Chapter Thirteen: Norina

Summer was over, you could almost smell it in the air when you walked down the street, when the sun was dipping down underneath the horizon line, and that certain feeling just washes over you like a blanket. At first you feel so tense and unsure of what is really happening, and then, after a while, you start to get excited and nervous at the same time. What's happening? What is going to happen? I remember feeling that way when I was about to change schools for the first time in my life. Over the summer, I had spent a lot of time traveling across the country on the road. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but I remember being tired and not being able to sleep in my bed. Everyone around me was always rushing around trying to get something done, while I ended up doing nothing at all. Those days are over, I remember feeling so grown up at this point in time. Standing there, at the end of the street, and feeling the wind blow my hair...I always liked the wind. A nice gentle breeze to keep you going. That just seems silly now, doesn't it! Like something you wouldn't really say except in those special moments...I remember now, my first, real year of middle school. That was the time when I first met my little sister. I was a single child before that you know? It just, it would feel weird...if I was still a single child now. I wonder how I would have turned out? Ah well...

The sun didn't shine so brightly the day that the yellow bus came rolling around the corner and stopping directly in front of her house. Norina stood there, all prettied up by her mother, holding onto her bag with both hands looking like nothing less of an angel. When the doors opened, as the smell of diesel exhaust filled her nostrils, she began to feel a little bit, uncertain, as to what middle school might be like. It was her first time in this town, and she didn't know what to except from the people who lived here. Naturally, it was something most children would be worried about. She walked down the narrow hallway, looking left and right at the various kids who were either half asleep or hyperactive. Not seeing any seats unoccupied, she took a seat next to one of the sleeping ones and quietly clasped her hands on her lap. The bus jolted to life and sped off. Murmurs filled the bus. Why does she get her own bus stop? Is her family rich or something? I don't get why she has to ride the bus, can't she just get a ride to school? I'm sure her parents wouldn't mind, she looks dressed up enough don't ya think? Naturally, she ignored, or didn't hear most of what was being said, but her stomach was doing summer-salts inside of her just the same. The white dress probably didn't help her image she suspected. But the first day of school just happened to be the designated picture day. Something about, 'not being in town' any other time, and so she was cursed with an overly dignified first impression. The person sitting next to her, a fairly large black fellow slowly opened his eye and looked at the person who had decided to sit next to him. He leaned back in his seat suddenly, and stretched out his legs. "You must be new little girl." His deep voice commented. Now, a normal young student, freshly transferring to a new school might have thought of something horrible; but all little Norina could think to say was: "Do you want to be my friend?" Naturally, it sounded like a story-book kind of thing, and the older boy smiled slightly. "You sure get in quick huh." He said, forming a fist. "Sure baby girl, I'll be yo friend." She wasn't sure what exactly what to do so she just formed her own little hand into a fist, and he bumped it with a chuckle. "Yo' jus a funny little thing ha-ha!" He laughed. 

The first friend she made in this town was Dwayne. He was known for keeping his cool, and not blowing his head off over little things. Many thought of him as a kind of background figure. Whenever the gangs got into a tussle, he'd be in the back saying a thing or two, but he didn't really get his hands dirty. Norina, only talked to him on the bus, as the middle school classes were often separated. Still, it was bizarre, how after they started talking, people riding her bus stopped asking about who she was, or where she belonged. Though there were a fair amount of unpleasant jokes. [Which usually got silenced fairly quickly].

However, the words didn't stop outside of the bus. The first day, had been something that Norina would have rather forgotten as it started a downward spiral into quite possibly, the worst moments of her life. It began when class had actual ended, and her show of elegance during the picture taking sequence had attracted, some unwanted attention. She was walking down towards the parking lot to get picked up from school. Her white dress couldn't be mistaken, as a group of students slowly made their way in front of her from the lot. "Hey you rich girl, what are you doing out here?" The leading boy asked. His head was buzzed and his frowning expression made her wonder if she had done something wrong, and she suddenly felt tense all over, and she desperately wished that her mom was nearby. "You're parents must pamper you!"
"Daddy's precious little baby!"
"Mommy's angel!"
They were jeering at her. She stopped, and began to feel a bit touched by their words, a nagging sadness started to pull at her. "What...are you talking about?" She asked, and then she was surrounded by the group. "How much did this cost you?" The boy asked picking up her hat and she reached out to grab it. "Hey! What?" She tried to start but she was pushed back. "Pretty little girl, always looking her best because her parents doted over their little angel!" She was then pushed into the ground from behind. "Stop!" She tried to say, but someone even put in a kick, and she felt pain in her side. There were tears coming to her eyes. "Stop! Stop..why are you doing this to me?" She was saying looking up at the boy who crumpled up her hat and tossed onto her shaking body. "Don't come near me, you filthy bitch." He spat on her and then walked away, along with the rest of his gang. She sat there sobbing, wondering what she had done wrong, what had she done that had caused this? Why...why did this happen? "
"Norina?" It was her mother who raced up to her daughter, placing a hand on her shoulder and trying to soothe her, while trying to discern what had just happened.

"What happened? What happened to you? Who did this to you?" Her mother asked, but there was no answer, she didn't know. "Am...I a bad person?" She asked looking at her mother and there were tears rolling down her face now, steadily rolling down her cheeks. "No of course not...there there, let's get you back home..."
The dirt and the stains would wash away easily enough, but the words, the words remained. Filthy bitch!

That was the first time anyone had ever hurt me so badly. Sure there had been scuffles in the past, but they never lasted long or amounted to anything. I was so upset, I...I had to ask Dwayne about it. I wasn't sure what else to do. My mom tried to assure me, by telling me that the principle would look into it, but somehow, somehow I couldn't get myself to believe that. I felt like the whole school wanted to bring me down to their level. 

The following day, Norina did as her intuition instruction. Tell a friend. Even though, it was only their second meeting, she couldn't help but find a seat next to the sleeping young man, who, after she sat down next to him opened his eye to check if it was here and then he slowly leaned back again and smiled. "You smell nice, I can deal with that." He greeted her, and she looked like she was concentrating on something. "Huh, what's got you all worked up in the mornin'?" He asked, and she let out a sigh. "These...these boys after school called me...a bitch..." She whispered the last words into his ear, as if it were something bad, and his eyes furrowed slightly as he looked out of the window. "I see... let me tell you a little somethin about this town." He said quietly. "Though the suits don't like to admit it, allota this place is controlled by the gangs you know?" He turned to her darkly. "Many of these kids got a problem with yo mom and dad's income I bet." He sighed and then he smiled slightly. "But, they should know better. Don't worry baby girl. I'm gonna ask around, see if I can get them boys to stop." 

Norina felt reassured. Though, at the time, she didn't exactly know what Dwayne was talking about. Things like gangs and fights were all but nonexistent at her last school, and even still, it seemed like something that should never get in her way. The words continued to haunt her, despite her friend's comforting words. There were other rich girls at her school weren't there? Why weren't they being picked on by these bullies? Or were they, and she just didn't notice it? Still, she was nervous as she left the school and started to head off to the parking lot once more. Did Dwayne really look into it? Or was that just to get me to stop worrying? It never occurred to her that her friend really didn't want to do anything for her, and that it was all some kind of game to him, but when the group of students came from the parking lot, she suddenly felt that re-emergence of fear welling up inside of her. "Well, well, well...what did I tell you little rich butch huh?" The same boy asked stepping up to her and pushing her down to the ground and kicking her bag. "I don't want to see you around here got it?!" He demanded and everyone else began to chuckle and someone even threw a clump of dirt at her and she began to feel tears coming to her once more. "S-stop it!" She cried out, but it seemed like it would be the same as last time in till...

"What do you think you're doing? Beating up a little girl like that?" It wasn't a teacher, or even an adult, to Norina, it sounded like another one of the bullies, but she noticed someone standing over her, his face was relaxed, with a slight smile there. "Who do you think you are, get lost!" The leader boy yelled gritting his teeth, and the other boy smirked. "Yeah, what do you think you are? Some kind of gang leader? Mark my words you little shit, you can't go fucking around in my territory." He stepped over Norina and grabbed the boy up by the collar, and the other kids began to shrink away. "H-hey, what are you doing?" The boy asked. "Tell me your name, so I know who's door to knock down tonight." He said shaking him. Norina watched for a moment, before standing up. "W-wait a second!" She called out and the other boy seemed to ignore her for a moment before dropping the kid on the ground. "You'd want to spare him?" He asked turning with a shocked expression on his face. "I...just think he made a mistake..." She said quietly looking at the ground, worried that she would get beat up just the same. "I don't want your fucking pity!" The other boy screamed before running away. Norina watched for a moment as the lot emptied out and her savior slowly turned to walk back towards the school. "Tch, you're an odd one kid." He said quietly as he passed her. "My name is Norina..." She said turning around. "Ah, t-thank you for saving me." She added quickly, and he stopped. "Don't mention it...Norina." He waved and was gone, slowly walking away from the lot in till her mother showed up. 

She thought the troubles of the day had ended there, but in a sense, the seeds of dissatisfaction were growing. Despite the dirt and stains on her clothes, her mother didn't seem as worried about it. She wondered what it could be as they quickly rushed home, and there her father was making preparations in the kitchen. "Ah, you're home, why don't you go wash up and come back down as soon as you can okay?" Her father said as he began to string letters up over the kitchen entrance. "What...what's going on?" She asked quietly, and her mother who was setting her purse down on the table quickly turned. "Oh, it's a surprise...someone is coming, someone very special." She said excitedly, "Now, go upstairs and wash, and change your clothes, they look a bit dirty." Caught up in the strange uncertainty of events, she couldn't help but think that she was more important right now, having just been bullied yesterday, and again today. What is happening? 

When she finished showering, and changing her clothes, she walked down into the kitchen and found that supper had been made already. There at the table was her mother and father, and some very young girl she had never seen before. Was it a neighbor? No, they're would be parents or something. It didn't help that the girl was Japanese, it made her think for a moment that her parents had scooped up some kid of the street to thoroughly question her about her culture. "Ah there you are, what took you so long?" Her mother asked standing up, and scooting back her chair, as she sat down she eyed the Japanese girl carefully. "Who are you?" She asked out loud. "Honey! Be more polite, this is Maki-Chan from Japan. She'll be staying with us from now on." Her mother was saying. "You can just call me Maki." The awfully mature voice replied as the much younger girl began to eat. She looked about three years or so younger than Norina, who, slowly closed her eyes while she sat at the table. They could have asked me. They could have told me. Why does this have to happen now? She felt something well up inside of her, something she was uncertain of at the time. "Norina, why aren't you eating?" Her mother asked, and suddenly she stood up. "Norina! What are you?" Her father asked the girl quickly turned on her heel and left the house through the front door and she wasn't even sure where she was going, but she found herself walking in the direction of the school. What am I doing? She thought as tears started to well up in her eyes.

I felt so betrayed. I don't know why, but it really bothered me. I guess you could say I wasn't too happy that the attention was being pulled away from me, and put on a girl who wasn't even my parent's child. So what? They wanted me to accept her as my sister. At the time, that was the last thing I wanted.

Norina had walked so far in till she sat down on a bench breathing heavily, feeling anger replace any sadness she might have had. She began to pound her fist into the ground, and thrash about in till someone came up behind her and restrained her. "Whoa, calm down, hey!" A somewhat familiar voice called out as she tried to break free. When she turned around she noticed the boy who had saved her earlier that day. His buzzed hair, and his baggy clothes made him look like an average street punk, but in his eyes there was concern. "Don't come out here at night, you here? You almost wandered off into the ghetto you know that?!" He exclaimed pointing across the street where the not so good looking houses were all lined up. "People get shot when they go down there if they don't know what they are doing." He lectured sternly, before steering her around. "Hey, why don't I walk you home?" He asked quietly. "I don't want to go home!" She protested and he sighed. "Okay, then let's just go for a walk." He took her by the hand and began to lead her away from the ghetto. "You can call me Dare by the way..." He said. 

That was the first night I spent with Dare. Unlike Dwayne, he seemed somewhat more like me. I couldn't help but admire his insight to the very society he was a part of. He was the first to admit that he was somewhat of a gangster, and he said he was never very proud of it. He used to be in a well-to-do family, but it got broken down in a series of events that he never actual told me. I just showed him my sympathy, and in turn, he started to show me how to be strong. I owe him a lot, but of course, there was one time, further down the road, that I guess you could say...I owed him everything.

An entire year had passed since that time. Although it had been intended for good, Maki's appearance in the family was never fully accepted by Norina, who took many different kinds of shots at her 'younger sister'. The two often quarreled, and it didn't help that every single time her parents sided with the young Japanese girl. 

I was jealous. I don't know, but I never liked visiting this...moment in my life. In fact, I don't even know why I'm thinking about it so much. 

"Norina...why do...insist on being so difficult as of late?"
"Why the hell should you care? Damn, half the time you talk to me it's because you want to know if Maki got to school safe! That thing you brought over here from Japan's got all your attention now doesn't it?!"
"Don't call your sister a thing! You...what's happening to you?"
"OH now you care! Seriously, don't even bother..."  

I don't want to talk about it! I said, I don't want to talk about it! Just let it be okay? It's not like I wanted things to turn out like that...

"I hate you! What kind of sister are you! All you do is go out late and make mom and dad worried!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?!"
'No stop...please not this one, I...
"Talking like Mom and Dad are really your parents, huh!? Why don't you just go back to your real parents?!" She shouted and there was an odd silence that followed. The two girls were outside away from the house as Maki had followed Norina out to wherever she was going. She was off to see Dare again, and yet her little 'sister' had tagged a long, but now there was a cold wind blowing through the air, and it had happened so suddenly that it had caught Norina's attention. Maki's fists were clenched. "You want to know what happened to my parents?" She asked slowly looking up at her sister, no longer with eyes that represented worry or concern, but those that were like steel, cold and unbending. In her entire life, especially in these short delinquent years, she had never seen such piercing eyes before. The heartless tone, along with the wind somehow made her hair stand on end, it was tangible fear, so suddenly conjured up from one simple statement.

"Do you really want to become apart of my world, girl I dared call sister?" She asked. No, no, please...please...I don't... She tried to resist. "What the hell are you talking about?" She tried to sound brave as Maki took a step forward. "My parents both died in the same night." She began. "They're bodies were cut up, and the murderer was never found..." She whispered quietly, and a wave of guilt washed over Norina. "So, sister of mine...do you know? I got a glimpse of the killer...why didn't they kill me? I could have said something, I wasn't that young when it happened you know?" She was standing right in front of the girl. "I...killed them." She stated. No..not any more!. Maki reached up and grabbed Norina's hand, and suddenly she pulled at the skin were the finger nails were connected, and Norina screamed horrible as blood began to run from her fingers. She tried to pull away but Maki was holding onto her arm, and she felt herself be pulled down. "What are you doing!?" She asked, and there seemed to be some kind of rage in her sister's eyes. "I...am...sick...and tired...of you!" The other howled, then it began to grow black.

"Norina, Norina are you okay?" She was being questioned. There was a bright light that was shining in her eyes, and she looked all around, and there were her parents standing around looking worried, and dare was sitting off to the side, and she seemed so confused. "Maki? Is Maki okay? I'm sorry, tell her I'm sorry..." she was trying to sit up but strong hands held her down. "It's okay...Norina..."

"Don't call me that...I don't want that name anymore...where is Maki? Maki I'm sorry...I'm..."

"I...shouldn't have told you."
"I shouldn't have been so mean to you...I want to make it up to you in anyway I can...I promise..."
"Is this out of fear?"
"...I don't know...I wanted...someone to love me...to understand...I don't want to be afraid of you, I want to help you...be strong..."

"So this is it then? You're not going to be staying around this part of town anymore?"
"I'm sorry...I wish I could...but with that new school, it looks like we wont be seeing each other as much."
"Hey, don't worry about it...say hi to Maki for me will ya?"
"I'll miss you Dare..."

A bright light.
Where am I? 

/End

((Sorry for missing, I posted this on the Facebook group, but: Chapter 14 is in the rough, and unless my monitor goes out again, I will be posting on Saturday. November has just been too inconsistent so far...has anyone voted yet? We'll here is your preview for the next chapter...))

~Next time on Scratch~

Toru is exploring Dome B. What will the renegade executive's son find? Will his marksmen-ship be put to the test? Will someone important die? Is this preview asking too many questions? Well, I could say, yes to all of them almost. ;) Keep reading to find out!