C'est La Vie

Chapter two: PunchLine

The Uber ride was silent as I watched the trees go by, the flashes of dark green against the blue of the sky was helping to calm me down. I had to close my eyes to ease back the tears threatening to spill over. My nails dug into the palms of my hands, and I chewed on my bottom lip painfully. I did all I could to not scream in the back of this lady's car.

The Uber Driver tried to engage in conversation a few times but eventually gave up and turned on the radio after realizing she was not going to get a response from me. I wasn't trying to be rude and made a mental note to give her a nice tip after the ride, but today was NOT the day.

I was on the brink of a breakdown and had to get my shit together before we pulled into the gates of Dalton Beach High School.

"Okay honey, we're about to pull in. Do you want me to drop you off right here by the football field?" I heard the soft voice of the driver again. "That way you'll have time to shake whatever's getting ya"

"Yes, thank you" I said in appreciation. I still had about 10 minutes to spare before the first bell went off.

"Hey, whatever's bothering you, don't worry too hard about it, as you get older you learn that life fixes itself so just saddle up and enjoy the ride. Plus, you're too young and beautiful for stress wrinkles" She turned around and gave me a warm smile.

Returning the smile, I got out of the car and made my way through the gates leading to the football field. I needed to find my best friend Aria, and fast.

I jogged through a field of grass, making my way toward the main building. Aria and I shared a locker on the first floor so I knew that's where she would be waiting for me. Our classes were in opposite directions, but we always made sure to meet up at our locker before each period.

Rushing through the sea of half-asleep students I finally made it into the main building and down the west wing hallway. In the distance I could see Aria standing in front of the red painted locker. She had her phone against her ear with her foot tapping against the floor impatiently. More than likely, she was dialing my phone, which was deep in my backpack.

"Hey," I said.

"Girl I was calling you" she said hanging up her phone and placing it into the pocket of her scrubs. She was in the school's medical program, in hopes of becoming a neurologist. She, like myself, was also waiting to hear back from the Howard University scholarship program.

Aria was the very first person I spoke to when I moved here, and we've been best friends ever since. It didn't take long for us to realize that in many ways we were alike but, in most ways, we were completely opposite.

She was literally the Ying to my Yang.

"It's honestly a long story. I missed the bus, so I had to take an Uber here which was $20" I explained, running my hand over my face. "But listen I need a favor"

*BING! *

The first bell sounded off.

"What happened?" She said signaling for me to continue.

"I'm gonna text you after first period so make sure you read your messages" I scowled, "you always text back like 5 hours later"

"Yeah, yeah whatever" she waved off my last comment, "but what is it about?"

"It's a long story" I hoisted my backpack onto my shoulder and began to head to class.

"Mmhmm" She hummed as she began walking backwards down the hall, careful of the students walking behind her. "It got something to do with that devil woman and her demon spawns, don't it?"