By Her Side

Chapter 31: No Such Thing As Relief

~ Amelia's POV ~

I'm finally done with AP Exams!! I sighed in relief as I walked to Claire's classroom after seventh period. After my last exam I decided to go back to the school. I have earbuds in and my music was blasting on full volume. I smiled as I walked towards her room.

I entered the room and removed one earbud, Claire looked at me, "Well, you look cheerful, and turn that down, you're going to blow out your eardrums before you turn thirty." She said.

I groaned and took my other earbud out, so I didn't have to turn the volume down and wouldn't go deaf any longer. "Hey, I'm happily celebrating my break of horrible two to three-hour AP testing exams, finally."

"That's good."

"It sure is, like a big heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders." I said as I sat down on the desk, "Is there practice today?"

"No, Coach wants to start back up again on Monday." Claire said, "Since there are still exams running the rest of this week."

"Alright," I said, looking up at my phone as I watched her grade papers. "Need help with anything>:

"Not really, unless you want to help sort through the stack and staple papers." She smiled.

"Okay, I'm cool with that." I said as I moved over to her stack and began stapling by page.

After half-an-hour of helping her, I had finished and presented the nicely stapled and stacked papers on her desk.

"Thank you." She said. Finally placing her pen down and sighed in relief, "Done."

I looked at the clock it was 3:30pm. I turned back to Claire and smiled, "How have you been?"

"Good, it was a chill day, I was missing many students because of testing." She said and I nodded. Her phone suddenly rang. "Can you grab that for me and place it on speaker, I need to finish entering these before I get behind."

I opened the purse and took out her phone, I noticed the caller ID said Tracy on it. I answered it and placed it on speaker.

"Hello." She spoke. I sat on the desk waiting quietly.

"Hey Claire, it's Tracy."

"Hey Trace, how's the business trip?"

"That's why I'm calling, I'm currently not on the trip. Listen, sorry, I know you're still at school and probably busy grading. I'm calling because I'm back here in Seattle, because of Grandpa Charlie."

I noticed Claire immediately stop her typing. "...Don't worry, school got out at 2:35pm, so you're fine."

"I just got a call from dad and he said that grandpa had collapsed. They took him to the hospital and wanted us to meet them there now. I just got here and I wanted to call to tell you. Dad said he road in the ambulance with him."

"Alright, I'm on my way." She said and hung up. Exiting out of all the browsers she had opened and shut down the computer. She quickly grabbed her purse and all her things.

"Claire..." I said as I stopped her from rushing, "Look at me." I said. She stopped and looked at me, "I know this is stressful, but rushing is never the best thing at a point like this. Just take a breath, then you can quickly but safely get to the hospital."

She closed her eyes and took a breath, after exhaling she opened them and looked at me, "Thank you." She kissed me, "You're coming with me." I grabbed my bag and she took my hand once more. I felt her shake and I pulled her into a hug.

"Just take a second to breathe." I said as she took another breath then nodded. She took my hand as we walked out the door, locking it then grabbed my hand, making sure no one is around and we sprinted to the side exit. And towards the teacher's parking. She threw me her keys, "Please come with me, I can take you back here after so you can pick up yours. I can't drive in this condition."