Bright Blue Skies [P. Parker] [complete]

Seven - Late For Once

The next day, Briar was late for school for the first time in her life.

She swung the door open to her physics class, wincing as it banged against the wall, and stepped in awkwardly, fiddling with her camera. "Sorry I'm late." she murmured.

"Can you speak up, Miss Drake? I didn't hear you." Mrs Brent, a hawk-eyed woman, sneered. Briar hated her.

"Sorry I'm late," Briar repeated louder.

Mrs Brent nodded once and then turned back to the whiteboard. "Don't be late again."

"Yes, miss." Ducking her head to avoid the stares of her peers, Briar weaved through the desks to find an empty seat.

The only one was next to a girl she'd never met, who was smacking gum and scrolling through Instagram.

She didn't acknowledge her as she sat down, so Briar didn't acknowledge her.

The class passed in relative silence.

-☼-

"Bri, I heard you were late to Mrs Brent's class," Margot exclaimed as she wheeled up to her.

Briar winced at the volume of her voice before nodding. "Yeah. I overslept."

"You?" Margot teased, poking her arm as she started pushing her through the halls. "Never!"

"I forgot to set my alarm," she grumbled.

Margot shrugged. "Okay. No biggie. I'm just surprised she didn't kill you."

As Briar smiled weakly, Milo floated through the halls up to her.

"Hey, so you know how mom had that party last night?" he asked her, obviously not expecting her to answer. "Well, I was trying to find you, and I couldn't. And do you know how worried that made me? I was going out of my mind trying to find you! You got back home at seven o'clock this morning and don't even tell me where you were? No, no, no! Briar, I was worried!"

Briar stayed silent. It wasn't like she could reply in the middle of the school hallway.

Milo studied her face as guilt overcame it. He sighed. "Alright. Look, we'll talk about this later, okay?"

She nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Briar, Margot!" Ned called as he and Peter rushed up to them. "I got the tickets! I got the-" he crashed into the girl who was smacking gum in physics earlier and nearly sent her crashing to the ground.

"Hey, watch it!" she squawked, her arm flashing out to grip Peter's shoulder as she nearly toppled. "Jeez, some of us are walkin' here!"

"Sorry, sorry! I'm sorry, so sorry!" Ned clasped his hands together apologetically as he repeated himself, over and over.

"Hey." the girl snapped. "Hey! Listen, dumpy, just watch where you're goin'." with that rather rude comment, she stalked off, smacking her gum and shoving past all the people in her way.

Ned's jaw had dropped and he looked dejected, guilty and insulted. "But... I said I was sorry..."

Peter patted his friends' shoulder as Briar wheeled Margot up to them. "It's okay, buddy. Just ignore her."

Margot looked up at him. "What tickets, Leeds? The Star Wars convention ones?"

He perked up again, reaching into his pocket and pulling out four slips of paper. "I got the tickets!"

As he and Margot cheered and high-fived, Peter and Briar cringed away from them and their volume.

"I hate that they're so loud." Briar hissed to him.

"Yeah, same," he added. "They don't seem to understand the words, 'under the radar'."

As the group split off into pairs, Peter and Briar held a proper conversation, without too many stutters, and with no one else holding the conversation together.

"So, you like taking photos?" he asked her.

"Yeah! I love it. I love taking photos where people don't realise you're taking it." she smiled widely.

Peter glanced over at their friends, who were both smiling widely and talking animatedly. "Take a photo of them."

Briar nodded, lifting her camera and twisting the lens cap off. She raised the camera to her face and focussed it on her friends. As Margot spoke, waving her hands around wildly and Ned beamed at her, she snapped the photo.

"Can I see?" Peter asked, leaning over.

She showed him the candid photo as the subjects themselves looked over at them.

When Peter looked up at her, he was beaming. "You're really good."

"Thanks. I take them a lot."

"Can I see some more?"

As they flicked through the photos that Briar had recently taken and talked about them, Margot and Ned exchanged knowing looks, smirking as the group headed to their next class.

-☼-

Soon enough, it was lunch, and the small group made their way to the cafeteria.

"So," Briar said to Peter as she plugged her camera into her computer. "If I want to edit and enhance the photos I just have to sync it up with this app here... And then I upload the photos and then I can do whatever I want to them."

She did as she said and began to edit the photo she took of Margot and Ned.

Peter watched, amazed and smiling as she dived into her work.

After a short while, she turned her laptop to him to show the finished product.

Ned leaned over to look as well, and his jaw dropped. "You took that? And edited it?"

She nodded sheepishly.

He grinned. "It's really good, Briar!"

She looked down, embarrassed. "It's not that great."

Margot pushed her shoulder lightly. "Shut up. It's awesome. You should enter competitions."

Briar gaped at her and shook her head. "No. No way."

"What if we enter for you?" she continued.

Briar stared at her. "What?"

"I mean, like, what if we entered your pictures, under your name, of course, but we were the points of contact. That way, you don't have to talk to people and stuff."

The three stared at Margot blankly, before Ned beamed.

"So we'll be your... publicists?" he scratched his head. "I am so in!" then he looked at Briar. "As long as it's okay with you, obviously."

She continued frowning for a moment, weighing the possibility. "I guess... But it's not like I'll actually win anything."

~~~

A/N

So this is kind of a filler chapter but gum girl will come into play in the next book and it's kinda some bonding for the quartet and while I don't really like this chapter, it's fun and cute and chill and everyone's happy (except Mrs Brent).

So yay!

- amy