Girl [GXG]

A Walk in the Morning

1 month later

I wake up before my alarm, and just lay in bed. I run through my head, and think about if I finished all my homework. I think about Jasper, and the way he looked at her. Jasper has been getting on my nerves since the 7th grade. When we were younger he had the swoopy hair, and got it into his head that every girl had a crush on him. He has not lost that idea, and we're seniors now. He's almost as bad as the kid who likes to play devil's advocate whenever we talk about nazi Germany. He hits on every new girl each year, and it never ends well. Last year it was Samantha. He wouldn't leave her alone, and when she finally turned him down he tried to spread a bunch of rumors about her family. I guess I just don't want Olivia to get hurt by him. 

My alarm goes off, and I turn it off. I get dressed, brush my teeth, do my makeup, and pack my bag. I check my phone, and see a text from Olivia.

"Do you want to walk Hugo with me this morning?" 

"Yeah. I would love to. I'll be there in 5." I quickly respond. I run downstairs, and quickly make myself a cup of tea in a to go mug. I make a poached egg, and eat it quickly. I tell Pop where I'm going, and I'm out the door. I calmly walk over to Olivia's house, and knock on the door. She answers the door fully dressed.

"Come in," She says opening the door for me to enter. "I just have to put his leash on, and then I'll be ready," I nod, and look around. There are still some boxes lying around, but there's a small wooden table right by the kitchen with two chairs. A small grey sofa, and a rocking chair. Next to the rocking chair is a basket full of yarn. 

Olivia walks back over with Hugo on his leash. He's obviously quite excited. I go out the door first, and she locks the door behind her. We start to walk. It's somewhat misty out, but ti's still warm. 

"So what does your dad do?" I ask her. 

"He's a pilot. He used to be a cop, but when my mom left he decided that he should work a job that is a little less dangerous."

"Oh. Is that where you got Hugo from?"

"Yeah. He gets kind of bored now that he isn't on the force anymore."

We continue our walk, and I look down at my phone.

"Hey Christopher is going to be here in like ten minutes," I tell Olivia. 

"Ok. We should be finished with the walk in about five," She says. She turns to me smiling. "This was nice. I usually walk him on my own, but it's cool to have someone to talk to. Maybe we could do this every morning," she suggests.

"Yeah I would like that," I say. We round a corner, and we are back on our street. We walk up the steps to her house, and walk inside.

"You can come up to my room. I just have to grab a few things," she says, and I follow her upstairs. Her room is a grey-blue. She has a few posters from concerts. It's minimalistic, and very well organized; unlike my room where everything is thrown together, and nothing has its own place. She packs a few books in her bag, and puts on a denim jacket. "Ok. I'm ready," she says, and we walk downstairs. Christopher is pulling into her driveway, and I go out, and put my bag in the back. 

"Do you want shotgun?" I ask Olivia.

"No I'm fine."

We both get into the car, and say good morning to Christopher. It's my turn to choose the music. I decide to put on some K.Flay. We drive to school listening to Make Me Fade, and when it ends Black Wave comes on. We pull into Chris' parking spot, and we all grab our bags, and get out of the car. 

Christopher and I walk to Calc, and we talk a bit on the way over there.

"What were you doing at her house this morning?" He asks me.

"We walked her dog together," I tell him. 

"Oh that must have been fun."

"Yeah it was. She opened up a bit."

"That's good."

We get to class, and take our seats. There is a logic puzzle on the board, and Mr. Lehman tells us that we can work together to solve it. 

You work at a fruit factory.

There are 3 crates in front of you. One crate contains only apples. One crate contains only oranges. The other crate contains both apples and oranges.

And each crate is labeled. One reads "apples", one reads "oranges", and one reads "apples and oranges".

But the labeling machine has gone crazy and is now labeling all boxes incorrectly.

If you can only take out and look at just one of the pieces of fruit from just one of the crates, how can you label ALL of the crates correctly?

I work with Sam and Chris. We figure out the answer, and wait for everyone else to finish. Once everyone has the answer we get to our lesson on the derivative of a function. Mr. Lehman is writing things on the board, and I am trying to understand it, and take notes. It's not the best way to start off today. He gives us time to do our homework, and I take that time to go over my notes with Christopher. He's good at explaining it thankfully. I have a few minutes to get started on my homework before the bell rings. 

I walk out of Mr. Lehman's room, and walk over to Contemporary Economics with Ms. Bailik. Olivia is already sitting in her spot when I walk into the room. I take a seat next to her. Ms. Bailik is talking to a Junior so I take the opportunity to talk to Olivia.

"Thanks for inviting me on the walk. I really enjoyed getting to know you better.," I say.

"Oh yeah any time. It was nice to have someone to walk with, and Hugo seems to like you a lot," She says back to me with a small smile. 

"Maybe we could do that more often."

"Yeah. You could come walk with us tomorrow."

I'm about to add something when the Junior walks away, and Ms. Bailik starts class. So I turn back to face front, and listen. She's talking about circular flow when I feel something warm against my knee. I look down, and see that Olivia has her leg pressed up against mine. I try to focus up front, but I'm fixated on her knee that is touching mine, and how soft her skin feels. I'm trying to keep my heart from jumping out of my chest, but that's not as easy as my may think. I'm not paying attention to Ms. Bailik, but instead I'm paying attention to the quiet girl with the long dark hair sitting next to me.