thin ice ~ matt sturniolo

chapter one - senior szn

It's the first day of school and I'm already drastically late, great. As I'm frantically getting my backpack together making sure I don't forget the essentials. Lipgloss, a hairbrush, and perfume (just in case), I hear a loud beep.

"Riley hurry the hell up we're gonna be late!" I hear and immediately recognize to be Nate's voice. For as long as I can remember I've gone to school with the same people in the morning. The Sturniolo Triplets, Matt, Chris, and Nick, and our friends Nate and Violet. Always driven by the triplets mother, Mary Lou. Nate is my one younger friend who's still a junior. But we've all always made sure to include him, he's my closest friend.

I rip my backpack off the floor, grab my half-new, white converse from my closet, and head out the door barefoot. Giggles emerge from the car.

"Don't. Laugh." I say ashamed getting in next to Violet. "I was in a rush this morning, my alarm didn't go off". I explain knowing that was a total lie, I just took too long getting ready.

"We've been waiting here forever, Riley. Could you have taken any longer?" Chris jokes. "Now put those shoes on before you stink up matt's car."

"Oh my God, I almost forgot i'll be right back please wait." I say realizing I forgot the most important thing for today, my hockey bag. I practically sprint inside to find the bag waiting for me on the counter. Perfect, I grab it and continue outside to find the car still in place patiently waiting for me. "Thank you so much" I sigh sitting back down as the car immediately goes into motion and heads to school. Ever since Matt got his license, Mary Lou stopped driving us to school and Matt took over.

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After the 10 minute drive it takes to get from my house to school, we pull into the parking lot and Matt parks in the same spot that he did last year. "The sweet spot" he calls it, because it's the perfect distance between the entrance and exit of the school. We all get out of the car, and I walk with Violet to our first period.

"Im so glad you're in my class. I swear if I was alone I'd be dead." Violet says smiling.

"Dude I agree, first period classes are always awful. I'm so glad you'll be there with me" I chime in.

"Aren't Emma and Kelly in this class too?" Violet asks.

"YES!" I remember excitedly. This would be the first and only time we'd all be in the same class together, so we wanted to make the best of it.

We arrive to class a minute before the bell to find Kelly and Emma already sitting at a table with two empty seats, one for me, one for Violet. I smile and head to the seat across from Emma leaving the seat across from Kelly empty for Violet. The class was AP bio, we all chose it because Kellys older brother, Wyatt took it the year before, and passed with a 97% in the class.

"You made it." Emma says rolling her eyes jokingly.

"We thought you already ditched." Kelly says laughing.

"Riley had us running a little late, but we're here" Violet says as I put my head down to hide my laughter.

"Okay class today we're going to be going over the syllabus" the teacher starts. Blah Blah Blah. I've never liked school, what I looked forward to was after school, Hockey. And after hockey, hanging out with my friends. I'm almost never at home.

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Three boring, exhausting class periods later, I finally have lunch. Me, Nate, Violet, Kelly, and Chris all had the same lunch. But I knew this would be more of a Me, Nate, and Violet lunch. Because Chris and Kelly are head over heels for each other but just won't admit it.