Chance Encounters

Chapter 7

"So."

"So," I repeated.

"This situation seems pretty familiar."

"Did someone say déjà vu?" I attempted to joke.

James was leaning against the wall opposite of me, arms crossed lazily across his chest. I had my arms crossed tightly as I rocked back and forth on my heels. I took in the little space we were stuck in as I tried to fathom how I could have possibly found myself in this situation again. 

The grey walls were covered mostly by shelves filled with boxes of seasonal decorations, old banners, paint cans, brushes, and the like. All in all, it was a step down from the last closet we were stuck in - mainly because it was much, much, smaller. 

"I texted Amanda," I piped up when I saw James pull his phone out of his pocket. 

He looked up at me, "when'd you do that?"

"When you were fighting the door handle," I smiled slightly. 

He snorted. "It was an unfair fight," he defended, pocketing his phone. 

I raised my eyebrows. I was so jealous of people who could raise just one. It looked so cool and put-together-like. I looked like I was constipated when I tried to raise one. "Oh yeah? How so?"

"The door handle's got screws and a whole-ass door backing it up. It's clearly cheating."

I smiled slightly and checked my phone again. Still no reply. Wasn't the whole point of texting so that you could get immediate responses? Maybe I should call her. 

James munched on his poutine as sat leaning against the wall, looking completely relaxed. How was he so okay with this while I was internally freaking out?

The phone rung and rung and rung and then...nothing. Goddammit Amanda.

James raised a brow at me. 

"She hasn't replied. And she won't pick up the phone," I explained. 

"I'll text Jason," he said, already pulling out his phone. "In the meantime we can gather up everything we need."

I nodded and set to work. It was a relatively small space but very messy. I started with the box directly in front of me. It contained a few paint brushes and markers - kind of a waste of a box considering how little space the supplies took up in it. I set it by my feet and grabbed the paint cans off the shelf and placed them in the box.

"What am I looking for?" James set aside his now finished poutine and pocketed his phone. 

"Flyers from last years food drive, valentine day decorations, um, any art supplies I guess, and oh, that banner paper," I pointed to the top shelf where the heavy brown paper was placed, out of my reach. 

James grabbed the paper from the shelf and a cloud of dust immediately surrounded us.

I covered my mouth as I coughed. James leaned the banner paper against the wall and tried to waft the dust away with one arm, the other coming up to cover his mouth as he coughed violently into it. 

"How long has this stuff been in here?" He coughed out. 

I waved my hands in front of me to clear the dust, my face scrunched up. "We were in here a couple of months ago and it was not this bad."

James coughed a couple more times before turning to me. "Anything else?"

"Um," I glanced around. "Nope," I stated upon spotting the flyers and decorations piled into boxes beside each other. I pulled them off the shelf and placed them with the rest of our stuff. 

I stood straight up again, hands on hips and stared at the boxes. "So," I contemplated, "did you get a reply?"

"Nope," he sighed, plopping against the wall again. "So, you're in the food drive?"

"Yeah," I smiled. The food drive was really close to my heart considering I had been a part of it since freshmen year. "I'm running it this year."

"Was the Christmas auction your idea then?"

The Christmas auction took place before the winter holidays. Teachers and students would bring baked goods, lunch meals from fast-food places, gift baskets, and basically anything else of value that they wanted to bring - one kid even brought his old guitar. Then, we would auction them off during the lunch hour and all the money would go towards the food and toy drive. I had come up with the idea this year and I was pretty proud of it, especially considering how successful it had been. 

I nodded.

He whistled. "That was a good idea."

A grin formed on my lips, "thanks, it was a ton of work putting it all into action but completely worth it." 

"We've got 10 minutes until the bell rings. Think if we bang against the door hard enough, someone will hear us?"

No one really passed through or occupied this hallway except for the occasional horny couple. But I guess it was worth a try. I glanced at the door, then at James, then shrugged. "Worth a try," I mumbled before James and I attacked the door, fists pounding and voices shouting. 

Two minutes later we were both slumped against the door.

"No text?" James asked.

"No text." 

We both sighed in defeat. I could not be late for physics. We had a quiz - I know, i was way too early in the semester for a quiz, preach sis - and God knows I needed as much time as I could get. You never knew with physics quizzes. They were either really straightforward or dumbass Johnny was stuck in the middle of an ice rink and how did he manage to get there at what velocity relative to the bear that was casually passing by and how could he get off the ice rink at a velocity of - 

Thump.

My train of thought was suddenly interrupted when the door pushed us forward. The handle jiggled and the door was being forcefully opened by someone. "Sierra?" 

James and I glanced at each other in surprise then scrambled to our feet. 

The door finally opened fully and there stood Amanda, my saviour, my angel with a halo around her head, my - 

"What are you guys doing in here?" Ames asked, amusement and confusion written all over her face.

"About time," I said instead, picking up a box and shoving it into her arms. "Hold this, and do not let the door close."

She looked startled for a second.

James spoke up as he picked up the banner paper, "Mme. Marseille asked us to grab some stuff for the food drive."

"Oh," realization dawned on her face. She scrunched up her nose, "well it's gross in here so hurry up."

"It's not that bad," James joked before thumping the banner paper on the floor, causing another cloud of dust to come up right in front of Ames. 

Ames recoiled, holding her box in front of her as some sort of shield, "oh, you suck," she whined. 

"Should've checked you phone sooner," I sung teasingly as I grabbed the remaining boxes and walked past her.