We ran faster than we had all day towards our car waiting for us at the other side of the mall parking lot. Each one of us had clusters of shopping bags from a plethora of different stores, making running in the rain all the more exhausting. Running against the direction of the rain, water plunged at my thin shirt, my face, and my freshly straightened hair. Great.

My little sister was doing twirls behind me, her arms in the air and eyes toward the sky as the rain hit her. Her wet feet were violently jumping in puddles as we neared the car.

“Sarah!” My mom said aggressively, grabbing my sister’s arm. “Stop spinning, or you’ll get hit by a car.”

I rolled my eyes as I continued to run. We were already steps away from our parked car. I didn’t see why my mom chose now to scold Sarah.

“Alright, everyone in.” My mom said, almost pushing Sarah into her seat, as if she couldn’t do it herself.

I opened the backdoor of our two-year-old light blue Prius, the warmth gusting over my body as I entered the car. Sarah, who was sitting next to me, immediately grabbed one of her naked Barbie dolls from the ground and tossed it my way, hoping I would play.

“Sarah, not now.” I said, hurling the doll back onto the floor. Then, I positioned myself the way I always do in the car, with your elbow on the windowsill and your chin resting on your bent wrist. I stayed this way for a few minutes, my eyes fixed on the hostile storm outside.

“Rain is so pretty, Mommy! Look!” Sarah said minutes later. She was sitting on her knees, seatbelt undone, just looking out the window.

I turned to look. The clouds were a dark, murky grey. Everywhere I looked water seemed to be overflowing, causing all of my surroundings to be dampened. Even the trees along the freeway looked wilted. There was no color outside, just grey.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes once again at my sister’s naïveté. Sarah thought Bratz Dolls were pretty. I was not suprised by Sarah's enthusiasm.

“Yes it is, Sarah!” My mom said, taking her GPS out. “Do you see the-“

My mom was cut off by a lightning bolt, followed by a roar of thunder. Sarah smiled, squealing while clapping her hands together, still peering out of the window.

“Sarah, shut up!” I said quietly, more to myself than to Sarah.

All of a sudden, my mom’s voice rang through my ears. “Tifa, that is enough out of you! We have an hour road trip ahead of us, and you can’t even last ten minutes without fighting?”

I was quiet for what seemed like hours, listening to Sarah giggle and point every time a bolt lightning struck. We eventually drove out of the storm, giving Sarah a reason to change her primary interest to the Barbie dolls, though this lasted only a few minutes.


“The storm!” Sarah shrieked, positioning herself as she did before on her knees while looking out the window.

Narrowing my eyebrows, I looked at Sarah, who was so distracted by what was outside to even notice me. “Sarah, the storms gone.” I picked up the naked Barbie from before and handed it to her. “Play with Barbie.”

“No!” Sarah said, knocking Barbie out of my hand. “No, it’s still here. Look!”

I unbuckled my seatbelt and shuffled near Sarah’s window. I put my head next to hers, sharing the view of outside.

A deep purple cloud covered almost all the sky, letting in only the brightest of sunrays the sky had left to offer right underneath it. Below was a glut of grey clouds dripping silver onto the earth below it. I knew it was rain, but the scene stood stationary, it looked almost fake. Surrounding the purple cloud was blue sky and white clouds. The storm seemed so out of place-but so beautiful-that I had forgotten why it caused me and my sister to argue.

“Rain is so pretty, huh?” Sarah said, looking at me.

I wasn’t sure how to respond to my sister after the bickering we had gone through about the matter, so I just smiled and nodded. After all, everything is ugly under certain light, and it wasn’t until then that I realized how to ignore that light, just like Sarah.