Obey.

14

Cayden

She was gone a whole week from school. Again. There was no way they were going to pass her this year. It was still pretty early in the year to be fair, but attendance was everything.
Everything ate at me to go to Hunter's house to check up on her, but knowing it would be wrong to force my way into her life, I stayed put, waiting for a call or a text.
"Wanna hang after school?" Matt's face beamed at me on a Friday afternoon before the weekend. "I bought five new games that are totally kick ass."
"Yeah dude," I answered as I shut my locker. "Just meet me at my car after school." I told him, knowing he didn't drive but took the bus everyday.
"Awesome man!" Matt exclaimed before hurrying off to his next class.
Matt was pretty chill, he was like the little brother I was forced to have and take under my wing, the poor kid just wanted a friend and someone he could geek out around. I understood loneliness more than the next guy so it was hard to let him down and tell him I haven't played a video game since I was twelve. But I could get back into it. Whatever it took to connect with my new friend.

🐺

It was the following week where I was called to the office.
"Hello Cayden, please come in."
A lady with white hair, slim figure and a uniform that reminded me of a flight attendant, offered me a chair at her desk. The administrador.
"Am I in trouble?" I asked nervously wondering what I did wrong. Thinking back I realized I've been a model student, so I shouldn't be so nervous. I was always worried about causing trouble and forcing my dad to have to move us again.
She laughed and shook her head as she explained. "No the opposite, look you're one of the top students here in grade and I have a student who I don't want to fail, but she's been missing so much school, if I can't arrange something for her then it's out of my hands."
My ears perked. A girl who has been missing a lot of school? Sounded like Hayley. I couldn't help the smile that stretched across my face.
"I'm glad to help anyway I can," I replied knowing I'd have declined if I didn't suspect it was who I thought it was. To have to do so much school work only to tutor said work sounded like a nightmare. But imagining doing it for Hayley? It was a dream come true.
Her shoulder sagged, "oh thank god, everyone else declined if you'll believe it, once I told them who, do you know miss Hayley Mayflower? She's not a bad kid, promise," her eyes looked at me intently as she had her hands clasped together so tight on top of her desk that they looked like they were turning white. Ah, so I guess I wasn't the smartest student nor the first choice as she had first made it seem. So this wasn't pure lucky after all. Everyone in school was just terrified of Hunter. It made my blood boil. What was going on around here? It made me feel as if the whole town was keeping her prisoner. Was she some long lost princess owned by the Russian mob or something? What was it about her that made Hunter want to hold her from the rest of the world and made the rest of the world scared to approach or be near her? Did he have every single person who was nice to her beat up? Even school security warned me to stay clear of Hunter if I knew what was good for me. It was hard to fathom a high school punk having even the adults in the area in a chokehold.
"Yes, actually" I told her, " and she seems nice. What do you need?" She smiled a relieved smile back at me.
"In order for her to pass this year? I need you to do all this work with her," she pulled out a thick file of papers. "I'd prefer if you'd both do this work at school, so I know there's no cheating involved. Plus it's probably the only way he'll agree," she said the last part so quietly I knew a regular human wouldn't have caught the sentence, "Monday through Friday, from 3pm to 5pm. Of course once she comes back I'll inform her of her choices, even if she doesn't show up for class, I want her here everyday 3-5. I can't have anyone fail on me okay? You're dismissed."
I gladly took up the stack of papers, excited to get one on one time with Hayley.
And hoping she would be just as happy.