7 Summers

Chapter 4 - Tucker Cole Johnson (2022)

"This class will be the easiest class you'll ever take." Says my math teacher, Mrs. Badacock, when I get into class, but the minute she goes and teaches up on the board, I want to run.

The class is boring, the teacher is boring, and the content is boring.

I hate this place.

A few minutes later, someone is knocking repeatedly on the door.

"Tucker, do you mind getting that?" Mrs. Badacock asks me to go open the door. But the moment I swing it open, my jaw almost drops. I can't believe what I'm seeing. Or should I say, who I'm seeing.

It's her.

It's that girl.

What was her name again? Half of my brain can't recall.

"Amelia?" Her name suddenly subconsciously rolls off my tongue. I can't help but stare. She looks even prettier than yesterday.

She gives me a confused look, then pushes past me into the classroom.

Dammit, I messed up again. And I go to sit back down in my seat.

I couldn't describe what I was feeling. It's not that I've never liked a girl before. I've liked plenty, dated many, and even kissed a few.

But Amelia just made me feel different.

And I liked it.

I liked it a little too much.

Ugh Tucker, stop being so goo-goo gaa-gaa over a girl.

But to make things worse, she sits down right beside me.

"Amelia, this is your 8th tardy this week!" Mrs. Badacock scolds.

"Miss Bad, there's only 7 days in a week and we only come here for 5." Amelia retaliates back, just as she did to her mother at the grocery store yesterday.

"Shut up. I don't want to hear your stupid excuses for being late."

"I'm just correcting your math."

"I'm the math teacher here, not you. So if you think that you're smarter than me, then you can get out of my classroom. The window's right there."

I laugh, thinking it's a joke. But it scares me when Amelia actually gets up and opens the window. We're on the 3rd floor, there's no way she'll jump out.

Mrs. Badacock doesn't seem to care, until Amelia starts climbing over the wall and has one foot dangling on the side of the building. Terror washes over Mrs. Badacock's face.

My adrenaline kicks in, and I run to Amelia. I wrap my arms around her waist and drag her out of the window, then lock it shut.

"Thanks, Prince Charming." She huffs sarcastically and rolls her eyes, then sits back down in her seat, as if nothing happened.

There's silence for a few minutes. Mrs. Badacock can't seem to fathom what had happened in the moment.

"Tucker. Take her outside please." She says, still completely out of it.

Amelia gets up and makes her way towards the window again, but I grab her wrist and take her outside through the door on the other side. There aren't any desks or chairs outside, so we sit on the ground with our backs leaning against the lockers.

I sigh and lean my head back to relax, but I can't relax for long, because Amelia gets back up and towers over me.

God damn, this girl's a handful. I can't handle this shit.

I look up at her with a raised eyebrow. She motions for me to get up, so I do.

"What now?" I cross my arms. Now I tower over her.

"Come on." She starts making her way down the hall.

"Wait," I jog after her. "What about Mrs. Bada-"

"Fuck her."

"Well that's a little mean."

"Shut up, teacher's pet."

I continue to follow her down the stairs and across some more hallways.

"Will you at least tell me where we're going?" I finally say.

"No. Quit acting like a 5 year old." She snaps back.

"You're the one acting like a 5 year old." I mumbled under my breath, but she heard it.

"Says the goody-two-shoes."

We've now made our way to the school courtyards. They're so secluded that I didn't know they existed until now.

But it was beautiful.

The warm breeze was whispering into the giant dogwood trees. The cardinals were chirping and giggling. The bees buzzed by the Carolina Lilies and butterflies bounced between the Blue Star flowers. The sun was shining down through the little gaps between the leaves and flowers of the tree canopy.

I could literally live here forever.

It was so peaceful.

Well, peaceful until Amelia started climbing up one of the dogwoods.

"Oh, come on. Give me a break, Amelia." I look up at her with my hands on my knees, exhausted.

"No one asked you to be my personal caretaker. I don't need any sort of caretaker or guardian or anything. I'm perfectly fine on my own and I'm totally capable of- AHHHH!"

Before she could finish her sentence, she slips off one of the branches and begins to fall, but I hold her up by the waist before she hits the ground. She slides down my grip, her shirt lifting up as she goes down and I can feel her bare torso on my arms. She carefully plants her feet into the grass underneath and fixes her shirt

"Totally capable of what?" I smirk at her.

"Scanning bananas," she mocks, then lays down underneath the tree, so I lay next to her.

She remembered yesterday...

We're both admiring the bits of the sky we can see between the trees. She then turns her head towards me, so I turn my head towards her. We're a little too close for comfort, but neither of us move away.

"Why do you care about me?" She asks in a serious tone. "We're strangers."

"Well we don't have to be strangers." I say.

"Yeah but..." she sits up, so I get up too.

"That doesn't answer my question." She repeats. "Why do you care about me?"

I don't have an answer besides the fact that I may be falling in love with her.

"Am I not allowed to?"

"No." she switches back to her playful and risky personality.

"Well," I lean in closer. "What if I want to?"

"You can't..." she says. But clearly she has other things in mind, because she starts to lean in too.

Our lips are about to close in.

But then the intercom rings.

"Amelia Warren and Tucker Johnson, please report to the principal's office."

And Amelia's phone rings, a Morgan Wallen song as her ringtone.

There's no ring tone, but I can just hear the lyrics in my head.

"Why you gotta be so heartless? I know you think it's harmless..."