𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑬𝑹𝑺 𝑪𝑳𝑼𝑩- aiden clark

001. haunted minds

SARA ALMOST DROPPED her ice coffee while waiting for the bus the following morning.

She was exhausted and struggling to not let it show as she had taken almost an hour doing her makeup to cover her eye bags and still failing. She was boarding the bus, walking through the aisle until she finally saw her friends.

Poor kids, they looked half alive.

Sara sat down next to Ashlyn, letting out a satisfied groan as her heavy bag plopped down.

"Morning, Sare." "Don't call me that." Sara said as she looked behind her seat at the two.

"Last night was rough huh?" Aiden asked as he leaned his cheek on the top of the seat, looking at her through messy strands of blonde hair in front of his eyes.

Sara just hummed in agreement as she sipped on her coffee. She peaked over Ashlyn's shoulder to see her copying down someone's homework answers.

"Number four is wrong." Sara said, sitting back, resting her eyes. Ashlyn paused her writing as Aiden muttered a 'what' under his breath and reached over to check it.

The group of the four made it to school as they wandered through the halls of their rather small high school towards their first shared period. Sara led the group with a straight back and chin up, not letting the exhaustion ruin her academic life. Yet.

"Good morning, Mr Walter." Sara greeted the new history teacher.

"Ah good morning, Ms. Bennett." Mr Walter greeted with a smile before turning to greet the others, "good morn-" He stopped in his greeting once he saw the group of sleep deprived zombies behind her.

Looking back, the group standing in the doorway have been like that for the past two weeks, at least before all four of them would have the energy to greet him, not just Sara. Even Logan, Tyler and Taylor were similar.

Sara glanced at her friends, seeing their eyes closed and slowed breathing. She mentally rolled her eyes, pulling out multiple pieces of paper. Looks like she was designated note-taker for today. Like she's been all week.

At this rate, they're gonna fail but not much can be done in their situation.

Sara didn't even hear the bell ring as she finished highlighting the rest of the notes. She didn't really notice anything until Aiden tapped her on the shoulder. He flashed her a tired yet still sunny smile.

"We're all eating lunch together FYI." Aiden said as he put his hands in his hoodie pockets. Sara nodded as she packed up all her stuff. "For what?"

"To talk about 'stuff'." Aiden whispered playfully as he cupped a hand around his mouth. Sara raises an eyebrow at his lowered tone as she packs up her notes.

Aiden leaned over her shoulder from behind her, trying to look at her notes. "I already took pictures and sent them into the group chat." Sara said. As he glanced over at the students desks, Taylor passed out as her head laid on the desk, Tyler was barely managing to sit up right, though his body swayed in exhaustion. Logan was sleeping up right, his mouth hanging open. Then he had Ben, Aiden and Ashlyn practically sleeping once they sat down.

Aiden just hummed and rested his cheek against the top of her head. He rested his eyes for a moment as he could feel the movement of her packing up.

"Your hair smells good." Aiden muttered. Sara just hums in acknowledgement. "You did realize how creepy that sounded, right?" Sara asks.

Aiden laughed as he followed her out of the classroom.