The Unknown Road

2 - Tessa

THE REST OF THE day went by relatively quickly.

I had double History over lunch, another free, and then Art as my final lesson. Those are my two lessons with Archie, which hadn't helped me keep my promise.

I was allowed a brief respite in History, thank god, when Brenning sitting us alphabetically. With me being Granger and Archie being Wall, we sit on opposite sides of the classroom, for which I'm grateful.

Another respite came at lunch. Despite an invitation from him to sit with the boys, I declined in favour of sitting and catching up properly with Charlotte, seeing as we don't have any lessons together. It gave me a well-needed buffer, particularly as I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid him in Art.

As I'd predicted, Mrs Doctor was much more laid back about seating arrangements, so I couldn't stop him from sitting on the same table as me. He sat opposite me, so we didn't jog each other, but his close proximity still set me on edge.

I tried to keep my head down and ignore him as best I could, but once Mrs Doctor left us to our own devices, he kept making me laugh by drawing completely ridiculous caricatures. He did impressions as he passed them my way and by the time class finished I'd been laughing so hard my stomach hurt.

Both classes were just introductions, giving us a glimpse of the syllabus, but we got small amounts of homework from both. Brenning did gave us a chapter to read on the Ottomans, whilst Mrs Doctor gave us a 'thinking' homework assignment. We had to think of our project theme, and potentially a partner to do it with. We had three weeks to come up with a solid idea, proposal drawn up, then it was due at the end of term.

I knew I didn't have History or Art until Wednesday though, so I decided I'd do both tomorrow night. My brain was fried, so I was giving it and myself tonight off to watch TV instead. After spending the last two months on poolside, doing virtually nothing, it meant I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Archie dashed off as soon as the bell went, as he had to get to football, leaving me to get my stuff from the common room in peace. Relieved, I'm about to get a lift home with from Charlotte and Danny when I receive a message from Matt.

Hey, football practice now isn't on. But Arch and I are going to train anyway. Can you get Dad to pick us up? xxx

"You guys go on, I'll catch up in a sec," I call out. They nod and walk off as I type out my message.

Please would be nice... okay. Why can't you text him? xx

Please. He always does it when you ask xxx

He's right, Dad did do that, but I can't help but laugh as I type my reply.

Ugh fine. You are ridiculous... Anything else oh demanding one? xxx

Yeah one more thing... xxx

"Oh God," I mumble under my breath, knowing it's going be a stupid response.

What...? xx

The three dots dance for a little while and I groan as the message comes through.

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩🤣😂

I groan. I did walk right into that one.

"Ugh." I imagine Matt cackling his head off.

I lock my phone without responding and walk down to the Tower, where Danny and Charlotte are waiting for me. I follow them, and we get in and buckle up before pulling easily out of the space and off towards home.