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● 6 ●

"Oi grace! Where'd your project go?"

"Not enough material?"

"Make your project out of straw or sticks, like your house - delicate and easily breakable. Oh wait your house is already broken."

"Use toothpicks."

"Jack what the- oh."

"JACK HAS TOOTHPICKS!"

"Jack has toothpicks?"

"Yeah I got a pack of em"

"Shower Grace with them!"

"Grace do you like toothpicks?"

I felt pricks on my shoulder. Why the hell were they throwing toothpicks at me? I was going home and people were being assholes - again.

I had decided to control myself and stop myself from crying or running home.

"HAHAHA"

"GUYS COME CHECK THIS OUT! WE'RE TURNING GRACE INTO A HEDGEHOG!"

"WTF?"

"Grace does this hurt?"

I felt a prick on the back of my neck. Woah this was getting serious.

I didn't want to run home, but I can't do much if people are trying to kill me. With toothpicks.

I started running. I didn't care about the mocking voices behind me.

As usual, I went straight to whatever-you-want-to-call-it-place.

And as usual, I found Ashton there.

"Damn Grace, were you swimming in hay?" He said jokingly.

"I swear this school is gonna kill me in the craziest ways. Like with toothpicks." I said breathlessly.

All tone of joke drained from Ashton's voice and face. He came straight to me and started pulling out toothpicks poking out from my bag and jumper.

"Wait a sec." I said and Ashton took a small step backwards.

I carefully took my bag off of my shoulders which Ashton took from me, also carefully.

Then I proceeded to take off my jumper, careful for it not to stab my hands or face.

Ashton came, and moved his hand between my jumper and me, so that it wouldn't hurt me. Then let me slowly let me take it off, still keeping guard that I don't even get the smallest splinter.

Finally the jumper was off as was the bag.

Ashton and I both let out a huge sigh of relief.

I found that I was sweating, and surprisingly Ashton was too.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

I was too out of breath to speak so I just nodded.

I collapsed on the cool grass to rest. Ashton followed.

We lay next to each other for a while, enjoying the surroundings.

Ashton pulled out a toothpick from my jumper.

"Hey can I keep this?"

"It's a toothpick." I said, stating the obvious.

Ashton chuckled. "Well, yeah, I know."

I laughed. "Why do you wanna keep a toothpick?"

"I just... thought of something." He said.

He suddenly smiled widely, crunching his eyes, showing off his dimples, and facepalmed himself stupidly.

"I sound so stupid, oh my God." He started laughing.

I started lauging. "I mean, you keep it if you want, I don't have a problem."

"Thanks." He said, smiling.

"For letting you have a toothpick?"

"Yeah," he laughed, "for letting me have a toothpick."

"You can get toothpicks anywhere."

"No, actually. You can't get them from anywhere." He said. "You can't get them in... um..."

"See?"

"Swimming pools!"

I started laughing. "Out of everything you could've said, you go for swimming pools?"

Ashton laughed. "Any place that doesn't give toothpicks."

"Fine. You can still get them in any restaurant." I said.

"Do you really think I'd just randomly walk in to a fancy restaurant just to grab a toothpick?"

"I mean you could. Just it'd be kinda awkward."

He paused. "I dare you to walk into a super fancy restaurant and ask for a toothpick."

I laughed. "What will I get."

"Uhm..." Ashton laughed, "you could get your toothpick back." He said indicating to the one he asked me for earlier.

"Oh wow." I said sarcastically, "I'd really wanna get my toothpick back don't I? I should probably get down to a restaurant soon, hey?"

Ashton chuckled. "You'll have two toothpicks. Might as well start a collection."

"How productive and exciting. A toothpick collection."

"Stick 'em up on your wall."

"I'll pin them in."

"Jeez, I only asked for a toothpick. Now your gonna start a whole collection?"

I started laughing.

And that's how the next few hours flew by; talking and laughing.

When I say the next few hours, that wasn't just a few.

Four.

Four hours.

It was 7:30 when I noticed the sky and it's colour.

And I didn't notice it myself.

"Hey grace. Check it out."

"What?"

"The sky."

I looked up and I would absolutely love to admire the colours and the beauty, but immediately the thought of time came into my mind.

"Jesus Christ! What's the time?"

Ashton was taken aback by my reaction. He looked at his watch. "7:30. Why?"

"Oh my God! I have to get home." I started to get up. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Sure, just make sure you don't get any splinters from your jumper or bag, yeah?" Ashton said.

"Yeah, thanks." I replied hurridly whilst getting my stuff.

I went straight home.

I didn't want to end our conversation so abruptly, and completely discard what Ashton was showing me. Just one thing was haunting me.

Dad.

I was out of the house for so long, so I'd be screwed. Not like I'm needed ir anything, but dad just needs an excuse to let his anger out.

I carefully moved my hand towards the door handle. My hand had barely touched the handle when the door swung open.

And who did I look up to, standing right in front of me, fuming?

Dad.

I'm screwed.

Oh well.

The story's about to get exciting.

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