Nallie Elfirm stacked her books into her locker. The feeling of the weight off her back made her sigh in relief. She looked over to the other side of the hallway and saw Nate Elfirm and his friends talking amongst themselves, with laughter coming up once in a while. Shutting her locker door, she gets the idea of finding her own friends before a familiar face comes up to her.
And that is someone named Luke Sharpstack, leader of a small-time gang.
"Long time no see, Nallie."
"Luke, I see you're forgetting the fact that it has only been one day since we last saw each other."
He chuckled at the thought coming to his mind. "C'mon, a day from today is still a long time."
Two more figures made their way out front, each coming out of the side of Luke, giving the effect of an opening to a music video. These two are close to Luke; Rocky Shiod is not so smart, yet loyal to the gang leader, and Eliza is the one who acts like a typical, hardened criminal.
"Are we really still talking to her? We've got better things to do anyway." Eliza said as she sneered at Nallie.
"Eliza, if the boss considers her a friend, then we should consider her as our friend too."
Nallie eyed them before saying, "Hm, are you here to invite me to your gang again, because it's just not going to happen."
"No, no, no, it's not something like that, but it still hurts me to hear you reject my offer again. The thing is... Well, I dunno how to say this, but can you help me study for our test next week? My parents are really on me so much, and I've got no other choice," Luke pleaded. It was always with him having to ask for a study session with Nallie, but she figured that it was probably just an excuse to hang out with her more.
"Again with that? Didn't you say you'd study without me helping next time? You'll have to do your studying on your own at some point; I probably won't be around to help," Nallie said.
Luke's eyes drooped down onto the floor as he heard yet another rejection of hanging out with Nallie.
"Luke! You know, I can help you with a little studying without relying on her all the time. I could probably make you feel smarter in no time," Eliza said.
"Didn't you get a D on our last test in History? I saw you threw out that test paper when the bell rang," Rocky pointed out.
"Rocky! Now is not the time to be saying that right now!"
Nallie glanced over the clock near the top of her locker, the minute hand now pointing in a direction that could involve tardiness.
"I'm going to go to my classes right now, if you guys can excuse me." Just as Nallie attempted to stride over the three and make her way to her class, Luke faced her with a frown.
"Nallie, you know, ever since you hung out with us, we met during middle school, you know that I'll try to help whenever I can, just like how you can help me with my studies. I'll try to be helpful to the best of my ability, especially since that weird green gas thing is going on from that night."
Eliza shuddered at the uttering of the green gas. "Eugh, it just gives me the creeps of the gross green gases, it makes me nauseated."
"Just give us a call if you wanna talk, my gang's planning to stay here after school for some time, and it's not something dangerous, you can relax now," Luke said with a reassuring grin. His smile made Nallie trust his word for some reason, as it was not always like Luke to tell the truth sometimes.
The Sharpstack Gang all went in the opposite direction, leaving Nallie to contemplate in her thoughts.
Well, anyway, I should prepare for the next class. I don't want to miss the note-taking.
After a day of school, Nallie sat quietly in her own room, the wallpaper surrounding her consisted of striped colors of light green and red, and not a patch of dust could be found hiding behind some of her things.
Unlike her brother's bedroom, she considered hers to be more suited for actually forming a good night's sleep. The room also looked nice, with her bookshelves aligning with her desk, and Nallie even bought a fluffy-looking carpet to provide cushioning on the hardwood floor.
And that's not all with the cushioning; there are an assortment of pillows of all sizes, colors, and whatever makes them different from each other, nearly piled up in order on the bed, all of it ready to welcome Nallie into her personal domain without any interruptions, especially from her brother.
She leapt to her bed, stretching out all four of her limbs to be embraced by the comfort of where she sleeps.
"Okay," She squealed out, "I'm so sleepy right now that I could just go out any second.
It was inevitable that she would be knocked out any minute, given how focused she was on every subject and how her busy extracurricular schedule wasn't exactly helping.
Even her friends and teachers are amazed by Nallie's commitment to her schedule, calling her one of the best of Standart High's history.
All of this praise made Nallie want to work even more harder than before, not wanting to disappoint them if she even makes a little mistake.
Nallie lay on her stomach on the bed as she looked at her phone—messages from her mother, wishing her good luck on her exams.
Her father always sent her a picture of himself whenever he was going to work. Lastly, Nate, her brother, would just repeatedly reply the word "smarty" every day, with Nallie usually ignoring it each time.
After a brief five minutes of rest after entering her room, Nallie stood up quickly, not minding her head feeling dizzy all of a sudden, and went to her desk to work on her homework.
She quickly whipped up a pencil before sitting down, determined to go through her first assignment, but then...
"Nallie! What's up, Sis!?" After almost knocking the door off its hinges, Nate paraded around the room with a grin, and that smile could only mean a storm that would follow in this very room.
"Don't just barge in here like you own this room, you know!" Nallie cried out, "At least knock before you enter."
"Oh, come on, it's not like you're hiding anything here, and even if you were, it's probably something not worth anything."
"That's not true, I have that camera I keep under the bed, so it's definitely not worthless!" She said with a look of determination on her face. Nate looked down at the floor, his eyes stuck on to whatever was there at the moment.
"Oh, yeah, you have a camera somewhere here. I guess I was wrong then, but I know the truth of what's about to come."
"Truth? What the heck are you talking about?"
Nate balanced on his leg while wobbling the other one as he continued to stare at the floor. "I mean, you know, the truth is that I need your camera for tomorrow - It's for a school group project thing, and I really need to get a good grade on this, or it's not gonna be pretty when I see the overall grade for Biology."
"So? Why me?" Nallie asked. "Isn't Cloey the one who also has a camera with her? Don't just try to ask me for anything all the time, like, your friends are there to help you out."
"I know that, it's just... I got a feeling that I may need it for something suspicious."
Nallie grimaced, her eyebrow raised. "Suspicious? Don't tell me, this better not be something like Luke's gang activities or anything like that - I'll seriously tell Mom and Dad about this."
"Of course not, it's nothing like that!" Nate said, with his hand shot up in his defense. "I mean that I just can't really trust Cloey with her pictures, as she gets really distracted with other things, especially at Vivid Forest."
Nate tried to be secretive in how he talked, but it's hard to understand what he's really aiming for.
"I'm just gonna get my own picture of the potential group project, while the others wouldn't have to know," Nate said.
"You are going to do the work early instead of doing this together with the others? Don't you have faith in your longtime friends?"
"Of course I do, you think that I'm some sort of bad friend to them? What about you, Nallie, do you think you're well-connected with your friends?"
That last sentence irked Nallie enough to stare at him in annoyance. It's not true that Nallie wasn't that open to many people; in fact, Nallie even bet that she knew more people at school she was close with than Nate.
"Do you want this camera or not, then?" Nallie demanded to know. "I'm trying to study, and I would really like the privacy in my room right now."
"Yeah, yeah, I need it for tomorrow morning, and you'll be awake at that time to give me the camera, right?" Nate asked.
"Yes, now leave. Study time is of the utmost importance in my schedule right now."
Nallie went on to study on her own as Nate promptly shut the door. It was nice to be in the room without any interruptions for the night. Her brother would always come inside to bother her for some reason, but she felt that it was this night that Nallie would finally have the chance to have a proper study time for herself.
A considerable amount of time dedicated to studying later, Nallie went downstairs to grab a drink of cold water to quench the thirst from studying, her dry lips prove that point, and the fact that she also needed to stretch from her bottom being sore because of how Nallie sat in an awkward position, considering how she had to alternate between her pages of notes and her phone with a video explaining historical topics.
After pouring water into the glass, she drank it all, feeling much better than usual. A creak behind Nallie made her turn toward the noise, which turned out to be her mother. Bethani looked as if she was trying not to make a single sound with her footsteps.
"I'm sorry, Nallie, I was hoping that I wouldn't scare you from behind in the dark. These floors really make a lot of noise; no wonder I heard so much downstairs. I was really trying to get some cold drinks from the fridge."
"Oh, no, it-it's fine really," Nallie reassuringly said. "It's not like I'm afraid of the dark anymore, I'm not a little kid."
"You sure about that? The dark kinda scares even me, and I'm an adult for crying out loud," Bethani said.
Nallie's not exactly afraid of the dark per se, it's actually the way that somethings in the dark, but she felt that the dark can be a considered factor in her fear from when she was a child, so maybe... she's really that afraid of the dark before, but right now, Nallie growned up is someone who would just shrug those thoughts off.
"Is there any milk or apple juice that's available left? I really need something sweet to drink for the night," Bethani asked.
"Not sure, lemme check to see if we have any."
Opening the refrigerator door once again, Nallie viewed the contents inside - it being a half-eaten fruit plate, several bags of nearly expired trail mix, and ingredients for boiled chicken for tomorrow's dinner. Other edible items inside are just appetizing for Nallie, so she doesn't even try to look in their direction.
"Well, anything there?"
"I- um... manage to find this plastic water bottle. Is that enough for you, Mom?"
Nallie handed the water bottle to her mom. Bethani then examined the contents, carefully analyzing whether she was going to check the chemicals scientifically.
"I guess I could have this drink for now," Bethani inferred. "But what I really want is a soda, any type of soda would, that's how much I really want."
"Mom, we both know that it would be a bad idea to drink soda this late at night, so just try to drink the bottled water, okay?"
"Of course, it should've been obvious, I know, but I just really want you to know," Nallie's mother complained.
Both of them exchanged their goodnights to each other, and Nallie went straight to bed after eating from the fruit plate. She lay on her bed with the nightlight on, snuggled deep in her heavy blankets, as she looked over her desk to see if anything was basically unorganized.
Nallie thought of how life in Standart City was okay for her, and that it offered basically everything she needed in life. She has plenty of friends to count on, is earning good grades in school, and knows that the future is likely to be smooth. The family is also stable, apart from... well... her brother, Nate.
She wondered about the possibilities of what life could be if it were different, how her luck might change considerably, and the effect it would have on her future. Nallie had to focus on the future by considering the present, which was supported by the past.
Nallie knew that either she or Nate would be the next to inherit the Elfirm bookstore, but she genuinely thought that Nate would get it—not her—since their grandfather usually liked him more.
However, it was okay for her because it allowed more time to focus on other things and choose a path that would benefit her the most. Guessing what the future holds for you is... something.