Lightning Moments

My face felt hot as I followed Ms. Spears into the hallway. She looked at me, searching for something. I had no idea what she was trying to find. She put a hand on my shoulder and cleared her throat.

“Mika, love. You didn’t do too well on this test. You usually do so well! I’m always excited to grade your tests because it shows that I’m at least getting through to some of my students. Louis is getting to become a lost cause. When I asked for the names of four elements, he listed off the members of the Beatles. That poor child. Anyway, I wanted to know if anything was wrong, at home or other-wise,” said Ms. Spears, her eyes boring into mine. She handed me the test and my eyes grew. The number fifty-six was circled in red at the top.

My mouth dropped. “I don’t think so. I mean everything is fine at home. I guess I must have been out of it or something. I thought I knew this stuff too. I must have been tired. I’m so sorry. I’ll try harder next time,” I said, hanging my head. I can’t believe I completely failed that. I remember being extremely tired that day because my nightmares were keeping me up.

Ms. Spears looked at me. “If you want, I can make up a new test for you. I know how important your grades are. Your scholarship says that you have to keep your grades up to stay here. So I would be more than happy to give you a re-take. I would offer it to Louis too, but he actually got a higher grade than you. Shocker there. It’s not like he would want to anyway. I’m sure he’s proud of his grade. I did enjoy that he drew a carrot as a label for carats though, that boy never ceases to amuse me, no matter how hard I try to mask it.” She looked back at the class. The voices in the room were rising and the noise was filtering into the hallway through the open door.

“You would do that for me? Thank you so much! I’ll study harder this time. When do you want me to take it?” I smiled at her for her generosity.

“No problem, love. How about you take it on Friday, after school, yeah?”

I nodded and we turned back into the classroom. The room was silent as we stepped through the door. A few pairs of eyes followed me to my seat. One person looked like they were drooling. Somebody should tell him.

A flash of red and orange appeared at the forefront of my mind, bringing back my headache. I rubbed at me temples thinking it would go away, but I was wrong. Ms. Spears started a new lesson and was lecturing at the front of the classroom; she drew various heat curves on the board. I couldn’t pay attention to any of it. I needed to get out of there somehow I raised my hand.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but may I use the ladies room?” She looked at me for a second and then waved a hand toward the door. I kept my composure until I finally reached the bathroom.

Tears rolled down my cheeks without my consent. They kept coming and I couldn’t stop them. I wiped them away, but I was bombarded by memories from my past: My parents taking my sister and me to the beach; my mom coming with me to buy a dress for my dance; my sister giving me advice.

They were little things, but they somehow left a mark on me. But, why am I remembering all of this now?

I splashed my face with water and went back to class before anybody would notice I was gone for too long. When I entered the classroom again, only one person was looking at me. Well, at least I thought he was looking at me. I looked down and smiled, getting red as I realized that he might not even be looking at me at all.

As I passed, Ms. Spears grabbed my arm and asked if I was okay. I gave her a nod and decided that I would tell her everything when I figured out what was wrong with me. She was like a second mother to me.

“Ms. Spears, I think you’re a jewel. A real gem really. I don’t understand how jewels apply to temperature.”

“Joules, Louis…..J-O-U-L-E-S…..it’s a unit of measurement.” Ms. Spear shook her head slowly.

“I know, I just wanted to try out my new chat-up line,” said Louis mischievously. He gave an evil grin and raised his eyebrows.

“And I thought Harry was bad. You two were made for each other.” Ms. Spears went back to the board and smiled. Louis had a smug grin on his face.

Louis was such a character. He always had some kind of chemistry joke to whip out. He tended to interrupt the class nearly every day and his friend would sometimes slide down a little in his chair because he was embarrassed by some of the things Louis did.

The period was almost over and I was trying to focus as much as I could on the lesson. Since I failed at that, I looked over the test she gave back. I looked at some of the answers and wondered why some of them looked weird. They weren’t numbers to an answer; they were dates! Why on earth would I do that? It couldn’t have been a conscious effort. Maybe my mind was trying to tell me something. It picked the time of a test to do it though, which I didn’t appreciate. I only knew one of those dates by heart; it was my sister’s birthday: June 6, 1989. I wrote the numbers 6.061989.

The bell rang through my ears. It was a deafening sound, and it caused me to jump. I stuffed the test into my bag and went to English.

That’s when I heard it. It was another crash of thunder. The rain was pelting the roof and my heart was beating three times faster than it normally does. I felt like it might burst out of my chest. The storm outside was getting worse and I was terrified. To make everything a walk in the park, the electricity shut off. The dark was not a place for girls like me. So, I ran. I ran to the closest place I could find.

It was the gym.

Hiding in the gym was one of the worst decisions. The whole room was covered with windows and the sound seemed to echo off of every wall. I ducked down under the bleachers and curled up into a ball. I couldn’t help it, but with every crash of thunder I cried even harder. I heard this choked sound and I realized it was my own scream. My head was still pounding and images kept creeping into my mind, hoping to get in. I was paralyzed with fear.

Through my crying, I could hear footsteps. They were growing louder. I just wanted the storm to stop, but I knew it wouldn’t. I don’t know why I hated storms. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. So, I continued to cry into the emptiness of the gym. It was a dark abyss that was swallowing me whole.