Rain

Ok, this chapter does need a bit of work. You're right about that, but, you are wrong that its too much info all at once. i think the pace you have set is very good. You just need to clean it up a bit now. I think you should just read through a couple times, after that it should be perfect!
Don't worry so much, it was good.

Cant wait for more!

I have to say, I think your dialogue is amazing. I can easily hear everything your characters say.

One thing I thought was strange was the Ms. Sal and Amelia's conversation. It was a little unrealistic.

Still, I adore your writing, and I look forward to more.

Chapter 6: We All Hate Football!

Amelia:

“Why’s everyone so psyched about tonight’s football game?” Amelia asked her friends as they trudged down the halls of St. Bernard’s with hopes of getting to the cafeteria before a line formed.

“Hell if I know,” Sean said as he stretched his arms above his head. “I had to reschedule the Karate Club’s martial arts tournament fundraiser from today to next week because so many members wanted to go to tonight’s game.”

“Ah, the woes of the Karate Club president, huh?” Jacky said as she held the cafeteria door open for the other two.

“No kidding. I had to submit a new announcement to the front office and change the dates on all the posters with a Sharpie.”

“But I thought that the guys in the club hated football?” Amelia asked as they got in line.

“Well, they have their own separate circles of friends that are pressuring them to go.”

“That explains why there’ve been less and less members going to practice lately. It’s fun to watch you guys beat the crap out of each other, but not when it’s only you and Richard who show up.”

“Then why don’t you and Jacky join?”

“Fat chance,” Amelia and Jacky said together.

Just as Amelia was about to grab a tray, someone reached over her head and snatched it away from her. The culprit said in a playful voice, “And what’s so wrong with me, huh?” Richard used his stolen tray to gather up some of the first food in the buffet-style line. He was a fairly tall senior student with a real baby face. His light brown hair was parted in the middle and went down at either side until it flipped up a little as the length got around his ears. The guy was usually found wearing oval glasses, but he always kept his contacts with him for after-school karate club.

“Oh, nothing’s wrong,” Amelia said with a fake smile, “I just hate it when you take my tray.” She reached and grabbed one for herself, and the other two followed her.

“You say that as if I do it all the time,” Richard seized the last pudding before Amelia could, even though she had gotten in front of him in line.

“Because you do.”

“Sorry, I just have really nimble fingers. I can’t control it sometimes.”

“You call that an excuse?” Jacky asked with a chuckle.

“You’re no good with excuses, are you? You can usually smooth-talk your way out of trouble with any other girl, but not with us.” Amelia said blatantly.

“Sad but true,” Sean added.

“You make me sound like I’m some kind of playboy,” Richard remarked with a fake sad face as they approached the cashier.

“Because you are!” The other three said in unison as they swiped there meal cards. They made their way to an empty table and sat down.

“By the way, Amelia,” Richard said as he unwrapped his burger.

“Uh-huh?” Amelia replied with her mouth already full of food.

Richard chuckled at her puffy cheeks before he said, “According to some of the guys in the club, word about your breakup with Nathan has spread amongst the, you know, beautiful people.”

Amelia swallowed her bite and said bluntly, “So? Let them gossip all they want. I couldn’t care less what the popular crowd thinks.”

“Ah, then you wouldn’t care about how Nathan said that you took him to a hotel, had sex with him, and left him?”

“What?” Amelia shouted as she slammed her hands on either side of her tray, causing her plate to shake violently. Since the cafeteria was already loud, no one paid any mind to her outburst.

“Yeah, people’re pretty much saying that you’re a whore.”

“Seriously, what the hell?” Jacky said with a depressed tone. “So everyone automatically listens to the popular kid instead of coming to ask her?”

“That’s pretty much how the world works, Jacky,” Sean said as he slouched in his seat. “A popular voice moves the public more than the truth. Kinda like a dictator.”

“Yeah, I could picture him as a dictator.” An image of Hitler with Nathan’s face flashed through her mind.

Richard simply nodded as he leaned his elbows in the table with his hands intertwined in front of his mouth. He glanced back to Amelia, whose face was red with indignation at that point. “In any case, you need to watch yourself, Amelia. It’s clear that Nathan and his little friends aren’t gonna play fair. Hell, the girls might smack you in the halls, and the guys might try to mug you for all we know. Just be a bit more careful than you have been about the upper-tier people, okay?”

“Okay…” She stirred her pudding around in it’s container with a spork before saying, “Let’s go to the football game tonight.” Everyone looked up at her in surprise.

Jacky swallowed a bite of food. “But I thought you hated--”

“I do,” Amelia interrupted, “but I need to yell at something stupid to get my mind off things.”

Craig:

“Hey, man,” Allen, who had a bloody lip and several rips in his clothing, said to Craig. They were sitting back-to-back in the middle of a crowd of unconscious, thoroughly-beaten local gang members. Various weapons ranging from baseball bats to knives were strewn about them as if the thugs were soldiers killed on a battlefield.

“Yeah?” Craig answered as he lit up a cigarette. One of the sleeves of his t-shirt was completely torn off from when he was grabbed by someone during of the fight, but he was otherwise fine. Both were soaked from the rain, but, as usual, neither minded much.

“I’m gettin’ tired o’ this shit.”

Craig stood up, his shoes scraping against the loose asphalt as he did so. “What’re you talking about?”

Allen did the same and took off his heavy sweatshirt and letting his dread locks spill out of their usual home in his hood. The layer underneath was a black t-shirt. “I’m just tired of havin’ to fight for these stupid territories. They don’t even belong ta us for God’s sake!”

Craig stared at his friend. “I thought you wanted to take care of all of the ‘racist bastards’ in this area?” He put emphasis on “racist bastards.”

“Damn, man! I don’t give a shit what those guys say anymore! One wrong move against them and those guys’ll pull some worse shit on us! Don’t you watch the news or read the newspaper? It happens all the fuckin’ time in this city!”

Craig sighed, a plume of smoke drifting out of his mouth and nostrils, “I don’t have a TV, and I don’t get the newspaper. You should know--you‘ve been to my place.”

“Then you should at least pay attention when some guy’s apartment building’s burnin’ down ‘cause of a goddamn hate-crime!”

“I don’t care what happens to anybody else but me or my friends, Allen.”

Allen grabbed a hold of his friend’s collar so forcibly that Craig’s cigarette fell out of his mouth, “Then start carin‘-- you won‘t notice it comin‘ our way if ya don‘t.”

Their conversation stopped right there. Nothing more needed to be said. Allen let go of his friend’s collar, and they walked away in different directions. Allen began to walk back to his parents’ apartment, and Craig went on another one of his aimless walks through the city. The rain continued to come down despite the already stormy conversation that took place.

Craig took another route through the city that time, going towards the outside of the city rather than the downtown area. To his delight, the rain continued even as he passed the edge of the sea of skyscrapers. Even more to his delight, the buildings that once blocked his view of the rain were gone. All that laid before him were suburbs and raindrops as far as the eye could see. Despite the bad feeling he got from leaving the downtown area, he continued to walk down the sidewalk. It wasn’t long before he noticed a couple spotlight beams swaying back and forth from off in the distance. He decided to go and see what all the excitement was about, since he was clearly bored out of his mind and had nothing better to do.

Luckily, the spotlights’ sources happened to be relatively close. It didn’t take ten minutes before he came across the back parking lot of a high school campus called St. Bernard, according to the huge wooden sign at the entrance. He could hear off in the distance the roar of a crowd and the booming voice of an announcer. Why am I going here in the first place? I hate schools. He thought to himself, but carried on nonetheless. He walked around the main building on a large patch of grass until he came across the backside of some tall bleachers with hundreds of raincoat-wearing, umbrella-using students on them. All of them were standing up and cheering for their respective team. Curious, Craig decided to take a look at the competitors, who received such attention from the other teenagers, and began to climb up the steel rafters of the bleachers. The rain made the odd-angled bars slippery and difficult to climb, but his experience with his home’s zip-line system made it much easier for him than if anyone else had tried it.

Amelia:

“What the hell was that?” Amelia shouted, standing up in anger as St. Bernard’s Bruins missed a pass that would have been a first-down. She hadn’t bothered to put on a raincoat or use an umbrella, unlike her friends, who all had both.

“Whoa, Amelia, calm down a bit, will ya?” Richard yelled loud enough to be heard over the crowd.

She turned towards the senior student, “This is exactly why I hate football players! They even suck their own freaking sport!”

“Then stop yelling! It’s already enough of a tragedy without them getting even angrier at you!” Jacky shouted at her friend with a playful smile, moving her umbrella so that she could see her.

Amelia let out a sigh and sat down on the soaked metal bench. “Fine, but only because you asked me to stop.”

“Of course.” Richard remarked.

“Uh, shouldn’t you at least wipe off your spot on the bleacher?” Sean said with a hint of panic as Amelia sat straight down on the wet steel.

She looked over at him and said blatantly, “I’m already soaked from head to toe, so how’ll a bit more water on my butt make much of a difference?”

The group sat on the bleachers silently as the game continued. The other team intercepted the ball and made a touch down, much to the their annoyance. Amelia managed to say a few words under her breath, but not much else, and decided to suggest that they leave in a few minutes. She slouched in her seat and let the rain fall on her more efficiently.

“Man, your team sucks,” an oddly familiar voice sounded from behind her.

Amelia sat straight up in shock, and twisted around to see Craig hanging onto the back railing of the bleachers, tottering over a thirty-foot drop to the cement below and wearing nothing but old blue jeans and a t-shirt with one sleeve torn off.

Craig and Amelia:

For an instant, much like the last time they met, their eyes locked. Again, they lost track of time as they gazed through the rain at each other. It could have been seconds, or it could have been minutes, but neither of them cared.

Craig broke off the stare, threw a smile at her and said, “Nice night, huh?”

Amelia snapped out of it and yelled, “Wh-what the hell are you doing here?”

He hauled himself up and squeezed in between the bars, plopping down on the bleacher next to her before saying, “I was bored, I saw the lights, I decided to come. Fancy meeting you here, though.”

She stared at him with confusion. Never had the idea of him coming to the game entered her mind.

“Amelia,” Jacky said, leaning over to see, “Who’s this?”

“Th-this is-- um, he’s--ah,” She was so bowled over that she couldn’t even find the words to explain to her friend.

Craig reached across Amelia with his right arm and shook Jacky’s hand, “The name’s Craig. You?”

“Oh! So you’re the Craig, huh? I’m Jacky, nice to meet you!”

“Likewise, but I don’t really know what you mean by that.”

“Ah, so this is the ‘Craig’ guy that we’ve heard so much about, huh?” Richard chimed, leaning over so that he could see past Jacky. “My name’s Richard.” He stretched his hand behind Jacky and Amelia so that he and Craig could shake hands.

“Sup.” Just as he was about to shake hands with Sean, he Craig felt a hand grip his arm and drag him out of his seat. “Hey! Lemme go! Hey!” Despite his protests, Amelia continued to tow him down the stair-like bleachers by the arm until they got to the bottom.

Sean pouted and said, “That’s not fair, she never gave me a chance to say hi to the guy.”

“Ah, let it go. They need a bit of time to themselves, it seems.” Jacky said as she adjusted her raincoat.

“Which is my cue to go and eavesdrop!” Richard said with a devious smile as he began to stand up from his seat.

“No!” Sean and Jacky yelled as both of them grabbed one shoulder and pulled him back down.

Back down on the ground, Amelia had dragged Craig off to the side of the bleachers where there was an overhang with a snack stand and a vending machine. She brought him behind the snack stand where nobody could hear their conversation.

“Would you let go now?” Craig asked. She did, and angrily pushed some wet hair out of her face.

“Why’re you here?”

“I told you before-- I was bored, I saw the lights, I walked.” He looked back over at the game, where the Bruins had just scored a touch down. The St. Bernard part of the audience roared so loudly that their ears began to ring. “Ah, finally your team’s wising up. What’s the score again?”

“Don’t change the subject!”

“Is it a habit of yours to be angry for no adequately explained reason? Why be angry at me for wandering around and ending up here?”

“I thought that I’d never see you again, you idiot.”

“So?” He just noticed that she was wrapped up in his dark brown, completely drenched trench coat. “Oh, can I have that back now? I’ve been missing it.”

It took a few seconds before Amelia realized what he was talking about. She grasped the coat and wrapped herself in it even more, putting on the face of a spoiled child. “When did I say I’d give it back?”

“Oh, for God’s sake, you can buy any old trench coat with your kind of money, can’t you? Just give the worthless thing back to the homeless guy, rich girl.”

She smiled a conniving little smile, “I thought you said you weren’t homeless?”

“By your standards, I may as well be. Now fork it over.”

“My standards let me actually wear this. Do you think I care?”

“Your standards are as low as hell.”

“So are yours.”

“Touché. Now give it.”

“No.”

“And if I say please?”

“Then I would say no.”

A long silence ensued between them, yet both wore entertained smirks.

“I’m about to go back to the city. Care to join me?”

“Can my friends come? We all hate football.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll go get them.”

“I’ll wait here.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Amelia started for the bleachers to gather her friends, though with a bit of a skip in her step. From the edge of the bleachers, closer to Craig than Amelia‘s friends, a certain person watched Craig standing underneath the overhang. Despite the rain, the student made note of Craig’s face as he and the others left the football field. That person and several others stood up from their seats and made their way down the rain-soaked bleachers, following a fair distance behind the group preceding them.

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A/N: I had a field day with the last string of dialogue between Craig and Amelia in that last part. It's just so much fun to write through the interactions between them. I hardly even had to edit that part. Not to mention that, for the first time, there's a "Craig and Amelia" subtitle! Huzzahs all around! There are still some parts that I'm not happy with, though, such as how Craig ended up at St. Bernard at night.

On a separate note, a poem in my signature is by the creator of the anime/manga "Bleach" from the beginning of volume three. It just fit so well that I put it in my signature, and plan to put it on a separate page before the first chapter of "Rain" if it ever gets published. Anyway, see you guys next chapter!

Yay! Loved the "field day." It was really cute, and Craig and Amelia just HAVE to get together!

*just realized that she read forever ago and never commented*

Omgsh! they've met up again! finally! Yayness!

**sits and waits foe the next part. (Hopefully not as long as last time! *glare*)**

Okay, so earlier I read chapters one and two, and them had this really nice critique for them, but then I lost it...stupid faulty internet. Anyways, so I can't seem to find the mistakes I found earlier, sorry.

I do remember though that I liked it. It had a slower start wich caught up with itself near the end. Though Amelia bugs me for some reason =D

Hehe, anyways, so I have stupid summer assignments to do...glares...hehe. I'll come back for three and four probably later today!

Good job! Keep up the good work!
-JC

Thanks for the comments!

I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can, but it may take awhile. I just got Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories for PS2. That, and I now have a job, so I'm working during the day and playing Disgaea at night... If I had a publisher, he/she would kill me, but I don't have one, so I can goof off however much I want. I'm on vacation.

What I have been doing is brainstorming on where the story will go next, so I'm not completely disregarding the story. So, see ya when I see ya. =3

A/N: Wow, I deeply apologise for the longlong wait for this chapter, but, well, here it is! Surprisingly enough, I finished about a quarter of it in the past half hour or so. Note to self: Drink Coke or other caffeine while writing. Anyway, I'm kind of proud of this chapter, so I hope that you enjoy it.
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Chapter 7: Singing in the Rain

Craig and Amelia:

“No freakin’ way in hell,” Craig said with humorous amazement, placing a palm on his face with a laugh.

“What? We’re just going to Jay’s,” Amelia said as they approached the diner.

“That’s just it, I eat here, too!”

“Nu-uh!” Jacky laughed.

“Come on, isn’t it obvious? They have cheap food, great music, ambience, smoking allowed twenty four seven, a dartboard with the really pointy metal darts. It’s my kind of place.”

“You smoke?” Richard asked with surprise.

“Since I was twelve.” Craig pronounced proudly, as if he had achieved an impossible feat.

Sean opened the front door and said, “You should kick the habit, dude. Smoking’s nasty.” Everyone walked into the dirty diner, after which Craig was directed by Amelia towards the group’s usual table.

“What’s so wrong with smoking?” Craig asked once he sat down on the edge of his seat with a deep slouch. He sat across from Amelia at the circular table.

“Come on, pal,” Jacky said, “there are much cooler ways to die than to get lung cancer.”

“Example?”

Richard chimed in, “Be in a high-speed chase with the cops!”

“I don’t have a car.”

Jacky thought for a moment, “You could get killed in a fire fight against a rival gang.”

“While water-skiing,” Sean said, Amelia letting out a small laugh at his addition.

“I don’t even have a gun,” Craig said, “well, not anymore. My gang fell apart years ago, anyway.”

Jacky and Sean stared at him in disbelief. Jacky said, “I was… only joking about the gang thing.”

“Really? Are gangs that uncommon outside downtown?”

Amelia entered the conversation, “Well, yeah. The police are much more diligent about their duties around where I live than in this area. Probably because it’s easier out in the suburbs to begin with.”

“So? More fun for me, right?”

“That’s one way to look at it.”

The group found a surprisingly fun side in the one who had admonished Amelia a week ago. They also found that he was well-acquainted with the manager of Jay’s, so they got their meals absolutely free. It wasn’t long after they “paid” for their meals that they left the diner. Despite stepping out into the rain, most everyone in the group welcomed it.

Amelia said, “Well, it was cool seeing you again, but the rest of us need to go home.” There was a large groan from the rest of the group. “What? We all have lives, unlike this guy.” She pointed a finger at Craig. He pretended not to know who she was talking about by looking to either side of himself with a surprised expression.

“C’mon, the night is still young!” Craig said with a smile on his face.

“It’s ten o’clock,” Sean said as he looked at his watch.

“Exactly! It’s not late until at least two! Learn to live a little, people!”

“Don’t we have a bio test to study for?” Richard asked Jacky.

“Why’re you asking me? I don’t study.”

“Either way,” Craig said as he slipped his hands into his jean pockets, “You guys need to have more fun! That spoiled-kids’ private school is way too tight-assed for it’s students to survive in the city for very long. There’s something goin’ on tonight that you guys need to see.”

“A gang war?” Jacky said.

“A knife fight?” Richard said.

“A meth lab?” Sean said.

Craig grimaced and said, “Okay, should I be ashamed that I’ve given you such a bad view of the city or something? You guys think too much. Nothing to worry about. It’s just a perfectly innocent little thing that goes on downtown every Friday. No smoking, drinking, fighting, sex, or anything like that… Okay, well, no promise on the fighting part, but no drinking or drugs, ‘kay?”

Everyone except Amelia smiled at the idea.

“I think that we do have a test coming up.” Amelia said as she began to walk down the sidewalk in the general direction of home. “I haven’t studied, and my dad’ll kill me if I fail it, so I’ll be seeing you guys later.” She waved to them as a goodbye, but her hand was suddenly grasped by Craig. He covered a surprising distance in just a few steps to get to her. Her surprise equated to a small “eep,” but the sound of the rain covered it up.

“Okay, are you stupid or something?”

“What?” Amelia yelled angrily as she wrenched her arm away from him. “What the hell is it now?”

“First of all, I want my coat back. Second, you’ll most likely get raped or something if you go home in that direction by yourself. The neighborhood isn‘t too friendly that way.”

Amelia’s eyes widened at the thought, and found herself reminiscing about the night Nathan left her at the hotel.

“Yeah, so why don’t you just come over to this little event for a bit and have some fun?”

The others turned towards Amelia, awaiting her answer.

She shuffled her feet on the asphalt and looked down at the ground before saying, “Okay, fine. I’ll come, but I‘ll be leaving before twelve, even if it‘s by myself.”

“Huzzah!” the other three yelled.

Craig held out his hand to Amelia, “Shall we?”

She looked strangely at his hand, and walked past him without taking it. “So, where is this place?”

“Okay, that hurt.”

“That’s the point.”

Craig laughed a little before turning towards Amelia’s friends. “By the way, they won’t let you through if you’re wearing those raincoats.”

Craig and Amelia:

As the group made their way downtown, Amelia asked, “So, if this is a party, then how is it that there’s no drugs or drinking?”

“Oh yeah, we’re not like you rich people,” Craig said, an intended jab to all of them, “We don’t have enough money for that kind of crap. None of my acquaintances drink or do drugs.”

“Then what do you call smoking?”

He glanced at the cigarette still in his mouth, “I call it an attractive addition to my exterior appearance.”

Amelia laughed, “’Attractive?’ Hardly.”

“Well, then, what do you find attractive?”

“A tall, generally well-built guy with a hansom face who doesn’t smoke.”

“’s that so?” He smiled as he finished off the cigarette and tossed the butt into a puddle. “Can I have my coat back now?”

“No.”

Jacky whispered to Sean, “Did she just describe Craig?”

Sean whispered back, “Pretty much.”

Just as the group made a turn down Tune Street, they saw dozens of electric lights light up the dead-end area of the street, which hung from several wires that were strung over the street between buildings and illuminated every individual raindrop with yellow lighting.

Craig raised his head from his usual stare at the asphalt and looked ahead. “We’re here, folks.”

The deep bass of some rock music could easily be heard over the rain, and a huge crowd of people laid in front of a stage with a band playing.

“Welcome to Friday Night Music,” He declared with a slightly more epic voice than usual. The five walked up to the short fence that blocked off the area from the rest of the street, with a small gap in the fence and two bouncers at the entrance. The two were only a few years older than the lot of them. Despite the intimidating look that both latino bouncers had, Craig walked right up to them at the front of the pack.

“Sup, Jose?” Craig said, casually knuckling one of the bouncers.

“What’s crackin’, Craig?” Jose said with a smile and a thick latino accent. He was stout, wore a gangsta look, and had a nearly-bald scalp. Above his upper lip was a short moustache.

“Just bringing these guys to their first Friday Night Music.” He pointed his thumb at the other four behind him.

Jose looked over them and said, “Take off the coats an’ you can come in.”

There was another groan from the three raincoat-wearers, who immediately began to take them off.

“Why do we have to take them off, anyway?” Jacky complained.

Jose looked at them with a strange expression, “Craig, are these guys rain-haters?”

“Hard to say, really,” Craig said, “It looks like they’re wising up, but still generally rain-haters.”

Jose stole a glance in Amelia’s direction, and noticed that she was wearing Craig’s trench coat. He looked over at Craig and said, “Hey, man, you got a girlfriend now, huh?”

Craig and Amelia looked at him with taken aback looks, while Amelia’s friends tried their best to hold in their laughter.

“You’re on crack, Jose,” Craig said flatly.

Jose laughed loudly as he took the other three‘s coats, “Fine, man. Go in already, ya stupid ass.”

“Gladly.”

They walked towards the crowd, getting pushed and shoved against and getting rained on all the while. Amelia stuck close to Craig, who was always at the front, and she only then noticed the multitude of people hanging out on the fire escapes on the buildings to either side of the street.

“Where are we going?” She yelled as she grabbed a hold of the sleeve of Craig’s t-shirt to better her navigation.

“To the front! You get the best effect up there!” Craig snatched her wrist and hauled her through the crowd with him. Her friends had some trouble keeping up in the rain, but found them at the front of the crowd. The band was playing a loud punk rock song, which was surprisingly catchy, to Amelia. Every time the lead guitarist and vocalist swung his head, small torrents of water flew from the tips of his hair and added to the rain on everyone at the front.

“What’s the band’s name?” She yelled over the noise to Craig as she wiped some rain off of her face and pushed a lock of saturated hair behind her ear.

“They don’t have a name, so we all call them The No-Names!”

Amelia tapped her foot and nodded her head in unison with the music that was being played, even though she didn‘t like the song too much. Everyone else around her was dancing as best they could in the cluster of bodies, but the four newcomers who just arrived stuck out like sore thumbs. Even Craig was shouting out and thrusting his fist into the air.

“So what do we do now?”

“Just have fun, you idiot!”

“It’s kind of hard to have fun when I don’t like the music?”

The song ended, and the crowd roared, urging them to play another song.

The head vocalist said into the mic, “This next song was in part inspired by all of the fun little fights that go on all around the city, so let’s hope that we don’t stir up any bad memories!” His joke received some soft laughter from the audience along with a smirk from Craig. “The other part, oddly enough, was inspired by my girlfriend.” Several ‘Aws’ and whistles could be heard from throughout the crowd before they started playing again.

To Amelia’s surprise, the song started out just the way she liked it: with some soft solo guitar-playing, and then heavy drums that brought in the vocals. She did more than tap her foot and nod her head. She actually began to raise her arms and cheer for the band.

It was less than three songs later before Amelia, Sean, Richard, and Jacky all began to dance like everyone else at Friday Night Music. They reveled in their fun as the rain drenched them and everyone else around them. Craig’s trench coat, which Amelia was still wearing, swung around with every movement as if it were a dress, releasing dozens of streams of rain. Over time, Sean and Jacky began freak dancing with no organized pattern of movement, and Richard was off somewhere on the sidelines flirting with some girls. Craig merely smiled, and did his own kind of dance with his hands tucked away snuggly in his pockets.

After some time of dancing, singing along, and getting pushed around by the rest of the dancing crowd, Amelia had to got over to the bottom ladder of a broken fire escape to take a breather. By that time, even a different band had gotten on the stage.

Craig walked casually over to her and said with a small laugh, “You alright?”

Between pants, Amelia said, “Yeah, I-I’m fine.”

Seeing her short of breath, Craig looked up at the rainy sky and said, “If you just keep your mouth open, the rain should give you enough of a drink to keep going, if you want to.”

She opened her mouth after an ample amount of time to thing it over, and said, “I’ll see you back out there in about ten minutes.” Even though Amelia wanted to keep partying, she was wrought with fatigue. Even P.E. class wasn’t as tiring at Friday Night Music. It wasn’t a “running a mile” tired, either, it was more of a sleepy tired.

A sudden thought of home came into her mind. “Shit,” she whispered to herself with shock and wide eyes as she fished into her pocket for her cell phone. The clock said 1:47 AM. “Shit!” Despite her exhaustion, she leapt from the bottom rung of the ladder and scampered around for Craig and her friends.

Still dancing in the horde of bodies, Craig ended up having Amelia’s head slam right into his backbone from behind. He staggered forward with a grunt of pain, holding the spot that hit. “The hell was that for?”

Panting, Amelia said bent down with her hands on her knees, “I have to get home. Now!” She grabbed his wrist and lugged him through the crowd in search of the rest of their group. Once everyone had been effectively ripped out of the party area, they went straight for the entrance and picked up their raincoats.

“Didn’t you set an alarm or something, Amelia?” Jacky screamed as the group ran hastily down the sidewalk.

Craig tried to say, “Hey, you guys shouldn’t--”

“How was I supposed to know that time could fly by so fast?” Amelia shouted as they turned a corner, the trench coat trailing behind her in the wind that she created.

“It was a party, what’d you expect?” Richard said.

“People, I’m serious, you can’t--” Craig tried a second time.

“I never go to parties, though!” Amelia cried.

“Guys! It’s a bad idea to run in the rain like this!”

“Why, huh? We’re in a damn hurry, here!”

“You could slip if you’re not used to it! Now slow the hell down!”

“I’m fine! I don’t need you to--”

The slick gravel slipped out from underneath Amelia’s shoes with a splash, her legs swinging in front of her, and her head flying back. She was parallel with the ground, and heading for it quickly. In that instant, when all she could see was cement, only one thought crossed her mind. Damn it…

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A/N: Yeah, leaving you guys with a cliffhanger, just in case. I've had the idea of Friday Night Music in my head for awhile, and my hometown even has something like it. In fact, the real thing inspired me to write this scene. That, and the thought of Amelia royally screwing up twice in two minutes seemed like a good idea.

Oh, and I've also put up two more drawings in the artwork thread for Rain. You can find it here if you have the time.

viewtopic.php?t=18400&highlight=

EDIT: You know the part about the biology test the next day? I just realized that the current time is on a Friday... so there's no school the next day... so, yeah, I editted it, in case anybody caught that.

Okay, yeah, I liked this. It's hard to actually critique it, because all the chapters are together, though...I don't have time to actually go through all of them. But it was good! Intriguing.

The whole thing about the rain is very intriguing. Is it some sort of wetness cult? Rain giving you strength, or some such? Anyway, it's good so far...

Keep it coming!

Yours absolutely and always,

*looks stoned* niiiiiiiiiiccccceeeeee

Chapter 11 is up. See first post for a link. =3

Wowwowowowowowowow!! thats a totally awesome piece of writing. you've probably already heard that be4 but still!
i wanna keep reading but i cant find ch. 6 or 7.

where are they?

chayonz wrote:Wowwowowowowowowow!! thats a totally awesome piece of writing. you've probably already heard that be4 but still!
i wanna keep reading but i cant find ch. 6 or 7.

where are they?

They're in this thread, you just need to find them. Sorry about that.

And thank you for the comments. =3

Chapter 13 has been posted.

i love this it is soo cool keep writing ur right about that last chapter the descripions are bland. i like how you put in that changing scean with ms.sal.