Either Mr. Hexton or the subject matter was especially boring this morning, or maybe it was just having Casey sitting at the desk directly in front of me. Finally, after English is over, I sigh. Casey and I leave the classroom together and walk silently to the cafeteria.
"Do you have a table to sit at?" I finally blurt out when standing in the lunch line.
"No," she says, scanning the room for an empty seat.
"You can come with me and sit at my table."
"I think I'll take you up on that."
When we get to the table, Nick and a few of the other guys from the team are plopping down their lunch trays and shoveling down their food. I start to pull out my chair from underneath the table, and motion toward the empty chair next to mine for Casey to take.
I wait for Casey to sit down in the empty chair, but instead, she just remains standing. She looks to Nick and then back to me, raising her eyebrows.
Oh crap. Nick gave her an extremely bad first impression, and now she's not going to want anything to do with that idiot for a while.
"Hey, it's a nice day out. Do you by any chance want to go outside and eat?" I whisper to her so that the other guys won't hear. She nods at me, grinning. God, that was close.
When we get outside the warmth of the sun is startling. It is a warm September day, and some of the other students have already come outside to take advantage of it. Casey and I sit down at an empty picnic table to eat our lunches.
"Thank you so much for not making me eat with that guy," Casey says. "It's just that I have enough BS in my life already, and I really don't want to put up with players like him, on my first day at a new school, and in a new town."
"No problem," I answer. "In fact, it gets me away from Nick as well. I already see too much of him on the ball field anyway," I laugh.
"Is baseball the only thing that this school cares about?"
"Right now, yes it is," I answer, "and then it will change to football and then to basketball. It all depends on the season that we're on. We worship sports around here."
"I know that you play baseball, but how into it are you?"
"I'm not really. It's just something to do, and it keeps me out of my crazy house for a while."
"You know what,? I like you. You're the only one around here that seems to have a good head on his shoulders."
"Thanks," I say. "It's actually kind of tough to keep my head straight at times, between my schoolwork, baseball, and living with my two parents who hate each other."
"Are they getting a divorce? Sorry, I don't mean to intrude."
"I have no idea if they are or not, but it would make things more peaceful if they do," I answer. "The thing is, they're both heavy drinkers and they never see each other sober. They both work all day, then they come home, get drunk, go after each other, and then one sleeps upstairs, the other on the couch."
"I'm sorry," Casey says sympathetically. "Look, I do know how you feel. My parents just got divorced, and now I've moved all the way out here, over a hundred miles away from my dad, with my mom who suffers from depression."
"So we both have it tough then?"
"Yeah," she agrees. "By the way, I think I'll come to your baseball game tonight as well. It sounds like you need the support."
"Thanks, I appreciate that."
We stop talking for a little while, and I go back to my lunch. I take a spoon full of some of the green mush that was scooped onto my tray back in the lunch line. I think it's supposed to be green beans, but after one bite, I decide against finishing the rest. Pushing my tray aside, I look over at Casey, who has taken out a binder, and is now in the process of drawing a dragon and gargoyles.
"Wow, you are really good," I say in amazement.
"No, don't look at these," she says, blushing and slamming the binder shut. "I'm not that good, and most people say they look kind of evil."
"No. Trust me, you're really good, and if this school put as much of an emphasis on art classes as they do on sports, you could be amazing."
"You really think so?"
Before I even get a chance to respond, we're interrupted by the school secretary's voice coming over the loudspeaker. "Attention please. The baseball game tonight has just been canceled."
Man, Nick's going to be really ticked.
My cell phone vibrates in my back pocket. "New message from Nick," the screen reads.
Wow, that was fast.
"Meet me in gym aftr schl."
YOU ARE READING
The Haunted Playground
Horror'Tim & Casey thought they found a park they could call their own, but it's already been taken.' Tim and Casey meet and connect instantly because they both have problems with their home life and hate school. When they go to an old playground to talk...
