I Promise || Adopted by Peterick

_2_MONDAYS

Lucy's drawing. Also I've been blessed with a burst of creativity. Might be another update soon. 😉

Monday morning we're dressed out the door at 7:45. My jeans are frayed around the ankle. I'm too short for them and they drag on the ground when I walk. I pull a black tattered hoodie over my t-shirt. Then we walk in the cool fall  air out to the bus stop. It's only one street over and I'm trusted to lead the girls. I'm grateful for the way the buses are set up. Everyone takes the same first bus to the middle school and the high school that is right across the street. Then the little kids take a separate bus to the elementary school.

I started freshman year a couple weeks ago. I'm the only one from the home at the high school so I had to try to make new friends. To no avail so far. Allie sits with her friends, Bandit and Miles. I was pretty sure Miles liked her, though she would never admit it, still I tried to stay back when he talked to her. I sit in the very back of the bus. One whole grey leather seat to myself. And my backpack of course. A torn black Jansport.

I sighed and propped my feet on the bump under the seat where the wheel resided. I stared out the window at the passing scenery. Bleak trees of Seattle and the darkening rain clouds took up most of the view. In front of me obnoxious kids bounced in their seats. They shouted at people less than a foot away from them, causing their loud, high pitched, pre-puberty, voices to pierce my eardrums. At the last stop the usuals came on. A preppy boy in khakis and two girls with matching long braids took their usual spots before a new kid came on. He was quite tall for his age, which I had assumed to be relatively around mine. He had dark hair that swooped around his forehead. He looked around the bus nervously, biting his lip. I almost took pity and let him sit with me before he saw an empty bench a couple spaces in front of me. I watched him sit then closed my eyes and waited out the last of the ride.

===

First period is hell, like usual. We have a ridiculous pop quiz about something we briefly covered in the last few minutes of class yesterday. Apparently we were supposed to learn a whole lot more seeing the depth of the questions. Would've been nice to have been taught what you were going to be tested on. Just saying.

Second period is a bit better. It's math but we have a sub. Our regular freshman math teacher, Mr. Brown is a douchey middle aged man who looks down the girls' shirts when they call him over to their desks. Our substitute is a girl in her early twenties. She has long blonde hair that she messes with most of the time. She just scribbles the assignment on the board and tells us to turn it in to her by the end of the period. Most of the kids move to sit with friends and pull out earbuds and iPhones. I don't have a phone so I just sit in silence as I easily finish the work at hand. That's the only thing I have going for me, my brains. It's what's going to get me out of here. If I can keep my grades up then I can get out of this place with a decent amount of possibilities for my future. As I sit I notice only one other kid without a phone or in a group of other students. It's the kid from the bus.

Now that he's closer I study his features. He has tanned skin, rare in the rainy state of Seattle. He must've moved from somewhere sunny. His hair is dark brown, not black like I had first thought. Though his gaze is cast downward I catch glimpse of his eyes every once in a while. They're a streaky green color. All brown and hazel, the kind you could look at for hours and still find something new in them. Oh God, cheesy much Lucy?

I take out my library book and try to focus on that for the last few minutes of class but my eyes keep flicking up to him. I don't even know his name and you could class me in level one stalker. The sub let's us go a minute before the bell and I head to my locker, grateful for the extra time. My next class is art and Ms. Liva demanded a classroom on the second floor for the best view. It's not a bad view. I can see the almost bare trees from the windows in the back. Making for a nice landscape to sketch.

I turn after renewing my books ready to head up the nearest staircase, which isn't very near. Then I see him and I feel the need to talk to him. Although I'm an atheist I do believe some God granted the thing that happened next. He's tugging at his lock, a desperate look on his face. I head over, ready to be the helpful girl I am.

"Need some help?" He looks up at the sound of my voice. He straightens and looks down at me, a sheepish look on his face.

"Uh- sure I guess," he rubs the back of his neck nervously. His voice is much different than I thought. He's got an accent I can't quite place and it's more shy than I had pegged him. He steps back from his locker and hands me a slip of paper. I spin his lock and open it easily.

"Thanks mate," he says and quickly shoves some things into his bag. I decide he's from Australia.

"No problem..." I trail off hoping he'll fill in his name.

"James. And you are?"

"Lucy. What's your next class?"

He consults his schedule before answering my question. "Science."

"That's on my way, I'll show you."

"Ok," he closes up his locker and follows me down the hall to the science classroom. He thanks me and heads inside. I hurry up the stairs to the art room. I'm thankful for this class, Ms. Liva really just lets us do what we want. I had been working on a sketch of a road with the silhouette of a couple people right in the middle. I started to put bursts of color around the shadows.

Ms. Liva seemed oddly impressed with my work and came over to ask me about it. She told me about an open art gallery downtown this Friday. She said if I finish by Wednesday that I could submit it and come down on Friday to come see it. She even offered to give me a ride. She's definitely one of the better teachers in this school.

I leave school that day feeling an odd sense of satisfaction.