As Monday rolled around Shawn was glad to see Cory, who in return was happy to see him as well. It was first period English class with Mr. Turner, but there was still plenty of time to talk before the bell would officially ring indicating for school to start for the day.
"You're alive!" Cory joked as Shawn flashed a smile at his friend. It was the first time the kid got to see him since he left in the middle of the night. Yeah, he knew Shawn was alright, but he didn't ever get the chance to talk to him.
"Yeah, fortunately."
"Where did you ever go?" Cory asked as Shawn scooted closer in his seat.
"Nowhere, really. I was just walking for awhile to kill some time. Then I decided to go back to the apartment and as I got on the street Eli noticed me. I ended up trying to run from him, but he caught me and brought me to Turner's himself, where he waited with me until he got there." Shawn explained briefly, not wanting to spend too long on the story.
"Well, at least you're here now. I don't know what I'd do without you." Cory spoke honestly, never liking whenever the slightly taller boy would leave him, even if it wasn't intended to hurt him, it always did.
"Yeah, well did your parents ever talk to you?" Shawn bit his bottom lip, hoping that he didn't cause his curly friend too much trouble as he never intended for things to escalate like that.
Cory slipped a nervous laugh, "Yeah, and I'm grounded for a week thanks to you. After school I have to report straight home and do my homework first. Plus, I'm not allowed to walk anywhere without an adult- or Eric, present for the time being. Did you even get anything out of it, or did you get off the hook?"
"Well Turner gave me a lecture about the dangers of running away and basically said how I need to open up to him more." The boy explained, as it bothered Cory how Shawn got off so easy when it was his idea to sneak off in the first place. Not to forget to mention that Shawn ran away- and he didn't!
"That's not even fair." Cory shook his head, but nonetheless couldn't blame Shawn for it, for he had a part in it too. It's just that Cory had wished he could've practically been in the clear just as his friend seemed to be. On the other hand, he understood that Turner was still new to parenting and all, but it still didn't make it fair!
"Well we talked, Cory, and you know how much I hate being confronted like that." The anxiety-filled boy defended himself, as anytime he did something that he knew would get him in trouble, he would always panic. The panicking evidently led to him getting into further trouble, as he always compared things to how his dad treated him growing up. Shawn just always seemed to find it difficult that not all adults were like that when he specifically would screw up, and he was beginning to learn this.
"Yeah, I know." Cory sighed, deciding to drop it. And just like that the boys continued to talk for another few minutes before the morning bell went off, as Jonathan Turner was prepared for his class to begin.
"So, as many of you have prepared for since last week, today you will be doing your book presentations with your partner." Turner explained as Shawn and Cory were never thrilled about presenting, although they'd rather present than write an essay any day, "And first up will be Hunter and Matthews on the book, The Outsiders."
Of course, the boys weren't too surprised to hear that they were chosen to go first. Shawn couldn't help but wonder if it was part of his punishment as Turner knew the boy despised it, and Cory was thinking the same.
"So the book The Outsiders is written by some dude called S.E. Hinton and it's about a bunch of greasers set in the 60s." Cory began as Turner couldn't help but smile at how he referred to the woman author as a dude, as it was obvious they didn't do the part of doing some research on the author.
