Young Offender.

The label hung over Beth's head everywhere she went. Everyone she knew seemed to know what had happened. No matter how hard her parents tried to bury it. Now, since they couldn't do that, they're trying to bury her. They bought her a small apartment before shipping themselves off to New York.

We'd take you with us, but your community service...

Lie. Her mother lied. There was no reason for it really, other than for the mother to feel okay with herself. Beth understood that she was now a shame to the family name. For a family with no royal blood in them her parents sure acted like Queen Elizabeth could come knocking any minute. Beth no longer had a family. Not one that wanted her anyway. Her sister; also known as The Princess of the family, even transferred schools. Her sister is going to hate New York, she hates anything dirty. It's going to be a big surprise when the people there don't treat her like anything special.

Beth had always been a good girl. She was the kind of person to give back an extra dollar that a cashier had given her. She was still a good girl. Problem was that nobody believed that anymore. Beth was innocent. Her spotless record kept her out of jail but it was no longer spotless. Now there was a deep red wine stain smack dab in the middle of it. And no amount of washing will get it out.

Beth stared into the mirror in the locker room of the community centre. She looked awful. What a horrible way to find out that orange isn't your colour. Beth fiddled with the end of her french braided hair. Her hair was long, brown, and smelled like vanilla.

"Are you gonna do something or not?" a darker girl asked Beth. "'Cause I need the mirror."

"Oh, sorry." Beth moved aside. The girl started to fluff her curly hair.

"Whateva."

Beth walked back over to her locker, number forty three. She slammed it closed. The loud sound made the boy close by look over. He looked over Beth's body and winked. Wide eyed, Beth rushed away. The last thing she needed was to be hit on by an actual offender. She went out front where the probation worker had said to meet him when they had met him before. Beth was the second one out there. A very pale boy stood against the rail. He had very wide eyes. Beth walked over and stood next to him. Other than an unenthusiastic smile they didn't make any contact.

It wasn't until everyone was out there that he began to speak.

"This is it, your chance to do something positive. Give something back," Tony said. Beth stood with good posture. She hung off of every word he said. Beth already did so much, she already gave so much. "You can help people. You can really make a difference to peoples lives. That's what community service is all about. There are people out there that think you're scum, you have an opportunity to show them they're wrong."

"Yeah, but what if they're right?" an Irish boy asked. Beth looked over at him confused. "No offence, but I'm thinking some people are just born criminals." The boy pointed to the guy in the cap beside him.

"You looking to get stabbed?" the guy in the cap asked.

"You see my point there?" A phone began to ring.

The girl who fluffed her hair earlier answered the phone. She was twirling her hair and chewing her gum obnoxiously. The sound of the gum squishing between her teeth made Beth uncomfortable.

"Doesn't matter what you've done in the past," Tony said as Alisha continued to talk to her friend. Trying to get Alisha's attention Tony said, "Hey." When that didn't work he said "Excuse me," and "Hello, I'm still talking here."

"What, I thought you'd finished," Alisha said, raising her arms.

"You see my lips still moving, that means I'm still talking."

"Yeah but you coulda been yawning, or chewing..." the Irish guy said. Beth just watched this all happen silently along with the pale boy beside her.

"End the call," Tony said, "Hang up!"

Alisha continued talking while the Irish boy began talking to the pale boy beside Beth. She wanted to know their names. But didn't want to ask. Now seemed like a bad time. Alisha said her goodbyes and hung up her phone.

"Look, we need to work as a team here." Tony had to talk over some of the guys who were talking. Beth didn't want to lean over to see what was happening. The boys started getting a little rough. "That's enough!"

"Can I get another group? This isn't going to work for me," Curtis Donovan said. Beth recognized him from the papers and the internet.

"Uh, what makes yah fink that you're bettah than os?" the girl in the ponytail asked. Her accent was so thick, and her words were nearly unrecognizable.

"What is that accent?" The rough housing stopped.

"Is that for real?" Curtis asked.

"What you tryna say somefing are yah?"

"This, you, that's just a noise. Are we supposed to be able to understand her?"

"Do yah understand tha'?" she asked. Her hand was hidden from Beth's view but she would have bet money that she was flipping off the Irishman.

"I think she likes me," he said, flinging his arm around the shoulders of the most violent of the bunch.

The boy in the cap attacked the Irishman. Beth watched but did nothing to help. Tony lunged towards them trying to get them to separate. Alisha laughed at the altercation. Beth watched as Tony got them away from each other. The boy in the cap was shouting random things while the Irishman flailed his arms around.

"Enough!" Tony shouted. Both boys stopped. "Follow me. No more funny business!"

Beth followed him around the building to some benches. Resting on them were paint cans and brushes. Beth sighed, this wasn't going to be any fun. For a few moments she thought about her parents, she wondered what they were doing.

"You gonna just stand there?" the Irish boy asked her. Beth saw everyone else opening paint cans and getting started.

"Oh, no." Beth walked over to the quiet boy from before. Without saying a word she began painting across from him.

Close to her, the boy in the cap was painting away. It was quiet for no more than ten minutes before he starting shouting, "Awh, there's paint on my cap! This is bullshit." He stormed off, kicking a paint can as he went. Beth just went back to painting.

"Simon," the boy across from her said quietly

"What?"

"My name is Simon," he said again, a little louder.

"Oh I'm Beth," she said, smiling. "Do you know the names of the others?"

"Nathan is the Irish one. Kelly has the pony tail. Alisha is the other girl and," Simon looked over. "That guy is Curtis."

"How'd you know all that?"

"I listened," Simon said. "Oh, and the other guy is Gary."

Beth went back to painting. Now she knew everyone's name. That would make things a little easier.

"What about you weird kid?" Nathan asked loudly, looking at Simon. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything but you look like a panty sniffer."

"I'm not a panty sniffer, I'm not a pervert." Simon's jaw clenched. Nathan began to use his paint brush to pretend he was jacking off, and he was making the sounds a pervert would. "I tried to burn someones house down!"

"Just ignore him, you don't look like a panty sniffer," Beth said. "Not that I'm entirely sure what a panty sniffer looks like exactly." Simon didn't look very relieved.

The beginnings of a bad storm could be heard coming from the sky. A cloud was quickly filling the sky. It was faster than any normal cloud. It was dark, and ominous. It looked like something out of a Sci-Fi movie. Beth was watching the clouds, taking a mental note about the oddness of it.

"How'd that happen?" Tony asked, walking up to the group. He was referring to the paint can knocked over. "I mean, you've been here five minutes. It's painting benches. How'd you screw that up? You tell me because I've got no idea."

Beth was quiet. Sh e didn't want to rat on Gary but she didn't want to get in trouble for omitting the truth. Her thoughts were interrupted by something resembling a massive snowball falling and crashing onto a car behind Simon. It scared a scream out of Beth.

"What's going on?" Kelly asked, but no one had the answer. Beth stood up and held a hand over her head as if that would protect her.

"That's my car," Tony said, looking at the wrecked vehicle.

Nathan laughed, "classic." Another unnamed thing fell from the sky and hit the water behind Nathan, making Beth scream again. Water splashed up and hit Beth in the back. It was cold, but Beth was too shocked to register. "Okay, so I'm a little bit freaked out."

The cloud was getting darker, and bigger. Simon appeared to be filming it but Beth wasn't exactly paying close attention. Her sole focus was the cloud that was threatening her life. Another thing fell from the sky, Beth watched it fall but was still scared when it crashed into the dumpster close to her. It exploded and covered her and Simon as they ran away from it. It felt like snow. Something hit Beth's leg. It hurt but she was too scared to even think about it.

"Let's get everyone inside. Move!" Tony yelled, running towards the entrance of the community centre.

Beth wasn't an athlete. But she ran as fast as she could. Faster than she ever had really. Everyone was screaming as they made their way to the main doors. The hail, or snow, whatever they're called were crashing around the group as they went for safety. There was breaking glass, and even some of the cement was cracking as this stuff landed on them. Beth did not want to be hit with something going so fast it cracks cement.

Curtis got to the door first but it was locked. As Tony fumbled with the keys everyone yelled for him to open it except for Simon and Beth. Simon was filming while Beth was just crying. Kelly kept screaming 'what's happening' as if anyone knew the answer.

"Open the fucking door!" Alisha screamed. Tony turned around.

"Don't speak to me like that!" Tony screamed at her.

Lightning struck the ground close to the group. Beth entire body was in pain as she was flung backwards, into the air. She screamed loudly as her body came in contact with the ground. She hit her head on the ground. The ice falling was now clearly hail, and also a lot smaller. They were slower. One even hit Beth's arm but it didn't hurt. Beth groaned as she began to sit up. Her muscles were sore, and the pain in her leg now dominant.

"I feel really weird," Kelly said.

"That would be the lightning.," Curtis said. Beth groaned.

"We should be dead," Simon said. Beth frowned at the thought.

"A little reassurance might be nice," Nathan said, his voice deeper than normal. "You know, you're fine. Lookin' good."

"Wanker," Tony mumbled. Everyone looked at him.

"Did he just call me a wanker?" Nathan asked. No one answered. "Hey, hello?" Nathan snapped, and waved his arm around while leaning on the other.

"Is everyone alright?" Tony asked.

"We could've died you dick." Alisha rolled her eyes.

"You alright?" Kelly asked. Tony moved his head weird, it kind of freaked Beth out. "You're acting like a freak."

"Maybe we should call it a day," Tony suggested. He completely ignored Kelly.

Beth watched everyone else get up. She was the last to stand. Her leg still hurt from whatever hit it. Her cheeks were still wet from her tears, and now she was walking with a slight limp.

"No way," Nathan said as everyone else walked inside. "Are you crying?"

"Shove off," Beth said, pushing passed him and into the building. She wiped her cheeks on the back of her hand.

In the locker room Beth changed as fast as she could. She wanted to go home and lay down in her bed. She imagined it would feel like laying on a cloud after the day she's had. A normal cloud of course, not the cloud from Hell Beth just experienced. Beth's purple dress wasn't long enough to cover the bruise forming on her leg. It wasn't an attractive colour. Flicking her purse over her shoulder she left the room. Alisha and Kelly were the only two left in the locker room. Curtis, Simon, and Nathan were just standing around.

"Nasty bruise, where'd you get it? Cat fight?" Nathan asked, staring at her leg.

"I got it earlier. When the dumpster blew up," Beth said.

Alisha walked into the room. "We waiting for something?"

"Probation worker," Nathan said.

"I'm not hanging around for that dickhead." Alisha began walking out of the building. Everyone else began to go too. If everyone else left she wouldn't get in trouble, right?

Stepping outside was weird. Beth was almost afraid of the sky. She pulled her cellphone out of her purse and rang her mum. There was no answer.

"Hey mum, hope that you're having a swell time. I'm not. I just about died today. Lighting struck right by my feet. Call if you're worried. If not then, I'll just talk to you later I guess. Bye."

"Ouch, mommy issues?" Nathan asked, walking beside Beth.

"You could say that." Beth tucked her phone away.

"I'll never have that problem. My mom loves me. I'm delightful." Nathan smirked. "Well I turn here, see ya crybaby."

"Prick."

When Beth got home she did just what she had intended to. She got into bed and didn't leave it until morning. She just watched some silly movies that were on TV. She searched for comfort at the bottom of an ice cream tin but she came up empty handed. And bloated. She checked her phone for messages as she moved to plug it in for the night. No messages. Was the war to win her family back already over? Was the outcome written in stone? Beth rolled over and closed her eyes.

So much for a good first day of community service.