It Rained & It Poured

i

The sunset sits crested over the rising stars, shining its magnificent light across the horizon, as far as the eye can see, and down the grey city lanes that Frank's roamed for years. The sky sits polluted peach and violet, toned around the edges with the rising dark black fade of nighttime. And finally, the local star disappears down the bend of Earth itself, burning a brilliant, painful red, slowly dying from light and waning from its full potential.

Despite the setting sun's glorious rays, Frank, Pete, Mikey, and Patrick can't see a damn thing. Chilled drops of rainfall from their great ascent in the sky, gravity pulling each droplet down to the ground. Frank feels one droplet fall in his thick, dark hair, barely reaching his scalp.

"Yo, Frankie," Pete calls, his voice echoing off the elementary school walls. His dark brown eyes rise to see the teen waving him down from the other side of the chainlink fence. Frank sighs, looking the seven-foot fence up and down wondering if he could scale it without help. He sees Mikey drop from the peak, right onto his feet and Frank isn't sure how he doesn't fall over in pain.

"I'm coming," Frank grumbles, moodily. This is one of the things he hates about visiting his old elementary school. It's nice to see the places he used to see, but at the same time, the fence is normally locked, as the school is abandoned, which means he has to scale it every time they visit.

Frank, though he's reluctant, is ready for the challenge and decides to follow Mikey's steps. He pulls his backpack closer around him and slowly starts to scale the fence. Hand, hand, foot, foot, hand, hand, foot, foot. He makes his way up, the underpart of his fingers stinging in displeasure. Frank pushes himself further up despite the pain and finally peaks the fence, throwing his backpack over before following, making his way down at first before falling the rest of the way into the dark, unlit grass.

Patrick's the last to follow, pushing himself up over the fence as well, Frank watches as his blond hair falls into his face, sweat sticking to his body. When he finally follows behind, they embark on towards the school building. They've been here hundreds of times before and this is just one of the many since they began high school. Frank's on his last year of schooling, pushed back into his senior year. Pete and Patrick are right behind him in junior year, and Mikey is in sophomore year. Nonetheless, they've stayed together through elementary school, middle school, and high school. Despite all the stupid fights and problems they've had with each other, they still love and respect each other. They've been friends for years.

Pete's always been the jokester, always doing the craziest shit to get even a droplet of attention. Mikey's been the calm and collected kid who makes sure they don't end up in jail. Patrick is Pete's supporting cast, always there to try to sort out whatever thoughts go through Pete's head. And Frank? Frank's been the loud, excited kid with a huge heart and the "father" of the group. He isn't sure how they ended up with their distinct personalities but it fits with the group, even better than they thought it would originally.

Patrick sighs, pulling his bag from the ground as they continue together in their tightly-knit group. They push on down the narrow sidewalk, avoiding the cameras that roam the school and sticking in the shadows as they've practiced over and over again. They've been caught here before several times by the cops, by security, by the Karens who decide to walk the streets at night looking to find someone who is "offending" them. Whoever it was, they've been caught before. So now, they know exactly what to do to avoid the dangers of the law. They know what corners to turn, which rooms they're allowed to enter, and where they can relax without being caught. At one point, Frank ended up being suspended from school for a week straight and he wasn't allowed back on the school grounds without an adult. Though, that didn't last long. So far, he hasn't been caught again. So hopefully, it won't be an issue.