“Hey, hold up a minute!” Zawadi calls out to the teen boy.
“Hey there young lady,” an older guy that Zawadi assumes is the teen’s dad, says as Zawadi walks by.
“Hi,” Zawadi shyly answers back, quickly passing him.
“Who are you and who told you that you could move to my block?” Zawadi says without thinking. As soon as the rude words are out of her mouth, she can picture her mother’s disapproving stare.
The boy appears to be offended and stares Zawadi up and down. Zawadi matches his stare as if daring him to challenge her.
“Does rudeness run in your family?” The boy asks; speaking for the first time.
“Uh…” is all Zawadi can say, because she knows that her parents are the opposite of rude. She suddenly feels ashamed that she let her bad mood get the best of her.
Being ashamed does nothing to control her mouth though, “Did you just insult my family? Now who’s being rude?”
“Look, you just showed up in front of my house. If this is how you speak to everyone, then you can just leave!” The boy answers.
He then turns and begins to walk away.
Zawadi pretends to be tough and unaffected by this, but deep inside she is.
Before she knows what is happening to her, her eyes begin to fill with tears as her bad mood overwhelms her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, trying to control her emotions. “I’m just having a bad day and I should not have taken it out on you.”
“Especially before you even know my name,” the boy says, feeling slightly emotional himself because he too is having a bad day.
“Can we start over?” Zawadi asks. “My name is Zawadi Ward and I live in the house right up the hill.”
“I’m Mitchell Owens and I definitely understand about having bad days.”
“What’s happening with you?”
Mitchell, also having a hard time controlling himself responds, “It’s my brother. He’s a total jerk sometimes!” Mitchell shouts out the last sentence while looking up at the sky.
“At least you have a brother. I’m an only child!”
“Lucky you,” Mitchell responds.
Zawadi has an idea. “Since both of our lives suck, maybe we can hang out and stuff from time to time. You know…to compare how bad things are.”
Mitchell smiles, “I’d like that.”
“But maybe we can talk about good stuff too, because my life doesn’t suck all the time,” Mitchell adds.
“Yeah, neither does mine,” Zawadi says agreeing.
“So what high school will you be attending?”
“We haven’t quite decided yet. That’s part of the problem. I want to attend the regular high school, but my brother wants to attend a specialized boarding school. My mom doesn’t want us to go to separate schools, so she’s forcing us to decide.”
“Doesn’t it make you mad when they do that? It’s like, you’re the parent, it’s your job to tell us what to do. Not make us decide stuff all the time,” Zawadi says.
“Exactly! Every time I try to reason with my brother, we end up fighting. We only have the rest of this weekend to make up our minds.”
“So what do you do?” Mitchell asks rhetorically.
“Well I hope you attend the high school. That’s where I go,” Zawadi says.
Mitchell smiles again, “Maybe I’ll see you there.”
Mitchell's handsome smile gives Zawadi a funny feeling inside. Suddenly, she feels a little uncomfortable. “Maybe,” she answers before walking away.
Zawadi tries to resist the urge to look back over her shoulder.
Although she doesn’t give Mitchell another glance, she knows that his handsome smile will be burned into her memory for the rest of the day.
