Chapter 5

"No. I killed him." I said in a serious tone. Maria just stared at me. She wasn't shocked or scared. She didn't show any emotion. Instead she linked her arm in mine and we continued walking. It was quiet at first, then she spoke up. "So, what happened to you? Did you go to jail?" I let out a sigh. "Yeah, I did 2 years upstate." She looked at me and then she surprised me even more: she smiled after I told her I went to jail. (Okay, she's starting to creep me out now).

We continued on with our tour of the rest of the school. I showed her the gym, which is the biggest part of the school (besides from the cafeteria), the band room, and the detention room (my home away from home).

By the time we got to the front of the school, the final bell rang. *ahh, time to leave this hell-hole* I turned to Maria, "Do you drive or ride the bus?" She pulled a set of keys out of her bag. "Drive, what about you?", she asked. I pulled out my keys to my all black 2002 Honda Accord. "Same.", I said with a smile. I looked down the hall and as usual here comes a stamped of kids in order: Freshmen, sophomores, juniors and last but not least, the all powerful, seniors. "Yeah, you might want to get to your car. Things tend to get out of hand .", I said as I walked out the door. "Jason, wait up!", called Maria from behind me. "Yeah?", I said turning towards her and walking backwards. "What are you doing later on?", she asked. "And stop walking backwards before you bump into something or trip over your own two feet.", she said with a giggle. *there's that beautiful laugh again. NO!! STOP IT JASON!* "Uhm, my schedule is open around 5. That sound good?" She looked at me with a big smile on her face and nodded her head. "Great! I'll see you at 5." As I was turning around to walk straight, I realized we didn't decide on a meet up spot. "Hey, Maria", I called out. She turned around smiling. "Where do you want to meet at?", I asked her. She looked down at the ground with her hand on her chin, thinking. "I think there's a park by my house. It's right in front of Bob's Ice Cream Parlor. You know it?" "Yeah, I know where it's at.", I said with a smile. "Great, I'll see you there at 5.", she said getting to her all black 1973 Dodge Challenger.

As she was pulling off, she gave a little wave. I smiled and waved back. "See you there at 5" I kept replaying her voice over in my head. (Get ahold of yourself Jason!) I opened my car door and got in. I started my engine and plugged my phone up to the aux cord and hit play; Scars by I Prevail started playing. I rolled my windows down and backed out and pulled out the parking lot and cruised all the way home.