Home Run - Snowbarry

5. Modern Loneliness

My fault, guys. I got caught up with school. It's winter break now, though. So here's to hoping I can gain back your trust.

Let me start by saying I joke a lot sooooo lots of satire here, please don't take it the wrong way!

The buttons on her keyboard clicked loudly under Caitlin's touch. She was already getting herself set up for school over Zoom that Tuesday morning. If there was one good thing that came from the pandemic last year, it was online school. Teachers got all up close and personal with the Zoom app and it made traveling while staying in school a lot easier.

Ronnie merged into the guest room which was also Caitlin's temporary bedroom. "Hey," he said breathily with his hand still on the knob.

"Uh, hey?" Caitlin said. There was no space between her eyebrows as she peered at Ronnie.

He mostly ignored her indifference. "You wanna come with me to school?"

"I can't really." Caitlin held up her laptop to show him. "I have my own classes to be present for." Then She dropped it back on the bed.

"Ok, ok. Well, I'll see you in seven hours." His thin lips curved up into a smile, and with a small nod, he was leaving her room.

Caitlin glared at the opened door. "Close the door!" she yelled after him.

"Nope!" was yelled back in his deep voice. Caitlin rolled her eyes and got up to close the door herself. She stopped in the doorway when she saw Ronnie leaving. She growled before finally shutting her door.

This wasn't what she expected when she pictured what her senior year would look like. Everyone else in her classes, including Ryan, were sitting at long rectangular tables. Doing school in person. she was now the robot kid whose presence in class was subject to her best friend's laptop on the table next to her. she could barely see the notes on the whiteboard. She couldn't sneakily talk to Ryan, or steal conversations with the cute guys in her class. But what she could hear? Ryan doing just that with Kate.

It was almost nauseating having to listen to the two girls flirt with each other. You're already dating! Now shut up and let me do my work!

Of course, she had a semester packet and could also print out whatever she didn't already have via email. Her Chem teacher even gave her a guide for the experiments they do in class for her to perform at 'home'. She had a 4.0 GPA so she knew it would be easy to maintain her grades—not to sound conceited. As long as Caitlin had the motivation she would have the same impressive marks. She could please her mother from afar.

-

Alternatively, physical school wasn't all that either. Trash lined the halls, athletes dribbled their balls, and freshman threw brisk bottles trying to recreate dying vines. And it was only in the first four minutes of the day.

"We run these halls." 'These halls' ain't all that to rule. "By your side at least," Cisco awed. A lot of people were looking at Barry. Don't let the cardigans fool you, the guy was an athlete. And a lot of us like to call that an abs-lete. "They're begging you to look their way!" Cisco said excitedly, almost jumping up and down with glee. The huge smile on his face hailed his white teeth.

The three friends neared Barry's locker and stopped there. They'd make it to their own eventually.

"'M not sure that's accurate," Barry said with a high voice. He was making that usual adorable doubtful face.

"Hey Patty," the three of them heard. Barry recognized seeing her around. Spencer Young or something was her name.

Patty stopped dribbling her basketball, catching it in her arm midair. Yeah, she was one of those people. "Spencer! Hey," she said with a big smile. Barry saw through the friendliness. Cisco was silent, too. Luckily, this would all be over soon. It was painful hearing Patty dodge the imploring.