On the 4th of December the weather was actually warmer than the day before, which annoyed everybody who walked out of their houses, who had wrapped up in their scarves, gloves, hats and boots.

“Marcia, get up, it’s time for school!” Ruby yelled up the stairs for the thousandth time. She was standing at the bottom of them staring upwards as if she could actually see Marcia, but she couldn’t because Marcia’s room was hidden away from direct eye line of the top of the stairs.

“I’m not going. You can’t make me. I’m felling ill.” Marcia yelled back down to her. Ruby sighed. Yesterday she had had to deal with a crying Marcia. She had come home at around midday and practically cried all day and now she wouldn’t even get out of bed.

“Come on Marcia, you’re not still upset are you?” June joined her mum at the bottom of the stairs. She was ready and dressed for school in her uniform which consisted of a grey skirt, white buttoned shirt and red and black tie.

“Upset? You don’t even know the word until something horrible like that happens to you.” Marcia cried dramatically, then they heard her burst into tears again. June and Ruby sighed, they weren’t being bad people, not really, they were just tired of all the drama Marcia seemed to be dragging out of this.

“Well, today is the fourth of December and if I remember correctly all you might be getting are four calling birds. So maybe you’ll just get dead birds again.” June called up to her.

“Oooh, I don’t want to see dead birds, or anything dead ever again and I don’t want to see bits and pieces of…things that have been cut off ever again either.” Marcia sobbed as she suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed in the same uniform as June.

“Come on now. You can handle it, you can handle anything Marcia.” Ruby told her soothingly. “Plus you’ve got that play to do today.” Marcia brightened and smiled through her tears.

“Of course the play.” Marcia was actually a pretty good actress and had found her passion for drama when she had just been twelve. She had auditioned for a play at her school and they had picked her out of all the other twenty five girls to play Cinderella. Now she was starring in the Christmas play which was an adaptation of “The Night before Christmas” poem.

“Alright let’s go June,” Marcia slipped her black shoes on.

“Oh, but you’ve already missed the bus, I’ll have to drive you in now. Good thing your dad’s got the night shift.” Marcia and June’s dad, Bob, was a truck driver, something that they were slightly embarrassed about but they never complained about to their parents faces because it at least paid the bills and put food on the table.

Ruby was an editor for the local Gazette, but she doesn’t have an office job so she got to work from home. Most of her days are spent sitting around the house and reading articles from prospective and old, familiar journalists.

“Hold on I’ll just get the keys.” She disappeared into the kitchen to search for the car keys for their old, blue, ford escort.

“June, are you sure about what you said earlier on? That I’ll just get dead birds.” Marcia asked June as they waited in the hallway.

“Hmm. Well in the song on the fourth day of Christmas the person got four calling birds. So yeah you might get birds.”

“Oh but what if it’s something horrible like, four black spiders, or four dead fish, you know how much I hate fish.” Marcia finished.

“Ok, here’s what I think, you might get four dead calling birds, there and that’s probably the worse you’ll get today. Also I think that maybe you should talk to Jim, I mean I really think that it might be him that’s doing this to you.”

“Really? But…I don’t get it, I mean I only went out with him for like a week. He can’t have been that infatuated with me….oh wait…well actually I guess I am pretty irresistible.” Marcia looked into the mirror that hung on the wall in the hall. She smiled at herself in it then pulled out some lip gloss from her skirt pocket.

June watched her with a look of disbelief; the girl was carrying lip gloss in her pocket.

On the table in front of the mirror was a small glass cage with holes in it, it was a glass cage which had been used for their pet hamster. It had died a few years ago but Marcia and June didn’t want to get rid of the cage, so they had decided to keep it.

It now housed the snapping turtles, since June and Ruby didn’t want to give them away, they had decided to keep them, much to Marcia’s dismay. They were now staring at Marcia warily as she applied her lip gloss and were wondering when they were going to get some breakfast.

“Ok then let’s go girls.” Ruby returned and opened the door, letting a blast of semi cold air into the house.

* * *

After her first class Marcia had grabbed Kim’s arm and dragged her to her locker. Kim had not really wanted to go but Marcia had, surprisingly, held her with a death grip that she couldn’t shake. Now they were both standing in front of Marcia’s locker afraid of what might be inside.

Marcia slipped her key into the lock and opened the door slightly. She peeked inside, she hadn’t wanted to open it in the first place, but she thought it would be silly to carry her books around with her all day, so she decided to be brave and open it. She sighed in relief when she saw that it was completely empty.

“Kim, it’s empty.” She opened the locker fully to show Kim its emptiness.

“Oh thank God for that.” Kim smiled in relief. She really did not want to see something dead lying in there, or anywhere else for that matter. Marcia put some books inside then closed the locker satisfied.

“Hey Marcia,” Marcia and Kim turned to their right to see Jim walking towards them. He was wearing baggy jeans and a t-shirt that had “Rock on!” on it. Marcia couldn’t believe she had actually gone out with this guy.

“Hi, I uh, heard what happened yesterday. Are you ok?” He adjusted his backpack on his right shoulder as he said this.

“I’m fine, but you, you think this is pretty funny huh?” Marcia replied angrily.

“What are you talking about? Having frogs’ legs in your locker is hardly funny.” Jim looked at Kim for confirmation but she was staring in the opposite direction. She so did not want to get into this. She even stepped back a few paces to distance herself from them.

“Marsh, what are you…”Marcia interrupted him.

“You know what I’m talking about. How did you get frogs’ legs anyway Jim? Steal them from the science department?” Jim stared at her speechless. “And I don’t appreciate the dead bird or the turtles. This is just not funny anymore, although why you thought it would be funny in the first place is beyond me.”

“I didn’t…it wasn’t me!” Jim finally spluttered.

“Whatever, just stop doing it.” Marcia turned and walked towards the drama room.

“I just told you I didn’t do it! You’re not even listening to me!” Jim stared at Kim with a frown. “She didn’t even hear me did she?” Kim shrugged her shoulders at him and then left to get to her next class: biology.

* * *

For the rest of the day Marcia received no nasty surprises and, as she went to bed that night, she felt glad that she had had that talk with Jim.

Want to comment on this Short Stories? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Short Stories and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...