The city of Volatity was a crowded and ever evolving place. The new constantly clashed with the old; blowing winds of unsteadiness that swept up the frail, replaced with more new as fast as they went. Some buildings stretched so far up, the tops were lost in the clouds, while others still stood further down closer to the ground with old gargoyles perching on their roofs. Ran by businessmen, merchants, developers, families, street dwellers and urchins. Geographically small but densely populated with both the best of people and the worst of them. There only existed small patches of planted flowers and trees, the only patches of dirt in the city otherwise cemented with concrete. From border to border. In Volatity, lived a girl who had no fear, her name was Atea. Below the perching gargoyles and shadows of the highest buildings Atea stomped through the streets, always holding her head high. She was a charming girl, quite pretty with long hair, though she often wore the clothes of a boy. The streets of Volatity were always busy. Men often swarmed after women and girls as they passed with insatiable glares and shouts. Whenever Atea passed them she spit on the ground and her face scrunched in a mean mug as she went. Sometimes when she was feeling extra mischievous, she would shout at and catcall men as they passed her, just to make herself laugh. Along her path she made small friendships with almost everyone. But for as many friends she made, she also made enemies.

One Sunny Afternoon, she was sitting outside with a good friend, enjoying the day when a man came storming down the street. He began yelling and pulling and pushing and ripping the branches of the little trees that lined the block.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH”

The girl began to laugh, amused at the absurdity. He shifted his attention to the girl, Laughing, sitting on the stoop as she watched him. The man, upon hearing her became enraged, as he was being mocked..

He bolted towards her and began shouting loudly, the pink shade of his skin turned bright red, his veins popped out of his neck, his spit flew in her face.

“YOU THINK THAT’S FUNNY?!!! HUH!!!! BITCH! ”

He yelled.

“Yea I do, think that’s funny!” Replied the girl, “Your face is red, veins popping out your NECK, Trying to fight trees! You’re SPITTING in my face! You NEED to back up and get OUT of my face!!”

The man grabbed her up by her shirt and yelled,

“YOU THINK YOU’RE TOUGH?” I WILL FUCK YOU UP!”

The girl didn’t know what to do, as he held her up in the air. She held her breath staring at him disgusted. The pink man tossed Atea on the ground when another girl appeared. She was sobbing as she approached them. He quickly scurried off as the crying girl followed him. It seemed the crying girl was the man’s girlfriend. She yelled, “Whyy are youuu actingg like thissss?” as she followed the man down the block.

Atea, still on the ground a little shook up, heard the voice of her friend, whom she almost forgot was there. “That was crazy, are you okay?” asked her friend. Atea brushed herself off and they laughed about it as if nothing happened.

Later on Atea was in a the store. She began to tell an older woman she always stopped to chat with about the Angry Man who threatened her earlier. The woman was short and had a commanding air about her. She had long black hair braided back and deep sharp eyes that always made Atea feel like she could trust her.

She said to the girl, “Just like God…trouble is everywhere ”.

The girl was in no means religious, but she never forgot the words of the woman.

The girl went on and got a job at a coffee shop. She got along with all her coworkers and became friends with them, often exchanging jokes as they taught her the ropes. And as men do with women and girls, they enjoyed teasing and flirting with her as she was the new girl. She enjoyed playfully talking shit with them but she wasn’t seriously interested in any of them. One of them was named Keem. Like the rest of them, Keem was friendly and talked to Atea quite a lot at first. Talking to him more and more Atea realised, he didn’t seem like a good friend to have. She started withdrawing from his attempts to spend time together. She didn’t hate him though, they were still cool. Until he started to ask her weird questions.

“Why do you dress like that?” asked Keem,

“Your parents wanted a boy huh?” He continued.

The girl shrugged. Keem, annoyed at her indifference towards him, began to switch his tone from playful and flirtatious to agitated. He began cursing at her when she passed by him. What was once jokes became serious fast.. They ended up both insulting each other constantly. Over weeks, tensions rose and rose and rose. Things boiled over the day the girl took a few pieces of fruit from the big container that Keem had to cut everyday. He got very angry at this and began shouting at her.

“ I don’t see the big deal it’s just a few pieces of pineapple, ” the girl defending herself exclaimed.

So she went on thinking that was the end of it, prepared to eat breakfast on her break. But Keem was still angry, so when Atea wasn’t looking, he took back the pieces of pineapple on her plate. When she sat down, she noticed her snack was gone. Agitated, she began to argue with him,

“Why would you touch my food? WTF is wrong with you?!” She continued, “If you wanted me to take the fruit from the other container, you could have just said that! It's not that serious, You’re always trying to argue with me for ANYTHING!”

She angrily replaced the fruit, but from the older container this time, so as to not upset him further. Keem began to look around and saw the others smirk and chuckle. He quickly looked down and followed her to the back. he got real close to her face and said:

“I bet you won’t touch me though!”

As he turned around the girl gave him a slap in the back of the neck. Surprised, he turned around and began choking her, and she began choking him back but to no avail. She started Punching him in the ribs, which she learned to do from fighting with her brothers. He let go. They began to tussle but she fell back. At this point the ruckus caught the attention of the other workers, who gathered, to attempt to break it up. As she lay on the floor, Keem jumped-stepped on her face, his dirty kitchen shoes landing on her cheek. Now she was really angry. Powered by her rage, she got up and jumped over everyone to slap him as hard as she could. The slap was harsh and loud. Then she picked up her plastic cup of orange juice and threw it square in Keem’s face; at this point they were both fired. Covered in juice, Keem was even more embarrassed. As Atea left; Keem and another friend from work, Ken, followed her. Humiliated, Keem announced he wanted to fight the girl right outside.

Ken turned to Keem and said, “You can’t fight right here in front of the job; she’s not running so let’s go around the corner.”

Atea considered Ken a friend, and she always thought herself brave, so she followed them. She didn’t really know what to do. She put her hands up, but before she could react, he swung full force at her face. She felt her body fold and her head went blank as it hit the concrete. As she got back up, he grabbed her, holding her up with one arm and punched her repeatedly in the face until her skin broke open. Her head went black again. She opened her eyes to Ken shaking her shoulders, telling her it was over. The taste of her own blood shocked her, she put her hands on her face to feel her skin, but all she could feel was an opened wound of bloody flesh.

The girl swallowed her tears, still stubborn as ever, began to curse at him with blood dripping down her face onto her clothes. “YOU’RE A BITCH! YOUR MAMA’S A BITCH! YOUR MAMA’S MAMA’S A BITCH!”...“SUCK MY DICK!”

Keem stood there with Ken holding him back. Atea left alone, walked herself to the Hospital to get stitched up, leaving a trail of blood as she went. As the doctor gave her stitches, he told her, “you’re a girl–don't fight men..”

Now Atea went about her life, but the more she tried to forget, the angrier she subconsciously grew. At the center of her face, was an ugly scar to always remind her. Despite the scar, the girl was still pretty and continued to have many friends.

One night she was with some friends hanging out on the street. Suddenly, a man passed Atea and threw an umbrella at one of her friends. This enraged the girl, releasing her bottled up anger towards violent men.

Atea began cursing, “HEY PUSSY! WHY WOULD YOU THROW UN UMBRELLA AT A GIRL! I SHOULD SPIT ON YOU!!”

Although he was already a block away he heard her and stopped for a moment before backpedalling. He sprinted towards her and started swinging. “You want to fight bitch“ Said the man as he swung.

The girl didnt know what to do. They exchanged blows and rolled around on the dirty sidewalk. Her friends only watched and one of them began filming her on their phone, “Worldstar!!” yelled her friend in a joking manner. After tussling for a while, another man passed and broke up the fight and the crazy man ran away. While Atea’s hand was bleeding because the man bit her, the savior, turned to the girl and asked for her phone number. She walked away and went home alone. Her head was sore from his ripping out clumps of her long hair. After this fight, she was even more angry but she was also sad. She had to cut her long locks that she cared for and always earned her many compliments to a shorter length, and she now had another scar on her hand.

Atea once again went on with her life, still angry. Months later she was walking in the park to sit and relax. She sat on a bench close to a petty woman in a cute dress smoking a blunt. All was fine and a few minutes later a man sat next to the woman. Although the girl didn’t mean to eavesdrop, he was loud enough that she could hear their whole conversation.

He said, “How are you doing?You look so good. You’re like the Juliet to my Romeo”

She answered, “I'm just trying to smoke in peace. I just came here to relax.”

He went on, “You're like Jada and I'm Tupac ! I'm Tupac and you’re my Jada.”

Atea chuckled to herself. Obviously the lady was uninterested but he persisted in his drunk loud voice invading her space for so long.

So the girl, still brave leaned over and snarkily said, “She doesn’t want to talk to you”

The man's face flushed red began cursing out the girl, “You’re Jealous Bitch! You should MIND your BUSINESS!”

The girl, stubborn as ever, began cursing the man out as well, “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE,

nobody wants you here!” But this time the man pulled out a knife. He started walking towards Atea. She didn’t know what to do…He lunged forward to press the knife to her face, when the pretty woman jumped in front of her with her own knife in hand.

“leave her alone”

Said the woman holding out the knife.

No-one had ever defended the girl like that. The menacing look in the man’s eye changed, and he turned around and walked away. As soon as he left the woman scolded her,

“You have to be Smarter than that!” “Why do you think I didn’t tell him to leave?”

The woman’s name was Anala. She was older than the girl and they began talking.

She told the girl,

“Listen, I’ve done a lot of crazy things in my life, I’ve travelled all over. I've done a lot of crazy shit. But you have to know..Before making a decision.. You always need to have a plan. A, B and even a C for the worst situation, the best situation, and whatever else. Keep standing up for what you believe in, but don’t put yourself in any situation without a plan.”

The woman saved her life that day, and many more with her advice… Atea never forgot Anala’s words as she continued through her life. After that day she knew the power of a real friendship.

Atea remained brave and loud, she still laughed and spoke when she wanted. She still defended herself and others. She was no longer careless in her actions and always made a plan before reacting. Atea’s long locks grew back, and despite her scars she was a beautiful woman. A beautiful woman who knew how to protect herself, as trouble was still lurking and always would be…