Sunny Came Home

[~All I Need]

Story;; SUNNY CAME HOME

Chapter 1;; SHE CAME HOME WITH A MISSION

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Again I was staring out the window, thoughtless as the flawless clouds scudded across the never-ending sky. I blinked, my ocean-blue eyes shimmering in the afternoon sunlight that slanted down into the courtyard, reflected off the dull concrete, and glared into my eyes. The din of the classroom confused me, but not so to make me interested in the daily lives of others. Ever since I accepted that life was one big mistake and that I was never going to be truly happy, I became so detached that my mom had wondered whether or not to get me help. After I promised her that I would improve, she decided that therapy was the last thing I needed.
" Corina? Senorita Corina! "
I slowly turned my head to look at my Spanish teacher, Ms. Craig. Her round brown eyes were narrowed in irritation and her stilleto-clad foot tapped the tiles with an unsteady rhythm. After staring at her for a few moments with a blank expression in my eyes, she sighed and turned to the board, pointing at the question she wanted me to translate.
" 'Miguel le gusta dibujar. Es artistico' means 'Miguel likes to draw. He is artistic.'"
Smiling broadly, Ms. Craig nodded and pointed at her next victim to translate the rest of the foreign language on the whiteboard. I was one of the first years in this class (along with many who failed and had to take Spanish I again) and I was one of her star students, always the first to understand and comprehend quickly. I should have been proud with that; I didn't care, though.
Sighing, I looked back out the window again. Ms. Craig was listing off more words that just became one big blur to me. I probably should have been copying this down; I didn't have enough energy to pick up my pencil and pay attention. So instead, I continued to contemplate while life went on.

The bell rang and I gathered my stuff with leaden arms, dreading the hour long bus ride home. The steady clacking of Ms. Craig's shoes warned her coming. What now? I moaned silently.
I turned to my teacher and waited for her to speak. A few straggling juniors exited the room chattering like canaries. It was finally silent in the room and I relished in that. I had too many headaches lately and the constant din of high school always drove me to the brink of insanity.
" I believe that you haven't been giving your best, Corinne... "
I glanced around her as the throng of people in the hall progressed to their destinations. I liked Ms. Craig, she was a good teacher and she was nice to me, but she was wasting her time on forcing me to make more of an effort. I was an A and B student, I was happy with that. Could I do better? Probably. Did I want to? No. Did I care to bother? How about 'No comment.'
I sighed, frustrated to my limits. " Look, Ms. Craig, I have to go or my bus will leave me. i Hasta meircoles! " I said as I was sprinting out the door, trying to make her feel better.
Ms. Craig was a new teacher with strong morals and high goals...
But one of the goals that was impossible for her to obtain was to get me to even smile once.

I dumped all of my school paraphernalia at the kitchen table as I announced I was home. My mom walked out of her bedroom, sporting her usual running outfits. My mom was much prettier and more built than me, sporting the most rockin' bod I've ever seen on a thirty-five year-old woman. No wrinkles lined her face, only the few worry lines on her forehead. Her green eyes were the color of dull jade, always lit with a small smile. Her face was more sharp and angular than my heart-shaped facade, bringing out the way her arched brows sat on her brow bone and bone structure. I envied my mother, I could never look like her...
" Hey, Corinne. How was school today? "
I gave my usual answer.
" Fine. " This time, though, it was accompanied by a careless shrug of my shoulders.
" What do you mean by fine? " She said in her clear voice.
" It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad. "
Every day it was like this. Whether it be my mother or my grandparents, this same script was repeated. I wondered how long it would take before I blew a fuse at this same dreay schedule that was always concluded with me going to sleep having the same dream... The one where I was always in the bamboo forest with Brian, trying to speak but unable to. The dream would always end with him telling me
" I'll never love you. "

A few hours later I was sitting in my room, idly nibbling on the tip of my mechanical pencil as my math homework blurred before my eyes. Hissing in frustration, I grabbed the thick textbook and threw it at my door with a loud thud that shook the house. My mom's angry voice drifted up the stairs and I called down telling her I dropped my math book.
Grabbing my purse from my antique dresser, I crossed the hall and went into my bathroom, locking the door behind me. After depositing my sadly empty purse on my marble counter and putting away the headband I was wearing, I stared at myself in the mirror for a while, trying to figure out what I saw.
My once tan skin was now taut over my face and paler than I used to remember, lacking the rosy glow that gave me my middle name. The blue eyes that I used to remember as bright and cheerful were now slightly sunken in and dull; shadows under my eyes like hideous bruises. My full lips were now set in a permanant scowl, cracked and bleeding. I sighed. Though I hated to admit it, I used to be pretty in a... Corinne sort of way. I wasn't the kind of pretty that guys or the majority or people liked. I was the kind that went by, unnoticed.
Now I was a shell of what I used to be. I cupped my face in both of my hands, not feeling a trace of the smile that used to be plastered there or the lines that spread out from my eyes as I laughed heartily. I couldn't even remember the last time I laughed with my heart in it...
I made a rasping sound in my throat, not surprised that my laugh sounded like something a zombie would make. I was a completely changed person... And I think that it might be permanant.
Blinking slowly, I ran out of my bathroom and down the stairs, yelling at my mom that I was going for a walk. She glanced at me, confusion set in every line of her face, but didn't say anything besides " Be back in time for dinner. "

The woods were very peaceful as I huddled in my jacket, content to get away from civilization. I looked up at the sky, noticing that it was already sunset. The only sound of leaves brushing against my converses, I let my feet carry me wherever they wanted to.

I now had a mission to right every wrong I made.

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[Blackie]

0.0 That is . . . WOW!!!!!! I love it! I'm hooked, feed me more.

-mouth gapes baby bird style-

There's just something about the way you wrote it that makes me want to read. It was a very rewarding use of my time, thank you Fiah! =D lol

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[~All I Need]

( /huggles Blackie )

Awww, thanks lovely. I was bored so I decided to write some of my personal life down in prose. I'm probably going to put another chapter up tomorrow.

[~All I Need]

STORY;; SUNNY CAME HOME

CHAPTER 2;; I'M WALKING ON A WIRE

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I swore to myself as I trudged through the woods, my sense of direction muddled for once. I knew the woods of this area even better than the back of my hand; but the woods at night? I had never been brave enough to even try.

I had promised my mother I would be back in time for supper; my stomach had stopped growling hours ago. Of course, I had run out of the house before thinking and left my phone and watch, as always. Earlier, I thought I had my plan laid out; now I wasn't even sure what that plan was. What could I do to patch up my heart and the remains of my friendship with Brian? Would it be better to just let things be and watch him be happy from the sidelines; or would it be better for me to be assertive for once and try to steal his heart away from Chrissy?

I pulled my thin jacket even more tighter around me, regretting the fact that I was too stubborn to take a heavier coat. Living in the upstate of South Carolina, we southern folk knew that it rarely ever snowed or have the temperature drop below 40. But right now, the cold bit at my fingers and froze the marrow in my bones. Was it the temperature, or was it my paranoia?

A twig snapped and my heart flew into my throat, blocking the scream that was building up in my lungs. Was someone out here with me?

I glanced around, my blue eyes as big as saucers. It was a clear night, thank God, and the moon shone big and bright in the sky; I could see very clearly, as if all of the world were imprisoned in glass. No shadowy forms darted amongst the trees and no gloved hand covered my mouth. I sighed in relief, scolding my overactive imagination. I never had been this scared before in my life, especially in my own domain.

Tredding more carefully on the tinder that littered the ground, I made my way down the " Dark Valley." Now the Dark Valley was just my road, always engulfed in shadows because of the tall oaks. But this road went on for two miles and wasn't lit by street lamps like the rest of my neighborhood or the cul-de-sac I lived in. Even on a night such as this, no moonlight filtered through the leafy canopy above.

My breath billowed out in front of my face, leaving drops of dew on the edges of my lips and on my light eyelashes. Again, I wanted to hit myself for losing track of time. Whenever I went out for a walk to clear my mind, I always got distracted by the beauty of nature. Mother Earth's bountiful harvest of fall colors and sights always mesmerized me, erasing all of the daily worries from my mind. Lately, though, I felt like I was walking on a wire that was going to fall out from me any moment.

I sped up, enjoying the feeling of sinew working with bone and blood racing through my veins, capillaries, and arteries. The stiffness evaporated from my limbs as they sailed through the air and pounded the ground in a quiet, steady rhythm. Fear was gone now as I sped through the night, feeling uncharacteristically confident and bold.

But all of that disappeared as I walked through the front door.

My mom whirled around as the sound of my approach, her green eyes blazing with fury. My breath hitched and I looked away, ashamed and speechless. It was rare that my mom got really mad at me; but when she did, it was like hell.

" WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!?! "

I didn't flinch but continued to look away, my skin losing the red glow of physical exertion as I blanched in terror. Now the reason for my mom's anger was just fear. Now don't get me wrong, she didn't have much to fear for. It wasn't like I was out there in the woods with some guy; I had strict morals and I was too shy to say hi to a guy I found attractive, no chance that I would be doing the deed. Second; there would be no way that I would be doing drugs. I had lost too many friends and family to drugs; I was fighting it, not giving in to them. But both my mom and I knew that I had the tendency to do stupid stunts when I felt depressed or lacking of adrenaline.

Take last year for instance when I broke my arm. I had been sitting home one afternoon when I picked up the phone and called Bobby (who I've known since kindergarten and lived with his grandparents in Millbrook, my neighborhood) and told him to meet me outside his house. I pulled my purple bike out of the garage and pedaled up to his house, going up and over excrutiating hills.

He met me at the end of his driveway, sitting upon his bike with a curious spark in his hazel eyes as I pulled up.

" Come on! I want to go find that bike ramp that you told me about. "

This bike ramp was a plastic ramp that flew out of somebody's truck as they passed by; not the most stable thing to put a 114 pound girl's weight on, including a bike. It stood about a foot above the ground as Bobby pulled it out of a small ditch. He had told me that it was stable and that he jumped it without any harm coming to him. But then again, he was ten pouns lighter than me and had more experience with, you know, stupid and idiotic stunts!

I stood on the side of the road, transfixed as Bobby easily--almost gracefully--jumped the ramp, the wind pressing his long, unkempt brown hair to his skull. He did it twice and handed the bike to me, reassuring me that I would be okay. I learned an important lesson that day: don't ever listen to Bobby!

As I pedaled faster, gaining speed, I knew something bad was going to happen before it did.

The front tire caught on the edge of the ramp, throwing my body right over the handlebars. The momentum threw me into the asphalt and I skidded what felt like five feet. A wave of shock left me numb momentarily and I sighed... The bike then fell right on top of my, crushing me beneath it.

The first thing I felt was the terrifying numbness; no pain, no panic. I moaned and lifted my head, glad that I hadn't bashed my skull in or anything along the lines of that.

But then I saw my arm.

You can probably quess how I felt. Oddly, I didn't cry or panic. I just went home, cradling my arm as if it were a newborn baby, and called my mom.

I shook my head, trying to flick off the memory like a fly. Looking back at Shelley hesitantly, I could see the anger fade from her eyes as she saw the misery on my face.

" Food's in the microwave, " she mumbled. Without another word,s she stalked out of the room to tend to my five-year-old sister, Cassandra. I sighed as I sat down at the table, head in my hands. Why was I failing everybody?

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