Lightning Moments

The rain was pouring in torrents as I waited for Dani to pick me up. My body was shivering as the rain soaked me to the bone. It was cold; too cold to be out in the rain without a coat, let alone an umbrella.

Booooom! The thunder came rolling in and I was scared. I curled up on the spot and closed my eyes to escape the loud crashes. My mind was scrambling, retreating to a safe place. Tears streamed down my face as the rain continued to pour- tears mingling with the rain.

“Mika…Mika,” a voice shouted. Something pulled at my shoulders, shaking them.

My eyes flew open and my face was filled with fear.

“Oh my God! Mika, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Come here. You are sopping wet,” said Dani, worry etched in her voice.

“I don’t know. I- I don’t like thunder.” I cringed as another bit of thunder and lightning filled my eyes and ears.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” said Dani as she pulled me toward the car.

I stretched out in the backseat and curled into a ball. I was terrified. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as the car began to move forward.

Flashes of color and screams flooded my nightmare. A large fire seemed to engulf the object in the middle of the street. It was a car. The screams were coming from the flaming car. I was an outsider looking in as the deafening screams ebbed. Sirens were wailing profusely. Then came another explosion.

My eyes flew open and I bolted upright, my breath coming in gasps. I kicked at the sheets. Dani. She must have put me into bed after driving me home. I quickly looked around the room and noticed that it wasn’t mine: It was Dani’s.

I jumped out of bed and went into the kitchen where I smelled the scent of coffee.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” replied Dani.

“Ummm… good morning, but why am I here? I do have my own flat to go to.” I grabbed a cup of coffee and put French vanilla cream into it.

“Well, you wouldn’t wake up, so I carried your heavy bum up here. Don’t worry. I let Linda and Mark know where you were. I didn’t want your guardians to freak out. Now get your ass in the shower and get ready, love. It’s 6:30 and we need to leave by 7:00 to make it to prison- I mean school- on time,” said Dani as she leaned on the counter.

Linda and Mark were acting as my guardians for the school year. I came to England on a foreign exchange program. I got a scholarship to be a student at George Williams Academy in Wolverhampton. It was a free ride, so might as well hang on for the experience. I needed to break away from my old life anyway. There were things I just didn’t want to think about anymore. Running away from my problems has been a good decision so far. I’ve only lived here for a few months and it’s been fun. Granted, the weather is crappy, but I met some great people like Dani. It’s just that recently, I feel like my memories have been fighting to get out.

I took a sip of my coffee and put it down.

“Crap! I almost forgot! I’ll be right out!” I ran to the shower and grabbed some of Dani’s clothes on the way. It’s not like she would mind anyway.

As I was getting ready, flashes of my dream kept coming back. It was frustrating because I couldn’t make any sense out of it. It was all just a mess of swirls and colors and noises. None of it made sense.

I tried to get myself to look as decent as possible as my hair was still dripping. So, I threw my hair up into a ponytail and headed out of the bedroom. I grabbed my coffee as we made our way out the door. Thank God Dani put my coffee into a thermos. I would have to thank her later. I don’t even know how I would get through the day without it. I love that girl for thinking of everything.

Yesterday’s memories came flooding back and it caused me to stop. The memories ambushed me, but I pushed them back before Dani could notice that anything was wrong. I continued to walk, but she saw that I stopped and gave me a funny look. I gave her a reassuring smile which she reciprocated. I ducked into the car and plastered on my best smile as we drove to George Williams Academy.

***

While we drove, my hands started to shake. I had to clench my hands into fists to keep Dani from noticing. It’s not like she would bother me about it either way though. The best thing about our friendship was that there aren’t really questions asked. We didn’t have to talk about things unless we wanted to.

I could feel a headache coming on, but I just dismissed it and took another sip of coffee. We were stuck in traffic. Apparently, there had been an accident and we were just waiting for the road to clear so that we could go ahead and pass. It was taking far longer than it should have, but the officer finally directed us out of that mess.

It was cloudy out and it looked as though it might rain. My head was pounding, so I grabbed the bag that I left in Dani’s car and pulled out my iPod. My bag was still damp, but at least the iPod didn’t suffer much damage. I turned up my iPod and shuffled it to a random song. It helped me drown out the swirls of memories that were rising to the top.

We finally reached the Academy and I threw my headphones back in the car. I hoped that my headache would go away before the test I had in calculus fourth period. The test was going to give me a headache in itself, so going in with a headache wouldn’t help.

I took one last look at the dark sky before I entered the doors to the Academy. A drop of rain fell onto the sidewalk as I walked through the doors, starting the storm.