*WARNING*- I wrote this in 8th grade. Be gentle. It's kinda bad.
It all happened ten years ago. I was a young girl of thirteen. It stared of like any other Monday, boring and bland to the thought. Little did any of us know that our lives, or at least mine, would change through a disaster we thought never would happen.
At the time, I was an eighth grader attending Alony Boarding School. We called it “The Jail”; that’s what it had seemed like to us, anyway. It was built way out in the country, God only knows why it couldn't have been built in the city, and the windows had the intricate, unpleasant design of iron bars. The teachers were like drill sergeants, commanding us around, and there was a strict popularity system which every one obeyed; to afraid to challenge the ones in charge, to afraid of being pushed down. Life there was far from pleasant.
At school, I belonged to clique that wasn’t the most popular, we were somewhere in the middle. My friend, Charity, was kinda-of the leader of the pack. She had fire red hair which made her absolutely impossible to miss in a crowd and crystal blue eyes which only enhanced her hairs color. Camille was sort of the silly one. If someone was sad or depressed, you could count on Camille to cheer them up. She had hair as golden as the sun and hazel eyes which shone brightly through her glasses. Aurora was the quieter one and she was one of my closer friends. She had straight brown, and sapphire eyes which fit her with absolute perfection. Venus...well... she was real close to Camille and as different as her name. She had the most vibrant emerald eyes I had ever seen, and soft golden-brown hair. As for me, I had the reputation as the shy, innocent girl with a head of wild, wavy, brown hair with the name of Gabriella, or Gabby, as my friends called me.
“Not another Monday!” Venus complained. “ It’s the worst day of the week, and everything’s always so...so...so dismal.”
“Venus’s expanding vocabulary for ya,” Aurora said teasingly.
“It’s just another Manic Monday,” I sang in my unusually high soprano. Everyone was always telling me that I have a beautiful voice, that if I work a little harder, I could go professional, but I thought, and still think it’s average.
“Gabby,” Camille said, “there is a chorus room where people aren’t looked at as if they’re psychic maniacs when the sing”
I gave Camille a look, but I had known that she was right. If someone of “higher rank” had saw me, I would get teased or looked at funny for the rest of my planetary existence. As I said before, my group is in the middle of the “popularity scale”. I thought, that in our case, that one of the popular girls had a problem with one or two of us, so our place was put where it was. We knew our place and knew it well.
It was a hot, sticky August day. Unseasonable hot. There was a light rain falling down upon the Earth. Nothing much; not even enough to drop the humidly to a “breathable level”. I was in Language Arts and there was only five more minutes until the class’s end. Everyone in the class was fidgeting in there seats. Lunch was next and the whole of the eighth grade population was famished. Ryan, a boy with the most gorgeous face and sparkling blue eyes that I still swear could see into your very soul, and I were talking about the dance that had been the night before. We had all sorts of fun things going on at that dance; Kareoke, door prizes, multiplication dance, and limbo. I participated in all, and so did all of my friends.
“You did a real good job when you sang ‘Candle on the Water’ last night. I thought that most Disney songs were stupid baby songs, but I guess there are a few that are for anyone.” Ryan complemented. It was a complement that I took in and played over and over again in my head. See, I had a crush on Ryan. Unfortunately, he had a girlfriend.
“Thanks,” I said meekly
Then, the bell rang and everyone rushed out of the class room like a heard of angry animals. As soon as I got out of the door, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and soon learned I had made a big mistake. A sharp slap across the face nearly knocked me on the floor.
“What the hell do you think you were doing flirting with my boyfriend!?” Julie said. Julie is the most popular girl in the boarding school, and Ryan’s girlfriend. She kinda looked like a short, demented Barbie, and she was a snobby pain in the ass.
“I wasn’t flirting, Julie. I was just talking......about the dance,” I was desperately tying to get rid of her.
“Sure. Whatever!” Julie yelled. “If I catch you one more time.....”
“What am I suppose to do!” I screamed. “Am I just suppose to just sit there and not say anything to the person I am sitting next to? Be silent, and perfect, and do my work continuously?” I had felt very proud of myself. I didn’t take critasiziom well back then, so standing up for myself was a big accomplishment. No sooner had I finish that thought, that my pride was ripped away.
“Yeah,” Julie said, a little quieter, “Your good at that.”
I just about burst into tears. Luckily, Charity quickly covered for me.
“Julie, SHUT UP!!! When are you going to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around you! Beat it...or better yet...go get lost in a trash can somewhere!”
Julie’s mouth dropped.For once in her life, she was speechless. She did exactly what Charity told her to do, beat it. Charity and I laughed. We had won a small battle in a never-ending war, and it felt good.
That’s when my eyes turned to the window. The once gentle rain shower had turned it to a violent storm. The sky was so dark; it was almost as if the night had suddenly decided to overpower the day. The wind howled, thunder crashed and the rain pelted the window in endless torrents. Suddenly, lightning flashed. I gasped at the sight. All my friends gathered around me, in the same fearful trance I was in. Aurora touched my shoulder, and I was instantly brought back to reality.
“TORNADO!!!!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
I heard screams from all around. People were so scared and confused that they were aimlessly running every which way.
“There is no time to get underground,” I said to my friends. I was lucky that I was able to keep a level head in a panic situation. “Duck, cover, and stay close!”
I don’t know what knock me out; fear or the tornado.
I woke up within two minutes of the tornado hitting the school. I opened my eyes to destruction. The tornado had ripped a path right down the middle of the school. All around me, people were getting up. It had seemed no one had been in the destruction path, but there was no way to tell for sure, yet. We had to wait until everyone came together, and we did a roll call. I was fine, a bit shocked, but fine. All of my friends were in the same condition. That’s we I heard something; a scream and a desperate cry for help. I started to walk in the direction of the cries and soon came to a gapping precipice in the building.This was odd, because tornadoes usually completely destroy a building that is in it’s path. For some reason, maybe by some freak occurrence, or by the grace of God, there was just one large precipice. As I scanned the site, I noticed a girl hanging helplessly on a ledge of the destroyed school, just below my feet. Looking harder, I realized that the girl there was Julie. Mixed feelings ran wild through my head, feelings of anger, anguish, and disgust, but there was one single, over-powering feeling pushing through all the hatred in my head. No matter how much I hated, and despised her, no matter how many times she as shown me disrespect, I had to help her.
“Hang on, Julie!” I called.
“HELP ME!!!” she screamed.
I lied down as close to the edge as I dared, and reached out my hand. Without me saying anything, she grabbed it. Her weight almost made me drop her, but I kept pulling for what seemed like forever until she was safely on solid ground.
“I don’t... know how ...to thank you,” Julie said, gasping for breath. “You helped me... even though... I was mean to you. I can’t... believe it!”
“Well I had to. I not the kind of person who would just leave someone like that,” I said.
Well, my little rescue effort got me publicity in the paper, a story on the news, and respect from my classmates. Sure, I still got teased as I got older, but there or some things that will never change. You just have to hold your head high and proud, and push your way through the obstacles on the road of life. You never know where the path will lead you.