standing up hastily and stumbling away, tugging the edges of the jacket back down. Brandon stayed still, deep in shocked thought, until the sound of the front door closing caught his attention. He stood up and peeked out the window to see Savannah hurrying away, head tucked down and books in tow.

He watched her until she was out of sight. There was something more to this strange girl than what met the eye.