Making Your Dreams Come True

[GalacticBattles]

Marianna shouldered her backpack and made her way down the street, feet dragging slowly. She was heading home from school, and as far as anyone knew, she was heading home. But she herself wasn't sure where she was headed at all.
Her parents were divorced, her mother was depressed, sick and always financially struggling, and her father was self-employed, all but homeless and in another state. Marianna didnt know what to do about her mother's depression, she didn't know what to do about her father's poverty, and now she was beginning to have troubles of her own. Anxiety knotted her stomach all day and sent stabs of pain into her chest all night. She got very little sleep. She was doing poorly in school, and she was certain she was failing as a daughter now, too. Her grades, though, were not much of a concern for her mother, who was taking her out of school as of today. Apparently, some online schoolwork that Marianna had been completing had not been tracked by the teachers, who claimed that as far as they knew, she hadn't completed it. Marianna's angry mother had declared that it wasn't fair and that Marianna would be home schooled from here on. Marianna knew that she wouldn't be home schooled, for these days her mother could scarcely motivate herself to get up out of bed and go to work.
This morning, Marianna had failed her mother somehow once again, and she had been told to call her father and ask to live with him. Having gone through this a thousand times before, she knew how it would all end. And so, as she trudged down the street, she wondered whether she shouldn't find some place to stay that didnt involve either parent. Would a garbage can be an option?
She was a girl of medium height, very slender, with fair skin, the largest brown eyes, and shoulder length brown waves that resembled glossy unwound yarn.

Nicholas Warner, or Nick as he always thought Nicholas was a name that was much too long to say, rode down the street on his skateboard. He had headphones in as he whistled along with the tune, doing his best to focus solely on the slight breeze that sent his messy brown hair flying in the wind. The teen wasn't necessarily giant but he wasn't a shorty either as he took a second to rub his brown eyes as there wasn't much time for sleep the night before.

Little did Nick know that the second he took his eyes off the sidewalk, something slammed against the wheels of his skateboard and he goes flying into the air and he slams onto the street hard; the pavement scratched his arms and elbows as he slowly skidded to a stop. The boy lay there for a bit before turning his head to the right to see he had gotten some girl's attention from far away. He called out, "Please tell me you didn't see that!"

He wasn't necessarily injured too bad or anything but the teenager was banged up so he decided to stay laying on the street for a little bit with his hands behind his head so he could catch his breath. The cuts on his arms were open but not enough to bleed on the street or anything as he rolled onto his back with a grunt.

[GalacticBattles]

OUCH. Having been jolted out of her own thoughts by the sight and sound of the boy's collapse, Marianna came hurrying over.
"Oh, my God! Are you ok?"
Despite the cold, she crouched onto the sidewalk, hair framing her face, and, after a shy hesitation, offered him her hand. She wasn't very strong, but she kept her hand out in case he needed help.

"I'm fine, thanks." Nick accepted her hand but mostly hoisted himself up as he dusted himself off before picking up his skateboard and facing the girl. "I kind of don't want to introduce myself because of how embarrassing that was but I'm Nick, you are?"

The teen raised his eyebrow as a smile slowly formed on his face. The stranger kind of looked familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on where he's seen her before. It was especially difficult with all the hair covering her face and hiding her expression. It kind of made her look like that character from The Ring but in a much more cute and less creepy kind of way.

[GalacticBattles]

It had been quite a while since anyone had spoken to her in a friendly, easygoing manner. After a moment, Marianna pushed the curtains of hair out of her face and peered up at Nick.
Was she being silly, or was he really kind of handsome? She couldn't tear her gaze away from his face, away from that smile of his.
"I . . . I'm Marianna. Do you . . .go to the school up there?"

The boy's smile only widened as he saw Marianna's face and instantly remembered where he recognized her from. "I knew I recognized you! Yeah, we have the same chemistry class, no?"

Nick was getting a bit excited as he realized he already knew the girl that helped him; they've never talked before except maybe a couple times when the teacher picked partners for a group project. She was always quiet and got yelled at a few times for slacking off though the professor of the class kind of yelled at everybody at least once so he didn't really see her as a problem child or anything...especially with the hair now out of the way, Nick realized that the teen in front of him was gorgeous and she acted cute in an adorable shy bookworm kind of way.

The only thing that confused the brunet was the way Marianna was holding herself; she seemed unconfident and relatively sad. He wasn't sure if that was how she normally acted or if that was just today but he felt bad either way. "So...what are you doing anyways?"

[GalacticBattles]

"Yes. . .we . . .DID have the same class." Marianna had never noticed Nick before. She'd done her best to notice nothing but her schoolwork. She'd been supposed to earn an education so that she'd be financially successful and rescue her parents from life's struggles. To focus on much else was selfish, she'd felt. "But I . . .won't be coming back, I don't think. I'm just going home. . . I guess."

Nick frowned at the unfortunate news before shoving his hands in his jean pockets. "Well that sucks. At least you don't have to deal with the grumpy teachers anymore."

The brunet looked around the block as curiosity filled his mind; if she was heading home then why was she walking this way? Unless Marianna had moved in as his new neighbor recently, there weren't many houses where she could live past here. This definitely piqued Nick's interest and an idea popped into his head. "Home, huh? Well I'm sure you're pretty busy but do you want to come over to my place and stay for a little bit? I know it's kind of weird but if you're not going to be at school then hanging outside of it is the only way we can get to know each other! Besides, I have tons of stuff I want to show you."

[GalacticBattles]

"I . . . I really shouldn't, okay? Listen, Nick, you've been really sweet, but I can't. I just can't." Marianna felt a rush of hot dampness come to the backs of her eyes, and she blinked and swallowed. "There are too many things to worry about. Goodbye!"
Turning, she began to walk, almost run, in the opposite direction.

"Hey, wait! I just want to talk!" Nick dropped his skate board on the ground and used it to roll towards Marianna. He didn't want to bother her or anything but the teen was too worried to leave her by herself so he wanted to at least make some kind of effort to help the girl out. "Look, I'll leave if you really want me to but can you at least let me walk you home? You made sure I was okay back there and now I want to return the favor; It'll ruin the rest of the day if I let you walk alone especially now that I know you're my friend. Please?"