The Only Exception

two

"I cannot believe they let that delinquent back into our school!"

I rolled my eyes as I listened to Katie complain to Quinn on the way home from school. One of Quinn's friends was almost always catching a ride home with us. It was kind of annoying. Plus, it meant I always had to sit in the back of Quinn's tiny Volkswagen bug which was not comfortable. I couldn't wait until I got my own car.

"Me either! Did you see all those tattoos? And the cold look on his face! I bet it won't be long until he ends up right back in prison," Quinn scoffed.

"That's rude," I commented, making Quinn shoot me a dirty look through the rearview mirror.

"No it's not. It's just facts. Like 70 something percent of all people who go to prison, end up going back," Katie stated.

"Exactly. I know you think you know him because we grew up with him, but he's not a good person. You need to stay away from him, Drew," Quinn said sternly.

Like I was going to listen to what Quinn told me to do. Yeah, right. I wanted to be nothing like her or her friends so I wasn't exactly eager to take her advice.

"He probably didn't even do what everyone says he did. Besides, I can't stay away from him, he's my physics partner."

Quinn and Katie both jerked their heads around to stare at me in shock. Luckily, we were stopped at a red light. Quinn already wasn't a very good driver.

"What? Why would you partner with him?" Quinn practically yelled at me.

"I didn't have a choice! We were the only two left without a partner," I explained.

Quinn huffed and Katie raised her eyebrows at her, as if they were speaking with just their eyes.

"Fine. Just don't talk to him outside of that."

I couldn't help but feel that all of this hatred stemmed from them not being friends anymore rather than the fact that he was apparently a violent criminal. I decided not to push the subject further because I really wasn't in the mood for a full on lecture from the two of them.

When we got home, I went to my room to work on the little homework I was assigned and look over all of the syllabi from my classes once more. My schedule wasn't exactly easy this year, but I wasn't too worried. I hated to admit that I was a little jealous Quinn was going to be having an easy senior year. That meant she was going to be out all of the time or constantly having friends over while I was stuck in my room.

Despite my social status at school, I did have friends outside of school. Luckily, my best friend, Hannah, lived right next door. That was one of the few perks of living in a really small town. However, because neither of us had a car, we typically relied on Quinn to drop us off places or to borrow the car when she didn't have plans, which was very rare.

Hannah and I hung out almost every day. My house was only one story, so instead of using the front door, Hannah would just come in through my window. It was something she had started when we were young, and it was too fun to change it now.

That was how she got into my house after school that day.

"How was the first day of hell?" She teased as she plopped down onto my bed.

"It sucked, but not as bad as I thought it might. I'm still jealous that your parents homeschool you."

I had begged my parents countless times to be homeschooled, but they were convinced that the social aspect of regular high school was too important. If only they knew I was far more social outside of school.

"I heard Hunter Evans is back," Hannah states, not wasting any time to get all of the details that she could.

"Dang, news travels fast. Yeah. He's actually my physics partner this year," I told her.