“Magical?”
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “They just appear out of nowhere.”
“Do they?”
“They do.”
“Interesting.”
“I think so.”
“We’re late for first bell,” I told her. I jumped out of the car and grabbed my book bag from the back seat. I was pretty sure she said something else, under her breath a bit, but I only caught the word deflect. “What’s your first class?”
“History,” Nicole replied.
“Well, you missed about half of it,” I said with a smile.
“What class are you missing?”
“Trig,” I replied.
“Are you going to be able to get caught up?” she asked.
“Not a problem.” I laughed through my nose.
/> She looked at me with a strange expression before she looked away again.
“Well, I hope I didn’t miss too much,” she said, and she started walking faster. “See you in biology!”
“Oh yeah!” I called out as I quickened my pace to catch up with her. “What the fuck was with the blow off last Friday? Are we doing this project or not?”
She slowed and looked at me sideways.
“Don’t feel as if you have to put yourself out,” she said. “If you want, we can meet in the library after school.”
“I have weightlifting.”
“How long is that?”
“Just a half hour.”
“I’ll still be there.”
“Promise?” I asked.
“Promise.” She smiled.
“Okay.” I returned her smile as she turned down the hall. I called out, “See you later!”
She waved and kept going.
Classes were extremely slow that morning.
When lunchtime finally rolled around, I jumped right out of my chair and grabbed my lunch out of my locker. As I walked into the lunchroom, I saw Mika and Jeremy waving frantically at me. They were at a table with about half the starting team. I made my way over to them after I grabbed a Gatorade.
“Hey T—you fucked Heather, right?” Frankie Ronald, one of the team’s midfielders, asked.
I smirked, rolled my eyes, and nodded.