On The Run: Part Two

Chapter Twenty-Four - "Pitter, Patter And A Leap"

“That was great, Sarah,” Jay said beaming.

She barely glanced at him, as she took the Macchiato Katie was handing her.

“You should really consider running for office,” Jerry added, and she gave him a blank look and turned to me, “You ready, Chloe?”

I wasn’t.

“Where are you going?” Jay asked.

“I’m taking my daughter to school, and then I’m going to have to talk to St. Mary’s Home for Children, because we’re pro-life,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Strategy. It was all strategy.

Her expression softened as she turned to me and whispered, “I am, I promise.”

With that, she led me out, my heart racing a mile a minute, even as I began to think: Am I strategy?

*

We arrived in front of the large gates of Fairless High a couple of minutes later and Sarah pulled out an ID card, scanning the barcode over the reader on her side. I felt my heart ram against my chest as the gates swung open slowly. There were four guards standing around at the car park entry – if I wasn’t nervous before, I certainly was now; all the security was making me edgy.

Ryan eased the car into a spot between a Lincoln town car and a Range Rover. Who were these people?

“Nervous?” Sarah asked.

I bit my lip and nodded slowly, looking out of the window as a few people milled around a convertible across the lot. The crowd and their equally glossy selves filled up the parking lot little by little, like drops of water trickling into a glass. I already felt out of it.

I took in my appearance for the hundredth time. I really wasn’t sure how people on this side of the world dressed to school, and had spent almost forty minutes changing and getting dressed, before Sarah had come to my rescue.

Uniforms! Genius.

I’d just assumed the tartan skirt, blouse and blazer combination was another one of the outfits that seemed to keep popping up in my closet.

“You’ll be fine,” she said, after a long pause.

“Can I have a minute?” I asked.

“You can have as much time as you want.”

I looked up, “Don’t you have to go to work?”

She shrugged, “Not just yet. I kind of figured this would happen,” she replied, with a half smile.

“What, that I might freak out?”

“This is you freaking out?” she asked her brows raised, with a laugh.

I smiled, “Internally.”

“What are you most nervous about?”

I swallowed, “It’s high school. Everything’s daunting. I just . . . one minute.”

So, we sat.

One minute.

Six minutes.

A bell went off.

The crowd thinned.

Thirteen minutes.

It was better to be new than to make an uncomfortable entrance, so with a breath, I said, “Okay. I’m ready,” taking my bag off the seat and pushing open the door.

Sarah grinned, “Have a good day.”

I stepped out and turned to the open window, “Four-thirty?”