**ON HOLD** More Than Meets the Eyes (Patrick Stump FanFiction)

Chapter 3

        I waited, a minute turned into five and everyone was finishing up their lunch. We were all waiting on Anna now. Bryan started asking what everyone thought was going on in the bathroom between them and Andrew could only respond with very dirty things. They howled with laughter as the three of us who weren't as big of perverts as they were just scoffed and rolled our eyes.

        That's when I looked over and saw Christa run out of the bathroom and out the front door. Anna quickly followed and called her name but she didn't even turn around. We all looked at Anna who could only offer us a weak shrug. “Who did she come with?”

        “I drove her here, it was really awkward... she didn't talk at all.” Lana had a confused expression on her face. Okay, this is definitely not right. Lana is the only person Christa always, and I mean ALWAYS, talks to.

        “Well shouldn't someone go get her?! I mean, holy smokes! It's probably below zero out there!” I half yelled at everyone and started to get up.

        “Patrick, she's probably already halfway there, she's a tough girl. She'll be okay, besides, we have to get to class or Mr. Stella will give us the “Senioritis” speech again.” Brendon rose up and gathered all the trash off the table while offering me a weak smile. The tension in the air was so thick between the group now, I only nodded at him and started towards the door, quickly followed by Anna.

        As soon as we got to the car and got settled in, Anna sighed. I started the car and blasted the heat on high for her, which was extremely uncomfortable to me but I wanted to make her stop looking so suddenly worried.

        “Anna, what happened in the bathroom?” I asked gingerly while pulling out of the tiny parking lot. The snow was coming down harder than it had this whole year. Christa.. I couldn't help but worry about how she's taking this snow.

        “I don't even know myself.. one minute I'm asking her what's wrong and then the next she was running out.” She sighed once more. “She said she was just using the restroom but I don't think that was the truth at all, besides it smelled like roses in there.” She stared intently out her window.

        “Oh, okay.” This was brutal. The feeling of knowing something is wrong and that you could help, but can't, is terrible. I swallowed hard and focused on the road. It was really hard to see and it didn't help that I kept looking towards the sidewalk to see if Christa was walking still. Luckily, we made it to school all in one piece

        “Shit,” Anna muttered while we were huddled together trying to make our way up to the entrance of the school, “we're eight minutes past late bell... prepare to get the speech again.”

        We both halfheartedly chuckled at this and as we entered the school, we were met by everyone else who had gone to lunch with us. The only things that were said while we walked to our lockers were by the others exclaiming: “Awww look at the lovely couple” and “Wow, did you guys go to Narnia or something?”

        Next thing I knew, Anna and I were standing in front of our history class being scolded by Mr. Stella our history teacher who kept ranting on about “how we can't slack this close to the end” and “how we'll end up working at a fast food restaurant if we keep being late” or something along the lines of those things I don't really know, my mind was too busy searching through the class for Christa. First, the front two rows of seats where she always sits in order to learn the most, no Christa. The middle seat, no sign of her. I didn't really think checking the back would be very helpful since she only sits there if the front of the class is full, which it isn't, but I decided to check just in case. Still not here.

        I glanced at Anna who seemed to understand why I had a confused expression on my face and mouthed the words “I don't know.”

        “Now take your seats. Some of your class members want to learn something today.” Mr. Stella went back to his desk and handed us both a packet of papers to work on. Damn, there's about fifty something odd pages in here! Luckily we can work with partners, I need to talk to Anna. We move our way through the seats and settle for desks close to the center but far away from others so they wont overhear what we talk about. We start to work on the packet, the first questions were easy but as I turned to the second page, I didn't know what anything was. Well, good time as ever to ask her things.

        “Hey Anna, what did you put for number twelve? I don't remember who the North Vietnamese leader was.” I smiled at her as she caught on to what I was trying to do and why I was being unreasonably louder than usual. I scribble down whatever name she wrote down and pull out a blank sheet of paper. She watches me as I write down something.

        Did you see Christa anywhere? I jostle down and fold up the paper, carefully handing it to her when Stella wasn't watching us as if we were prisoners congregating by the gates.

        I see her read it, then continue to look around once more. She started to write something, erased it, then wrote again. “What'd you get for number fourteen Patrick? I put H1N1 but it could be the bubonic plague.” She casually leaned over and dropped the note in my lap. She's good at being sneaky.

        “Well,” I slowly started unfolding the note while I spoke, “considering the question is asking about an epidemic that happened in the twenty first century...” I trailed off and gave her a “c'mon dude” kind of look and then we both smiled at each other, even though we both knew either of us wore a worried expression underneath.

        I looked down at the note. I haven't seen her anywhere in class, should we be worried? I mean, it's been just about twenty minutes since we came here by car. And McDonalds is just down the street, it only takes her about ten minutes to walk there and back every other day. I'm getting scared, do you think she's okay? I thought about how I should respond. Do I panic? Do I stay calm? I don't want to come off as coldhearted, but I didn't want to be panicked either. So I weakly scribble down “I don't know” and hand it to her.

        Her facial expression went from worried to scared, but she just turned to me and nodded. We both sat there in silence trying to do the work assigned to us but our minds were to preoccupied about Christa. Where is she? Is she hurt? I swallowed hard. All of a sudden, the click of the door caused everyone to look up. The door didn't open at first, so Mr. Stella had to get up and open it himself. Anna and I both looked at each other in happiness when we saw it was Christa.