As I was rounding a corner of the road I saw somebody sitting on the ground next to the road. As I got closer I realized it was a girl that was maybe a little older then me. I stopped to see what the matter was, because you don't usually see people sitting next to the road around here.
"Are you alright?" I asked her as I stopped.
She looked up at me from the ground and I got my first look at her face. Her hair was dark brown, and it was slightly curly. It cascaded off her shoulders and reached her lower back, bouncing around whenever she turned her head.. Her prominent eyes were dark brown and shined with alertness and intelligence. Freckles decorated her small nose and rosy cheeks. Her smile lit up her face as she saw me. She was wearing a tight dark green sleeveless shirt with dark blue denim shorts.
"Not really," she said a little embarrassed, "I wasn't paying attention and stepped in that hole over there on my jog." She pointed a couple feet away from her to a hole in the ground that was a little less than half a foot deep. "I just twisted my ankle a little, so I decided to wait for it to feel a little bit better before I head back home."
"Want some company while you wait?" I asked her.
"Sure, why not." she grinned at me thankfully as I sat down next to her.
"I'm Matt," I said while I held my hand out to her.
"Rachael," she said while shaking my hand, "but you can just call me Rache."
"Alright, Rache it is. So...," I started to say stretching the o as I tried to think of something to start a conversation, "why aren't you in school right now?" Ya I know, lame conversation starter, but I knew that school was still going on here, cause I had seen the bus leave a little over half an hour ago.
"I should be asking the same of you," she said with a little laugh, "but no. I actually got out of college a couple weeks back," she said while putting emphasis on "college", trying to point that out to me. "So, why aren't you in school? You look the age."
"I got out last week, and this is actually my first day here while visiting family."
"Cool. How old are you exactly?"
"Sixteen and getting close to seventeen. You?"
"About three months from twenty." as she said this I couldn't help but be a little surprised,which I tried to hide, and she gave an amused laugh at my not well hidden surprised face. So over the next half hour I learned that she actually went to college in Seattle and lived here when she had break. She was going to college for art, and wanted to be an artist. After a while we both walked to her house, which was about half a mile away, and passed the time talking about random things on the way there.
"Thanks for the company," she said as we walked to her front door. "Maybe we can hang out sometime."
On the way back I wondered when I would see her again. Being with my grandma is fun, but sometimes it's just nice to be with someone who is your own age, or close to it anyway.
