Rania, 16, taking a stroll through her neighborhood. Dressed in her favorite color, red. She was wearing her red shirt, her denim skinny jeans, and her black converse sneakers, to which she often referred to as the “angsty teen outfit”. It was as sunny and as bright as it never has been in Rania’s eyes. You see, Rania has always lived with a secret that has filled her with tremendous guilt. This secret dulled her life in ways not understood, she had been depressed for quite some time and she questioned her whole existence.
Rania despises the rain, it fills her up with so much rage. This is due to her finding out about her secret on the gloomiest, darkest, most rainiest day. Ever since then, she’s hated rainy days. Where for others rainy days bring comfort and calm, to Rania it brings bad memories she wishes she could erase and forget forever.
Rania walks back home, and as she enters her house she says to her mother:
“Hello mother, that’s actually not my mother”
Lisa: “Come on we’ve talked about this”
Rania: You constantly disregard my feelings and you don’t understand how hard this has been for me. I’ve barely been able to process this Lisa! Why can’t you just get out of my life and leave me alone!!! Let me enjoy this not so terrible day.
A couple of months back, Rania learned that she was adopted by Lisa and Steven. She grew up believing that they were her biological parents. Rania had to be taken in after her mother died while giving birth to her and her biological father wasn’t in the picture either. Ever since this was revealed, Rania feels as if Lisa and Steven were hiding her whole life from her. They always told her “we saved you and you should be thankful” and that always bothered Rania because she saw that as some superiority savior complex.
Lisa: “GO TO YOUR ROOM NOW RANIA!” I don’t have time for your attitude, you act as if we are horrible parents to you which we aren’t
And just like that, the beautiful bright sunny day Rania met with, turned into a dark and cloudy day. Heavy vicious rain followed. The television was on and a news report said:
“A major storm is headed North of Asheville, Mississippi and will intensify this evening. Citizens are warned to not leave their homes at any given moment until it is stated to do so.”
Rania tends to be very impulsive as she runs out through the front door and threatens to run away.
Rania: I will stand outside until I get sick, or get pneumonia or something!
Steven: Please, Rania sweetie, don’t make this hard for us. What can we do, what can we say?
Rania: Really Steven? Is that all you’ve got to say for yourselves. Why did it take ya’ll years to be truthful with me?
Steven and Lisa both with concerned looks on their faces, they pleaded with her, but she just wouldn’t budge.
Lisa: Rania! Let’s talk, let’s talk inside where you’re safe and sound.
Rania: What’s done is done, I am so angry and disappointed in both of you. I don’t even know anymore
Steven and Lisa: We were meaning to do this and it’s long overdue but, we want to apologize. We want to make things better again between all of us. We love you more than we could express. We want the best for you. And from the moment we saw you, we knew that we wanted to raise you to be a kind and respectable person. That you are Rania, but we ruined that in you. We just wanted to protect you, but we admit that we messed up. We want to work things out and we know it’s going to take a while but it’s worth it.
Rania takes a step forward to them.
Rationale:
I had no inspiration for this story. I followed the flow of my thoughts and wrote what came to mind. I didn’t change anything about this piece and I would say that it could be developed further. I experienced a couple of challenges while writing this piece. One of the challenges was being stuck on the exposition and not knowing what to write next. Another challenge was figuring out the conversation between the character’s as in what they would say next and who to whom. I hope for the reader to follow and understand the character’s internal turmoil and their struggles with identity.
