Special Chapter I: Grey's Day

"Shit! I'm gonna be late."

Turns out I hit the snooze button too many times and if I don't move quickly I'll be late for school.

As soon as I left the bathroom, I quickly put on my underwear and my uniform and went downstairs to grab a piece of bread. With my bag on my shoulders and a bread in my hand I dashed off outside and waited for a taxi. Luckily, one was just about to pass me when I called it.

It seems the odds are with me, the taxi drove off real fast, if this speed continues I'll be at school in no time. Moments after it drove off the taxi stopped, which is odd, our school is still minutes away from where we are right now.

I looked outside the window to confirm it, and saw Riley reaching for the door. She opened it and stepped inside. I cleared my throat, this causes Riley to bump her head on the roof of the taxi.

"Wha- what are you doing here?", she said.

"Riding the taxi, why else would I be inside?"

"I-I… what I mean is…"

She's stuttering and blushing at the same time, which is kinda weird? I dunno.

"Hurry up, I don't want to be late."

I grabbed her arm and forced her to sit beside me. The ride felt longer than it normally would, and I'm feeling a strong tension in the air between me and Riley. The wheel of the taxi hit a bump in the road which caused Riley's skin to brush against mine.

"What was that?"

Riley didn't answer but I felt like a tiny shock of electricity when our skin brushed. Maybe that was the cold air inside the taxi. I saw Riley rubbing the part of her skin that brushed against me.

Awkward silence filled the whole taxi, I fished out my earphones from my bag and popped it on my ear, plugged it on my phone and chose a song. I felt that Riley was about to say something so I raised up the volume of the music to drown her voice.

The taxi stopped in front of the school gates, I paused the music on my phone and dug for my wallet inside my pocket and Riley did the same. But it seems she can't find her wallet, she opened her bag, checked her pockets again then gave up. She looked at me then at my wallet then back to me again.

"I- uhm, fine I'll pay the fare for you."

I opened the door and stepped outside and ran towards the school gates, there's still 5 minutes before the school bell rings. I hurried up the stairs and reached the third floor with a minute left, I came across our first period teacher. She seems like she's having troubles carrying her things, I walked up to her and offered my help.

As soon as I sat on my chair, Riley showed up at the door and asked permission from our teacher to enter the room. That was one of our rules for this period, when you're late, you need to ask permission from the teacher to enter the room.

The morning classes went smoothly without any problems, in fact Vin fell asleep during our third period and still hasn't woke up. The teacher ended the class early, I cleared out my things and put it inside my bag, but before I could close it Andy called our attention. She announced the Science Club and the PSYSC Summit.

You need to pay for the Science Club before you could join the PSYSC Summit, I took my wallet out and looked inside. I only have enough for the Science Club, for my lunch and the fare on the way home. Then I remembered that Riley doesn't have any money to spend for lunch. I searched for her inside the room but it seems that she already left. I grabbed my bag and left the room, I tried to catch Riley on the way out.

"Hey Riley, wanna eat lunch with me?"

I didn't realize that Amarah and Thalia were behind me, so they heard everything I've said. Which is now, I realized, came out wrong. Amarah and Thalia let out a shriek and hug Riley. They were whispering in Riley's ear. This day was really weird, Riley, who was one that had the loudest voice in the room became silent and was apparently blushing. This was very not like her at all, like she was another person.

"She would really like to have lunch with you Grey." Amarh said.

"You know Grey, Riley here was wishing that this day would come. We didn't know that her wish would come true." Thalia

Riley was pulling her arm from the grasps of Amarah and Thalia.

"Dude, you coming with us?" Zaid came in from behind with Zaider.

"I'll pass, I'm having lunch with Riley."

Zaid shrugged and went downstairs, Zaider however, managed to give me a smirk and whispered something on my ear.

"Have a nice lunch date."

He ran down the stairs before I even got to defend myself.

This is not a lunch date, this is just me helping Riley out. But why do I want to do this? We're not even that close, but still, I chose to help her. I was headed to the stairs when I noticed that Riley was just standing still.

"Are you coming or what?"

Riley came to her senses and looked at me, then started walking towards me. I grabbed her arm and led her down the stairs.

Our lunch was awkwardly silent, no one wanted to talk and no one wanted to break the silence between us. As soon as we finished our lunch we returned to the school.

"Thank you."

I was about to step inside our room when Riley said that. She continued walking past me and sat on her chair. I was about to walk to my seat when suddenly Daron made a joke.

"You know what beer is?"

"The alcoholic drink?" Vin answered.

"Hapi, that's the one in the zoo, you know like polar beer, grizzly beer." Daron, answered back.

No one laughed at his joke except for Vin. His laugh was half sarcastic and half genuine, from what I can tell. But seriously out of nowhere Daron made a joke, is he impressing someone, cause that will clearly not make a good impression.

Ice sat beside me.

"Hey Ice, are paying for the Summit now?" Vin asked.

"We're just waiting for Grey, then we'll pay. You can go on ahead." Ice responded.

Then I remembered I needed to pay for the Science Club, but it seems that Phrea wasn't accepting payments right now, I saw Vin handed her the payment but refused and said something to her.

The afternoon period was so boring that everyone looked sleepy including me. The only exciting part was the last period which is drafting. We can do anything we want while we draft. Twenty minutes passed and Vin stood up and presented his work to our teacher. After surveying Vin's work, she dismissed our class early for us to finish the draft at home.

Vin took off as soon as the teacher finished the announcements, I approached Phrea and handed my payment for the Science Club. I remembered that we were supposed to play basketball after school. I saw Zaid, Zaider, and Ice waiting for me at the door. We went downstairs and outside the school. Ice called a taxi and we all got in and the taxi took off.

But something was off, I cannot put my finger on it, but I think I forgot something to do.