Life After LA

Parks and Practices

Third Person POV:

Homeroom couldn't have gone by any slower in Mia's opinion. She was keeping an eye on the clock, just barely answering with "Present" when her name was called by the teacher. She could swear that time had completely stopped, leaving everyone stuck in the current moment forever, and she'd have no chance to get her cousin together with her crush.

Meanwhile, across the hall, Hunter Miller was thinking the same thing, about time having slowed down, or stopped entirely. He had no idea what plan Mia Williams had for them, but he was intrigued nonetheless. With barely 5 minutes having passed since he entered homeroom, he sighed at the piece of paper that had just barely managed to not be placed on his desk. The teacher's rules were simple. As long as you were in your seat before she got to your desk, you were marked as having been here. Which means he typically had 3 minutes after the bell rang to get to homeroom, and then be seated at his desk. 

Looking up at the clock once more, he sighed. Only 8 more minutes to go.

Hunter's POV:

I looked up at the clock, grinning as it hit 8:14, with only one minute of the period left. I counted down the last 15 seconds, and then the bell rang. Of course, knowing Mrs. Wilson, I stayed in my seat until she nodded at the class, and managed to be the first out the door. However, Mia had already made it to her locker, and closed it to look at me. She held her keys up, and asked if I was ready to ditch school for the day.

"Of course," I said, and she grinned. We started walking casually, and eventually, the halls cleared out. At one point, I heard a teacher coming, and I pushed Mia against the wall, leaning over her so that the teacher couldn't tell who was under me unless they knew what Mia wore that day. "Put your arms around my neck, and tilt your head away from the close end of the hall. Make sure some of your hair covers your face, unless you want word getting around that you're seeing one of the most popular jocks in this school."

Mia complied, wrapping her arms around my neck slightly. I frowned, before pulling them to wrap around me as tight as I could manage. I heard the teacher stop, and prayed that they would keep moving along, without asking to identify the girl. They already knew who I was, this wasn't an uncommon occurrence. I heard heels clicking against the tile, and sighed as I pulled away from the girl who was quite possibly questioning why she decided to skip school with me already.

"What was THAT?!" She exclaimed, and I braced myself for a slap that never came. "One second, we're walking through the hall, and the next, I'm up against the wall, and it looks like you're about to kiss me! I can't do that!"

"I wasn't anywhere close to kissing you, Williams, don't worry," I said, and she looked at me, skeptical. "I've got a crush on your cousin, you really think I'd kiss you?"

"Well, when you put it that way," she said, and I laughed. "Why did you do that?"

"Teachers are used to it. So they no longer try to stop me. I just thought you'd appreciate not having the loudest gossip of the school staff knowing who was against the wall, or was walking side-by-side with the biggest player this school has seen in 20+ years."

"Thank you."

"No problem. Now, let's get out of here."

We got out the doors with relative ease, ducking out through another janitor's closet that connected to both the inside and outside of school. I followed her to her car, and she looked at me.

"They know my car," I explained. "If they come out and see that missing, I'd be in trouble today, and may be told to sit out the big game."

"Makes sense," she said, and unlocked her car. I got into the passenger seat, and she started the engine. We pulled out of the parking lot, and she took me to a park a town away. We sat on the swings, which is where we were when Jake called.