Run With Me Again

Chapter 2

My mother's cooking is to die for. After finishing breakfast I went upstairs to go get ready for school.After I showered, I dress into a teal loose V-neck. I wasn't planning on being dressy today, since I had cuts I didn't want to show. I dried my wavy blonde hair and fixed it, so I could wear my knitted beanie.

"ADE! YOU HAVE A GUEST!" Mom shouted through the bathroom.

"Just a minute!"

"No! Come down now! I don't want you late." She said with a stern voice. I sighed and quickly put on my basketball shorts and ran down the stairs the best I could, although I was aching with pain.

"Oh hello!" Liam said after he turned around from looking at pictures we just hung on the wall.

"Hi," I said confused and waved back politely.

"My mum wanted me to give you this." He said and showed me the Neosporin.

"Thanks!" I said as he threw the tube of Neosporin and I caught it.

"Oh and since our mums met now they want us to walk to school together, since it's safer." Liam said and air quoted the word safer.

"Okay, I'm not done yet." I said. He nodded and I went back up the stairs to finish changing.

I quickly applied some Neosporin to my wounds and covered it with new band aids. I tossed it into my school bag and hopped into dark washed skinny jeans. I went downstairs and I found two women laughing vigorously.

"Mom, where are the shoes?" I asked her as I slung on my school bag against my back.

"Over there darling," She continued to talk to the other lady as she pointed to an un-opened box of shoes. I went ahead and opened the box and took out my Toms and slipped them on.

"Yeah! That would be a great idea! Whenever I'm busy I can just send little Ade over to eat breakfast at your place, and when you're busy you can send your girls and Liam over!" I heard my mom say.

"Oh, the girls just like to have little breakfast bars on the go! So it'll just be Liam!" The other lady said.

"Well this is my daughter Adrienne! I call her Ade though!" My mom said and turned around. She pulled me over by the arm and the lady smiled at me.

"Well, hello darling! My name is Karen Payne." she stuck out her hand for me to shake. 

"Hello, Mrs. Payne." I said as I shook her hand.

"I'm sure you'll be very good friends with Liam, he's a very sweet boy." Mrs. Payne smiled. I nodded my head and smiled back.

"Off to school now!" My mom said after she read her watch. She shooed Liam and I outside. We both started walking side by side on the sidewalk.

"Are your cuts and bruises okay?" Liam asked me.

"Yeah, it just aches when I move cause it hits a bruise."

"Oh, did you use the Neosporin?"

"Yeah, thanks anyways. It really helped it out." I smiled at him appreciatively.

"No problem."

"I guess our moms are friends now."

"Yeah, my mum likes making new friends."

We had a regular conversation as we walked to school. It wasn't awkward, but really friendly. We talked about running mostly, what shoes were the best to run in, the weird ache you get when you haven't ran in a while, and a lot more. After we arrived to school and found our friends, we departed.

******

I sat down next to Maddy at the lunch table with the rest of the other girls. I could see Liam across the lunch room. He smiled and waved at me, so I did the same back. Maddy looked at me astonished.

"What?" I asked her.

"Did you just smile and wave to Liam?!" Maddy asked surprised. Olivia, Nicki, Natalia, and Pamela all looked at me in shock.

"Um, yeah?"

"Do you like him?!" Maddy asked me and the girls quickly scooted in.

"No! Our moms make us walk together to school, that's all."

"Does he like you?" asked the brunette, Nicki.

"No, but he told me his friend did."

"It's probably Mikey. Mikey likes American girls for some reason." Pamela said instantly.

"Who's Mikey?" I asked them. Olivia turned around and pointed to a tall blonde guy, who sat at Liam's table. Suddenly, we saw Liam stand up with his lunch tray. He walked over towards our table, and the guys, especially Mikey watched him with careful observation. The girls were in complete shock.

"Hi Adrienne! May I sit here?" Liam asked us. The boys at his previous table were still looking at him and some of them were snickering and playfully punching Mikey who blushed. I looked over to Maddy and she gave me an approved nod.

"Yeah, of course!" I said and moved down a seat for Liam to sit down. He unwrapped his sandwich and the rest of us were quiet. We all started eating, except this time the girls were more quiet and focused on eating.

"Ugh, I have Ms. Roberts next." Liam started. The girls twitched their heads up at him.

"She's not that bad." I said defending her.

"In our period she is. Right Natalia?"

"Yeah, she's pretty bad in period five. We had to copy down fifty words verbatim from the dictionary. And most of them had really long definitions." Natalia added.

"Why are you eating soup with a fork?" Pamela asked Liam. I looked to my left and saw him lifting up chunks of chicken from his soup with a fork.

"Um. I'm not really a fan of spoons." Liam said awkwardly.

"You're weird."  Olivia said with a rude tone.

"Um okay." said Liam. He clearly felt uncomfortable.

"That's really unique that you prefer forks over spoons! Forks are cool, spoons are lame." I said just to defend him. His face lit up and he smiled at me.

"Spoons are just spoons and forks are just forks. They're all utensils" Olivia added.

"Well, if that's what you think." I said nicely.

The lunch bell rang and we all got up and discarded our trash into the trashcans. Liam and I disposed our trash at the same trashcan at the same time.

"Thanks for the uh, spoon thing."

"No problem, some people are just mean and it makes me feel bad if I don't do something. Sorry about the awkwardness." I answered as we left the lunch room.

"It's alright. I'll see you afterschool to walk then I guess."

"Okay, bye." I said and he went to go catch up with Mikey. Mikey looked desperate for information and they both talked as they walked to class.

It was obvious, Liam was doing Mikey a favor by finding out information about me. Classic. We're only thirteen, what's the rush?