Sky's Still Blue • Friday Night Lights

Chapter 5

"I can tell by your sour expression that something's bothering you." Landry said during Spanish class.

"It's just some stuff with my mom..." Anne mumbled, tilting her head back to look at him. "I don't want to talk about it."

"That's okay." He said gently. "You don't have to tell me. Just know that I'm here if you need to get something off your chest, amiga."

Anne snorted a laugh. "Thanks, Landry."

"Now let's focus on this assignment, or else Mrs. Rivera will have our cabezas on a plate..."

Anne hadn't been able to stop thinking about her mom being pregnant. She hoped her dad wouldn't call her anytime soon, or else she'd probably end up spilling him the news. Would he really come to Dillon if he knew the truth?

Fortunately for her, Landry had been able to make her laugh and distract her a bit from her problems during class. On her free period, she headed to the library to wait for Matt, so they could study together for a history test.

Anne spotted Tim speaking to Principal Taylor while she was going through one of her books. From the looks of it, Mrs. Taylor was reprimanding Tim about something, but the boy seemed completely unbothered.

Anne's attention was now fixated on the football player, history book forgotten. She found herself counting each time he ran his hands through his long, luscious locks. Four. Four times now. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when Tim caught sight of her and walked towards the table where she was sitting.

"Hey."

"Hi."

Anne started to turn red under his hazel eyes. It seemed impossible for her not to be nervous whenever he was around.

"Listen, can you pretend that you're helping me with my homework?" He whispered, sitting right next to her.

"Huh? What? Why?" She gibbered, flinching at his proximity.

He sighed. "Principal Taylor is over there. I sort of told her you were tutoring me."

"Why in hell did you do that? And didn't you tell me yesterday that Lyla was helping you out?"

"Yeah, well..." He trailed off. "She wasn't actually helping me out with my homework. She came over to talk to me about college."

Anne resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Look, I'll play your little game right now, but if you want help for real, you should ask Julie or Landry. They're far better students than I am."

Tim shook his head. "I don't want help for real. I just want to have Mrs. Taylor off my back for a second."

"Fine." She gritted her teeth. This guy is unbelievable. But what else can I do?

"So, how are you?" He suddenly asked.

Awful. "I'm okay. Thank you for stopping last night. I'm sorry if I was rude, you just caught me at a bad time." She said softly.

He nodded, pressing his lips together. "Are you coming to the game on Friday?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't miss it. I'm friend's with the Coach's daughter and two of the guys on the team, you know?" She teased, resting her chin on her hand.

Tim raised his eyebrows, playing along. "Just two?"

"Yup." She bit back a smile. "Saracen and Clarke."

Tim leaped out of his chair. "Mrs. Taylor is gone. Thanks for your help, neighbor."

He needs to stop calling me that. "Anne. My name's Anne."