Sunshine

Knock, knock, knock.

It was the loud pounding in the middle of the night that woke Evelyn up. She was already sleepless, being home alone. She figured it was her police officer father coming home after a tiring night at work, unable to find his keys.

The doorbell went off and Evelyn huffed. She grabbed a stray pullover sweatshirt from her desk chair and slipped it on over her oversized Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt she used as a nightgown as she made her way through the messy living room and to the front door of the small shack. Sometimes she wished her father could’ve had an easier job than a policeman in Detroit. He had the weirdest work hours.

She was shocked when she opened the door and didn’t see her father. In his place was a young, unrecognizable police officer who looked upon Evelyn with sympathy.

“Is this the Kuper residence?”

Evelyn’s heart was pounding against her rib cage and she crossed her arms over her chest self consciously.

“Yes.”

It didn’t surprise her that she didn’t know the guy. He looked like a rookie, new on the force. Her father had always been strict about keeping his work live and Evelyn separate. The older she got, the more she understood why. Detroit wasn’t the safest city for a young girl like Evelyn.

The rookie, whose name read ‘Deputy Pete’, took off his hat and placed it over his chest. His eyes were glistening, and Evelyn took in a sharp breath. She knew that gesture all too well. She had seen her father do it on the job more than once.

She placed her hand over her mouth and shook her head, tears already beginning to spill. Deputy Pete cleared his throat, his hat still over where his heart would be.

“Miss Kuper, I’m gonna need you to come with me.”

Evelyn took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Maybe she was misunderstanding the rookie’s signals.

“Can I ask why?” she asked quietly.

Deputy Pete’s face showed remorse and pain for what he was about to say. He didn’t think a girl as young as her should have to be put through the situation she was about to be tossed into.

“You’re needed to identify the body.”

Evelyn’s head shot up from her desk at the sound of the bell. Kids were eagerly filing out of the small classroom, glad to get out of the cramped area in which they were forced to learn. Evelyn, on the other hand, took her time packing her notebooks into her worn out bookbag, her thoughts still on her flashback. She hated reliving that night; it had forever scarred her and left her broken.

She glanced out of the window as she stood up, studying the weather. She half expected to see snow since it was January and all, but remembered that she was in California now, not Michigan. The weather was a lot different here.

Evelyn pulled up her baggy, ripped jeans with one hand as she sauntered out into one of the many busy hallways of Huntington Beach High School. She found it so easy to get lost, especially since she was new. She had only been going here a couple weeks, after all, so losing her way was expected.

A passerby harshly bumped into her shoulder, causing her to drop the notebooks that hadn’t fit into her bag, the papers and notes falling into a pile at her feet. She bent down at her knees to pick it up, nearly getting kicked by a few students who glared at her for being in their way. Eventually, students cleared out while she continued to collect her notes. Evelyn sighed and used the opportunity to examine the hallways, something she hadn’t really had the opportunity to do.

The hallways were lined with various announcements and other advertisements taped to the plain white concrete walls. The colored papers struck vibrantly against the white, though ones on the orange and black brick lining below didn’t stand out as much. Evelyn noted how this was different than Fountain Valley High School, which was one of the other high schools in the area, and the one Evelyn had attended first semester. After snapping from her daze and getting kneed in the back by one of the few students left in the hallway, Evelyn wondered why she didn’t stay at Fountain Valley instead of come here.

After collecting herself, Evelyn straightened out her dingy white wifebeater and pushed up the sleeves of her oversized, unbuttoned flannel shirt and hoisted her bag up onto her shoulder again. She took a deep breath and stepped outside onto the terrace, enjoying the sensation of the light breeze on her forearms and on her legs through the various large tears in her jeans.

She sat under ‘her tree’, as she had taken to calling it since no one else sat there, and placed her bag next to her. She rested her back against the large oak tree and closed her eyes, resting. It was her free period, after all, and she planned on enjoying every minute of it before she had to return to her classes.

A loud scream disrupted her, and Evelyn turned sharply to see where the noise had come from. She was greeted with the sight of a tall, lanky guy in an orange bathrobe running around crazily. She turned back around and closed her eyes again, paying him no mind. She had seen him out here almost every day since she transferred and his behavior in the yard, as Evelyn dubbed the terrace, had become daily routine.

Her thoughts drifted back to that night, the night that changed everything...

“Boo!”

Evelyn jumped, startled by the loud yell in her ear. Her eyes were glossy with thoughts of her father and Deputy Pete drifting through her head, and whoever yelled at her was soon apologizing.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry! It was a joke! I didn’t mean to scare you! Don’t cry! Please, don’t!”

Evelyn turned, drying her eyes in her flannel.

“That’s not why I was crying,” she replied quietly, sniffing a bit at the end of her sentence as she wiped away the three lone tears that had escaped.

She looked over and was a bit surprised to see the bathrobe clad guy, causing her to assume he was the one who scared. He frowned at her, and he looked rather confused.

Evelyn took note of his hair, tall and sticking out in every direction. He wore blue shorts under his orange bathrobe, or it looked like a bathrobe, anyway, and socks that went past his ankles. He also had on a pair of slip on sandals.

Despite the 60 degree temperature being comfortable to Evelyn, she couldn’t imagine it was warm to the California native.

The guy screamed at a preppy looking girl as she walked by and she gave him a look that obviously said ‘freak’ before flipping her brown hair over her shoulder and stalking off.

He gave a maniacal giggle and seconds later his face was somber, making Evelyn raise an eyebrow.

He sat down next to her, leaning against the tree trunk also. He folded his hands in his lap and stared up at the sky. Evelyn brought one knee up to her chest, the other stretched out. She rested an arm on her knee as she mimicked him by also observing the sky, watching the sea of clouds float by aimlessly, without a care in the world.

She was used to being alone, in her own thoughts, but she figured she could use the company, despite how weird this guy might be. Maybe it would keep her from going insane, if only for a few minutes.

He turned his head to look at her, “Why were you crying?”

Evelyn shifted her eyes from the moving clouds to the grass. She hadn’t expected him to ask. Of course, she didn’t even know the kid; she couldn’t accurately judge how he would act. His stunts on fellow students should have been enough of an indication of that.

“I’d rather not say,” she replied, her voice as soft as the breeze blowing by.

She used to be a bit more social, but things change. A side glance over at her bathrobe clad acquaintance revealed that he was drumming on the grass between his legs, seemingly in thought.

As suddenly as he had appeared, he jumped up and dusted himself off. He stuck out his hand, Evelyn staring stupidly at his outstretched appendage.

“Well it was nice meeting you, uh…”

“Evelyn.”

He nodded, “Right, Evelyn. I must go resume my terrorizing of the population of Huntington Beach High. I’ll see you around!”

He retracted his hand, which Evelyn had still been staring at like an idiot, and gave her a wave before sprinting off, screaming obscenities at the few other students walking by. Evelyn cracked a smile for the first time all day as she watched the still nameless guy disappear into one of the buildings. She could make out his yell from where she was sitting. She shook her head and let out a small laugh.

What a strange guy.