Rising Sun

Chapter Six

"I can't believe it, Tommy Jennings landed himself a real girlfriend."

"Hey, Brad. She isn't my girlfriend." Tom explained, as he and Skylar walked up to his lunch table. A few guys from the team were already at the table, and from the sounds of it, Brad was already informing them of the latest gossip. Skylar flushed, laughing uncomfortably. "Sorry," Tom mouthed to her.

"It's fine, really." She said.

Tom cleared a spot for the two of them at the table, and Skylar took a seat. "He's just an ass, honestly." Tom said.

"Well, I'm not your girlfriend yet." Skylar said, emphasizing the last word. They hadn't talked about their status as a couple yet, but after their dinner last night, they both knew they wanted to do more than casually date. He chuckled at her choice of words.

"Anyway, hows your day been? Sorry I couldn't meet you before lunch." Tom apologized.

"It's okay, don't worry about it. And, I think it's been okay. I've survived, aside from having a minor panic attack in chemistry." Skylar joked, laughing. "But, I aced my lab report, so that's pretty good."

"You did? That's awesome, babe." Tom boasted. Skylar smiled in response, he'd never called her by a pet name before. It felt foreign, but something she could definitely get used to.

Just as Skylar started to eat her lunch, she caught a glimpse of her new friend walking toward them. "Oh, Tom. I hope you don't mind, I asked Hayley to sit with us today." She said, completely forgetting she'd asked the redhead earlier in the day.

"I don't mind; the more girls, the merrier." Brad interrupted, wiggling his brows at Skylar. She rolled her eyes, focusing her attention back on Hayley.

"Hey," she said sweetly, patting the bench next to her. "Tom, can you scoot down a bit?"

"Sure, yeah." He said, sliding down and making room for Hayley.

"Thanks, guys. I didn't want to sit alone in the office anymore." Hayley laughed, plopping down on the other side of Skylar. Skylar smiled at her, and nodded her head.

"You can only take so much of Principal Reynolds." She giggled. "The one and only time I had a detention, I had to sit in his office for half an hour and listen to him drone on about his glory days in high school."

"I can only imagine," Hayley said, shuddering at the thought. Hayley asked her if there were any other teachers she should avoid conversation with, and Skylar told her about all of her old teachers who loved to throw weekly pity parties.

"So, Skylar, I was thinking we could go see a movie this weekend." Tom said to her after a moment, trying to get her attention once more. Skylar turned to him and put her hand on his forearm, giving him a smile.

"I'd love to." She said, giving him a quick peck on his jaw. He smirked and nodded his head shyly.

The bell rang shortly after, and Skylar excused herself from the table. She turned to Hayley, noticing a strange expression on the girl's usually perky face.

"Are you okay?" She asked, concerned.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." Hayley said, shaking her head, her eyes and mouth no longer narrowed. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah, see you in English." Skylar smiled. Tom grabbed her hand, signaling it was time to get to class.

Skylar couldn't help but think about Hayley's attitude just then. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that Hayley looked almost jealous of her and Tom.

*

At the end of the day, Skylar raced out of her class to get to her locker. Lindsay had given her the keys to the car earlier this morning, and she didn't want to get stuck in the parking lot after the buses. Grabbing her backpack, she slammed her locker shut and hurried out to the car.