Cloudy Days and Sun Rays

The alarm clock, on the stand next to the bed, went of at 5:30 in the morning. It was Monday and for Jade it was just the beginning of another day of school. She got up and walked to the bathroom. She took a shower and got dressed, she wore black jeans and a black T-shirt that had a silver design on it. Then, she went and made sure her mother and sister were up and went to the kitchen. There she ate her breakfast that really only consisted of chocolate milk and half a bagel. After she ate, she got her stuff together for school and played with her dog. At 7:00 she got on the bus with her sister and went to school.

At the school, she got off the bus and walked to where her very small group of friends assembled. Her friends' names were Katy, Sandy, Jack and Chris. They soon got into a very heated discussion on which couples were cuter in the media and fanfics, slash or straight. They all agreed on slash. They were not as closed minded as most of the people in their grade. Well, Sandy and Jade were okay with it, they kind of had to be and Katy could care less about who someone loved, she had a good philosophy about it, you can't help who you love. Jack was always teased about his imaginary boyfriend, it was a running joke between the group and he was okay with it if you said anything about it, just as long as you were in the group. And Chris, well Chris really didn't have a choice, they talked about this stuff all the time and he really didn't care anymore. He just stopped dissing gays when he started to hang out around them. He really didn't want to hear any of their rants either.

The bell rang and they all walked into the school. Jade's locker was on the second floor along with Sandy, Jack and Chris', so she continued up the stairs with them while Katy stayed on the bottom floor and went toward her locker. After putting her stuff in her locker and grabbing her books for her first four classes, she went to home room, which happened to also be her first period class. Her first period was Science. That day they did a lab and that was pretty much it. Then it was time for math.

Math was the worst class that she had. It wasn't the material. It was the other students. She sat at the back of the class, surrounded by peers that only discussed how gross homosexuality was and for some reason they were stuck on the topic. They didn't really even know what they were talking about. Even though she knew that they weren't targeting her and Sandy, they couldn't because they didn't know, it still hurt her. They were lucky, too, because Jade could let it slide but Sandy, well, Sandy fought back and sometimes it got physical. She had been suspended once because someone called her something that she didn't think was appropriate. Finally class was over. It was time for Art.

Jade had art with all of her friends and they were able to sit at the same table. They were all working on independent projects but all of theirs seemed to be linked somehow. Jade was drawing a map of some imaginary place that she had made up in her head that went with a story that she had written for English. The land had magical creatures in it. Chris had drawn a boy walking in the woods with a dragon following him. Jack had drawn the dragon in its cave. He had a thing for dragons. Both Katy and Sandy were both painting a picture of a river with trees around it. Their picture had been the inspiration for Jade's story. While they were working on their projects they engaged in a conversation that mainly revolved around Japanese animation and what they had read.

" So, have you seen that movie, Princess Mononoke? I have heard that it was really good," said Sandy.

" No, but I want to see it. Is Tenchi still on? I haven't been able to watch television lately and I know that Toonami has been changing the line up," Chris replied.

" Yup, it's still on. Same time, same place. Hey, I read this fic last night and it was really good," said Jade. " It was about finding yourself."

" Let me guess, it was slash, wasn't it?" Jack said.

" Yes and before you say anything, how was your night with Bill?" Jade said jokingly.

" Fine, was it really good or are you just saying that because you know that I eventually will want to know? I mean you guys are right, sometimes those stories are really good," Jack said. He did start to read those slash fics that the girls passed around. He thought that some of them were good.

" It was really good, you know that I wouldn't lie to you."

" Right, why don't I believe you?"

" Shut up."

Then their conversation turned to cute actors. Mainly Orlando Bloom and Keanu Reeves. The girls were arguing about who Orlando belonged to, Sandy and Jade were just arguing not only to look normal, but they really thought that he was kind of cute. Then Chris piped up.

" He's mine!" They all stared at him. "What? I felt left out. God, you guys are hopeless."

" Would you prefer us to talk about girls? There are plenty of them. Like Jewel, Julia Stiles, J. Lo and um, well, there are others," said Sandy.

" No, hey it's time to go," said Chris.

Jade put her work in the storage area in the art room and joined her friends as they walked to their next class, English. They also shared this class, too. She was convinced that there was some conspiracy with the scheduling but was quite happy with her classes. They walked into the classroom and sat at their desks. They all sat near each other. Jack and Chris sat next to each other, Sandy and Jade sat next to each other and Katy sat by herself. The teacher walked in and the class started. They were told to works in groups and were instructed to make a profile for a character that they would use for a story that the group would have to write. Obviously, Jade and her group worked together. They came up with Kips. Kips was a teenager who had several personality quirks. They finished early and spent the rest of the class making plans to meet at the pizza place after school. Then it was time for Social Studies. They also had this class together.

Nothing much happened during Social Studies. They were studying the Constitution and they had to listen to the teacher lecture them and take notes the whole time. Once in a small while when the teacher wasn't looking, Sandy and Jade would pass notes to each other. After a while the teacher was done talking. The class was always done with ten minutes to spare, so they talked some more. Chris' best friend was in that class and he joined in on their conversation. Finally, it was time for lunch.

The lunch period was only twenty minutes long. Since it was so short, the group rarely ate lunch. They bought a bag of chips and a can of iced tea. They sat together and ate what they could. It seemed that as soon as they sat down, it was time for them to go. Instead of going to a class they went to a counseling session. That was the difference between their school and a normal public school. Truth was, everyone at this school had to be either forced or recommended to go to this school. Some of the students had been caught with drugs, some stealing and some were just down right depressed. So counseling was no option, they had to go. At least they were group sessions - sessions with people you knew.

They walked down to the room where the session would take place. Each one of them had a quirk, you could say. Sandy had been caught with a few joints on her. She had been arrested once for assault, like it was mentioned earlier, she was kind of violent. Jade was always looking for a fight, she also shoplifted many times, too. When she laughs and smiles because something is funny, watch her eyes. The happiness and laughter never quite reach them. She was here because her grandparents were worried about her. Katy was there because she was a wild child and her parents were worried about her and they didn't want to send her away. Chris was caught smoking weed several times and Jack, while Jack had several different things that were wrong with him. I had mentioned earlier that Jade's younger sister also went to the school. When she started to follow in her sister's footsteps, their grandparents thought it would be good to send her to the school.

They got in their respective seats and waited for their advisor to come in. They were required to address their advisor by her first name, their advisor was Jane. She was always late, so the group was surprised when she came in on time. She sat down and started the session.

" Great all of you here. Okay, so did anything happen during the weekend that you want to talk about?"

".........."

" Okay, does anybody want anything?"

" Yeah, I want some coffee," Sandy said.

" Yes, of course. Help yourself."

Sandy got up and got herself some coffee and got a cup for Chris and Jade, too. When she sat down, she started talking about how stupid people were. This wasn't the first time she started to rant.

" You know, when I went to the mall last weekend with my friend and his boyfriend, who is not someone who you want your child to hang out with. Well anyway, we were walking, hey Jade and Chris were there, too. Back to my story, we were walking to one of the stores and some guy came up to me and was like ' Why do you hang out with fags?' and I was like, ' Why are such a bastard?' and he was all like, ' I don't understand why you would want to hang with that white trash anyways,' and I said, ' Why don't you look in the mirror.' He was so insulted that he just walked away. Not that I was going to do anything. But still, that got me mad. What people do at night is their own damn business."

" Done?" Katy asked.

" Yeah. Dammit, this coffee tastes like shit."

" Sandy, please watch your language. Any one else want to share?"

" Dammit."

" I want to share!" Jack said.

" Okay, Jack. Please go ahead."

" Okay. See this morning I thought that I might want a smoke, but then I remembered our promise from the first day of school. You know, that one about trying to stay clean? Well, anyway, then I went downstairs and remembered that I didn't have anything on. After I ate, I tried to call Trent but he wasn't home. That is really too bad because, well, I really miss him and I was hoping to maybe see him this weekend."

" May I ask who Trent is?" Jane asked. When she saw the looks on their faces, she understood. "I thought that you guys were only joking about Jack."

" We only were joking about Bill. The rest of the stuff that we throw around is true. Hey, did you know that Katy has a boyfriend now?" Jade asked.

" Yeah, he is so cute and he is from a good family. He plays basketball and is so good at it. He is going to meet us today at the pizza place," Katy said.

Sandy got up and threw the rest of her coffee away. She made a face as she sat back down. " I've had better."

The group of people just stared at her and tried to suppress their laughter. She looked at them and just shook her head. She quickly changed the subject. " So, is there anything else for us to talk about?"

" Yeah, actually there is something coming up. I am thinking about participating in the Day of Silence. It is on April 10, and it is a silent protest. It protests the silence that is forced upon GLBTs and their allies. I think I may do it because it supports my friends," Chris said.

" That is great, Chris. It is something that can get you motivated and you are not thinking about yourself. The rest of you guys need to get involved in some activity or something. Play sports or join a club. I know that all of you play basketball and I know that you guys like to write, too. So, I am going to assign you a writing project. I want a story that depicts everyday life for you guys. No boundaries, I don't care if you swear or refer to drugs. I just want you guys to be honest. It is due next Monday," Jane said.

The teens agreed and they just talked for the rest of the session. Jade told them how she had been stressed out lately and how she just didn't feel like she was worthy of living. Sandy looked at her and said that she was worthy of living. Then, Sandy told of her mounting stress and Jade comforted her. Both girls said that they felt that they couldn't go home for a few days and Chris offered to let them stay at his house, he had an extra room and his parents were cool with the girls staying with them. The girls agreed saying that they probably won't be missed. Then it was time for them to go to their one choice elective. They had all chosen the same thing - Computer.

The school had required each student to take Art, so that wasn't considered an elective. The students could chose from three subjects. It was either Music, Computer or Sewing. A lot of the students chose to take Computer because seriously, who would want to take Sewing? Anyway, the group headed toward the Computer Lab and they stopped at their lockers. First, Katy's, then the others. Finally, they got to the class. They all sat next to each other. They group worked together on a project. They had to make a magazine that reflected on how they felt and had to contain things that they felt strongly about. The group had decided that their theme was going to be drugs and prejudice. They talked through this class as well.

" So, what are we going to do, Monday?" asked Katy, their was going to be an orientation on the next Monday and they students were given a very rare day off.

" Um, I think that we should all just hang out at my house," Jade said, " By then I will be back home and my parents and sister won't be home. I've got some money, so we can buy some food and rent some movies."

" Okay, I like that idea. We can't get in trouble. What about the rest of you guys?" Sandy said. And the rest of them agreed. They talked the rest of the period about music, they liked to listen to bands like Linkin Park and Sum41. They also liked to listen to Pink and silverchair. Finally it was the end of the day and it was time to go home. They all got their backpacks and left the school, the school had really no way of keeping track of where the students went after school, so the students would almost always take advantage of it and usually never went home. Even though they were supposed to. They headed toward the regular public school and picked up Katy's boyfriend. Then they went to eat.

When they got to the pizza place, they sat down at their usual table and ordered a large cheese pizza and each grabbed a can of soda. They talked about what they were going to do in the summer, where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do. The group loved summer because they were free to do whatever they wanted to do in the summer. Well, almost whatever they wanted to do, they had to attend a two-week session at the school in the middle of the summer. The school did this to ensure that they students were not getting into trouble.

They then left the pizza place and spilt up. Katy, her boyfriend and Jack went one way, Chris, Jade and Sandy went the other. The girls had stayed at Chris' many times before and had some clothes and stuff at his house. His parents would let any of them stay with them so that they would stay out of trouble. They walked to his house and did there homework. Then they watched some television while Chris' mother called Jade's and Sandy's parents. It was soon late and they went to bed, Jade slept on the floor while Sandy took the bed. Jade fell right to sleep. Tomorrow was going to come too soon.

Sandy wasn't having such good luck getting to sleep. She always had nightmares at night and preferred sleeping during the day. She loved to stay up the entire night and watch the stars. She knew that Jade could sleep through anything so she turned on the light and took out her notebook. Sandy loved to write so when she was at Chris' she wrote more in her novel. Her story was about kids living in a correctional facility and how they coped with the strictness of the school. She wrote the part of the main character from her point of view, putting in things that had really happened to her. This was Sandy's way of dealing with things. She suddenly felt tired, so she turned off the light and went to sleep.

The End