𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 [𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤]

𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫

When I woke up on the first day of school, I was exhausted and not excited at all. I had spent the whole night in and out of sleep while my parents argued in hushed whispers about something that I couldn't quite hear. I had spent the last few days since my birthday ignoring my mother because she ended up not coming home until well after 10 that night.

With a bang on my bedroom door, I sat up straight. "If you want a ride to school, might want to get up." Dylan said from the other side causing me to check the time. It was almost 7:15 and I knew I needed to get a move-on. School started at 7:50 and I was not missing the ride cause if I had to walk, I simply would make tomorrow the first day. That and we had to get the boys too.

After finding an acceptable outfit, it was 7:20 and I had no time to eat. I moved onto brushing my teeth before chasing Dylan out the front door. I hoped I still had money in my book bag so I could buy lunch cause I didn't grab anything.

"John B's, JJ's, then Pope's." Dylan said as I buckled my seatbelt. I had no time to respond before he pulled out of the driveway. I didn't even have time to put my bookbag on the floor before we were pulling down John B's driveway. He wasn't waiting on the front steps like we discussed yesterday so Dylan gave him two honks. We waited for 5 minutes before we saw any sign of life. Then he came running from around the house with JJ trailing behind him. They were in board shorts and surf shirts and I giggled at them as they climbed in the backseat. They definitely had just rolled out of bed.

"Well that cuts down some time." Dylan said before heading to Pope's. On the drive there, I checked on them in the back to see them both asleep again. JJ was leaned on one window while John B was leaned on the other. When Pope got in, he had the biggest smile on his face. It was like he had just saw a Christmas tree surrounded by presents.

"You excited Popey?" He nodded with the smile still on his face. JJ had moved his head onto Pope's shoulder after Pope took the window seat.

Walking up to KDHS for the first time in 3 months was intense. Everyone was huddled in groups, talking to their friends. While we were rolling up missing a friend.

"Be good. Meet back here no later than 3:45. Got it?" Dylan called through the passenger side window before pulling off to go back home before work.

I looked at my friends and prayed my birthday wish would come true. I had already lost Kiara and I didn't want to lose anyone else to the horrors of high school. We all took our first steps toward the building and went right to our class. 5 days until our long holiday weekend. Let's see how this can go, shall we?

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

"This isn't your class, Mr...?" My English teacher said as JJ snuck into the seat next to me. He had been standing at the door flagging me outside for the past 5 minutes and I've been shooing him away. It was quite literally the 4th day of school and he was already wandering about looking for an excuse to leave.

"Maybank, ma'am." Ms. Dawson nodded and stood up, her gaze moving between the two of us.

"And Ms. Foster, is there a reason your friend couldn't wait until the end of class to see you?" I heard a low rumble of 'ooo's that I knew would be whispers by tomorrow morning.

"Uh, no ma'am-"

"Just really excited to see Laney ma'am. That's all. I can go now-"

Ms. Dawson cut him off, "You both can go." I looked at JJ with a confused look, "to the office. Tell Principal Marks I sent you for disturbing my class." I let out a sigh before putting all my stuff in my book bag and walking out of the room. I could hear JJ as he stumbled over the chairs and made it out behind me.

"I'm so sorry-" I held a hand up to silence him. We walked down the hallways without a peep, passing by a few of our other friends but JJ knew to not even let out a peep to anyone. I was pissed.

When we reached the office, I stopped outside of the door and looked at him. "What was so important you had to crash my class?" I finally asked.

His hand reached up to the back of his neck while he found something to say. "I-uh, just wanted to see you."

"You couldn't have waited another 30 minutes? School's literally almost over." He let out a defeated sigh as we entered the office. Principal Marks was waiting for us when we got in there and took us back to his office. He was new this year. Last year we had a woman, Principal Washington. She was pretty cool, always let JJ off the hook for everything.

"Well this isn't how I like to meet students during the first week. Normally sets a bad tone for the rest of the year." He said as he walked behind the desk and sat down. "Ms. Dawson called me and said Mr. Maybank here was an unexpected guest in her class this period." He looked at JJ with a raised brow, "Said you had no idea, Ms. Foster."

"She didn't sir. I just went to use the bathroom and passed by her classroom and wanted to see what she was up to. It was my fault. Not hers." I looked at JJ with widened eyes. Granted everything was his idea and I didn't know he was planning on doing that, he didn't need to accept full blame.

Principal Marks looked at me now, "Is this true?" I nodded slowly as worry about what was going to happen to JJ set in.

"Well, seeing as it's the first week and I'm new to the building, I'll let you off with a warning. But this is a one time thing. Do not make this behavior a pattern." He advised before motioning for us to leave the office. JJ and I did so quietly and only fist bumped when we made it to the hallway.

He looked at me with a soft smile as we made it back to the hallway where our classes were. I looked down at my watch and saw we only had 5 minutes of class left. "I'll see you soon?" He nodded and started off down the hallway. "You owe me a dirt bike lesson!"