White Roses

Chapter One: Normalcy

Chapter One: 

Normalcy 

Rain does not make a great fighting arena. 

My eye throbbed; a black eye in the making.

The stupid jerk swung his fists clumsily at me, but I jumped back. My sneakers slipped in the mud and I fell before rolling to avoid a kick. What a creep. Not only does he hit a girl, but he hits the enemy while they’re down. I smiled as I got up on my feet again. I maybe short, but I got great aim. I landed a good kick in the nut sack. He crumbled to the ground and let out a groan. I stood over him. 

“Want to call me Frankenstein’s bitch again?” I asked the senior as I lightly shoved his shoulder with my muddy shoe. 

“You bitch!” One of his friends yelled.

Ignoring him, I took out my phone. 

“Crap, its five-thirty. Mr. Whiteman is going to murder me,” I said before turning around and running in the rain. 

“Hey!” 

“Shove off!” I yelled over my shoulder, “Be happy I don’t have time for you today!” 

The school campus layout consisted of the main building in the center, the theater and the gym in the far upper left corner. I followed the concrete pathway to the theatre. I opened the heavy glass doors with fancy metal detectors right inside. The entrance to the theatre looked fancier than others to impress parents when they visited. The dark red carpet gave it a regal look and the two dark heavy doors gave it the feel of grander. 

The stage stood in the middle of the room with rows of overstuffed seats with the red drapes pulled back on stage, it revealed the crew and the actors.  

The stage was big enough for it to be split nearly in two with the curtain pulled down. The school painted the stage black, but after the years of wear and tear little scratches, pieces of gum and other sticky substances appeared on the wooden floor. The wires for sound and lights twisted in certain places of the floor near a black box. During the play, the backstage turned black as ink with only glimpses of light that snuck its way through the cracks of the set. The red empty seats looked slightly intimidating with the actors on stage and nothing to hide behind. 

The doors made a loud bang noise, making everyone in the room jump, look at me, or a mixture of the two. 

The director, who sat on the first row, stared at me with his pen hitting the clip board. I smiled a little bit. His face began turning red and that said something since I stood all the way in the back of the theatre and he sat in front. 

“Matty Lee!” He yelled as I flinched. He walked up the row, swinging his clipboard around. Sometimes, I truly thought he wanted to hit me, but didn’t since I usually came with bruises already. “Where have you been? You’re nearly an hour late and you’re dragging mud into my beautiful theatre!” 

“Are you really, really sure you want me to answer that, Mr. Whiteman?” I asked him as his face reddened and then relaxed, but then redden again to the point of turning purple. Oh boy. 

“If I do find out, as my authority of being a teacher, would I have to send you to the principle?” 

“Pretty much,” I told him.

He bit on the end of his pen and looked at his clip board and then the set builders that quietly worked on the set for fear of setting him off even more. “Get to work, NOW!” 

I ran down the rows before hopping on stage. Some of the actors sniggered and laughed at my appearance except for one, Cooper. I diverted my eyes to the floor for a moment as my cheeks reddened.