Chapter 5- What a day

"Hey..." Person whose name I don't acknowledge nor do I care.

"It's Hailey. We have English together, remember?" She told me, throwing some of her hair behind her shoulder.

I fully looked at her face now, trying to see if I remembered her. She was pretty, I noticed, with her blue eyes shining as she looked up at me, waiting for an answer, and her blond hair falling smoothly just below her shoulders. She also had thick, long eyelashes and- oh wait. No, that's just mascara. Judging by her almost white eyebrows, her real eyelashes must be the same.

But anyways, she didn't ring any bells.

"Yeah no, sorry. I have this issue of..." I thought for a second. "Short term memory loss." I told her with a tight smile.

Kyan snorted, "Like Dory?"

I glared at him. "Yeah. Exactly like Dory."

Idiot. And I can't believe he actually watched Finding Nemo.

"Well, that's okay." The girl -Hailey was it?- waved off, "It's a big class anyway. But I was wondering if you would like to hang out sometime, maybe-"

"Whoop, sorry to interrupt you, but" I glanced at my watch devoid wrist, "Oh boy, I gotta run to my next class. See you guys later."

And then I took off towards the gym, leaving the guys behind, who would probably try (key word here) to flirt with the girls instead of going to their next class, which was also P.E., and hearing a faint "okay, I'll talk to you later then!".

On the way I saw Ariel from the corner of my eye. I tried to go unnoticed by her, but since I forgot my invisibility cape at home, she saw me and started walking in my direction. Oh no. I started walking faster, and eventually I was running from her.

"Collin! Wait up!"

"Sorry, I'm late for class!" And I don't want to talk to you.

Suddenly, I bumped into some dude and caught his books just before they hit the ground. "Whoops, my bad!" I said, shoving the books on his hands and set off running again, hearing him say in the process: "Oh, hey Collin! It's alright, man. See you later?" Too bad I was in a rush and left him talking to himself.

"Can we talk another time then?!" Ariel yelled back, trying to catch up with me. Ha. Good luck with that.

"Sure, love! Just look for me later, okay?" But don't find me, please.

"Okay!" She finally gave in, breathless, and stopped running.

Yes!

"I'll be waiting by your car when school is over!"

No!

"Okay, bye!" I said before turning around the corner and started to walk slower. I could see the gym already, and coach's angry face too.

Ugh, why? I looked up in exasperation and sighed. Can't I just have a break?

"Benson!" Coach Henry yelled at me as I reached the gym's entry.

"Yes?" I said calmly, already expecting what would come next.

"You're two minutes late! What's the excuse?!" He demanded, holding his clipboard.

I debated with myself whether to tell him the previous events or not, and decided against it. I was too tired already.

"Guess I lost track of time." I shrugged. "Whoopsie- daisy."

"I'll be marking your delay right here, Mister." He said narrowing his eyes at me then pressed down slowly on the tip of his pen's button, making a clicking sound when it finally reached the top part of it.

"Oh, please! No, I'm begging you! Anything but that! I'll get, I'll get- marked?!" I exclaimed, faking despair then rolled my eyes.

"Come on, coach. You know I'm never late to your class." Or any class, actually. The guys would be hearing from him, though... "There's no need to make a big deal out of this."

He sighed. "Fine, Collin. But I want to see you giving your best today and not just moving around the court like a crazy and confused chicken on a hennery when it's egg collecting day." He warned, pointing his pen at me.

"I have no idea what you just said, but thanks." I said, patting his shoulder lightly and going in the court. Or 'hennery', if you will.

"I mean it, Benson." He warned me one last time as I made my way to the locker room that was in the court to get changed into my basketball uniform.

"I know you do." I reassured, turning around to look at him then back to where I was heading.

56 minutes, then I'm free.

~~~

After having a quick shower to wipe away the sweat from my body, I put on some fresh clothes and was now exiting school, heading towards the parking lot to get in my car and get away from here as fast as possible before anyone else decides to start a little chat with me. And by anyone I mean some girl or any dude who would like to be seen by a girl, talking to me. It always happened and it was really annoying. Why can't they just grow a pair and go talk to them? What, they think they're going to look cool just for talking to me or something?

Reaching my car's spot on the parking lot, I was reminded of the little chat I had with Ariel earlier. Why, you ask?

Oh, maybe it's because she was leaning against my vehicle, no actually, she was sitting on the hood. I had just taken it to wash the day before and she was spreading all of her germs on it by rubbing her stupid ass on my hood. My hood.

I would probably do something about it, but I knew that just by starting a conversation with her, things wouldn't end up on my favor.

I sighed and quickly went behind the car to prevent being caught by Ariel and started to think of unharmful ways to get rid of her.

Hmm, what if I just get in quietly and start the car, speeding like crazy until she falls off? That's tempting. Or maybe if I just walk up from behind her and-

"Hey, uh, Collin?"

"Oh my God!" I practically yelped after being frightened by a sudden quiet voice next to my ear. "Oh, it's you."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She said with widened eyes. "I came here to apologize for-"

"Shh!" I said, clamping my hand over her mouth. "She can't know I'm here." I whispered.

"Hm?" The sound came out muffled because of my hand as she gave me a questioning look.

"Ariel, she's right there, now don't make any sound and-"

"Collin?"

Oh, come on!

"Oh, hey Ariel. Nice to see you again." Liar, liar pants on fire.

"Yeah, I told you I'd be waiting by your car. Um, why is your hand over Ella's mouth?"

Oh. Right.

I took my hand off her mouth to reveal a really nice smile. The one that usually comes before a laugh.

Wow.

"Well, I should get going. Maybe I'll talk to you later, Collin?" Ella said, trying to hold back laughter and backing up from me slowly.

"Uh, yeah, sure." I said a little bewildered. I hadn't ever seen a full smile on her face before.

"Okay, then. Bye, Ariel." She waved at her. I had even forgotten the redhead was there.

"Yeah, bye." Ariel said, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

Ella then left, leaving me alone with Ariel again. I sighed. What can I tell her now?

"Well, that wasn't something I would expect to see." She pointed, referring to the previous scene.

Even before I started to formulate a sentence, she shut me up.

"But it's fine, I'm just glad I can finally be with you again, baby!"

I know, right?! Oh wait. No, I don't know.

"Listen, Ariel, I-" I started to say something as I stuffed my hands in my jeans pockets, but I cut myself off after feeling something in there. A piece of paper. Piece of paper? What's this?

I frowned, looking down at it. Oh, right. The detention note. Wait. The detention note!

"What's wrong?" Ariel asked, looking puzzled.

"I just remembered, I have detention today." I informed her, trying to sound upset.

"Really?" She sighed. "Can't you just skip it?"

"No, sorry... I don't want to get another one later." Now you say 'oh, okay. See you some other time.' Then leave me alone. Do it.

"Oh, okay. I get it." She really sounded upset. Almost made me feel sorry for her.

"Thanks, love." Damn it. I'm feeling sorry for her. Stop looking at me with those puppy eyes.

"See you tomorrow, then." She waved at me and started walking away.

"See you." I waved back.

Phew. Okay, that wasn't nice. I should just tell her already that I don't want to be with her. Well, maybe I'll do it tomorrow. Hopefully.

Silently, I made my way back into the school building.

What a day, huh?