Fire & Water & Earth & Air

12: Air

Robert

           Being bored to death is exactly zero percent fun.

           My mom isn't home, I've been homeschooled my entire life so I have no friends, and Annabel is in school. Obviously, I went to the woods and decided to wait there until Anne showed up. Then finally we could have fun.

           While I'm waiting, I hear footsteps that are going fast. And I'm talking faster-than-Jessie-Owens fast. The footsteps stop abruptly, right next to me. I open an eye and look at the person that caused the noise.

           She's pretty. I can tell that much from the peek I took. And if she's funny, maybe I won't have to wait for Annabel Allen to get out of school so I can be entertained. We exchange small talk before she sits a few trees away.

           I blow her hair into her face and open one eye. Her face scrunches up and then her eyes open. She looks confused and I can't help but chuckle a little. I close my eyes, stop the breeze, and pretend like nothing happened.

           I hear her laugh lightly. After a few seconds, I make a breeze blowing in her direction again, but it all feels different. Less resistance.

           I open my eyes and find that she's gone. I look around, but I can't find her. I furrow my brow and am about half-ways to getting up fully, when I hear, "Boo!" behind me.

           Now that I think about it, turning around so abruptly wasn't the smartest thing to do. Why? Well, because I ended up smacking her in the face.... with my elbow.

           She's falling so I whip out my arm to try and catch her. My hand ends up tangled in her short, brown hair. Both her arms reach up to steady herself before she falls, but they end up on my face, poking my eye. The pain causes me to flinch, which causes me to let go of her hair. Her hands are still on my face, though, so we both fall together.

           My body lands on her with a thud! and her voice saying, "Ouch." I get up and apologize profusely but she just shakes her head. "It's fine," she says with a giggle.

           I take a few steps back, making sure I don't bump into a tree.

           I apologize again and she just waves it away. She sticks out a hand and introduces herself. "Hi, I'm Dorothy. Dorothy Wilde."

           My lips pull into a smile. "Hello, cousin. I'm Robert. Robert Gordon." We stand awkwardly before she says, "So what were you doing out here?"

           I shrug. "Waiting for a friend. You?"

           "I'm ditching school. I hate that place. Maybe hanging out so close to it is a bad idea...." She shrugs. "But oh well."

           We get quiet again, and I wish I had something interesting to say. Instead, she speaks up again. "The wind is acting strangely, is it not?" I smile and nod.

           "It is acting weird."

           "What could be causing it?"

           "....I don't know. Maybe the earth is changing the direction it's spinning in?" She laughs again. "Yup, that's the most probable thing." We laugh. "So.... you're ditching? Is public school really that terrible?"

           Dorothy raises both her eyebrows. "'Public school'? Are you in private school or something?"

           I shake my head. "Homeschooled."

           "Oh."

           "Yeah." The third awkward silence being an indicator that I do, in fact, need Annabel to keep me entertained, on my toes, to have fun.