Everlong

| Five: Ellie |

Thunder chased me into A Block. I was shivering, tugging my wet denim jacket tighter around myself. I scowled as I looked around for Charlie. Miles had dropped me off, as usual, but minutes before he'd gotten to my house it had started pouring. We'd rushed our separate ways, desperate to get under cover.

            I spied Charlie sitting by the stairs, and hurried over. Once I reached her I dropped my bag and shrugged off my jacket, looking critically over the back. A few years ago I painted waves across the bottom, and despite knowing I'd used fabric paint, I was paranoid. Thankfully it remained unharmed. I shrugged it back on, grimacing at the wet feel. It didn't rain all week and chose today to bucket down?

            "You couldn't've have worn one without paint?"

            I huffed. "No. I haven't worn this one is ages."

            She nodded, before her face turned serious. "Hey, Ells–"

            "Can we not?" I cut her off. "I don't want to think about anything bad this early." She looked ready to argue, so I promised, "We'll talk at recess." After watching me for a moment she seemed satisfied. First break couldn't pass quick enough.

            "Did Miles pick you up?" She asked instead. I realised a silent breath at the harmless topic.

            "Yeah, a couple minutes after it started raining." The bell rang before she could answer, and we headed to our roll call rooms. Mine was in A Block, so I hurried upstairs and in the room. I dumped my bag on a desk before sitting down.

            Students filed in steadily. Jack stumbled in, jerking his leather jacket back down to his shoulders. He must've used it as cover. He claimed the seat next to me, shaking his head wildly.

            "Jesus, Jack!" I complained, cringing away from the flying droplets. He grinned at me, running a hand through his hair as he leaned back.

            "What've you got first?" He asked.

            I hummed. "Math, I think, then History. You should know we have math first."

            He shrugged, eyes following the teacher as she entered. "Forgot my timetable. Pretty sure I've got math, metalwork, food tech, and... either design or English."

            I huffed. "You need to remember it."

            "I'll remember it next week," he dismissed. We fell into silence, waiting for the teacher to call us.

            "Ellie Knightly?"

            "Here," I called.

            "Jack Knightly?" Jack just raised his hand, face blank as he stared at the table. He got fed up easily by school – because of juvie, he'd had to repeat a year. Otherwise he would've graduated a year before me.

            We listened to the announcements, and waited for the bell to go. Once it did Jack and I headed to our maths class. I took my usual seat in the front, and was soon joined by Lily and Jasmine. Jack took the seat behind me.

            The girls and I worked through the textbook work we were given. I periodically turned back to help Jack, writing out all the numbers he needed to know so he didn't have to try and read the worded questions. The questions were hard enough to understand, let alone trying to figure them out with dyslexia.

            By the time the bell rang Jack had had three arguments with the teacher, and Lily had momentarily forgotten the five timetables. Jack stormed out before us, a white-knuckled grip on his bag. The girls and I followed at a slower pace. The rain must've lifted during the period, because while everything was soaked, it wasn't raining anymore.