Ellie glanced down at her phone, hoping that the read symbol would appear next to the Facebook message she had just sent. Her gray "Mission I'm Possible" t-shirt and bling-butt jeans had felt perfect this morning, but now the July heat was out in full force. The minutes ticked by until a blue Toyota pulled into the high school parking lot. Parking a few rows further back, a lanky boy strode towards her.
"Hey Mark, ready to go?" Ellie called out.
"You betcha." He pulled open the passenger door and sank into the bucket seat of the almost black WRX.
Turning down the classic rock station on the stereo, Ellie pulled out.
"I knew you'd drive a Subaru."
Ellie's features tweaked slightly, startled by the direct nature of Mark's assertion. The light turned green and she smoothly eased her foot off of the clutch, turning south towards their first District Officer meeting.
"What do you mean?" she replied cautiously.
"I read people, it's just what I do."
As their conversation turned to the small talk common to new acquaintances, Ellie took advantage of the opportunity to size up the stranger in her passenger seat. Ashy brown hair was barely visible underneath the weathered trap shooting baseball cap he wore. About six feet tall, Mark's slight farmer's tan and dirty Romeos coupled with his lean build gave no doubt that he knew the meaning of hard work.
"We actually met at the leadership tour last year." Mark's statement snapped her attention back to the conversation at hand.
"Really? I don't remember that."
"It was during one of the mixers, you just stood out to me because you said you'd kayaked 300 miles or something like that."
She chuckled, "I suppose that would leave an impression."
Ellie pushed the wayward strands of curly hair out of her face and relaxed into the drive.
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Author's Note:
Welcome dear readers!
I will be updating this each Tuesday (or more frequently if I get super inspired), so stay tuned! Also, each chapter will feature a song, usually Metallica, but occasionally other stuff. The reasoning will become more clear as the story goes on, but for now, think of it as a loosely related soundtrack to listen to as you read.
I'd love any feedback you have, so please comment and let me know what you like and don't like! Also feel free to ask questions if any of the references to things become unclear :)
First question: should the story be told chronologically or jump around in the character's timelines? Let me know in the comments!
-Lizi
YOU ARE READING
Thirty Minutes Late
Teen FictionEllie's life is pretty typical for high school, her best friend now hates her and has blocked her on all social media, her crush has no idea she likes him, and she's stuck working with teammates she doesn't actually like. Mark has life going pretty...
