Picking the Wallflower

I finally stopped in our driveway, and pressed the button to open the garage. My parents weren’t home, not surprising since they often worked out of state. I was alone for days at a time. I parked my car and headed inside. That was when I realised my shirt and jacket were both soaked with water. Stupid football team. I stalked up to my personal safe haven, and ripped both articles of clothing off. I pulled on a pyjama shirt with pandas dancing on the front. It was old and threadbare, but it was mine and I loved it.

I set my laptop up on my desk, and began to work on my next blog post. But my mind couldn’t get into the spirit of the writing. The scene with the hosepipe played on my mind. Standing up, I walked away from my desk and stared out my window. There wasn’t much out there. Just a few trees and a big field. With the rain hitting the window, it was sort of smudgy. But I could still make out shapes moving down there. Shapes?

My face was pressed to the glass. My gaze was fixed on the people out in the field. Just great. The football team was now in the field opposite my house.

This was my life. Being ignored at school, except to be mercilessly picked on by those who saw my solitude as a big red target. I strode away from my window, shut my laptop, and packed it into the hidden compartment under my desk. This was merely precautionary, since I figured they wouldn’t be getting in.

No, their plan was to throw stuff at my house. Why? I don’t know. I probably did something. That didn’t matter right now. I headed down the stairs, and padded slowly down the hallway. As somebody who was frequently victimised, I knew how to handle what was inevitably coming. I stopped next to the door, my hand resting on the sprinkler faucet.

At my insistence, my dad had installed one inside our front hall, disguised as a planter box. He hadn’t asked why, which was nice. It would be hard to explain why the grass was frequently blue or pink. The truth was, I liked putting food colouring into the reservoir. It helped identify the perpetrators. Right now, a bright lime green, non-toxic food dye filled the tank. The shapes got closer, and I could see the football team begin to cross the road onto my front lawn. Bad mistake.

I had to wait until they were all officially trespassing before I acted. The quarterback faced my house, with a sprinkler head at kneecap level two feet in front of him, and raised his arm. I saw the toilet paper, and shook my head. This was common, I feared. I twisted the faucet, and watched as lime green water began to spray onto the group of fifteen or so seventeen and eighteen year olds who had come over to terrorise me.

What really made me grin was the splash of bright green food dye right over the crotch of the quarterback. He jumped back in surprise, and turned away. The entire group hotfooted it out of the area, to my relief, and I switched the system off.

Those sprinklers had saved me so much grief over the last year and a half. I guess I had always been a quiet child, but I was so totally socially awkward by the time I was in high school, I had no hope. Now, as a junior, I was either picked on or almost totally ignored.

I stormed off up the stairs. It was almost time to update my blog, and I had written nothing as yet. That was about to change.