Chapter 6

“Huh?” I mumbled still have asleep. I squeezed my eyes shut as the sun rays beaming through the window hit my face. 

As funny as it seemed, I had no idea where I woke up that morning. There was a guitar in the corner, a soccer ball at the foot of the bed, a Sports Illustrated magazine on the shelf, where was I? 

The time on the digital clock read 10:32, and I had realized that school started two and a half hours ago. My mouth popped open making a 'pop!' sound as I shook Gabe's shoulder. He wouldn't budge.

“Gabe!” I whispered, “Wake up!” No answer. I thought for a moment as a snicker ran across my face. “Megan Fox is in your bedroom!” 

He shot up out of his bed not even bothering to look back and started putting on a fresh pair of jeans and t-shirt.

“Good morning!” I added cheerfully. 

He growled, but then laughed with me on his bed.

“Okay but dude, school started a while ago.” I groaned. School.

“I totally forgot! Here, you crawl back to your house and change your clothes, and I'll get our backpacks and some food.”

“Break!”

I dashed toward the window with condensation on the edges and shoved it open. With only a few yards away from each of our houses, I could see that it must have been foggy during the night. There was dew sprinkled all over the fertilized green grass and light bits of mist in the air. It was nice to finally breathe in air that was actually... air.

I changed into a pair of denim shorts and a yellow t-shirt, brushed my teeth and hair, and crawled back to Gabe's bedroom. He was holding both of our backpacks and smoothies for two. Since we couldn't take the bus and both parents were gone, we had to walk to school.

It wasn't that far away- only three miles or so. But, it was sort of nice to get back to the daily routine.

We started down the stone driveway and onto the sidewalk. Gabe and I started chatting about topics from movies to ice cream, from books to love.

“Oh yeah, do you have a crush on anyone?” I asked curiously. 

He looked at his feet like I didn't say anything. After a minute or so, he answered, “Um, I'm not sure..” he said uncomfortably, shuffling his feet on the concrete as we walked.

“Aw, come on! You can tell me!”

He shrugged but didn't reply.

Soon enough, we arrived at the tan brick building. It was pretty small, only 235 students went to this shabby public place called “school.” Gabe and I ran up to the office door and tried to pull it open. It wouldn't budge. I tried harder with Gabe's help this time, but then he noticed that the door said “Push.”

We fell to our knees in laughter, and I managed to push the door open.

“Watch this.” He whispered in my ear. “Just go along with it.”

I bit my lip and smiled. “'Kay.”

Gabe strolled casually up to the lady at the front desk. 

“How may I help you?” she asked. The lady had a little bit of red lipstick on her front right tooth and her shirt was unbuttoned far too low. 

“Yes, mam,” he winked at me and continued, “My sister here had this horrible case of pneumonia, and I'm here to tell you that she is alive and feeling better.” Gabe flashed a cheesy white smile as the lady started searching our names on the computer.

“Your class is in room 104, Miss. White! I hope you feel better.”

I fake coughed and replied, “Thanks.”

She nodded then rolled her eyes, going back to flirting with Mr. Bouwer the science teacher.

School was a drag, though Gabe and my three other friends were coming over afterward to watch a movie.

After walking home with Gabe, we got to work on making the house look “spiffy.”

“Lets get started on sweeping the steps!” I encouraged and handed him a broom. We went right outside the front door and started sweeping the concrete. 

“Gosh, when's the last time you cleaned this?” Gabe lifted up a rather large pot with dead flowers as thousands of tiny insects scattered everywhere.

“Ew.” I cringed. 

We laughed, and Gabe sweeped all of the remaining dead bugs and dirt from under the pot as I took over the steps and railing.

“My mom has some extra flowers in our backyard. Do you want me to get some?” He asked.

“Cool! Do you have red?”

“Yep. Red geraniums.”

“Sweet. MUAHAHA....” I evil laughed.

“Okay, I'll be right back.”

Gabe jogged to his house as I went inside to start making the popcorn I got from Halloween last year- it was probably still good. Why not?

It was quiet in the house because Phil wasn't there, so I shoved the bag of corn into the microwave oven. The popping sounds were soothing.

Just then, the doorbell rang.