Lightning's Life

Beep beep beep! Lightning Dust’s alarm clock chimed. It was 6:30 a.m. Today was a big day, and she had been excited for the last few weeks. She was going to a new high school, Crystal Prep, for the first time today. It wasn’t very easy to get accepted, but she had gotten a Track and Field scholarship.

She jumped out of bed and got ready for the big day. She got dressed in her school uniform and packed her books in her favourite red backpack. She had a couple others, but this one was the most special. Her dad had given it to her for her 13th birthday the year before, and red was her favourite colour. When she finished packing, she glanced around her room. It wasn’t very big, but she wouldn’t want any other bedroom. She looked at her various Air Force posters. As long as she could remember, she’d wanted to be in the military and be a fighter pilot. Yes, she knew it wasn’t easy, but she couldn’t see herself doing anything else. And she couldn’t wait to go to the Air Force Flight School when she graduated. Only a few more years!

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Lightning ran down the stairs and into the kitchen, where her dad was having breakfast and coffee.

“Lightning, what have I told you about running down the stairs?” he scolded her. “You’re going to-”

“Get hurt?” she interrupted, having heard these words enough times. “No, I’m not. I’m not clumsy,” she said as she started making chocolate chip waffles, her favourite breakfast food.

“Well, you know why I say these things,” he explained. “It’s because I care about you. How do you feel about your first day at Crystal Prep?”

“Great, I’m excited,” she answered. When she finished making her waffles, she sat down at the table with her dad. It only took her about 5 minutes to finish, she wasn’t one to take her time. When she was done, she and her dad headed out to the car.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Lightning got out of the car near the Crystal Prep entrance. The school was bigger than she even expected. She was about to leave when her dad came up to her and hugged her.

“Have fun at the new school, Lightning,” he said. “Your mom would be so proud of you.”

“Stop it!” she protested as he let go of her. She hoped no one was looking. She hated hugs enough as it was. “I know.”

“And don’t be nervous,” he added.

“Dad, tell me,” she started. “When have you once seen me get nervous?”

Her dad was about to reply, but he couldn’t think of anything. It was true, she was never afraid to try new things. “Well, I was very nervous when I was your age, you know.” He told her.

“And you still are about most things,” she laughed. Hopefully, he didn’t have anything else to say. She was going to be running late.

“And you’re sure you will be alright walking home?” he asked. “Because I can always close the shop early and-”

“Aren’t you listening?” she snapped. “I said I’ll be fine, just go!”

He paused for a moment. “Alright,” he said. “Just have fun, and don’t forget to join in and make friends.” He got in the car and waved to her once again before driving off. She laughed and waved, then started towards the school entrance. “Okay, let’s do this.”

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

As soon as Lightning entered the school, she was a little surprised by how sparkly it was. Her old school was nothing like this. It was quite crowded, at least she wasn’t late. As she started off towards her first class, a girl with blue skin and short purple hair approached her.

“Hey, I’m Sunny Flare,” the girl introduced herself. “I don’t think I recognize you.”

“Probably not, cause I’m new here,” Lightning said. “I’m Lightning Dust, and I-”

“Oh, you are?” Sunny Flare asked, then she smiled evilly. “You’re the scholarship girl.”

“How did you know?” Lightning asked. She hadn’t even talked to anyone in the school yet.

“Oh, I have my ways,” Sunny continued. “What did you get in for, running or something?”

“Yeah,” Lightning replied, not knowing where this girl could have gotten this information. Before she could ask, Sunny kept talking.

“Hm, so what’s your favourite school subject?” Sunny questioned. “Are you good at any classes?”

“What’s with all these questions?” Lightning snapped at her. “What, are you writing a book about my life or something?”

“Fine, I see how it is,” Sunny turned around and started walking away, but Lightning grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

“Hey, what’s your problem?” Lightning asked. Sunny pulled away, but turned back towards her.

“Don’t touch me!” Sunny yelled. “My problem is that you’re a lower class, alright? You needed a scholarship just to get into crystal prep. You’re a loser.”

Those last words did it for Lightning as she shoved Sunny Flare, almost knocking her to the ground. Sunny instinctively shoved her in return, and before she could say another word, Lightning slapped her hard across the face.

“Hey, leave her alone!” a pink-skinned girl with green hair shouted, having seen what happened.

Once Sunny had recovered and stepped back a safe distance, she went back to her normal snobby attitude. She stomped her foot. “I’m going to tell on you! Your first day here will be your last, I assure you.” Sunny turned around and a girl with a long pink ponytail ran up to her.

“What did she do?” the girl asked. “Are you okay?”

“No, not at all!” Sunny whined. “I think my makeup is smudged! Come on, we need to go to the bathroom.” And with that, Sunny Flare and her friend left. Lightning just scoffed, she had hardly touched her.

“I don’t know who you are, but you can’t just hit other students,” the green-haired girl told Lightning. Before she could reply, a laugh came from across the hallway. Lightning glanced over to see a girl with short blue hair come up to her.

“Well, it’s about time someone put Sunny Flare in her place,” the new girl said. “That was iconic! So, what’s your name?”

“Lightning Dust,” she introduced herself. “Coolest name ever, right?”

“I’d say second coolest, to me,” the blue-haired girl replied. “I’m Indigo Zap.”

“Well, your full name isn’t that cool,” the other girl commented, but Indigo glared at her. If looks could kill…

“Stay out of it, Lemon Zest,” Indigo Zap said. Lemon just nodded and quickly walked off in the other direction.

Indigo looked in the direction Sunny Flare and her friend had gone. “Wonder where she went, probably to fix her makeup or something.” Indigo said. “So, I heard what she was saying. How you got accepted into Crystal Prep. But wait, it’s not a bad thing. Sure, my family is a higher class too but I don’t really care about those things. You seem really cool.”

Lightning was about to reply, but a woman came up to her with Sunny Flare.

“Lightning Dust, you are needed in the principal’s office with Sunny Flare,” the woman informed.

“Okay,” Lightning replied. She had seen this coming. She looked back to Indigo. “See you later, then.”

“Good luck,” Indigo said as she left for her own class. Lightning waved, and followed them. Indigo was right, she was going to need some luck.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Lightning walked home after school around 5 p.m. It was a lot later than she had expected, since she had gotten detention for attacking another student. The day had not been nearly as enjoyable as she was expecting, but it could be worse…somehow. She arrived at home, and walked up to the front door. Now she would have to tell her dad what happened, and he would most likely lecture her for an hour.

“There you are!” her dad noticed she was home and walked up to her. “I was so worried, why are you coming so late? Are you okay? How was your first day?”

“I hated it, alright?” Lightning dropped her bag and collapsed on the living room couch. Her dad sat next to her.

“What happened?” he questioned.

“I got detention,” she explained. “And I didn’t even do anything wrong!”

“What?” he asked. “Why would they send you to detention if you didn’t do anything?”

This was not going to work. “Well, okay, maybe something,” she admitted. “But only in self-defense! This girl was talking crap and she wouldn’t stop, so I…” she trailed off. Her dad looked at her. “I hit her.”

“You got into a fight?” he asked, raising his voice slightly. “On your first day?”

“Technically, it wasn’t a fight,” she said. “She ran off to tell on me. And now I have to go to detention every day this week!”

“Well, good!” he said. “Maybe that will teach you not to hit other students. I didn’t expect…” he paused. “Well, maybe I did.” He knew her too well.

“You told me it was okay in self-defense,” Lightning told him.

“If someone is a threat to you,” he explained. “For instance, trying to kidnap you. Not some girl who is just talking to you. Well, I’m disappointed to say the least. And I can assume you didn’t make any friends.”

“Well, not exactly,” she admitted. Then she remembered Indigo Zap. “There was this one girl who was on my side though.”

“But you’ve still made more enemies than friends,” her dad continued. “I don’t know what to do with you. Can you promise you won’t do this again?”

Lightning thought for a moment. She might have been a trouble maker, but she didn’t want to break a promise. “I mean…”

“Oh, your mom would have handled this better than me,” he said, then switched to a more serious tone. “You need to promise you won’t do this again. Right now.”

“Okay, fine,” she agreed.

“Good,” he sighed. “I just don’t want you to get expelled, after you worked so hard to get in.”

“Okay, fine!” she repeated, getting more annoyed with him. “Stop being so dramatic. That girl deserved it and I’m never changing my mind.” Lightning got up and ran to her room stairs before he could respond. After a few seconds, he heard the door slamming upstairs. It wasn’t uncommon recently.

He sat in silence, thinking about what had happened. What am I going to do?

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Lightning slammed the door and locked it, there was no way she was dealing with him again today. Why did he have to make such a big deal out of everything? He wasn’t there. He didn’t hear what Sunny Flare said about her. She realized she had left her bag downstairs, but there was no way she was going to get it today.

She looked at her watch, still 2 hours until bedtime. She had enough time to do homework and then play her favourite flight simulator video game, it had been a while. It would be a fun evening, she just had to forget about what her dad said. It wasn’t realistic. Sure, he could just be nice to everyone and let them get away with things, but she believed that you had to fight back. And she wouldn’t have done anything differently.

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