Blossom

Blossom Walker strolled out of the gates of Avendale Highschool at 3 pm in the afternoon one Tuesday, her head down under a grey hood, listening intently on the music flowing through her earplugs. As she crossed the road, she stopped, lost in thought, not paying attention to her surroundings. A light blue 2008 Sudan pulled up and the driver beeped the horn making Blossom jump. She was in the middle of the road, cars waiting to pass, she was holding up the traffic. A young girl with clear framed glasses was behind the wheel of the blue Sudan when Blossom looked up, startled. She quickly jogged to the other side of the street. Blossom carried on walking like nothing had happened, walking home facing her shoes, listening to music, just like she did everyday.

As she got to the corner of the block, she heard someone’s voice but walked on. Someone grabbed her backpack and ripped it off her back emptying its contents onto the sidewalk. Blossom turned around irritated, she huffed and took out one earplug. It was her bullies standing in front of her, the school’s queen bee, Selina Maywood, and her little minion squad. Blossom rolled her eyes, pissed off at yet another encounter with these airhead twats.

“Don’t ignore me when I’m speaking to you, you little wentch.” Blossom clicked her tongue, raising an eyebrow. Selina’s minions glared at her, but she ignored them. After a few beats of silence she began to get really frustrated with these idiots, “Well?” she looked from one girl to another. “What the actual fuck do you want? In case you didn’t notice, I have got better things to do other than stand here and fry my precious eyes with the sight of your ugly faces” Selina gasped, infuriated. She took a step closer to Blossom, looking down on her, both literally and figuratively. Blossom sighed, today was just not the day for this. She had to get home to her mom to give her her medication by 4 o’clock, and it’s a forty minute walk from the corner where she currently stood, in front of seven girls.

Selina, bitch slapped Blossom across the face, breathing heavily. Blossom’s head snapped to the side and she cradled her right cheek in her hand. Blossom snatched her bag out of Selina’s hand and picked up her belongings. She walked up to Selena, glaring, staring her right in the eyes “You will regret that..” she whispered, before she turned around and walked away, in the direction of her home. At quarter to four, Blossom walked in the front door of her mid century Victorian house and called up the stairs that she was home. She went over to the shoe rack, taking off her converse and headed to the kitchen. Opening the medicine cabinet, Blossom pulled out several pill bottles. Her mother had to take 5 tablets in the morning and 7 in the afternoon.

Blossom’s mother had a stroke last year and her father is serving in the military, so she has had to take the responsibility of looking after her mother alone, ever since then. She hung up her hoody in the hallway and tied up her brunette curls into a messy bun, before she took her mother’s meds and a glass of water upstairs. She knocked on the bedroom door before she walked in. Blossom’s mother, Sherine, was in her chair, reading by the window quietly by herself. Blossom slowly approached her and put the water on the windowsill. She gently placed her hand on Sherine’s shoulder. “Mother, did you hear me? I’m home. It’s time to take your pills okay. Tell me, what did you get up to today? I see you have been busy.” She smiled looking around the room. Sherine’s journal was open on the side table, in which Blossom had written down words on the left side of each sheet for her mother to write out herself. Today Sherine had attempted to write the words bird, ice, and red. “I’m impressed mother, three words today, that great, and I see you have been reading ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ again?” Blossom inquired. Sherine nodded slowly, pointing to chapter 02 in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. Sherine was always a big reader and has only gotten the confidence to try to again after the stroke a few months ago. Since then, she has slowly started reading again and has finished a full book, called ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck. She will permanently have the shakes, but she is stubborn like her daughter and insists that she can improve her writing, so Blossom came up with the writing journal idea.

“I’m gonna go downstairs and begin making dinner okay ma’..” Blossom hugged Sherine and kissed her on the forehead.