• As the clouds grew darker, Andi started walking faster, praying her bad leg would carry her home before the sky let out the much needed moisture. She clenched her jaw tighter, as her leg started to throb harder. She hadn't expected to be jumped, that probably why she ended up looking the way that she did. She could feel her face swelling and she tongued the gap where her side tooth had been. She knew that Jeff's ex had not liked the fact that he had left her to start a new relationship with his high school best friend; but jumping her? She thought that she was out of high school. Oh well, at least she would be able to fix her tooth with the dental plan she had signed up for through work, and Jeff had told her she wouldn't even use it. Ha, a lot he knew. She smiled to herself despite the circumstances.
    Silently she crept through a backyard that would connect to her own, the neighbors were good friends and had never minded her crossing through, even though Doc would have killed anyone else walking on his lawn that he spend numerous hours on and was the apple of his eye. She thought of them as second parents, and they had always been good to her, taking her under their wing when her mother had passed away, and her father had needed time to adjust to being a widower and single dad.