Smiley and Sunshine

31.

Would of been posted yesterday but the site didn't want to work on my laptop and then I forgot my password and I couldn't publish the chapter without adding a gif first to convey my thoughts. But we made it!

Diamond in the rough.
Read at your own risk.
🙂

"Can this day get any worse?"

Hayes flinched, banging her knee against the table as Johnna dramatically flung her backpack onto the cafeteria table, moaning and groaning as she sat down on the bench besides her friend.

"You say that every week. Was that a rhetorical question?" Hayes asked dryly, rubbing her sore knee. That was probably going to leave a bruise. She had been slouched over, resting her head on her arms as she waited for her lunch group to join her. They had a substitute in Italian class, so Francis and Hayes got released right at the dismissal bell for lunch. She had been first to the table for once, and only once. It was lonely sitting by herself.

"I think I failed my Spanish test," Johnna continued on as if Hayes didn't even speak, grumbling very unhappily, "But I had a soccer tournament this weekend, which we came in fricking second place, and didn't have time to study. What am I going to dooooooo?" she dragged out, letting her head drop against her backpack in distress.

"Sorry," Hayes replied sympathetically, giving Johnna an awkward pat on the shoulder. She still wasn't very good at this friendship thing and had never failed a test before either so she didn't really know what to say. Sergeant Stephan Rayon made sure that Hayes and Glen understood school came first. Obviously, Johnna didn't get that memo.

"When my parents find out, I'm as good as dead." Johnna turned to Hayes, laying her cheek on her bag, "dead, I tell you."

"Good riddance, Johnny." Abe said to his sister, as him, Glen, and Theo joined the girls at the table. Coming from PE, their faces remained a little flushed as they recovered from running around outside. Except, Glen's expression was different, something extra seen in his eyes. Hayes squinted her eyes as she scrutinized him.

Was he hurt?

Glen caught her staring and quickly dropped his gaze as he took a seat across from her. Well that's not suspicious at all. She briefly scanned his body, not finding any obvious injuries. But when the boys' uniform consisted of pants and a collar shirt, not a lot of skin was left to be seen.

What was he hiding?

Hayes chewed on her lip as she tried to figure it out. The only thing she could think of was yesterday. It had been a boring and rainy week since the funeral occurred, so when the sun finally made an appearance on Sunday, the Powers siblings took full advantage and played soccer at the park for hours. It may have turned into more rough-housing amongst the brothers than an actual soccer game, so she wouldn't have been surprised if he got banged up a bit. But did he actually get hurt? Like truly? If so, why didn't he say anything last night?

That was a stupid question, she knew why.

Once upon a time, Glen went skateboarding... it didn't end well.

She was only a little bitter that he kept her in the dark with this. How rude.

"Screw you, Abraham," Hayes blinked back to earth as Johnna sassed her brother back. She grabbed Hayes' shoulders to convey the importance of her next words, forcing the girl to look at her. "Promise me, you won't let my ugly twin near my grave. He'd probably do something stupid like pee on it."

Having been lost in his own realm of thoughts, Glen's concerned gaze darted to Hayes as he realized what the twins were arguing about. Now, the kids had a good sense of humor; they had too, it was their defense mechanism growing up; how they learned to cope with their fate, but even for them, it was still just a little too soon to joke about this.